Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1881-10-06
NEITHER GORILLAS NOR MEN.
a Japanese Tribe off Hairy People
Who Possess Tails

Can it be supposed that when Dean
Swift libeled humanity by degrading it
below the level of the brutes in his
| dreadful fiction Of the Yahoos he ever
imagined that there ever existed aught
| that apprOximated toward the OdiOus
picture. Yet such is the case. There
are, undoubtedly, races whose at
tributes do, in various degrees, suggest,
if they do not realize, the misauthrop-
&c fables of the man-beasts of HOuy-
huhms Land. The Maintains of At
RIGA, who live between the Gulf of Ben
in and Abyssinda, are said to have
tails, statement confirmed by DIR.
Hublsh, of Constantinople in 1851.
The "hany people" mentioned of old
by Hanno seems to have a real exists
ence, apart from the gorilla, Judging
from Miss Birds account of the Anio-
OF Japan, strange, savage and little
known race, supposed to be the aborgi-
mes of that country, but now only to be
found on the Island of Vezo. They
are, she says, of most ferocious as
pect, owing to the profusion of their
thick, soft black hair ard boards, and
to the singular fact that their bodies
are commonly covered with a vigor-
Gus growth of black hair or fur, up
ward of an inch in length, and incrust-
ed with dirt, for the Amos
never wash. Their food is a ''stew
of abominable things" and a
thick soup made Of putty clay, which
IS boiled with the bulb Of white lily."
They believe themselves to be descend
ed from dogs, but other characteristics
of this strange people are not unamia-
bic. Beyond these instances, and pre-
sentlng far more striking resemblance
to the YahOo type, there are the We'd
das IN Weodahs of Ceylon, their dupli-
Gates OF Borneo or New Guinea, and
kindred varieties discovered in the
Philippine Islands, Terra del Fuego,
and South America. Only none Of
these are so hateful as the creatures of
Swift's invention. It needed that fierce
Indignation against his kind, which he
has recorded in his epitaph, to depict
them. The Veddas and similar races
on the islands of the Asiatic archipel-
ago are described as the aborigines of
their respective countries, who have
shruRk into the jungle and forest to
escape from civilization, and have lived
there for upwards of two thousand
years. They construct no habitations,
but lodge IN caves or trees or under
overhanging rocks. They are stunted
IN size, seldom exceeding four feet
eight inches IN stature, and but feebly
built, except as regards their arms,
which the constant use of the bow rem
ders very muscular, Notwithstanding
their short, ape-like thumbs. With
this weapon they kill animals for
food, devouring, besides, snakes, rep
tiles, wild honey, ants, eggs, and carton
of all kinds. They lack both memory
and foresight, cannot count or discrim-
mate between colors, are filthy in their
habits: and in everything save rudi-
mentary language of uncouth cultural
sounds, and some dim vestiges of re.
hgion and social order, are the beasts
of the field. Saddest perhaps of all,
they never laugh. When they die
they believe they become devils. Yet
this benighted and outcast race, so low
in organization, habits, and character
as scarcely to be distinguished from
the monkeys of the jungle among
whom they live, practice by instinct,
virtues, which are not too rcomman in
civilization. They never lie, steal, nor
quarrel Some Of these unfortunate
creatures have been half-tamed by the
C,ngalese and sent to do outdoor work,
like the Yahoos of the Houyhhms.
When the Prince of Wales visited the
island in 1876, certain Of the jungle
Veddas were actually caught in snares
and traps to be exhibited to him and
one of the number female-posi-
lively died of fright in being secured.
1t was not a humane transaction. The
Veddas are regarded merely as ami
mails. Finally, it may be remarked, in