[78] Macdonald, Africana, i. 10.
[79] Johnston, Kilima-njaro Expedition, p. 438.
[80] Munzinger, Ostafrikanische Studien, p. 533.
[81] Palgrave, quoted in Spencer’s Descriptive Sociology, ‘Asiatic Races,’ p. 31.
[82] Burckhardt, Notes on the Bedouins and Wahábys, p. 105.
In other statements gratitude is directly represented as an object of praise, or its absence as an object of disapproval. Among the Atkha Aleuts, according to Father Yakof, gratitude to benefactors was considered a virtue.[83] Among the Omahas, if a man receives a favour and does not manifest his thankfulness, the people exclaim:—“He does not appreciate the gift! He has no manners.”[84] The Kamchadales “are not only grateful for favours, but they think it absolutely necessary to make some return for a present.”[85] The Chinese say that “kindness is more binding than a loan.”[86] According to the ‘Divine Panorama,’ a well-known Taouist work, those who forget kindness and are guilty of ingratitude shall be tormented after death and “shall not escape one jot of their punishments.”[87] In one of the Pahlavi texts gratitude is represented as a means of arriving at heaven, whilst ingratitude is stigmatised as a heinous sin;[88] and according to Ammian ungrateful persons were even punished by law in ancient Persia.[89] The same, we are told, was the case in Macedonia.[90] The duty of gratitude was strongly inculcated by Greek and Roman moralists.[91] Aristotle observes that we ought, as a general rule, rather to return a kindness to our benefactor than to confer a gratuitous favour upon a brother in arms, just as we ought rather to repay a loan to a creditor than to spend the same sum upon a present to a friend.[92] According to Xenophon the requital of benefits is enjoined by a divine law.[93] “There is no duty more indispensable than that of returning a kindness,” says Cicero; “all men detest one forgetful of a benefit.”[94] Seneca calls ingratitude a most odious vice, which it is difficult to punish by law, but which we refer for judgment to the gods.[95] The ancient Scandinavians considered it dishonourable for a man to kill even an enemy in blood-revenge if he had received a benefit from him.[96]
[83] Yakof, quoted by Petroff, Report on the Population, &c. of Alaska, p. 158.
[84] Dorsey, ‘Omaha Sociology,’ in Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn. iii. 270.
[85] Dobell, Travels in Kamtschatka, i. 75.
[86] Davis, China, ii. 123.