The times., 1898-09-04
Nothing in Civilization Makes
Up For It's Cost.
BENEFITS OF SAVAGERY
A Declaration That Civilization Has
Nothing to Give That COmpensates
For the Loss of Vigorous Health
and strength and the JOY of Life
jean jacques ROusseau's Doct-
rines Presented Once More.


state to save himself from loss of health
and the power to enjoy life. This seems
to be the thought of writer in the Pail
Mall Gazette, who says:
I'm the pre-scientiic era savages were
regarded as the happiest of mortals. The
Spanish conquerors admitted the fact. |
but they assigned it to the visible pro-
lection of devils. Cartier and Drake and
Raleigh agreed that men lived in Ameri-
ca as in the Golden Age. Cook was per-
picked by the felicity of those very sinful
islanders of the South Sea. Rousseau
built his theory of human rights upon the
innocent happiness of primeval man, and
Yoltaire wrote tale. famous in its day.
with this motif. Our Johnson would have
none of it, of course, and presently the
reaction set in. 1t was proved by de-
ductive argument that the savage is
miserable creature-sad, weakly prey
to disease; in all respects inferior to the
civilized man. There are plenty of peo-
pie who hold this view still. though the
wise have ceased to rely on deductive
argument in matters of the sort. 1t is
comforting for hum-drum townsfolk to
believe that those who dwell seemingly
without a care amid the glories of the
tropics are really far worse off than
themselves. To envy-though unconscious
I attribute the ready acceptance and
the obstinate survival of statements
which are only true. In fact, of tiny
| percentage among the savage peoples, If
at all.
n q hat
the supreme compensation for misery is
health, and so this is denied in the first
| place. But ii may be asserted roundly
that every disease of an epidemic charac-
| ter by which savages are afflicted has
been introduced by white men The Hot
tentOts were almost the lowest: very
few of them remain now. In 1874. when
they abounded, terrible unknown mala-
| dy assailed them. and Governor Goske
! drew up a report upon the subject. 1t
/ states that the Hottentots did not suffer
| from any particular disease until the ar
rival of Europeans. Many reached
/ great age. Famine lessened their mum
! bers periodically. but 1t was. not attended
| by fever; that is striking testimony to
! their soundness of constitution, for the
]
more victims than the dearth itself We
/ have depopulated whole countries with
/ smallpox, measles. scarlet fever, con-
sumption. and / know. not how many
! plaques, but has IL ever been alleged that
the poor savage impaired one to us?
/ The origin OF leprosy is mysterious. even
! If we agree upon the form of disease
! so described, but alt the white persons
/ who have ever taken 1t In India, China.
and South Africa could be counted in
hundreds only, perhaps in scores. Rheu-
matism is hardly known among the peo-
! pies who go naked, affections of the
| nerves quite unknown. Even toothache
! will rarely be heard of, still more rarely
( seen.
But the most efficient tests of general
, health are fine build muscular strength,
and readiness of the flesh to heal under
| injury. Upon each of these points the
| evidence is Overwhelming in favor of saw
| ages. There are races of low stature
among them, as throughout the Far
East; but Rajah Brooke could find plenty
Of his subjects under five feet three
inches in height who would hold their
own in a trial Of strength against Euro
pean athletes. Joke. the Kennowit war
ror who carried Walter Watson in
chair seven miles over jungle path,
with one halt of ten minutes was very
little over five feet. Watson weighed
! fully fifteen stone. l knew them both.
But most of the savage tribes show a
stature and a chest equal to those of
Europeans when not superior. Humboldt
pronounced the Indians of the Orinoko
the finest specimens OF the human race
OF their neighbors on the Amazon. Wal
lace says: The development of the chest
is such as / believe never exists in the
best-formed Europeans, exhibiting a
; Will
hollow in any part of It,. In spite of
drink and degradation, the physique of
the Indians in the United States is still
above the average of whites. The Zulu
is almost becoming proverb for superb
development, but other Kaffirs equal
him: and the biggest group of men I
ever saw were bastard Griquas, belong
ing TO some nomadie families. encoun-
tered when I lost my way on the veldt
by Campbell Grounds. But the most tre-
mendous creatures in my experience are
Kroomen. In average height they do not
equal the Papuan giants of New Guinea
but their breadth of shoulder is almost a
deformity.
Power of music is not necessarily a
sign of health. but ii demands a note
Drake was a cool-headed man. and truth
full above all. but he wrote that the In
dams of California are commonly so
three of our men could hardly bear one
of them would take upon his shoulders
and without grudging carry it easily
away. up hill and down hill, an English
mile together One is embarras ssed by
the choice Of testimony as TO the muscu-
lar powers of the negro.y and in truth it
is not required. for every Ione has friends
somewhere in Africa. | have mentioned
the astounding feat of the Dyak Joke
within my own knowledge: the present
Rajah Brooke and Mrs McDougall refer
to it in their books But other Dyaks
saw nothing wonderful in the achieve
ment. Humboldt weighed the loads of
ore which Indian serfs carried to the sur
face from a vast depth underground in
Mexico. He himself was tired for the
day with one journey. empty-handed. But
those Indians brought up 240 to $50 pounds
of stone every time, and they worked
without a pause from dawn to sunset.
Humboldt's observations on othe absence
of dwarfs hunchbacks and daformed per-
sons in general among the Indians of
America, and their length of life are to
the point. l have no room for details;
perhaps the editor will allow me to deal
with them another time. Briefly. how
ever, deformitieS are very rare among
all savages. and Humboldt will not admit
the easy explanation that children af-
fiicted die in infancy: but, of course, he
speaks only of the Indians Sle studied
AS for length of life, there is plenty of
evidence. / refer the reader, for instance.
to most interesting report issued by
the Native Department of Cape Colony
in 1875. summarized by Mr. Theal in his
| history, since | have not space to quote
| it.