[13] Ibid. i. 105.
[14] Dalton, op. cit. p. 206. Cf. ibid. p. 204 sq.; Bradley-Birt, Chota Nagpore, p. 103.
[15] Prain, ‘Angami Nagas,’ in Revue coloniale internationale, v. 490.
[16] Lewin, Wild Races of South-Eastern India, p. 191.
[17] Browne, quoted by Dalton, op. cit. p. 110.
[18] Smeaton, Loyal Karens of India, p. 254.
[19] Comte, quoted by Mouhot, Travels in Indo-China, Cambodia, and Laos, ii. 27. For the truthfulness of the uncivilised races of India see also Sleeman, op. cit. ii. 110 sqq.; Dalton, op. cit. p. 256 (Oraons); Crooke, Tribes and Castes of the North-Western Provinces, ii. 478 (Hâbûra); Fraser, Tour through the Himālā Mountains, pp. 264 (inhabitants of Kunawur), 335 (Bhoteas); Iyer, in the Madras Government Museum’s Bulletin, iv. 73 (Nayādis of Malabar); Walhouse, ‘Account of a Leaf-wearing Tribe on the Western Coast of India,’ in Jour. Anthr. Inst. iv. 370 (Koragars).
The Andaman Islanders call falsehood yūbda, that is, sin or wrong-doing.[20] The natives of Car Nicobar are not only very honest,[21] but “the accusation of untruthfulness brings them up in arms immediately.”[22] The Dyaks of Borneo are praised for their honesty and great regard for truth.[23] Mr. Bock states that if they could not satisfactorily reply to his questions they hesitated to answer at all, and that if he did not always get the whole truth he always got at least nothing but the truth from them.[24] Veracity is a characteristic of the Alfura of Halmahera[25] and the Bataks of Sumatra, who only in cases of urgent necessity have recourse to a lie.[26] The Javanese, says Crawfurd, “are honourably distinguished from all the civilised nations of Asia by a regard for truth.”[27] “In their intercourse with society,” Raffles observes, “they display, in a high degree, the virtues of honesty, plain dealing, and candour. Their ingenuousness is such that, as the first Dutch authorities have acknowledged, prisoners brought to the bar on criminal charges, if really guilty, nine times out of ten confess, without disguise or equivocation, the full extent and exact circumstances of their offences, and communicate, when required, more information on the matter at issue than all the rest of the evidence.”[28] Among the natives of the Malay Archipelago there are some further instances of trustworthy and truthful peoples;[29] whereas others are described as distrustful and regardless of truth.[30] Thus the natives of Timor-laut lie without compunction when they think they can escape detection,[31] and of the Niase it is said that “truth is their bitter enemy.”[32]
[20] Man, in Jour. Anthr. Inst. xii. 112.
[21] Distant, in Jour. Anthr. Inst. iii. 4.