THE LOWER RACES OF MAN. 347 



The fire on which the men's food was cooked was also sacred, and was 

 forbidden to be nsed by the females. The baskets in which their pro- 

 vision was kept, and the honse in which the men ate, were also sacred, 

 and prohibited to the females under the same cruel penalty." 



''To believe," says Sir George Grey, "that man in a savage state is 

 endowed with freedom, either of thought or action, is in the highest 

 degree erroneous." 



Moreover, if savages pass unnoticed many actions which we deem 

 highly criminal, on the other hand they strictly forbid others which we 

 regard as altogether immaterial. Thus the Mongols of Siberia think it 

 wrong to touch fire with a knife, to use one for takiug meat out of a 

 pot, to cut up wood near a hearth, to lean on a whip, to pour liquor on 

 the ground, to strike a horse with the bridle, or break one bone against 

 another. 



Even in the choice of their wives, savages in many cases have rules 

 which greatly restrict their power of selection. 



In Australia (where, by the way, the same family names are common 

 over almost the whole continent) no man may marry a woman of the 

 same name as his own, even though she may be no relation Ayhatever. 



In Eastern Africa, Burton says that "some clans of Somal Arabs wiU 

 not marry oue of the same family." 



Throughout India we find that the hill tribes are divided into septs 

 or clans, and that a man may not marry a woman belonging to his own 

 clan. 



The Kalmucks of Tartary are divided into hordes, and a man may not 

 marry a girl of his own horde. " The bride," says Bergman, "is always 

 chosen from another stock; among the Derbets, for instance, from the 

 Torgot stock, and among the Torgots from the Derbet stock." 



The same custom prevails among the Ckcassiaus and the Samoyeds 

 of Siberia. The Ostyaks and Yakuts also regard it as a crime to marry 

 a woman of the same family, or even of the same name. 



Among the North American Indians every tribe is divided into clans, 

 generally from three to eight clans in each tribe, and no man is allowed 

 to marry a woman of his own clan. 



Again, far from being informal or extemporary, the salutations, cere- 

 monies, treaties, and contracts of savages are characterized by the very 

 opposite qualities. 



Eyre mentions that, in their intercourse with one another, natives 

 of different Australian tribes are exceedingly punctilious. Mariner 

 gives a long account of the elaborate ceremonies practiced by the Ton- 

 gans, and of their almost superstitious regard for rank. Thus, the king 

 was by no means the man of highest rank. The Tooitonga, Veachi, and 

 several others preceded him. Indeed the name Tooitonga means liter- 

 ally " Sovereign of Tonga;" the ofQce, however, was wholly of a religious 

 character, the Tooitonga being regarded as descended from the gods, 

 if not as a deity himself. 



The Egbas, a Negro race of West Africa, are described by Burton as 

 extremely ceremonious, and have a great %'ariety of salutations, appli- 

 cable to every possible occasion. If an inferior meets a superior, there 

 are several modes of showing respect. Captain Burton calculates that 

 every one spends at least one hour a day in these troublesome ceremonies. 



In the religious ceremonies of Tahiti, Williams mentions that "how- 

 ever large or costly the sacrifice that had been offered, and however 

 near its close the most protracted ceremony might be, if the priest omitted 

 or misplaced any word in the jjrayers with which it was accompanied, 

 or if his attention was diverted by any means, so that the prayer was 



