

334 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



recent travelers confirm those of older ones. The Dakotas are said 

 to suffer with patience both physical and moral pains. The Creeks 

 display " phlegmatic coldness and indifference." So, too, with various 

 native peoples of South America. According to Burnand, the Guiana 

 Indian, though " strong in his affections," will lose his dearest rela- 

 tions, as he bears excruciating pains, with " apparent stoical insensi- 

 bility ; " and Humboldt speaks of bis " resignation." So, too, of the 

 Uaupes : Wallace comments on " the apathy of the Indian, who scarce- 

 ly ever exhibits any feelings of regret on parting or of pleasure on his 

 return." And, that a character of this kind was wide-spread, seems 

 implied by testimonies respecting the ancient semi-civilized peoples 

 of America, who were not impulsive. Nevertheless, there are among 

 these races traits of a contrary kind, more congruous with those of 

 the uncivilized races generally. Spite of their usually unim passioned 

 behavior, the Dakotas rise into frightful states of bloody fury when 

 killing buffaloes ; and among the phlegmatic Creeks there are " very 

 frequent suicides caused by trifling disappointments." Some of these 

 American indigenes, too, do not show this apathy : as, in the North, 

 the Snake Indian, who is said to be " a mere child, irritated by, and 

 pleased with, a trifle ; " and as, in the South, the Tupis, of whom it is 

 said that " if a savage struck a foot against a stone, he raged over it, 

 and bit it like a dog." This exceptional non-impulsiveness in many 

 American races may possibly be due to constitutional inertness. 

 Among ourselves, there are people whose habitual equanimity results 

 from want of vitality : being but half-alive, the emotions produced in 

 them bv irritations have less than the usual intensities. That a sren- 

 eral apathy, thus caused, may account for this peculiarity, seems in 

 South America implied by the alleged sexual coldness.* 



Recognizing such anomaly as there may be in these facts, we find 

 throughout the rest of the world a general congruity. Passing from 

 North America to Asia, we come to the Kamtchadales, of whom we 

 read that they are " excitable, not to say (for men) hysterical. A 

 light matter set them mad, or made them commit suicide ; " and we 

 come to the Kirghiz, who are said to be " fickle and uncertain." 

 Turning to Southern Asiatics, we find Burton asserting of the Bedouin 

 that he is " a mixture of worldly cunning and great simplicity," and 

 that his valor is "fitful and uncertain." And while, of the Arabs, 

 Denham remarks that "their common conversational intercourse ap- 

 pears to be a continual strife and quarrel," Palgrave says they will 

 " chaffer half a day about a penny, while they will throw away the 

 worth of pounds on the first asker." Among the African races we 

 find like traits. Captain Burton, saying that the East-African is, 

 " like all other barbarians, a strange mixture of good and evil," de- 

 scribes him thus : 



" He is at once very good-tempered and hard-hearted, combative and cau- 

 tious ; kind at one moment, cruel, pitiless, and violent, at another ; sociable and 



