Strange Peoples

Among the dark whites of Europe the Portuguese, Spanish, Italians, and Greeks are conspicuous. In speech they are kin to each other, and to the fair whites. How different they are otherwise! They are handsomer in face, more lithe and graceful in body, more quickly aroused, more changeable in purpose, than the fair whites. Their faces, their gestures, their movements, more emphatically betray their emotions. They live more in the present than the somewhat sober and sombre northern peoples.

Just now people are apt to forget how much we owe to the dark whites. They have done much for the world. Greece taught Europe to 39think, developed an art and architecture which impressed the world, formed a literature and theatre that have never been surpassed; Rome taught mankind government and law; Italy has produced the greatest paintings; Spain discovered the New World. These are a few of the achievements of the dark whites. Nor are they idle now; in Greece and Italy to-day, in Spain and Portugal, art, invention, literature, and science are making rapid progress.

ITALIAN CHILD (MILN).

Every one has seen Italians. Those who come to us are mostly poor, and badly represent their people. They are dark skinned, dark brown or black eyed, black and curly haired, and have fine and regular features. They are, perhaps, the handsomest of European peoples. They love the company of others in their work and play. They delight in bright 40colors, and the women fasten bright kerchiefs about their dark hair, fold a brilliant cloth across the breast, and hang gaudy earrings in their ears. The Italian language is sweet and lively, and the people who speak it are impulsive and sunny in disposition, though easily angered, and quick to resent an injury.

Perhaps old Rome was the greatest city the world has known. The Roman people ruled the known nations, and their armies and governors were in all lands. Fine roads connected the city with every part of the Empire, and fragments of these roads still exist though almost two thousand years have passed. Rome was a centre to which flocked the painters, sculptors, poets, and orators of the world; there they produced their great works. At Rome were grand temples, great public buildings, the mighty Coliseum where public games were held. Ruins of these famous structures are still visited, and show the ancient grandeur of the dark whites of by-gone days.

Not far from Rome are ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum, towns where many of the Romans had their country homes. In the year 79, more than eighteen hundred years ago, Vesuvius burst forth in a terrible eruption and destroyed the two 41cities. Pompeii was buried under a sheet of “ashes,” while Herculaneum was overflowed by streams of lava. For centuries no one knew that underneath these layers of “ashes” and lava a great part of the two cities lay undestroyed. Recently, by digging away the covering, they have discovered many curious and interesting things. House walls, paintings, tools, weapons, ornaments, all remain to tell us how the ancient Romans worked and lived.

But later Rome was also great. It was the central city of Christendom, the seat of the Pope’s power, the location of the Vatican. For this reason it was the place where master minds dealt with great problems, where great architects designed wonderful cathedrals, where painters produced the famous pictures of the world. Nor is Rome small to-day. She is no longer the mistress of the world; the temporal power of the church has been lessened; but modern Rome is still the capital of a great nation, a centre of enlightenment, a hive of industry; a shrine to which the lovers of art and beauty make their pilgrimage.

Even the poorest and meanest in Italy love music, painting, and statuary. Everywhere in public places one sees sculptures in fine marble. 42Such works in our own land would run some risk of injury or destruction, but in Italy no one thinks of harming them. The Italians all love music, and most of them know how to play some instrument.

Italian mosaics and cameos are famous. At Florence particularly the making of mosaics is important. Mosaics are pictures made by fitting together wee bits of stones, enamels, or glasses of bright colors. A pair of cuff buttons or a brooch may bear a spray of flowers, which looks like delicate painting, but is really made by the fitting together of these bits of stone. Cameos are cut from shell or onyx. Many sea shells are composed of layers of different colors of shelly matter. Onyx is a stone which is layered with different colors. A cameo is a piece of carving cut in such materials so that the different colored layers give different parts of the design. The work is beautiful and delicate. Perhaps the finest cameo cutting is done at Naples.

The Italian enjoys games. Several kinds of ball games are favorites with him. He delights in throwing dice and other games of chance. Boys are fond of morra. There are two players: at a given signal each extends one hand with a certain number of fingers stretched out; at the 43same moment each calls how many fingers he thinks both will have out. If either guesses right, he wins. This is a very old game, and was played in the time of Rome’s imperial grandeur.

The gayest time of the year for young and old is the Carnival. Every one is on the streets. They wear masks and are hideously dressed—like clowns, deformed and distorted beings, devils, animals. They make a great din and play all kinds of pranks. They throw flowers and paper cut to bits on one another and sprinkle passers-by with water. Men, women, and children all take part in this wild fun. The more ignorant Italians are superstitious. They fear witchcraft and the evil eye, and most of the lower class carry some lucky stone or other object to protect them against such dangers.

On both sides of the Pyrenees Mountains, in France and in Spain, there dwells a people which does not speak an Aryan language, the Basques. Many writers who have studied the Basque language have wondered how it came to exist alone in the midst of so many languages that have no relation to it.

44The people who speak this language are called French Basques or Spanish Basques according to which side of the Pyrenees is their home. They differ somewhat. The Spanish Basques are usually short, clear-complexioned, with rather long and narrow heads and brown or black hair. The French Basques are frequently quite tall, have much broader heads, and sometimes light hair. Neither French nor Spanish Basques are pure in blood, being much mixed with their neighbors. Still, it is said that a Basque can generally be known by his face. The upper, forward part of his head is wide and bulging, while his face is long, narrow, and ends in a pointed chin.

The Basques are famous for their good health, their fine forms, and their quick and graceful movements. They are industrious, hard workers. In the uplands the men are shepherds, in the lowlands farmers and herders, and on the coast fishermen and sailors. In the cities they work at the docks, loading and unloading vessels. Women work at this hard work just the same as men. Formerly the men engaged much in piracy. Basque women are much employed as nurses in Spanish families.

They are a gay and happy people. Men play 45tennis, and women play skittles. Formerly they had many dances; one only of these is still kept. It is danced by men only, and though the steps are difficult, the dance is slow and grave. They delight in poetry and are able to compose rapidly. Verneau says: “One may say that in the land of the Basques every mountaineer is born a poet, but the poetry is made up on the spur of the moment. In the midst of the delights of a feast, some one at the table rises. All noise ceases. Complete silence is made about him. He sings; the stanzas follow one another without effort and without fatigue. His song is grave and measured; both the air and words are made at the moment.”

The Basques, especially those living in the mountains, are proud, happy, and independent. They are easily angered and quick to fight. They love their old life and customs and dislike changes. They still use many old-fashioned things such as the clumsy ox-cart, with great, solid wooden wheels and heavy wooden axle. The old dress has disappeared in many places, but is picturesque. Men wear rather loose and baggy trousers, a close-fitting vest, a sort of blouse or jacket that reaches only to the waist, a wide, white collar turned down over the neck of the blouse, and 46a loose necktie with streaming ends. They wear a loose cap jauntily on the head. Men and women both delight in bright colors.

Their food is simple, but they are always ready to share it with guests. Strangers are welcome to the best the family has, which is generally corn bread and cider, with bean soup and boiled cabbage. They celebrate Christmas by killing a pig, the flesh of which gives the family a feast for a long time.

BASQUE CART (VERNEAU).

They are proud of their strange and difficult language, which they call Euskaric. They call themselves Euskaldanac, which means “the speakers,” just as if other people using a different speech did not know how to speak at all.

47The Basques have produced some famous men. The great sailor Magellan, who circumnavigated the globe and discovered the Philippines in 1535, was a Basque. So were Ignacio de Loyola and Francis Xavier, who founded the Society of Jesus or the Jesuits. Within recent years many of the Basques have left their old home and gone to seek fortunes in new lands. In all more than two hundred thousand have migrated, some to Havana and Mexico, but many more to Montevideo and Buenos Ayres.

Finland, forming part of the Russian Empire, is bordered on the south and west by the Baltic Sea (Gulfs of Finland and Bothnia) and stretches as a narrow band almost north and south. There has been much discussion as to just what and who the Finns are. Some writers think them true white Europeans related to the long-headed, fair whites; others believe them Mongolians who have moved from Asia into Europe, where they have changed their color and appearance—partly by marrying with fair whites and partly by the 48influence of climate and other conditions—but who retain their old Asiatic language.

Whichever is right, the Finns are an interesting people. There are about one million and a half of pure blood dwelling in Finland. There are two quite unlike types,—the Tavastland and Karelian Finns. The Tavastland Finns are rather tall and large built, with a large and broad head, a long and large face, light skin, light hair, and large and light eyes. They are rather quiet, a little morose though kindly, and have a great love for their old life and customs. The Karelian Finns are darker, with dark brown or black hair and dark eyes. They were quite tall, but less strongly built than the Tavastland Finns; they have a longer head and smaller head and face; they are more lively, gay, and enterprising. It is the Karelians who more nearly resemble the Finns of Asia, Ostiaks, and Samoyeds. Both kinds of Finns, though differing in appearance, speak one language, which is not Aryan, and is related to the languages of Northern Asia. The Lapps, Turks, and some other peoples of Southeastern Europe speak tongues related to the Finnish.

In the cities and towns of Finland the people are much like their Swedish, German, and Russian 49neighbors. But in the small towns and villages and in the country they retain many old and curious customs. There they live in old-fashioned houses or even older-fashioned tents. The houses, built of logs, had low, broad, two-pitched roofs and consisted of a single room; there was one door and some small windows. Only recently have they used glass in the windows. The furniture is simple. Clothing and other articles are hung on pegs against the wall or over poles which are supported by hooks from the roof. Big, ring-shaped loaves of rye bread are hung up on these poles also. Outside the house are several small buildings used as store-rooms for treasures and the sweat-bath house.

The old tents are now rarely seen. They were circular, and their framework was made by setting poles in the ground so that their upper ends met; branches were worked in to fill the spaces between these and form walls, and moss and turf were tightly packed in to fill all openings. A doorway was left and a smoke hole.

The sweat-bath house is found everywhere. It is large enough to accommodate a good many bathers at once. Two sets of wide benches run around the inside of the house, one higher than 50the other: these are for the bathers to sit or lie upon. They reach the higher benches or platforms by means of a short ladder. In one corner of this sweat-house is a dome-shaped oven or fireplace built of stones. This is heated very hot, and then dippers of water are thrown upon the hot stones, until the steam fills the whole building. The bathers bask in the vapor, rub and strike themselves with bunches of birch twigs, and then dash cold water over themselves. They delight in these vapor baths, and every one—men, women, and children—takes them. We would not enjoy it much, for there is much smoke mixed with the steam. Similar vapor baths are used in Russia, and recently “Russian baths” have come much into use among ourselves.

Like many other northern peoples the Finns make many articles from birch bark. Boxes, vessels, carrying sacks, and even shoes are made from it. The climate of Finland is rather bad; winters are long and severe. The people raise some plants, but their agriculture is simple and old-fashioned. They burn over the space to be planted, work the ashes and soil with crude tools, and plant the seed. Their crops sometimes fail and terrible famines result. At such times they have made bread from bark and roots crushed 51between rude grinding stones. Such bread is called famine bread.

FINNS SINGING (VERNEAU).

The Finns love song and poetry. It is said that every village has one poet, or more, and that he prepares a new song whenever aught of importance occurs. Besides these new songs they have many ancient songs, of which they never tire. When they sing the songs of the olden time, two men seat themselves face to face upon a bench, join hands, and rock backward and forward in time to the song. First one sings a line or passage, and then the other repeats the same, 52and so they continue, rocking back and forth and singing the whole night through. Sometimes a third man plays upon the kantele, while the others sing. This kantele is somewhat like a zither; it has a flat sounding-body upon which are strung from three to eight strings of different lengths. It is usually picked with the fingers like a guitar. It is said that the first kantele was made of fish-bones, though it is not easy to see how that could be.

Until less than a hundred years ago, although these old songs were much loved, no one had written them down. They were learned by heart from father to son, and thus kept alive through the centuries. A man named Lönnrot became interested in them and copied many of them from the mouths of the singers. In 1825 he printed a book of them, and later he gathered and published still more. To this book of songs he gave the name of the Kalevala. It is one of the great poems of the world, and it tells of the life and doings and beliefs of the Finns of the old, old time. The style of the Kalevala is lively and quite unlike most English poetry. In Hiawatha, Longfellow copies this style; so when you read Hiawatha again, remember that it is like the old Finnish songs.

53The Finns are very fond of the Kalevala and their other ancient songs. They are jealous, too, of their old customs, and dislike to see them pass away. They have some societies the purpose of which is to keep alive a knowledge of the past of Finland. But though the Finns love Finland and its old life, they are not to-day an independent nation. They were invaded long ago by Sweden, and later on by Russia. For a time Finland was a half-independent kingdom under Russian control, but lately its power has been again reduced, and it is part of Russia itself.

What we have said of the Finns is true of the country people. In the cities things are much the same as in other European cities. In Helsingfors we should find one of the great universities of Europe, and many educated and distinguished men Finns by birth and language.

In the northmost part of the Scandinavian Peninsula and Finland live the Lapps. There are probably not more than ten or twelve thousand, all told. They have had much contact with the Finns, and speak a language related to 54Finnish. In many customs they resemble them. This is not strange, as the land they live in is much the same.

A GROUP OF LAPPS (VERNEAU).

But while all Finns are tall, the Lapps are short. Most of the men fall below five feet. Little and thin, they are yet strong and quick in their movements. Their skin is dark, their hair black and straight. Their heads are big and broad, and they have good foreheads and projecting cheek bones. Their eyes often seem to slant downward at their outer corners. While they are really dark skinned, they are not nearly so much so as they appear, for they are usually filthy. When their faces are washed, some of the 55women have quite fair skin and rosy cheeks. Life is hard among the Lapps, but they often live to be old—sometimes even to one hundred years or more.

Those Lapps who live farthest away from the Finns, Russians, and Swedes still wear the old style of dress. In winter their garments are made of reindeer hide: the hair, which is left on, is worn next the body. Both men and women wear big mittens of skin. They have caps on their heads, and fishermen and herders may be distinguished by the style of these. Fishermen’s caps are pointed, while those of herders are square. In going out over the snow in winter, Lapps have long, narrow runners of wood fastened to their feet, and carry a pole in their hand. These runners are five feet or more in length, and only a few inches wide, and on them—aided by their poles—the Lapps glide along finely over the hard snow.

Some Lapps are constantly wandering. Others settle down in quite permanent homes. The wanderers build tents similar in shape to those of our Sioux Indians and of the Finns. A lot of poles are set up in a circle with their upper ends meeting. This framework is covered with a cloth or with turfs. The settled Lapps live in houses, the 56framework of which consists of posts set upright and poles lashed across. Small storehouses for food are built near by, and these are set up on four posts to keep the contents out of reach of dogs and other animals.

When they greet each other, the Lapps rub noses together. This mode of kissing is found also among other northern peoples, like the Samoyeds in Asia and the Eskimos in America. Mothers cradle their babies in a sort of trough hollowed out of a piece of wood. This they carry on their backs when they journey, and hang on a tree or set into a snowbank when they work.

Of course every one thinks of reindeer when Laplanders are mentioned. And it is not strange, because reindeer are useful indeed to these little people. They furnish three useful things,—milk, meat, and skins. The reindeer are kept in herds and form almost the only wealth of their owners. Some herds number perhaps a thousand reindeer. These herds must be constantly watched. Men, women, and children all help in the work, and the many dogs kept by the Lapps are chiefly helpful in guarding the herds. The women do the milking, and each of the reindeer cows is milked twice a day. They give little milk, hardly more than a cupful at a milking, but it is rich and thick and can be thinned with a good deal of water. Some of the milk is drunk fresh, and from the rest the women make a kind of cheese. When they wish to milk a reindeer, they approach the animal carefully, throw a lasso over its head and wind this around the snout so as to hold the animal quiet. The reindeer are also much used to carry burdens and to drag sledges.

57

LAPLANDER ON SNOW-RUNNERS (VERNEAU).

58Besides the flesh and milk of the reindeer the Laplanders eat its blood, which is boiled down into a sort of pudding. The meat which is not eaten fresh is dried and stored away. Fish are dried and smoked. Birds and their eggs are much eaten. Bread, much like the “famine bread” of the Finns, is made from roots and barks. Soup is made of pine bark mixed with fat and flour or meal.

The Laplanders who live in settled houses depend upon hunting during the fall and fishing during the summer. They hunt reindeer, squirrels, and birds. Wild reindeer they take chiefly by pitfalls: they dig a hole, or trench, in the path over which the reindeer is likely to pass, and carefully cover it with branches, earth, and grass. When the animals have fallen in, they are easily killed. Lapps are fond of the eggs of water birds, and to secure them they build nests for the birds 59in trees near the water, and then rob them after the eggs have been laid.

The Laplanders are great believers in spirits. To summon these they use drums or tambourines, consisting of a ring of wood over which a membrane is tightly stretched. This has jingling objects fastened to it which make a noise when the instrument is beaten or rattled. Upon the membrane are rudely painted, curious figures, usually in red. Thus the sun, animals, and human beings are pictured, and are believed to help the drummer. The Lapps greatly fear their god of storms. He is believed to drive the storms forth from his cave with a club and to bring them back with a shovel. They fear him most at the season when the young reindeer are born, and then pray to him not to let loose the storms, lest the little creatures perish. Through their sorcerers they secure from this god, storm strings with three knots tied in them. Each of these knots represents a storm. If one knot is untied, a little storm is let loose; if two are untied, a greater one; if three, there is a fearful tempest. These strings are used against enemies or those who have tried to do them harm. The neighbors of the little Lapps think these can do them much harm with their wind strings and other magic, and they dread and hate them.

There has been much question as to where man first lived. Some believe that the first men were white and lived in Europe and North Africa; others think the negroes of Africa are the oldest 66men; a few have argued that the American Indian was the original race; most, however, have thought that Asia was man’s first home. Whether this is so or not, Asia to-day contains a swarming population composed of many peoples, differing much in appearance, dress, life, and customs.

The Asian peoples belong chiefly to the Mongolic or yellow race. It is a well-marked type. Medium stature, broad and round head, flat face, with nose rather low, broad and high cheek bones, hair coarse and straight and jet black, skin yellowish, dark eyes apparently set slantwise in the face, are its characters. The yellow race includes the Chinese, Japanese, Coreans, the peoples of Indo-China, and most of the wandering tribes of Siberia. There are probably more of this race than of any other on the globe; next to them in numbers is the white race; then the negroes; then the island peoples; last and least, the American Indians.

Asia may justly be called the continent of yellow peoples. But it would be a mistake to think that no other peoples but Mongolic peoples live there. In almost every part of the great continent are peoples of white or Caucasic types. Thus, in the far northeast of Asia we have the curious Ghilyaks; in Japan, the Ainu; in China, 67various mountain tribes; in Southeastern Asia, similar peoples; in India, the Todas. All these tribes are white, bearded, with hairy bodies, rather long heads, and straight eyes. These tribes are small in numbers, rather quiet and timid, with little energy, and quite unlike European whites. They usually live in mountainous, out-of-the-way places, and it almost seems as if they are the scattered fragments of an ancient, white population, who occupied much of Asia before the yellow race was important, and who have been crowded back and almost destroyed by it.

In India, Persia, and other parts of Western Asia, are many white peoples who are like true European whites in their Aryan languages and in their forms and features. In Western Asia there are, and long have been, many dark white populations who are vigorous and active, with features much more European than Mongolian. These dark whites speak languages related to each other, but not Aryan. To these peoples, including the old Hebrews, and the modern Arabs, and many other ancient and modern peoples, the name Semites is applied. So you see that in Asia there are not only the yellow, Mongolian peoples, but three different kinds of whites,—the ancient feeble race, the Aryans, and the Semites.

68Nowhere do we find more interesting ruins telling of past grandeur than in Asia. We think of Rome as old; of Greece as older; but in Mesopotamia are ruins far older than those of Greece and Rome. There are the ruins of Nineveh and Babylon, so often mentioned in the Bible. Both are old, but lately explorers have found yet older ruins dating back six or seven thousand years. And these are not ruins of small and unimportant places, but of grand cities, whose people were already civilized, with fixed laws, curious religions, and many arts and industries. Nowhere in the world have ruins of older cities been found, and it is believed that the people who built them were yellow Mongolians.

In Asia most of the great religions were born. The oldest religious systems of which we know were those of Mesopotamia. In India Buddhism began. Buddha was a teacher who felt that the old religion of India, Brahmanism, was wrong. So he taught a new religion. There are more believers in Buddhism to-day than in any other religion. It is the chief religion of China, Japan, Tibet, Southeastern Asia, and Ceylon; but in India itself, where Buddha lived and taught, the people are not Buddhists. In China there arose a great teacher, Confucius. He taught no religion, 69but to-day there are Confucian temples all through China. Judaism, the worship of Jehovah by the Jews, began in Asia. There, too, in Judæa also, Christianity was born. Christ dwelt and taught there, and there the first Christian churches were founded. But just as Buddha’s land is not Buddhist, so Palestine to-day is not Christian. It is a part of the Mohammedan world. Mohammedanism, too, is Asiatic, beginning in Arabia almost thirteen hundred years ago. Perhaps the original home of man, Asia has certainly been the first seat of civilization, and the cradle of religions.

Perhaps four hundred and twenty million people dwell in the Chinese Empire and are called Chinese. They are not, however, all true Chinese. When the Chinese (or their ancestors) moved eastward into what is now China, four thousand or more years ago, they found many different tribes living there. Some of these were driven forth to seek new homes; many remained and have mixed and mingled with the Chinese.

So many Chinese now live in our country that you all know how they look and dress. The 70Chinese in America are mostly from the poorest and meanest class, and most of them come from Canton. Most of those here are laundrymen, but in some of our larger cities there are merchants and restaurant keepers, and in California hundreds of them are gardeners. They quickly learn our ways of doing, and many are employed in cigar-making, shirt-making, and railroad-building. They work hard and save their money, as they want sometime to go home to their own country. Chinamen who die here are buried only for a little time: later the bones are gathered and sent home to be buried in China.

The Chinese who come here are short or of medium stature. In the interior and north of China they are taller. They have yellow skin, black straight hair, and black eyes. Their eyes appear to slant or be set crookedly, the inner corners being lower than the outer; they are really almost as straight as our own, and the appearance is due to a fold of skin at the inner corner. The long queue that hangs down the Chinaman’s back is not composed entirely of hair; it is pieced out below with cord or strings braided in. This style of wearing the hair is not truly Chinese. Formerly the Chinese wore their hair in a knot on top of the head, but at 71the time of the Manchu Conquest, two hundred and fifty or so years ago, they were compelled to wear the hair in the Manchu fashion. For a Chinaman to cut off his queue would be almost the same as declaring himself unloyal to his Manchu rulers.

CHINESE MANDARIN (RATZEL).

Chinamen usually have three names. The family name, which we place last, they place first. Thus Li Hung Chang, the great Chinese viceroy, belongs to the Li family. Few of the Chinese laundrymen in this country have their true names on their signs. The Li family is one of the largest in China, but it is also generally poor and despised. Most of our Chinese laundrymen are Lis, and are related to Li Hung Chang.

72In writing, the Chinese use a brush, which they dip into ink. A single character represents a word, though many Chinese words are written with compound characters, one part of which gives the sound, and the other part pictures the meaning. In Chinese many sounds have several different meanings. If the character with which the sound is written stood alone, it would not be clear which meaning was intended. Chinese books are printed on thin paper, which is folded back and forth like a screen or fan and then stitched at the back; this makes the pages double. The Chinese book begins at what we would consider the back and goes through to what we would call the front. The print goes from the top of the page down, in vertical columns, and the first column is the one to the right hand.

To be able to write well is considered of the greatest importance in China. The Chinese respect learning also, and no man can hold office in China unless he is educated and has passed his examinations. From the time when a boy begins study he must keep it up for many years, if he hopes for a government position. Often he is a middle-aged or old man before he succeeds in passing all the necessary examinations. To 73be able to write beautifully, to be able to compose a poem upon any given subject, and to know the writings of Confucius and the other old philosophers are the things the Chinaman must learn. The great examinations at the Capital are attended by thousands from every part of the Empire. The man who stands first is sure to have an important governorship given to him at once.

CHINESE BOY CHOOSING TOYS (DOOLITTLE).

There are many curious customs regarding Chinese children. One takes place when a little boy is one year old. A great bamboo sieve, 74such as farmers use, is placed upon the table. Upon it are spread many articles—money-scales, shears, a measure, a mirror, a pencil, ink, paper, inkstone, books, the counting-board, objects of gold or silver, fruits, etc. The baby, all dressed in his best clothes, is then set in the midst of the objects, on the sieve. His parents and friends watch anxiously to see which of the articles he will grasp. They believe it will show what he will do when he is a man. If he takes the money-scales or the gold or silver, he will become a rich merchant; if he takes the book or pencil, he will be a great scholar, and so on.

Chinese money consists chiefly of round brass coins with a square hole in the middle. It takes from eight to sixteen of them to make one cent of ours. They are called “cash” and are often strung on strings for convenient carrying. Many hundreds of years ago the ancient Chinese used clothing and tools for money. When they began to make metal coins they made these in the shape of shirts, knives, and spades, and called them shirt money, knife money, and spade money.

In eating the Chinese do not use knives and forks, but a pair of slender sticks called “chopsticks.” These are both taken in one hand, and 75are used to pick up bits of meat or vegetables from the soup or to lift boiled rice or dumplings to the mouth. For eating soup they use little flat-bottomed spoons of chinaware, which will not fall over when set down on the table. In making tea the cup or bowl for each person stands on the table with tea leaves in it; it sets into a little ring-shaped saucer and has a little cover over it like a saucer turned bottom upward. The servant lifts the cover and pours boiling water upon the leaves and then replaces the cover to let the tea steep. The cover may be used to stir the tea for cooling it, and when held in proper position prevents the tea leaves from getting into the mouth of the person who is drinking.

But how many things are left that we cannot speak of! The busy work in the fields, the preparation of tea, the rearing of silkworms and making of silk, the trades, the government, the love and respect for parents, the respect for the graves of ancestors, the religious ideas, the life and teachings of Confucius—these things would need many books like this.

Few countries are naturally so difficult of access as Tibet. It is a lofty plateau. To reach it from any side frightful mountains must be passed. Not only is the country itself difficult to reach, but the Tibetans do not like strangers. They do 82everything in their power to keep white men out of the country. Few travellers of our race have ever been to the heart of Tibet. Recently the American traveller, W. W. Rockhill, has visited that country and written interestingly of it, and later Walter Savage Landor claims to have had exciting adventures there. But the journey that is best known and has been most talked of was made more than fifty years ago by two French missionaries named Huc and Gabet.

Starting from China these gentlemen traversed Mongolia and Tatary and penetrated to the sacred Tibetan city of Lhassa. They returned to China over a different route. It was a fearful journey. The road led along the side of vast cliffs, over raging torrents where the bridges were composed of chains hung from bank to bank with boards laid crosswise of them, through snowdrifts, and over sheets of glacier ice.

The people of Tibet vary in stature, color, hair, and other characters, but all are Mongolic and all speak Tibetan. Some of the tribes are nomads—either herders or pillagers; others are settled and live by agriculture, notwithstanding the climate. In Lhassa itself they are tradespeople and traders. They are good weavers and make excellent woollen stuffs. They are skilled goldsmiths, 83and their fine wares go to decorate the temples and monasteries. They make the finest incense in the world.

The most important thing in Tibet is religion. Their religion, which is called Lamaism, is a sort of Buddhism peculiar to Tibet. Tibet might be called a theocracy, or a land where a god rules. For the ruler of Tibet, called the Dalai-lama, is considered no common man, but a real god on earth. Many centuries ago, in India, there lived a man named Gautama or Sakyi-muni. He was wise and good, and the new religion which he taught was a great improvement upon the Brahmanism of India. On account of his wisdom and goodness, he was called Buddha, but he never claimed to be himself a god. Since his death, however, many millions of people in many lands have worshipped him as a god.

All Buddhists believe that there may be many Buddhas—that Gautama was one Buddha, and that there were others before him and will be others hereafter. In Tibet, however, they think that there are always Buddhas on earth, and that when one Buddha dies his spirit at once enters the body of some little babe, who becomes a Buddha in his place. The Dalai-lama is the greatest of living Buddhas. There are many 84others in different parts of Tibet and Tatary, all of whom are worshipped as gods. The Dalai-lama lives in Lhassa, the sacred city, in a beautiful palace, and has many priests to serve him. He is the all-powerful being in the land.

TIBETAN LAMAS BLOWING ON SHELLS (VERNEAU).

But he does not trouble himself about governing his people. He appoints a nomekhan to rule for him. The nomekhan has four kalons who are appointed to assist him. These four appoint all the other officers, most of whom are lamas or priests. Really the lamas control everything in Tibet. Generally they live together in great buildings called lamaseries. These are to be seen everywhere in the land, and are often perched upon the summits of lofty mountains, from which they overlook the country for miles around. Some 85lamaseries contain but a few priests, others contain many thousands. The lamas are at once known from the people by their dress.

The lamas receive support from the common people, and when it is not brought to them, they go to gather it. Huc met two lamas on horseback gathering gifts of butter from the shepherds. “Their course is this: they present themselves at the entrance of each tent and thrice sound a marine conch.^[1] Thereupon some member of the family brings out a small roll of butter, which, without saying a word, he deposits in a bag suspended from the saddle of each lama’s horse. The lamas never once alight, but content themselves with riding up to each tent, and announcing their presence to the inmates by the sound of the shell.”

When a Dalai-lama dies, search is made for the new one. Prayers are said in all the lamaseries, processions are made, incense is burned. Even the common people everywhere pray. There are certain signs by which a baby shows that the spirit of a lama has entered him. All parents who think their baby the one send word to Lhassa and bring their babies there. All are carefully examined, and the three 86who best show the signs of being Buddha are taken. After fasting for six days, the priests who decide the matter take a golden urn containing three little fish of gold, upon each of which is engraved the name of one of the three babies. The urn is shaken and one of the fish is drawn. The baby whose name is engraved on it becomes the Dalai-lama. To the unlucky babies before they are sent home a present of five hundred ounces of silver is given.

MONGOLS CHOOSING A LAMA (HUC).

Every day near sunset in Lhassa, all the men, 87women, and children stop whatever they may be doing and gather in the public squares of the city. There, grouped by sex and age, they kneel and chant their evening prayer. This prayer would seem to us curious, for it asks for nothing. The commonest prayer is—om mani padme hum, which means “the jewel in the lotus.” By the jewel they mean divine power. The lotus is a water-lily. The prayer is about the same thing as calling on the name of God. This prayer they repeat over and over again.

To write this prayer where it will be seen is a good act. One may see it everywhere. It is printed on the flags that fly above the buildings. Pious rich men pay lamas to go through the country and chisel these sacred words on rocks and cliffs.

Tibet is the land of prayer wheels. Prayer wheels contain the prayer written many times: every time the wheel is turned, so many prayers are supposed to have been said. Prayer wheels are of all sizes. The commonest stand near lamaseries, and are set to turning with the hand. Some lazy lamas, however, find it too much work to turn the wheels themselves and so arrange them that they are turned by wind or water.

On the twenty-fifth of each month pious lamas 88“send horses to weary travellers.” On the roads there are many hardships, and travellers often become weary and perish. To help them the lamas send them horses, and the way they do it is this. Going to some lofty summit where the wind blows heavily, they throw strips of paper bearing pictures of horses into the air, and the wind carries them away. The lamas believe that by this sacrifice of paper horses they supply real ones to the needy travellers.

It is a great mistake to think of the Chinese and Japanese as much alike; they are really vastly different. The Japanese is smaller, more delicately built, quicker, and more lively than the Chinese; he delights in novelties and borrows them from everywhere and from everybody. The Chinese language consists chiefly of words of one syllable; the Japanese have many long words of many syllables. While unlike in body, disposition, and language, the Chinese and Japanese are alike in many customs, arts, and ideas. For long centuries the Japanese borrowed much from China, or from Corea, which had learned from China. 89The Japanese owe their writing, the cultivation of tea, silk raising and weaving, lacquer work, porcelain, metal working, and many religious ideas to China. But lately, in their hurry to borrow all sorts of things from the European and American whites, they have become ashamed of many of their Chinese ideas and customs.

JAPANESE GIRL WITH BABY (ARNOLD).

On the seventh day of a Japanese baby’s life, the little head is shaved clean except for a tuft on the nape of the neck. From that time on, the head is shaved until the boy goes to school, but tufts are left here and there, according to the fancy of the mother. After a boy begins school, his hair is left to grow. Japanese children have many sports and games, but they are quiet and gentle in them 90all. The older children carry their baby brothers and sisters strapped firmly on their backs. There are many interesting things for Japanese children to see on the streets. There is the sand painter; he sweeps a space clean and then opens several bags of different colored sand; he sprinkles handfuls of it here and there on the ground until he has made a pretty picture. There is the man who moulds and blows rice paste into all sorts of queer shapes, while the little buyers look on with delight; his sweet stuff is shaped into rabbits, foxes, monkeys, flowers, jinrikishas, fans, umbrellas, etc. There is the man who sells sugared peas, candied beans, and other sweets; he beats a drum and sings a song as he walks, so as to attract a crowd of children, and when he stops he tells a story, or does some trick, to amuse them. Then there is the little old woman of the batter cakes; she carries a little earthenware stove with a fire of charcoal in it; this she hangs at one end of a pole balanced upon her shoulder, and at the other end hang a griddle, ladles, cake turners, a jar of batter, and a sauce of salt and beans to eat with the cakes; the children pay five cents, and the old lady sets everything down, whereupon the children have great fun making their own cakes and eating them on the street.

91Japanese children are ever gay and happy, but there are two days in the year of especial joy. The third day of the third month is the Dolls’ Festival. This is the day for the little girls. At that time dolls and all sorts of toy tools, implements, vessels, and dishes are for sale. The Japanese are fond of dolls, and in some families they have dolls that have been kept more than two hundred years. In some families they will have dozens or scores of dolls. Among these there is always one that represents the Emperor, another the Empress, and others the courtiers. At the time of the festival all these dolls are carefully arranged on a stepped platform. The Emperor and Empress are given the seats of honor, and the rest are grouped around them. With these are arranged all the toy objects. The fifth day of the fifth month is the Boys’ Festival. Then they are selling bows and arrows and other toy weapons everywhere. Everywhere they hang out great paper fishes, shaped like carp, and brightly painted. These are hung to tall bamboo poles of which there is one set in front of every house where they have a boy in the family. One fish is hung for each boy, and it is a gay sight to see the hundreds of bright fish waving and tossing in the wind. The reason 92why the carp is represented is because it swims up the river against the current; so it is hoped “the sturdy boy, overcoming all obstacles, will make his way in the world and rise to fame and fortune.”

BOYS’ FESTIVAL: JAPAN (BRAMHALL).

Japanese houses consist of a light framework supporting a heavy thatched or tiled roof. The 93sides of the house are wooden slides, which are usually removed in the daytime, leaving the sides open. In cold weather, slides consisting of frames covered with paper can be fitted in to form walls. The house is divided into rooms by sliding screens of paper, which can be easily removed so as to join two, three, or more rooms into one. There are no tables or chairs. The floors are covered with thick mats. At night quilts are brought in and laid down for beds; in the morning these are rolled up and stored away.

Japanese gardens are curious and beautiful. They may be small, and frequently they contain no flowers. Sometimes a pretty landscape is built of rocks and water: there are little mountains and hills, valleys, streams, waterfalls, lakes. Wonderful in such gardens are the dwarfed trees. They may be pine trees, fifty or one hundred years old, flourishing and perfect in form, but not more than a foot in height.

While Japanese gardens frequently contain none, the people are wonderfully fond of flowers. Among the favorites are the chrysanthemum, plum blossoms, and cherry blossoms. When these are in bloom every one goes to the places where they grow and delight in their beauty. These flower picnics are looked forward to for 94months. The cherry and plum trees are covered: “You see no leaves—only one great filmy mass of petals. Japanese chrysanthemums are wonderful; there are many strange or beautiful varieties. At one place in Tokyo, these flowers are wrought into all sorts of curious compositions—men and gods, boats, bridges, castles, etc.”

The Japanese love to hear stories. There are fairy stories for the little people and tales of adventure and history for the larger ones. There are men whose business is story telling. Some of these wander about until they find a good spot, when they will stop and begin the tale; a crowd soon gathers to listen. Others are hired to tell their stories in a story-telling house, where people gather every evening, just as at the theatre.

We have said so much about amusements and festivals that you may think the Japanese are always playing. No indeed, they are hard workers. They cultivate their fields industriously; they have many trades; they are great traders; they are fine artists. Their silk weaving, their metal work, their lacquer work, and their porcelains are famous.

In these last years Japan has made great changes. She has borrowed so much from the whites that they have little left to teach her. To-day 95she has all our great inventions—telegraphs and telephones, electric lights and railroads; and in borrowing so much that is new she has lost and is losing much—very much—of the happy old life.

Before the Japanese entered what is now Japan that country was occupied by the Ainu, among the most interesting people of the world. There are not many of them. In Yezo, the northern island of Japan, there are about seventeen thousand, and in the island of Saghalien, formerly Japanese, but now Russian, there are others. They are not like the Japanese, but are considered whites, not Mongolians. The men measure about five feet four inches; the women not more than five feet two inches. Their color is flesh, with a tinge of red or yellow; their eyes are large and do not appear to slant like those of the yellow peoples; their hair is abundant and tangled and they have much beard. Their body is very hairy. They are filthy and rarely wash themselves.

The women tattoo, beginning in girlhood. The patterns are cut in the flesh with a razor and soot is rubbed into the lines; to render the 96color permanent, water in which ash-tree bark has been steeped is rubbed over the part tattooed. The tattooing first done is at the centre of the upper lip; later the lower lip. The marks are added to from time to time until they cover the upper lip and reach from ear to ear. Such women appear to have a great moustache. After marriage a woman’s forehead may be tattooed, also patterns may be made up the backs of the hands and on the arms, and rings may be tattooed around her fingers.

AINU: A HAIRY SPECIMEN (BATCHELOR).

97Ainu clothing is generally made of elm bark, and that worn by men and women is much alike. The bark is stripped from the tree in spring, when it is full of sap. It is soaked in water to separate the inner and outer bark. Fibres are secured from the inner bark, which can be woven like thread into cloth. The men’s garments of this fibre cloth are adorned with patterns embroidered with colored threads; those of women are generally plain.

AINU WOMEN: SHOWING TATTOOING (FROM A PHOTOGRAPH).

The Ainu house is rectangular, with a rather frail support and a substantial thatched roof. The roof is built first; then the chief posts of the walls are set and the roof is lifted up and put on 98them. Ainu houses grow as the family grows. A young married couple build a small house; as they have children a new and larger house is built behind the old one, which remains as a sort of hall; when the family is still larger and richer, the hall is torn down and a larger house is built behind the second one, which now becomes a hall or porch to it. There are two windows and one door in these houses. The windows are on the south and east sides, while the door is at the west end. The east end of the house and its window are sacred; people must not throw things through this window nor spit out of it. Sometimes the men worship the rising sun as they see it through this east window.

The Ainu are hunters and have ingenious ways of capturing or killing animals. In hunting deer they use a little squeaking whistle, the sound of which attracts the animals. They set bows, with arrows on the stretched cord, near trails over which deer and bears pass; in passing, the animal strikes a cord which lets loose a trigger, and the arrow flies. They also set a trap consisting of a stout bow, which, when sprung, shuts two boards tightly together; the foot of the animal is caught between these and held fast. Formerly the Ainu used poisoned arrows in hunting. These had a 99broad, hollowed point, in which a little of the poisonous paste was stuck. The poison was made from the root of aconite mixed with tobacco, peppers, and poisoned spiders. These, and other substances, were carefully mixed into a gummy paste. At present the Japanese government forbids the Yezo Ainu to use these poisoned arrows.

The bear hunt is looked forward to with anxiety. It is in the spring while snow is yet on the ground. Before starting the hunters pray to their gods for help and direction. Dogs accompany them. When a den is found, there is great excitement. They try to draw the animal out by teasing him with long poles. If he will not come out, one of the men draws his knife, enters the den, and faces the bear. The animal pushes him aside, when the hunter pricks him from behind with his knife. The angry animal then rushes forth, growling and snarling. The hunters and dogs waiting outside soon despatch him, though frequently some one is hurt or killed. The hunters then sit down near the dead bear and say all kinds of pretty things to him, pretending that they are sorry to have killed him, and asking his forgiveness. They then skin him, cut up the meat, carry it home, and have a feast.

100At Ainu feasts the men always become dreadfully drunk from drinking rice wine. When he drinks, the Ainu uses a little stick to lift his moustache and keep it from the wine. These moustache lifters are made for the purpose and are frequently neatly carved.

Sometimes Ainu hunters secure a little bear cub, which they carry carefully home. It is fed with the best of food, and treated as a great pet. When it is so big as to be rough and troublesome, they put it in a cage. When it is quite grown, a bear feast is planned. Many guests are invited. The men eat millet-cakes and drink rice wine. After feasting for some time two men noose the bear with ropes and drag him around; the whole company then worry and tease the poor creature, finally choking him, after which they eat him.

The Ainu have many gods. In praying to them they use inao. These are little sticks which are so whittled with knives that curls of shavings hang from them. There are several ways of cutting these, and they are believed to please the gods. They are stuck up in the ground and left where prayers are made. Ainu men spend much time whittling these inao.

In the “hill country” of India live many curious brown peoples whose languages are different from the Aryan tongue of the Hindus. These peoples, called Dravidians, are considered the earliest occupiers of India. Among them no tribe is more curious than the Todas. In some ways they are like the Ainu. Though brown, they are probably really white or Caucasic. They have the features, strong beards, and hairy bodies of whites, and in these respects are like the Ainu.

The Todas live on a tableland whose surface is covered with hills and rolling prairies. The hills are clad with coarse grass, and in some of the valleys are deep forests. The sunshine is bright and warm, and the dry season is long.

The Todas think only of their cattle. They 108do not hunt—in fact, they have no weapons; they do not cultivate any fields, getting what plant food they use from the Badagas and other neighboring tribes. But they do raise cattle—buffalo. Their villages are located in the midst of pasture land. No village is occupied for a whole year, but the people have always at least two villages and live first in one, then in the other. This is to have fresh pasture for their cattle and to be secure in the wet season. Toda villages contain but few houses, most of which consist of a single room eight feet square; sometimes two or three such rooms are set side by side—these do not open into each other, but each has an outside door. The roofs of these houses are thatched and project a yard or so beyond the house walls. The people sit under the shelter of these projecting roofs while they work or visit. There are no windows or chimneys to the houses. Everything in the house has its proper place—the pestle and mortar for pounding grain, the fireplace, and the raised bank of clay that serves the old people as a sleeping place. Near the house is a pen of stones and mud for the owner’s cattle.

All the cattle of the villages are herded together. There is one dairy for the village, and 109all the cattle are milked there by special dairymen. After milking, these men give out so much milk as is needed to every one in the village; from the balance they make butter which they divide to the men of the village according to the number of cattle each owns. We have already said that the Todas raise no crops. The Badagas and Kotas live on the land of the Todas; they are stronger and more vigorous than the Todas, and both tribes have weapons and could easily defeat them in battle. But they live in peace with them and pay them, as rent for their land, grains and other produce they need.

We have spoken of the common village herds. There are other (sacred) herds, which are cared for by dairymen priests, who are themselves almost worshipped. The priest has an assistant who cuts wood for him and otherwise serves him. When the priest milks the sacred cows, and he alone may do so, he repeats a prayer. He does the same when he carries the milk into the dairy. The village people treat him and his assistant with great respect and may not touch them, nor any of the implements they use. Men and boys may go to the wall that encloses the dairy buildings, but may not enter. Women may not go near the place.

110The cows in the sacred herds have descended from sacred cows of the past. In each herd there is an especially sacred “bell-cow.” This means that she is the owner of an ancient cow-bell which the dairyman priest keeps in the dairy. It belonged to her mother before her and to her mother, and so on back. When a bell-cow dies, the bell has to be put upon her daughter. The priest brings it out from the dairy and waves it around and around the head of the cow morning and night for three days. As he does so he says:—

The cow wears the bell for three days and nights, after which it is taken off forever. It is not used again until the old cow dies and her daughter is then made bell-cow in her place.

111

GROUP OF TODAS (VERNEAU).

Perhaps you would like to know how the priest fills his time? One day is much like another with him. When he rises he washes his face, hands, and teeth. He makes a little lamp from a leaf and after filling it with butter places five wicks in it. After lighting it he sets it to burn in front of the ancient bells and other sacred objects. He then takes his staff and bamboo milk pail and goes to milk the cows. He salutes them and prays to them before milking. Carrying the milk into the dairy, he sprinkles some drops upon the sacred bells as an offering and repeats the names of the gods. He then makes butter from the milk of the preceding day. His work is now done, and 112he prepares food for himself and his assistant. This man then drives the herd to pasture and gathers firewood. The last thing before going to sleep at night, the priest puts fresh butter and wicks into the little lamp before the bells.

The Todas have other curious customs, but we have no space to describe them. Their salutations, the naming of children, the yearly feast, when they eat a young buffalo bull (they rarely eat meat at any other time), and their funeral customs are all interesting. Every man who dies among the Todas has two funerals, called the green and the dry funeral, a year apart.

East of British India and south of Cochin-China in the Bay of Bengal are the Andaman Islands, on which the Mincopies live. They are small in stature, black or dark brown, with broad round heads, and crinkly or woolly hair. They are often called negritos, or little negroes.

An Englishman named Man lived for some years in the Andaman Islands and became much interested in the little blacks. He learned their language and has described their customs.

113The Mincopies are true savages, living entirely on wild food; they are gentle and non-savage in disposition. The islands are well supplied with food. “The sea which washes their coasts is full of fish and abounds with turtles; the jungles are filled with wild pigs; the bees furnish abundance of wild honey.” From plants they get roots and fruits. They have no cultivated fields and no domestic animals. Although savages, these little people know how to build good houses. These are huts some thirty-five by forty feet; the framework is of posts and poles and the firm thatch is of palm leaves. The huts are arranged about an oval or elliptical cleared space, where they hold their dances. When off on long hunting trips the Mincopies build rude shelters of branches and leaves. In their villages boys and girls, unless they are still babies, do not sleep in the houses with grown persons, but there are two special sleeping houses—one for boys and the other for girls. In the houses of the Mincopies fires are kept burning. It is said that these people do not know how to kindle fire; if this is true, they are almost the only people who are ignorant of this important knowledge. They are careful of the fires they have and feed them well.

Unless they think they have some reason to 114fear strangers, the Mincopies receive them kindly. The little children are taught to respect visitors. “They are the first served; the best dishes are offered to them; they are accompanied at their departure; before separating they clasp hands, and instead of embracing they blow in each other’s faces; then they engage in an affectionate dialogue. Finally they separate with mutual promises of meeting again.”

The adoption of children is common among Mincopies. It is rare that any child remains with its parents after it is six or seven years old. Some friend of the family wishes to show his friendship and asks to adopt the child. The little one goes to his house and belongs to him. The parents may visit him in his new home, but no longer have any control over him. His new father may do what he likes with him, even to giving him away to some other person who may wish to adopt him. When children are about twelve years of age, they begin a fast, which is kept up until they are almost men and women; during that time they must not eat turtle, pork, fish, or honey. After several years of thus fasting, they may again eat these foods.

There are rules about foods for grown persons, too. During certain parts of the year they must 115not eat some kinds of roots and fruits; their god Puluga will be displeased if they do. Children must not eat the flesh of the two water animals, the dugong and porpoise. And to every person there is some one kind of food which he must not eat in all his life; this forbidden food differs with the persons.

We have said a good deal about the kindness of the Mincopies: they are not always good. They have their quarrels and battles like the rest of the world. They are quick-tempered and often become angry for a small offence. When a Mincopy is angry, he acts like a naughty child, striking and breaking everything around him, even his own choicest treasures. Trouble sometimes breaks out between two tribes in the midst of a feast. In their wars they destroy and carry off property; they take no prisoners among the men, killing the wounded, but children of the enemy are usually kept alive and kindly treated. Sometimes they try to harm enemies by witchcraft, or conjuring. They think that Puluga dislikes the smell of burning beeswax and will, in his anger, send forth a storm. So, when they know that their enemy is going fishing or hunting, they burn beeswax so that the angry Puluga will send a storm.

116

ANDAMAN MINCOPIES (TYLOR).

Most curious is the funeral of a child among the Andamanese. When a little one dies there is general weeping. Parents and friends paint their bodies with clay; their heads are fresh shaved, and upon them, over the forehead, men place a lump of clay, while women put one upon the top of the head. The mother prepares the little body for burial; she shaves and paints the head, neck, wrists, and knees with red ochre; she then folds the little body together and wraps it in great leaves and binds the bundle thus made with cords. The grave is dug in the floor of the hut, under the fireplace. After gently blowing a few times upon the little face in farewell, the child is buried 117and the fire is rebuilt over the grave. The mother leaves a few drops of her own milk in a cup on the grave. The hut is then deserted, a garland of rushes being fastened around it to show that a death has taken place. The whole village then moves, that the child’s spirit may not be disturbed. After three months of mourning, they all return. The little skeleton is dug up, the bones are painted red or yellow and distributed as keepsakes to the friends, who wear them as necklaces in memory of the dead child. This seems dreadful to us, but our people often keep locks of hair cut from a dead child’s head; it is the same thing. At this time the lumps of clay, signs of mourning, are removed from the heads and foreheads. Some days later, there is a gathering of all the friends. The father, holding his remaining children in his arms, sings a mourning song: the women take part in the chorus, and all the rest cry noisily. The parents then dance “the dance of tears,” after which they withdraw to the hut. The visitors keep up the dance some hours longer.

We rightly think of Africa as the home of the negroes, but it is a mistake to think that no other peoples dwell in that continent. The peoples of North Africa are white peoples; their complexions are often dark, but in head, form, features, and character they are like Europeans, rather than negroes. There are many types in North Africa. There are the modern Egyptians, who look like their great and famous distant ancestors; there are the Berbers and Kabyles, of whom we shall say more later; there are Arabs; there are “Jews,” especially in Algeria, Morocco, and the other Barbary States; there are Moors also, who are a mixed people with some negro blood.

True Negro-Africa begins near the Equator and stretches southward. The Sudan is the 124great negro country. There are four areas in this Sudanese negro belt: the upper Nile valley, the Sudan proper, the Senegambian district, and Guinea. In these four sections the people are negroes, though here and there somewhat mixed. Most of Africa south of this negro belt is occupied by negroids, who consist of many tribes and resemble negroes in their narrow heads and woolly hair; they are, however, less dark in color, more graceful in build, and more intelligent. Scattered here and there in Equatorial Africa are bands of Pygmies, men and women among whom are like boys and girls among us in size. In far Southern Africa live the Bushmen and Hottentots, among negroid tribes.

The Kabyles are among the most interesting of North African peoples. There are two types, the dark and the light Kabyles. The latter have light skin, fair hair, blue eyes, and much resemble the light whites of Europe. The Kabyles are tall, well built, and active. They are industrious and love labor. They are a mountain people and love their home. Their towns are located upon the slopes or on the summits. The houses are usually of one story and have flat roofs. There are two rooms,—one for the family and the other for the animals. When there are two 125stories to a house, it shows that the owner has a married son living with him; the upper story has been built above the old house for the young couple. A little garden always surrounds the house. The Kabyl country is rather cold, and the houses are not widely separated, so that they assist in protecting each other against the winds. In winter the family lives in a sort of cellar under the house.

GROUP OF KABYLES: ALGERIA (FROM A PHOTOGRAPH).

The Kabyles work hard to raise their little crops. Their fields are down in valleys or are 126terraced out on the hill slopes. They raise barley, wheat, gourds, cucumbers, and melons; they raise flax; they have some common cultivated plants that have been introduced from Mexico, as the prickly-pear cactus, maguey, maize, tobacco, and potato. The prickly pear and maguey are so common that landscapes in Algeria resemble those of Mexico. The Kabyles raise apples, pears, apricots, olives, figs, grapes, and nuts. They keep bees, and have quite a trade in wax. The men are good workers in metals and leather, and trade their wares to their neighbors.

The women, like all women in the Mohammedan world, delight in jewelry and ornaments, and as they are not wearers of veils they have a good chance to display their treasures. Couscous is a favorite food in Northern Africa, not only among Kabyles, but Arabs and other peoples. Kabyl women spend much of their time in its preparation. Flour is mixed with water into a sort of thick dough, which is divided into little masses which are rolled between the fingers. These little pellets, almost like seeds, they steam and eat with bits of meat and hot, peppery sauce.

The Kabyles love horseback riding, and are bold hunters. They fight bravely in defence of 127their homes. Among their amusements, perhaps falconry stands first. The falcon, you know, is a bird much like a hawk, which is trained to chase and kill or capture smaller birds or animals. It is carried to the field by the hunter on horseback. The bird is perched upon its master’s wrist, and is blinded by a hood over its head. When the hunter sees game, he unhoods the falcon and lets it fly after the victim.

MAKING COUSCOUS IN THE DESERT (FROM A PHOTOGRAPH).

The negroids of Southern and Eastern Africa resemble the negroes. They are generally tall; they have a fine dark brown color, long narrow heads, hair less kinky and woolly than the negroes, flat nose and thick lips. They do not have the negro’s odor. The negroids comprise many different tribes, but all speak related languages known as the Bantu languages. The tribes we shall consider are the Zulus, Kaffirs, and Waganda.

The Zulus and Kaffirs wear generally but little clothing. A man wears a cord about the 135waist with flaps of leather hanging from it in front and behind; the woman wears a fringed girdle about her waist. Sometimes they wear a mantle of hairy skins. At great festivals the men deck themselves finely. A traveller, describing a young man who was going visiting, says: “He will wear furs, among them the Angora goat; feathers in his head-dress; globular tufts of beautiful feathers on his forehead or at the back of his head; eagle feathers in fine head-dresses, as also ostrich, lory, and peacock feathers. He ties so many tufts and tails to his waist girdle that he may almost be said to wear a kilt.”

The negroids, like the negroes, are agriculturists and live in towns of huts. Some tribes are raisers of cattle and have large herds that yield milk, meat, and skins. They are hunters, too, and that on a large scale. They set up long hedges or lines of brush and stakes, which converge toward certain points where they dig pits and cover them. They then scatter over a large district and beat it, scaring in the animals and driving them between the lines of brush into the pits, where they easily kill them.

The two great weapons of the southern negroids are the kerry and the assegai. The kerry 136is a short wooden club with a knob at the end. This is thrown at the game. The assegai is a spear, the shaft of which is long and slender and the head of which, made of iron, is long and wide. Assegais are used all through South and Central Africa. The form and size of the blade varies with tribes: sometimes it is two feet in length and several inches across. Mrs. French-Sheldon saw the assegai maker, in one tribe she visited, using a natural leaf as his pattern, and he was careful to exactly copy its form. Both negro and negroid tribes in some parts of Africa, especially Western Central Africa, use throwing-knives; they are made from a flat piece of iron, worked into several blades projecting in different directions. They are thrown through the air, and some one of the ugly blades is quite sure to strike.

Kaffirs and Zulus make long oval shields almost as tall as themselves, for protection in battle. A cowskin, with the hair on, is stretched over a light and simple wooden frame. Each great section of Africans has its own kind of shield. The Niam-Niams and some Congo tribes weave beautiful close and light shields of wicker or basket work; they are long and narrow, and protect the whole body. The splints of which they are woven differ in color and are worked into rather handsome 137patterns. In Nubia they use shields made of thick and heavy hide, like elephant or rhinoceros hide; these are circular, not very large, and have a round or conical knob or boss raised at the centre.

WAGANDA MUSICIANS (RATZEL).

Kaffirs and Zulus are fond of war and are brave in battle. They have war dances in which they are inflamed for the fray. A Kaffir who slays an enemy may have a great gash cut in his leg on his return home to show that fact. The scars of such gashes are objects of great pride. The Kaffirs are fine speakers and their speeches on important occasions are stirring and impressive. Like 138negroes, the negroids delight in music and have many instruments. None, however, is a greater favorite than the noisy drum.

Among Zulus and Kaffirs, the sorcerer is much feared and dreaded. When men are ill, or in trouble, they go to him for help and advice. He goes through with many strange performances. The people believe that he can detect thieves and find stolen property, that he can bewitch and cure bewitchment; he is frequently, also, a rain-maker. There is much jealousy between the sorcerers or rain-makers in a tribe, and they sometimes challenge each other to tests of their power. The description of such a test between two rain-makers, in one of Rider Haggard’s books, is probably true to life.

Many centuries ago, the Greek writers, Homer, Herodotus, and Aristotle, spoke of dwarf peoples, whom they called Pygmies, living in Africa. On an ancient Egyptian wall there is painted a queer little dwarf-like figure with the word Akka written near it. It is plain that little African peoples were known both to the Greeks and Egyptians. But for hundreds of years after the old Greek 139writers and Egyptian artists were dead, no one believed in real Pygmies. Every one felt that the accounts of them were “travellers’ lies,” told to amuse people. But travellers who have been going into Africa during the last two hundred years and more have from time to time told us of such tribes, and to-day there can be no doubt of their existence. There are really Pygmies, and they are curious and interesting.

When the great German traveller Schweinfurth was visiting King Munza of the Monbuttus in “the heart of Africa,” he learned that tribes of Pygmies lived near. There were nine clusters of them, and they were called Akkas—just like the little creature represented on the old Egyptian wall—and each cluster had its own chief. At one time Schweinfurth saw several hundred of these little people together. Munza traded one of these Pygmies, whose name was Neevoué, to Schweinfurth. The traveller was kind to the little fellow, and wanted to take him to Germany, but Neevoué died in Egypt. He was a cruel little creature, not very bright, and had great difficulty in learning. Later on, in Ashango Land, much farther to the west, Du Chaillu found the dwarf Obongos, whom he described, and whose houses he pictured. An Italian traveller 140named Miani secured two Akkas in trade. He planned to take them to Italy, but he died on his journey home. His two Pygmies, however, reached Italy, where a kind-hearted nobleman took care of them. They were gay and happy, though fitful, and were rather quick to learn; they learned to speak, read, and write Italian.

HUTS OF ASHANGO-LAND DWARFS (DU CHAILLU).

So much was known about the Pygmies before Stanley’s journey. He saw many of them, and tells a good deal about them and their life. The Akkas were the tribe he saw. They measure from three feet to four feet and six inches; a full-grown 141man weighs about ninety pounds. Some of them have long heads, long, narrow faces, small, reddish eyes placed near together, and are sour looking and morose. The others have round faces with fine, large, bright eyes placed wide apart, high foreheads, skin of a rich ivory-yellow color. All African Pygmies seem to have their bodies covered with short, rather stiff, grayish hair. Stanley says the Akkas place their villages near the towns of bigger people, and that sometimes eight to twelve Pygmy villages will surround one negro (or negroid) town. These Pygmies are lively and active; they do not cultivate any plants, but devote themselves to hunting.

They use little bows and arrows, and small spears. The tips of the arrows and spears are often poisoned. With these weapons these little folk attack and kill antelopes, buffalo, and even elephants. They dig pitfalls and make traps. Some of their traps are like sheds, the roofs of which are held in place by vines; bananas and nuts are placed in these as bait; when chimpanzees or other animals try to take the bait, the roof falls. The Pygmies catch birds for their feathers, and hunt for wild honey.

The Pygmies use two kinds of arrow poison. One is dark and thick and made from the leaves 142of a plant quite like our Jack-in-the-pulpit or Indian turnip. The other is believed to be made from red ants,—which are dried and crushed to powder,—mixed with palm oil. Both are said to act quickly when fresh. Stanley mentions one man who died within one minute from a small wound in his right arm and chest. When the poison is old it acts less rapidly.

These Pygmies live in low oval huts, with doors two or three feet high. The houses are arranged in a circle about an open cleared space, in which the chief’s house stands. About one hundred yards from the village, along every path that leads to it, is a little guard house, only big enough for two Pygmies. These are guard houses and toll stations, and all strangers who pass must pay toll. The Pygmies are usually on good terms with their big neighbors, and both are useful to the other. The little people sell their ivory, skins, honey, and poison to their neighbors, or trade them for vegetable food. The Pygmies, keen and watchful, are good pickets for the others, and often warn them of danger from approaching enemies.

The Malays live in the Malay Peninsula, on the great islands near it,—Sumatra, Borneo, and Java,—and on a host of lesser islands in that part of the world. They also form part of the population of the great island, Madagascar, lying east of Africa.

They are short, with brown skin, dark eyes, straight and coarse black hair, and broad, round heads. Their forms are slight and graceful. They are active and gay, quick and intelligent; they are easily offended, do not readily forgive injuries, and are often deceitful and treacherous.

151The Malays are believed to have come from the continent of Asia not more than three thousand years ago.

They are fairly industrious in working their fields, the most important crop from which is rice. They have other crops, however, and also raise many fruits. They use the buffalo as a help in field work and for drawing carts. Those Malays who live near the coast fish, and use both fresh and salted fish for food. They are good sailors, making journeys by water to China, Australia and other islands. They are shrewd in trading. Formerly, many Malays were bold pirates, as indeed in some parts they still are.

Malay houses are usually built of boards, are rectangular in form, and have a two-pitched roof. They are almost everywhere, set up on posts quite high above ground, and must be reached by means of ladders.

The Malays are great chewers of betel nut. A piece of the nut is mixed with a little lime, placed in a leaf, and chewed. It colors the saliva red and stains the teeth a brownish black. So used are the Malays to these stained teeth that they no longer admire white teeth. Of a man whose teeth are not stained with betel they will say, “he has teeth like a dog,” and seem to consider it a disgrace. 152They even chip off or file away the enamel on the front of the teeth of children so that they may become sooner blackened.

MALAY FAMILY: JAVA (VERNEAU).

All Malays like amusement; even the most civilized celebrate many festivals. Animal fights and theatrical performances are favorites. Almost every man among the Malays keeps a fighting cock of which he is proud and fond; while he works in his field, the bird is tied by a cord to a stake near him, and he stops now and again to 153stroke and pet him. Cock-fights take place frequently, but the birds are not allowed—as in Mexico—to kill each other. The bull-fights in the Malay region are also much less cruel than those of Mexico and Spain. In these countries the bull is made to fight against a trained company of human fighters; among the Malays he fights another animal of his own kind. The Malay buffalo-tiger fight is famous. A buffalo and tiger are placed in a pen together and then excited until they attack each other. The buffalo is quite frequently the victor. Most curious, however, is the battle between crickets. The contest between these insects is watched with great interest and excitement by the Malays. It occurs also in Japan.

Malays delight in dances and the theatre. At the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago there was a complete Javanese village. It contained a dance house where dances were given to the sound of the strange gongs and other musical instruments of the Javan people. The dancing was by girls who were gayly dressed in velvet, silk, and satin with gold and silver tinsel. They wore curious gilt helmets. They did not dance with their feet, but kept time to the music by graceful movements of the arms, hands, head, and eyes. In the 154same building they gave plays, in which the players wore small and curious masks of wood. In other plays, somewhat like our Punch and Judy, puppets were moved and played the parts. The Javanese also have shadow plays, where jointed human figures, cut from cardboard, are moved by sticks and their shadows are thrown upon a screen.

BUFFALO CART: JAVA (RATZEL).

“Running amuck” is fearfully common among Malays. Suddenly a man, on the street or in some public place, becomes insane with a desire to kill. Seizing a weapon, he starts down a street filled with people and strikes right and left at 155every one as he runs. The police hurry after the murderer and are usually compelled to kill him before his dreadful work can be stopped. The Malays are really a nervous and excitable people; it is said that frequently a steady look at a person will throw him into a trance or hypnotized state.

KRISES: JAVA (RATZEL).

Of the various weapons used by the Malays the kris seems to be the favorite. In Java this was often a remarkable object. A kris is a short sword or dagger with a fine steel blade which ends in a point, and the sides of which are wavy instead of straight. Probably they think of this as a stinging serpent; anyway the handle is frequently in the form of a serpent’s head. Sometimes this handle is finely carved and often it is set with gems. Some that belonged to the old Javan princes were a mass of precious stones. The sheath for the kris might be plain, but it 156might also be decorated with carvings or encrusted with jewels.

Strangest of the Malays are the Dyaks of Borneo and the Battaks of Sumatra. Both are a little larger and have longer heads than the Javanese. The Dyaks are great “head-hunters.” No man is respected until he has brought in a head as a trophy. Usually only the skull is kept; sometimes this will be engraved with patterns or stained with coloring matter; sometimes designs are cut in the bone and foil is set in the patterns. The Battaks are industrious and have made progress in many ways. They have a system of writing. Inscriptions are usually carved upon staves of bamboo; they also have books made of strips of palm or other vegetable substances. The Battaks are among the most dreadful of cannibals.

The Philippine Islands lie northeast from the great Malay Islands. The group extends for one thousand miles and includes almost two thousand islands of sizes from barren rock masses too small for use up to the great Island of Luzon, which is about the size of Ohio. All together the islands 157have an area equal to that of New York and the New England States united. It is uncertain how large a population occupy the islands, but it is probably between seven and eight million.

Dr. Blumentritt, an Austrian who has studied the Philippine peoples for many years, says that fifty-one different languages are spoken among them. He thinks that the peoples have come at various times to the islands from various places. He believes that the first people here were the negritos and that they once occupied the whole region. Perhaps three thousand years ago Malay tribes, a good deal like the Dyaks of Borneo, crowded in upon the unfortunate little natives, seizing their land and driving them into the mountains of the interior and to the more remote parts of the coast. Later, from eighteen hundred to fourteen hundred years ago, other Malays crowded in, but this time they were more like those of Java. Much later, only about five hundred years ago, a third lot of Malays, bold and hardy seamen, began a movement into the islands. But just then the Spaniards discovered the Philippines and checked these pirates before they had gained much of a foothold. Blumentritt speaks of these invasions of Malays as the first, second, and third Malay migrations.

158

PHILIPPINE NEGRITO (MEYER).

The negritos, or old population, are a little people much like the Mincopies of the Andaman Islands. They are short, black skinned, and crinkly haired. They do not live to be old, but a person of thirty or forty looks as if much older. They build no true houses; in bad weather they put up rude shelters. They are wanderers and have no agriculture; they make no pottery; they wear but little clothing; some scar or tattoo; they are fond of ornaments. Their chief weapon is the bow and arrow, though they also have spears. They are skilful in throwing stones. They make fire by friction, sawing one sharp piece of bamboo across another. If a negrito dies, his fellows believe he was bewitched by some Tagal or other Malay, and will not be satisfied until one has been killed in revenge. When two negritos wish to swear 159friendship, they cut their arms and each sucks blood from the other; they thus become of one blood and are like brothers. They used to send messages by knotting grass which either had a meaning itself or helped the person who carried it to remember what he had been told. There are now perhaps twenty thousand negritos and they live mostly on the larger islands—Luzon, Mindanao, and Negros.

Many tribes in the Philippines represent the first Malay invasion. They are much alike in life and character; all are bold and cruel; most of them are head-hunters. They depend, in part, on agriculture, and have settled villages which are usually in the mountains or forests. The Igorrotes are a good example of them. They live in North Luzon. Both men and women tattoo; they gild their teeth and are fond of ornaments. The men go armed with spears, bows and arrows, and knives. Their peculiar weapon, however, is a hatchet-knife called ligua; the thin broad blade, set like that of a hatchet, has a concave cutting edge which runs into a long point above. The houses of the Igorrotes are large, rectangular, and raised on piles. These people are good agriculturists, tending their fields—which they irrigate—with care. The girls of the village are in charge of an old woman, and they all live and sleep together in one special house; this is unlike the other houses of the village and is not set up on posts. The Igorrotes have much respect for the souls of their ancestors. In each village there is a sacred tree in which they believe these souls abide. Though industrious and settled the Igorrotes are dreadful head-hunters. They organize war-parties to attack neighboring tribes for victims. The party shown in the picture were on such an errand. Only a few days after the photograph was taken they fell upon a Tingian village, killed thirty-nine persons, and carried away twenty-five heads as trophies.

160

HOUSES OF IGORROTES (MEYER).

161The Tagals, one of the tribes of the second invasion, are the most important of the Philippine peoples. They industriously work their fields and raise rice, yams, maize, and several fleshy-root plants. Of fruits they cultivate mangoes, bananas, pineapples, cocoanuts, and others. Of industrial plants they produce manila hemp, cotton, indigo, and tobacco. Many of these plants they have only had since the coming of the Spaniards. They have long had domestic animals, among them the buffalo, pig, dog, hens, and ducks. The Tagals have towns of considerable 162size, with well-built houses perched on posts. They are well dressed in good cloth woven by the women. They are fond of gain and good traders. They are active in body and mind. They delight in poetry, and it is said “boys on the street will improvise by the yard.” The Tagals write their language with an alphabet which was probably brought from India long ago. They formerly wrote on bamboo or on the bark of certain trees. The Tagals are passionately fond of cock-fighting. Every one chews betel nut.

HEAD-HUNTING PARTY: IGORROTES (MEYER).

As to the third migration, it failed to reach the great island of Luzon. The immigrants were Mohammedan Malays from Borneo. They were 163sea-rovers and pirates. They gained possession of the Sulu Islands, the farthest to the southwest of the Philippines, and had landed on Mindanao when the arrival of the Spaniards put an end to their movements. They are usually called Moros or Moors, from their religion. They are polygamous and keep slaves. Their ruler is called the Sultan of Sulu.

Such are the people of the Philippines: at least fifty-one tribes, speaking as many different languages. But there are also many foreigners there: thousands of Japanese and Chinese; descendants of American Indians, brought by the old Spaniards from Mexico and Peru; Spaniards and other whites. And lastly there are all sorts of mestizos, or mixed persons, produced by the intermarriage of all these so many different stocks—native and foreign.

Several great groups of people occupy the vast island world of the Pacific. We have already spoken of the Malays. In Australia live many tribes differing in language and customs. They are mostly dark brown with bushy or curly hair. 164They are savages in culture. South of Australia, in Van Diemen’s Land, or Tasmania, there formerly lived a dark brown people, not tall in stature, with peculiar features and long curly hair; they are now all gone. North of Australia, in Papua or New Guinea, are many tribes with curious and interesting arts and customs. The real Papuans are dark brown in color and have woolly hair, which, like that of the Bushmen, seems to grow in tufts with bare spaces between. They are of medium stature. The islands to the east and south of Australia and New Guinea are occupied by black, woolly-haired tribes, who are called Melanesians, and who are related to the Papuans. Among them are the natives of Fiji, New Britain, New Ireland, and the Solomon Islands.

The Fijians of fifty years ago will well represent the Melanesians. Thomas Williams, Fiji and the Fijians, will give us our facts.

The Fijian hair-dressing was striking. Each chief had a special hair-dresser, who frequently spent several hours a day in arranging his master’s hair. The hairs were trained to stand out from the head so as to form a great mass that might be trimmed into curious shapes. This smooth, soft, solid, cushion-like mass of hair was stained with colors—jet black naturally, it might 165be blue-black, ashy white, or shades of red. The whole mass of hair, except a band in front, might be black, while that was white; sometimes the hair behind was twisted into cords ending with tassels; one man had a knot of fiery red hair on the crown while the rest of his head was shaved; sometimes the hair mass measured four feet or more in circumference. Such grand hair-dressing would be ruined by lying down with the head on the ground—so the Fijians had a wooden head-rest or pillow, which was set under the neck and held the head up, off the ground.

FIJIAN (RATZEL).

Men wore a long sash of bark cloth, which was anywhere from three to one hundred yards long. This was passed between the legs and wound around the waist any number of times; if it were long and the man wanted to present a fine appearance it was folded several times up against the 166upper part of his body; the ends were allowed to trail behind. The men wore a turban of the same material, but fine and gauzy; from four to six feet long, it was wrapped around the head, several times if need be; if the hair mass was large, however, it would go little more than once. Women wore little but a fringed waist band, which hung to the knees.

Like the Polynesians, from whom they probably learned it, the Fijians used much kava, a drink which produces a stupefied or intoxicated condition. The preparation of kava for the king was a great occasion. The great kava bowl, made of wood carefully polished, was placed upon the ground. The guests seated themselves around it. A number of young men took pieces of the root from which the drink was to be made and chewed them well in their mouths; they stacked up the pellets in the dish; water was poured in until the bowl was nearly full and the balls of chewed root were well stirred about and squeezed in it. Then a man, especially trained to the work, strained them out with a bunch of fibre, in which, by twisting, he squeezed the pellets until no more juice or water ran out. The liquid was now ready for drinking. Prayer and song had accompanied the making of the kava. The king, receiving a cupful from a servant, spilled a little to the gods, and then drank. The others then drank in their order. It was a high honor to drink next after the king.

167

PILE-DWELLING VILLAGE: NEW GUINEA (RATZEL).

168

CANOE: NEW GUINEA (RATZEL).

The Fijians carved neat bowls and other vessels from wood. The kava bowls, though usually plain, were carefully cut and beautifully polished. The Fijians—almost alone of Pacific Islanders—made pottery; the vessels were in various strange though rather graceful forms, and were somewhat glazed. They made remarkable war clubs of fine, heavy, dark woods which varied much in form, were decorated with carving, and were handsomely 169polished. Fijians were not good sailors, but they made better canoes than some of those made by Polynesians, who were bold sailors. It is said that the Tongans (Polynesians) gave up their own style of canoe to adopt that of the Fijians. The canoes were, like those of many of the Pacific Islands, double canoes; two canoes of the same shape and size were placed side by side—with some little space between—and united by a platform of boards; one sail was sometimes hoisted; paddles were used for sculling and a great steering oar was employed. A much larger book than this would be needed for describing all the craft used on the water by Malayans, Melanesians, and Polynesians. The Fijians enjoyed music and had two or three kinds of drums, sticks that were beaten together, pan-pipes, a bamboo jew’s-harp, a conch-shell trumpet, and a little flute that was blown by the nose.

The Fijians were a polite people—that is, they had rules about greetings, behavior, and the treatment of superiors. One curious rule was that a servant or inferior, in case his master fell or got into some ridiculous position, must also fall or place himself in a similar ridiculous position. Afterward it was expected that he would be rewarded for his politeness. Mr. Williams 170tells us an incident that illustrates this practice:—

“One day I came to a long bridge formed of a single cocoanut tree, which was thrown across a rapid stream, the opposite bank of which was two or three feet lower, so that the declivity was too steep to be comfortable. The pole was also wet and slippery, and thus my crossing safely was very doubtful. Just as I commenced the experiment a heathen said, with much animation, ‘To-day I shall have a musket.’ I had, however, just then to heed my steps more than his words, and so succeeded in reaching the other side safely. When I asked him why he spoke of a musket, the man replied, ‘I felt certain you would fall in attempting to go over, and I should have fallen after you; and, as the bridge is high, the water rapid, and you a gentleman, you would not have thought of giving me less than a musket.’”

The tabu is one of the most curious habits of Pacific Islanders. Though it occurred in Fiji, it was Polynesian, rather than Melanesian. Tabu was forbidding persons to touch, or use, or make some object. Chiefs and priests set most of the tabus, but lesser people might sometimes do so. A man might tabu all the cocoanuts in a district, setting up some sign or mark to show that he had 171done so; no one might thereafter touch a nut there until the tabu had been removed. A chief might tabu a man’s working; he could not do work of any kind until the chief removed the tabu. A chief might tabu the building of canoes by the people of a certain village; the people thenceforth would need to secure canoes from others. Thousands of tabus were set, and they made much trouble and inconvenience. The man who broke a tabu was punished, sometimes by death.

The Fijians were dreadful cannibals. England governed Fiji for many years, and it was believed that the practice had disappeared. A few old men were considered almost as curiosities because they had eaten flesh of men and were called “the last of the cannibals.” Then suddenly in 1889 the old custom broke out again. A party of Fijians killed some victims and ate them in a cave. A party in pursuit found evidence of the dreadful feast. Among these were some of the curious wooden forks used because it was not proper that the flesh should be touched with the fingers!

We have spoken of many Strange Peoples. We have gone around the world in our search. But after all we have examined but a small part. Remember that there are fifty-one peoples at least in the Philippines alone. We have not examined the Australians, or the unfortunate Tasmanians, or the many tribes of Siberia, or the sixty native populations of India. We have omitted great nations like the southeast Asians,—Siamese, Burmese, Annamese. In fact there are many times more Strange Peoples in the world whom we have not examined, than whom we have. But we have examined enough, I hope, to learn that they are interesting and deserve our acquaintance and our sympathy.

There are few unknown peoples left. Travellers have gone to almost all parts of the world. The 181spots which represent absolutely unexplored regions on our maps are now neither large nor numerous. There are many peoples about whom we know little, but there are not many who are actually unknown. Those that may be discovered hereafter will be interesting, but they are not likely to be very different from those now known.

Many of the Strange Peoples are becoming less “strange” every year. Old customs and peculiar practices are dying out in every part of the world. Travellers, missionaries, and merchants from white men’s lands are taking our ideas, our tools, our weapons, our dress, our learning, our religion, and our vices to the remotest parts of the world. Some of the Strange Peoples here described have already lost most of their old customs. The Polynesians and Fijians have little of the old life which we have described. Many American Indian tribes have changed less. Some populations have still changed little. But a tribe must indeed be remote and difficult of access to actually escape our touch absolutely. Usually the change is not improvement. Other people more quickly adopt our vices than our virtues. Many tribes have become drunken, diseased, and depraved through the white man’s influence. It is rare, indeed, that a lower 182people gains in happiness or virtue by contact with “higher civilization.”

Many of the Strange Peoples will disappear. The Tasmanians were killed off almost like so many animals by the English. American Indian tribes have suffered almost as badly at our hands. Many tribes have gone; others are going. The Lipans were once a fairly numerous tribe. In 1892 I saw all who were left in the United States—four women and one man; six months later I saw them again—the man was dead and only four women remained. The Tonkaways are dying out at the rate of one-third each eight years. The Polynesians, strong, handsome, active, and happy as they were when James Cook visited their islands little more than one hundred years ago, have dwindled, and fifty years more may blot them from the earth. Not all American Indian tribes are dying out; it is possible too that Polynesian decline began before Cook’s travels. But it is certain that on the whole the changes brought by the newcomers sealed the doom of the Indian and Polynesian.

There have always been movements of peoples from place to place. We have seen the Malays pouring three great masses of immigrants into the Philippines. There are white peoples in 183Asia; there are yellow peoples in Europe. Recently plenty of whites and of blacks have poured into America. Such movements contain some danger. The fair whites will probably never be able to live in the tropical lands. A certain sort of skin, hair, nose, breathing apparatus, is necessary for men who are to live and prosper in low, hot, marshy parts of Africa. For Germans to try to colonize equatorial Africa is probably a fatal blunder. So far as we know the dark whites—Spaniards, Italians, south Frenchmen—make better tropical colonizers than we do; but even they are not successful. The negro is a bad colonizer, he hardly holds his own even in our Southern states. Of all the peoples of the globe the Chinese seem to be the best able to colonize differing countries. He seems to go to hot lands and cold lands, to small islands and to great continents, but flourishes everywhere. So true is this that some writers have urged that Africa be opened up for settlement to the crowded millions of the old empire. For most peoples, however, migration, if they must migrate, is best along the lines of latitude into lands as much like the old home as possible. Many Scandinavians live to-day happily where Wisconsin, Iowa, and Michigan join; and they may be 184expected to prosper there, for land and water, soil and products, scenery and climate, are there much what they were in the fatherland.