ANIMAL SKETCHES. CHAP. ix. 



that monkeys lost, their tails and became men and I've 

 seen savages as couldn't jabber no more sense than 

 monkeys But that's no argument, because God made 'em 

 so. Leastways you'll never persuade me as he " (another 

 jerk of the head towards the walrus) " or any number of 

 'em could make them tusks, and that skin, and them 

 flippers. They're that stupid. You'll not tell me they 

 could make themselves give 'em a thousand years. And 

 it ain't no ways likely that them as was made at the 

 creation weren't no stupider than what these ain't now. 

 Not a bit, sir, nohow." 



This accumulated negative was too much for me ; I 

 yielded gracefully. And finding that I could get no 

 further information of the kind I wanted, I thanked the 

 good fellow for his tale, gave him a trifle to expend in 

 tobacco, wished him God speed (his vessel lay in the 

 Mersey and would be under way ere the week was out) 

 and coming home committed the substance of his remarks 

 to paper to form part of that book knowledge which he, 

 notwithstanding that Dick was a scholard, affected to 

 despise. May his voyage be prosperous, though he has 

 long ceased to be a hunter of Awuk, the walrus. 



