[130] Kidd, The Essential Kafir, p. 92.
[131] Turner, ‘Ethnology of the Ungava District,’ in Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn. xi. 267.
[132] Marquette, Recit des voyages, p. 47 sq.
[133] Brett, Indian Tribes of Guiana, p. 376.
[134] Curr, The Australian Race, i. 50. For other instances of national conceit or pride among savages see Darwin, Journal of Researches, p. 207 (Fuegians); von den Steinen, Unter den Naturvölkern Zentral-Brasiliens, p. 332 (Bakaïri); von Humboldt, Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent, v. 423, and Brett, op. cit. p. 128 (Guiana Indians); James, Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, i. 320 (Omahas); Murdoch, in Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn. ix. 42 (Point Barrow Eskimo); Krasheninnikoff, op. cit. p. 180 (Kamchadales); Brough Smyth, op. cit. ii. 284 (Australian natives); Macpherson, op. cit. p. 67 (Kandhs); Munzinger, Ueber die Sitten und das Recht der Bogos, p. 94; Andersson, Lake Ngami, p. 198 (Ovambo).
We meet with similar feelings and ideas among the nations of archaic culture. The Chinese are taught to think themselves superior to all other peoples. In their writings, ancient and modern, the word “foreigner” is regularly joined with some disrespectful epithet, implying or expressing the ignorance, brutality, obstinacy, or meanness of alien nations, and their obligations to or dependence upon China.[135] To Confucius himself China was “the middle kingdom,” “the multitude of great states,” “all under heaven,” beyond which were only rude and barbarous tribes.[136] According to Japanese ideas, Nippon was the first country created, and the centre of the world.[137] The ancient Egyptians considered themselves as the peculiar people, specially loved by the gods. They alone were termed “men” (romet); other nations were negroes, Asiatics, or Libyans, but not men; and according to the myth these nations were descended from the enemies of the gods.[138] The national pride of the Assyrians, so often referred to by the Hebrew prophets,[139] is conspicuous everywhere in their cuneiform inscriptions: they are the wise, the brave, the powerful, who, like the deluge, carry away all resistance; their kings are the “matchless, irresistible”; and their gods are much exalted above the gods of all other nations.[140] To the Hebrews their own land was “an exceeding good land,” “flowing with milk and honey,” “the glory of all lands”;[141] and its inhabitants were a holy people which the Lord had chosen “to be a special people unto Himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.”[142] Concerning the ancient Persians, Herodotus writes:—“They look upon themselves as very greatly superior in all respects to the rest of mankind, regarding others as approaching to excellence in proportion as they dwell nearer to them; whence it comes to pass that those who are the farthest off must be the most degraded of mankind.”[143] To this day the monarch of Persia retains the title of “the Centre of the Universe”; and it is not easy to persuade a native of Isfahan that any European capital can be superior to his native city.[144] The Greeks called Delphi—or rather the round stone in the Delphic temple—“the navel” or “middle point of the earth”;[145] and they considered the natural relation between themselves and barbarians to be that between master and slave.[146]
[135] Philip, Life and Opinions of the Rev. W. Milne, p. 257. Cf. Staunton, in Narrative of the Chinese Embassy to the Khan of the Tourgouth Tartars, p. viii.
[136] Legge, Chinese Classics, i. 107. See also Giles, op. cit. ii. 116, n. 2.
[137] Griffis, Religions of Japan, p. 207.
[138] Erman, Life in Ancient Egypt, p. 32.