Last year [1806] one of the Osages, then in Washington for the first time, was taken to see the frigates and gun boats in the Eastern branch - when the Captain of the Port made every shew he could in order to astound him, but all in vain: he was even taken to the gun boat in which the cannon is discharged by pulling a string and without letting him know what was to happen, the string was put in his hand and he was told to pull it, he did so and altho' the sudden sound, one might have supposed, would have startled him, he did not move a muscle. - SIR AUGUSTUS J. FOSTER

The case is not isolated. It was a favorite joke, in many parts of the world, to fire a cannon next to an unsuspecting native. If there were crowds, there was generally consternation. But with single individuals, again & again we have reports of men totally unmoved.

Dr. Jean Itard's famous account of a "wild" boy found in the forests of Aveyran in southern France, in 1799, tells how, when a door was suddenly slammed, the boy didn't move. For a time it was thought he must be deaf, until one day he was observed listening to the sound of a mouse in the leaves.

A child, sleeping in a pram, may ignore the roar of a diesel truck, but respond to its mother's whisper.

We respond only to what we recognize, to what holds meaning for us.