Page:The Captivity of Hans Stade of Hesse.pdf/188
The above-mentioned Frenchman remained two days there in the huts on the third day he went on his way. And they had agreed that they would prepare everything, and kill me on the first day after they had collected all things together, and they watched me very carefully, and both young and old mocked and derided me.
Caput XXVII.
How I suffered greatly from toothache.
It happened, when I was thus in distress, that to bear out the saying, "misfortunes never come singly," one of my teeth ached so grievously that I became emaciated from great pain. My master asked me how it was that I ate so little, and I told him that a tooth pained me. Then he came with an instrument made of wood, and wanted to pull it out. I then told him it ached no more: he wanted to pull it out violently.[1] But I resisted so much that he gave up his intention. "Yes," said he, "if I would not eat and
- ↑ Southey (i, 200) remarks, "It is said in the Noticias MSS. that the teeth of these people were not liable to decay. But the readiness with which teeth-drawing was recommended in this instance certainly implies a knowledge of tooth-ache." I have never yet seen a savage tribe that did not suffer from this "little misery of human life;" and yet, as a rule, wild men are more careful of their teeth than the civilised, Glas and other writers give interesting accounts of the precautions taken by the Guanches of Tenerife, who for fear of caries would not drink cold water after eating hot food.
savages, like the northern, held nothing so dastardly and effeminate as outward signs of fearing death (Chapt. xxxvi); and no Christian martyr ever died with more constancy and fortitude than these human wild beasts. They held with Charlevoix (Histoire du Paraguay, i, 468): “Après tout, il faut convenir que les barbares out la vraie idée du courage, qui consiste plus et qui est moins équivoque dans la constance à souffrir les grands maux, que dans la hardiesse à s'exposer aux plus grande dangers." The defect of this view is that it makes courage a mere matter of nervous insensibility.