IDEAS OF VIKTUE. 565 



while the Fijians, who were habitual cannibals, who regarded 

 mercy as a weakness, and cruelty as a virtue, fully believed 

 that a woman who was not tattooed in an orthodox manner 

 during life, could not possibly hope for happiness after death. 

 This curious idea is also found among the Esquimaux. Hall 

 tells us that they tattoo " from principle, the theory being that 

 the lines thus made will be regarded in the next world as a 

 sign of goodness."* It seems to the Veddahs the most natu- 

 ral thing in the world that a man should marry his younger 

 sister, but marriage with an elder one is as repugnant to them 

 as to us. Among the Friendly Islanders the chief priest was 

 considered too holy to be married ; but he had the right to 

 take as many concubines as he pleased ; and even the chiefs 

 dared not refuse their daughters to him. In Western Africa 

 the women of the reigning families might have as many lovers 

 as they wished, but were forbidden to degrade themselves by 

 marriage. Among the natives of New South Wales, though 

 the women wore no clothes, it was thought indecent for young 

 girls to go naked. ( 



Many savage races think it wrong for a woman to have 

 twins ; among the Ibos of Eastern Africa, for instance, in 

 such a case the children were exposed to wild beasts, and the 

 mother was driven out of society, j There also it is thought 

 unlucky to cut the upper teeth before the lower ones, and 

 " You cut your top teeth first" is the bitterest of insults. I can- 

 not indeed but think that the differences observable in savage 

 tribes are even more remarkable than the similarities. 



In endeavouring to estimate the moral character of savages, 

 we must remember not only that their standard of right and 



* Life with the Esquimaux, vol. stances of this, my Origin of Civi- 



ii. p. 315. lization, 2nd ed. p. 25. 



t D'Urville, vol. i. p. 471 ; Voy- This idea is, I find to my sur- 



age of the Rattlesnake, vol. i. p. 49. prise, also prevalent among our own 



t Burton's Lake Regions of nurses. 

 Africa,, p. 90. See, for other in- 



