even such of them as I knew to be inferior to theirs. I made myself eminently disagreeable to my friends and acquaintances by attacking them on their tenderest point, their fancied superiority to all other human beings. I departed from the line of conduct I had originally laid down for myself, not to attempt to refute their sophistries respecting their origin, and I sneeringly observed that discarding clothes could not be looked upon as a sign of superior civilization, when there were many races of men who wore even fewer garments than themselves, but who were well known to be mere savages. They of course replied that these were black-skinned races with whom they protested against being supposed to have any affinity. These black creatures, they contended, might well be derived from monkeys, to whom they bore a striking resemblance in feature, form and intellect, but no white race, they argued, could do without clothes except in aquatic life. This showed that the black races were intended for terrestrial life, while the white races were constituted for aquatic existence.
I ridiculed the idea of their musical language, being a proof of superior cultivation, for, I said it was held by our foremost philosophers that man employed musical notes to convey his feelings and ideas before he had any articulate language; and, moreover, this boasted musical language was a strong proof of their derivation from a simious ancestor, as the only other animal who could sing an octave was a gibbon ape.
This was not the way to ingratiate myself with my companions, who I remarked began to regard me as
