"" is
just one of more than 100 essays in 's collection titled Essays, originally
published in the year 1580. In this particular piece, the author praises the culture of a tribe
living in Brazil, even though they kill and eat the bodies of their enemies after victories in
battle. While making it clear that he is definitely not a proponent of cannibalism, Montaigne
describes the virtuous principals that people of this tribe adhere to in their day-to-day lives
and the great society they've built. He comes to the conclusion that, on the whole, European
culture is much more barbaric than theirs.
Near the end of the essay,
Montaigne relays an anecdote in which he got to witness the meeting of King Charles IX and a few
members of this tribe when they came to visit Rouen, France. When asked by someone to give their
opinion of what they had seen in France so far, the Brazilian visitors gave three answers, of
which Montaigne remembers two. The first was that they "thought it very strange" that
so many large, strong men were guards for the young King and would "submit to obey a
child." King Charles IX took the throne when he was only ten years old, and the tribe
members found it very weird that this monarchy, and specifically these fully grown men, had a
child as their leader and "that they did not rather choose out one amongst themselves to
command."
The second was that they did not understand why the men in the
room before them owned so much, while they had observed so many people begging in the streets,
"lean and half-starved with hunger and poverty." In their eyes, these people living in
need should have been revolting against the greedy men in power.
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