[112] Powers, op. cit. p. 318 sq. For other instances of love of home among uncivilised races see von Spix and von Martius, op. cit. ii. 242, note (Coroados); von Kotzebue, op. cit. iii. 45 (Indians of California); Gibbs, Tribes of Western Washington and North-Western Oregon, p. 187; Elliott, Report of the Seal Islands of Alaska, p. 240; Hooper, Ten Months among the Tents of the Tuski, p. 209; von Siebold, Aino auf der Insel Yesso, p. 11; Mallat, Les Philippines, ii. 95 (Negritos); von Brenner, Besuch bei den Kannibalen Sumatras, p. 194 (Bataks); Earl, Papuans, p. 126 (natives of Rotti, near Timor); Ling Roth, Aborigines of Tasmania, p. 46; Dieffenbach, Travels in New Zealand, ii. 174; Cumming, In the Himalayas, p. 404 (Paharis); Lane, Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, p. 302 (Bedawees); Tristram, Great Sahara, p. 193 sq. (Beni M’zab); Burton, Zanzibar, ii. 96 (Wanika); Emin Pasha in Central Africa, p. 315 (Monbuttu); Andersson, Lake Ngami, p. 198 (Ovambo); Rowley, Africa Unveiled, p. 63 sq. (Kroos of the Grain Coast below Liberia); Price, ‘Quissama Tribe,’ in Jour. Anthr. Inst. i. 187.
Moreover, as we have noticed above, savages have the greatest regard for their native customs and institutions.[113] Many of them have displayed that love of national independence which gives to patriotism its highest fervour.[114] And among some uncivilised peoples, at least, the force of racial and linguistic unity shows itself even outside the social or political unit. Burckhardt observes that the Bedouins are not only solicitous for the honour of their own respective tribes, but consider the interests of all other tribes as more or less attached to their own, and frequently evince a general esprit de corps, lamenting “the losses of any of their tribes occasioned by attacks from settlers or foreign troops, even though at war with those tribes.”[115] A Tongan “loves the island on which he was born, in particular, and all the Tonga islands generally, as being one country, and speaking one language.”[116] Travellers have noticed how gratifying it is, when visiting an uncultured people, to know a little of their language; there is at once a sympathetic link between the native and the stranger.[117] Even the almost inaccessible Berber of the Great Atlas, in spite of his excessive hatred of the European, will at once give you a kindly glance as soon as you, to his astonishment, utter to him a few words in his own tongue.
[113] See supra, [i. 118 sq.]
[114] Cf. Dobrizhoffer, Account of the Abipones, ii. 95, 105; Lomonaco, ‘Sulle razze indigene del Brasile,’ in Archivio per l’antropologia e la etnologia, xix. 57 (Tupis); Brett, Indian Tribes of Guiana, p. 348; Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes of the United States, iii. 189 (Iroquois); Nansen, Eskimo Life, p. 323 (Greenlanders); Macpherson, Memorials of Service in India, p. 81 (Kandhs); Sarasin, op. cit. iii. 530 (Veddahs); Casati, Ten Years in Equatoria, i. 188, 304 (Negroes of Central Africa); Fritsch, Die Eingeborenen Süd-Afrika’s, p. 422 sq. (Bushmans).
[115] Burckhardt, Bedouins and Wahábys, p. 205.
[116] Mariner, Natives of the Tonga Islands, ii. 156.
[117] See Stokes, Discoveries in Australia, ii. 25.
Like other species of the altruistic sentiment, patriotism is apt to overestimate the qualities of the object for which it is felt; and it does so all the more readily as love of one’s country is almost inseparably intermingled with love of one’s self. The ordinary, typical patriot has a strong will to believe that his nation is the best. If, as many people nowadays seem to maintain, such a will to believe is an essential characteristic of true patriotism, savages are as good patriots as anybody. In their intercourse with white men they have often with astonishment noticed the arrogant air of superiority adopted by the latter; in their own opinion they are themselves vastly superior to the whites. According to Eskimo beliefs, the first man, though made by the Great Being, was a failure, and was consequently cast aside and called kob-lu-na, which means “white man”; but a second attempt of the Great Being resulted in the formation of a perfect man, and he was called in-nu, the name which the Eskimo give to themselves.[118] Australian natives, on being asked to work, have often replied, “White fellow works, not black fellow; black fellow gentleman.”[119] When anything foolish is done, the Chippewas use an expression which means “as stupid as a white man.”[120] If a South Sea Islander sees a very awkward person, he says, “How stupid you are; perhaps you are an Englishman.”[121] Mr. Williams tells us of a Fijian who, having been to the United States, was ordered by his chiefs to say whether the country of the white man was better than Fiji, and in what respects. He had not, however, gone far in telling the truth, when one cried out, “He is a prating fellow”; another, “He is impudent”; and some said, “Kill him.”[122] The Koriaks are more argumentative; in order to prove that the accounts they hear of the advantages of other countries are so many lies, they say to the stranger, “If you could enjoy these advantages at home, what made you take so much trouble to come to us?”[123] But the Koriaks, in their turn are looked down upon by their neighbours, the Chukchi, who call the surrounding peoples old women, only fit to guard their flocks, and to be their attendants.[124] The Ainu despise the Japanese just as much as the Japanese despise them, and are convinced of “the superiority of their own blood and descent over that of all other peoples in the world.”[125] Even the miserable Veddah of Ceylon has a very high opinion of himself, and regards his civilised neighbours with contempt.[126] As is often the case with civilised men, savages attribute to their own people all kinds of virtue in perfection. The South American Mbayás, according to Azara, “se croient la nation la plus noble du monde, la plus généreuse, la plus exacte à tenir sa parole avec loyauté, et la plus vaillante.”[127] The Eskimo of Norton Sound speak of themselves as yu’-pĭk, meaning fine or complete people, whereas an Indian is termed iñ-kĭ-lĭk, from a word which means “a louse egg.”[128] When a Greenlander saw a foreigner of gentle and modest manners, his usual remark was, “He is almost as well-bred as we,” or, “He begins to be a man,” that is, a Greenlander.[129] The savage regards his people as the people, as the root of all others, and as occupying the middle of the earth. The Hottentots love to call themselves “the men of men.”[130] The Indians of the Ungava district, Hudson Bay, give themselves the name nenenot, that is, true or ideal red men.[131] In the language of the Illinois Indians the word illinois means “men”—“as if they looked upon all other Indians as beasts.”[132] The aborigines of Hayti believed that their island was the first of all things, that the sun and moon issued from one of its caverns, and men from another.[133] Each Australian tribe, says Mr. Curr, regards its country as the centre of the earth, which in most cases is believed not to extend more than a couple of hundred miles or so in any direction.[134]
[118] Hall, Arctic Researches, p. 566 sq.
[119] Hale, U.S. Exploring Expedition. Vol. VI. Ethnography and Philology, p. 109.