The origin and development of the moral ideas

by Edward Westermarck

[78] Matthews, ‘Study of Ethics among the Lower Races,’ in Journal of American Folk-Lore, xii. 9.

[79] Veniaminof, quoted by Petroff, loc. cit. p. 155.

[80] Bergmann, Nomadische Streifereien unter den Kalmüken, ii. 305.

[81] Sibree, op. cit. p. 182.

[82] Mariner, op. cit. i. 226; ii. 155.

[83] Hahn, The Supreme Being of the Khoi-Khoi, p. 21.

[84] Simpson, quoted by Murdoch, in Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn. ix. 427.

It must be added, however, that the reverence for old age may cease when the grey-head gets so old as to be an incumbrance to those around him;[85] and imbecility may put an end to the father’s authority over his family.[86] We have previously noticed that parents worn out with age and disease are among some peoples killed or abandoned by their own children.[87]

[85] Curr, Squatting in Victoria, pp. 254. 245, 265 sqq.; Eyre, op. cit. ii. 316 (Australian aborigines). Sumner, in Jour. Anthr. Inst. xxxi. 76 (Jakuts). Nansen, Eskimo Life, p. 177 sq. (Greenlanders). Supra, p. 534.

[86] Steinmetz, Rechtsverhältnisse, p. 31 (Banaka and Bapuku).