[23] Among the ancient Germans, slaves were obliged to wear their hair short (Amira, p. 139). Similarly in Dorey (New-Guinea); see “Nieuw-Guinea”, p. 149. [↑]
[24] The facts do not seem to justify Déniker’s conclusion that the moral code of savages disapproves of compassion with slaves, because it is not profitable to the tribe. (Déniker, Races et peuples, p. 299.) [↑]
[25] On the favourable position of native-born slaves in North-eastern Africa, see above, p. 267. [↑]
[26] Déniker remarks that, together with the formation of social classes, a distinction between the different kinds of unfree arises. “The lowest grade are the slaves in the proper sense, who are not even regarded as human beings, whereas, at the top of the scale, we find people, unfree by birth, but able to arrive at a position not very different from that of the free citizens of the upper-classes.” Déniker, Races et peuples, p. 296. [↑]
[27] In Dahomey “agriculture is despised, because slaves are employed in it.” Burton, II p. 248. [↑]
[28] Among the Battas of Mandheling and Pertibie only the nobles are allowed to keep slaves. The higher nobles may keep as many slaves as they like, the lower only two or three (Willer, p. 43). [↑]
[29] Among the Ewe it occurs that a slave is emancipated by his master. “But, generally speaking, slaves do not care to be free, for they are treated as members of the family and are so contented that they do not long for a change in their condition.” Herold, p. 170. The slaves, formerly kept by the Koniagas, evidently thought otherwise of their servile state: for on the arrival of the Russians, many slaves took refuge to them (Holmberg I p. 79). [↑]
[30] The Athka Aleuts sometimes preferred suicide to captivity in war or slavery (Petroff, p. 158). [↑]
[31] “In the district of Allas [in Sumatra] a custom prevails, by which, if a man has been sold to the hill people, however unfairly, he is restricted on his return from associating with his countrymen as their equal, unless he brings with him a sum of money, and pays a fine for his re-enfranchisement to his kalippah or chief. This regulation has taken its rise from an idea of contamination among the people, and from art and avarice among the chiefs.” Marsden, p. 255. Similarly, among the Maori, according to Polack (II p. 55), “chiefs who have tasted of slavery are often taunted by their friends, by whom they may have been ransomed, as having been slaves.” Brown (New Zealand, p. 62) remarks: “They attach great importance to the circumstance of never having been taken in war.” [↑]
[32] Among the Ewe, the price of a slave is 140–200 shilling, so the relatively rich only are able to purchase slaves (Herold, p. 168). [↑]