Sept. 21, 1888.] 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



H7 



CUSTOMS OF SAVAGE RACES. 



Lecture Delivered by Sir John Lubbock, M.P., F.R.S., 

 to the Working-Classes of Bath. 



(Continued from p. 304. ) 



/^ARVER astonished the Canadian Indians by allowing 

 them to open a book wherever they pleased, and then 

 telling them how many pages they were from the begin- 

 ning. The only way they could account for this was by 

 concluding that the book was alive, and told him what- 

 ever he asked. This belief in the mysterious character 

 of writing has led to its being used in various parts of 

 the world as a medicine. The Central Africans are a re- 

 ligious people according to their light, and have great 

 faith in the efficacy of prayer. When anyone is ill they 

 write a text out of the Koran on a board, wash it off, and 

 drink it. In India charms are used in the same way, 

 but now strong medicine is often openly put into the ink, 

 a curious combination of medicine and superstition. It 

 was soon observed that these charms were no protection 

 from firearms, but that did not in the least weaken the 

 faith in them, because the Mahomedan priest explained 

 that as guns were not invented in Mahomet's time, he 

 naturally provided no specific against them. 



Another curious idea very prevalent among savages is 

 their dread of having their portraits taken. The better 

 the likeness, the worse they think for the sitter ; so much 

 life could not be put into the copy except at the expense 

 of the original. Once, when a good deal annoyed by 

 some Indians, Kane got rid of them instantly by threat- 

 ening to draw them if they remained. Catlin tells an 

 amusing but melancholy anecdote in illustration of this 

 feeling among the same people. On one occasion he 

 was making a likeness of a chief named Mahtocheega in 

 profile. This, when observed, excited much commotion 

 among the Indians. " Why was half his face left out ? " 

 they asked, " Mahtocheega was never afraid to look a 

 white man in the face." Mahtocheega himself does not 

 seem to have taken any offence, but Shonka, a hostile 

 chief, took occasion to taunt him. "The Englishman," 

 he said, " knows that you are but half a man ; he has 

 painted but one half of your face, and knows that the 

 rest is good for nothing." This taunt led to a fight in 

 which poor Mahtocheega was killed, and the whole affair 

 was very unfortunate for Mr. Catlin, who had much 

 difficulty in making his escape, and lived some time in 

 fear of his life ; nor was the matter ended until both 

 Shonka and his brother had been killed in revenge for 

 the death of Mahtocheega. 



Those who have not devoted much attention to the 

 subject have generally regarded the savage as having 

 at least one advantage over civilised man — that, namely, 

 of enjoying an amount of personal freedom greater than 

 that of individuals belonging to more civilised commu- 

 nities. There cannot be a greater mistake. The savage 

 is nowhere free. All over the world his daily life is 

 regulated by a complicated set of rules, and customs as 

 forcible as laws, of quaint prohibitions, and unjust pri- 

 vileges — the prohibitions generally applying to the 

 women and the privileges to men. " The Australians," 

 says Mr. Lang, " instead of enjoying perfect personal 

 freedom, as it would at first appear, are governed by a 

 code of rules and a set of customs which form one of 

 the most cruel tyrannies that has ever perhaps existed 

 on the face of the earth, subjecting not only the will 

 but the property and life of the weak to the dominion of 

 the strong. The whole tendency of the system is to give 



everything to the strong and old, to the prejudice of the 

 weak and young, and more particularly to the detriment 

 of the women. Moreover, if savages pass unnoticed 

 many actions which we deem highly criminal, on the 

 other hand they strictly forbid others which we regard 

 as altogether immaterial. Thus the Mongols of Siberia 

 think it wrong to touch fire with a knife ; to use one for 

 taking meat out of a pot ; to cut up wood near a hearth ; 

 to lean on a whip ; to pour liquor on the ground ; to 

 strike a horse with the bridle ; to break one bone against 

 another. The legal forms among savages are very long 

 and tedious. But little consideration is required to 

 show that this is quite natural. In the absence 01 

 writing, evidence of contracts must depend on the testi- 

 mony of witnesses, and it is necessary therefore to avoid 

 all haste which might lead to forgetfulness, and to im- 

 print the ceremony as much as possible on the minds of 

 those present. 



Among the lower races of men, the chiefs scarcely 

 take any cognisance of crime. As regards private in- 

 juries, everyone protects or revenges himself. Thus 

 amongst the North American Indians even in cases of 

 murder, the family of the deceased only punish the 

 aggressor if they can. The chiefs and rulers do not feel 

 called on to interfere. Since then crimes were at first 

 regarded as mere personal matters, in which the aggres- 

 sor and his victim alone were interested, every crime, 

 even murder, might be atoned for by the payment of a 

 sum of money. 



Among the Anglo-Saxons every part of the body had 

 a recognised value. Thus the loss of a front tooth was 

 valued at six shillings, that of a beard was reckoned at 

 twenty shillings, while the breaking of a thigh was only 

 put at twelve, and of a rib at three, facts which show 

 both the high value of money and also the importance 

 attached by our ancestors to their personal appearance. 

 Moreover these payments had reference to the injury 

 done, and had no relation to the crime as a crime. 



The religious condition of the lower races of men is 

 one of the most interesting, but at the same time one of 

 the most difficult parts of the whole subject. It is most 

 difficult, partly because it is far from easy to communi- 

 cate with men of a different race on such an abstruse 

 subject; partly because so many men have no very clear 

 ideas of what they really believe ; and partly because 

 even amongst those nominally professing the same 

 religion there are often in reality great differences indi- 

 vidually, as I shall endeavour to show you is also the 

 case with nations, acquiring gradually higher and higher, 

 and therefore truer ideas as they rise in the scale of 

 civilisation. Even among races well known to us it is 

 often very difficult to state what the orthodox opinions 

 really are ; for instance, it has long been a question 

 amongst scholars what opinions orthodox Buddhists 

 really entertain respecting the Deity and the condition 

 of the soul after death. Moreover, as new religious ideas 

 come into existence, they do not destroy, but are only 

 superinduced upon the old ones ; thus the religions of 

 the ancestors become the nursery tales of their descend- 

 ants, and the old Teutonic deities of our forefathers are 

 the giants and demons of our children. 



Savages generally assume that there is no motion 

 without life. Hence they believe in spirits not only of 

 animals, but plants, rivers, lakes, winds, and so on. In 

 various parts of the world white men, when first seen, 

 were taken for ghosts. For instance, some years ago a 

 vessel was wrecked on the north coast of Australia, and 



