164 SAVAGE SUEVIVALS 



in those elite beings who realize that charity and 

 forgiveness are more beautiful than revenge. 

 Like so many other tendencies in our nature, 

 which drive us this way and that in spite of our- 

 selves, this instinct of revenge is a survival from 

 savage times, when men lived in a state of mili- 

 tancy and hate and when the policy of a-blow-f or- 

 a-blow was much more justifiable than now. 



The struggle for life among primitive beings is 

 carried on largely by fighting. Every fight is a 

 succession of retaliations — ^bite being given for 

 bite and blow for blow. These retaliations may 

 follow each other in quick succession, or they may 

 be postponed. A postponed retaliation is what is 

 called revenge. The postponement may be mere- 

 ly long enough for the combatants to get their 

 breath, or it may be for days, or it may be even 

 for years. The feeling of revenge is, therefore, a 

 close relative of anger, revenge being a sort of 

 sustained or adjourned anger. 



Among all primitive peoples the practice of re- 

 venge not only exists, but is regarded as more or 

 less of a duty. Any one who fails to revenge him- 

 self on an enemy is despised as a coward. If a 

 savage should forgive his enemies or do good to 

 them that spitefully use him, he wouldn't be tol- 

 erated very long, even by his own people. 



It is said of the natives of Australia: **The 

 holiest duty a native is called on to perform is 

 that of avenging the death of his nearest relatives. 

 Until he has fulfilled this task, he is constantly 



