New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-03-03

10 sketch some Of those primitive races which,
while still surviving, are rapidly passing away
In doing this he has aimed at sympathetic as
well as n scientific portraiturc; sympathetic, that
is TO saw 10 tic extent of excluding those preju
diccs which have commonly converted the ac-
counts given by travellers into carcatures. For,
as VI. Reclus observes: I'VE are too apt to look
down scornfully from the heights of modern civil
lzation upon the mental processes of former
times, upon the ways of feeling, acting and think
ing which characterize human aggregations an
terror to our own. How often we scof1 without
knowing anything about them! We have fanccd
that the ethnology Of inferior races .Jthing
but medley of nonsense and, in fact, prejudceS
appear dOubly absurd when we do not possess the
key TO them. We have ended by believing that
there is no intelligence but our own, no morality
that does not fit in with our formulas" Perhaps
it would be more accurate to say that we have
ended where we began in this respect: for, UNI
QuestiOnably, the narrow insularity exhibited in
such a belief is a survival from savagery, not
growth q concOmitant of civilization. Here,
as in many other instances well calculated to
humble our pride, we may see our own preJudlccS
and folcs reflected in the mental processes, ways
and customs Of those backward races upon whom
we look down with 50 vain q cCnccit Of our own
position and superiority. When that prim-
in their innocence imagine themselves the inner
itors and lords of the whole earth: that they in
their turn look down upon supposed interiors, the
facts may teach us at least this wholesome truth
that the distance in time between the most back
ward and the most advanced races may be con-
siderable, but the distance in mental growth is
much more easily measured
NJ. Rcclus has taken his examples from the Es-
quimauX-the Eastern and Western 1nuitS-the
Apachcs, the Nairs of India, the mountaineers
Of the NeilgherricS, the Koarians of Bengal and
the Khonds In this field there is sufficient di-
versity to afford both support and hndrancc to
almost any theory of human development; but the
unmistakable lesson of the whole is that the en-
vironment determines the lines upon which any
branch of the human family shall move. The
two first chapters upon the 1nuits, exhibit a
strange medley of habits and customs which TO
us appear filthy, revolving or immoral: and other
customs which, even from Western points of
view, seem inspired by the highest ethical prin
cipleS. Thus, if we examine the sexual relations
of the 1nuits we find their morality loose If
we look to their ways of eating and living, we
find them often disgusting But when we turn
10 their behavior toward another we are sur
prised to discover qualities and dispositions which
very few Christians distinguished by even at
this late day. The Inuit children, to begin at the
names, either, las their language is deficient in
terms of abuse and insult" Neither do tic adults
quarrel or fight. Ross could not make the poo
pie of Baffins Land, who have no weapons Of COM
bat, understand what mean by battles. They
neither steal nor lie The Alcutian, incapable of
faschood, would overwhelm with contempt the
man whom he found in a lie, and would never
speak to him again." They scrupulouS
that all sales are effected by middleman, lest the
knowledge of the parties to the sale should in any
way affect the result. They natural commun-
ists and TO such point do they carry the system
that man will accumulate property for years
only to redistribute the whole Of it at great
feast the conclusion of which leaves him pau
per.
Sir John Lubbock remarked: These Es1u-
maux have less religion and more morality than
any other race" The saying may seem a hard
one, but the facts are incontrOvertiblc. Before
the Russians introduced civilization in the shape
Of muskes, MURDER slavery, and whislcy these sim
pie folk were happy and prosperous in their own
way. Now they are dying out. The superior
race, which cannot initiate their sterling virtues
with all the aid of Christianity, and which has
the fatuous cfrontery to commend to them Cos
pei whose practical illustrators are ruians,
victs and brutcs, Overpowcrs the primitive people.
But it does not invariably follow that the con-
Quered are the interiors. Between the Romans
and the Huns there could be no question upon
such point; yet the Huns were the victors. The
Moors of Spain were the superi0Is OF the Chris
tians who expelled them, but they had TO disap-
pear. OF the primitive races that have
effected nothing before vanishing will always be
accounted hopeless savageS by the thOughtless
majority: but the small minority Of thinkers can
not avoid pondering the deep pSychical problems
tons as are here in issue. How account for so
strangt mixture of evil and good in ono people !?
Courage hospitality, endurance, generosity, honor,
honesty, truth, peaccableness-all these they have
az the same time they kill their old people,
they gluttonous, they are loose
in morals, dirty in person, and animal
In most of their social habits. But VI. Reclus
thinks that setting aside their sexual vices and
Irregularities, these worthy people have realized
the Ebonitc ideal. They are verify the poor,
the pure in heart who are given to us as an en-
ample in the Imitation OF Christ " lie adds
further that the missionaries Of the Greek
Church-wc honor their sincerity declare that the
Aleutians could only lose by the change proposed
10 them, and that their conversion to Christianity
was little 10 be desired
great question here springs to the eyes, as
the French say. What is it that has hndcred
Christendom in attaining, after 1000 yeas Of
ceaseless effort. the social virtues which with these
primitive InuitS appear inherent? But not all
primitive folk are like the Inuts. There is the
Apache, TO whom VI. Reclus introduces us next
and while the present portrait of him is evidently
drawn from old material. it is close enough TO
emphasize the fact that the fierce nOmad of the
deserts and mountains is much more beast Of
prey than man. Indeed. he is too primitive to
be interesting. for he hes ideas so undevclopcd
that their arrangement and classification is scarcely
possible, and the cndcavor TO penetrate his mind
involves too much conjecture TO be scientifically
useful.
Then the KhonGs used TO 60 on the principle