[122] Crossland, quoted by Ling Roth, Natives of Sarawak, i. 85.
The Santals are gentle and very obliging, and sociable to a fault among their own people.[123] The Hos “are charitable to those deserving aid.”[124] The Todas believe that, after death, the souls of good people will have enjoyment in heaven, whilst the souls of bad people will suffer punishment; “a good man is, in the Toda estimation, one who is given to deeds of charity, and a bad man one who is uncharitable (this in order of precedence), quarrelsome, thieving, &c.”[125] Mr. Batchelor states that “a more kind, gentle, and sympathetic people than the Ainos of Japan would be very difficult to find”; anything given to them they always divide with their friends.[126] The Samoyedes are ready to share their last morsel with their companions; and it is said that nobody can surpass the poor Ostyak in benevolence and other virtues of the heart.[127] “The finest trait in the character of a Bedouin (next to good faith),” Burckhardt observes, “is his kindness, benevolence, and charity…. Among themselves, the Bedouins constitute a nation of brothers; often quarrelling, it must be owned, with each other, but ever ready, when at peace, to give mutual assistance.”[128] Generosity is a virtue which always commands particular respect in the desert.[129] The Arabs of the Soudan have a saying that “you must always put other people’s things on your head, and your own under your arm. Then, if there be danger of the things falling off your head, you must raise your arm, and let fall your own things to save those of others.”[130]
[123] Man, Sonthalia, p. 19 sq. Hunter, Annals of Rural Bengal, i. 215.
[124] Tickell, ‘Memoir on the Hodésum,’ in Jour. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, ix. (pt. ii.) 807.
[125] Thurston, ‘Todas of the Nilgiris,’ in the Madras Government Museum’s Bulletin, i. 166 sq.
[126] Batchelor, Ainu of Japan, p. 19. Holland, ‘Ainos,’ in Jour. Anthr. Inst. iii. 235.
[127] Castrén, op. cit. i. 238; ii. 55.
[128] Burckhardt, Notes on the Bedouins and Wahábys, p. 208.
[129] Wallin, Reseanteckningar från Orienten, iii. 244. Blunt, Bedouin Tribes of the Euphrates, ii. 224.
[130] Richardson, Mission to Central Africa, i. 117.