Sight in Savages. 173 



mightier arms than others ; but it was perhaps 

 assumed that the complex structure and extreme 

 delicacy of the eye would make it less adaptive than 

 other and coarser organs. Whatever the origin of 

 the error may have been, it is certain that it has 

 received the approval of scientists, and that they 

 never open their lips on the subject except to give 

 it fresh confirmation. Their researches have 

 brought to light a great variety of eye-troubles, 

 which, in many cases, are not troublesome at all, 

 until they are discovered, named with a startling 

 name, and described in terms very alarming to 

 persons of timid character. Frequently they are 

 not maladies, but inherited defects, like bandy legs, 

 prominent teeth, crushed toes, tender skin, and 

 numberless other malformations. That such eye- 

 defects are as common among savages as among 

 ourselves, I do not say, and to this matter I shall 

 return later on ; but until the eyes of savages are 

 scientifically examined, it seems a very bold thing 

 to say that defective colour-sense is due to the 

 inimical conditions of our civilization ; for we know 

 as little about the colour-sense of savages as we 

 do about the colour-sense of the old Greeks. That 

 the savage sight is vastly more powerful than ours 

 was perhaps not so bold a thing to say, seeing 

 that in this matter our teachers were misled by 

 travellers' tales, and perhaps by other considerations, 

 as, for instance, the absence of artificial aids to 

 sight among the children of nature . The redskin 

 may be very old, but as he sits sunning himself 



