458 DIFFERENT IDEAS OF VIRTUE. 



Esquimaux ; * the Tongans and many other Polynesians 

 always sit down when speaking to a superior ; the in- 

 habitants of Mallicollo testify " admiration by hissing like a 

 goose ; " t at Vatavulu it is respectful to turn one's back on a 

 superior, especially in addressing him.J According to Frey- 

 cinet, tears were recognised in the Sandwich Islands as a 

 sign of happiness ; and some of the Esquimaux pull noses 

 as a token of respect. || Spix and Martius assure us that 

 blushing was unknown among the Brazilian Indians; and 

 that only after long intercourse with Europeans, does a 

 change of color become in them any indication of mental 

 emotion. If 



The ideas of virtue are also extremely dissimilar. Neither 

 faith, hope, nor charity, enter into the virtues of a savage. 

 The Sichuana language contains no expression for thanks ; 

 the Algonquin had no word for love ; the Tinne no word 

 for belove$ ; mercy was with the North American Indians a 

 mistake, and peace an evil ; theft, says Catlin, they " call 

 capturing ;" humility is an idea which they could not com- 

 prehend. Chastity was not reckoned as a virtue by the 

 New Zealanders ; ** it was disapproved of, though for very 

 different reasons, by some of the Brazilian tribes, by the 

 inhabitants of the Ladrones, and by the Andamaners. On 

 the other hand, the Australians would have been shocked 

 at a man marrying a woman of his own family name; the 

 Abipones thought it a sin for a man to pronounce his own 

 name ; the Tahitians thought it very wrong to eat in com- 

 pany, and were horrified at an English sailor, who carried 

 some food in a basket on his head. This prejudice was also 

 shared by the New Zealanders, f f while the Feegeeans, who 



* Lyon's Journal, p. 353. f Cook's Second Voyage, vol. ii., p. 36. 



J Figi and the Figians, vol. i., p. 154. I.e. vol. ii., pp. 542, 589. 



|| Ross. Baffin's Bay, p. 118. IT Vol. i., p. 376. 



** Brown. New Zealand and its Aborigines, p. 35. 

 ft D'UrviUe, vol. ii., p. 533. 



