342 SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS CONDITION OP 



very remarkable similarities even in tlie most distinct races and the 

 most distant regions of the globe. 



I propose, therefore, on the present occasion, more especially to call 

 your attention to the social or family relations, and the religious ideas 

 of the lower races. 



Our ideas of relationship, founded as they are on marriage, seem so 

 natural and obvious, that we are at first inclined to regard them as 

 having been original and common to them ; this, how^ever, as I shall 

 attempt to show you, would be a mistake. ludeed, the i^osition ot 

 woman is, among the lower savages, melancholy in the extreme, and 

 precludes all those tender and sacred feelings to which so much of our 

 best and i^urest hapi)iness is due. 



Again, the religion (if so it can be called) of savages differs greatly ; 

 nay, in some respects, is the very opposite of ours. 



The whole mental condition of the savage, indeed, is so dissimilar 

 from ours that it is often very difficult for us to follow what is passing 

 in his mind, or to understand the motives by which he is actuated. 

 Many things appear natural, and almost self-evident to him, which pro- 

 duce a very different effect ui)on us. " What," said a Negro once to Bur- 

 ton, '^ am I to starve while my sister has children whom she can sein" 

 Thus, though savages always have a reason, such as it is, for what they 

 do and what they think, these reasons often seem to lis irrelevant or 

 absurd. Moreover, the difficulty of understanding what is passing in 

 their minds is, of course, much enhanced by the differences of language. 



These have produced many laughable mistakes. Thus, when Labil- 

 lardiere inquired of the Friendly Islanders (whose language we now 

 perfectly understand) what was their word for 1,000,000, they seem to 

 have thought the question absurd, and gave him a word which has no 

 meaning; when he asked for 10,000,000, they said " /ooo/e," which I will 

 leave imexplained ; for 100,000,000, '■'■ laounoua^^'' which means "non- 

 sense 5" while, for still higher numbers, they gave him, in joke, certain 

 coarse expressions, which he has gravely recorded in his table of nu- 

 merals. 



A mistake made by Dampier led to more serious results. He had 

 met some Australians, and apprehending an attack, he says, "I dis- 

 charged my gun to save them, but avoided shooting any of them, till, 

 finding that we were in great danger from them, and that though the 

 gun a little frightened them at first, yet they had soon learned to despise 

 it, tossing up their hands, and crying pooh, pooh, pooh ; and coming on 

 afresh with a great noise, I thought it high time to charge again and 

 shoot one of them, which I did." 



Thus, this wretched savage lost his life because Dampier did not 

 remember that pooh, pooh, or puff, puff, is the name which savages, like 

 children, apply to guns. 



Again, the modes of salutation among savages are sometimes very 

 curious, and their modes of showing their feelings quite unlike ours. 



Kissing seems to us so natural an expression of affection, that we. 

 should expect to find it all over the world. Yet it was unknown to the 

 Australians, the New Zealanders, the Paponans, the West African 

 Negroes, and the Esquimaux. 



The Polynesians and the Malays always sit down tvlien speaking to a 

 superior. In some parts of Central Africa it is considered resj^ectful to 

 turn the back to a superior. 



Captain Cook asserts that the inhabitants of Mallicolo, an island in 

 the Pacific Ocean, show their admiration by hissing ; the Todas of the 

 Neilgherry Hills, in India, are said to show respect by raising the open 



