[15] Lyon, Private Journal during the Voyage of Discovery under Captain Parry, p. 348 sq. See also Parry, Journal of a Second Voyage for the Discovery of a North-West Passage, p. 524 sq.
[16] Cranz, History of Greenland, i. 174. Sarytschew, ‘Voyage of Discovery to the North-East of Siberia,’ in Collection of Modern Voyages, vi. 78 (Aleuts). Harmon, Voyages and Travels in the Interior of North America, p. 291 (Tacullies). Heriot, Travels through the Canadas, p. 319. Lafitau, Mœurs des sauvages ameriquains, i. 106. Burton, City of the Saints, p. 125 (Sioux and prairie tribes generally).
[17] von Spix and von Martius, Travels in Brazil, ii. 228, 241 sq. (Coroados). Stokes, quoted by King and Fitzroy, Voyages of the ‘Adventure’ and ‘Beagle,’ i. 77 (Fuegians).
[18] Williams and Calvert, Fiji, p. 111. See also Anderson, Notes of Travel in Fiji and New Caledonia, pp. 124, 131.
[19] Lumholtz, Among Cannibals, p. 100.
[20] Southey, History of Brazil, iii. 399 (Abipones, Guaranies). Hearne, Journey to the Northern Ocean, p. 307 (Northern Indians). Lewin, Wild Races of South-Eastern India, p. 192 (Toungtha). Foreman, op. cit. p. 182 sq. (Bisayans). Modigliani, Viaggio a Nías, p. 467. Ling Roth, Natives of Sarawak, i. 74 (Dyaks). Chalmers, Pioneering in New Guinea, p. 187; Romilly, Western Pacific and New Guinea, p. 239 sq. (However, Mr Romilly’s statement that “in all the known New Guinea languages there is not even a word for ‘thank you,’” is not quite correct, as appears from Chalmers op. cit. p. 187.) Wilson, Missionary Voyage to the Southern Pacific Ocean, p. 365; Waitz-Gerland, Anthropologie der Naturvölker, vi. 116 (Tahitians). Colenso, op. cit. p. 48 (Maoris). New, Life and Labours in Eastern Africa, p. 100 (Wanika). von François, op. cit. p. 191 (Herero). In the Vedic language, also, there was no word for “thanks” (Oldenberg, Die Religion des Veda, p. 305); and many Eastern languages of the present day lack an equivalent for “thank you” (Ward, View of the History, &c. of the Hindoos, ii. 81, n. a.; Pool, Studies in Muhammedanism, p. 176; Polak, Persien, i. 9). When one of the missionaries in India was engaged in the translation of the Scriptures into Bengali, he found no common word in that language suitable to express the idea of gratitude (Wilkins, Modern Hinduism, p. 397).
Here again we must distinguish between a traveller’s actual experience and the conclusions which he draws from it; and it seems that in many cases our authorities have been too ready to charge savages with a total lack of grateful feelings, because they have been wanting in gratitude on certain occasions. It is too much to expect that a savage should show himself thankful to any stranger who gives him a present. Speaking of the Ahts of British Columbia, Mr Sproat remarks that the Indian’s suspicion prevents a ready gratitude, as he is prone to see, in apparent kindness extended to him, some under-current of selfish motive. “He is accustomed, among his own people, to gifts made for purposes of guile, and also to presents made merely to show the greatness and richness of the giver; but, I imagine,” our author adds, “when the Aht ceases to suspect such motives—when he does not detect pride, craft, or carelessness—he is grateful, and probably grateful in proportion to the trouble taken to serve him.”[21] As for the ingratitude of the Northern Queensland natives, Mr. Lumholtz himself admits that “they assume that the gift is bestowed out of fear”;[22] and of the New Zealanders we are told that their total want of gratitude was particularly due to the fact that “no New Zealander ever did any kindness, or gave anything, to another, without mainly having an eye to himself in the transaction.”[23] Moreover, gratitude often requires not only the absence of a selfish motive in the benefactor, but some degree of self-sacrifice. “A person,” says Mr. Sproat, “may keep an Indian from starving all the winter through, yet, when summer comes, very likely he will not walk a yard for his preserver without payment. The savage does not, in this instance, recognise any obligation; but thinks that a person who had so much more than he could himself consume might well, and without any claim for after services, part with some of it for the advantage of another in want.”[24] Mr. Powers makes a similar observation with reference to the aborigines of California:—“White men,” he says, “who have had dealings with Indians, in conversation with me have often bitterly accused them of ingratitude. ‘Do everything in your power for an Indian,’ they say, ‘and he will accept it all as a matter of course; but for the slightest service you require of him he will demand pay.’ These men do not enter into the Indian’s ideas. This ‘ingratitude’ is really an unconscious compliment to our power. The savage feels, vaguely, the unapproachable elevation on which the American stands above him. He feels that we had much and he had little, and we took away from him even his little. In his view giving does not impoverish us, nor withholding enrich us. Gratitude is a sentiment not in place between master and slave; it is a sentiment for equals. The Indians are grateful to one another.”[25] Nor are men very apt to feel grateful for benefits to which they consider themselves to have a right. Thus, according to Mr. Howitt, the want of gratitude among the South Australian Kurnai for kindnesses shown them by the whites is due to the principle of community, which is so strong a feature of the domestic and social life of these aborigines. “For a supply of food, or for nursing when sick, the Kurnai would not feel grateful to his family group. There would be a common obligation upon all to share food, and to afford personal aid and succour. This principle would also come into play as regards the simple personal property they possess, and would extend to the before-unknown articles procured from the whites. The food, the clothes, the medical attendance which the Kurnai receive from the whites, they take in the accustomed manner; and, in addition to this, we must remember that the donors are regarded as having unlimited resources. They cannot be supposed by the Kurnai to be doing anything but giving out of their abundance.”[26] Mr. Guppy found the same principle at work among the Solomon Islanders:—“Often when during my excursions I have come upon some man who was preparing a meal for himself and his family, I have been surprised at the open-handed way in which he dispensed the food to my party of hungry natives. No gratitude was shown towards the giver, who apparently expected none.”[27] It has also been observed that the want of gratitude with which Arabs have often been charged by Europeans has arisen “from the very common practice of hospitality and generosity, and from the prevailing opinion that these virtues are absolute duties which it would be disgraceful and sinful to neglect.”[28]
[21] Sproat, Scenes and Studies of Savage Life, p. 165 sq.
[22] Lumholtz, Among Cannibals, p. 159.
[23] Colenso, op. cit. p. 48.