Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1888-11-30
NOTIONS OF SAVAGES.
SOME STRANGE BELIEFS OF THE SIM
PIE CHILDREN OF EARTH.

PIE CHILDREN OF EARTH.
Darwinisln Anticipated by Tribes of At
rica-Curious Ideas Concerning White
People-What Savages Thought of the
Clothing of Observation-Disclosures.
Savage beliefs regarding cosmogony, geog-
raphy and the kindred sciences are so numer-
GUS that volume would not contain them,
and may be passed by, although some of them
are exceedingly strange and interesting. OF
greater interest to most readers are their no.
tions about mankind, dress, domestic animals,
furniture, etc., few of which will illustrate
the character of the larger number that might
be given.
The first time natives of the province of
Victoria, in Australia, saw an OK grazing, the
whole tribe turned out to watch him, and the
most daring warriors begged him to give
them the huge horns he wore. Many savages
call the game by name in hunting, just as
herdsman calls his cows Tupinamba women
in Brazil go to the ant hills and call the ants
out promising them nuts, while those of New
South Wales beg the fish to be caught. In the
cabins of Canada Indians there was an indi-
vidual especially charged with this duty.
Bolivian Yuracaries would not feed corn
to their fowls, saying that as they could not
raise it they ought not to have it. Many
tribes of Africa, Paraguay and Central
America anticipated Darwinism in their be-
lief that monkeys were formerly men who
have lost the art Of speech because they are
not made to labor.
It is difficult for us to understand the be-
lief held by many savages that they are the
sole inhabitants of the EARTH Comanches,
Caribs, New Guinea tribes and Marquesans
had no idea that there were any other people
on earth besides their own, and similar ideas
were entertained by Rocky Mountain tribes,
Orinoco Indians, Australian aborigines Ma
ranne islanders and natives of Tasmania.
Forty years since natives of the Marquesas
Islands professed a like ignorance of any in-
habitants upon the earth outside their own
island
Many of the natives of the West India and
South Sea Islands and Indian tribes of North
and South America thought that the first
white people they saw came from heaven.
Esquimaux believed that the first ship arriv-
ing on their coast came from the sun or the
moon, from which latter planet came the
crew. A Senegal tribe, as well as the Caribs,
maintained that the white people came from
the sea, and that ships were their only hab-
itations.
Some negroes on the eastern frontier of
Congo were greatly astonished at finding all
the white persons wearing clothing, not I'M
agining how they could procure so great a
quantity. So pleased were the simple ma
tives of a country to the south of Sahara
with buttons that Park was kept some time
buttoning and unbuttoning his coat, to show
the use of these attachments. The king of
Bondo and his officers greatly admired an
umbrella and were some time i'll learning
how to use machine SO marvellous, and New
Zealanders were equally impressed with one,
delighting to open and close it. The inhab-
itants of an island in the east believed that
the man. his clothes and his shoes were of
one piece, and were only convinced of the
contrary by close examination. A Senegal
tribe was convinced that this must be the
case with the missionaries.
Some women on the borders of the Great
Sahara thought the Able Poiret had a green
skin because he wore gloves of that hue, and
others in a nomadic tribe of Morocco were
very much frightened at seeing Drummond
Hay pull off his gloves Tasmanians were
very much surprised to see traveller do the
same. African Laus thought the boots were
Pal U VI tuo udtuTdI DOuy, anu wondered
much that they should be dark while the faces
were white. Another African tribe thought
that missionary was detaching his feet
when removing the shoes, and that his black
stockings were detachable part of a double
skin with which he was provided. The Uaza-
ramos of Africa thought that another, who
wore glasses, had four eyes, one pair of which
were detachable. Some New Zealanders
were persuaded that wig was but the skin
of the head and that its removal was accom-
plished by magic. Hawaiians thought Cooks
officers were horned because they wore three
cornered chapeaux, and believed that their
pockets were entrances to great natural res
ervoirs of treasures within their bodies.
Guinea negroes, Tahitians and tribes OF
the New Britain archipelago, believed that
cloth, arms, hatchets, mirrors and other OBJ
jects of the kind were fruits of the EARTH and
Tahitians sowed nails to raise crop, while
Caribs planted gunpowder in the ground,
with similar expectation.
Several Australian tribes as well as natives
of New South Wales and Mexicans, thought
the horse and rider inseparable, and were ex-
ceedingly astonished to see the human part
of the Centaur descend from his perch
South Sea islanders thought the first horse
brought on shore was pig. to which latter
animal they were accustomed.
Kamschatkans thought all animals under
stood their language, and addressed to them
most fattering words. Yacuts OF Siberia cali
the bear lord, illustrious old man, good father,
and beg of him humbly the permission to con-
tinue their journey. The tiger is named lord
or grandfather by Cambodia tribes, and the
Annanite call him Sir Tiger, and address
prayers to him. Philippine islanders beg the
crocodiles not to do them any harm, while
inha bitants of one of the FIJI islands think
the shark will not attack them if they call
out, 81 am from Coloumban their village)
Negroes usually think wine is blood, On
first seeing it. Some Esquimaux thought
biscuit dried seals flesh. When Canadian
Indians saw white men, for the first time,
eat bread and drink wine they thought them
wood and blood. One African tribe is con-
WINGED that rivers of rum flow on the Euro
pean soil. Missionaries enumerated rum as
one of the blessings of paradise to the Vezes,
a Madagascar tribe.-F. s. Bassett.