Polynesian., 1856-12-06

numbers at the full OF urH moon, and bow and geS
tculate towards its silver e-ulgence. This may b.
mere fancy; but we do not require this proof o
their sharing in our IDEAS TO Justify US in regarding
as little short of murder the hunting and slaughter
ing of these creatures. IF very ardent pursue
of science were to overtake in the woods one o.
the aborigines of New Holland or New Guinea
who happened by chance to be dumb, we doubt moi
he would, without the slightest remorse, shoot him
stuff his skin. and transmit him to Europe as spec
men of a new animal. We can easily imagine Dy-
ak farmer lying in wait for one of these forest bur
glars and killing him defence of his sugarcanes
bat we arc unable to contemplate without horror, a
man,gun in hand, dogging creature very much like
himself through the forests, in order, through be-
coming guilty of his DEATH TO procure his skin for
a museum.
Though the poor wretch be dumb, he is not BY
any means destitute of feeling. Chop language
or logic how We please, it is impossible to regard
HIM otherwise than as 4 member of some family
| he has his female partner whom, in his own lar
gon he may call wife he has little ones whom,
in the same dialect, he may denominate children
and 1t Is very certain that. Whatever he calls OF
considers them, he provides carefully for their
maintenance, and has therefore some sense OF
duty-perhaps a higher sense of duty than an
armed savage who tracks him through the forest
for his blood. The scientific assassin may look
upon him simply as a specimen. But transport
~
in the interior of kaIamantin, and look at ven
cradle old mias, sitting with his wife and family
about him, in his urboral habilation. He NAV
possibly be very ugly: his nose may be broad, his
face fiat, and he may have portentouS c9ll1stIes
instead of whiskers; but he is mild old fellow,
and has been sufficiently melowed by time 10 re-
gard the world in Il calm and philosophical light.
He has witnessed the rising and setting of many
sun; 4; he has hunted; he has ished he has fought
wit oLyS and bo h,C ofT,
finger, and laid his heavy hand on many dusky
back. in defence Of his rights. But theE, 1t may
be said, he is unable to explain those rights, and
has never thought Of presenting them 10 the world
III blue folio. So much the more reason have
we TO pity him. He does not, perhaps, understand
distinctly why he should be shot, and have his
skin stuffed for a museum nor would he by any
means acquiesce in the reasoning by which the
man of science might seek to justify the process.
He has come into the enjoyment of life without
knowing how, just as the man of science himself
has, and is quite as solicltous to prolong the de-
light of looking at the sum- as the man who
lodges him for his skin. We wish the MAS
cOud write. Would he net describe with fear
ful eloquence the polgnacy of his suferlngs,
while seeking, with awkward movements, TO es-
cape from the well-booted stranger frO.a the west,
plunging after him, sometimes up to his chin in
water, merely to make his children fatherless, and
his wife widow! The Dyaks have good ex-
cuse for killing the mias, no meets them some
times stick in hand fights desperate battles, and
occasionally, if fame speak true, carries off his
enemys head as a trophy. The Dyak himself
does much the same when he kills anybody, man
or monkey. At any rate, in the former case, be
cuts off the head, puts it under his arm carries it
home, smokes it carefully, and then hangs 1t up in
house, with other smoked heads, perhaps secret
Iy, as a sort of fetiSch.
This creature, however,-thiS Dyak-is admit
ted freely into the human family, notwithstanding
his sangU1nary prupeuslties, simply because he can
speak, and we by no means object to his adms-
sion. But would it be any harm if we were to
widen a little the circle of our humanity, and
suffer it to embrace the MAS also? He might
be looked upon and treated as a sort of cousin
german TO the human race, remarkable for his ug
lness, and unfortunately deprived of the means
of expressing his ideas; but still related 10 us by
the ties of kindred and therefore forbidden to be
shot down and hunted like wild beast. Science
can fairly make no pretensOns, at present, TO fix
the bounds of his mental horizon. He may be
able TO think great deal more than we are aware;
and what travellers speak of as his grunt, may be
some incipient form of speech capable of being
cultivated and enlarged. The doubIe-click Hot
tentOts do little more than grunt, and yet we ex-
hbit no reluctance to extend to them the common
rights of humanity. Many tribes Of negroes, the
natives of New Holland, the Horaforas, lowering
like dark cloud on the furthest limits of the In
dian Archipelago, shire our general form and vO-
cal powers but have little beyond these rudlments
of humanity; yet we very wisely, kindly, and phi
losophically call them our brethern; hold out to
them our hand. and seek to help them up the toll
some ladder of civilization. What harm could
arise to us, if we were to 90 down few steps
further, and say 10 to the Mas Papan, You have
a very ugly physosnomy; you are hairy, like
Esau YOU are therefore no customer 10 tajlOrs or
but you work with your hands
you walk upon your feet; and you look, as the
Roman poet expresses it, with an erect visage in
to the sky; we invite you to change your mode Of
living to cultivate your grunt, 10 enlarge your vO-
and put on clothes like decent people.
Who knows but by these civil processes, you may
mount a little higher in the scale of existence
At anv rate the attempt may be worth making"
Some years ago several individuals IN this mis-
country thought of getting up
society for the protection of the eastern Plrates
II would, in our opinion, be equally praiseworthy
to form an association for civizing the Mas Pa
pan or at least for disseminating the idea that 1t Is
neither civilized, manly, nor religious to shoot him
like tiger 10 be Kind to the inferior creation
would be more certain mark of superiority on
our part, than the faculty to expaiae by the hour
on dried butterflies and the idlosyncrases of tad
poles If we can do nothing useful with this poor
creature, let him. at least ENJOY his native woods
in peace Perhaps it would prove impractic lbe
TO teach him to build better house than he now
possesses but we cannot help admiring the inge-
nuity with which, in less than minute. he weaves
the plant branches of trees into something like
cradle for himself In a comparatively short space
If time, he fabricates, Ike our British ancestors,
l house of waffle, small, and perhaps inco:nmo'
lious, but yet sufficient to contain him, his fe-
nale and his little ones-far up amid the root oi
he forest, where he sits or lies at his ease during
he intervals between his secular labors. And
hose forests-what glorious domain Extending |
or hundreds of miles along ridges of mountains,
long channels of vast rivers. down preclpIces,
trough valleys, over plains where the foot OF man.