They Bend To It Like Those
Scythian Slaves That Faced The Sword But Fled From The Horsewhip.
Such
would never be the case amongst a brave people, the Afghan for
instance; and for the same reason it is not so, we read, with "White
Plume," the North American Indian.
"The free trapper combines in the
eye of an Indian (American) girl, all that is dashing and heroic in a
warrior of her own race, whose gait and garb and bravery he emulates,
with all that is gallant and glorious in the white man." There is but
one cause for this phenomenon; the "imbelles Indi" are still, with few
exceptions,[FN#17] a cowardly and slavish people, who would raise
themselves by depreciating those superior to them in the scale of
creation. The Afghans and American aborigines, being chivalrous races,
rather exaggerate the valour of their foes, because by so doing they
exalt their own.[FN#18]
[FN#1] Villages notorious for the peculiar Egyptian revelry, an
undoubted relic of the good old times, when "the most religious of men"
revelled at Canopus with an ardent piety in honour of Isis and Osiris.
[FN#2] "Haykal" was a pleasant fellow, who, having basely abused the
confidence of the fair ones of Wardan, described their charms in
sarcastic verse, and stuck his scroll upon the door of the village
mosque, taking at the same time the wise precaution to change his
lodgings without delay. The very mention of his name affronts the brave
Wardanenses to the last extent, making them savage as Oxford bargees.
[FN#3] The Barrage is a handsome bridge,-putting the style of
architecture out of consideration,-the work of French engineers,
originally projected by Napoleon the First.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 58 of 571
Words from 16183 to 16471
of 157964
