THE ETHICS OF THE SAVAGE 253 



between injuries to persons inside the tribe and 

 injuries to tkose outside the tribe. Crimes which 

 are looked upon as felonious when committed by 

 a savage against the members of his own tribe 

 may be regarded as harmless, or even highly com- 

 mendable, when perpetrated on those outside the 

 tribe. Acts are not judged according to their 

 intrinsic natures or results, but wholly as to 

 whether they are performed on outsiders or on 

 insiders. The Balantis (Africa) punish with death 

 a theft committed against a fellow-tribesman, but 

 encourage and reward thieving from other tribes. 

 The Afridi (Afghanistan) mother prays that her 

 son may be a successful robber — not a robber of 

 her own people, but of other peoples — and in 

 order that he may become proficient in crime 

 teaches him to creep stealthily through a hole in 

 the wall. By certain Bedouin tribes the ' strenu- 

 ous life * is held in such high honour that ' it is 

 considered a disgrace to die in bed ' ; and among 

 the man-eating Fijians ' men who have not slain 

 an enemy suffer the most degrading of all punish- 

 ments ' (i). In the paradise of the Kukis (India) 

 the cut-throats who have in life killed the largest 

 number of aliens not only inherit the highest 

 places, but these adepts of the knife are supposed 

 to be attended in their celestial comings and 

 goings by their victims as slaves (i). In his 

 dealings with the other members of his tribe, the 

 savage observes a certain rude code of morals, 

 this code being usually, as in the case of the 

 civilised code, an inglorious mixture of equity and 



