(1649)
Intelligence in Creation—See [Design in Nature].
Intelligence in Rooks—See [Enemies, Avoiding].
INTELLIGENCE IN SOLDIERS
The American Army is regarded as formidable because “its bayonets think.” That they thought and acted to some purpose was shown in many exigencies of the Civil war, as the following, told by Gen. Carl Schurz:
One of General Butler’s staff-officers told me a little story which illustrates the character of our volunteer regiments. When our troops took possession of Annapolis, there was but one locomotive in the railroad shop, and that locomotive had been partly taken to pieces by the “rebel sympathizers” of the place, in order to make it unfit for use. A volunteer regiment was drawn up in line, and men who thought themselves able to repair a locomotive were called for. A dozen or more privates stept forward, and one of them exclaimed: “Why, that locomotive was built in my shop!” In a short time the locomotive was again in working order.
(1650)
Intelligence in Storks—See [Family Offense in Storks].
INTELLIGENCE OUTDOING IGNORANCE
In Togoland there is a large tree which is worshiped by all the inhabitants as a god named Azago. He is the giver of children, and crops, and all blessings. No one is permitted to eat fresh yams until the priest of Azago announces that the god has partaken of them. A dreadful fatality will follow such a disobedience. One year a pupil in a mission school ate a yam before the appointed time, and his distracted parents looked for his death and for all calamities to come—but the boy prospered and grew fat, and none of his kindred died. The next year all the children of that mission school ate yams before permission was given by the priest of Azago, and none perished. The people wanted also to eat, but the priest warned them that the God of the mission schools was greater than Azago, so the mission children could eat yams with impunity, but not so the general populace. But from that time the power of the superstition declined, and recently when one of the priests died the elders decided to forsake Azago and serve the living, true God. (Text.)