30 



KNOWLEDGE. 



[Febeuaby 1, 1900. 



The pursuit and capture of prey require special quali- 

 ties : agility, dexterity, and strength, in addition to 

 woodcraft. These aptitudes are most particularly found 

 among the young men, hence there arises a tendency 

 for superiority of youth over age, unless social institu- 

 tions are evolved to counteract it, as, for example, 

 occurs in Australia. In any case the youths are eai-ly 

 able to provide for themselves, and in consequence they 

 set up an establishment as soon as possible. In extreme 

 cases they retain to themselves the fruit of their 

 labours, and repudiate the duty of assisting their aged 

 paren'^s. As will be stated shortly, the means for sub- 

 sistence are strictly limited, and the first biologic law — 

 that of self-jDreservation — is imperative, come what 

 may. 



It is one of the first duties of social organization to 

 modify this crude state of affairs, and to prevent the 

 children from arrogating to themselves an undue 

 amount of authority. The arrogance of youth is a 

 natural outcome of the feebleness of parental control. 



The development of primary individualism is the 

 result of this mode of life. This form of individualism 

 is of the lowest, that is, of the least social, character. 



It is usually to the hunter's interest to isolate himself 

 and to hunt his prey on his own account. Some people 

 temporarily combine to drive their quaiTy into nets or 

 trajjs, but hunting is chiefly done single handed. 



The tendency to individualism is still further de- 

 veloped by the facilities which hunting offers to the 

 establishment of new and distinct households ; a verv 

 different state of affairs to the value of aggregated 

 families in sedentary communities. The dwellings of 

 hunters are simple huts, made of branches and covered 

 with leaves or made of skins. They are easily erected, 

 and in the latter case are easily portable ; but in warm 

 climates a rain-proof hut can be made in a very short 

 space of time with the materials that are ready to 

 hand. It costs no money to make and but veiy little 

 time, and no regret is felt at leaving it. 



The household furniture is of the most rudimentary 

 chai-acter, on account of the migrations necessitated by 

 the chase. It is provided by the wood of the forest, by 

 gourds, shells of nuts, carapaces of turtles, shells of 

 molluscs, in fact of anything ready to hand that will 

 serve. 



The imislements for the chase are quite as elementary, 

 wooden spears, bows and arrows for terrestrial animals ; 

 a canoe and fish-spear, or a line and hook, for fishing. 

 A few hours' work would suffice to make them all. In 

 the district of the Orinoco there are two kinds of canoes. 

 (1) A sufficiently large tree is chosen from which a 

 jiiece of bark several yards in length is detached. This 

 is folded and its ends strongly secured by lianas. Later 

 the canoe is covered with leaves and placed over a great 

 fire. This operation not only hardens it but makes 

 it start and it only remains to caulk the ci'acks with a 

 kind of gum supplied by neighbouring trees. (2) The 

 other canoes are tree-trunks hollowed out by hatchets; 

 although this operation is longer it is accomplished 

 pretty quickly. Crevaux states that it takes four men 

 only four hours to make a bark canoe. On several 

 occasions, when stopped by a rapid, they did not hesi- 

 tate to abandon one and to make another in order to 

 continue their voyage on the other side of the fall. 



There is, however, a vei-y marked limitation of the 

 means of existence. Game and fresh-water fish are more 

 easily exterminated than the grass of the prairie and 

 the fish of the sea. In our complicated societies it is 

 necessary to frame special laws to regulate fresh-water 



fishing, and even the inshore marine fishing grounds 

 are liable to depletion, and certain methods of marine 

 fishing have to be prohibited or limited by law. 



The existence of hunters is not so assured as that 

 of pastoral or fishing communities. The game may be 

 over-hunted or become scarce through disease or un- 

 favourable seasons, hence hunting populations are sub- 

 ject to cruel famines. They cannot reserve food for 

 these periods of famine in tropical countries, as the 

 temperature necessitates the immediate consumption of 

 the product of the chase. At most they can preserve 

 meat for four or five days by submitting it to the action 

 of a strong fire. 



The question of food is the principal occupation of 

 savages. " Our voyage," said Crevaux, " resolved itself 

 into a regular stniggle for existence. All the time we 

 could spare from our survey and our observations was 

 devoted to fishing and hunting.'' 



The uncertainty of the means of existence gives to 

 the savages a particularly accommodating stomach. 

 They can remain several days without eating, and when 

 food is abundant they can gorge a prodigious quantity. 



The chase obliges the savage to periodically migrate. 

 He must follow the game, or the migration of fish, or 

 visit the banks at the turtle-egg season. Following the 

 annual migration of the bisons across the prairies was 

 not difficult to the North American Indians, but it is a 

 different matter in tropical forests, owing to the tangled 

 luxuriance of the vegetation and the general absence 

 of paths. Hence they walk in " Indian file." So in- 

 veterate is this habit that they walk in single file when 

 there is no occasion to do so. 



The difficulty of communication is so great that there 

 are scarcely any relations between different tribes, and 

 from this arise a multiplicity of dialects. 



The whole family has to follow the periodical mi- 

 grations, and there is consequently a high mortality 

 for the aged, sick, and even children ; that is, those 

 who cannot easily transport themselves are frequently 

 abandoned. 



It will be a.5ked. Why do not the hunters seek in 

 cultivation of the soil a more abundant and assured 

 means of existence? It is probable that this has often 

 taken place, but there are hunting communities that 

 do not till the soil. In the district which we have 

 more particularly under view, when game is abundant 

 for several years, certain tribes multiply to the extreme 

 limits of the local resources. They then manifest a 

 tendency to agriculture ; but this mode of life necessi- 

 tates more effort and offers less attractions than the 

 chase, and is especially repudiated by the young. The 

 paternal authority which should exercise a sufficient 

 constraint upon the latter is very feeble. 



The attempts at cultivation are not persisted in and 

 are soon abandoned ; as Le Play has pointed out, " The 

 frequent atmospheric calamities in this region of the 

 equatorial zone happen to justify the repugnance of the 

 population to works of agriculture. Epidemics have 

 not only the result of reducing the tribes of the aged 

 and the more feeble, they destroy entire tribes, and 

 thus re-establish the equilibrium between the mouths 

 and the means of sustenance." Such are some of the 

 causes which oppose the transformation of hunters into 

 tillers of the soil. 



There are in the forests of the New World some very 

 rudimentary plantations of rice, yams, sweet potatoes, 

 sugar cane, manioc, etc. The manioc produces tapioca 

 and a fermented drink ; four days' work per month in 

 their plantations provide sufficient food for a family of 



