314 GOVERNMENT OF SUBJECT PEOPLES 



they have become subject. In the other case, 

 steps can be taken to supply new interests in place 

 of those it has been necessary to destroy, or it may 

 be possible to preserve those features of the in- 

 digenous institution which tend towards health and 

 morality while its cruel or immoral features are 

 abolished and the energies underlying them directed 

 into more healthy channels. 



Having now considered certain reasons for the 

 failure to recognise the value of scientific knowledge 

 in the art of government and certain features of 

 lowly culture which make interference with it a 

 matter of especial delicacy and difficulty, I can now 

 consider one or two topics which are frequent 

 subjects of misunderstanding in order to illustrate 

 how knowledge may be beneficial in preventing 

 mistakes and in utilising the moral and social trends 

 of the indigenous culture to the best advantage 

 both of the people and their rulers. 



There is no subject more frequently misunder- 

 stood by the rulers of savage peoples than chieftain- 

 ship. When a ruler begins to deal with such 

 peoples, he finds it convenient to have some indi- 

 vidual person who can represent them. The first 

 business of the ruler of a region newly brought under 

 subjection is usually to discover who are the chiefs 

 in order to use them as intermediaries in his trans- 

 actions with the people. 



The generally accepted idea of a chief is that he 

 is a man who administers justice, punishes offences 



