[81] Mason, in Jour. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, xxxvii. pt. ii. 141.
[82] Eastman, op. cit. p. 169.
[83] Ellis, Ew̔e-speaking Peoples, p. 224.
[84] Leuschner, in Steinmetz, Rechtsverhältnisse, p. 24 (Bakwiri). Nicole, ibid. p. 135 (Diakité-Sarracolese). Lang, ibid. p. 262 (Washambala). Rautanen, ibid. p. 343 (Ondonga). Sorge, ibid. p. 421 (Nissan Islanders). Senfft, ibid. p. 452 (Marshall Islanders).
[85] Monrad, op. cit. pp. 23, 25.
[86] Kubary, in Original-Mittheil. aus der ethnol. Abtheil. d. königl. Museen zu Berlin, i. 78.
[87] Hall, Arctic Researches, p. 572. Cf. supra, [ii. 238, n. 3].
[88] Keating, op. cit. ii. 172.
[89] Buchanan, Sketches of the History, &c. of the North American Indians, p. 184.
From the opinions on suicide held by uncivilised races we shall pass to those prevalent among peoples of a higher culture. In China suicide is extremely common among all classes and among persons of all ages.[90] For those who have been impelled to this course by a sense of honour the gates of heaven open wide, and tablets bearing their names are erected in the temples in honour of virtuous men or women. As honourable self-murderers are regarded servants or officers of state who choose not to survive a defeat in battle or an insult offered to the sovereign of their country; young men who, when an insult has been paid to their parents which they are unable to avenge, prefer not to survive it; and women who kill themselves on the death of their husbands or fiancés.[91] In spite of imperial prohibitions, sutteeism of widowed wives and brides has continued to flourish in China down to this day, and meets with the same public applause as ever;[92] whilst those widowed wives and brides who have lost their lives in preserving their chastity, are entitled both to an honorary gate and to a place in a temple of the State as an object of worship.[93] Another common form of suicide which is admired as heroic in China is that committed for the purpose of taking revenge upon an enemy who is otherwise out of reach—according to Chinese ideas a most effective mode of revenge, not only because the law throws the responsibility of the deed on him who occasioned it, but also because the disembodied soul is supposed to be better able than the living man to persecute the enemy.[94] The Chinese have a firm belief in the wandering spirits of persons who have died by violence; thus self-murderers are supposed to haunt the places where they committed the fatal deed and endeavour to persuade others to follow their example, at times even attempting to play executioner by strangling those who reject their advances.[95] “Violent deaths,” says Mr. Giles, “are regarded with horror by the Chinese”;[96] and suicides committed from meaner motives are reprobated.[97] It is said in the Yü Li, or “Divine Panorama”—a Taouist work which is very popular all over the Chinese Empire—that whilst persons who kill themselves out of loyalty, filial piety, chastity, or friendship, will go to heaven, those who do so “in a trivial burst of rage, or fearing the consequences of a crime which would not amount to death, or in the hope of falsely injuring a fellow-creature,” will be severely punished in the infernal regions.[98] No pardon will be granted them; they are not, like other sinners, allowed to claim their good works as a set-off against evil, whereby they might partly escape the agonies of hell and receive some reward for their virtuous deeds.[99] Sometimes suicide is classified by the Chinese as an offence against religion, on the ground that a person owes his being to Heaven, and is therefore responsible to Heaven for due care of the gift.[100]