534 OLD AGE. 



with their coworkers; the okl professors alone can not perceive this. 

 As regards myself, if I had remained in my native country I would 

 necessarily have been fetired five j^ears ago as having accomplished 

 my thirty-five years of service. 



You understand that, in view of this my task becomes still more 

 delicate. Happily, in the present state of our civilization one risks 

 only more or less disapproval. In the more ancient times or among 

 modern, uncivilized peoples the situation Avas and is much more 

 serious. 



Thus, throughout Melanesia it is the custom to bury alive old men 

 who become incapable of useful labor. At Vate the old men have 

 at least this consolation, that during the funeral ceremonies it is cus- 

 tomary to attach to their arms a pig which may be eaten during the 

 feast given in honor of the departure of the soul for the other world. 



^Vlien the inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego are threatened with 

 famine they kill and eat the old women before they do the dogs. 

 One who asked why they did this was answered, '' Dogs catch seals 

 while old women do not." 



Civilized peoples do not imitate the Fuegians or other savages. 

 They do not kill and eat their superannuated members, yet the life 

 of the aged often becomes very unhappy. Incapable of any useful 

 work in the family or the conunmiity, old people are considered as 

 a very heavy charge, and though we have no right to make way with 

 them, we desire, nevertheless, their final departure, and are impatient 

 at its long delay. The Italians say that " old Avomen have seven 

 lives;'' the Burgomasks think that old women have seven souls, 

 besides an eighth soul, quite small, and a half-soul besides, and the 

 Lithuanians complain that an old woman is so tenacious of life that 

 she can not even be ground in a mill. 



These popular opinions have their echo in the frequent occurrence 

 of criminal attempts on the lives of old men, even in the most civilized 

 countries of Europe. In running through the chronicle of crimes 

 one is astounded at the nnnil)er of assassinations of old people, espe- 

 cially of old women. It is not difficult to find the motives of these 

 criminal acts. A convict in Saghalien Island, condemned for the 

 assassination of several old men, ingenuously remarked to the physi- 

 cian of the prison : " What's the use of making a fuss about them ? 

 They were already old, and would have died anyway in a iew years." 



In the celebrated novel of DostojcAvsky, Crime and Punishment, 

 the author takes his readers into a tavern where the young people are 

 discussing all sorts of general problems. In the midst of the con- 

 versation a student declares that he " Avould kill and rob the cursed 

 old Avoman Avithout the slightest remorse.'' " In fact," he continues, 

 "this is the Avay the matter stands: on one side Ave have a stujnd, 

 unfeeling old Avoman, of no account, wicked and sick, Avhom no one 



