In your paper some time past I saw an account of "a wild woman found
in the interior of Java." History furnishes many instances of these
"unfortunate commoners of nature," who have been exposed by design
or accident. Comparatively few, we fear, have been brought to the
domestic hearth; fewer still have been completely civilized. A book
of travels, now almost obsolete, states instances of this kind. A
race of marauding Tartars, subjects of Russia, frequently attacked
Polish villages, and carried off whole families: in conveying their
captives home they had to pass the wild and intricate forest of
Minsk, in Russian Lithuania, and there these unfortunate mothers
lost, and were separated from, their children. In after days, when
this stupendous region was traversed for other purposes than the
nefarious one above mentioned, several human males were found, in
almost as barbarous a state as the native burghers of the forest,
to whose ferocious instinct many of these innocents had doubtless
fallen a prey.
Peter, the Wild Boy, excited much interest in his day. George the
2d, of England, found him whilst hunting in the woods near Hamelin,
in the electorate of Hanover. Peter, when found, ran on all fours,
like the quadrupeds amongst whom he had been raised. We might ask,
why did the brutes of prey in this as well as other instances,
deviate from the voracious instinct planted in their nature? To
accident we cannot refer it; and, after wearying our minds with
conjecture, we can only end the difficulty by attributing it to that
providential care which preserved Daniel in the lion's den. Peter
never could be taught to articulate more than two words--his own
name and George; but he learned, with facility and correctness, the
notes of several tunes.
Lord Monboddo, of eccentric memory, mentions in his narrative
respecting Peter, that two children had been found in the same wild
state--one in the island of Diego Garcia, and one in the Pyrenees.
He also states that two wild children were found in the Dismal Swamp
of Virginia.[2] This immense morass is yet, in its inmost recesses,
the refuge of wild animals of prey, particularly bears, panthers,
and wild cats. During a fire in these swamps, 10 or 12 years ago,
numbers were hunted down, who had fled before the rapid flames.
A resident in that neighbourhood informed me that he had seen 17
of these animals, some half-burned, hung upon a single tree. In
respect to the children noticed by Lord Monboddo, I cannot, in any
history of either Virginia or North Carolina, find the least hint
of such a circumstance having occurred; nor does the writer specify
the period when they were found. Is it not probable that these
outcasts from society (admitting the noble author to be rightly
informed) were the offspring of aboriginal females, compelled to
seek shelter in these swamps from the invading colonist, or from
some hostile tribe?--Amongst the innumerable tribes of Indians in
Virginia and North Carolina, the _Tuskaroras_ were perhaps most
powerful, and most immediately in the vicinity of this large tract.
These aborigines were not all dispersed or destroyed until 1803,
some of them living peaceably on the reserved lands. The main body
of this tribe of Indians had migrated to New York state, and joined
the Senecas, (one of the Six Nations,) many years preceding. Is it
not probable, I again ask, that the young savages of lord Monboddo
did, in fact, inherit the name from their birth? I would ask, as a
matter of curiosity, of yourselves, Messrs. Editors, or any of your
correspondents, answers to the following questions: When were these
children found? Of what age when discovered? By whom found? What
became of them? Could they be taught the use of speech?
[2] This great swamp, containing nearly 150,000 acres, lies more in
North Carolina than Virginia. It is a marshy region, covered with
a thick growth of cypress or juniper, many of which trees are of a
prodigious growth. These trees are occasionally intermingled with
oak, poplar, and maple. The annual fall of leaves, and the decay
of trees, raise the surface above the original soil some feet,
this part being completely saturated with water. The improvements
in agriculture have done much to drain this vast surface, and many
parts are sufficiently dry for the shingle-cutters and stave-makers
to pursue their avocations in spots of this dreary region.
Lord Monboddo maintains that speech is not natural to man, and
that the want of it is no proof that the Ourang-Outang is not of
the same species, as that animal only wants the _artificial_ use
of it. King John, of England,[3] held the same hypothesis upwards
of five centuries before. Tradition (for such records are beneath
the dignity of history) asserts, that this monarch imprisoned two
children (a male and female) in separate cells.[4] When, at a
certain age, they were brought before him, each of these little
victims repeated a sarcasm on his folly in thus confining them. He
considered his hypothesis as confirmed, but punished the keepers.
The legend is here torn, and we do not learn (supposing it true)
what became of the children, or what further progress they made in
language. That man has the power, as well as the organs of speech,
it appears an absurdity to deny; for, what country has ever been
discovered where the natives had not the means of communicating
verbally with each other? In the earliest records of the world
we find no sanction for such an opinion; for the Antediluvians
were certainly not defective in the power or use of speech to
convey their ideas. If we deny this we virtually acknowledge our
belief that the Mosaic account of the creation is "a cunningly
devised fable." After the Flood we cannot doubt that Noah and his
descendants still spoke the language of Adam. "All the nations
spoke one language." Lord Kames contends that, after the building
of Babel, "men again degenerated into a savage state," which he
attributes to the confusion of tongues, and the dispersion of the
tribes. We are no where told that they lost or forgot the use of
speech, which lord Monboddo considers incidental to the savage state.
[3] The Prince John of Ivanhoe, whom Hume characterises as replete
"with cowardice, inactivity, folly, levity, licentiousness,
ingratitude, treachery, tyranny, and cruelty." What a tissue of
crimes! And this was a King!
[4] In Newark Castle, where John died in 1216.
Lord Kames appears to take it for granted that _all_ the men then
in existence were engaged in this stupendous and impious attempt
to scale Heaven, and "make themselves a name."--This idea is not
conveyed by the sacred historian; it therefore appears probable
that the tribes which continued together still spoke the _original
language_, and remained in one place, and as one people. I fear
I have trespassed on your limits, but the subject arose from the
preceding remarks. I conclude with reiterating my request respecting
the children found in the Dismal Swamp.
[_Nat. Int._
ARTIFICIAL STONE FLOORS _and coverings for houses as made in some
parts of Russia_.
The floors and coverings of houses in some parts of South Russia
are made in the following manner:--For a floor let the ground be
made even, and some stones of any shape be put on, and with a heavy
wooden rammer force or break the stones into the ground, continuing
to beat the floor until it becomes quite even, and incapable of
receiving any further impression. Then run lime, immediately after
it has been slacked, through a fine sieve as expeditiously as
possible, because exposure to the air weakens the lime. Mix two
parts of coarse sand or washed gravel, for there must be no earth in
it, with one part of lime powder, and wet them with bullock's blood;
so little moist however, as merely to prevent the lime blowing away
in powder--in short, the less moist the better: spread it on the
floor, and without a moment's loss of time, let several men be ready
with large beetles to beat the mixture, which will become more and
more moist by the excessive beating requisite. Then put on it some
of the dry sand and lime mixed, and beat it till like a stone. If
required to be very fine, take for the next layer finely sifted
lime, with about a tenth part of rye flour, and a little ox blood;
beat it with a trowel. The next day again smooth it with a trowel,
and so continue to do daily till it be entirely dry. When it is
quite dry and hard, rub it over with fresh ox blood, taking off all
which it will not imbibe. No wet will penetrate this composition,
which, however, after some time is often painted with oil colours.
The whole floor appears as a single stone, and nothing will affect
it.--The drier it is used the better, provided that with much
beating it becomes like a very stiff mortar, and evidently forms a
compact body.
On flat tops of houses, the beetles or rammers' ends must be
smaller, to prevent the rebounding of the boards and timber, which
would crack the cement; but, when the thickness of a foot is laid
on, it will beat more firmly. A thick coating of ox blood, flour
and lime, being beat in large, strong wooden troughs, or mortar,
till it can be spread with a trowel, may be used without beating
it again on the floor or house-top: but it must be very stiff, and
used most expeditiously. Even frost will not affect it. With this
composition, artificial stone may be made, rammed very hard into
strong wooden frames of the required shape, particularly to turn
arches for buildings of rammed earth. It is well known that earth
which is not too argillaceous, with only the moisture it has when
fresh dug, on being rammed between frames of wood till the rammer
will no longer impress it, makes eternal walls; but a mass as hard
as stone may be made with a little lime added to sand, horse-dung,
or ox blood. The more the lime is beaten, the moister it becomes,
and it must contain so much moisture as to become by beating a solid
mass, adhering in all its parts, and not remain crumbling, that will
properly set as a mortar. If there be too little moisture at first,
it will remain a powder; if there be too much it will become a soft
mortar. Lime is of no use mixed with clay or vegetable earths,
which, if well beaten, are stronger without it.