thies--I proposed to
him to call on Wyman and ask him to show us the Archaeological Museum.
We found Wyman at home, and if you had asked a bright little girl to
show you her baby-house she could have been no better pleased than he.
At first, as we went from case to case, he was quiet and said little,
but as we showed the interest and admiration we so warmly felt, he
also grew eager and vivid in description, until as he went on his talk
became a marvel of illustrative learning--so wide, so varied, so
complete, that we were carried along the current of his thoughts in
wonder at this strange combination of intense interest, of almost
childlike satisfaction, of a concentration on his subject of vast
antiquarian knowledge and of absolutely perfect anatomical skill. Mr.
H---- called his attention to the curious distortions and odd
enlargements of the protruded tongue in some of the Alaskan wooden
masks, and on this little text he was away in a moment from case to
case in the museum, and from century to century, pointing out the use
of the tongue as an organ of facial expression in various ages. Here
were Roman or Greek examples, here Sioux or Alaskan types of the same
usages, and here was a new thought he had never had before, and we
were thanked for awakening it; and so in his talk over this little
point he showed us how barbarian natures had like thoughts everywhere,
and, as much amused as we, he quoted and laughed and talked, still
always pleased and easy under the vast weight of learning which,
coming from his lips, was so utterly free from the least appearance of
being ponderous or tiresome. I think I never knew any other man whose
learning sat upon him as lightly or was given to others as gracefully.

I had once a like pleasure in raking over an Indian shell-heap with
Wyman. The quiet, amused amazement of the native who plied the spade
for us was an odd contrast to Wyman's mood of deep interest and
serious occupation. He had a boy's pleasure in the quest, and again
displayed for me the most ready learning as to everything involved in
the search. Bits of bones were named as I would name the letters of
the alphabet: bone needles, fragments of pottery and odds and ends of
nameless use went with a laugh or some ingenious comment into his
little basket. In truth, a walk with Wyman at Mount Desert was
something to remember.

The acquaintances of the merchant or lawyer grow fewer as age comes
on, but the naturalist is always