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. 



