IDEAS OF DECENCY. 5 63 



in the East.* The people of Iddah shake their clenched fist,-f- 

 while on the White Nile and in Ashantee they spit on you as 

 a compliment. According to Freycinet, tears were regarded 

 in the Sandwich Islands as a sign of happiness ;| and some 

 of the Esquimaux pull noses as a token of respect. Spix and 

 Martius assure us that blushing was unknown among the 

 Brazilian Indians ; and that only after long intercourse with 

 Europeans, does a change of colour become in them any indi- 

 cation of mental emotion.|| 



Again, we find the most striking differences of feeling in 

 the matter of clothing. The Turk thinks it highly improper 

 for a woman to show her face. The sculptures on early 

 Indian temples show that a race may attain to a considerable 

 degree of civilization without perceiving any necessity what- 

 ever for clothingr This is the case with the women listening 



o o 



to Buddha while preaching, and even Buddha's wife and 

 Maya his mother IF are habitually so represented ; indeed, Mr. 

 Fergusson does not hesitate to say that " before the Mahome- 

 dan conquest nudity in India conveyed no sense of indecency." 

 The ideas of virtue also differ extremely. Neither faith, 

 hope, nor charity, enters into the virtues of a savage. The 

 Sichuana language contains no expression for thanks ; the 

 Algonquin had no word for love ; the Tinne no word for be- 

 loved ; mercy was with the North American Indians a mistake, 

 and peace an evil; theft, says Catlin, they "call capturing ;" 

 humility is an idea which they could not comprehend. Among 

 the Koupouees the greatest misconduct, says Major McCulloch, 

 " is to forgive an enemy, the first virtue is revenge." ** 



* Discovery of the Source of the IF See, for instance, Fergusson's 

 Nile, p. 206. Tree and Serpent Worship. PL 



f Allen and Thompson, Exped. Ixxiv. and passim, 

 to the Niger, vol. i. p. 290. ** Selection from the Records 



* 1. c. vol. ii. pp. 542, 589. of the Government of India, by 

 Ross, Baffin's Bay, p. 118. Major W. McCulloch, p. 75. 



|| Vol. i. p. 376. 



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