“Yet, greedy as these people are, they have their good points, as I believe all God’s creatures have. They are honest, frank, and hospitable. If they love feasting, their willingness to share the meal with a stranger is a greater virtue. And they are not so stupid as one might expect, from their swallowing such oceans of lard. I know of no people so cunning in catching fish and game. In the winter season, many establish themselves in the forests along the branches of the Wittim and Olekminsk regions, lying to the south of where we now are. A young hunter from Tobolsk, whom I knew, and who dwelt there one winter, told me that they were the keenest fellows he had ever met with. They would trace a fox by his foot-prints upon the frozen snow, and could tell whether it was grey or black by the shape of his track! They killed their game with blunt arrows, so as not to injure the skin; and so careful were they of the sable, that when they found one on a tree, they would not shoot him, but make fires beneath, and smoke him, until the creature would fall at their feet.
“The fact is, that the Tunguses are such good hunters that the wild beasts have found them out, and have pretty much left their country. The fine sables are now seldom found where they used to be abundant, and those who would hunt them must go farther north, where we are going. These people have no books, and their religion is a strange belief in stupid gods, whom they worship under the guise of little wooden images. They believe in witchcraft and sorcery; and there are a good many cheats among them, who pretend to practise these forbidden arts.”
(To be continued.)
Wisdom of the Creator.
The fact that the Creator is a Being who thinks, who exercises wisdom, and exerts power, is illustrated by the provision he has made for the wants of animals, arising from their peculiar condition. The human teeth afford a striking instance of this. The infant is to live by milk taken from its mother, and it can take its nourishment in without teeth much more conveniently to itself and its nurse, than with them. Accordingly, it has no teeth; nor do they come till about the time that it takes other food that may require teeth. We see the same careful foresight in providing that the horns of calves and lambs do not grow till they have done sucking, as they would be in the way in performing that operation. But in regard to the human teeth, a still further prospective contrivance is made at the very beginning. The jaw of a grown person is much larger than that of an infant, and the first teeth are therefore entirely too small to fill the jaw of an adult. It is accordingly provided that, at the age of eight or ten years, the first set of teeth shall be shed, and larger ones come in their place. And the preparation for them is made at the outset—a row of teeth being actually set in below the first, ready to grow when these are gone!
The providing of milk for young animals is another admirable proof of the designing wisdom of the Creator. Milk is a fluid of a very nutritious quality, and no art of man can make it. As soon as the young are produced, the milk is ready for it, and not before. And how wonderful, how ingenious, is the whole contrivance by which young animals are provided with food, in a manner the most curious, and of a kind the most suitable!
Washington a Teacher to the Young.
There is no name in the annals of any country more revered than that of George Washington. It is a matter of interest to inquire how he became so good and great, and how he obtained such a desirable reputation; how he was able to do so much good to his country and to mankind; how he was qualified to leave behind him so excellent an example; how he acquired that great wisdom which guided him in life, and prepared him for death—which made him, like Moses in ancient days, the leader of a nation through a wilderness of trial, and suffering, and danger, and now that he has been dead more than forty years, renders him still the teacher, not only of the United States, but all the civilized world.
It is a good plan for every one who wishes to be useful, good, and happy, to study the story of Washington, and see how it was that he became so useful, so good, and so happy. It is only by study that we can gain knowledge; and the best way to find out the path of duty and of success, is carefully to read the history of those who have been successful. I propose, therefore, to give you a brief outline of Washington’s life, taking care to present those points in his career which seem to have been the most influential in forming his character and shaping his fortunes.