Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 20.djvu/30

20 and the Dhimáls, the Lepchas, the Santáls, the Todas, and other peoples kindred in their form of social life; and here I may add further ones. Of the Lepchas, Hooker says, "In all my dealings with these people, they proved scrupulously honest." "Among the pure Santáls," writes Hunter, "crime and criminal officers are unknown"; while of the Hos, belonging to the same group as the Santáls, Dalton says, "A reflection on a man's honesty or veracity may be sufficient to send him to self-destruction." In like manner Shortt testifies that "the Todas, as a body, have never been convicted of heinous crimes of any kind"; and, concerning other peaceful tribes of the Shervaroy Hills, he states that "crime of a serious nature is unknown among them." Again, of the Jakuns we read that "they are never known to steal anything, not even the most insignificant trifle." And so of certain natives of Malacca who "are naturally of a commercial turn," Jukes writes: "No part of the world is freer from crime than the district of Malacca. . . a few petty cases of assault; or of disputes about property. . . are all that occur."

Thus free from the coercive rule which warlike activities necessitate, and without that sentiment which makes the needful subordination possible—thus maintaining their own claims while respecting the like claims of others—thus devoid of the vengeful feelings which aggressions without and within the tribe generate—these peoples, instead of the bloodthirstiness, the cruelty, the selfish trampling upon inferiors, characterizing militant tribes and societies, display, in unusual degrees, the humane sentiments. Insisting on their amiable qualities, Hodgson describes the Bodo and the Dhimáls as being "almost entirely free from such as are unamiable." Remarking that "while courteous and hospitable he is firm and free from cringing," Hunter tells us of the Santál that he thinks "uncharitable men" will suffer after death. Saying that the Lepchas are "ever foremost in the forest or on the bleak mountain, and ever ready to help, to carry, to encamp, collect, or cook," Hooker adds, "They cheer on the traveler by their unostentatious zeal in his service"; and he also adds that "a present is divided equally among many, without a syllable of discontent or grudging look or word." Of the Jakuns, too, Favre tells us that "they are generally kind, affable, inclined to gratitude and to beneficence": their tendency being not to ask favors but to confer them. And then of the peaceful Arafuras we learn from Kolff that—

"They have a very excusable ambition to gain the name of rich men, by paying the debts of their poorer fellow-villagers. The officer [M. Bik], whom I quoted above, related to me a very striking instance of this. At Affora he was present at the election of the village chief, two individuals aspiring to the station of Orang Tua. The people chose the elder of the two, which greatly afflicted the other, but he soon afterward expressed himself satisfied with the choice the people had made, and said to M. Bik, who had been sent there on a commission, ' What reason have I to grieve? Whether I am Orang Tua or not, I still have it