Page:The Annual Register 1758.djvu/386

 37^ ANNUAL REGISTER, 175?.

fielh of man. Tell us, fald the young voltures, where man may be found, and how he may be known ; his flefh is furely the natural food of a vulture. Why have you never brought a man in your talons to the neft ? lis is too bulky, faid the mother ; when we find a man, we can only tear away his flefh, and leave the bones upon the ground. Since man is fo big, faid the yoang ones, how do you kill him ? You are afraid of the wolf and of the bear ; by what power are vultures fuperior to man ? Is a nan more defencelefs than a {keep ? We have not the Hrength of man, returned the mo- ther, and I am fomutimes in doubt whether we have the fubtihy ; and the vultures would feldom feaft upon his flefh, had not na- ture, that devoted him to our ufes, infufed into him a ftrange ferocity, which I have never ob- ferved in any other being that feeds upon the earth. Two herds of men will often meet and (iiake the earth with noife, and fill the air with fire. When you hear noife and fee fire with flafhes along the ground, haften to the place with your fwifteil wing ; for men arc furely delboying one ano- ther ; you will then find the ground fmoaking with blood and covered with carcafes, of which many are difmeinbered and mang- led for the convenience of the vul- ture. But when men have killed their prey, fays the pupil, why do they not eat it ? When the wolf has killed a fheep, he fuffers rot the vulture to touch it till he has fatisricd himfelf. Js not man another kind of wolf? Man, faid the mother, is the only beaft who kilh that which he does not de-

vour, and this quality makes him (o much a benefa6^or to our fpe- cies. If men kill our prey and lay it in our way, faid the young one, what need (hall we have of labouring for ourfelves f Becaufe ■ man will fomecjmes, replied the » mother, remain for a long time quiet in his den. The old vul- tu.'-es will tell you when you are to watch his motions. When you fee men in great numbers mov- ing clofe together, like a flight of ftorks, you may conclude that they are hunting, and that you will foon revel in human blood. But ftill, faid the young one, I would gladly know the reafon of this mutual flaughter ; I could never kill what I could not eat. My child, faid the mother, this is a quertion which I cannot an- fwer, tho' I am reckoned the mod fubtle bird of the mountain. W^hen 1 v/as young 1 ufed frequently to vifit the airy of an old vulture^ who dwelt upon the Carpathian rocks ; he had made many ob- fervations ; he knew the places that afforded prey round his ha- bitation, as far in every di- reiftion as the ftrongcft wing caa Hy between the riling and fetting of the fummer fun ; he had fed year after year on the entrails of men. His opinion Was, that men had only the appearance of animal life, being really vegetables with a power of motion ; and that as the boughs of an oak are dafhed together by the rtcrm^' that fwine may fatten upon the falling acorns, fo men are by feme unaccount- able power driven one agair.ft another, till they lefe their mo- tion, that vultures may be fed. Others think they h ve obferved fomethine of contrivance and po-

licy