The Oxford intelligencer., 1860-08-01

W. IT II
smallpox, greatly affected him, had custom
not unlike this, though much more appalling
and,disgusthg in its odioust details.
/ The women being at work in the fields,
hoeing the Indian corn and the noble savage
being asleep in the shade, the chief has
sometimes the condescension to come forth,
1 and tighten the labor by looking at it. On
these occasions, he seats himself in his own
savage chair, and is attended BY his shield
{, bearer: who holds over his head shield of
cowhide-ih shape like an immense mussel
4 SHELF feafnlly and wonderfully, after the
manner of theatrical supernumerary. But
lest the great man should forget his greatness
in the contemplation Of the humble works
!. of agriculture, there suddenly rushes IN po-
ct retained for the purpose, called Praiser
This literary gentleman wears leopard's
head over his own, and dress of tigers
tails he has the appearance of having come
express on his hind legs from the Geological
Gardens; and. he incontinently strikes up
the chiefs praises, plunging and tearing all
the while There is frantic wiekedness in
this brute's manner of worrying the air, and
crashing out, 80 what delightful chief he
is o what delicious quantity of blood
he sheds o how majcstically he laps it up!
o how charmingly cruel he is! o how he
tears the flesh of his enemies and crunches
the bonesl o how like the tiger and the
leopard and the wolf and the bear he is o
row row row row, how fond | am of him "
which might tempt the Society of Friends
to charge at a hand-gallop into the Swartz-
Kop location and exterminate the whole
Kroal .Er T.-
When war is afoot among the noble sava-
ges-which is always-the chiefholds coun-
Gil to ascertain whether it is the opinion of
his brothers and friends in general that the
enemy shall be extcrnlinated. On this occa-
sion, after the performance of an Umsebueza,
or war song,-which is exactly like all the
other songs,--the chief makes "A speech to
his brothers and friends arranged in single
file No particular order is observed during
the delivery of this address, but every gen
tleman who finds himself excited by the sub
iect instead of crying Hear, hear !" as is
tue custom with us, darts from the ranks and
trampes out the life, or brushes the skull, or
mashes the face, or scoops out the eyes, or
| breaks the limbs, or performs whirlwind of
atrocities on the body Of an imaginary enc
my Several gentlemen becoming thus ex-
cited at once, aud pounding away without
| the least regard to the orator, that illustri-
Gus person is rather in the position Of an or
ator in an Irish House of Commons. But,
several of these scenes of savage life bear a
strong generic resemblance to an Irish cleo
ton, and | think would be extremely well
received and understood at Cork.
In all these ceremonies the noble savage
holds forth to the utmost possible extent
about himself; from which Ito turn him to
some civiised account) we may learn, ! think,
that as egotism is one of the most offensive
and contemplate littlcnesses a civilised man
can exhibit. so it is really incompatible with
the interchange of ideas; inasmuch as if we
all talked about ourselves we should soon
have no listeners, and must be all yelling and
screcching at once on our own separate ac-
counts. making society hidcous. 1t is my
opinion that if we retained in us anything CT
the noble savage, we could not get rid of it
too soon. But the fact is clearly otherwise
Upon the wife and dowry question, substitu-
ting coin for cows, we have assuredly moth
ing of the Zulu Kaflir left. The endurance
of despotism is one great Distinguishing
mark Of a savage always. The improving
world has quite got the better of that too
In like manner, Paris is ciyilsed city, and
the Theatre Francois highly civilised thea
tire; and we shall never hear, and never have
heard in these latter days (of course) of the
Praiser there. No, no, civised poets have
better work to do. As to Nookering Umtar-
garties, there are no pretended Umtargarties
in Europe, and no European powers to Nook
er them; that would be mere spydom, sub
ornation, small malice, superstition, and false
pretence. And as to private Umtargarties,
arc we not in the year eighteen hundred and
ffty-three, with spirits rapping at our DOORS
To conclude as began. My position is,
that if we have anything to learn from the
Noble Savage, it is what to avoid. His vir-
tues are fable; his happiness a delusion;
his nobility, nonsense. We have no greater
justification for being cruel to the miserable
object, than for being cruel to WILLIAM
SHAKsPEARE or an ISAAC NEWTON; but he
passes away before an immeasurably better
and higher power than ever ran wild in any
earthly woods, and the world will be all the
better when his place knows him no more.
THE PRINTING OFFIcE.-A well conducted
printing Office is the best of schools. Go
with me to the Executive and Legislative de