68 NATURAL HISTOEY OP 



We are mostly aware how easily the minds of many 

 native tribes are wrought upon ; and it can scarcely be 

 a matter of surprise, that traditions* should exist, with 

 accounts of the prowess, sagacity, or cruelty of these 

 creatures. Occasional glimpses of an animal clothed 

 in shaggy hair, of gigantic size, with tusks rivalling 

 those of the largest and most ferocious beasts of prey; 

 possessing a hideous resemblance of countenance and 

 general proportions to man, and assuming positions 

 somewhat human, would present to an untutored 

 mind, a chaos of sensations, whose impressions scarcely 

 could be afterwards detailed; while one of higher 

 cultivation might combine doubts of their animal or 

 human nature, and add to either the brutal or malig- 

 nant qualities of both. And it is under such influ- 

 ences, fear predominating, that the accounts of their 

 concerted attacks, their carrying off negroes for slaves, 

 distribution of the different sexes, and of their cruelty 

 and carnivorous propensities, have been handed down 

 with embellishments by the older historians. 



In other countries, superstition exercises her influ- 

 ence. India, so horribly celebrated by the sacrifices 

 of its infatuated devotees, is in some districts no less 

 so for its weak and extravagant idolatry. In Ahme- 

 nadab, hospitals have been erected for the benefit 

 of apes, where thousands are kept in fancied ease 

 and indulgence ; and another city, which was taken 



* Such as those of 4he Fesse and Gooiock. 



