Chapter 28
When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers,
the moon and the stars which Thou hast ordained, what
is man that Thou are mindful of him? (You are
going through the jungle and you see that there are
no paved sidewalks or curbstones or sewer gratings
mmmor automobiles
and there is nothing for the comfort of and convenience of
creatures such as you. Everything here and elsewhere on earth
was made for the perpetuation of animals — dull, physical animals —
and this means animals eating and animals sleeping and animals
giving birth to more animals. The chicken was intended to
eat and be eaten, not by men but by animals,
and there is nothing in nature's cookbook that says it
is supposed to be roasted and served with browned potatoes
and stuffed with sliced apples and put on a dish.)
For Thou hast made him a little lower than the
angels and has crowned him with glory and honor
mmm(Everything
men have done to improve themselves has been a perversion
of original purpose. They have made buildings out of dust.
They have made apparel from a sheep's coat of hair.
They have chopped down trees and inscribed their
mmmhistories thereon.
And all that they have accomplished has been the product
of an accidental intellect for which God was not responsible
because His work was finished with creation. Jungle law was
the only legislation laid down in the beginning, and that
is the root they will stumble over in the end.)
The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places (So
here is your inheritance, your legacy, your residue of gain
after deductions have been made under jungle law. By continued
exposure to insects you may manage to contract malaria, filariasis,
yellow fever, dengue fever, relapsing fever, pappataci, espundia,
mmmoriental sore,
typhus, trench fever, bubonic plague, tularemia, dumdum fever
mmmor loa-loa.
If your supply of drinking water happens to become contaminated,
you may look forward with confidence to an impending attack
of dysentary, cholera, typhoid fever, helminthic infection or
mmmundulant fever.
If you expose yourself to the fungi of the locale
you may be host to the pigmented patches of skin
that characterize pinta, besides finding trichosporosis thriving
mmmin your hair,
dhobie itch spread wherever you find it difficult to scratch
nd athlete's foot festering in the spaces between your toes.)
Yea, I have a goodly heritage (The thorns and spines
of poisonous or irritant trees and vines and shrubs and
miscellaneous plants may cause severe blisters. The sap of the
Beach Apple and the Mango tree will occasion painful rashes
and sores which heal with difficulty, while the nuts of
the Kaong, Dumayaka and Fishtail palms are covered with needles
which penetrate and irritate the skin. The Nipai, a twining
vine, produces a wrinkled pod which is armed with stiff
barbs that pierce the clothing, and if you come across
some large purple flowers that exude the odor of decaying
meat, it's the pungapung plant, whose stalk emits poisonous
mmmjuices.)
Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoiceth (Pain
and swelling may result from careless exposure to the dry,
black gum of the Ligas tree, while the milky white
sap of the Buta-buta causes serious inflammation and total
mmmblindness.
If the oil of the Kamanday tree enters your body
it will almost certainly prove fatal, as will the bark
of the Abuab tree and the sap of the Dalit.
In addition, you may encounter coral snakes, moccasins and vipers
as well as wild hogs, bats, alligators and swamp lizards.)
But your greatest danger is from your fellow human beings.
