and always seeing that they get a good share of any food.1 All authorities agree that the Australian Black is affectionate to his children,2 "From observation of various tribes in far distant parts of Australia," says Mr. Howitt, "I can assert confidently that love for their children is a marked feature in the aboriginal character. I cannot recollect having ever seen a parent beat or cruelly use a child; and a short road to the goodwill of the parents is, as amongst us, by noticing and admiring their children. No greater grief could be exhibited, by the fondest parents in the most civilised community at the death of some little child, than that which I have seen exhibited in an Australian native camp, not only by the immediate parents, but by the whole related group.' Other representatives of the lowest savagery, as the Veddahs and Fuegians, are likewise described as tender parents. Though few peoples have acquired a worse reputation for cruelty than the Fijians, even the greatest censurer of their character admits that the exhibition of parental love among them "is sometimes such as to be worthy of admiration"; whilst, according to another authority, "it is truly touching to see how parents are attached to their children." The Bangala of the Upper Congo, "swayed one moment by a thirst for blood and indulging in the most horrible orgies, ... may yet the next be found approaching their homes looking forward with 4 6 1 Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia, p. 50 sq. 2 Curr, The Australian Race, i. 402; iii. 155. Idem, Recollections of Squatting in Victoria, p. 252. Angas, Savage Life and Scenes in Australia, i. 94. Brough Smyth, Aborigines of Victoria, i. 51; ii. 311. Ridley, Aborigines of Australia, p. 23. Eyre, Journals of Expeditions of Discovery into Central Australia, ii. 214 sq. Sturt, Expedition into Central Australia, ii. 137. Calvert, Aborigines of Western Australia, p. 30 sq. Taplin, Narrinyeri,' in Woods, Native Tribes of South Australia, p. 15. Gason, Manners and Customs of the Dieyerie Tribe,' ibid. p. 258. Hill and Thornton, Aborigines of New South 6 "3 the liveliest interest to the caresses of their wives and children." 1 Carver asserts that he never saw among any other people greater proofs of parental or filial tenderness. than among the North American Naudowessies. Among the Point Barrow Eskimo "the affection of parents for their children is extreme 3 and the same seems to be the case among the Eskimo in general. Concerning the Aleuts Veniaminof wrote long ago :-"The children are often well fed and satisfied, while the parents almost perish with hunger. The daintiest morsel, the best dress, is always kept for them."5 Mr. Hooper, again, found parental love nowhere more strongly exemplified than among the Chukchi; "the natives absolutely doat upon their children." Innumerable facts might indeed be quoted to prove that paternal affection is not a late product of civilisation, but a normal feature of the savage mind as it is known to us.7 6 1 Ward, Five Years with the Congo Cannibals, p. 141. Cf. ibid. p. 139. 2 Carver, op. cit. p. 240 sq. Cf. ibid. p. 378 sq. 3 Murdoch, 'Ethnological Results of the Point Barrow Expedition,' in Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn. ix. 417. Hall, Arctic Researches, p. 568. Parry, Second Voyage for the Discovery of a North-West Passage, p. 529. Boas, Central Eskimo,' in Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn. vi. 566. Turner, Ethnology of the Ungava District,' ibid. xi. 191. Seemann, Voyage of "Herald,” ii. 65. Cranz, History of Greenland, i. 174. 5 Veniaminof, quoted by Dall, Alaska, P. 397. Cf. ibid. p. 393; Petroff, Report on Alaska,' in Tenth Census of the United States, p. 158. 6 Hooper, Ten Months among the Tents of the Tuski, p. 201. 7 Dobrizhoffer, Account of the Abipones, ii. 214 sq. Wied-Neuwied, Reise nach Brasilien, ii. 40 (Botocudos). Wallace, Travels on the Amazon, p. 518 sq. (Amazon Indians; but on the Brazilian Indians generally, cf. von Martius, in Jour. Roy. Geo. Soc. ii. 198, and Idem, Beiträge zur Ethnographie Amerika's, i. 125). Im Thurn, Among the Indians of Guiana, pp. 213, 219. MacCauley, 'Seminole Indians of When dealing with the origin of the altruistic sentiment we shall find reason to believe that paternal affection not only prevails among existing men, savage and civilised, but that it belonged to the human race from the very beginning, and that the same was the case with the germ of marital affection, inducing the male to remain with the female till after the birth of the offspring, and to defend and support her during the periods of pregnancy and motherhood. It is true that among several savage peoples conjugal love is said to be unknown; but what is meant by this is, I think, typically expressed in Major Ellis's statement referring to some Gold Coast natives, that among them "love, as understood by the people of Europe, has no existence." 1 The love of a savage is certainly very different from the love of a civilised man; nevertheless we may discover in it traces of the same ingredients. Even rude savages, such as the Bushmans, Fuegians, Andaman Islanders, and Australian aborigines, seem often to be lovingly attached to their wives.2 op. cit. i. 162 (Malays of the Barito River Basin in Borneo). Low, Sarawak, p. 148 (Malays). Bock, Head-Hunters of Borneo, p. 210 (Dyaks). Ling Roth, Natives of Sarawak and British North Borneo, i. 68 (Land Dyaks). Forbes, A Naturalist's Wanderings in the Eastern Archipelago, p. 321 (natives of Timor-laut). Forbes, Insulinde, p. 182 (natives of Ritobel). Seligmann, in Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits, v. 199; Haddon, ibid. v. 229, 274 (Western Islands). Romilly, From my Verandah in New Guinea, p. 51. Chalmers, Pioneering in New Guinea, p. 163. Christian, Caroline Islands, p. 72 (Ponapeans). Kubary, Die Bewohner der Mortlock Inseln,' in Mittheilungen der Geogr. Gesellsch. in Hamburg, 1878-9, p. 261. Macdonald, Oceania, p. 195 (Efatese). Turner, Samoa, p. 317 (natives of Tana). von Kotzebue, Voyage of Discovery, iii. 165 (Natives of Radack). Mariner, op. cit. ii. 179 (Tongans). Dieffenbach, Travels in New Zealand, ii. 26, 107; Crozet, Voyage to Tasmania, p. 66 (Maoris). Dove, 'Aborigines of Tasmania,' in Tasmanian Journal of Natural Science, i. 252. Reade, Savage Africa, p. 245 (Equatorial Africans). Casati, Ten Years in Equatoria, i. 186 (Central African Negroes). Caillié, Travels through Central Africa, i. 352 (Mandingoes). Holub, Seven Years in South Africa, ii. 296 (Marutse). Livingstone, Missionary Travels, p. 126 (Bechuanas). Johnston, Uganda Protectorate, ii. 539 (Pigmies). Sparrman, Voyage to the Cape of Good Hope, i. 219 (Hottentots). Shaw, 'Betsileo Country and People,' in Antananarivo Annual and Madagascar Magazine, iii. 82. See also supra, p. 405; Steinmetz, 'Verhältnis zwischen Eltern und Kindern bei den Naturvölkern,' in Zeitschrift für Socialwissenschaft, i. 610 sqq.; Idem, Ethnologische Studien zur ersten Entwicklung der Strafe, ii. ch. vi. §2. Ellis, Tshi-speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast, p. 285. I have dealt with this subject in my History of Human Marriage, p. 356 sqq. 2 Ibid. p. 358 sq. The prevalence of paternal and marital affection accounts for the origin of the family (consisting of parents and children), and for the functions of the man as father and husband. The growing intensity of these sentiments has naturally increased the stability of the family tie; and other factors, of a selfish nature, have contributed towards the same result. From various points of view it is desirable for a man to have children. They are to him objects of pride; when grown-up, they add to his safety and power; they support him when he gets old; they make offerings to his spirit when he is dead. And no less useful is the possession of a wife. When the generative power is no longer restricted to a certain season of the year, she becomes a lasting cause of sensual delight; she is a mother of children; she manages the household; she acts as a carrier, she works in the field. Every social institution has a tendency to become a matter of moral concern because of the persistence of habit. But the simplest paternal and marital duties have a deeper foundation than the mere force of the habitual. If a man leaves his wife and children without protection and support, the other members of the community will sympathise with them, and feel resentment towards the neglectful husband and father. He will be looked upon as the cause of their sufferings, because he omitted to do what other men in his position would have done. His conduct will be repulsive to everyone who himself possesses those sentiments of which he proves destitute. He will be held guilty of a breach of contract, since by marrying he took upon himself the burden of maintaining his wife and their common offspring. To thoughtful minds his responsibility towards his children is further increased by the fact that he is the author of their being, and for that reason the source of their misery. Finally, the community as a whole will suffer by his negligence. The parents' duty of taking care of their offspring lasts until the latter are able to shift for themselves. On the other hand, when the parents, in their turn, get in need of support, their care is to be reciprocated by the children. The practice of killing or abandoning decrepit parents is an exception even in the savage world, and, as we have seen, restricted to extreme cases in which it may be regarded as an act of kindness or of hard necessity. There are also savage peoples among whom aged parents, though suffered to live, are said to be grossly neglected by their children. But, so far as I know, these peoples are not numerous, and can hardly be regarded as representatives of a custom common to any larger ethnic group. Thus, according to Hearne, "old age is the greatest calamity that can befall a Northern Indian ; for when he is past labour, he is neglected, and treated with great disrespect, even by his own children. They not only serve him last at meals, but generally give him the coarsest and worst of the victuals; and such of the skins as they do not chuse to wear, are made up in the clumsiest manner into clothing for their aged parents.' "1 Yet among the same people Richardson witnessed "several unquestionable instances of tenderness and affection shown by children to their parents, and of compliance with their whims, much to their own personal inconvenience.” 2 In his work on the tribes of California Mr. Powers observes :- -"Filial piety cannot be said to be a distinguishing quality of the Wailakki, or, in fact, of any Indians. No matter how high may be their station, the aged and decrepit are counted a burden. The old man, hero of a hundred battles, sometime lord of the lion heart and eagle eye,' when his fading eyesight no more can guide the winged arrow as of yore, is ignominiously compelled to accompany his sons into the forest, and bear home on his poor old shoulders the game they have killed." But concerning the Indians of Upper California Beechey writes, "When any of their relations are indisposed, the greatest attention is paid to their wants, and it was remarked by Padre Arroyo that filial affection is stronger in these tribes than in any civilised nation on the globe with which he was acquainted."4 Among the Indians on the east side of the Rocky Mountains, "the aged are commonly treated with much respect, which they consider themselves as entitled to claim"; and they "are not suffered to want any thing which they need, and which 1 Hearne, Journey to the Northern Ocean, p. 345 sq. 2 Richardson, Arctic Searching Expedition, ii. 17. 3 Powers, op. cit. p. 118 sq. 4 Beechey, Voyage to the Pacific and Behring's Strait, ii. 402. |