136 THE TRIBES ON MY FRONTIER. 



and imaginations runs at a higher level, and the passions 

 and emotions which work in their bosoms are more noble. 

 The difference shows itself at every point, but for an 

 example let us take the manner in which birds conduct 

 their love affairs. Watch two beau sparrows, genteelly 

 dressed in black neckties and white shirt-fronts, making 

 advances to the same belle. Wherever she goes, they 

 wait upon her, like a couple of Frenchmen, bowing and 

 scraping, chattering fulsome compliments, and vicing with 

 each other in all sorts of little attentions. Sometimes 

 they do come to blows, but this is the exception ; their 

 effort is rather to excel each other in the arts of the draw- 

 ing-room. She conducts herself in the somewhat trying 

 situation with a tact and decorum which show how ex- 

 quisitely modesty is blended with a due sense of her own 

 worth. So much admiration and flattery beget in her no 

 unseemly pride; nor, on the other hand, does she forget 

 her dignity, and make herself too cheap. She tries to 

 appear unconcerned, and picks up grains of sand, pretend- 

 ing that they are seeds. At last her choice is made, and 

 she bestows her heart on one whose grace and gallant 

 bearing have won it. Now look at the respectable senti- 

 ments so plainly discernible here and try to conceive any 



