Laughter for want of knowledge is especially manifested among savages,
when they first come into contact with civilization. A missionary
relating his experiences among the South Sea islanders observes how much
he was astonished at their laughing at what seemed to him the most
ordinary occurrences. This was owing to their utter ignorance of matters
commonly known to us. He tells us one day when the sailors were boring a
hole to put a vent peg into a cask, the fermentation caused the porter
to spirt out upon them. One of them tried in vain to stop it with his
hand, but it flew through his fingers. Meanwhile a native who stood by
burst into a fit of immoderate laughter. The sailor, thinking it a
serious matter to lose so much good liquor, asked him rather angrily why
he was laughing at the porter running out. "Oh," replied the native,
"I'm not laughing at its coming out, but at thinking what trouble it
must have cost you to put it in."
But ignorance has often produced opposite results to these, and caused
very ludicrous statements to be made seriously. Thus a French Gazette
reports that "Lord Selkirk arrived in Paris this morning. He is a
descendant of the famous Selkirk whose adventures suggested to Defoe his
Robinson Crusoe." Among the various curious and useful items of
knowledge contained in the "Almanach de Gotha,"--the first number of
which was published 111 years ago--we find it gravely stated that the
Manghians of the island of Mindoro are furnished with tails exactly five
inches in length, and the women of Formosa with beards half a foot long.
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