160 SAVAGE SURVIVALS 



primitive men. The savage is not an energetic 

 animal. His bodily machine produces a rather 

 small amount of energy merely the energy re- 

 quired for occasional hunting and war expeditions 

 and for the creation of his rude weapons, boats, 

 huts, etc. The life of the savage is a simple, in- 

 dolent, hand-to-mouth existence, demanding few 

 necessities and no luxuries. The savage doesn't 

 use toothbrushes, and hence does not have to 

 make them nor easy-chairs, nor books, nor rail- 

 roads, nor plum pudding, nor silks, nor automo- 

 biles, nor any one of the ten thousand other things 

 that the higher races have got into the habit of con- 

 sidering necessary for a full, rounded existence. 

 The savage eats wild fruits instead of chocolate 

 creams, and walks instead of taking a Pullman. 



So-called civilized peoples are always surprised, 

 when they come in contact with primitive peoples, 

 to find how indolent they are. They call them 

 lazy and good-for-nothing, and assume that the 

 savage is lazy rather as a matter of choice. Lazi- 

 ness is merely the state of being without energy. 

 It is not a disease, nor an evidence of moral degra- 

 dation. In a sense it is the natural condition of 

 men, while industry is the derived state. The sav- 

 age does not like to work because work is painful 

 to him. He has not the apparatus to put forth 

 prolonged exertion. Many primitive peoples can 

 not be induced to do any kind of sustained labor 

 unless they are driven either by the hunger or the 

 sex impulse. 



