ADELBERT VON CH AMIS SO AS A NATURALIST. 261 



liim, and, in the north, he furnished valuable data concerning 

 the relationship of the Asiatic Chuckches and the American 

 Eskimos. 



The general result of his studies of history and nature, as he 

 expresses it, is again opposed to the views now prevailing, in that 

 he regarded man as very young on this old earth. But, although 

 his anthropological views seem to be in many respects antiquated, 

 his ethnographical sketches are of exceeding value in that he has 

 lovingly and carefully given us a vivid and picturesque view of 

 human conditions on the oceanic islands that can never be sur- 

 passed, for the simple reason that the original is irrecoverably lost. 

 With prophetic view Chamisso predicted the annihilation of this 

 endlessly charming culture by contact with the dreadful white 

 man a prediction which has been already to a large extent ful- 

 filled. He knew well what he was doing when he described, drew, 

 and made memorable what he could of customs and usages, reli- 

 gious ideas and superstitions, myths and songs, costumes and weap- 

 ons, vessels and sea-tackle. And after his return he repeated, 

 impressively and loudly, the advice that the threatened treasures 

 that still remained should be saved at once. The poet is recog- 

 nized in the pretty parable in which he clothed his lamentation: 

 " All the keys to one of the most important problems which the 

 history of the human race in its wanderings over the earth pre- 

 sents to us are being thrown by ourselves into the sea of oblivion 

 at the very hour when they are given into our hands." Only in 

 very recent times, when it has become almost too late, have we 

 begun to move in the direction pointed out by his admonition. 



Perhaps Chamisso was influenced by some of Rousseau's ideas 

 in his extravagant admiration of the handsome, happy, easy-going 

 men of the south sea islands, particularly of the Radak chain. 

 He had not words enough to praise the native nobility of the men 

 and the chaste grace of the songful women of Radak. He bitterly 

 condemned the silly arrogance of the sham civilization that called 

 these men savage. He contracted what by the taste of these days 

 would be regarded as a somewhat sentimental friendship with an 

 especially intelligent man, a castaway on one of the Radak Islands, 

 who trusted himself upon the Rurik to be taken to his home on 

 one of the Caroline Islands. Kaclu, as he was called, who, how- 

 ever, left the ship when it touched the Radak Islands for the last 

 time, plays an important part in Chamisso's reports, because he 

 was able to give him information not too easily obtained other- 

 wise on a number of questions, and Chamisso laments that he was 

 deprived by the separation of the opportunity of being further 

 instructed by him. Kadu rendered inestimable service in the lin- 

 guistic researches which Chamisso pursued with extraordinary 

 zeal and industry. Chamisso had a gift for languages, although 



