[7] Mathew, ‘Australian Aborigines,’ in Jour. & Proceed. Roy. Soc. N. S. Wales, xxiii. 388. Brough Smyth, Aborigines of Victoria, ii. 229. Ridley, Aborigines of Australia, p. 22.
[8] Jung, ‘Aus dem Seelenleben der Australier,’ in Mittheilungen des Vereins für Erdkunde zu Leipzig, 1877, p. 11 sq.
[9] Mackenzie, Voyage to the Frozen and Pacific Ocean, p. 149.
[10] Harmon, Journal of Voyages and Travels in the Interior of North America, p. 315.
[11] Murray, Forty Years’ Mission Work in Polynesia and New Guinea, p. 499. For other instances of kindness displayed by savages towards white men, see von Kotzebue, Voyage of Discovery into the South Sea, iii. 174 (people of Radack); Yate, Account of New Zealand, p. 102 sq.; Dieffenbach, Travels in New Zealand, ii. 112; Keate, Account of the Pelew Islands, p. 329 sq.; Earl, Papuans, p. 79 (natives of Port Dory, New Guinea); Sarytschew, ‘Voyage of Discovery to the North-East of Siberia,’ in Collection of Modern and Contemporary Voyages and Travels, vi. 78 (Aleuts); King and Fitzroy, Voyages of the “Adventure” and “Beagle,” ii. 168, 174 (Patagonians); Wilson and Felkin, Uganda, i. 225.
The friendly reception which white men have met with in savage countries is closely connected with a custom which, as it seems, prevails universally among the lower races while in their native state,[12] as also among the peoples of culture at the earlier stages of their civilisation[13]—hospitality towards strangers. This custom presents several remarkable characteristics, which, to all appearance, ill agree with their tribal or national exclusiveness generally. The stranger is often welcomed with special marks of honour. The best seat is assigned to him; the best food at the host’s disposal is set before him; he takes precedence over all the members of the household; he enjoys extraordinary privileges. M. Hyades says of the Fuegians, “Quelque encombrée que soit une hutte, et si réduite que soit la quantité d’aliments dont on dispose, le nouvel arrivant est toujours assuré d’avoir une place près du foyer et une part de la nourriture.”[14] The Mattoal of California, though they are sometimes heartlessly indifferent even to their parents, “will divide the last shred of dried salmon with any casual comer who has not a shadow of claim upon them, except the claim of that exaggerated and supererogatory hospitality that savages use.”[15] A Creek Indian would not only receive into his house a traveller or sojourner of whatever nation or colour, but would treat him as a brother or as his own child, divide with him the last grain of corn or piece of flesh, and offer him the most valuable things in his possession.[16] Among the Arawaks, “when a stranger, and particularly an European, enters the house of an Indian, every thing is at his command.”[17] Notwithstanding the Karen’s suspicious nature, says Mr. Smeaton, his hospitality is unbounded. “He will entertain every stranger that comes, without asking a question. He feels himself disgraced if he does not receive all comers, and give them the very best cheer he has. The wildest Karen will receive a guest with a grace and dignity and entertain him with a lavish hospitality that would become a duke. Hundreds of their old legends inculcate the duty of receiving strangers without regard to pecuniary circumstances either of host or guest.”[18] Among many uncivilised peoples it is customary for a man to offer even his wife, or one of his wives, to the stranger for the time he remains his guest.[19] The Bedouins of Nejd have a saying that “the guest while in the house is its lord”;[20] and in the Institutes of Vishnu we read that, as the Brâhmanas are lords over all other castes, and as a husband is lord over his wives, so the guest is the lord of his host.[21]
[12] Azara, Voyages dans l’Amérique méridionale, ii. 91 (Guanas). Southey, History of Brazil, i. 247 (Tupis). Davis, El Gringo, p. 421 (Pueblos). Lafitau, Mœurs des sauvages amériquains, i. 106; ii. 88. Heriot, Travels through the Canadas, p. 318 sq. Buchanan, North American Indians, p. 6. Perrot, Mémoire sur les mœurs, coustumes et relligion des sauvages de l’Amérique septentrionale, pp. 69, 202. Neighbors, in Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes of the United States, ii. 132 (Comanches). James, Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains, i. 321 sq. (Omahas). Morgan, League of the Iroquois, p. 327 sqq.; Loskiel, History of the Mission of the United Brethren among the Indians in North America, i. 15; Colden, in Schoolcraft, op. cit. iii. 190 (Iroquois). Powers, Tribes of California, p. 183. Sproat, Scenes and Studies of Savage Life, p. 56 sqq. (Ahts). Boas, ‘Report on the Indians of British Columbia,’ in the Report read at the Meeting of the British Association, 1889, p. 36. Keating, Expedition to the Source of St. Peter’s River, i. 101 (Potawatomis); ii. 167 (Chippewas). Richardson, Arctic Searching Expedition, ii. 18 (Crees and Chippewas). Idem, in Franklin, Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea, p. 66; Mackenzie, Voyages to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans, p. xcvi. (Crees). Dall, Alaska, p. 397; Sarytschew, loc. cit. vi. 78; Sauer, Billing’s Expedition to the Northern Parts of Russia, p. 274 (Aleuts). Lyon, Private Journal, p. 349 sq.; Parry, Second Voyage for the Discovery of a North-West Passage, p. 526 (Eskimo of Igloolik). Egede, Description of Greenland, p. 126; Cranz, History of Greenland, i. 172 sq.; Kane, Arctic Explorations, ii. 122; Holm, ‘Ethnologisk Skizze af Angmagsalikerne,’ in Meddelelser om Grönland, x. 87, 175 sq. (Greenlanders). Beechey, Voyage to the Pacific and Behring’s Strait, ii. 571; Richardson, Arctic Searching Expedition, i. 367; Seemann, Voyage of “Herald,” ii. 65 (Western Eskimo). Hooper, Ten Months among the Tents of the Tuski, pp. 160, 193, 194, 208; Nordenskiöld, Vegas färd kring Asien och Europa, ii. 145 (Chukchi). Dall, op. cit. pp. 381 (Tuski), 517 (Kamchadales), 526 (Ainos). Sarytschew, loc. cit. v. 67 (Kamchadales). Dobell, Travels in Kamtschatka and Siberia, i. 63, 82 sq. (Kamchadales); ii. 42 (Jakuts). Sauer, op. cit. p. 124 (Jakuts). Vámbéry, Das Türkenvolk, pp. 159 (Jakuts), 336 (natives of Eastern Turkestan), 411 (Turkomans), 451 (Tshuvashes), 509 (Baskirs), &c. Krasheninnikoff, History of Kamschatka, p. 236 (Kurile Islanders). Georgi, Russia, i. 113 (Mordvins); iii. 111 (Tunguses), 167 (Koriaks); iv. 22 (Kalmucks). Bergmann, Nomadische Streifereien unter den Kalmüken, ii. 281 sqq. Prejevalsky, Mongolia, i. 71 sq. Castrén, Nordiska resor och forskningar, i. 41 (Laplanders), 319 (Ostyaks). Scott Robertson, Káfirs of the Hindu-Kush, p. 187 sq. Fraser, Tour through the Himālā Mountains, pp. 264 (people of Kunawar), 335 (Butias). Dalton, Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal, pp. 46 (Kukis), 68 (Garos). Hunter, Annals of Rural Bengal, i. 215 (Santals). Tickell, ‘Memoir on the Hodésum,’ in Jour. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, ix. (pt. ii.) 807 sq. (Hos). Lewin, Wild Races of South-Eastern India, p. 217 (Tipperahs). Colquhoun, Amongst the Shans, pp. 160 sq. (Steins), 371 (Shans). Foreman, Philippine Islands, p. 187. de Crespigny, ‘Milanows of Borneo,’ in Jour. Anthr. Inst. v, 34. Low, Sarawak, pp. 243 (Hill Dyaks), 336 (Kayans). Boyle, Adventures among the Dyaks of Borneo, p. 215. Ling Roth, Natives of Sarawak, i. 82 (Sea Dyaks). Marsden, History of Sumatra, p. 208 (natives of the interior of Sumatra). Raffles, History of Java, i. 249; Crawfurd, History of the Indian Archipelago, i. 53 (Javanese). Riedel, De sluik- en kroesharige rassen tusschen Selebes en Papua, p. 41 (natives of Ambon and Uliase). von Kotzebue, op. cit. iii. 165 (natives of Radack), 215 (Pelew Islanders). Hale, U.S. Exploring Expedition. Vol. VI.—Ethnography and Philology, p. 95 (Kingsmill Islanders). Macdonald, Oceania, p. 195 (Efatese). Erskine, Cruise among the Islands of the Western Pacific, p. 273 sq.; Williams and Calvert, Fiji and the Fijians, p. 110; Anderson, Travel in Fiji and New Caledonia, p. 134 sq. (Fijians). Ellis, Polynesian Researches, i. 95. Idem, Tour through Hawaii, p. 346 sq. Forster, op. cit. ii. 158 (Tahitians) 364 (natives of Tana), 394 (South Sea Islanders generally). Cook, Voyage round the World, p. 40 (Tahitians). Tregear, ‘Niue,’ in Jour. Polynesian Soc. ii. 13 (Savage Islanders), Turner, Samoa, p. 114; Pritchard, Polynesian Reminiscences, p. 132; Brenchley, Jottings during the Cruise of H.M.S. Curaçoa among the South Sea Islands, p. 76 (Samoans). Mariner, Natives of the Tonga Islands, ii. 154. Yate, op. cit. p. 100; Dieffenbach, op. cit. ii. 107 sq.; Polack, Manners and Customs of the New Zealanders, ii. 155 sq.; Angas, Savage Life and Scenes in Australia and New Zealand, ii. 22 (Maoris). Gason, ‘Manners and Customs of the Dieyerie Tribe,’ in Woods, Native Tribes of South Australia, p. 258; Brough Smyth, op. cit. i. 25; Salvado, op. cit. p. 340 (Australian aborigines). Ellis, History of Madagascar, i. 198; Sibree, The Great African Island, pp. 126, 129; Rochon, Voyage to Madagascar, p. 62; Little, Madagascar, p. 61; Shaw, ‘Betsileo,’ in Antananarivo Annual and Madagascar Magazine, ii. 82. Burchell, Travels in the Interior of Southern Africa, ii. 54 (Bushmans), 345 (Hottentots). Kolben, Present State of the Cape of Good Hope, i. 166, 337; Le Vaillant, Travels from the Cape of Good Hope, ii. 143 sq.; Schinz, Deutsch-Südwest-Afrika, p. 81 (Hottentots). Lichtenstein, Travels in Southern Africa, i. 272; Leslie, Among the Zulus and Amatongas, p. 203 (Kafirs). Casalis, Basutos, pp. 209, 224. Andersson, Lake Ngami, 198 (Ovambo). Macdonald, Africana, i. 27, 263 (Eastern Central Africans). Wilson and Felkin, op. cit. i. 211, 225 (Waganda). Rowley, Africa Unveiled, p. 47 (natives of Manganja, in the neighbourhood of Lake Nyassa). New, Life, Wanderings, and Labours in East Africa, pp. 102 (Wanika), 361 (Taveta). Thomson, Through Masai Land, p. 64 (Wa-kwafi, of the Taveta). Tuckey, Expedition to explore the River Zaire, p. 374 (Congo natives), Bosman, Description of the Coast of Guinea, p. 108. Burton, Two Trips to Gorilla Land, i. 106 (Mpongwe). Idem, Abeokuta, i. 303 (Yoruba). Caillié, Travels through Central Africa, i. 165 (Bagos). Chavanne, Die Sahara, p. 185 (Touareg). Hanoteau and Letourneux, La Kabylie, ii. 45 sqq. Munzinger, Ostafrikanische Studien, p. 534 (Barea). Lobo, Voyage to Abyssinia, p. 82 sq.
For the deteriorating influence which contact with a “higher culture” exercises on savage hospitality, see Nansen, First Crossing of Greenland, ii. 306 sq.; Ellis, Tour through Hawaii, p. 346; von Kotzebue, op. cit. iii. 250 (Hawaiians); Meade, Ride through the Disturbed Districts of New Zealand, p. 164; Dieffenbach, op. cit. ii. 107, 108, 110.
[13] According to a law of the Peruvian Incas, strangers and travellers should be treated as guests, and public houses were provided for them (Garcilasso de la Vega, First Part of the Royal Commentaries of the Yncas, ii. 34). For Yucatan, see Landa, Relacion de las cosas de Yucatan, p. 134. Though hospitality, according to Mr. Wells Williams (Middle Kingdom, i. 835), is not a trait of the character of the modern Chinese, kindness to strangers and travellers is enjoined in their moral and religious books (Chalmers, ‘Chinese Natural Theology,’ in China Review, v. 281. Douglas, Confucianism and Taouism, p. 273. Indo-Chinese Gleaner, iii. 160). In Corea it would be a grave and shameful thing to refuse a portion of one’s meal with any person, known or unknown, who presents himself at eating-time (Griffis, Corea, p. 288). For the Hebrews, see Genesis, xviii. 2 sqq., xxiv. 31 sqq.; Leviticus, xix. 9 sq., xxv. 35; Deuteronomy, xiv. 29, xvi. 11, 14; Judges, xix. 17 sqq.; Job, xxxiv. 32; also Bertholet, Die Stellung der Israeliten und der Juden zu den Fremden, p. 22 sqq., and Nowack, Lehrbuch der hebräischen Archäologie, p. 186 sq. For Muhammedans, see Lane, Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, p. 296 sq.; Burckhardt, Notes on the Bedouins and Wahábys, pp. 100-102, 192 sqq.; Wood, Journey to the Source of the River Oxus, p. 148; Hamilton, Researches in Asia Minor, ii. 379. For ancient India, see Leist, Alt-arisches Jus Gentium, pp. 39, 40, 223 sqq. For Greece, see Schmidt, Ethik der alten Griechen, ii. 325 sqq. For Rome, see Leist, Alt-arisches Jus Civile, i. 355 sqq.; von Jhering, Geist des römischen Rechts, i. 227 sq. For ancient Teutons, see Grimm, Deutsche Rechtsalterthümer, p. 399 sq.; Gummere, Germanic Origins, p. 162 sqq.; Keyser, Efterladte Skrifter, ii. pt. ii. 93; Weinhold, Altnordisches Leben, p. 441 sqq.; Gudmundsson and Kålund, ‘Sitte,’ in Paul’s Grundriss der germanischen Philologie, iii. 450 sq. For Slavonians, see Schrader, Reallexikon der indogermanischen Altertumskunde, i. 270; Krauss, Die Südslaven, p. 644 sqq.
[14] Hyades and Deniker, Mission scientifique du Cap Horn, vii. 243.