Morning journal and courier., 1881-05-10
Curious Antfcipattons-The yedssas

From All the Year Round
 Can it be supposed that when Dean Swift ibeled humanity by degrading 1t below the level of the brutes in his dreadful fiction of the Yahoos he ever imagined that there ex- isted aught that approximated toward the odious picture? Yet such is the case. There are, undoubtedly, races whose attributes do, in various degrees suggest, if they do not realize, the misanthropic fable of the men beasts of Houyhnhms Land The Niam- niams of Africa who live between the Gulf of Benin and Abyssinia, are said to have tails, a statement confirmed by Dr. Hubsh, of Con stantinople, in 1851. The 'thairy people" mentioned of old by Hanno seem to have a real existence, apart from the gorilla, judg- ing from Miss Birds account of the Amos of Japan, strange, savage, and little-known race, supposed to be the aborigines of that country, but now only to be found in the island of Yezo They are, she says, of a most ferocious aspect, owing to the profu- sion of their thick, soft, black hair and boards, and to the singular fact that their bodies are. commonly covered with a vigor- ous growth of black hair or fur, upward of an inch in length, and incrusted with dirt, for the Amos never wash Their food is "a stew of abominable things" and a thick soup made of putty like clay, which is boiled with the bulb of wild lily They believe themselves
  acteristics of this strange people are not un- amiable. Beyond these instances and pre- senting far more striking resemblance to the Yahoo type, there are the Veddas or Weddahs of Ceylon, their duplicates in Bor- neo and 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 in- dignafion against his kind which he has re- corded in his epitaph to depict them. The Veddas and similar races in the islands of the Asiatic Archipelago are described as the abor- igines of their respective countries, who jungle to escape from civilization, and have lived there for up- ward of 1000 years They construct no hab- itations, 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 re- gards their arms, which the constant use of the bow renders very muscular, notwith- standing their short. ape-ike thumbs. With this weapon they kill animals for food; de- vouring, besides, snakes, reptiles, wild honey, ants eggs, and carrion of all kinds. They lack both memory and foresight, cannot count or discriminate between colors, are filthy in their habits, and in everything save a rudimentary language of uncouth guttural
 
 zion and social order, are as beasts of the field. Saddest perhaps. of all, they never laugh. When they die they believe they be- come devils. Yet this benighted and outcast race, so low in organization, habits and char acter as scarcely to be distinguished from the monkeys of the jungle among whom they live, practice by instinct virtues which are not too common in civilization. They never lie, steal, nor quarrel Some of these unfor- tunate creatures have been half tanned by the Cingalese and set to outdoor work, like the Yahoos by the Houyhnhms. 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 a female-positively died of fright in being secured. It was not humane transaction, but the Veddas are regarded merely as anil mals. Finally, it may be remarked. in con- nection with Swifts curious anticipation, that he placed Houyhnhms Land near the great island continent of Australia. It ap- pears in the map of the first edition of ''Gul- liver" as due south of Nuyt's Land, in about 3S0 south latitude, and 1250 east longitude Now, Cey1on is but 55o west of this locality though above, as New Guinea is just below, the equator. The Yahoos could not have been better accommodated.