The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1878-07-12


speaks of the inhabitants of Africa as
negroes or niggers. il is much more diff
ficult to convince the student of history
that these races can not be Jumped to-
gether as sayages. but that here, too. we
must distinguish before we can compare
People who talk very freely Of savages,
whether in Africa, or America, or Aus
tralia. would find ii extremely difficult
10 give any definition Of the term. be-
yond this, that savages are different from
ourselves. Savages with US are still
very much what barbarians were 70 the
Greeks. But a. the Greeks had TO learn
that some of these so-called barbarians
possessed virtues which they might have
envied themselves, SO we also shall have
to confess that some Of these savages
have religion and a philosophy Of life
which may well bear comparison with
the religion and philosophy of what we
call the civilized and civilizing nations
of antiquity. Anyhow, the common
idea of a savage requires considerable
modification and differentiation, and
there Is perhaps no branch Of anthropol-
ogy beset with so many difficulties as
the study of these so-called savage races
Let us examine few of the prejudices
commonly entertained with regard to
the so-cailed savages Their languages
are supposed TO be inferior to our own
Now here the science a language has
done some good work. Ii has been
shown, first Of all, that no human beings
are without language, and we know what
that implies. All the stories Of tribes
without language, or with languages
more like the twittering Of birds than the
articulate sounds Of human beings, be-
long to the chapter Of ethnologicalfables
What Is more important still y that many
Of the so-called savage languages have
been shown TO possess most perfect,
in many cases too perfect, that Is 70
say, too artificial agrammar. while their
dictionary presents wealth Of names
which any poet might envy. True, this
wealth Of grammatical forms and this
superabundanc Of names for special
objects are, from one point OF view,
signs Of logic weakness and Of want
Of powerful generalization Language:
which have cases to express nearness =
an object, movement alongside an OBJ
iect, approach toward an object, en-.
trance into an object, but which have nc
purely objective case, no accusative
may be called rich. no doubt, but theil
richness is truly poverty. The same
applies to their dictionary II may con
tain names for every kind Of animal
| again for the same animal when II i
young or old, male or female; Il ma.
have different words for the foot Of (;
man, horse, lion, a hare, but |
probably Is without name for ANNA
in general, or even for such concepts a.
! member or body. There Is here, a
elsewhere, loss and gain on both sides
.. But however imperfect q language ma.
be in one point or other, every language
even that Of Papuas and veddas, i sucl
masterpiece Of abstract thought tha
IL would battle the ingenuity Of man,
philosophers TO produce any thing lik'
II. In several cases the grammar Of 50
! called savage dialect bears evidence 4
a far higher st tie Of mental culture pos
by these people in former times AM
il must not be forgotten that every Ian
, guage has capacities, IL they are onl
I called out, and that no language ha
vet been found into which il was no
!, possible TO translate the Lords Prayer
t, Mar Muller. IN MacmiiIan's Mdgazins