The Santals are gentle and very obliging, and sociable to a fault among their own people.123 The Hos “are charitable to those deserving aid.”124 The Todas believe that, after death, the souls of good people will have enjoyment in heaven, whilst the souls of bad people will suffer punishment; “a good man is, in the Toda estimation, one who is given to deeds of charity, and a bad man one who is uncharitable (this in order of precedence), quarrelsome, thieving, &c.”125 Mr. Batchelor states that “a more kind, gentle, and sympathetic people than the Ainos of Japan would be very difficult to find”; anything given to them they always divide with their friends.126 The Samoyedes are ready to share their last morsel with their companions; and it is said that nobody can surpass the poor Ostyak in benevolence and other virtues of the heart.127 “The finest trait in the character of a Bedouin (next to good faith),” Burckhardt observes, “is his kindness, benevolence, and charity…. Among themselves, the Bedouins constitute a nation of brothers; often quarrelling, it must be owned, with each other, but ever ready, when at peace, to give mutual assistance.”128 Generosity is a virtue which always commands particular respect in the desert.129 The Arabs of the Soudan have a saying that “you must always put other people’s things on your head, and your own under your arm. Then, if there be danger of the things falling off your head, you must raise your arm, and let fall your own things to save those of others.”130

The Barea are a benevolent people, kind even to strangers.131 The Manganja, in the neighbourhood of Lake Nyassa, “are generous in the distribution of food,” and even when starving they share the last morsel with their friends.132 Sir H. Johnston says that he has never met with “a more kindly, sensible, considerate set of beings” than the Wa-taveita.133 The Eastern Central Africans, the Rev. D. Macdonald observes, “are not mere animals composed of greed and selfishness. They often shew great bravery and devotedness. I can point to one man who saved my life on three separate occasions at the risk of his own.”134 Among the Bechuanas a regard for the poor, for widows, and for orphans, is everywhere considered to be a sacred duty.135 Among all the virtues the Basutos appreciate none more than kindness. They have a saying that “one link only sounds because of another”—which implies that we cannot do without the help of our fellow-creatures,—and another saying that “one does not skin one’s game without showing it to one’s friends”—that is, when we have been successful in our undertakings, it becomes us to be generous. If any food is brought to them while they are in each other’s society, however small may be the quantity, every one must have a taste.136 The Kafirs are a kindly race; Lichtenstein says that “whenever anyone kills an ox he must invite all his neighbours to partake of it, and they remain his guests till the whole is eaten.”137 Of the Hottentots Kolben states:—“They are certainly the most friendly, the most liberal, and the most benevolent people to one another that ever appear’d upon earth…. They are charmed with opportunities of obliging each other, and one of their greatest pleasures lies in interchanging gifts and good offices.”138 “A Hottentot,” says Barrow, “would share his last morsel with his companions.”139 Drury wrote of the people of Madagascar:—“They certainly treat one another with more humanity than we do. Here is no one miserable, if it is in the power of his neighbours to help him. Here is love, tenderness, and generosity which might shame us; and …. this is …. all over the island.”140 Ellis likewise observes that, in Madagascar, assisting in distress, and lending and borrowing property and money, are carried on much more commonly and freely than amongst neighbours or relatives in England, and that a kindness of heart in these things is always esteemed excellent.141

Among many savages the old people, in particular, have a claim to support and assistance, not only from their own children or relatives, but from the younger members of the community generally.

Among the Australian natives the old men get the best and largest share of everything, and are allowed to monopolise the youngest and best-looking women, whilst a young man must consider himself fortunate if he can get an old woman for wife.142 Among the Tonga Islanders “every aged man and woman enjoys the attentions and services of the younger branches of society.”143 In the Kingsmill Islands “generosity, hospitality, and attention to the aged and infirm are virtues highly esteemed and generally practised among all the natives.”144 Among the Kafirs, when persons advanced in years become sick and helpless, “everyone is eager to afford them assistance.”145 In the opinion of the Aleuts, “feeble old men must be respected and attended when they need aid, and the young and strong should give them a share of their booty and help them through all their troubles, endeavouring to obtain in exchange their good advice only.”146

The sick, also, are often very carefully attended to.

Among the coast tribes of British Columbia Mr. Duncan “always found one or two nurses to an invalid, if the case was at all bad; the sympathy of the nurses, too, seemed very great.”147 Beechey says of the wild Indians of Upper California:—“The very great care taken of all those who are affected with any disease ought not to be allowed to escape a remark. When any of their relations are indisposed, the greatest attention is paid to their wants.”148 Keating noticed the kind and humane treatment which the Potawatomis extended even to the idiots.149 The Koriaks “carefully attend those who are sick.”150 The same is said of the Ainos of Japan,151 and the Tagbanuas of the Philippine Islands.152 In Sarawak no relative is abandoned because an injury or illness may have incapacitated him for work.153 When a Dyak is ill at home, the women nurse the patient in turn.154 In Samoa “the treatment of the sick was invariably humane.”155 In Tana,156 Humphrey’s Island,157 Erromanga,158 and Tasmania,159 they were likewise kindly attended to; and the same is the case at least among many of the Australian tribes.160 Concerning the aborigines of Herbert River, in Northern Queensland, Lumholtz writes:—“The natives are very kind and sympathetic towards those who are ill, and they carry them from camp to camp. This is the only noble trait I discovered in the Australian natives.”161 In various parts of Australia the blind, and especially the aged blind, are carefully tended; travellers on the northern coast of the continent have noticed that these are generally the fattest of the company, being supplied with the best of everything.162 “No trait in the character of the Malagasy,” says Ellis, “is more creditable to their humanity, and more gratifying to our benevolent feelings, than the kind, patient, and affectionate manner in which they attend upon the sick.”163 A similar praise is bestowed upon the Mandingoes164 and Kafirs.165 Among the Zulus, says Mr. J. Tyler, “work, however important, is at once suspended that they may help their afflicted friends.”166

Whilst the information which I have been able to gather on the social customs of uncivilised races seems to indicate that, in the majority of cases, mutual kindness and goodwill prevail within their communities, there are not wanting statements of a different character. But these statements are, after all, exceptional, and some of them are either ambiguous or obviously inexact. Only too often travellers represent to us the savage, not as he is in his daily life amidst his own people, but as he behaves towards his enemy, or towards a stranger who enters his country uninvited. As an experienced observer remarks, “the savage, passionate and furious with the feeling of revenge, slaughtering and devouring his enemy and drinking his blood, is no longer the same being as when cultivating his fields in peace; and it would be as unjust to estimate his general character by his actions in these moments of unrestrained passion, as to judge of Europeans by the excesses of an excited soldiery or an infuriated mob.”167 Moreover, many accounts of savages date from a period when they have already been affected by contact with a “higher culture,” as we call it, a culture which almost universally has proved to exercise a deteriorating influence on the character of the lower races. Among the North American Indians, for instance, “there was more good-will, hospitality, and charity, practised towards one another” before white people came and resided among them;168 whereas contact with civilisation has made them “false, suspicious, avaricious and hard-hearted.”169 As has been truly said, “search modern history, and in the North and South and East and West the story is ever the same—we come, we civilise, and we corrupt or exterminate.”170

Among the semi-civilised and civilised nations charity has universally been regarded as a duty, and has often been strenuously enjoined by their religions. When Spain and Peru first came into contact, the Americans surpassed the Spaniards in brotherly love and systematic care for the needy. They had a poor-law according to which the blind, lame, aged, and infirm, who could not till their own lands so as to clothe and feed themselves, should receive sustenance from the public stores.171 The ancient Mexicans, according to Clavigero, seemed to give without reluctance what had cost them the utmost labour to acquire.172 “The great virtue of the Coreans is their innate respect for and daily practice of the laws of human brotherhood. Mutual assistance and generous hospitality among themselves are distinctive national traits.”173 According to Chinese law, “all poor destitute widowers and widows, the fatherless and childless, the helpless and the infirm, shall receive sufficient maintenance and protection from the magistrates of their native city or district, whenever they have neither relations nor connections upon whom they can depend for support.”174 “Benevolence,” said Confucius, “is more to man than either water or fire.”175 To assist the needy, to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to succour the sick, to save men in danger—these and similar acts of kindness are, according to Chinese beliefs, merits which will be rewarded by the unseen powers that watch human conduct, whereas the uncharitable and parsimonious are threatened with divine punishments.176 In a book of Buddhistic-Confucian flavour, as familiar to the youth of Japan as the Sermon on the Mount is to us, it is said, “Above all things, men must practise charity; it is by almsgiving that wisdom is fed.”177 According to the Dhammapada, “the uncharitable do not go to the world of the gods; fools only do not praise liberality; a wise man rejoices in liberality, and through it becomes blessed in the other world.”178 Indeed, in the didactic poetry of Buddhism the virtue of beneficence occupies the most prominent place; without any regard to what is the measure of the real benefit thereby extended to the recipient of the gift, the legends set before us as a duty the most unbounded generosity, pushed even to the extreme of self-destruction.179 And in its conception of charity and liberality, as in all other points of worldly morality, Buddhism does not differ from the standard recognised in India since ancient times.180 Already in the Vedic hymns praise is bestowed on those who from their abundance willingly dispense to the needy, on those who do not turn away from the hungry, on those who are kind to the poor.181 In the Hitopadesa it is said that the good man shows pity even to the worthless, as the moon does not withdraw its light even from a member of the lowest caste.182 The sacred law-books of India are full of prescriptions enjoining almsgiving as a duty on all twice-born men.183 “A householder must give as much food as he is able to spare to those who do not cook for themselves, and to all beings one must distribute food without detriment to one’s own interest.”184 The student “should always without sloth give alms out of whatever he has for food.”185 The Brâhmana who has completed his studentship should without tiring “perform works of charity with faith.”186 Almsgiving confers merit on the giver, it frees him from guilt, it destroys sin;187 “for whatever purpose a man bestows any gift, for that purpose he receives in his next birth with due honour its reward.”188 On the other hand, he who cooks for himself alone eats nothing but sin.189 Speaking of the modern Hindus, Mr. Wilkins observes:—“The charity of the Hindus is great…. There is no poor-law in India, no guardians of the poor, no workhouses, excepting for the Europeans in the Presidency towns. The poor of a family, the halt, the lame, the blind, the weak, the insane, are provided for by their family, if it is at all able to do it; in cases where there are few or no relatives, then the burden is taken up by others. It is a ‘work of merit.’”190