October 2, iSgr.] 



SCIEXXE. 



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the languages cnniiot compare with that of Bentley, or Ilermaan, 

 or Burnout, or Ewald. Yet we feel tliat we cannot go altogether 

 wi'ong in trusting to their guidance. 



I venture to go even a step further, and_ I believe the time will 

 come when no anthropologist will venture to write on anything 

 concerning the inner life of man without having himself acquired 

 a knowledge of the language in which that inner life finds its 

 truest expression. 



This may seem to be exacting too much, but you have only to 

 look, for instance, at the descriptions given of the customs, the 

 laws, the legends, and the religious convictions of the people of 

 India about a hundred years ago, and before Sanscrit began to be 

 studied, and you will be amazed at the utter caricature that is 

 often given there of the intellectual state of the Brahmans com- 

 pared with what we know of it now from their own literature. 



And it that is the case with a people like the Indians, who are 

 a civilized race, possessed of an ancient literature, and well within 

 the focus of history for the last two thousand years, what can be 

 expected in the case of really savage races? One can hardly trust 

 one's eyes when one sees the evidence placed before us by men 

 whose good faith can not be questioned, and who nevertheless 

 contradict each other flatly on the most ordinary subjects. We 

 owe to one of our secretaries, Mr. Roth, a most careful collection 

 of all that has been said on the Tasmanians by eye-witnesses. Not 

 the least valuable part of this collection is that it opens our eyes 

 to the utter untrustworthiness of the evidence on which the an- 

 thropologist has so often had to rely. In an article on Mr. Roth's 

 book in Nature, I tried to show that there is not one essential 

 feature in the religion of the Tasmanians on which diflrerent 

 authorities have not made assertions diametrically opposed to each 

 other. Some say that the Tasmanians have no idea of a Supreme 

 Being, no rites or ceremonies; others call their religion Dualism, 

 a worship of good and evil spirits. Some maintain that they had 

 deified the powers of nature, others that they were Devil-wor- 

 shippers. Some declare their religion to be pure monotheism, 

 combined with belief in the immortality of the soul, the eificacy 

 of prayers and charms. Nay, even the most recent article of 

 faith — the descent of man from some kind of animal — has re- 

 ceived a religious sanction among the Tasmanians. For Jlr. Hor- 

 ton, who is not given to joking, tells us that they believed " they 

 were originally formed with tails, and without knpe joints, by a 

 benevolent being, and that another descended from heaven, and, 

 compassionating the sufferers, cut off their tails, and with grease 

 softened their knees." 



I would undertake to show that what applies to the descriptions 

 given us of the now extinct race of the Tasmanians applies with 

 equal force to the descriptions of almost all the savage races with 

 whom anthropologists have to deal. In the case of large tribes, 

 such as the inhabitants of Australia, the contradictory evidence 

 may, no doubt, be accounted for by the fact that the observations 

 were made in different localities. But the chief reason is always 

 the same — ignorance of the language, and therefore want of 

 sympathy and impossibility of mutual explanation and correction. 



Let me, in conclusion, give you one of the most flagrant in- 

 stances of how a whole race can be totally misrepresented by men 

 ignorant of their language, and how these misrepresentations are 

 at once removed if travellers acquire a knowledge of the language, 

 and thus have not only eyes to see, but ears to hear, tongues to 

 speak, and hearts to feel. 



No race has been so cruelly maligned for centuries as the in- 

 habitants of the Andaman Islands. An Arab writer of the ninth 

 century states that their complexion was frightful, their hair 

 frizzled, their countenance and eyes terrible, their feet very large, 

 and almost a cubit in length, and that they go quite naked. 

 Marco Polo (about 1285) declared that the inhabitants are no bet- 

 ter than wild beasts, and he goes on to say: " I assure you all the 

 men of this island of Angamanain have heads like dogs, and teeth 

 and eyes likewise; in fact, in the face they ai'e just like big mastiff 

 dogs." 



So long as no one could be found to study their language, there 

 was no appeaPfrom these libels. But when, after the Sepoy mu- 

 tiny in 1856, it was necessary to find a habitation for a large 

 number of convicts, the Andaman Islands, which had already 



served as a penal settlement on a smaller scale, became a large 

 penal colony under English officers. The havoc that was wrought 

 by this sudden contact between the Andaman Islanders and these 

 civilized Indian convicts was terrible, and the end will probably 

 be the same as in Tasmania — the native population will die out. 

 Fortunately one of the English officers (Mr. Edward Horace Man) 

 did not shrink from the trouble of learning the language spoken 

 by these islanders, and, beiug a careful observer and perfectly 

 trustworthy, he has given us some accounts of the Andaman abo- 

 rigines which are real masterpieces of anthropological research. 

 If these islanders must be swept away from the face of the earth, 

 they will now, at all events, leave a good name behind them. 

 Even their outward appearance seems to become different in the 

 eyes of a sympathizing observer from what it was to casual trav- 

 ellers. They. are, no doubt, a very small race, their average 

 height being 4 feet 10| inches. But this is almost the only charge 

 brought against them which Mr. Man has not been able to rebut. 

 Their hair, he says, is fine, very closely curled, and frizzly. Their 

 color is dark, but not absolutely black. Their features possess 

 little of the most marked and coarser peculiarities of the negro 

 type. The projecting jaws, the prominent thick lips, the broad 

 and flattened nose of the genuine negro, are so softened down as 

 scarcely to be recognized. 



But let us now hear what Mr. Man has to tell us about the so- 

 cial, moral, and intellectual qualities of these so-called savages, 

 who had been represented to us as cannibals; as ignorant of the 

 existence of a deity; as knowing no marriage, except what by a 

 bold euphemism has been called communal marriage; as unac- 

 quainted with fire ; as no better than wild beasts, having heads, 

 teeth, and eyes like dogs — being, in fact, like big mastiffs. 



"Before the introduction into the islands of what is called Eu- 

 ropean civilization, the inhabitants," Mr. Man writes, " lived in 

 small villages, their dwellings built of branches and leaves of 

 trees. They were ignorant of agriculture, and kept no poultry or 

 domestic animals. Their pottery was hand-made, their clothing 

 very scanty. They were expert swimmers and divers, and able 

 to manufacture well-made dugout canoes and outriggers. They 

 were ignorant of metals ignorant, we are told, of producing fire, 

 though they kept a constant supply of burning and smouldering 

 wood. They made use of shells for their tools, had stone hammers 

 and anvils, bows and arrows, harpoons for killing turtle and fish. 

 Such is the fertility of the island that they have abundance and 

 variety of food all the year round. Their food was invariably 

 cooked, they drank nothing but water, and they did not smoke. 

 People may call this a savage life. I know many a starving la- 

 borer who would gladly exchange the benefits of European civili- 

 zation for the blessings of such savagery." 



These small islanders, who have always been represented by a 

 certain class of anthropologists as the lowest stratum of humanity, 

 need not fear comparison, so far as their social life is concerned, 

 with races who are called civilized. So far from being addicted 

 to what is called by the self-contradictory name of communal 

 marriage, Mr. Man tells us that bigamy, polygamy, polyandry, 

 and divorce are unknown to them, and that the marriage contract, 

 so far from being regarded as a merely temporary contract, to be 

 set aside on account of incompatibility of temper or other such 

 causes, is never dissolved. Conjugal fidelity till death is not the 

 exception but the rule, and matrimonial differences, which occur 

 but rarely, are easily settled with or without the intervention of 

 friends. One of the most striking features of tbeir social relations 

 is the marked equality and affection which exist between husband 

 and wife; and the consideration and respect with which women 

 are treated might, with advantage, be emulated by certain classes 

 in our own laiid. As to cannibalism and infanticide, they are never 

 practised by them. 



It is easy to say that Mr. Man may be prejudiced in favor of 

 these little savages, whose language he has been at so much pains 

 to learn. Fortunately, however, all his statements have lately 

 been confirmed by another authority. Colonel Cadell — the chief 

 commissioner of these islands. He is a Victoria Cross man, 

 and not likely to be given to over much sentimentahty. Well, this 

 is what he says of these fierce mastiffs, with feet a cubit in length: 



" They are merry little people," he says. '■ One could not im- 



