Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1881-06-17
Curious Antieipations.--The veddas.

Can it he supposed that when Dean
Swift lbeled humanity by degrading it
below the level of the brutes in his dread
full fiction of the Yahoos he ever imagined
thai there existed aught that npprOIima-
ted toward the odious picture? Yet such
Is the case. There are, undoubtedly,
races whose attributes do, in various de-
grees, suggest, if they do not realize, the
VI ~; hnhms land. The Niamsniams, of
Alrica, who live between the gulf of Benin
and Abyssinia, are said to have tails, a
statement confirmed by DR.. Hubsb Of
Constantinople in 1851. Tho "hairy peo-
pie" mentioned Of old by Hanno. seem to
have real existence. apart from the
gorill. Judging from Miss Birds account
of the Amos Of Japan, 4 strange. savage, and
little known race, supposed to be the
aborigines of that country. but now only
to be found i'll the island of Yezo They
are she says, Of most ferocious aspect,
owing to the profusion of their thiok,
soft. black hair and boards, and to the
singular fact that their bodies are COM
monty covered with a vigorous 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-hke clay, which is
boiled with the bulb Of wild lily" They
believe themselves to be descended from
dogs, but other characteristics of this
strange people are not unamiable. Be-
ynnd these instances. and presenting a
lar more striking resemblance to the va
hoo type, there are the Veddas or Wed-
lahs "f Ceylon, their duplicates in Bor-
ncu a:.d New Guinea, and kindred varie-
ties discovered III the Philippine islands,
Terra del Fucgo, and South America.
Only none of these are 50 hateful as the
creatures of Swift's invention. 1t needed
that fierce Indignation against his kind,
which he has recorded in his epitaph, to
depict them. The Veddas and similar
races in the islands Of the Asiatic archi-
pelago are described rs the aborigines Of
their respective countries, who have
shrunk into the Jungle and forest to es-
cape from civilization, and have lived
there for upward Of 1000 years. They
construct no habitatious, but lodge in
caves or trees or under overhanging rocks.
They are stunted in size, seldom exceed
ing four feet eight inches in stature, and
arms, which the constant use of the bow
renders very muscular, notwithstanding
their short, ape-like thumbs. With this
weapon they kill animals for food, devour
inr. 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 i'll their, habits, and in everything
save rIdimentary language Of uncouth
cultural sounds, and some dim vestiges
of religion and social order, are as beasts
Of the field. Saddest, perhaps, Of all.
they never laugh. When they die they
believe they become devils. Yet this be-
nighted and outcast race, 30 low i'll Or
ganization, habits, and character as scarce
ly 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
unfortunate creatures have been half
tanned by the Cingalese and set to out
door work, like the Yahoos by the Houyhn-
Inns. When the prince of Wales visit
ed the island, i'll 1876, certain of the jun
gle Veddas were actually caught in nnares
and traps to be exhibited to him, and ono
of the number IA female positively died
of fright in being secured. 1t was not
humane transaction, but the Feddas arc
regarded merely as animals. Finally. it
may he remarked. i'll connection with
Swift's curious anticipation, that he placed
Houyhnhms land near the great island
continent of Australia. 1t appears in the
map OF the first edition Of "Gulhver" as
due south of Nuyts land, in about 80
deg. south latitude, and l25 deg. east
longitude Now. Ceylon is but 55 deg.
west Of this locality, though above, as
New Gninea is Just below. the equator.
The Yahoos could not have been letter
accommodated. til the Year Round.