Men of the woods.

February 23. 

I think myself in a wilder country, 
and a little nearer to primitive times,
when I read in old books 

which spell the word savages with an "l" 

   (salvages), 

like John Smith's 
"General Historie of Virginia," 
reminding me of 
the derivation of the word from

   sylva. 

There is some of the wild wood

and its bristling branches

still left in their language.
The savages they described

are really salvages,

Men of the woods.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, February 23, 1853