CHAP. VI.] MAN. 159 



But instances are easily to be found of the co-existence of 

 moral excellence accompanied by the rudest con- Rude people 



^ may be 



dition of life with respect to the mere appliances mo i. 

 of physical well-being. Mr. Tylor tells * us that the wild 

 Veddahs of Ceylon, though extremely barbarous as to their 

 dwellings, clothing, and use of the fire drill, &quot; are most 

 truthful and honest,&quot; and &quot; their monogamy and conjugal 

 fidelity contrast strongly with the opposite habits of the 

 more civilised Singhalese.&quot; Sir John Lubbock has collected 

 the following particulars respecting the social state of the 

 Esquimaux, a people so peculiarly interesting to us in this 

 inquiry because by some deemed to be the last survivors of 

 an ancient miocene race : 



&quot; Captain Parry gives us the following pictures of an Esquimaux 

 hut. In the few opportunities we had of putting their hospitality to 

 the test we had every reason to be pleased with them. Both as to food 

 and accommodation, the best they had were always at our service ; and 

 their attention, both in kind and degree, was everything that hospitality 

 and even good breeding could dictate. The kindly offices of drying 

 and mending our clothes, cooking our provisions, and thawing snow 

 for our drink, were performed by the women with an obliging cheer 

 fulness which we shall not easily forget, and which demanded its due 

 share of our admiration and esteem. While thus their guest I have 

 passed an evening not only with comfort, but with extreme gratifica 

 tion ; for with the women working and singing, their husbands quietly 

 mending their lines, the children playing before the door and the pot 

 boiling over the blaze of a cheerful lamp, one might well forget for the 

 time that an Esquimaux hut was the scene of this domestic comfort 

 and tranquillity ; and I can safely affirm, with Cartwright, that, while 

 thus lodged beneath their roof, I know no people whom I would more 

 confidently trust, as respects either my person or my property, than 

 the Esquimaux. Dr. Eae,f who had ample means of judging, tells us 

 that the Eastern Esquimaux are sober, steady, and faithful, . . . pro 

 vident of their own property and careful of that of others when under 

 their charge. . . . Socially they are lively, cheerful, and chatty people, 

 fond of associating with each other and with strangers, with whom 

 they soon become on friendly terms, if kindly treated. ... In their 

 domestic relations they are exemplary. The man is an obedient son, 

 a good husband, and a kind father. . . . The children when young are 



* Primitive Culture, vol. i. p. 45. 

 t Trans. Eth. Soc. 1866, p. 138. 



