NATIVE CUSTOMS. 
385 
“ He (the native) is in reality subjected to complex laws, 
which not only deprive him of all free agency of thought, but 
at the same time, by allowing no scope for the development of 
intellect, benevolence, or any other great moral qualification, they 
necessarily bind him down in a hopeless state of barbarism, from 
which it is impossible for him to emerge, so long as he is en- 
thralled by these customs, which, on the other hand, are so 
ingeniously devised as to have a direct tendency to annihilate any 
efiort that is made to overthrow them.” 
Those customs regulate all things, the acquisi- 
tion and disposal of wives, the treatment of women, 
of the elders, the acquiescence of the younger 
members of a tribe in any measure that may 
have been decided upon by the old men, the 
rules which guide the international intercourse 
between different tribes, the certain restrictions 
or embargoes that are put upon different kinds 
of food or at certain ages, the fear of sorcery or 
witchcraft if they transgress the orders of the 
elders, or break through the ordinances that have 
been imposed upon them, and many other similar 
influences. 
In their intercourse with each other I have gene- 
rally found the natives to speak the truth and act 
with honesty, and they will usually do the same 
with Europeans if on friendly terms with them. 
In their treatment of each other, and in the 
division of food, policy and custom have induced 
them to be extremely polite and liberal. Old men 
2 c 
VOL. II. 
