CHAPTER XXIII CHARITY AND GENEROSITY In previous chapters we have examined the regard for the life and physical well-being of others as displayed in moral ideas concerning homicide and the infliction of bodily harm. We shall now consider the same subject from another point of view, namely, the valuation of such conduct as positively promotes the existence and material comfort of a fellow-creature. There is one duty so universal and obvious that it is seldom mentioned: the mother's duty to rear her children, provided that they are suffered to live. Another duty-equally primitive, I believe, in the human race—is incumbent on the married man: the protection and support of his family. We hear of this duty from all quarters of the savage world. Among the North American Indians it was considered disgraceful for a man to have more wives than he was able to maintain.1 Mr. Powers says that among the Patwin, a Californian tribe which he believes to rank among the lowest in the world, "the sentiment that the men are bound to support the women-that is to furnish the supplies-is stronger even than among us.' "2 Among the Iroquois it was the office of the husband "to make a mat, to repair the cabin of his wife, or to construct a new one.' The product of his hunting expeditions, 1 Waitz, Anthropologie der Naturvölker, iii. 109. Carver, Travels through the Interior Parts of North America, p. 367. 2 Powers, Tribes of California, p. 222. 6 during the first year of marriage, belonged of right to his wife, and afterwards he shared it equally with her, whether she remained in the village, or accompanied him to the chase.1 Among the Botocudos, whose girls are married very young, remaining in the house of the father till the age of puberty, the husband is even then obliged to maintain his wife, though living apart from her. Among the Lengua Indians of the Paraguayan Chaco the child of a woman whose husband deserts her is generally killed at birth, the mother feeling that it is the man's part of married life to provide meat for his offspring.3 Azara states that, among the Charruas, "du moment où un homme se marie, il forme une famille à part, et travaille pour la nourrir.' Of the Fuegians it is said that, "as soon as a youth is able to maintain a wife, by his exertions in fishing or bird-catching, he obtains the consent of her relations." 5 The wretched Rock Veddahs in Ceylon "acknowledge the marital obligation and the duty of supporting their own families." Among the Maldivians, "although a man is allowed four wives at one time, it is only on condition of his being able to support them."7 The Nairs, we are told, consider it a husband's duty to provide his wife with food, clothing, and ornaments ; 8 and almost the same is said by Dr. Schwaner with reference to the tribes of the Barito district, in the south-east part of Borneo.9 Among the cannibals of New Britain the chiefs have to see that the families of the warriors are properly maintained.10 Concerning the Tonga Islanders Mariner states that "a married woman is one who cohabits with a man, and lives under his roof and protection." 11 Among the Maoris "the mission of woman was to increase and multiply, that of man to defend his home." 12 With reference to the Kurnai in South Australia, Mr. Howitt states that "the man has to provide for his family with the assistance of his wife. His share is to hunt for their support, and to fight for their protection." 13 In Lado, in Africa, the bridegroom has to assure his father-in-law three times that he will 1 Heriot, Travels through the Canadas, p. 338. 2 von Tschudi, Reisen durch Südamerika, ii. 283. 3 Hawtrey, in Jour. Anthr. Inst. xxxi. 295. 4 Azara, Voyages dans l'Amérique méridionale, ii. 22. 5 King and Fitzroy, Voyages of the "Adventure" and "Beagle," ii. 182. 6 Tennent, Ceylon, ii. 441. 7 Rosset, 'Maldive Islands,' in Jour. Anthr. Inst. xvi. 168 sq. 8 Stewart, 'Notes on Northern Cachar,' in Jour. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, xxiv. 614. 9 Schwaner, Borneo, i. 199. 10 Angas, Polynesia, p. 373. 11 Mariner, Natives of the Tonga Islands, ii. 167. 12 Johnston, Maoria, p. 28 sq. 13 Fison and Howitt, Kamilaroi and Kurnai, p. 206. protect his wife, calling the people present to witness.1 Among the Touareg a man who deserts his wife is blamed, as he has taken upon himself the obligation of maintaining her.2 3 Among many of the lower races a man is not even permitted to marry until he has given some proof of his ability to support and protect his family. Indeed, so closely is the idea that a man is bound to maintain his family connected with that of marriage and fatherhood, that sometimes even repudiated wives with their children are, at least to a certain extent, supported by their former husbands. And upon the death of a husband, the obligation of maintaining his wife and her children devolves on his heirs, the wide-spread custom of a man marrying the widow of his deceased brother being not only a privilege, but, among several peoples, even a duty.5 Turning to peoples who have reached a higher stage of culture :-Abû Shugâ' says that, among Muhammedans, parents are obliged to support their families, "if the children are both poor and under age, or both poor and lastingly infirm, or both poor and insane."" But that this duty chiefly devolves on the father is evident from the fact that the mother is even entitled to claim wages for nursing them." Buddhistic law goes so far as to prescribe that the parents shall provide their son with a beautiful wife, and give him a share of the wealth belonging to the family. It has been observed that in the Confucian books there is no mention of any real duties incumbent upon the father towards his children; nor does the Decalogue contain anything on the subject; nor any law of ancient Greece or Rome.10 But, as has been justly 1 Wilson and Felkin, Uganda, ii. 6 p. 18. Sachau, Muhammedanisches Recht, 7 Ibid. p. 99 sq. 8 Hardy, Manual of Budhism, p. 495. 9 Faber, Digest of the Doctrines of Confucius, p. 82. 10 Leist, Græco-italische Rechtsge schichte, p. 13. argued, if legal prescriptions are wanting, that is because they are thought to be superfluous, nature itself having sufficiently prepared men for the performance of their duties towards their offspring. So, also, it is regarded as a matter of course that the husband shall support his wife, however great power he may possess over her. Among the Romans manus implied not only the wife's subordination to the husband, but also the husband's obligation to protect the wife.2 The parents' duty of taking care of their offspring is, in the first place, based on the sentiment of parental affection. That the maternal sentiment is universal in mankind is a fact too generally admitted to need demonstration; not so the father's love of his children. Savage men are commonly supposed to be very indifferent towards their offspring; but a detailed study of facts leads us to a different conclusion. It appears that, among the lower races, the paternal sentiment is hardly less universal than the maternal, although it is probably never so strong and in many cases distinctly feeble. But more often it displays itself with considerable intensity even among the rudest savages. In the often-quoted case of the Patagonian chief who, in a moment of passion, dashed his little son with the utmost violence against the rocks because he let a basket of eggs which the father handed to him fall down, we have only an instance of savage impetuosity. The same father "would, at any other time, have been the most daring, the most enduring, and the most self-devoted" in the support and defence of his child. Similarly the Central Australian natives, in fits of sudden passion, when hardly knowing what they do, sometimes treat a child with great severity; but as a rule, to which there are very few exceptions, they are kind and considerate to their children, the men as well as the women carrying them when they get tired on the march, 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 1 Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia, p. 50 sq. 4 6 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 Wales, pp. 2, 4. Fraser, Aborigines Lum of New South Wales, pp. 2, 44. Bailey, Wild Tribes of the Veddahs of Ceylon,' in Trans. Ethn. Soc. N.S. ii. 291. Deschamps, Carnet d'un voyageur au pays des Veddas, p. 380. 5 King and Fitzroy, op. cit. i. 76; ii. 186. Weddell, Voyage towards the South Pole, p. 156. Pertuiset, Le Trésor des Incas à la Terre de Feu, P. 217. 6 Williams and Calvert, Fiji and the Fijians, p. 116. 7 Seemann, Viti, p. 193. Cf. ibid. p. 194. |