_Nunquam aliud natura_, _aliud sapientia dicit_.
JUV., _Sat._ xiv. 321.
Good taste and nature always speak the same.
When the four Indian kings were in this country about a twelvemonth ago,
I often mixed with the rabble, and followed them a whole day together,
being wonderfully struck with the sight of everything that is new or
uncommon. I have, since their departure, employed a friend to make many
inquiries of their landlord the upholsterer relating to their manners and
conversation, as also concerning the remarks which they made in this
country; for next to the forming a right notion of such strangers, I
should be desirous of learning what ideas they have conceived of us.
The upholsterer finding my friend very inquisitive about these his
lodgers, brought him sometime since a little bundle of papers, which he
assured him were written by King Sa Ga Yean Qua Rash Tow, and, as he
supposes, left behind by some mistake. These papers are now translated,
and contain abundance of very odd observations, which I find this little
fraternity of kings made during their stay in the Isle of Great Britain.
I shall present my reader with a short specimen of them in this paper,
and may perhaps communicate more to him hereafter. In the article of
London are the following words, which without doubt are meant of the
church of St. Paul:--
"On the most rising part of the town there stands a huge house, big
enough to contain the whole nation of which I am the king. Our good
brother E Tow O Koam, King of the Rivers, is of opinion it was made by
the hands of that great God to whom it is consecrated. The Kings of
Granajar and of the Six Nations believe that it was created with the
earth, and produced on the same day with the sun and moon. But for my
own part, by the best information that I could get of this matter, I am
apt to think that this prodigious pile was fashioned into the shape it
now bears by several tools and instruments, of which they have a
wonderful variety in this country. It was probably at first a huge
misshapen rock that grew upon the top of the hill, which the natives of
the country, after having cut into a kind of regular figure, bored and
hollowed with incredible pains and industry, till they had wrought in it
all those beautiful vaults and caverns into which it is divided at this
day. As soon as this rock was thus curiously scooped to their liking, a
prodigious number of hands must have been employed in chipping the
outside of it, which is now as smooth as the surface of a pebble; and is
in several places hewn out into pillars that stand like the trunks of so
many trees bound about the top with garlands of leaves. It is probable
that when this great work was begun, which must have been many hundred
years ago, there was some religion among this people; for they give it
the name of a temple, and have a tradition that it was designed for men
to pay their devotion in. And indeed, there are several reasons which
make us think that the natives of this country had formerly among them
some sort of worship, for they set apart every seventh day as sacred; but
upon my going into one of these holy houses on that day, I could not
observe any circumstance of devotion in their behaviour. There was,
indeed, a man in black, who was mounted above the rest, and seemed to
utter some thing with a great deal of vehemence; but as for those
underneath him, instead of paying their worship to the deity of the
place, they were most of them bowing and curtsying to one another, and a
considerable number of them fast asleep.
"The queen of the country appointed two men to attend us, that had enough
of our language to make themselves understood in some few particulars.
But we soon perceived these two were great enemies to one another, and
did not always agree in the same story. We could make a shift to gather
out of one of them that this island was very much infested with a
monstrous kind of animals, in the shape of men, called Whigs; and he
often told us that he hoped we should meet with none of them in our way,
for that, if we did, they would be apt to knock us down for being kings.
"Our other interpreter used to talk very much of a kind of animal called
a Tory, that was as great a monster as the Whig, and would treat us as
ill for being foreigners. These two creatures, it seems, are born with a
secret antipathy to one another, and engage when they meet as naturally
as the elephant and the rhinoceros. But as we saw none of either of
these species, we are apt to think that our guides deceived us with
misrepresentations and fictions, and amused us with an account of such
monsters as are not really in their country.
"These particulars we made a shift to pick out from the discourse of our
interpreters, which we put together as well as we could, being able to
understand but here and there a word of what they said, and afterwards
making up the meaning of it among ourselves. The men of the country are
very cunning and ingenious in handicraft works, but withal so very idle,
that we often saw young, lusty, raw-boned fellows carried up and down the
streets in little covered rooms by a couple of porters, who were hired
for that service. Their dress is likewise very barbarous, for they
almost strangle themselves about the neck, and bind their bodies with
many ligatures, that we are apt to think are the occasion of several
distempers among them, which our country is entirely free from. Instead
of those beautiful feathers with which we adorn our heads, they often buy
up a monstrous bush of hair, which covers their heads, and falls down in
a large fleece below the middle of their backs, with which they walk up
and down the streets, and are as proud of it as if it was of their own
growth.
"We were invited to one of their public diversions, where we hoped to
have seen the great men of their country running down a stag, or pitching
a bar, that we might have discovered who were the persons of the greatest
abilities among them; but instead of that, they conveyed us into a huge
room lighted up with abundance of candles, where this lazy people sat
still above three hours to see several feats of ingenuity performed by
others, who it seems were paid for it.
"As for the women of the country, not being able to talk with them, we
could only make our remarks upon them at a distance. They let the hair
of their heads grow to a great length; but as the men make a great show
with heads of hair that are none of their own, the women, who they say
have very fine heads of hair, tie it up in a knot, and cover it from
being seen. The women look like angels, and would be more beautiful than
the sun, were it not for little black spots that are apt to break out in
their faces, and sometimes rise in very odd figures. I have observed
that those little blemishes wear off very soon; but when they disappear
in one part of the face, they are very apt to break out in another,
insomuch that I have seen a spot upon the forehead in the afternoon which
was upon the chin in the morning."
The author then proceeds to show the absurdity of breeches and
petticoats, with many other curious observations, which I shall reserve
for another occasion: I cannot, however, conclude this paper without
taking notice that amidst these wild remarks there now and then appears
something very reasonable. I cannot likewise forbear observing, that we
are all guilty in some measure of the same narrow way of thinking which
we meet with in this abstract of the Indian journal, when we fancy the
customs, dresses, and manners of other countries are ridiculous and
extravagant if they do not resemble those of our own.