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Contents

Preface  xv

CHAPTER 1 What Is the Anthropological Perspective?   3


What Is Anthropology? 4 Applied Anthropology 14
What Is the Concept of Culture? 6 In Their Own Words: What Can You Learn
What Makes Anthropology a from an Anthropology Major? 15
Cross-Disciplinary Discipline? 7 Medical Anthropology 16
Biological Anthropology 8 The Uses of Anthropology 17
In Their Own Words: Anthropology as a Chapter Summary   17
Vocation 9 For Review   18
Cultural Anthropology 10 Key Terms   18
Linguistic Anthropology 13 Suggested Readings   18
Archaeology 13

Part I The Tools of Cultural Anthropology

CHAPTER 2 Why Is the Concept of Culture Important?   21


How Do Anthropologists Define Culture? 22 Genital Cutting, Gender,
In Their Own Words: The Paradox of and Human Rights   31
Ethnocentrism 23 Genital Cutting as a Valued Ritual   32
Culture, History, and Human Agency 25 Culture and Moral Reasoning   33
In Their Own Words: Culture and Did Their Culture Make Them Do It?   33
Freedom 27 Does Culture Explain Everything? 35
Why Do Cultural Differences Matter? 27 Culture Change and Cultural
What Is Ethnocentrism?   28 Authenticity  36
In Their Own Words: Human-Rights Law The Promise of the Anthropological
and the Demonization of Culture 29 Perspective 37
Is It Possible to Avoid Ethnocentric Bias?   30 Chapter Summary   37
What Is Cultural Relativism?   31 For Review   38
How Can Cultural Relativity Improve Key Terms   38
Our Understanding of Suggested Readings   39
Controversial Cultural Practices? 31

vii

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viii Contents

CHAPTER 3 What Is Ethnographic Fieldwork?   41


Why Do Fieldwork? 43 The Dialectic of Fieldwork: Some Examples   60
What Is the Fieldwork Experience Like? 43 What Happens When There Are Ruptures in
A Meeting of Cultural Traditions   45 Communication?  62
Ethnographic Fieldwork: How Has Anthropologists’ What Are the Effects of Fieldwork? 64
Understanding Changed? 46 How Does Fieldwork Affect Informants?   64
The Positivist Approach   47 How Does Fieldwork Affect the Researcher?   66
Was There a Problem with Positivism?   49 Does Fieldwork Have Humanizing Effects?   67
Can the Reflexive Approach Replace In Their Own Words: The Relationship between
Positivism?  50 Anthropologists and Informants 68
Anthropology in Everyday Life: Where Does Anthropological
Anthropological Ethics 52 Knowledge Come From? 68
Can Fieldwork Be Multisited? 54 How Is Knowledge Produced?   69
What Is the Dialectic of Fieldwork? 55 Is Anthropological Knowledge
How Are Interpretation and Translation Open Ended?  69
Important Aspects of Fieldwork?   56 In Their Own Words: The Skills of the
In Their Own Words: Who’s Studying Anthropologist 70
Whom? 57 Chapter Summary   71
How Can Anthropologists For Review   72
Move beyond the Dialectic?   58 Key Terms   72
In Their Own Words: Japanese Corporate Wives Suggested Readings   72
in the United States 59

CHAPTER 4 How Has Anthropological Thinking about


Cultural Diversity Changed over Time?   75
Capitalism, Colonialism, and the Doing without Typologies:
Origins of Ethnography 76 Culture Area Studies in America   88
Capitalism and Colonialism   77 How Do Anthropologists Study
The Fur Trade in North America   79 Forms of Human Society Today? 90
The Slave and Commodities Trades   79 Postcolonial Realities  90
Colonialism and Modernity   79 Locating Cultural Processes in History   91
The Colonial Political Economy   80 Analyzing Cultural Processes
Anthropology and the Colonial Encounter 80 under Globalization  91
In Their Own Words: The Anthropological The Anthropology of Science,
Voice 81 Technology, and Medicine   93
What Explains Human Cultural Variation? 82 Chapter Summary   95
In Their Own Words: The Ecologically Noble For Review   97
Savage? 83 Key Terms   97
Evolutionary Typologies: The Nineteenth Suggested Readings   97
Century  83
Social Structural Typologies:
The British Emphasis   85

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Contents ix

Part II The Resources of Culture

CHAPTER 5 What Is Human Language?   99


Why Do Anthropologists Study Language? 100 How Is Meaning Negotiated
Language and Culture   100 in Pidgins and Creoles?   114
Talking about Experience   101 What Does Linguistic Inequality Look Like? 114
What Makes Human Language Distinctive? 102 What Are the Controversies Surrounding the
In Their Own Words: Cultural Translation 104 Language Habits of African Americans?   114
What Does It Mean to “Learn” a Language? 105 In Their Own Words: Varieties of African
Language and Context   105 American English 116
Does Language Affect How We See the What Is Language Ideology?   116
World? 106 What Are the Controversies Surrounding the
What Are the Components of Language? 108 Language Habits of Women and Men?   117
Phonology: Sounds  108 What Is Lost If a Language Dies? 119
Morphology: Word Structure   109 Anthropology in Everyday Life: Language
Syntax: Sentence Structure   109 Revitalization 120
Semantics: Meaning  110 How Are Language and Truth Connected? 123
Pragmatics: Language in Contexts of Use   110 Chapter Summary   124
Ethnopragmatics  111 For Review   125
What Happens When Languages Come into Key Terms   125
Contact? 113 Suggested Readings   125
What Is the Relation of Pidgins and Creoles?   113

CHAPTER 6 How Do We Make Meaning?   127


What Is Play? 128 How Does Myth Reflect—
How Do We Think about Play?   128 and Shape—Society?  146
What Are Some Effects of Play?   129 Do Myths Help Us Think?   147
Do People Play by the Rules? 131 What Is Ritual? 148
How Are Culture and Sport Related?   132 How Do Anthropologists Define Ritual?   148
How Is Sport in the What Makes a Child’s Birthday Party
Nation-State Organized?  132 a Ritual?  148
Sport as Metaphor   133 How Is Ritual Expressed in Action?   149
How Are Baseball and Masculinity What Are Rites of Passage?   149
Related in Cuba?   134 How Are Play and Ritual
What Is Art? 135 Complementary?  150
Can Art Be Defined?   135 In Their Own Words: Video in the Villages 151
“But Is It Art?”   136 How Do Cultural Practices Combine Play,
“She’s Fake”: Art and Authenticity   139 Art, Myth, and Ritual? 152
How Does Hip-Hop Become Japanese?   140 Chapter Summary   153
How Does Sculpture Figure For Review   154
in the Baule Gbagba Dance?   141 Key Terms   155
The Mass Media: Suggested Readings   155
A Television Serial in Egypt   143
In Their Own Words: Tango 144
What Is Myth? 145

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x Contents

CHAPTER 7 What Can Anthropology Tell Us about Religion


and Worldview?  157
What Is a Worldview? 159 In Their Own Words: For All Those Who Were
How Do Anthropologists Study Indian in a Former Life 170
Worldviews? 159 Maintaining and Changing a Worldview 171
What Are Some Key Metaphors for How Do People Cope with Change?   171
Constructing Worldviews? 161 Anthropology in Everyday Life: Lead Poisoning
What Is Religion? 162 among Mexican American Children 172
How Do People Communicate in In Their Own Words: Custom and
Religion?  163 Confrontation 174
How Are Religion and Social How Are Worldviews Used as
Organization Related?  165 Instruments of Power? 174
Worldviews in Practice: Two Case Studies 166 Is Secularism a Worldview? 175
Coping with Misfortune: Witchcraft, Oracles, Religion and Secularism   175
and Magic among the Azande   166 Muslim Headscarves in France:
Are There Patterns of A Case Study   177
Witchcraft Accusation?  169 Chapter Summary   179
Coping with Misfortune: Listening for God For Review   180
among Contemporary Evangelicals in the Key Terms   180
United States  169 Suggested Readings   181

Part III The Organization of Material Life

CHAPTER 8 How Are Culture and Power Connected?   183


Who Has the Power to Act? 184 How Can Power Be an Independent Entity? 195
How Do Anthropologists Study Politics? 186 What Is the Power of the Imagination? 196
What Is Coercion?   186 The Power of the Weak   196
Coercion in Societies without States?   187 What Does It Mean to Bargain for Reality?   198
Domination and Hegemony   188 In Their Own Words: Protesters Gird for Long
Power and National Identity: Fight over Opening Peru’s Amazon 201
A Case Study   189 How Does History Become a Prototype of and for
Biopower and Governmentality   191 Political Action? 203
Trying to Elude Governmentality: How Can the Meaning of History Be
A Case Study   192 Negotiated? 205
In Their Own Words: Reforming the Crow Chapter Summary   206
Constitution 193 For Review   206
Anthropology in Everyday Life: Anthropology Key Terms   207
and Advertising 194 Suggested Readings   207
The Ambiguity of Power   195

CHAPTER 9 How Do People Make a Living?   209


What Are Subsistence Strategies? 211 How Are Goods Distributed and
What Are the Connections between Exchanged? 214
Culture and Livelihood? 212 Capitalism and Neoclassical Economics   214
Self-Interest, Institutions, and Morals   212 In Their Own Words: David Graeber on
What Are Production, Distribution, and Debt 215
Consumption? 213 Modes of Exchange   217

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Contents xi

Does Production Drive Economic Activities? 219 What Is the Original Affluent Society?   227
Labor  220 The Abominations of Leviticus   229
Modes of Production   220 Banana Leaves in the Trobriand Islands   229
The Role of Conflict in Material Life   221 Changing Consumption
Anthropology in Everyday Life: Producing in Rural Guatemala   231
Sorghum and Millet in Honduras and the How Does Culture Construct Utility? 231
Sudan 222 In Their Own Words: Fake Masks and Faux
Applying Production Theory Modernity 232
to Social and Cultural Life   222 Consumption Studies Today   232
In Their Own Words: “So Much Work, So Much Coca-Cola in Trinidad   233
Tragedy . . . and for What?” 224 What Is the Anthropology of
Why Do People Consume What They Do? 224 Food and Nutrition? 234
In Their Own Words: Solidarity Forever 225 Interplay between the Meaningful and
The Internal Explanation: Malinowski and Basic the Material 235
Human Needs  225 Chapter Summary   236
The External Explanation: Cultural Ecology   226 For Review   236
Food Storage and Sharing   226 Key Terms   237
How Does Culture Construct Human Suggested Readings   237
Needs? 227

Part IV Systems of Relationships


Chapter 10 What Can Anthropology Teach Us about Sex,
Gender, and Sexuality?   239
How Did Twentieth-Century Feminism How Do Anthropologists Study Relations between
Shape the Anthropological Sex, Gender, and Sexuality? 255
Study of Sex, Gender, and Sexuality? 240 How Does Ethnography Document Variable
How Do Anthropologists Organize the Culture Understandings Concerning Sex,
Study of Sex, Gender, and Sexuality? 244 Gender, and Sexuality? 257
In Their Own Words: The Consequences of Female Sexual Practices in Mombasa   258
Being a Woman 247 Male and Female Sexual Practices in
How Are Sex and Gender Affected by Nicaragua  260
Other Forms of Identity? 248 Transsexuality and Same-Sex Desire in
How Do Ethnographers Study Gender Iran  261
Performativity? 249 Chapter Summary   263
How Do Anthropologists Study Connections Among For Review   264
Sex, Gender, Sexuality, and the Body? 252 Key Terms   265
How Do Anthropologists Study Connections SUGGESTED READINGS   265
between Bodies and Technologies? 254

CHAPTER 11 Where Do Our Relatives Come from and


Why Do They Matter?   267
How Do Human Beings Organize The Logic of Lineage Relationships   277
Interdependence? 268 What Are Patrilineages?   277
What Is Friendship? 269 What Are Matrilineages?   278
What Is Kinship? 272 Matrilineality, Electoral Politics,
What Is the Role of Descent in Kinship? 273 and the Art of the Neutral Partisan   279
Bilateral Kindreds  274 What Are Kinship Terminologies? 280
What Role Do Lineages Play in Descent? 275 What Criteria Are Used for Making Kinship
Lineage Membership  275 Distinctions?  280

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xii Contents

What Is Adoption? 281 In Their Own Words: Dowry Too High. Lose
Adoption in Highland Ecuador   282 Bride and Go to Jail 296
What Is the Relation Between Adoption and What Is the Polygynous Family?   297
Child Circulation in the Andes? 283 Extended and Joint Families   298
How Flexible Can Relatedness Be? 284 How Are Families Transformed over Time? 298
Negotiation of Kin Ties Divorce and Remarriage   298
among the Ju/’hoansi  284 In Their Own Words: Law, Custom, and Crimes
European American Kinship and against Women 300
New Reproductive Technologies   285 How Does International Migration Affect the
Assisted Reproduction in Israel   286 Family?  300
Compadrazgo in Latin America   287 In Their Own Words: Survival and a Surrogate
Organ Transplantation and the Family 302
Creation of New Relatives   288 Families by Choice   303
What Is Marriage? 289 Anthropology in Everyday Life: Caring for
Toward a Definition of Marriage   289 Infibulated Women Giving Birth in
Woman Marriage and Ghost Marriage Norway 304
among the Nuer   289 In Their Own Words: Why Migrant Women
Why Is Marriage a Social Process? 290 Feed Their Husbands Tamales 306
Patterns of Residence after Marriage   290 The Flexibility of Marriage 306
Single and Plural Spouses   291 Love, Marriage, and HIV/AIDS in Nigeria   307
What Is the Connection between In Their Own Words: Two Cheers for Gay
Marriage and Economic Exchange? 293 Marriage 308
In Their Own Words: Outside Work, Women, Chapter summary   310
and Bridewealth 294 For Review   312
What Is a Family? 295 Key Terms   313
What Is the Nuclear Family?   295 Suggested Readings   313

Part V From Local to Global

CHAPTER 12 What Can Anthropology


Tell Us about Social Inequality?   315
Class 316 In Their Own Words: The Politics of
Caste 318 Ethnicity 332
Caste in India   318 Ethnicity in Urban Africa   333
How Do Caste and Class Intersect in Ethnicity and Race   334
Contemporary India?  319 Nation and Nation-State 335
Caste in Western Africa   322 Nationalities and Nationalism   336
The Value of Caste as an Analytic Category   323 Australian Nationalism  336
Race 323 Anthropology in Everyday Life: Anthropology
In Their Own Words: As Economic Turmoil and Democracy 338
Mounts, So Do Attacks on Hungary’s Naturalizing Discourses  340
Gypsies 324 The Paradox of Essentialized Identities   340
In Their Own Words: On the Butt Size of Barbie Nation-Building in a Postcolonial World:
and Shani 325 Fiji  340
The Biology of Human Variation   325 Nationalism and Its Dangers   342
Race as a Social Category   327 Chapter Summary   343
Race in Colonial Oaxaca   328 For Review   344
Colorism in Nicaragua   330 Key Terms   344
Ethnicity 331 Suggested Readings   345

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Contents xiii

CHAPTER 13 What Can Anthropology


Tell Us about Globalization?   347
In Their Own Words: Amazon Indians Honor an Are Human Rights Universal? 370
Intrepid Spirit 349 Human Rights Discourse as the
In Their Own Words: The Ethnographer’s Global Language of Social Justice   370
Responsibility 351 Rights versus Culture   371
In Their Own Words: Slumdog Tourism 352 Rights to Culture   372
Cultural Imperialism or Cultural Rights as Culture   373
Hybridity? 353 Anthropology in Everyday Life: Anthropology
Cultural Imperialism  353 and Indigenous Rights 374
Cultural Hybridity  353 How Can Culture Help in
In Their Own Words: How Sushi Went Thinking about Rights? 376
Global 354 Violence against Women in Hawaii   377
The Limits of Cultural Hybridity   356 What Is the Relationship between Human
How Does Globalization Affect the Rights and Humanitarianism?    379
Nation-State? 357 Can We Be at Home in a Global World? 380
Are Global Flows Undermining Cosmopolitanism  381
Nation-States?  357 In Their Own Words: Destructive Logging and
Migration, Trans-Border Identities, and Deforestation in Indonesia 382
Long-Distance Nationalism  358 Friction  383
In Their Own Words: Cofan 359 Border Thinking  384
Anthropology and Multicultural Politics
Chapter Summary   385
in the New Europe   362
How Can Citizenship Be Flexible?   366 For Review   387
What Is Territorial Citizenship?   368 Key Terms   387
What Is Vernacular Statecraft?   368 Suggested Readings   387

CHAPTER 14 How Is Anthropology


Applied in the Field of Medicine?   389
What Is Medical Anthropology? 390 In Their Own Words: Ethical Dilemmas
What Makes Medical Anthropology and Decisions 402
“Biocultural”? 390 Health, Human Reproduction,
How Do People with Different Cultures and Global Capitalism   403
Understand the Causes Medical Anthropology and
of Sickness and Health? 393 HIV/AIDS  406
Kinds of Selves   393 The Future of Medical Anthropology   410
Decentered Selves on the Internet   395 Why Study Anthropology? 410
Self and Subjectivity   395 Chapter Summary   411
Subjectivity, Trauma, For Review   414
and Structural Violence   397 Key Terms   414
How Are Human Sickness and Health Shaped Suggested Readings   415
by the Global Capitalist Economy?   401

Glossary  417

Bibliography  425

Credits  441

Index  445

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00-Schultz-FM.indd 14 08/12/16 10:16 AM
Preface

H
umans are a social species whose mem- kind of threat? Or is a viewer who draws such a
bers depend on one another for their sur- conclusion reading too much into the cloud
vival, and for their flourishing. Movement formations?
from place to place has also characterized human One picture may be worth a thousand words,
history reaching back hundreds of thousands of and yet no picture speaks for itself clearly and un-
years before the appearance of our own species, ambiguously. As it happens, the photograph is de-
Homo sapiens. Anthropologists and others have scribed as follows: “Refugees in Kibati (Democratic
long been impressed by the distinctive patterned Republic of Congo) line up to receive food aid ra-
activities in which the members of different human tions from the World Food Program at a camp for
groups may engage, the orderly fashion in which Internally Displaced People (2008).” They are there
they their members may arrange themselves in both willingly and unwillingly. Receiving food sug-
order to involve themselves, for example, in the gests that the threat of hunger will be avoided, but
performance of public rituals of various kinds. the fact that they are receiving food rations from an
There may be nothing as quintessentially human international aid organization suggests that it was
as a group of people moving together in space, threats they experienced elsewhere that drove them
tracing intricate patterns with their bodies in to stand in this line. The sky is not sunny, but it is
motion, but also periodically ceasing to move not storming either. They are, for good and for ill,
where this is deemed appropriate. betwixt and between: they have fled their homes,
So what perspective on the human condition but have not fled their country; their old ways of
can an image like the one on this cover convey to an providing for themselves have been disrupted, but
observer? The people we see are standing in a long they are alive and will soon be able to eat. But they
line outdoors. Why might they be there? Are they do indeed seem very much at the mercy of processes
watching something beyond the observer’s field of in the world—forces of nature as well as of human
vision? Might they be standing alongside a playing society and politics—that make the threatening sky
field, watching a sports competition? Might they be an apt visual metaphor for their current situation.
watching a public performance of some kind—the In the second decade of the twenty-first cen-
elaborate visit of political dignitaries, for example, tury, many people throughout the world find them-
or the enactment of a major religious ritual? Were selves in circumstances that resonate with that of
they individually drawn to whatever is going on, or the displaced line of humans in Kigali in 2008.
were they pressured to be present when they might Anthropologists and historians will rightly argue
have preferred to stay away? Much of the drama of that no human society has ever been static, but
the image is contributed by the dramatic and forbid- recent decades have been unusually disruptive of
ding cloud formations in the sky above the line of many local ways of life throughout the world.
people. Did the photographer take the photograph Indeed, the d ­iscipline of anthropology, which
intending to emphasize these cloud formations, or aimed to investigate and understand such ways of
later crop the ­ photograph to produce this visual life as lived in places outside the world of European
effect? Was the photograph finished the way it was and North American urban society, was born
in order to convey to the viewers the impression during the final decades of the nineteenth century,
that the people standing in line were under some when the full force of European capitalism had
xv

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xvi Preface

extended its reach around the world, putting the human creativity: language; play, art, myth, and
finishing touches on economic and political struc- ritual; and religion and worldview.
tures that would stabilize in the form of European • Part III, The Organization of Material Life, con-
(and American) colonial empires. Classic works of sists of two chapters—one on power and one on
sociocultural research were carried out in colo- making a living—that deal with the ways human
nized settings throughout the first two thirds of the cultural creativity is channeled and circumscribed
twentieth century, with the aim of recovering and by political and economic constraints.
even celebrating the rich patterns of everyday life • Part IV, Systems of Relationships, looks at the or-
that drew from the past while finding ways to ac- ganization of human interdependence, covering
commodate the challenges of so-called moderniza- gender, sex, and sexuality, kinship, other forms of
tion imposed from elsewhere. By the end of the relatedness, and marriage and the family.
twentieth century, newer historical transforma- • Part V, From Local to Global, concludes the text.

tions were again remaking the face of the globe, We ask students to contemplate the globalizing,
drawing members of all human societies into new transnational context in which all human beings
live at the beginning of the twenty-first century.
entanglements with one another. Not all such en-
Chapters examine dimensions of inequality in
tanglements have been threatening. Still, for many
the contemporary world; how anthropology is ap-
people, the stakes have been exceptionally high,
plied to medicine; and some of the consequences
triggering political struggles and often violent
of global political, economic, and cultural pro-
clashes that lead to high loss of life, with survivors cesses that all societies face today.
forced to move away from their homes into un-
known and forbidding futures.
Sociocultural anthropology continues with its
commitment to provide fine-grained ethnographic
understandings of people’s efforts to construct co-
What’s New
herent and meaningful lives, even under changing in the Tenth Edition
and challenging circumstances. The chapters in this
book aim to introduce students to the theories and In addition to updating the text, we have a number of
methods traditionally developed in the discipline to key changes to this edition:
address the many facets of human group life, as well • Chapter 10 is a new chapter on Sex, Gender, and
as newer innovations that allow us to track the Sexuality. This chapter brings together material
movements of people and their cultural resources that was previously integrated into different chap-
into new settings, as they construct ways of life that ters and expands and updates it with new anthro-
may stabilize in new, often surprising ways, in rela- pological research and analysis documenting the
tion to their neighbors. varied ways in which people around the world are
revising their understandings and practices in-
volving sex, gender, and sexuality.
• To make room for the new chapter 10, we have cre-

Organization and Content ated a new chapter 11 that merges and integrates
previous chapters on Relationships and Marriage
and the Family. Also new in that chapter is a re-
Cultural Anthropology: A Perspective on the Human vised discussion of friendship and a new discus-
Condition, Tenth Edition, consists of 14 chapters in five sion of child circulation and adoption in the Andes.
parts: • The material on the biology of race originally in
• Part I, The Tools of Cultural Anthropology, con- chapter 4 has now been integrated into the dis-
sists of three introductory chapters: one on the cussion on racial inequality in chapter 12, offer-
concept of culture, one on ethnographic fieldwork, ing students an integrated picture of how
and one on history and the explanation of cul- anthropologists approach the issue of race from
tural diversity. both a biological and a cultural perspective.
• Part II, The Resources of Culture, is a set of three Chapter 12 also includes a new discussion of
chapters on key dimensions and products of class and caste in urban India.

00-Schultz-FM.indd 16 08/12/16 10:16 AM


Preface xvii

• The discussion of fieldwork in chapter 3 includes in Everyday Life” that explores different practical
a much-expanded discussion of anthropology applications of anthropology.
and ethics. • “EthnoProfiles” provide ethnographic summaries and
• The chapter on the anthropology of globalization maps of each society discussed at length in the text.
is now chapter 13, and it includes new sections on These boxes emerged from our desire as teachers
humanitarianism and humanitarian reason, ter- to supply our students with basic geographical,
ritorial citizenship, and vernacular statecraft. demographic, and political information about
• Chapter 14, on medical anthropology, is now the the peoples with whom anthropologists have
final chapter in the book. worked. These are not intended to be a substitute
for reading ethnographies or for in-class lectures,
and they are not intended to reify or essentialize
the “people” or “culture” in question. Their main
purpose is simply to provide a consistent orien-
Key Features tation for readers. At the same time, as it be-
comes more and more difficult to attach peoples
• We take an explicitly global approach in the text. We
to particular territories in an era of globaliza-
systematically point out the extent to which the tion, the orientating purpose of the EthnoProfiles
current sociocultural situation of particular peo- is also undermined. How does one calculate
ples has been shaped by their particular histories population numbers or draw a simple map to
of contact with capitalism, and we highlight ways locate a global diaspora? How does one con-
in which the post–Cold War global spread of capi- struct an EthnoProfile for overseas Chinese or
talism has drastically reshaped the local contexts trans-border Haitians? We did not know the
within which people everywhere live their lives. answer to these questions, which is why
EthnoProfiles for those groups will not be found
• We incorporate current anthropological approaches to
in the textbook.
power and inequality into the text. We explore how
power is manifested in different human societies; • In our discussions, we have tried to avoid being omni-

how it permeates all aspects of social life; and scient narrators by making use of citations and quota-
how it is deployed, resisted, and transformed. We tions in order to indicate where anthropological ideas
discuss issues of trauma, social suffering, and come from. In our view, even first-year students
human rights. need to know that an academic discipline like
anthropology is constructed by the work of
• Material on gender and feminist anthropology is fea-
many people; no one, especially not textbooks
tured both in its own chapter and throughout the text.
authors, should attempt to impose a single voice
discussions of gender are tightly woven into the
on the field. We have avoided, as much as we
fabric of the book from the first chapter to the
could, predigested statements that students must
last and include (for example) material on geni-
take on faith. We try to give them the informa-
tal cutting, gender issues in field research, lan-
tion that they need to see where particular con-
guage and gender, dance and gender politics,
clusions come from.
masculinity and baseball in Cuba, women and
colonialism, gender issues in the Muslim head­
scarf controversy in France, and Nuer woman
marriage.
• Voices of indigenous peoples, anthropologists, and
Ancillaries
nonanthropologists are presented in the text in “In
Their Own Words” commentaries. These short com- • A free Companion Website at http://www.oup
mentaries provide alternative perspectives— .com/us/schultz features (1) Student Resources,
always readable and sometimes controversial—on including a study skills guide (filled with hints
topics d
­ iscussed in the chapter in which they and suggestions on improving study skills, orga-
appear. nizing information, writing essay exams, and
• How anthropology fits into everyday life continues to be taking multiple-choice exams), flashcards, self-
an explicit focus. Beginning with chapter 3, most quizzes, chapter outlines, and helpful links;
chapters include a feature called “Anthropology (2) Instructor Resources, including PowerPoint

00-Schultz-FM.indd 17 08/12/16 10:16 AM


xviii Preface

presentations for lectures, filmographies, activi-


ties, discussion questions, and guest editorials
(brief essays by well-known anthropologists Acknowledgments
written especially for our text); and (3) a bonus
chapter on human evolution, based on the sug-
Our great thanks to our editor at Oxford, Sherith Pankratz,
gestion of several reviewers who feel a need to
for her commitment to our books and her infectious
provide their students with the basics of human
enthusiasm. Thanks, too, to Assistant Editor Meredith
evolutionary theory from a biological anthropo-
Keffer for her skill at handling the myriad of details this
logical perspective.
project has generated while remaining cheerful. Our
• Further Instructor Resources include a free Com- thanks, too, to the production team at S4Carlisle Pub-
puterized Test Bank and Instructor’s Manual on lishing Services.
CD, created by Brian Hoey of Marshall University, We continue to be impressed by the level of involve-
and free cartridges for Course Management Sys- ment of the reviewers of this book. Our reviewers
tems, available from your Oxford University Press recognize that they are important not only to us, the
sales representative. authors of this book, but also to the users of textbooks—
both students and colleagues. They also recognize that
authors have more than time invested in their work, and
their thoughtfulness in their comments is much valued.
A Final Note We have found that even when we didn’t follow their sug-
gestions, their work caused us to think and rethink the
We take students seriously. In our experience, although issues they raised—it is safe to say that we have discussed
students may sometimes complain, they are also pleased every point they mentioned. We would like therefore to
when a course or a textbook gives them some credit for recognize the following individuals:
having minds and being willing to use them. We have • Dillon Carr, Grand Rapids Community College
worked hard to make this book readable and to present • Christina P. Davis, Western Illinois University
anthropology in its diversity, as a vibrant, lively disci- • Nicholas Freidin, Marshall University
pline full of excitement, contention, and intellectual • Elzbieta M. Gozdziak, Georgetown University
value. We do not run away from the meat of the disci-
• Kimberly Hart, State University of New York at
pline with the excuse that it’s too hard for students. We
Buffalo
are aware that instant messaging, text messaging, and
• Barry Kidder, University of Kentucky and Eastern
social networks and live journals have changed the ways
Kentucky University
in which students communicate, spend their time, and
interact with their courses, especially their textbooks. We • Gabriel Lataianu, Bergen Community College
believe that a clear, straightforward, uncluttered presen- • Reece Jon McGee, Texas State University
tation of cultural anthropology works well. Our collec- • James Preston, Sonoma State University and one
tive teaching experience has ranged from highly selec- anonymous reviewer
tive liberal arts colleges to multipurpose state universi- We owe a special debt to the late Ivan Karp, who was
ties to semirural community colleges. We have found our most important source of intellectual stimulation and
that students at all of these institutions are willing to be support for this project in its early days.
challenged and make an effort when it is clear to them Our children, Daniel and Rachel, have grown up with
that anthropology has something to offer intellectually, our textbooks. As they have grown, they have become
emotionally, and practically. It is our hope that this new increasingly concerned with the issues we raise in the
edition will continue to be a useful tool in challenging book, as well they should: These are issues that affect the
students and convincing them of the value of anthropol- future of us all. This book is for them.
ogy as a way of thinking about, and dealing with, the
world in which they live.

00-Schultz-FM.indd 18 08/12/16 10:16 AM


Cultural
Anthropology

00-Schultz-FM.indd 19 08/12/16 10:16 AM


01-Schultz-Chap01.indd 2 30/11/16 12:20 PM
CHAPTER

1
What Is the Anthropological
Perspective?

T
his chapter introduces the field of anthropology. We look at what
­anthropology is and explore its different subfields. We touch on anthro-
pology’s key concept—culture—as well as its key research method—
fieldwork. We conclude with a discussion of the ways anthropological insights
are relevant in everyday life.

Chapter Outline
What Is Anthropology? Cultural Anthropology Medical Anthropology

What Is the Concept of Culture? Linguistic Anthropology The Uses of Anthropology


Chapter Summary
What Makes Anthropology a Archaeology
For Review
Cross-Disciplinary Discipline?
Key Terms
Applied Anthropology
Suggested Readings
Biological Anthropology

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4 CHAPTER 1: What Is the Anthropological Perspective?

I n early 1976, the authors of this book traveled to


northern Cameroon, in western Africa, to study social
relations in the town of Guider, where we rented a small
but such items are considered by most North Americans
to be food fit only for eccentrics. However, we under-
stood the importance of not insulting the night watch-
house. In the first weeks we lived there, we enjoyed man and his wife, who were being so generous to us. We
spending the warm evenings of the dry season reading knew that insects were a favored food in many human
and writing in the glow of the house’s brightest electric societies and that eating them brought no ill effects. So
fixture, which illuminated a large, unscreened veranda. we reached into the dish of nyiri, pulling off a small
After a short time, however, the rains began, and with amount. We then used the ball of nyiri to scoop up a
them appeared swarms of winged termites. These slow- small portion of termite paste, brought the mixture to
moving insects with fat, two-inch abdomens were our mouths, ate, chewed, and swallowed. The watchman
attracted to the light on the veranda, and we soon found beamed, bid us goodnight, and returned to his post.
ourselves spending more time swatting at them than We looked at each other in wonder. The sorghum
reading or writing. One evening, in a fit of desperation, paste had a grainy tang that was rather pleasant. The
we rolled up old copies of the international edition of termite paste tasted mild, like chicken, not unpleasant
Newsweek and began an all-out assault, determined to at all. We later wrote to our families about this experi-
rid the veranda of every single termite. ence. When they wrote back, they described how they
The rent we paid for this house included the services had told friends about our experience. Most of their
of a night watchman. As we launched our attack on the friends had strong, negative reactions. But one friend,
termites, the night watchman suddenly appeared beside a home economist, was not shocked at all. She simply
the veranda carrying an empty powdered milk tin. When commented that termites are a good source of clean
he asked if he could have the insects we had been killing, protein.
we were a bit taken aback but warmly invited him to
help himself. He moved onto the veranda, quickly col-
lected the corpses of fallen insects, and then joined us in
going after those termites that were still airborne.
What Is Anthropology?
­Although we became skilled at thwacking the insects
with our rolled-up magazines, our skills paled beside This anecdote is not just about us; it also illustrates
those of the night watchman, who simply snatched the some of the central elements of the anthropological ex-
termites out of the air with his hand, squeezed them perience. Anthropologists want to learn about as many
gently, and dropped them into his rapidly filling tin can. different human ways of life as they can. The people
The three of us managed to clear the air of insects—and they come to know are members of their own society or
fill his tin—in about 10 minutes. The night watchman live on a different continent, in cities or in rural areas.
thanked us and returned to his post, and we returned to Their ways of life may involve patterns of regular move-
our books. ment across international borders, or they may make
The following evening, soon after we took up our permanent homes in the borderlands themselves. Ar-
usual places on the veranda, the watchman appeared at chaeologists reconstruct ancient ways of life from traces
the steps bearing a tray with two covered dishes. He left behind in the earth that are hundreds or thousands
explained that his wife had prepared the food for us in of years old; anthropologists who strive to reconstruct
exchange for our help in collecting termites. We accepted the origin of the human species itself make use of fossil
the food and carefully lifted the lids. One dish contained remains that reach back millions of years into the past.
nyiri, a stiff paste made of red sorghum, a staple of the Whatever the case may be, anthropologists are some-
local diet. The other dish contained another pasty sub- times exposed to practices that startle them. However, as
stance with a speckled, salt-and-pepper appearance, they take the risk of getting to know such ways of life
which we realized was termite paste prepared from the better, they are often treated to the sweet discovery of
insects we had all killed the previous night. familiarity. This shock of the unfamiliar becoming
­
The night watchman waited at the foot of the ve- ­familiar—as well as the familiar becoming unfamiliar—
randa steps, an expectant smile on his face. Clearly, he is something anthropologists come to expect and is one
did not intend to leave until we tasted the food his wife of the real pleasures of the field. In this book, we share
had prepared. We looked at each other. We had never aspects of the anthropological experience in the hope
eaten insects before or considered them edible in the that you, too, will come to find pleasure, insight,
North American, middle-class diet we were used to. To and self-recognition from an involvement with the
be sure, “delicacies” like chocolate-covered ants exist, ­unfamiliar.

01-Schultz-Chap01.indd 4 DESIGN SERVICES OF 30/11/16 12:20 PM


What Is Anthropology? 5

Anthropology can be defined as the study of human Africa or small-town ­festivals in Minnesota, anthropolo-
nature, human society, and the human past (Greenwood gists are in direct c­ ontact with the sources of their data.
and Stini 1977). It is a scholarly discipline that aims to For most anthropologists, the richness and complexity
describe in the broadest possible sense what it means to of this immersion in other patterns of life is one of our
be human. Anthropologists are not alone in focusing discipline’s most distinctive features. Field research con-
their attention on human beings and their creations. nects anthropologists directly with the lived experience
Human biology, literature, art, history, linguistics, soci- of other people or other primates or to the material evi-
ology, political science, economics—all these scholarly dence of that e­ xperience that they have left behind. Aca-
disciplines and many more—concentrate on one or an- demic ­an­thropologists try to intersperse field research
other aspect of human life. Anthropologists are con- with the other tasks they perform as university profes-
vinced, however, that explanations of human activities sors. Other anthropologists—applied anthropologists—
will be superficial unless they acknowledge that human regularly spend most or all of their time carrying out
lives are always entangled in complex patterns of work field research. All anthropology begins with a specific
and family, power and meaning. What is distinctive group of people (or primates) and always comes back to
about the way anthropologists study human life? As we them as well.
shall see, anthropology is holistic, comparative, field Finally, anthropologists try to come up with gener-
based, and evolutionary. First, anthropology empha- alizations about what it means to be human that are
sizes that all the aspects of human life intersect with one valid across space and over time. Because anthropolo-
another in complex ways. They shape one another and gists are interested in documenting and explaining
become integrated with one another over time. Anthro- change over time in the human past, evolution is at the
pology is thus the integrated, or holistic, study of human core of the anthropological perspective. Anthropologists
nature, human society, and the human past. This holism examine the biological evolution of the human species,
draws together anthropologists whose specializations which documents change over time in the physical fea-
might otherwise divide them. At the most inclusive tures and life processes of human beings and their an-
level, we may thus think of anthropology as the inte- cestors. Topics of interest include both human origins
grated (or holistic) study of human nature, human soci- and genetic variation and inheritance in living human
ety, and the human past. Holism has long been central populations. If evolution is understood broadly as
to the anthropological perspective and remains the fea- change over time, then human societies and cultures
ture that draws together anthropologists whose special- may also be understood to have evolved from prehis-
izations might otherwise divide them. toric times to the present.
Second, in addition to being holistic, anthropology Anthropologists have long been interested in cultural
is a discipline interested in comparison. To generalize evolution, which concerns change over time in ­beliefs,
about human nature, human society, and the human behaviors, and material objects that shape human
­
past requires evidence from the widest possible range of ­development and social life. As we will see in chapter 4,
human societies. It is not enough, for example, to ob- early discussions of cultural evolution in anthro­
serve only our own social group, discover that we do not pology emphasized a series of universal stages. However,
eat insects, and conclude that human beings as a species this ­approach has been rejected by contemporary
do not eat insects. When we compare human diets in dif-
ferent societies, we discover that insect eating is quite
common and that the North American aversion to eating anthropology The study of human nature, human society, and the
insects is nothing more than a dietary practice specific to human past.
a particular society. holism A characteristic of the anthropological perspective that de-
Third, anthropology is also a field-based discipline. scribes, how anthropology tries to integrate all that is known
about human beings and their activities. This is based on empirical evi-
That is, for almost all anthropologists, the actual prac- dence that any aspect of culture is entangled with other aspects
tice of anthropology—its data collection—takes place in complex ways.
away from the office and in direct contact with the comparison A characteristic of the anthropological perspective that
requires anthropologists to consider similarities and differences in as
people, the sites, or the animals that are of interest.
wide a range of human societies as possible before generalizing about
Whether they are biological anthropologists studying human nature, human society, or the human past.
chimpanzees in Tanzania, archaeologists excavating a evolution A characteristic of the anthropological perspective that
site high in the P ­ eruvian Andes, linguistic anthropolo- requires anthropologists to place their observations about human
nature, human society, or the human past in a temporal framework that
gists learning an unwritten language in New Guinea, or takes into consideration change over time.
cultural anthropologists studying ethnic identity in West

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6 CHAPTER 1: What Is the Anthropological Perspective?

a­ nthropologists who talk about cultural evolution, like skills with tools and other artifacts that support our con-
William Durham (1991) and Robert Boyd (e.g., Richer- tinued survival. Learning and enskillment are a primary
son and Boyd 2006). Theoretical debates about culture focus of childhood, which lasts longer for humans than
change and about whether it ought to be called “cultural for any other species.
evolution” or not are very lively right now, not only in From the anthropological perspective, the concept
anthropology but also in related fields like evolutionary of culture is central to explanations of why human
biology and developmental psychology. In the midst of beings are what they are and why they do what they
this debate, one of anthropology’s most important con- do. Anthropologists are frequently able to show that
tributions to the study of human evolution remains the members of a particular social group behave in a particu-
demonstration that biological evolution is not the same lar way not because the behavior was programmed by
thing as cultural evolution. Distinction between the two their genes, but because they observed or interacted with
remains important as a way of demonstrating the falla- other people and learned how to perform the behavior
cies and incoherence of arguments claiming that every- themselves. For example, North Americans typically do
thing people do or think can be explained biologically, not eat insects, but this behavior is not the result of ge-
for ­example, in terms of “genes” or “race” or “sex.” netic programming. Rather, North Americans have been
told as children that eating insects is disgusting, have
never seen any of their family or friends eat insects, and

What Is the Concept do not eat insects themselves. As we discovered person-


ally, however, insects can be eaten by North Americans
of Culture? with no ill effects. The difference in dietary practice can
be explained in terms of cultural learning rather than
­genetic programming.
A consequence of human evolution that had the most
However, to understand the power of culture, an-
profound impact on human nature and human society
thropologists must also know about human biology.
was the emergence of culture, which we define here as
Anthropologists in North America traditionally have
patterns of learned behaviors and ideas that human
been trained in both areas so that they can understand
beings acquire as members of society, together with the
how living organisms work and become acquainted with
material artifacts and structures humans create and use.
comparative information about a wide range of human
Our cultural heritage allows humans to adapt to and
cultures. As a result, most anthropologists reject explana-
transform the world around us, through our interactions
tions of human behavior that force them to choose
with material structures and objects in the communities
either biology or culture as the unique cause. Instead
where we live, through the connections we form with
they emphasize that human beings are biocultural
other people, through the actions and skills of our indi-
­organisms. Our biological makeup—our brain, nervous
vidual bodies, and through the ideas and values of our
system, and anatomy—is the outcome of developmental
minds. The cultural heritage of the human species is
processes to which our genes and cellular chemistry con-
both meaningful and material, and it makes us unique
tribute in fundamental ways. It also makes us capable of
among living creatures. Human beings are more depen-
creating and using culture. Without these biological en-
dent than any other species on learning for survival be-
dowments, human culture as we know it would not
cause we have no instincts that automatically protect us
exist. At the same time, our survival as biological organ-
and help us find food and shelter. Instead, we have come
isms depends on learned ways of thinking and acting
to use our large and complex brains to learn from other
that help us find food, shelter, and mates and that teach
members of society what we need to know to survive.
us how to rear our children. Our biological endowment
This ­includes learning to manage the built environ-
makes culture possible; human culture makes human
ment—our dwellings and settlements—and mastering
biological survival possible.
To understand the power of culture, anthropologists
are also paying increasing attention to the role played by
culture Sets of learned behavior and ideas that human beings acquire material culture in the lives of biocultural human or-
as members of society together with the material artifacts and struc-
tures humans create and use. Human beings use culture to adapt to and ganisms. Many cultural anthropologists, including our-
to transform the world in which they live. selves, have traditionally emphasized the way people’s
biocultural organisms Organisms (in this case, human beings) whose dealings with artifacts are shaped by the cultural mean-
defining features are codetermined by biological and cultural factors.
ings they attach to those artifacts. This emphasis has
material culture Objects created or shaped by human beings and
given meaning by cultural practices.
seemed particularly necessary in the face of the wide-
spread assumptions in our own North American society

01-Schultz-Chap01.indd 6 DESIGN SERVICES OF 30/11/16 12:20 PM


Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
Majesty’s service. This the man did, and was almost torn to pieces
by her for doing so, though in what way he had offended, I know not
to this day. It was a trifling thing, and made laughter for us all
(including Lady Hawkshaw), except Arabella. She seemed to hate
Giles with a more virulent hatred after that, and tried very hard to
induce Lady Hawkshaw to forbid him the house, which, however,
Lady Hawkshaw refused to do.

It was Lady Arabella’s satin petticoat. Page 92


Neither Giles nor I had by any means forgotten our appointment
to meet Captain Overton on the field of honor; and as the time
approached for the meeting, Giles sent a very civil note to Overton,
asking him to name a gentleman who would see me to arrange the
preliminaries, for I would never have forgiven Giles had he chosen
any one else. Overton responded, naming our old first lieutenant, Mr.
Buxton, who happened to be in London then, and was an
acquaintance of his. I believe Overton’s object in asking Mr. Buxton
to act for him was the hope that the affair might be arranged; for from
what I had heard of the deeply religious turn Overton had taken, I
concluded the meeting was somewhat against his conscience. But
the indignity of a blow in the face to an officer could not be easily
wiped out without an exchange of shots. My principal was much
disgusted when Mr. Buxton was named.
“I know how it will be, Dicky,” he growled. “You will sit like a great
gaby, with your mouth open, imagining the tavern parlor to be the
cockpit of the Ajax. Mr. Buxton will talk to you in his quarter-deck
voice, and you will be so frightened that you will agree to use bird-
shot at forty paces, provided Mr. Buxton proposes it.”
This I indignantly denied, and swore I would meet Mr. Buxton as
man to man. Nevertheless, when we were sitting at the table in Mr.
Buxton’s lodgings, I did very much as Giles had predicted. I forgot
several things that I had wished to say, and said several things I
wished I had forgotten. Mr. Buxton did not let me forget, however,
that he had been my first lieutenant, and I was but a midshipman. He
called my principal a hot-headed jackanapes before my very face,
adding angrily,—
“But for him I should have been first on the Indomptable’s deck.”
To all this I made but a feeble protest; and finally it was arranged that
the meeting should take place at a spot very near Richmond, at eight
o’clock, on the morning of June the twenty-ninth.
When the date was set, and the arrangements made, I began to
feel very much frightened. Not so Giles. There was to be a great ball
at Almack’s on the night of the twenty-eighth and Giles announced
that he was going. It was a very special occasion for him, because
the Trenchard, whom he still called the divine Sylvia, and professed
to admire as much as ever, was to go that night. She was then the
rage, and had a carriage, diamonds, and a fine establishment, yet I
believe her conduct to have been irreproachable. She had long been
consumed with a desire to go to Almack’s, but up to that time no
actress had ever yet enjoyed the privilege. It seemed grotesque
enough that a young midshipman, of no more consequence than
Giles Vernon, should succeed in carrying this through. But such was
actually the case; and Giles accomplished it by that singular power
he possessed, by which no woman could say him nay. He worked
with much art upon those great ladies, her Grace of Auchester and
Lady Conyngham, and got them pledged to it. Of course, the most
violent opposition was developed; but Giles, who had a perfect
knowledge of the feminine heart, managed to inspire these two
ladies with the wish to exercise their sovereignty over Almack’s, by
doing what was never done before. Having led them into the fight,
they had no thought of running away; and the result was
innumerable heartburnings and jealousies, and meanwhile a card for
Mrs. Trenchard.
The noise of the controversy was heard all over town, and it was
discussed in Berkeley Square as elsewhere. Lady Hawkshaw was
no longer a subscriber to Almack’s. Not being able to rule it, she had
retired, the assembly rooms not being large enough to hold herself
and a certain other lady.
Giles had told me that on the evening of the ball he and other
gentlemen interested in the victory for Mrs. Trenchard would escort
her to the ball. So at eight o’clock I proceeded to the lady’s house in
Jermyn Street, and saw her set forth in state in her chair. She was
blazing with diamonds, and looked like a stage duchess. A long
company of gentlemen with their swords attended her, and Giles and
my Lord Winstanley led the procession. Mrs. Trenchard was the best
imitation of a lady I ever saw, as she sat in her chair, smiling and
fanning herself, with the linkboys gaping and grinning at her; and the
gentlemen especially, such as had had a little more wine than usual,
shouting, “Way for Mrs. Trenchard! Make way there!”
Yet it seemed to me as if she were only an imitation, after all, and
that Lady Hawkshaw, with her turban and her outlandish French, had
much more the genuine air of a great lady. Mrs. Trenchard would go
to Almack’s on any terms, but Lady Hawkshaw would not go, except
she ruled the roost, and fought gallantly with the duchesses and
countesses, only retiring from the field because she was one against
many.
I followed the merry procession until we got to King Street, St.
James’s, where the coaches were four deep, and footmen, in
regiments, blockaded the street. Giles and Lord Winstanley were to
take Mrs. Trenchard in, and very grand the party looked as they
entered. By that time, though, I was very miserable. I remembered
that at the same time the next night, I might not have my friend. I
hung around among the footmen and idlers, watching the lights and
listening to the crash of the music, quite unconscious of the flight of
time, and was astonished when the ball was over and the people
began pouring out. Then, afraid to be caught by Giles, I ran home as
fast as my legs could carry me.
When I reached Berkeley Square, it was altogether dark, and I
realized that I was locked out.
I looked all over the front of the house, and my heart sank. There
was a blind alley at one side, and I remembered that in it opened the
window of Sir Peter’s study, as he called it, although, as I have said,
it was more like the cubby-hole of the Ajax than any other place I can
call to mind. The window was at least twenty feet from the ground,
but a waterspout ran up the wall beside it, and to a midshipman,
used to going out on the topsail-yard, it was a trifle to get up to the
window. I climbed up, softly tried the window, and to my joy found it
open. In another minute I was standing inside the room. I had my
flint and steel in my pocket, and I groped about until I found a candle,
which I lighted.
I had often been in the room before, but its grotesque
appearance struck me afresh, and I could not forbear laughing,
although I was in no laughing mood. There was a regular ship’s
transom running around the wall. The whole room was full of the
useless odds and ends that accumulate on board a ship, all
arranged with the greatest neatness and economy of space, and
there was not one single object in the room which could possibly be
of the slightest use on shore.
I looked around to see how I could make myself comfortable for
the night, and, opening a locker in the wall, I found a collection of old
boat-cloaks of Sir Peter’s, in every stage of dilapidation, but all laid
away with the greatest care. Taking one for my pillow and two more
for my coverlet, I lay down on the transom and, blowing out the
candle, was soon in a sound sleep.
I was awakened at five o’clock in the morning by the chiming of a
neighboring church bell, and at the same moment, I saw the door to
the room noiselessly open, and Lady Arabella Stormont enter,
carrying a candle which she shaded with her hand. I involuntarily
covered my head up, thinking she had probably come in search of
something, and would be alarmed if a man suddenly jumped from
the pile of boat-cloaks. But she went to a glass door which led out
upon a balcony, with stairs into the garden, and unlocked the door. I
had completely forgotten about these stairs, not being familiar with
the room, when I climbed up and got in through the window.
Presently I heard a step upon the stairs, and before the person
who was coming had time to knock, Lady Arabella opened the door.
The rosy dawn of a clear June morning made it light outside, but
inside the room it was quite dark, except for the candle carried by
Lady Arabella.
A man entered, and as soon as he was in the room, she
noiselessly locked the door, and, unseen by him, put the key in her
pocket.
As he turned, and the candlelight fell upon his face, I saw it was
Philip Overton. Amazement was pictured in his face, and in his
voice, too, when he spoke.
“I was sent for in haste, by Sir Peter, just now,” he said, with
some confusion.
At which Lady Arabella laughed, as if it were a very good joke
that he should find her instead of Sir Peter. Meanwhile, my own
chaos of mind prevented me from understanding fully what they
were saying; but I gathered that Lady Arabella had devised some
trick, in which she had freely used Sir Peter Hawkshaw’s name to
get Overton there in that manner and in that room. Sir Peter was
such a very odd fish that no one was surprised at what he did. It was
no use striving not to listen,—they were not five feet from me,—and I
lay there in terror, realizing that I was in a very dangerous position. I
soon discovered that Overton’s reputation for lately-acquired
Methodistical piety had not done away with a very hot temper. He
was enraged, as only a man can be who is entrapped, and
demanded at once of Lady Arabella to be let out of the glass door,
when he found it locked. She refused to tell him where the key was,
and he threatened to break the glass and escape that way.
“Do it then, if you wish,” she cried, “and rouse the house and the
neighborhood, and ruin me if you will. But before you do it, read this,
and then know what Arabella Stormont can do for the man she
loves!”
She thrust a letter into his hand, and, slipping out of the door to
the corridor, as swiftly and silently as a swallow in its flight, she
locked it after her; Overton was a prisoner in Sir Peter’s room. He
tore the letter open, read the few lines it contained, and then threw it
down with an oath. The next minute he caught sight of me; in my
surprise I had forgotten all my precautions, and had half arisen.
“You hound!” he said. “Are you in this infernal plot?” And he
kicked the boat-cloaks off me.
“I am not,” said I coolly, recalled to myself by the term he had
used toward me; “and neither am I a hound. You will kindly
remember to account to me for that expression, Captain Overton.”
“Read that,” he cried, throwing Lady Arabella’s letter toward me. I
think he meant not to do a dishonorable thing in giving me the letter
to read, but it was an act of involuntary rage.
It read thus:—
“I know that you were to fight Mr. Vernon at eight
o’clock this morning, therefore I beguiled you here; for
your life is dearer to me than anything in heaven and
earth; and I will not let you out until that very hour, when it
will be too late for you to get to Twickenham. You will not
dare to raise a commotion in the house at this hour, which
would ruin us both. But by the jeopardy in which I placed
myself this night, you will know how true is the love of
“Arabella
Stormont.”
I confess that the reading of this letter made me a partizan of
Overton; for surely no more unhandsome trick was ever played upon
a gentleman.
There was nothing for it but to sit down and wait for eight o’clock.
Sir Peter’s family were late risers, and there was little danger of
detection at that hour. So we sat, and gazed at each other, mute
before the mystery of the good and evil in a woman’s love. I confess
the experience was new to me.
“You will bear me witness, Mr. Glyn,” said Overton, “that I am
detained here against my will; but I think it a piece of good fortune
that you are detained with me.”
“I will bear witness to nothing, sir,” I replied, “until you have given
me satisfaction for calling me a hound, just now.”
“Dear sir, pray forget that hasty expression. In my rage and
amazement, just now, I would have called the commander-in-chief of
the forces a hound. Pray accept every apology that a gentleman can
make. I was quite beside myself, as you must have seen.”
I saw that he was very anxious to conciliate me; for upon my
testimony alone would rest the question of whether he voluntarily or
involuntarily failed to appear at the meeting arranged for eight
o’clock.
I also perceived the strength of my position, and a dazzling idea
presented itself to my mind.
“I will agree,” said I, “to testify to everything in your favor, if you
will but promise me not to—not to—” I hesitated, ashamed to
express my womanish fears for Giles Vernon’s life; but he seemed to
read my thoughts.
“Do you mean, not to do Mr. Vernon any harm in the meeting
which will, of course, take place, the instant it can be arranged? That
I promise you; for I never had any personal animosity toward Mr.
Vernon. His blow, like my words just now, was the outburst of
passion, and not a deliberate insult.”
I was overjoyed at this; and as I sat, grinning in my delight, I must
have been in strong contrast to Overton, in the very blackness of
rage.
The minutes dragged slowly on, and we heard the clock strike six
and seven. The dim light of a foggy morning stole in at the windows.
Not a soul was stirring in the house; but on the stroke of eight, a light
step fluttered near the outer door. It was softly unlocked, and Lady
Arabella entered, carefully locking the door on the inside, after her,
this time. In the ghostly half-light, Overton rose, and saluted her with
much ceremony.
“Lady Arabella Stormont,” he said, “you have delayed the
meeting between Mr. Vernon and myself just twenty-four hours. To
do it, you have put my honor in jeopardy, and that I shall not soon
forget. I beg you to open the glass door, and allow me to bid you
farewell.”
She stopped, as if paralyzed for a moment, when I, knowing the
key to be in her pocket, deftly fished it out, and opened the door, and
Overton walked out. She could not stop me,—I was too quick for her,
—but she ran after me, and fetched me a box on the ear, which did
more than sting my cheek and my pride. It killed, in one single
instant of time, the boyish love I had had for her, ever since the first
hour I had seen her. I own I was afraid to retaliate as a gentleman
should, by kissing her violently; but dashing on, I sped down the
steps outside, after Overton, not caring to remain alone with the
Lady Arabella. I saw her no more that day, nor until the afternoon of
the next day.
VI
As Overton had said, the meeting was delayed exactly twenty-
four hours.
My courage always has an odd way of disappearing when I am
expecting to use it, although I must say, when I have had actual
occasion for it, I have always found it easily at hand. I can not deny
that I was very much frightened for Giles on the morning of the
meeting, and, to add to my misery, I heard that Overton was
considered one of the best shots in England.
The dreary breakfast gulped down; the post-chaise rattling up to
the door—I had hoped until the last moment that it would not come;
the bumping along the road in the cool, bright summer morning; the
gruesome, long, narrow box that lay on the front seat of the chaise;
the packet of letters which Giles had given me and which seemed to
weigh a hundred tons in my pocket,—all these were so many horrors
to haunt the memory for ever. But I must say that, apparently, the
misery was all mine; for I never saw Giles Vernon show so much as
by the flicker of an eyelash that he was disturbed in any way.
About half-way from the meeting-ground we left the highway and
turned into a by-road; and scarcely had we gone half a mile when we
almost drove into a broken-down chaise, and standing on the
roadside among the furze bushes were the coachman, the surgeon,
—a most bloody-minded man I always believed him,—Mr. Buxton,
and Overton.
Our chaise stopped, and Giles, putting his head out of the
window, said pleasantly, “Good morning, gentlemen; you have had
an accident, I see.”
“A bad one,” replied Mr. Buxton, who saw that their chaise was
beyond help, and who, as he said afterward, was playing for a place
in our chaise, not liking to walk the rest of the distance.
Giles jumped out and so did I, and the most courteous greetings
were exchanged.
The two drivers, as experts, examined the broken chaise, and
agreed there was no patching it up for service; one wheel was
splintered.
Mr. Buxton looked at Giles meaningly, and then at me, and Giles
whispered to me,—
“Offer to take ’em up. By Jupiter, they shall see we are no
shirkers.”
Which I did, and, to my amazement, in a few moments we were
all lumbering along the road; Overton and Mr. Buxton on the back
seat, and Giles and I with our backs to the horses, while the surgeon
was alongside the coachman on the box.
Nothing could exceed the politeness between the two principals,
about the seats as about everything else. Overton was with difficulty
persuaded to take the back seat. Mr. Buxton seated himself there
without any introduction. (I hope it will never again be my fortune to
negotiate so delicate an affair as a meeting between gentlemen, with
one so much my superior in rank as Mr. Buxton.)
“May I ask, Mr. Overton, if you prefer the window down or up?”
asked Giles, with great deference.
“Either, dear sir,” responded Overton. “I believe it was up when
you kindly invited us to enter.”
“True; but you may be sensitive to the air, and may catch cold.”
At which Mr. Buxton grinned in a heartless manner. The window
remained up.
We were much crowded with the two pistol-cases and the
surgeon’s box of instruments, which to me appeared more appalling
than the pistols.
At last we reached the spot,—a small, flat place under a sweetly-
blooming hawthorn hedge, with some verdant oaks at either end.
Giles and Overton were so scrupulous about taking precedence
of each other in getting out of the chaise, that I had strong hopes the
day would pass before they came to a decision; but Mr. Buxton
finally got out himself and pulled his man after him, and then we
were soon marking off the ground, and I was feeling that mortal
sickness which had attacked me the first time I was under fire in the
Ajax.
Overton won the toss for position, and at that I could have lain
down and wept.
Our men were placed twenty paces apart, with their backs to
each other. At the word “one,” they were to turn, advance and fire
between the words “two” and “three.” This seemed to me the most
murderous arrangement I had ever heard of.
The stories I had so lately heard about Overton’s proficiency with
the pistol made me think, even if he did not kill Giles intentionally, he
would attempt some expert trick with the pistol, which would do the
business equally well. I knew Giles to be a very poor shot, and
concluded that he, through awkwardness, would probably put an end
to Overton, and I regarded them both as doomed men.
I shall never forget my feelings as we were placing our men, or
after Mr. Buxton and I had retired to a place under the hedge. Just as
we had selected our places, Giles, looking over his shoulder, said in
his usual cool, soft voice,—
“Don’t you think, gentlemen, you had better move two or three
furlongs off? Mr. Overton may grow excited and fire wild.”
I thought this a most dangerous as well as foolish speech, and
calculated to irritate Overton; and for the first time I saw a gleam of
anger in his eye, which had hitherto been mild, and even sad. For I
believed then, and knew afterward, that his mind was far from easy
on the subject of dueling. I wish to say here that I also believe, had
he been fully convinced that dueling was wrong, he would have
declined to fight, no matter what the consequences had been; for I
never knew a man with more moral courage. But at the time,
although his views were changing on the subject, they were not
wholly changed.
Mr. Buxton, without noticing Giles’ speech, coughed once or
twice, and then waited two or three minutes before giving the word.
The summer sun shone brilliantly, turning the distant river to a
silver ribbon. A thrush rioted musically in the hawthorn hedge. All
things spoke of life and hope, but to my sinking heart insensate
Nature only mocked us. I heard, as in a dream, the words “One, two,
three” slowly uttered by Mr. Buxton, and saw, still as in a dream, both
men turn and raise their pistols.
Overton’s was discharged first; then, as he stood like a man in
marble waiting for his adversary’s fire, Giles raised his pistol and,
taking deliberate aim at the bird still singing in the hedge, brought it
down. It was a mere lucky shot, but Overton took off his hat and
bowed to the ground, and Giles responded by taking off his hat and
showing a hole through the brim.
Overton took off his hat and bowed. Page 113
“You see, Mr. Glyn,” said Overton, “I have done according to my
promise. It was not my intention to kill Mr. Vernon, but only to frighten
him,”—which speech Mr. Buxton and I considered as a set-off to
Giles’ speech just before shots were exchanged.
The two principals remained where they were, while Mr. Buxton
and I retired behind the hedge to confer—or rather for Mr. Buxton to
say to me,—
“Another shot would be damned nonsense. My man is satisfied,
or shall be, else I am a Dutch trooper. Certainly you have nothing to
complain of.”
I was only too happy to accept this solution, but more out of
objection to being browbeaten by Mr. Buxton than anything else, I
said,—
“We shall require an explanation of your principal’s observation
just now, sir.”
“Shall you?” angrily asked Mr. Buxton, exactly in the tone he used
when the carpenter’s mate complained that the jack-o’-the-dust had
cribbed his best saw. “Then I shall call your man to account in regard
to his late observation, and we can keep them popping away at each
other all day. But this is no slaughter-pen, Mr. Glyn, nor am I the
ship’s butcher, and I shall take my man back to town and give him a
glass of spirits and some breakfast, and I advise you to do the same.
You are very young, Mr. Glyn, and you still need to know a thing or
two.” Then, advancing from behind the hedge, he said in the dulcet
tone he used when the admiral asked him to have wine,—
“Gentlemen, Mr. Glyn and myself, after conferring, have agreed
that the honor of our principals is fully established, and that the
controversy is completely at an end. Allow me to congratulate you
both,”—and there was a general hand-shaking all around. I noticed
that the coachman, who was attentively watching the performance,
looked slightly disappointed at the turn of affairs.
Straightway, we all climbed into the chaise, and I think I shall be
believed when I say that our return to town was more cheerful than
our departure had been.
We all agreed to dine together at Mivart’s the next night, and I
saw no reason to believe that there was any remnant of ill feeling
between the two late combatants.
I returned to Berkeley Square that afternoon, with much
uneasiness concerning my meeting and future intercourse with Lady
Arabella; for I had not seen her since the occurrence in Sir Peter’s
study. Although my affection for her was for ever killed by that box on
the ear she gave me, yet no man can see a woman shamed before
him without pain, and the anticipation of Lady Arabella’s feelings
when she saw me troubled me. But this was what actually happened
when we met. Lady Arabella was sitting in the Chinese drawing-
room, her lap-dog in her arms, surrounded by half a dozen fops.
Lady Hawkshaw had left the room for a moment, and Arabella had
taken the opportunity of showing her trick of holding out her dog’s
paws and kissing his nose, which she called measuring love-ribbon.
This performance never failed to throw gentlemen into ecstasies.
Daphne sat near, with her work in her lap and a book on the table by
her, smiling rather disdainfully. I do not think the cousins loved each
other.
On my appearance in the drawing-room, I scarcely dared look
toward Lady Arabella; but she called out familiarly,—
“Come here, Dicky!” (her habit of calling me Dicky annoyed me
very much), “and let me show you how I kiss Fido’s nose; and if you
are a good boy, and will tell me all about the meeting this morning,
perhaps I may hold your paws out and kiss your nose,”—at which all
the gentlemen present laughed loudly. I never was so embarrassed
in my life, and my chagrin was increased when, suddenly dropping
the dog, she rushed at me, seized my hands, and, holding them off
at full arm’s length, imprinted a sounding smack upon my nose, and
laughingly cried out, “One yard!” ( Smack on my nose again.) “Two
yards!” (Smack.) “Three yards!” (Smack.)
At this juncture I recovered my presence of mind enough to seize
her around the waist, and return her smacks with interest full in the
mouth. And at this stage of the proceedings Lady Hawkshaw
appeared upon the scene.
In an instant an awful hush fell upon us. For my part I felt my
knees sinking under me, and I had that feeling of mortal sickness
which I had felt in my first sea-fight, and at the instant I thought my
friend’s life in jeopardy. Lady Arabella stood up, for once, confused.
The gentlemen all retired gracefully to the wall, in order not to
interrupt the proceedings, and Daphne fixed her eyes upon me,
sparkling with indignation.
Lady Hawkshaw’s voice, when she spoke, seemed to come from
the tombs of the Pharaohs.
“What is this countrytom I see?” she asked. And nobody
answered a word.
Jeames, the tall footman, stood behind her; and to him she
turned, saying in a tone like thunder,—
“Jeames, go and tell Sir Peter Hawkshaw that I desire his
presence immediately upon a matter of the greatest importance.”
The footman literally ran down stairs, and presently Sir Peter
came puffing up from the lower regions. Lady Arabella had
recovered herself then enough to hum a little tune and to pat the
floor with her satin slipper.
Sir Peter walked in, surveyed us all, and turned pale. I verily
believe he thought Arabella had been caught cheating at cards.
“Sir Peter,” said Lady Hawkshaw, in the same awful voice, “I
unexpectedly entered this room a few moments ago, and the sight
that met my eyes was Arabella struggling in the arms of this young
ruffian, Richard Glyn, who was kissing her with the greatest fury
imaginable.”
Sir Peter looked at me very hard, and after a moment said,—
“Have you nothing to say for yourself, young gentleman?”
“Sir,” I replied, trying to assume a firm tone, “I will only say that
Lady Arabella, meaning to treat me like her lap-dog, kissed me on
the nose, as she does that beast of hers; and as an officer and a
gentleman, I felt called upon to pay her back; and for every smack
she gave me on my nose, I gave her two back in the mouth, to show
her that an officer in his Majesty’s sea-service is a man, and not a
lap-dog.”
“Do you hear that, Sir Peter?” asked Lady Hawkshaw, with
terrible earnestness. “He does not deny his guilt. What think you of
his conduct?”
“Think, ma’am!” shouted Sir Peter, “I think if he had done
anything else, it would have been clean against the articles of war,
and I myself would have seen that he was kicked out of his Majesty’s
service. I shall send for my solicitor, to-morrow morning, to put a
codicil to my will, giving Richard Glyn a thousand pounds at my
decease.”
At this the gentlemen roared, and Lady Arabella, seizing the lap-
dog, hid her face in his long hair, while even Daphne smiled and
blushed. As for Lady Hawkshaw, for once she was disconcerted and
walked out, glaring over her shoulder at Sir Peter.
There was much laughter, Sir Peter joining in; but after a while
the gentlemen left, and Sir Peter went out, and Daphne, who I saw
was disgusted with my conduct, walked haughtily away, in spite of
Lady Arabella’s playful protests that she was afraid to remain alone
in the room with me.
One thing had puzzled me extremely, and that was her calmness,
and even gaiety, when she had no means of knowing how Overton
had come off in the meeting, and I said to her,—
“How did you know, or do you know, whether Philip Overton and
Giles Vernon are alive at this moment?”
“By your face, Dicky,” she answered, trying to give me a fillip on
the nose, which I successfully resisted. “I was in agony until I saw
your face. Then I gave one great breath of joy and relief, and my
play with my lap-dog, which had been torture to me, became delight.
But tell me the particulars.”
“No, Madam,” said I; “I tell you nothing.”
This angered her, and she said, after a moment,—
“I presume you will take an early opportunity of telling Sir Peter
and Lady Hawkshaw that I saw Philip Overton alone in this house, at
five o’clock yesterday morning?”
“I am quite unaware, Madam,” replied I, stung by this, “of
anything in my character or conduct which could induce you to think
such a thing of me.”
“You made me no promise not to tell,” she said.
“Certainly not. But some things are considered universally
binding among gentlemen, and one is to tell nothing to the
disadvantage of a woman. I neither made, nor will make, a promise
about that affair; but if it is ever known, it will be you or Overton who
tells it, not I.”
And I walked out of the room.
I speedily found, after that, my life in Berkeley Square
uncomfortable. I felt constrained before Lady Arabella, and, what
seemed strange to me, little Daphne, who had hitherto treated me
with greatest kindness, seemed to take a spite at me, and her gibes
and cuts were hard to bear. Neither Sir Peter nor Lady Hawkshaw
noted these things, but they were strong enough to impel me to ask
Sir Peter to look out for a ship for me at the Admiralty.
I saw Giles Vernon every day, and he continued to come, with
unabated assurance, to Berkeley Square. We were not anxious that
the fact of the duel should leak out, and Overton was especially
desirous to keep it quiet. Of course, he came no more to Berkeley
Square, and withdrew more and more from his former associates.
He began to consort much with persons of the John Wesley
persuasion, spending much of his time, when not on duty, at Oxford,
where the Wesleyans were numerous at the time. I noticed that Lady
Arabella treated Giles, and me, also, with more civility than she had
hitherto shown. I could not think it sincere, but attributed it to a
natural desire to conciliate those who knew so much to her
disadvantage. But that she made no effort to overcome her
infatuation for Overton, I very soon had proof. Sir Thomas Vernon,
soon after this, had the assurance to present himself in Berkeley
Square, and rare sport it was. Lady Hawkshaw, Lady Arabella,
Daphne, myself, and one or two other persons were in the Chinese
drawing-room when he was ushered in.
Lady Hawkshaw and Sir Thomas were old acquaintances, and
had been at feud for more than thirty years, neither side asking or
giving quarter. Sir Thomas had a shrewd wit of his own, and was
more nearly a match for Lady Hawkshaw than any one I had yet
seen. He opened the ball by remarking on Lady Hawkshaw’s
improved appearance, partly due, he thought, to her triumph in
getting the K. C. B. for Sir Peter. This nettled Lady Hawkshaw
extremely, and she retaliated by telling Sir Thomas that he looked
younger than he did when she first knew him, thirty years ago. As Sir
Thomas hated any allusion to his age, this shot told.
“And allow me to congratulate you, Sir Thomas,” added Lady
Hawkshaw, “upon your very promising cousin, Mr. Giles Vernon. Sir
Peter has the highest opinion of him, and he has won the favor of the
bong-tong to an extraordinary degree.”
“He may have won the favor of the bong-tong,” replied Sir
Thomas, impudently mimicking Lady Hawkshaw’s French, “but he
has not yet succeeded in winning my favor.”
“That’s a pity,” said Lady Hawkshaw; “but it doesn’t signify, I dare
say. It will not keep you alive a day longer. And there is your other
cousin—Captain Overton of the Guards. He is what so few of our
young men are, pious and God-fearing.”
“And a sniveling, John Wesley Methodist besides,” snarled Sir
Thomas, much exasperated.
“Bless me, Sir Thomas,” cried Lady Hawkshaw, “don’t be so hard
on those worthy people, the Methodists.”
I own this surprised me, for if there was anything on earth upon
which Lady Hawkshaw was uncompromising, it was Church and
State; and, excellent woman though she was, I believe she would
have been rather glad to make one big bonfire of all the dissenters in
England.
Sir Thomas was far from insensible to Lady Arabella’s charms,
and, after a further exchange of hostilities with Lady Hawkshaw,
turned to Arabella. She smiled upon him, and seemed anxious to
conciliate him; and in a little while I caught enough of their
conversation to know that she was telling him of the meeting
between Giles and Overton, and representing that it had been forced
upon Overton by the insults of Giles Vernon. Sir Thomas’ response
to her tale was that he did not give a damn for either of them, and if
both had bit the dust he should not have been sorry.
When Sir Thomas left, Lady Hawkshaw called the tall footman.
“Jeames,” she said, “when that—person calls again, the ladies
are not at home. Do you understand?”
Jeames understood perfectly, in spite of Lady Arabella’s scowls.
It is not to be supposed that a young man of Giles Vernon’s spirit
had not been able to go through with his prize-money and run pretty
considerably in debt in five or six weeks in London, and one
morning, some days after this, when I went to see Giles at his
lodgings, I found the bailiffs in possession. Giles, however, was as
merry as a grig, because that very morning he had got an
appointment to the Belvidera frigate.
It was not much after having served in the Ajax, but it meant
leaving that uncertain and trying element, dry land, for another
element on which Giles was much more at home, to wit, the blue
sea. So he sent out for a pot of porter, and he and I, together with
the bailiffs, drank to the Belvidera; and I swore, then and there, that
go with him I would. For, in the excess of my affection for Giles, I
would have taken almost any service to be with him. The frigates,
too, were more in the way of activity, as the enemy was wary of
meeting our ships of the line, but the frigates could go hunting after
him. So, when I returned to Berkeley Square that day, I begged Sir
Peter to get me a berth in the Belvidera. He was pleased with my
spirit, and the very next day he went to the Admiralty for me. The
complement was full, but, luckily for me, one of the juniors got a billet
more to his liking, and Sir Peter, being on the spot, got me the
vacancy, and I was ordered to report at once at Plymouth.
It took me but a day or two to get my outfit and make ready to
start. Lady Hawkshaw showed me great kindness then, and actually
allowed me to have a considerable sum of my own money. Lady
Arabella treated me with her usual indifference, and, on the day I
was to go, bade me a careless adieu.
When the post-chaise was at the door and I went to the Chinese
drawing-room to tell Lady Hawkshaw and Sir Peter good-by, Daphne
was there with them, and she looked as if she had been weeping. Sir
Peter gave me a letter to my new captain, Vere, and some words of
encouragement. Lady Hawkshaw delivered a homily to me on my

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