296 PSYCHOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART II. 



made them many gifts, and met with kindness in return. 1 In 

 modern times, however, the above view as regards uncivilized 

 nations has undergone a great change, many writers now con- 

 sidering man in a state of nature little better than the ape ; and 

 it would be difficult to decide which of these views is the 

 most erroneous. 



Taking into consideration the characteristic qualities of un- 

 civilized nations, we must be prepared to find great abnormities 

 in moral respects, not merely in individual actions but in the 

 fixed habits of life. There is no doubt that cannibalism, in- 

 fanticide, and similar deeds, have been and are still practised 

 without any consciousness of their criminality. Though it 

 may originally have been either revenge or misery which led to 

 cannibalism, as related of the Zulu people of Immithlanga 

 (Intlangwein), that famine first drove them to eat their own 

 children, since which time they commenced regularly to devour 

 their prisoners of war, 2 anthropophagy in time became a 

 habit. 



In like manner may be explained the many instances of 

 moral degradation exhibited by uncivilized peoples. The 

 principle of revenge seems to be universal among them. 

 Blood for blood is a strict duty, and a ransom paid by the 

 murderer to the nearest kinsman is only accepted where pro- 

 perty has acquired a higher value, and where wealth gives 

 power. " The most sacred duty of the Australian is to avenge 

 the death of his nearest relation ; until he has accomplished 

 this he is mocked by the old women his wives, if he be 

 married, would soon leave him. If unmarried, no girl speaks 

 to him ; his own mother would constantly cry and lament at 

 having given birth to so degenerate a son ; his father would 

 treat him with contempt." 3 It is well known that similar 

 views exist among the natives of North America. "There 

 seems to be a complete absence of moral sentiment among the 



1 Latterly this view has been abandoned, and only a faint echo of it ap- 

 pears in Schomburgk's statement (" Eeise in British Guiana/' ii, p. 240, 1847), 

 that the feelings for morality and virtue are nicer among Indians than 

 among ourselves. 



2 Gardiner, "Narrative of a journey to the Zulu country," p. 185, 1836. 



3 Grey, " Journals of two Expeditions in Australia," ii, p. 240, 1840. 



