MORAL SENSE IX MAN. 167 



the hand that broke the rivets of his fetters. ... He is 

 utterly obtuse to all feelings of gratitude' (Baker). 'Dr. 

 Krap was unable to find any word expressing the idea of 

 gratitude in the language of all the Suahali (Wasawahili) 

 tribes a fact significant enough as to the total absence of 

 the moral feeling denoted by that name' (Yidal). 'To a 

 New Zealander gratitude was wholly unknown. They have 

 no word for it in their language no way of expressing a 

 feeling that never existed in their breast. To a deeply 

 reflecting mind this sad fact may appear to be a far worse 

 one than their cannibalism ' (Colenso). 



The want of filial love is even more striking as illustrated 

 in the treatment of parents, of the aged, weak, sick, feeble 

 or disabled, and of the dead. The Fiji an s ' have not the 

 least scruple in burying a father alive when he begins to be 

 infirm, and assist in strangling a mother, so that she may 

 keep him company.' As to the Bosjesmans of South Africa 

 and the aborigines of Australia, 'I very much doubt whether 

 they ever have possessed the least idea that any duty was 

 owing to a parent from a child.' Among the North Ameri- 

 can Indians, as among the Fijians, c the idea of being 

 subject to their parents never enters their heads, still less 

 does the idea of loving them. It is the glory of a North 

 American Indian boy, at as early an age as possible, to 

 despise his mother and defy his father,' while the young 

 women ' utterly despise the elder and feeble women, even 

 though they be their own mothers.' In short, filial love 

 6 barely exists at all among them, and certainly does not 

 survive into mature years' (Wood). 



On the other hand, the 'parental love of a savage does 

 not last longer than that of a bird, a cat, or a dog, taking 

 into consideration the relative duration of life ; ' nor, while 

 it does last, is it of a very commendable kind. Among 

 the Bosjesmans and the Australian blacks 'the father is 

 just as likely as not to murder his child as soon as it is born 

 perhaps rather more likely than not. And if he be angry 

 with anyone for any reason, he has a way of relieving his 

 feelings by driving his spear through his wife or child, which- 

 ever happens to be nearest. Even the mother treats her child 



