"After Having Responded For Some Time With Similar Cries And Gestures" - Ulysses Defying Polyphemus Will Recur To The Mind - Peron And His Companions Concluded This Signal Display Of Coolness And Daring By Quietly Walking Back And Proceeding On Their Journey Inland.

They were not pursued nor further molested.

Cool vision detracted from the gigantic stature of the Sharks Bay blacks as effectually as a cool demeanour disposed of the danger from them. The tallest man among them Peron declared to be no more than five feet four or five inches in height, and most of the forty were small sized, thin-limbed, and of feeble appearance. It is easy to perceive in this incident, where a disposition to exaggerate looking through the lens of fear, magnified a group of slight and slender savages into terrific giants, how many a legend has come to birth. The original sons of Anak would probably have been severely shortened of their inches had a Peron been available to bring illusion promptly to the test of measurement, and perhaps a scientific Jack the Giant Killer could have done deadly execution with a foot-rule.* (* It may be noted that Peron's researches regarding the physical proportions and capacities of savage races aroused much interest in France. The Moniteur of April 25 and June 23, 1808, published two long articles on "the physical force of savage people," founded upon Peron's writings and his records of comparative dynamometric data.)

The three adventurers suffered far more severely from the heat of the sun and the fatigues of working among thick bush and sand than from the natives of the country.

Enter page number Go  Previous Next
Page 235 of 299
Words from 65140 to 65410 of 83218