i was glad enough to leave this cold climate; and about half a year after, i fell in with a people enjoying a delicious temperature of air, and a country full of beauty and verdure. the trees and shrubs were furnished with a great variety of fruits, which, with other vegetable products, constituted a large part of the food of the inhabitants. i particularly relished certain berries1 growing in bunches, some white and some red, of a pleasant sourish taste, and so transparent that one might see the seed at their very centre. here were whole fields full of extremely odoriferous2 flowers, which they told me were succeeded by pods bearing seeds,that afforded good nourishment to man and beast. a great variety of birds enlivened the groves and woods; among which i was entertained with one, that without any teaching, spoke1certain berries: currants.
2odoriferous: sweet-scented.
almost as articulately1 as a parrot, though indeed it was all the repetition of a single word. the people were tolerably2 gentle and civilized, and possessed many of the arts of life. their dress was very various. many were clad only in a thin cloth made of the long fibres of the stalks of a plant cultivated for the purpose, which they prepared by soaking in water, and then beating with large mallets. others wore cloth woven from a sort of vegetable wool, growing in pods upon bushes. but the most singular material was a fine glossy stuff, used chiefly by the richer classes, which, as i was credibly3 informed, is manufactured out of the webs of caterpillars; a most wonderful circumstance, if we consider the immense number of caterpillars necessary to the production of so large a quantity of stuff as i saw used. these people are very fantastic4 in their dress, especially the women, whose apparel consists of a great number of articles impossible to be described, and strangely disguising the natural form of the body. like most indian nations, they use feathers in the head- dress. one thing surprised me much, which was, that they bring up in their houses an animal of the tiger kind, with formidable teeth and claws, which, not- withstanding its natural ferocity, is played with and caressed by the most timid and delicate of their women.""i am sure i would not play with it," said jack. "why, you might chance to get an ugly scratch, if you did," said the captain.
1 articulately: with a clear utterance. 2 tolerably: moderately; passably.
3 credibly: reliably; in a manner worthy of belief. 4 fantastic: fanciful.
" t he language of this nation seems v er y har sh and unintelligible1 to a foreigner, yet they converse among one another with great ease and quickness. one of the oddest customs is that which men use on saluting each other. let the weather be what it will, they uncover their heads, and remain uncovered for some time, if they mean to be extraordinarily respectful.""why, that"s like pulling off our hats," said jack. "ah, ah! papa," cried betsy, "i have found you out. you have been telling us of our own country, and what is done at home, all this while." "but," said jack, "we don"t burn stones, or cat grease and powdered seeds, or wear skins and caterpillars" webs, or play with tigers." "no!" said the captain; "pray, what are coals but stones; and is not butter, grease; and corn, seeds; and leather, skins; and silk, the web of a kind of caterpillar; and may we not as well call a eat an animal of the tiger-kind, as a tiger an animal of the cat-kind? so, if you will recollect what i have been describing, you will find, with betsy"s help, that all the other wonderful things i have told you of, are matters familiar among ourselves. but i meant to shew you, that a foreigner might easily represent everything as equally strange and wonderful among us, as we could do with respect to his country; and also to make you sensible that we daily call a great many things by their names, without inquiring into their nature and properties; so that in reality it is only the names, and not the things themselves, with which we are acquainted."from evenings at home, by mrs. barbauld1 unintelligible: not easily understood.
