[113] de Poircy-Rochefort, Histoire naturelle et morale des Iles Antilles, p. 460.
Among the Tonga Islanders the sentiment of humanity, or a fellow-feeling for one another, is universally approved. They “are not only not selfish, but admire liberality, and are practically liberal.” When any one is about to eat, he always shares what he has with those about him without any hesitation, and not to do so would be considered exceedingly vile and selfish. So, also, “if one chief sees something in the possession of another, which he has a strong desire to have, he has only to ask him for it, and in all probability it is readily and liberally given.”[114] Not even the Fijians, who took great pains to instil into the minds of their youth a contempt for compassionate impulses and an admiration for relentless cruelty,[115] were destitute of humanity and friendly feelings.[116] In Aneiteum, of the New Hebrides, the people believed that the sin which would be visited with the severest punishment in the land of the dead was stinginess or niggardliness in giving away food, and that the virtue which received the highest reward was a generous hospitality and a giving liberally at feasts.[117] In Tana, another island belonging to the same group, “one man has only to ask anything from his neighbours, and he gets it.”[118] Of the New Caledonians Mr. Atkinson states that, among themselves, they are “of a generosity that seems to arise mainly from aversion to refuse any request.”[119] The Dyaks are described as hospitable, kindly, and humane, “to a degree which well might shame ourselves”;[120] whilst the practice of head-hunting is carried on by every tribe at the expense of its neighbour, the members of each community have strong feelings of sympathy for each other.[121] Among the Sea Dyaks, says Grassland, “if any are sick or unable to work, the rest help; and there seems to me a much stronger bond of union amongst them than I have ever seen among the labouring classes in England.”[122]
[114] Mariner, op. cit. ii. 153, 154, 165.
[115] Erskine, Cruise among the Islands of the Western Pacific, p. 247.
[116] Ibid. pp. 247, 273. Williams and Calvert, op. cit. pp. 93, 115 sq. Seemann, Viti, p. 192.
[117] Inglis, In the New Hebrides, p. 31.
[118] Campbell, A Year in the New Hebrides, p. 169.
[119] Atkinson, in Folk-Lore, xiv. 248.
[120] Boyle, Adventures among the Dyaks of Borneo, p. 215.
[121] Bock, Head-Hunters of Borneo, p. 210 sq. Brooke, Ten Years in Saráwak, i. 57.