462 SOCIAL POSITION OF WOMEN. 



latter case, however, for a different reason, regarding it as a 

 proof of selfishness and pride. Judged by our standards 

 these facts are very dreadful ; but we must remember that 

 they did not entail on savages the same fatal consequences as 

 with us ; and before we condemn them too severely, let us 

 remember our own literature and our own morality, even in 

 the last century. 



The harsh, not to say cruel, treatment of women, which is 

 almost universal among savages, is one of the deepest stains 

 upon their character. They regard the weaker sex as beings 

 of an inferior order, as mere domestic drudges. Hard work 

 and hard fare fall to their lot. Nor are their labors and 

 sufferings sweetened by any great affection on the part of 

 those for whom they work. We have already seen that the 

 Algonquins had no word for "love" in their language, and 

 that the Tinne Indians had no equivalent for "dear" or 

 " beloved." Captain Lefroy * says, " I endeavoured to put 

 this intelligibly to Nannette, by supposing such an expression 

 as ma chere femme ; ma chere fille. When at length she 

 understood it, he* reply was (with great emphasis), ' I'disent 

 jamais 9a ; i'disent ma femme, ma fille/ ' Spix and Mar- 

 tius f tell us that among the Brazilian tribes, the father has 

 scarcely any, the mother only an instinctive affection for the 

 child " iibrigens wachst das Kind, vom Yater gar nicht, von 

 der Mutter instinctartig geliebt, jedoch wenig gepflegt auf." 

 There can be no doubt that, as an almost universal rule, 

 savages are cruel, and the only arguments we can urge in 

 their favor are that they are less sensitive to pain than is 

 the case with those who spend much of their time in- doors, 

 and that in many cases they do not hesitate to inflict upon 

 themselves also the most horrible tortures. 



Savages have often been likened to children, but so far as 

 intelligence is concerned, a child of four years old is far 



* Bichardson's Arctic Expedition, vol. ii., p. 24. f Eeise, vol. i., p. 381. 



