156 BIRDS AND BEASTS 



destitute of herds, and though they manifest the highest appre- 

 ciation of cattle, and possess a land admirably adapted to pas- 

 turage, they have not learned to domesticate the few cows they 

 have. Katema owned about thirty head, but could only possess 

 himself of the meat by hunting it as he would a buffalo or an 

 antelope, and was astonished when he was told how he might 

 appropriate the milk. 



It is pleasant to think of men so far from the refinements of 

 civilization finding real delight in the charming little melodies 

 of the tiny canary bird. All about in Katema's country these 

 charming little creatures were found in neat little cages, 

 treasured fondly by the dark savages, " because they sing so 

 sweetly." Perhaps it is the gratuitous tutelage of the wonderful 

 choristers of their lovely forest homes which develops this 

 delicate love of gentle music, for the birds are on every bough, 

 twittering and singing as merrily as can be. But there are no 

 ravenous beasts : you know they cannot dwell with birds ; there 

 seems to be no sympathy between the voice of song and wild 

 passions, even beyond the habitations of men. "We wonder 

 naturally whether the monsters of the wood fly from the sight 

 of innocence and glee — whether sanguinary instincts are in- 

 evitably rebuked by music. Bojder cruelty among men has 

 sometimes mightiest resistance in the pure sweet prattle of help- 

 lessness. You remember it was a child playing by the brooklet, 

 tossing white pebbles into it, and laughing at its babbling, 

 which broke the crusts of carelessness and crime, and mellowed 

 the heart of one long thoughtless of mercy or justice, and hung 

 upon his eyelids a tear distilled of penitence, which heaven 

 received in redemption of its favors so long despised. But 

 there are meaner shapes of evil which whet their appetites for 

 crime on the sight of weakness and innocence : they are the 

 venomous spiders of society, who scheme, and watch, and wait? 

 and hide; their hate and harm is by strategy and obscurity. 

 Boldness redeems even crime from our contempt, who despise 

 the mean malice which we only dread because we cannot see it. 

 Human spiders weave their webs where human lions would blush 

 to roar. Human nature has its types in lower orders of life, and 

 among creatures of instinct only, as among those of thought. 

 The sunniest bowers where sweetest gladness dwells reveal the 



