Strange Peoples
Date: 2020-07-25T00:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Ethnology -- Juvenile literature

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Title: Strange Peoples

Author: Frederick Starr

Release date: July 25, 2020 [eBook #62749]
Most recently updated: October 18, 2024

Language: English

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AUSTRALIAN (RATZEL).

Ethno-Geographic Reader, No. 1

STRANGE PEOPLES

BY
FREDERICK STARR
BOSTON, U.S.A.
D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS
1901

Ethno-Geographic Readers.

BY FREDERICK STARR.

No. 1. STRANGE PEOPLES. | 40 CENTS.
No. 2. AMERICAN INDIANS. | 45 CENTS.
No. 3. HOW MEN DO. | IN PREPARATION.

D. C. HEATH & CO., Publishers

Copyright, 1901,
By Frederick Starr.
Plimpton Press
H. M. Plimpton & CO., PRINTERS & BINDERS
NORWOOD, MASS., U.S.A.

THIS BOOK
STRANGE PEOPLES
IS DEDICATED TO
WILLIAM FOSTER YOUNG

PREFACE.

The author claims no originality for the matter of this book for young readers on Strange Peoples. He has culled material where he could. His aim has been to present a series of sketches which may render the maps in the geography more interesting and give school children a broader and deeper sympathy with other races and peoples. Indebted to many books, he has been under constant obligations to Verneau’s Les Races Humaines and Ratzel’s Völkerkunde. Other books which have been helpful will be found listed at the close of this volume.

At first the author planned to use only original or new illustrations. It has been, however, impossible to carry out this plan. Less than one fourth of the pictures are really new; it is believed, however, that all are authentic and will prove instructive.

It would have been easy to make the book more interesting by the introduction of descriptions, more detailed, of the ridiculous or dreadful practices of some races. The purpose has, however, not been to hold other peoples up to ridicule nor to teach morality by contrast; there are, indeed, too many matters for criticism in our own mode of life to warrant such a treatment. Nor would it be possible in a book for children to present that full discussion which might be expected in a treatise on ethnology for students. The book makes no pretence to systematic treatment; only a few people are taken, here and there, almost at haphazard, to illustrate the marvellous richness of the field for study which, even now, is presented by the Strange Peoples of the globe.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER | | PAGE
I. | Introduction | 1
II. | The Peoples of North America: Eskimo | 6
III. | Wild Indians | 13
IV. | Mexicans | 17
V. | South American Peoples | 26
VI. | The Peoples of Europe: Fair Whites | 33
VII. | Dark Whites | 38
VIII. | Basques | 43
IX. | Finns | 47
X. | Lapps | 53
XI. | Turks | 60
XII. | The Peoples of Asia | 65
XIII. | Chinese | 69
XIV. | Coreans | 76
XV. | Tibetans | 81
XVI. | Japanese | 88
XVII. | Ainu | 95
XVIII. | Hindus | 101
XIX. | Todas | 107
XX. | Andamanese: Mincopies | 112
XXI. | Arabs | 118
XXII. | The Peoples of Africa: Kabyles | 123
XXIII. | Negroes | 128
XXIV. | Negroids | 134
XXV. | Pygmies | 138
XXVI. | Bushmen and Hottentots | 143
XXVII. | Malays | 150
XXVIII. | The Peoples of the Philippines | 156
XXIX. | Melanesians | 163
XXX. | Polynesians | 172
XXXI. | Conclusion | 180
| List of Reference Books | 185

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

| Australian (Ratzel) | Frontispiece
| | PAGE
1. | Group of Greenland Eskimo. (Nansen.) | 9
2. | A Greenland Eskimo Fishing. (Nansen.) | 11
3. | Victorio—an Apache Warrior. (Lummis.) | 14
4. | Mexican Ox-cart. (From photograph.) | 21
5. | Mexican Water-carrier. (From photograph.) | 22
6. | Otomi Indian Girls, Mexico. (From photograph.) | 24
7. | Peruvian Antiquities. (Ratzel.) | 27
8. | Botocudo Indian with Lip-plug. (Tylor.) | 31
9. | Fish-girl of Scheveningen, Holland. (From photograph.) | 35
10. | Boats made from Shoes, Holland. (From drawing by Haité.) | 36
11. | Italian Child. (Miln.) | 39
12. | Basque Cart. (Verneau.) | 46
13. | Finns Singing. (Verneau.) | 51
14. | A Group of Lapps. (Verneau.) | 54
15. | Laplander on Snow-runners. (Verneau.) | 57
16. | Caravan preparing to start: Asiatic Turks. (Verneau.) | 62
17. | Chinese Mandarin. (Ratzel.) | 71
18. | Chinese Boy choosing Toys. (Doolittle.) | 73
19. | Corean Hat. (Lowell.) | 78
20. | Tibetan Lamas blowing on Shells. (Verneau.) | 84
21. | Mongols choosing a Lama. (Huc.) | 86
22. | Japanese Girl with Baby. (Arnold.) | 89
23. | Boys’ Festival: Japan. (Bramhall.) | 92
24. | Ainu—a Hairy Specimen. (Batchelor.) | 96
25. | Ainu Women, showing Tattooing. (From a photograph.) | 97
26. | Hindu Dancing girls and Musicians. (Verneau.) | 103
27. | Hindu Snake Charmers. (Brehm.) | 105
28. | Group of Todas. (Verneau.) | 111
29. | Andaman Mincopies. (Tylor.) | 116
30. | Camel and Palanquin. (From a photograph.) | 120
31. | Group of Kabyles: Algeria. (From a photograph.) | 125
32. | Making Couscous in the Desert. (From a photograph.) | 127
33. | Negro Smiths at Work. (Ratzel.) | 131
34. | Waganda Musicians. (Ratzel.) | 137
35. | Huts of Ashango-land Dwarfs. (Du Chaillu.) | 140
36. | Gora-player: Bushman. (Ratzel.) | 145
37. | Bushman Rock Picture. (Ratzel.) | 147
38. | Hottentot Kraal. (Ratzel.) | 149
39. | Malay Family: Java. (Verneau.) | 152
40. | Buffalo Cart: Java. (Ratzel.) | 154
41. | Krises: Java. (Ratzel.) | 155
42. | Philippine Negrito. (Meyer.) | 158
43. | Houses of Igorrotes. (Meyer.) | 160
44. | Head-hunting Party: Igorrotes. (Meyer.) | 162
45. | Fijian. (Ratzel.) | 165
46. | Pile-dwelling Village: New Guinea. (Ratzel.) | 167
47. | Canoe: New Guinea. (Ratzel.) | 168
48. | Tattooed New Zealander. (Verneau.) | 173
49. | Helmets and Idol-heads of Feathers: Hawaii. (Ratzel.) | 175
50. | Kingsmill Islander. (Tylor.) | 179

STRANGE PEOPLES.

I.
INTRODUCTORY.

We are to read about some of the Strange Peoples of the world. We shall find many curious customs. There is an old saying,—

“Many men of many minds;
Many birds of many kinds;
Many fishes in the sea;
Many men who don’t agree.”

Peoples differ in so many ways. There are tall Patagonians and short Bushmen. There are white peoples, and black, yellow, and brown peoples. There are peoples whose bodies are so covered with hair as almost to be called furry, and there are peoples whose faces even are hairless except for eyebrows and eyelashes. There are lively peoples and there are sluggish peoples; gay peoples and sad ones. Negroes do not think and feel like white men, and the Chinaman thinks and feels differently from either. All peoples have their own customs. When we speak of other peoples as Strange Peoples, we must never forget that we are as strange to them as they are to us. We think it curious that the Chinese dwarf, by bandaging, the feet of their women; they think it strange that we do not. To us the Chinese face seems much too flat; the Chinese think ours are like the face of an eagle and that they are harsh and cruel. We think the flat, wide nose of the negro is ugly; negroes think it far handsomer than ours. So we will remember that all these peoples are “strange” only because they are unlike us: that we ourselves are just as strange as they are. They have as much right to their ideas and customs as we have to ours: often indeed we might find theirs better than our own.

We begin with North America. We then pass to South America; then to Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Pacific Islands in order. We shall find that the different peoples of the world are not scattered haphazard; on the contrary, they are quite regularly distributed by types. Thus until lately the peoples living in America were all Indians, with red-brown skin, straight and coarse black hair, and high and wide cheek bones. Europe and Northern Africa (which really belongs rather to Europe than Africa) form the land of the white peoples. South Africa—Africa proper—is the home of negroes and negroids, with dark brown, almost black, skin, narrow heads and faces, and woolly hair. The proper population of Asia is yellow peoples, with round heads, slant eyes, and straight, long, black hair. In Australia are brown peoples with curly or bushy hair. In Oceanica are several well-marked types—the little brown Malays, the dark, almost black, Melanesians with crinkly hair, and the tall, well-built, fine-featured, light Polynesians. This is, in general, the distribution of the human races. But there has been much movement. There are now both white and blacks in America; the English whites have crowded in upon the natives of Australia; in Asia there are white peoples, like the Ainu and Todas, who have certainly lived there a long time.

The different peoples are unlike in their culture. Some peoples live on wild food, having no cultivated plants or domestic animals. They hunt animals and catch fish; they search for birds’ eggs and honey; they grub up roots and gather barks, leaves, fruits, seeds, and nuts for food. To such tribes, who usually wander in little bands from place to place, the name savage is given. The word does not mean that they are fierce and cruel in disposition; most savage tribes, to-day living, are neither. The Eskimo and Mincopies are savages, but they are quite kind and gentle. When peoples settle down to cultivate the soil and build homes, or when they raise herds of animals with which they move from time to time for new pastures, their life is easier. To such peoples—so long as they do not know how to work iron by smelting, to write by means of characters that represent sounds, and to make animals assist them in tilling the ground—the name barbarian is applied. When any peoples have learned these three great helps, they are called civilized. There are then three great stages of culture,—savagery, barbarism, and civilization. The Eskimo is in savagery; the American Indians are mostly in barbarism; the Chinese are in civilization.

The way in which the life of peoples is affected by the lands in which they live is most interesting. The Eskimo live in the cold north; there is little wood there for construction; fuels such as are used elsewhere are rare; no fibre-yielding plants grow there. Yet the Eskimo has made full use of what nature gives him. He builds his house, when necessary, of the snow itself, heats it with animal fats and oils, clothes himself in excellent garments of skins, knows the ways of all the animals and birds around him for their destruction, and has invented an ideal hunter’s boat and devised a beautiful series of weapons and tools. The way in which he has fitted himself to the place in which he lives is wonderful. The world over we notice the same thing: man everywhere ransacks his home-land to find out what is useful and turns it to his needs.

Often where two different peoples live in the same district marriage takes place between them, and mixed types arise. Where one people has long occupied a country alone the type is very well-marked, and all look alike. Thus in the Andaman Islands, the little Mincopies look so much alike that a person needs to know them well to tell them apart. We, ourselves, are a great mixture. Even in one family there may be tall and short, light and dark, blue-eyed or brown-eyed persons. Such differences are only found where there has been much mixing between different peoples. In Mexico, once purely Indian, there has been since the coming of the Spaniards much mixture, and to-day a large part of the population is of a new type—part Indian, part Spanish. The people range in color from almost white to dark brown according to the amount of Spanish or Indian blood each has.

II.
THE PEOPLES OF NORTH AMERICA: ESKIMO.

For the larger part, North America is now occupied by populations of our own kind. The greater part of the people of Canada is of French or English descent; the people of our own country are mainly Europeans or of European descent. There are of course many negroes, especially in the South, who have descended from African slaves. There are also some Chinese, Japanese, Hindus, Malays, and others. Formerly the United States and Canada were occupied by Indians, but now there are few left, who mostly live upon reservations. South of the United States lie Mexico and Central America. They, too, were Indian lands when first visited by white men. In Northern Mexico a new, mixed population live; Southern Mexico is yet quite purely Indian. In Central America we find the mixed Spanish-Indian in some districts, and pure Indians in others. In the northmost part of the continent live the Eskimo. We shall speak about the Eskimo, wild Indians, and Mexicans.

The home-land of the Eskimo is dreary. They live in Labrador, Greenland, and the Arctic country stretching from Greenland west to Northern Alaska. Generally, it is a land of snow and ice, where it is impossible to raise even the most hardy plants. The people are forced to live chiefly on animal food. Not only is the weather usually cold, but for a large part of the year the Eskimo do not see the sun, and for the rest of it they see the sun all the time. In some districts the swarms of mosquitoes in the warmer part of the year are a great trouble. There are few trees, and those are stunted; wood is precious, and drift wood is carefully gathered to make into tools and weapons. But notwithstanding his dreary home the Eskimo are rarely ugly and ill tempered.

They are little people with yellowish brown skin. Some Greenlanders are of fair stature. Their faces are broad and round, with coarse features. The eyes are small, dark, and often oblique, like the Chinese; the nose is narrow at the root, but fat; the cheeks are round and full; the mouth is big, with good, strong teeth. Eskimo are usually filthy and appear much darker than they really are.

The clothing is generally made of skins with the hair left on. Men and women dress much alike. Trousers are worn by both: a shirt or jacket with a hood attached is much used. That worn by men is often made of bird skins, and the feather side is worn next the body. The lower part of the legs and the feet are encased in kamiks, skin socks and boots. The little babies are carried naked in a great pouch at the back of their outer jacket. This pouch makes a fine nest for the little creatures, as it is lined with soft sealskin or reindeer skin. Formerly—and perhaps sometimes now—the Eskimo mothers used to wash their babies by licking them with their tongues.

In Greenland the Eskimo houses are usually built of stones and earth. They are partly below ground, and only the upper part shows outside, like a mound of dirt. To enter the house one crawls through a long and narrow passage, also built of stones and earth, and which is also partly below ground. The house is not large, and consists of one room. It is lined with skins. Wide benches around the sides, covered with skins and moss, serve as beds. Several families live crowded together in one house. One house in East Greenland, measuring twenty-seven by fifteen feet, contained eight families,—thirty-eight persons. The houses are so low that a tall man cannot stand upright in one. Until lately the only heating was by stone lamps. These were flat and hardly deeper than a plate: oil was burned in them. They were kept burning day and night, and above them were racks of poles on which wet clothing was dried. In the middle part of the Eskimo land they build the quaint round-topped huts made of blocks of snow, of which you have often seen pictures.

GROUP OF GREENLAND ESKIMO (NANSEN).

The Eskimo eat the flesh of seals, whales, birds, hares, bears, dogs, foxes, and deer. In that cold country they like fat meat. Sometimes meat and fish are eaten raw, but they may be boiled or fried. Fresh, raw blubber is much loved. The skin of whales, seals, and halibut is favorite food. Travellers tell astonishing stories of the quantities of candles and oil that Eskimo eat and drink when they are supplied to them. The supply of plant food is small: stalks of angelica, dandelion, sorrel, berries, and seaweed are used.

The man’s great business is hunting. He has studied the habits of the bear, deer, seal, and walrus, and has learned just how to capture or kill them. He has invented many curious darts, harpoons, spears, bolas, etc. The bird spears have several points projecting in different directions from the shaft, so that if one misses, another may strike, or several birds may be impaled at once. The bolas consists of several pebbles attached to cords, which are knotted together at the end. These are set to whirling and then hurled through the air at birds to entangle them. The point of the harpoon separates from the shaft when an animal is struck; it remains in the game while the shaft floats on the water; the point is connected by a line to a bladder, which, floating, shows where the animal goes, and helps to tire him out. In hurling harpoons and darts the Eskimo uses a spear-throwing stick which enables him to send them with more force and directness than by his hand alone.

A GREENLAND ESKIMO FISHING (NANSEN).

Much of his hunting is done from his canoe or kayak. This is narrow, sharp-pointed at both ends, and light. It consists of a slight framework over which skins are tightly stretched. The opening above is but large enough for him to get his legs and body through. When he has crept in, he ties a collar of skin, that surrounds the opening, about his body, below his arms, to prevent the water dashing into the kayak, and paddles away. His different weapons are all fastened in their proper places on top of the canoe, where he can seize them when wanted. The Eskimo are wonderful boatmen and drive their kayaks over the waves like seabirds. If they tip over, they easily right themselves.

Formerly the Greenland Eskimo made long summer trips along the coast. The clumsy, great, woman’s boat was brought out. The oldest man, the women, children, and baggage went in it. The younger men went in their kayaks. In the big boat the women rowed while the old man steered. They often went fifty miles a day. At good spots they landed and built a tent of thin skins. They loved these summer journeys as our boys love their camping trips.

III.
WILD INDIANS.

There are no really wild Indians left in the United States. Formerly there were many tribes of them, but some have disappeared, and others have lost their old-time spirit. To-day our Indians live idly on the reservations or work their little farms with fair industry. Sometimes a tribe, roused by new wrongs inflicted on it by the white man, takes the war-path; sometimes some religious idea goes from tribe to tribe creating great excitement, like the Ghost Dance. But such outbreaks and excitements are less and less common.

Mr. Lummis has written of the Apache warrior and described the war led by Geronimo. It was a daring thing. There was but a handful of the Indians. “Thirty-four men, eight well-grown boys, ninety-two women and children”—that was all. Only forty-two who could be called fighters. On May 17, 1885, the little band broke forth from their reservation and headed for Mexico. It took the United States a year and a half of useless trouble and expense to pursue them. Time after time, when it seemed certain that the Indians were trapped, they vanished. They never stood for a pitched battle. But anywhere, concealed behind rocks or hidden in brush, they picked off the soldiers sent to capture them. The forces of the United States and Mexico were both kept constantly upon the move. When a year had passed about sixty of the Indians returned home. Twenty warriors, with fourteen women, kept up the battle, when they too went home. During the year and a half of fighting more than four hundred whites and Mexicans were killed; only two of the Indian band were destroyed. During that time Arizona and New Mexico and all the northern part of Mexico were kept in constant terror. These Apaches were truly “wild Indians.”

VICTORIO, AN APACHE WARRIOR (LUMMIS).

The Navajo are not wild Indians though they are related to the Apaches and were formerly bold fighters. They live near the settled Pueblos and have learned from them many things. They are a prosperous tribe, numbering fully ten thousand. They are well-to-do, having nine thousand cattle, one hundred and nineteen thousand horses, and one million six hundred thousand sheep and goats. They dress well in their own way and wear many ornaments.

A Navajo house is a simple affair. It consists of sticks or poles stacked up so as to meet in a point above; they are then covered over with bark, weeds, or earth, a hole being left for an entrance and one at the top for smoke escape: an old blanket hung over the entrance hole serves as a door. Near this hut there is often a little shelter of boughs where the family spend most of their time on fine days. The Navajo also build sweat houses for vapor baths. These are like the regular hut, but have no smoke hole, and are thickly covered over with earth. Stones are heated in a fire outside and carried into the sweat house between sticks; water is dashed over them, and in the steam thus made the bather sits.

The Navajo are good workers in silver and are all the time improving in their art. They make spherical beads, bracelets, and rings of several sorts, breast ornaments, decorations for harness and bridle, and many other things out of coins or other silver furnished them. The Navajo excel as weavers of blankets, though they use extremely simple looms. The yarn is home-spun from wool taken off their own flocks; they do, however, buy some yarn ready-made from the white man. Formerly they dyed their yarn with dyes taken from various plants or colored earths, but now they mostly use white men’s dyes. Their blankets are firm and closely woven and shed water finely. They are woven in bright patterns. All the Indians who live near the Navajo like their blankets and pay good prices for them. The Navajo greatly like turquoise beads, but they do not find turquoise on their reservation. For these beads and ornaments they trade their fine blankets, and silverware, and good ponies with the Pueblo Indians who live near the mines of this handsome greenstone.

The Navajo are great singers and have many songs; but it is the men who sing and not the women. They have also many interesting stories and curious customs, but we cannot stop to tell about them. The Apaches and Navajo are but two tribes out of the hundreds of American Indian tribes. In another book, American Indians, you may read about their manners and customs, their songs and music, their stories and worship.

IV.
MEXICANS.

Though Mexico is our next-door neighbor, life and customs are greatly different there from our own. Three different peoples make up the population. First, are the pure-blood Spaniards, who have been born in the country; second, there are the Mestizos, mixed people, partly Indian, partly Spanish; third, are the pure Indians, who now form about five-twelfths of the whole population. From the City of Mexico northward the land belongs chiefly to the mestizos; from the City of Mexico southward Indians prevail.

We will say nothing of the Spaniards nor of the wealthy mestizos, both of whom are like European whites generally in their life. But the poorer mestizos in the cities and towns and the country people generally are interesting. The dress of the country gentleman was brilliant. It was of broadcloth or soft-dressed leather, of a buff or brown color. The little, close-fitting jacket, cut square at the waist, was supplied with two lines of silver or steel buttons, and embroidered with patterns in gilt or silver thread. The trousers fitted almost as a glove fits the hands, and there was a double row of bright buttons up the sides of the legs and a lacing of silver cord. The shoes, which were tan or buff, were sharp-pointed. Unfortunately this handsome costume is not common nowadays. All mestizos, rich and poor, still use the serape, which is a long and narrow blanket, usually of handsome, bright colors. In putting it on, one corner is held with the hand at the left shoulder, while the blanket is passed behind the back and around the body in front; the free end is then thrown over the left shoulder and hangs down behind. It thus holds itself in place and needs no tying or pinning. However poor a mestizo may be, he wants a fine hat or sombrero. Mexican sombreros have high, pointed crowns, and wide brims. They are made of palm or wool. Those of wool are of various colors—gray, brown, black, sometimes red, blue, or green. They are of all prices. They are decorated with bands of silver or gilt tinsel, and true silver ornaments are made in many forms for fastening to them; a fine sombrero, well made and well decorated, may weigh several pounds and cost many dollars.

The Mexicans are highly polite in manner. This is partly the result of Spanish training, but is also partly due to the old Indian fondness for ceremony. The movements of the hands and fingers by which they greet each other are graceful and pretty. Friends, meeting each other, warmly embrace. If a boy is spoken to by a gentleman he politely removes his hat and holds it while he is being addressed and while he answers. Should a stranger ask a little Mexican his name, with his hat off the boy would reply, giving his name and adding, “Servidor de usted, señor”—“your servant, sir.”

The houses of poor Mexicans are miserable. The walls are usually built of great sun-dried adobe bricks; there is but one room and that is small. There are no windows and but one door; the roof is flat and the floor is of dirt or stone. Generally there is no bed and there may be no table, and few if any chairs or stools. There are usually some rush mats in the corner, which are spread out upon the floor at night for sleeping on. There are always a brasero and a metate. The brasero is a little kettle-shaped earthenware stove, where food is cooked over a wee fire of charcoal. The metate is the grinding-stone, on which the woman grinds corn-meal.

The three common foods of the Mexican poor are corn-cakes, eggs, and beans—tortillas, huevos, and frijoles. The corn after being well soaked is ground on the stone; the woman, taking the lump of wet dough, throws it back and forth from one hand to the other, turning it as she does so around and around. In this way she shapes a flat, thin, round cake which she bakes upon a round pottery griddle. The eggs are usually fried, so are the black beans, a great deal of lard being used. Often they use no knives, forks, or spoons in eating. The corn-cakes themselves will be used in handling the eggs and in scooping up the beans. After thus serving as a fork and a spoon it will itself be eaten.

But rich people in Mexico have beautiful homes. The outside, on the street, is quite plain. The house surrounds a square court or space which is called a patio. Passing through a great doorway, one goes from the street into the patio. All the rooms of the house open on the patio, either directly or under pretty arched galleries or corridors. The patio itself may be planted with trees and shrubs bearing sweet flowers, and often there is a fountain at the centre, with goldfish in the basin.

Cages of birds are hung around the patio, or under the corridors, and the little captives delight with their brilliant colors or their sweet songs. Every one in Mexico keeps birds as pets, and you may see, even in the houses of the very poor, mocking-birds, doves, parrots, or clarins with their clear, whistling note.

Wherever there are real roads in Mexico, there you may see the quaint old-fashioned ox-carts with wheels often made from solid blocks of wood cut to shape. Two oxen are generally yoked to each, but when heavy loads are to be dragged, four, six, or even more are used at once.

A MEXICAN OX-CART (FROM A PHOTOGRAPH).

MEXICAN WATER-CARRIER (FROM A PHOTOGRAPH).

In Central Mexico water is precious, and in the cities special men make it a business to sell water from house to house. The water-carriers of different towns greatly differ in the form and size of the jars they use and in the mode of carrying them. In the city of Mexico, where they are becoming an uncommon sight, the man carries two water-jars of metal, one in front, one behind, hanging by straps from his shoulders and cap; in Guadalajara a number of round pottery water-jars are set into a sort of a frame mounted on a cart or barrow; in San Luis Potosi there are four oval jars set into a wheelbarrow with an enormous wheel; in Guanajuato they use great slender jars nearly as tall as the man himself, with a ring of wood at the bottom to hold them when they are set on the ground.

In the centre of every Mexican city or town of any importance is the plaza or public square. Sometimes this is surrounded by handsome buildings and laid out with care as a garden. Among orange trees laden with sweet blossoms and golden fruit, rose bushes, banana trees, there wind pleasant walks with benches in the shade, where rich or poor may rest. Usually at the centre of the plaza there is a band-stand where on certain evenings every week fine concerts are given.

The plaza is the pleasure-spot and gathering-place of all. To it flock venders of all kinds, with cakes, candies, fruits, sugar-cane, peanuts, toys, etc. Some of the wares are strange, and I am sure you could not guess them. There goes a man with a lot of pretty colored balls like wee toy balloons; they are red, white, blue, yellow; they are chewing-gum! There is another man with a great crumpled sheet of some whitish brown stuff; children flock to him with their coppers, and he cuts off pieces which they walk away munching; it is fried pigskin!

OTOMI INDIAN GIRLS (FROM A PHOTOGRAPH).

Mexicans delight in holidays, and they celebrate a great many. The 2d of November, the day of the dead, is a great day. For several days beforehand thousands of strange toys have been offered for sale. Some are skulls made of sugar or clay; there are skeletons of various sizes and materials, corpses, funeral processions, grave monuments. These are all called “deaths.” When the day of the dead comes children expect to receive these strange presents. When they rise in the morning their first cry is, “Papa, mamma, give me my death.” There is a great excitement the day before Easter. All down the streets may be seen figures of Judas hung up above the heads of the passers. In the big cities there will be hundreds of them of all sizes and shapes. They are made of cardboard and paper, and have fireworks inside. At a certain hour they are all set on fire, and burn and explode at a great rate, much to the delight of the boys and girls. But these are only two of many occasions during each year to which little Mexicans look forward with delight.

We have spoken only of the mestizos. The Indians are also interesting. There are many tribes, all with their own customs, and many with their old languages still in use. In the State of Oaxaca alone there are fifteen languages still spoken. Among the many Mexican Indian tribes perhaps the Aztecs, Otomis, Tarascans, Zapotecs, and Mayas are the best known.

V.
SOUTH AMERICAN PEOPLES.

South America, like North America, was occupied by Indians at the time of the discovery. The tribes differed in appearance, language, and customs, but all were true American Indians. To be sure, some tribes were dark, others light; some were tall, others short; some were true savages, while others were almost civilized.

Probably the most advanced tribes lived along the Pacific border. In Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Chili many relics of ancient art and many ruins of old buildings are found. Here and there east of the mountains similar evidences of culture are found, but they are less known. Best known of all are those of Peru.

The ancient Indians of Peru were industrious and hard workers. Their rulers, the Incas, were called “the children of the sun.” The old Peruvians had important towns and cities. They diligently cultivated their fields and irrigated them by great systems of canals. They wove capital cotton cloth, from which they made good clothing. Their cloth was often decorated with pretty inwoven designs in colored threads. They tamed and bred the llama, and trained it for a pack animal. They could not write, but kept accounts by knotted cords called quipus. Differently colored cords were used for different things, and knots of varying sizes stood for varying numbers. Thus an owner of llamas might use a white cord for males, a reddish cord for females, and a yellow cord for young. A simple knot might stand for one, and larger knots might mean five, ten, or twenty. In this way the herder might keep exact account of his animals.

PERUVIAN ANTIQUITIES (RATZEL).

The old Peruvians were great potters and thousands of their old water vessels and food dishes, which were buried with the dead, have been dug up. These had curious forms and were often adorned with colored patterns. Some of these jars were shaped like human faces, human figures, or animals. Sometimes they were “whistling jars,” which were so made that they whistled when water was poured in or out of them. The old Peruvians were skilled in working copper, silver, and gold, and made many ornaments and figures in these metals.

They disposed of their dead carefully, and many of the dried bodies, or “mummies” have been found in the ancient graves. The dead were folded into a sitting position and bound; they were then wrapped about with fine cloths. After the last wrapping was in place, it was painted, a false face was marked on the cloth or placed over the proper place, and imitation ear ornaments were hung at the sides of the head. Many objects were buried with the dead,—vessels of food and drink, and the objects they had used in life,—with a woman, cotton, spindle, and work-basket; with a man, weapons and ornaments. The old Peruvians built fine public buildings, and temples of stone and some ruins of such buildings still remain.

After the discovery of America two nations chiefly gained possession of South America—Spain and Portugal. Portugal secured what is now Brazil; Spain gained almost all the rest. The Spaniard settled chiefly where the native tribes had already been living a quiet and settled life. In those districts, just as in Mexico, there was much mixture between the two peoples, and to-day there is a large mestizo population, whose mode of life has been influenced by that of Spain. In Peru, Brazil, Chili, and the Argentine Republic we find lands which are making progress, and in whose beautiful cities are fine buildings, handsome parks, and artistic statuary. It is a great mistake to think of any of the South American countries as uncivilized.

Still, even in countries like Peru and Chili, centres of old and interesting settled life, there are plenty of pure-blood Indians to-day. These still keep up much of their old life and customs. And when, instead of looking at the old culture centres, we examine the tribes which were truly wild at the time of the conquest, we find little change. On the eastern slope of the Andes, in the valleys of those streams which unite to form the Amazon, in the dense forests which border that mighty river itself, are many truly savage tribes to-day—or, when not savage, in low barbarism. Some of these tribes use the blow-gun in hunting. This is a tube, eight or ten feet long, made from a cane or bored out of wood. It is carefully straightened and smoothed on the inside. The shaft of the little arrow used with this is slender and ends in a sharp point; a tuft of cottony material, which just fits the bore of the blow-gun, is wrapped about the upper end of the arrow and fastened. When the arrow is placed in the blow-gun, this is raised to the lips, and a sharp puff of air from the mouth sends the little weapon on its way. These arrows go a long distance and with great force; as they make no noise they are especially good for bird-hunting. The arrows not only kill by their sharpness, but by poison, which is put on their tips. Several of these Indian tribes know how to make deadly poisons, chiefly from plants.

Many of these wild tribes delight in bright feathers. They make necklaces, head-dresses, arm-rings, bracelets, leg-bands, aprons, and capes from them. Not that a single tribe makes all of these many ornaments; some will use the feathers in one way, others in another. Among the tribes of Brazil, the Botocudo are famous for the ornaments they wear in their lips and ears. These ornaments are mere disks or plugs of wood, which are inserted in holes pierced in the ears and lower lip. Some Botocudo lip plugs are three inches in diameter. Such a lip ornament holds the lip out almost like a shelf.

BOTOCUDO INDIAN WITH LIP PLUG (TYLOR).

In eastern Ecuador and on the eastern slope of the Andes, near the Amazonian headwaters, are several tribes who cut off the heads of slain enemies as trophies. Best known of these tribes are the Mundurucus and Jivaros. The Mundurucus, after cutting off the heads, paint the faces, comb the hair, add feather ornaments, and then so dry the head that it retains its natural size and form. The heads that are kept by the Jivaros are even more curious. After they have been cut off the bones of the skull are removed piecemeal from below. The heads are then shrunken by means of astringent fluids, smoke, and pressure, until they are no larger than the fist. The features retain their form, but everything is reduced in size. It is hard to believe, when seeing one of these, that it could ever have been a full-sized human head. Believing that the spirit of the dead man will curse them and thus harm them, the Jivaros sew the lips of the trophy together with cords.

In Guiana some of the Indians make beautiful baskets of split cane. The splints are sometimes stained black or brown, and thus pretty patterns are woven in color. These patterns look like simple geometrical designs—diamonds, meanders, etc.—but often they are really pictures of snakes, monkeys, or human beings. These tribes use cassava for making bread. The roots or tubers, when first dug, are poisonous and unfit for food. These are first grated on a board set with sharp bits of stone. The shredded or grated pulp is then packed into a great tube of basketwork closed at the bottom. This is hung to a beam and a pole is passed through a loop at the lower end. By turning this pole the basket tube is twisted, and the cassava pulp is squeezed so tightly that the poisonous sap runs out, leaving the wholesome flour.

VI.
THE PEOPLES OF EUROPE: FAIR WHITES.

Europe is the continent of white peoples. While there are white peoples in other continents, they are there as invaders. But even among the whites of Europe itself there are differences. Most of the Northern peoples, like the Swedes, Dutch, Russians, Germans, are light peoples, with delicate skin, light hair, blue eyes, and rather long heads. They are mostly tall in stature. The Southern peoples are dark—Spaniards, Portuguese, Italians, Greeks, are all brunettes. They are shorter, more slender, with dark skin, dark eyes, and black hair. In the region between these two types of European whites there are peoples of medium stature, rather stout, somewhat dark, with broad, round heads. Mr. Ripley names these three kinds of Europeans—Teutonic, Mediterranean, and Alpine peoples. We will speak simply of light whites and dark whites. All the Europeans we have named speak languages that are much alike, belonging to a group of languages to which the name Aryan is given. There are, however, some peoples of Europe who do not speak Aryan languages. Such are the Basques, Finns, Lapps, and Turks.

All the fair whites are so like ourselves that it will hardly do to call them Strange Peoples. Yet we would find many curious things even in those who are most like ourselves, as the Hollanders. You know something about little Holland? It is a low, flat country, and much of it was formerly under the sea. The industrious Hollanders have built great dikes or walls to keep the sea back, and, by pumping out the water, reclaimed the land. A rich and fertile land it is, intersected by a network of little canals. Everywhere you go in Holland you see windmills. Because the country is so low and flat, there are no rapid streams to furnish water-power for mills, so they must use the wind. At some places, like Zaandam, hundreds may be seen at once. With us windmills are simply for pumping water, but in Holland they do many kinds of work. Some are flouring mills, others are sawmills for cutting timber, others run oil presses, etc.

FISH-GIRL OF SCHEVENINGEN, HOLLAND (FROM A PHOTOGRAPH).

The fishing towns of Holland are interesting. Every traveller wants to see Vollendam and Scheveningen and the hamlets on the Island of Marken. The men and women in these towns are kind-hearted, simple people, who are proud of their own village and think their own dress finer than that of other towns. Each of these fishing villages has its characteristic costume. The men of the Island of Marken wear a close-fitting jacket which ends at the waist and great, baggy, knee pants. Marken women wear round, white caps, fitting the head closely, with an open-work border, and a bright waist, with striped sleeves, over the front of which is a square of handsomely embroidered cloth. Little girls all through Holland dress exactly like women. But for her child face you would take the little girl from Scheveningen to be a grown person. She wears a dainty white cap pinned on with two great round-headed pins. Her ample dress quite reaches the ground; her white apron is neatly tied, and her purple shawl, tightly wrapped about her shoulders, is demurely crossed, and the ends are tucked under her apron strings. She wears the common wooden shoes of the country. A crowd of boys running in such shoes over the hard paved roads makes a great clattering. On Sunday the wooden shoes of men and boys are usually fresh whitened; if their owners enter a house, they leave the shoes outside the door. I am sure you cannot guess what little Dutch boys do with old wooden shoes. They make capital little fishing boats out of them, which they sail on the canal. The real big fishing boats are really shaped very much like shoes too.

BOATS MADE FROM SHOES, HOLLAND (HAITÉ).

Edam cheese is one of Holland’s famous products. The people are wonderfully careful in making it. They take great care of the cows; when the weather is wet or the flies troublesome, they put blankets over them to protect them. The stables where they keep them are as clean as soap and water will make them; the stalls are made of handsomely planed wood, and there is a window at each one to let in light and to give the cows a chance to look out on the green meadows. The cheeses are made of cream and are pressed in clean, white, earthenware moulds, into the shape and size of cannon balls. They are then colored and sent to market. The greatest cheese market of Holland is at Alkmaar. Scores of boatfuls are there unloaded every market day. The market is at the water’s edge. The cheeses are colored orange or red, and are oiled and wiped till they shine. They are stacked in piles like cannon balls.

Among famous Dutch towns is Delft, where they make a beautiful white porcelain with blue designs, which is a favorite everywhere: then there is Schiedam, where they make “Schnapps,” or gin, which is as famous probably as the Delft ware, but not so praiseworthy; then there is Haarlem, famous for its flower gardens, its tulips and begonias; at Leiden there is a noble old university and a museum where one may see objects made and used by all the Strange Peoples we shall study and many more. Holland has had many great artists, and their works are preserved in the art galleries at Rotterdam, Leiden, The Hague, Haarlem, and Amsterdam. Holland was once the great commercial and naval nation of the world: that day is past, but her ships still sail all seas; the little kingdom is still a centre of intelligence, industry, and education, and the thrifty and wealthy Dutch are a worthy example of the Fair Whites.

VII.
DARK WHITES.

Among the dark whites of Europe the Portuguese, Spanish, Italians, and Greeks are conspicuous. In speech they are kin to each other, and to the fair whites. How different they are otherwise! They are handsomer in face, more lithe and graceful in body, more quickly aroused, more changeable in purpose, than the fair whites. Their faces, their gestures, their movements, more emphatically betray their emotions. They live more in the present than the somewhat sober and sombre northern peoples.

Just now people are apt to forget how much we owe to the dark whites. They have done much for the world. Greece taught Europe to think, developed an art and architecture which impressed the world, formed a literature and theatre that have never been surpassed; Rome taught mankind government and law; Italy has produced the greatest paintings; Spain discovered the New World. These are a few of the achievements of the dark whites. Nor are they idle now; in Greece and Italy to-day, in Spain and Portugal, art, invention, literature, and science are making rapid progress.

ITALIAN CHILD (MILN).

Every one has seen Italians. Those who come to us are mostly poor, and badly represent their people. They are dark skinned, dark brown or black eyed, black and curly haired, and have fine and regular features. They are, perhaps, the handsomest of European peoples. They love the company of others in their work and play. They delight in bright colors, and the women fasten bright kerchiefs about their dark hair, fold a brilliant cloth across the breast, and hang gaudy earrings in their ears. The Italian language is sweet and lively, and the people who speak it are impulsive and sunny in disposition, though easily angered, and quick to resent an injury.

Perhaps old Rome was the greatest city the world has known. The Roman people ruled the known nations, and their armies and governors were in all lands. Fine roads connected the city with every part of the Empire, and fragments of these roads still exist though almost two thousand years have passed. Rome was a centre to which flocked the painters, sculptors, poets, and orators of the world; there they produced their great works. At Rome were grand temples, great public buildings, the mighty Coliseum where public games were held. Ruins of these famous structures are still visited, and show the ancient grandeur of the dark whites of by-gone days.

Not far from Rome are ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum, towns where many of the Romans had their country homes. In the year 79, more than eighteen hundred years ago, Vesuvius burst forth in a terrible eruption and destroyed the two cities. Pompeii was buried under a sheet of “ashes,” while Herculaneum was overflowed by streams of lava. For centuries no one knew that underneath these layers of “ashes” and lava a great part of the two cities lay undestroyed. Recently, by digging away the covering, they have discovered many curious and interesting things. House walls, paintings, tools, weapons, ornaments, all remain to tell us how the ancient Romans worked and lived.

But later Rome was also great. It was the central city of Christendom, the seat of the Pope’s power, the location of the Vatican. For this reason it was the place where master minds dealt with great problems, where great architects designed wonderful cathedrals, where painters produced the famous pictures of the world. Nor is Rome small to-day. She is no longer the mistress of the world; the temporal power of the church has been lessened; but modern Rome is still the capital of a great nation, a centre of enlightenment, a hive of industry; a shrine to which the lovers of art and beauty make their pilgrimage.

Even the poorest and meanest in Italy love music, painting, and statuary. Everywhere in public places one sees sculptures in fine marble. Such works in our own land would run some risk of injury or destruction, but in Italy no one thinks of harming them. The Italians all love music, and most of them know how to play some instrument.

Italian mosaics and cameos are famous. At Florence particularly the making of mosaics is important. Mosaics are pictures made by fitting together wee bits of stones, enamels, or glasses of bright colors. A pair of cuff buttons or a brooch may bear a spray of flowers, which looks like delicate painting, but is really made by the fitting together of these bits of stone. Cameos are cut from shell or onyx. Many sea shells are composed of layers of different colors of shelly matter. Onyx is a stone which is layered with different colors. A cameo is a piece of carving cut in such materials so that the different colored layers give different parts of the design. The work is beautiful and delicate. Perhaps the finest cameo cutting is done at Naples.

The Italian enjoys games. Several kinds of ball games are favorites with him. He delights in throwing dice and other games of chance. Boys are fond of morra. There are two players: at a given signal each extends one hand with a certain number of fingers stretched out; at the same moment each calls how many fingers he thinks both will have out. If either guesses right, he wins. This is a very old game, and was played in the time of Rome’s imperial grandeur.

The gayest time of the year for young and old is the Carnival. Every one is on the streets. They wear masks and are hideously dressed—like clowns, deformed and distorted beings, devils, animals. They make a great din and play all kinds of pranks. They throw flowers and paper cut to bits on one another and sprinkle passers-by with water. Men, women, and children all take part in this wild fun. The more ignorant Italians are superstitious. They fear witchcraft and the evil eye, and most of the lower class carry some lucky stone or other object to protect them against such dangers.

VIII.
BASQUES.

On both sides of the Pyrenees Mountains, in France and in Spain, there dwells a people which does not speak an Aryan language, the Basques. Many writers who have studied the Basque language have wondered how it came to exist alone in the midst of so many languages that have no relation to it.

The people who speak this language are called French Basques or Spanish Basques according to which side of the Pyrenees is their home. They differ somewhat. The Spanish Basques are usually short, clear-complexioned, with rather long and narrow heads and brown or black hair. The French Basques are frequently quite tall, have much broader heads, and sometimes light hair. Neither French nor Spanish Basques are pure in blood, being much mixed with their neighbors. Still, it is said that a Basque can generally be known by his face. The upper, forward part of his head is wide and bulging, while his face is long, narrow, and ends in a pointed chin.

The Basques are famous for their good health, their fine forms, and their quick and graceful movements. They are industrious, hard workers. In the uplands the men are shepherds, in the lowlands farmers and herders, and on the coast fishermen and sailors. In the cities they work at the docks, loading and unloading vessels. Women work at this hard work just the same as men. Formerly the men engaged much in piracy. Basque women are much employed as nurses in Spanish families.

They are a gay and happy people. Men play tennis, and women play skittles. Formerly they had many dances; one only of these is still kept. It is danced by men only, and though the steps are difficult, the dance is slow and grave. They delight in poetry and are able to compose rapidly. Verneau says: “One may say that in the land of the Basques every mountaineer is born a poet, but the poetry is made up on the spur of the moment. In the midst of the delights of a feast, some one at the table rises. All noise ceases. Complete silence is made about him. He sings; the stanzas follow one another without effort and without fatigue. His song is grave and measured; both the air and words are made at the moment.”

The Basques, especially those living in the mountains, are proud, happy, and independent. They are easily angered and quick to fight. They love their old life and customs and dislike changes. They still use many old-fashioned things such as the clumsy ox-cart, with great, solid wooden wheels and heavy wooden axle. The old dress has disappeared in many places, but is picturesque. Men wear rather loose and baggy trousers, a close-fitting vest, a sort of blouse or jacket that reaches only to the waist, a wide, white collar turned down over the neck of the blouse, and a loose necktie with streaming ends. They wear a loose cap jauntily on the head. Men and women both delight in bright colors.

Their food is simple, but they are always ready to share it with guests. Strangers are welcome to the best the family has, which is generally corn bread and cider, with bean soup and boiled cabbage. They celebrate Christmas by killing a pig, the flesh of which gives the family a feast for a long time.

BASQUE CART (VERNEAU).

They are proud of their strange and difficult language, which they call Euskaric. They call themselves Euskaldanac, which means “the speakers,” just as if other people using a different speech did not know how to speak at all.

The Basques have produced some famous men. The great sailor Magellan, who circumnavigated the globe and discovered the Philippines in 1535, was a Basque. So were Ignacio de Loyola and Francis Xavier, who founded the Society of Jesus or the Jesuits. Within recent years many of the Basques have left their old home and gone to seek fortunes in new lands. In all more than two hundred thousand have migrated, some to Havana and Mexico, but many more to Montevideo and Buenos Ayres.

IX.
FINNS.

Finland, forming part of the Russian Empire, is bordered on the south and west by the Baltic Sea (Gulfs of Finland and Bothnia) and stretches as a narrow band almost north and south. There has been much discussion as to just what and who the Finns are. Some writers think them true white Europeans related to the long-headed, fair whites; others believe them Mongolians who have moved from Asia into Europe, where they have changed their color and appearance—partly by marrying with fair whites and partly by the influence of climate and other conditions—but who retain their old Asiatic language.

Whichever is right, the Finns are an interesting people. There are about one million and a half of pure blood dwelling in Finland. There are two quite unlike types,—the Tavastland and Karelian Finns. The Tavastland Finns are rather tall and large built, with a large and broad head, a long and large face, light skin, light hair, and large and light eyes. They are rather quiet, a little morose though kindly, and have a great love for their old life and customs. The Karelian Finns are darker, with dark brown or black hair and dark eyes. They were quite tall, but less strongly built than the Tavastland Finns; they have a longer head and smaller head and face; they are more lively, gay, and enterprising. It is the Karelians who more nearly resemble the Finns of Asia, Ostiaks, and Samoyeds. Both kinds of Finns, though differing in appearance, speak one language, which is not Aryan, and is related to the languages of Northern Asia. The Lapps, Turks, and some other peoples of Southeastern Europe speak tongues related to the Finnish.

In the cities and towns of Finland the people are much like their Swedish, German, and Russian neighbors. But in the small towns and villages and in the country they retain many old and curious customs. There they live in old-fashioned houses or even older-fashioned tents. The houses, built of logs, had low, broad, two-pitched roofs and consisted of a single room; there was one door and some small windows. Only recently have they used glass in the windows. The furniture is simple. Clothing and other articles are hung on pegs against the wall or over poles which are supported by hooks from the roof. Big, ring-shaped loaves of rye bread are hung up on these poles also. Outside the house are several small buildings used as store-rooms for treasures and the sweat-bath house.

The old tents are now rarely seen. They were circular, and their framework was made by setting poles in the ground so that their upper ends met; branches were worked in to fill the spaces between these and form walls, and moss and turf were tightly packed in to fill all openings. A doorway was left and a smoke hole.

The sweat-bath house is found everywhere. It is large enough to accommodate a good many bathers at once. Two sets of wide benches run around the inside of the house, one higher than the other: these are for the bathers to sit or lie upon. They reach the higher benches or platforms by means of a short ladder. In one corner of this sweat-house is a dome-shaped oven or fireplace built of stones. This is heated very hot, and then dippers of water are thrown upon the hot stones, until the steam fills the whole building. The bathers bask in the vapor, rub and strike themselves with bunches of birch twigs, and then dash cold water over themselves. They delight in these vapor baths, and every one—men, women, and children—takes them. We would not enjoy it much, for there is much smoke mixed with the steam. Similar vapor baths are used in Russia, and recently “Russian baths” have come much into use among ourselves.

Like many other northern peoples the Finns make many articles from birch bark. Boxes, vessels, carrying sacks, and even shoes are made from it. The climate of Finland is rather bad; winters are long and severe. The people raise some plants, but their agriculture is simple and old-fashioned. They burn over the space to be planted, work the ashes and soil with crude tools, and plant the seed. Their crops sometimes fail and terrible famines result. At such times they have made bread from bark and roots crushed between rude grinding stones. Such bread is called famine bread.

FINNS SINGING (VERNEAU).

The Finns love song and poetry. It is said that every village has one poet, or more, and that he prepares a new song whenever aught of importance occurs. Besides these new songs they have many ancient songs, of which they never tire. When they sing the songs of the olden time, two men seat themselves face to face upon a bench, join hands, and rock backward and forward in time to the song. First one sings a line or passage, and then the other repeats the same, and so they continue, rocking back and forth and singing the whole night through. Sometimes a third man plays upon the kantele, while the others sing. This kantele is somewhat like a zither; it has a flat sounding-body upon which are strung from three to eight strings of different lengths. It is usually picked with the fingers like a guitar. It is said that the first kantele was made of fish-bones, though it is not easy to see how that could be.

Until less than a hundred years ago, although these old songs were much loved, no one had written them down. They were learned by heart from father to son, and thus kept alive through the centuries. A man named Lönnrot became interested in them and copied many of them from the mouths of the singers. In 1825 he printed a book of them, and later he gathered and published still more. To this book of songs he gave the name of the Kalevala. It is one of the great poems of the world, and it tells of the life and doings and beliefs of the Finns of the old, old time. The style of the Kalevala is lively and quite unlike most English poetry. In Hiawatha, Longfellow copies this style; so when you read Hiawatha again, remember that it is like the old Finnish songs.

The Finns are very fond of the Kalevala and their other ancient songs. They are jealous, too, of their old customs, and dislike to see them pass away. They have some societies the purpose of which is to keep alive a knowledge of the past of Finland. But though the Finns love Finland and its old life, they are not to-day an independent nation. They were invaded long ago by Sweden, and later on by Russia. For a time Finland was a half-independent kingdom under Russian control, but lately its power has been again reduced, and it is part of Russia itself.

What we have said of the Finns is true of the country people. In the cities things are much the same as in other European cities. In Helsingfors we should find one of the great universities of Europe, and many educated and distinguished men Finns by birth and language.

X.
LAPPS.

In the northmost part of the Scandinavian Peninsula and Finland live the Lapps. There are probably not more than ten or twelve thousand, all told. They have had much contact with the Finns, and speak a language related to Finnish. In many customs they resemble them. This is not strange, as the land they live in is much the same.

A GROUP OF LAPPS (VERNEAU).

But while all Finns are tall, the Lapps are short. Most of the men fall below five feet. Little and thin, they are yet strong and quick in their movements. Their skin is dark, their hair black and straight. Their heads are big and broad, and they have good foreheads and projecting cheek bones. Their eyes often seem to slant downward at their outer corners. While they are really dark skinned, they are not nearly so much so as they appear, for they are usually filthy. When their faces are washed, some of the women have quite fair skin and rosy cheeks. Life is hard among the Lapps, but they often live to be old—sometimes even to one hundred years or more.

Those Lapps who live farthest away from the Finns, Russians, and Swedes still wear the old style of dress. In winter their garments are made of reindeer hide: the hair, which is left on, is worn next the body. Both men and women wear big mittens of skin. They have caps on their heads, and fishermen and herders may be distinguished by the style of these. Fishermen’s caps are pointed, while those of herders are square. In going out over the snow in winter, Lapps have long, narrow runners of wood fastened to their feet, and carry a pole in their hand. These runners are five feet or more in length, and only a few inches wide, and on them—aided by their poles—the Lapps glide along finely over the hard snow.

Some Lapps are constantly wandering. Others settle down in quite permanent homes. The wanderers build tents similar in shape to those of our Sioux Indians and of the Finns. A lot of poles are set up in a circle with their upper ends meeting. This framework is covered with a cloth or with turfs. The settled Lapps live in houses, the framework of which consists of posts set upright and poles lashed across. Small storehouses for food are built near by, and these are set up on four posts to keep the contents out of reach of dogs and other animals.

When they greet each other, the Lapps rub noses together. This mode of kissing is found also among other northern peoples, like the Samoyeds in Asia and the Eskimos in America. Mothers cradle their babies in a sort of trough hollowed out of a piece of wood. This they carry on their backs when they journey, and hang on a tree or set into a snowbank when they work.

Of course every one thinks of reindeer when Laplanders are mentioned. And it is not strange, because reindeer are useful indeed to these little people. They furnish three useful things,—milk, meat, and skins. The reindeer are kept in herds and form almost the only wealth of their owners. Some herds number perhaps a thousand reindeer. These herds must be constantly watched. Men, women, and children all help in the work, and the many dogs kept by the Lapps are chiefly helpful in guarding the herds. The women do the milking, and each of the reindeer cows is milked twice a day. They give little milk, hardly more than a cupful at a milking, but it is rich and thick and can be thinned with a good deal of water. Some of the milk is drunk fresh, and from the rest the women make a kind of cheese. When they wish to milk a reindeer, they approach the animal carefully, throw a lasso over its head and wind this around the snout so as to hold the animal quiet. The reindeer are also much used to carry burdens and to drag sledges.

LAPLANDER ON SNOW-RUNNERS (VERNEAU).

Besides the flesh and milk of the reindeer the Laplanders eat its blood, which is boiled down into a sort of pudding. The meat which is not eaten fresh is dried and stored away. Fish are dried and smoked. Birds and their eggs are much eaten. Bread, much like the “famine bread” of the Finns, is made from roots and barks. Soup is made of pine bark mixed with fat and flour or meal.

The Laplanders who live in settled houses depend upon hunting during the fall and fishing during the summer. They hunt reindeer, squirrels, and birds. Wild reindeer they take chiefly by pitfalls: they dig a hole, or trench, in the path over which the reindeer is likely to pass, and carefully cover it with branches, earth, and grass. When the animals have fallen in, they are easily killed. Lapps are fond of the eggs of water birds, and to secure them they build nests for the birds in trees near the water, and then rob them after the eggs have been laid.

The Laplanders are great believers in spirits. To summon these they use drums or tambourines, consisting of a ring of wood over which a membrane is tightly stretched. This has jingling objects fastened to it which make a noise when the instrument is beaten or rattled. Upon the membrane are rudely painted, curious figures, usually in red. Thus the sun, animals, and human beings are pictured, and are believed to help the drummer. The Lapps greatly fear their god of storms. He is believed to drive the storms forth from his cave with a club and to bring them back with a shovel. They fear him most at the season when the young reindeer are born, and then pray to him not to let loose the storms, lest the little creatures perish. Through their sorcerers they secure from this god, storm strings with three knots tied in them. Each of these knots represents a storm. If one knot is untied, a little storm is let loose; if two are untied, a greater one; if three, there is a fearful tempest. These strings are used against enemies or those who have tried to do them harm. The neighbors of the little Lapps think these can do them much harm with their wind strings and other magic, and they dread and hate them.

XI.
TURKS.

With the Turks we pass from the peoples of Europe to those of Asia, for the European Osmanli Turks are only the most settled branch of a large group of peoples, most of whom lead wandering lives and live in Central and Northern Asia. All speak almost the same language. Formerly there was a great Turkish Empire, which stretched from the borders of China to the Caspian Sea. The present peoples of the Turkic group live within this area and in European Turkey. Among the most important of these peoples are the Yakuts, Turkomans, Uzbegs, Nogais, Cossacks, and Osmanli,—the latter being the Turks of European Turkey.

We shall speak only of the Yakuts, Turkomans, and Osmanli. The Yakuts occupy an area along both banks of the Lena River and extending west from it. They are wanderers and raise herds of cattle and horses. They live chiefly on the produce of their herds, eating horse flesh especially, and making much cheese. Like many of their neighbors they are fond of koumyss, a drink prepared by fermenting mare’s milk. Those living farthest north, near the delta of the Lena River, also hunt small animals for food. These wandering herders, living in tents, are not quarrelsome; they respect age, and the old men control affairs and determine the time for moving camp. Women are well treated by their husbands, but one man may have several wives. In such cases, the wives live each in a separate tent, and these tents are placed about the tent of the husband. Men pay the father of their wives, for these, with cattle and horses. When a man among the Yakuts dies, they dress him in his best clothing and place in the grave with him his knife, a flint and steel, some tinder, and a little food. The burial is always under a tree, and two graves are dug. In one the man is buried with his head turned toward the west. The man’s favorite horse is brought in his finest harness and loaded with presents: a fat mare is also brought. These are both killed and buried in the second grave that they may accompany their master.

CARAVAN PREPARING TO START: ASIATIC TURKS (VERNEAU).

The Turkomans, who live in Southern Turkestan and adjoining regions, are probably more like the ancient Turks in appearance, than any of the other Turkic tribes of the present. They are somewhat tall, with a broad, rounded head, broad face, prominent cheek bones, little slant eyes, a low nose, rather thick lips, and projecting ears. Their skin is yellowish, their hair is coarse and black, and they have little beard. They delight in bright clothing, and the women wear much jewelry. It is said that they wear so many jingling ornaments, that a party of passing women make a noise almost like the tinkling of bells. The Turkomans live in large, round, wall tents: the light framework of poles is covered with great pieces of felt. This felt is beaten by the women from sheep’s wool and camel’s hair. They are comfortable within. The floor is often covered with fine rugs or skins, and handsome woven stuffs are hung upon the wall or thrown over the sitting places. These fine articles are partly woven by the women and partly stolen from passing caravans—for the Turkomans are dreadful pillagers. Until very lately they were also slave-hunters and stole many Persian women to sell as slaves. The Russian government has almost put an end to this trade. The Turkomans raise horses, sheep, and camels. They eat the flesh of these animals and drink their fresh milk. Unlike the Yakuts, they do not care for koumyss. When an important man among the Turkomans dies, they raise a heap of stones over his grave. If he was a very pious man, they pay great respect to his grave and consider it a holy spot. A man who is ill or in trouble may visit this grave to pray there; if he has an animal that suffers from some disease, he leads it around the grave to cure it. Such ideas about a pious man’s grave prevail in all Mohammedan countries. All the peoples of the Turkic group are Mussulmans, though you would never think it from the way in which Yakut and Turkoman women go about unveiled.

The Osmanli are the true Turks of Europe. Probably you would expect to see only Turks in Turkey. That would be a great error, for really only about one-tenth the population of Turkey is made up of Turks. There are many Armenians and Bulgarians, besides Greeks and others. The Osmanli Turks do not look like Mongolians, but their language and real blood relationship are with the yellow Asians, rather than with the white Europeans. It is not strange, however, that they present so mixed a type; Turks have long married with white slaves, and there is much Caucasian blood—both European and Asian—in their veins.

Constantinople is one of the most beautiful cities of the globe, and is probably the most important Mohammedan city. The mosques, or places of worship, are everywhere and recognizable by their pretty minarets. Friday and not Sunday is the day of service. Daily prayers are required, and the hours for prayer are called by the muezzim. When the call is heard, no matter what he may be doing, a good Mohammedan stops his occupation, spreads his prayer cloth, faces the sacred city of Mecca, and goes through his prayers.

The Turk is not industrious and lacks energy; he enjoys ease and amusement. Perhaps a part of this is due to his being a fatalist; he believes that what will happen, must happen; that he cannot in any way change the course of events. So why should he hurry and worry? He is fond of trading, but even there is not in haste. In the bazaars the seller and buyer haggle a long time over the prices. The one never asks the price he expects to get, but one much larger; the other never expects to pay the price first asked, but one much lower. Mohammedans who can afford to keep them may marry four wives; they often own many female slaves beside. These wives and slaves live in a special part of the house called the harem, where no visitors except women enter. When Turkish women go upon the street they are closely veiled, and none of their face except the eyes can be seen. Mohammedanism permits polygamy, but it forbids wine-drinking. While not all Turks obey this command, they are usually temperate, and drunkenness is rare.

XII.
THE PEOPLES OF ASIA.

There has been much question as to where man first lived. Some believe that the first men were white and lived in Europe and North Africa; others think the negroes of Africa are the oldest men; a few have argued that the American Indian was the original race; most, however, have thought that Asia was man’s first home. Whether this is so or not, Asia to-day contains a swarming population composed of many peoples, differing much in appearance, dress, life, and customs.

The Asian peoples belong chiefly to the Mongolic or yellow race. It is a well-marked type. Medium stature, broad and round head, flat face, with nose rather low, broad and high cheek bones, hair coarse and straight and jet black, skin yellowish, dark eyes apparently set slantwise in the face, are its characters. The yellow race includes the Chinese, Japanese, Coreans, the peoples of Indo-China, and most of the wandering tribes of Siberia. There are probably more of this race than of any other on the globe; next to them in numbers is the white race; then the negroes; then the island peoples; last and least, the American Indians.

Asia may justly be called the continent of yellow peoples. But it would be a mistake to think that no other peoples but Mongolic peoples live there. In almost every part of the great continent are peoples of white or Caucasic types. Thus, in the far northeast of Asia we have the curious Ghilyaks; in Japan, the Ainu; in China, various mountain tribes; in Southeastern Asia, similar peoples; in India, the Todas. All these tribes are white, bearded, with hairy bodies, rather long heads, and straight eyes. These tribes are small in numbers, rather quiet and timid, with little energy, and quite unlike European whites. They usually live in mountainous, out-of-the-way places, and it almost seems as if they are the scattered fragments of an ancient, white population, who occupied much of Asia before the yellow race was important, and who have been crowded back and almost destroyed by it.

In India, Persia, and other parts of Western Asia, are many white peoples who are like true European whites in their Aryan languages and in their forms and features. In Western Asia there are, and long have been, many dark white populations who are vigorous and active, with features much more European than Mongolian. These dark whites speak languages related to each other, but not Aryan. To these peoples, including the old Hebrews, and the modern Arabs, and many other ancient and modern peoples, the name Semites is applied. So you see that in Asia there are not only the yellow, Mongolian peoples, but three different kinds of whites,—the ancient feeble race, the Aryans, and the Semites.

Nowhere do we find more interesting ruins telling of past grandeur than in Asia. We think of Rome as old; of Greece as older; but in Mesopotamia are ruins far older than those of Greece and Rome. There are the ruins of Nineveh and Babylon, so often mentioned in the Bible. Both are old, but lately explorers have found yet older ruins dating back six or seven thousand years. And these are not ruins of small and unimportant places, but of grand cities, whose people were already civilized, with fixed laws, curious religions, and many arts and industries. Nowhere in the world have ruins of older cities been found, and it is believed that the people who built them were yellow Mongolians.

In Asia most of the great religions were born. The oldest religious systems of which we know were those of Mesopotamia. In India Buddhism began. Buddha was a teacher who felt that the old religion of India, Brahmanism, was wrong. So he taught a new religion. There are more believers in Buddhism to-day than in any other religion. It is the chief religion of China, Japan, Tibet, Southeastern Asia, and Ceylon; but in India itself, where Buddha lived and taught, the people are not Buddhists. In China there arose a great teacher, Confucius. He taught no religion, but to-day there are Confucian temples all through China. Judaism, the worship of Jehovah by the Jews, began in Asia. There, too, in Judæa also, Christianity was born. Christ dwelt and taught there, and there the first Christian churches were founded. But just as Buddha’s land is not Buddhist, so Palestine to-day is not Christian. It is a part of the Mohammedan world. Mohammedanism, too, is Asiatic, beginning in Arabia almost thirteen hundred years ago. Perhaps the original home of man, Asia has certainly been the first seat of civilization, and the cradle of religions.

XIII.
CHINESE.

Perhaps four hundred and twenty million people dwell in the Chinese Empire and are called Chinese. They are not, however, all true Chinese. When the Chinese (or their ancestors) moved eastward into what is now China, four thousand or more years ago, they found many different tribes living there. Some of these were driven forth to seek new homes; many remained and have mixed and mingled with the Chinese.

So many Chinese now live in our country that you all know how they look and dress. The Chinese in America are mostly from the poorest and meanest class, and most of them come from Canton. Most of those here are laundrymen, but in some of our larger cities there are merchants and restaurant keepers, and in California hundreds of them are gardeners. They quickly learn our ways of doing, and many are employed in cigar-making, shirt-making, and railroad-building. They work hard and save their money, as they want sometime to go home to their own country. Chinamen who die here are buried only for a little time: later the bones are gathered and sent home to be buried in China.

The Chinese who come here are short or of medium stature. In the interior and north of China they are taller. They have yellow skin, black straight hair, and black eyes. Their eyes appear to slant or be set crookedly, the inner corners being lower than the outer; they are really almost as straight as our own, and the appearance is due to a fold of skin at the inner corner. The long queue that hangs down the Chinaman’s back is not composed entirely of hair; it is pieced out below with cord or strings braided in. This style of wearing the hair is not truly Chinese. Formerly the Chinese wore their hair in a knot on top of the head, but at the time of the Manchu Conquest, two hundred and fifty or so years ago, they were compelled to wear the hair in the Manchu fashion. For a Chinaman to cut off his queue would be almost the same as declaring himself unloyal to his Manchu rulers.

CHINESE MANDARIN (RATZEL).

Chinamen usually have three names. The family name, which we place last, they place first. Thus Li Hung Chang, the great Chinese viceroy, belongs to the Li family. Few of the Chinese laundrymen in this country have their true names on their signs. The Li family is one of the largest in China, but it is also generally poor and despised. Most of our Chinese laundrymen are Lis, and are related to Li Hung Chang.

In writing, the Chinese use a brush, which they dip into ink. A single character represents a word, though many Chinese words are written with compound characters, one part of which gives the sound, and the other part pictures the meaning. In Chinese many sounds have several different meanings. If the character with which the sound is written stood alone, it would not be clear which meaning was intended. Chinese books are printed on thin paper, which is folded back and forth like a screen or fan and then stitched at the back; this makes the pages double. The Chinese book begins at what we would consider the back and goes through to what we would call the front. The print goes from the top of the page down, in vertical columns, and the first column is the one to the right hand.

To be able to write well is considered of the greatest importance in China. The Chinese respect learning also, and no man can hold office in China unless he is educated and has passed his examinations. From the time when a boy begins study he must keep it up for many years, if he hopes for a government position. Often he is a middle-aged or old man before he succeeds in passing all the necessary examinations. To be able to write beautifully, to be able to compose a poem upon any given subject, and to know the writings of Confucius and the other old philosophers are the things the Chinaman must learn. The great examinations at the Capital are attended by thousands from every part of the Empire. The man who stands first is sure to have an important governorship given to him at once.

CHINESE BOY CHOOSING TOYS (DOOLITTLE).

There are many curious customs regarding Chinese children. One takes place when a little boy is one year old. A great bamboo sieve, such as farmers use, is placed upon the table. Upon it are spread many articles—money-scales, shears, a measure, a mirror, a pencil, ink, paper, inkstone, books, the counting-board, objects of gold or silver, fruits, etc. The baby, all dressed in his best clothes, is then set in the midst of the objects, on the sieve. His parents and friends watch anxiously to see which of the articles he will grasp. They believe it will show what he will do when he is a man. If he takes the money-scales or the gold or silver, he will become a rich merchant; if he takes the book or pencil, he will be a great scholar, and so on.

Chinese money consists chiefly of round brass coins with a square hole in the middle. It takes from eight to sixteen of them to make one cent of ours. They are called “cash” and are often strung on strings for convenient carrying. Many hundreds of years ago the ancient Chinese used clothing and tools for money. When they began to make metal coins they made these in the shape of shirts, knives, and spades, and called them shirt money, knife money, and spade money.

In eating the Chinese do not use knives and forks, but a pair of slender sticks called “chopsticks.” These are both taken in one hand, and are used to pick up bits of meat or vegetables from the soup or to lift boiled rice or dumplings to the mouth. For eating soup they use little flat-bottomed spoons of chinaware, which will not fall over when set down on the table. In making tea the cup or bowl for each person stands on the table with tea leaves in it; it sets into a little ring-shaped saucer and has a little cover over it like a saucer turned bottom upward. The servant lifts the cover and pours boiling water upon the leaves and then replaces the cover to let the tea steep. The cover may be used to stir the tea for cooling it, and when held in proper position prevents the tea leaves from getting into the mouth of the person who is drinking.

But how many things are left that we cannot speak of! The busy work in the fields, the preparation of tea, the rearing of silkworms and making of silk, the trades, the government, the love and respect for parents, the respect for the graves of ancestors, the religious ideas, the life and teachings of Confucius—these things would need many books like this.

XIV.
COREANS.

Corea is often called the Hermit Nation, because it has wanted to keep foreigners away. In this respect it is what China, Japan, and Tibet have sometimes been; all of them have followed at times policies of exclusion. Still, Corea has had a good deal of contact with other nations; she has learned many things from China and has passed on much that she learned to Japan. Sometimes, too, Corea has been subject to China, sometimes to Japan.

The dress of Corea, while somewhat like that of China, and that of Japan, is still quite peculiar. The common people are all dressed in bluish white stuffs. Rich people dress in silks of the most gorgeous colors—blue, crimson, scarlet, orange. The chief garment worn by men is a long, loose gown that hangs from the neck quite to the ground. This is bound around, high above the waist, with a stiff, broad belt. No buttons are used in the fastening of garments, but strips of colored ribbons. The socks and shoes of the Coreans are like those of the Chinese, except that the shoe soles are thick-set with nail-heads. Nowadays these hob-nailed shoes are worn at all times, but formerly they were probably used only in winter to prevent slipping on ice and snow. About this the Coreans tell a story: long ago there was war between China and Corea, and the Chinese sent an army of eight hundred thousand soldiers; Corea’s army numbered but five thousand. It was in the midst of winter. The two armies met at a river, which was frozen solid, and the battle took place upon the ice. The Chinese wore their smooth-soled shoes, while the Coreans wore hob-nailed ones. When they fought on the ice the Chinese slipped helplessly, while the Coreans were able to fight well. The result was a great victory for the Coreans who, since then, have worn their hob-nailed shoes constantly in memory of their success.

But the most curious part of Corean dress is the hat. There are many different kinds. There are hats for young and hats for old, hats for out-doors and hats for the house, hats for people of different occupations. The commonest out-door hat is round, square-topped, and with the wide, flat, brim halfway up the crown. The hats worn at the royal court are like high skull-caps, with wide flaps or wings projecting at the sides. The straw hats worn by drovers and people in mourning are shaped like the top of a parasol and measure two feet and a half across.

COREAN HAT (LOWELL).

Until lately people in Corea carried wooden blocks to show who they were. These blocks were carried by boys of fifteen and all older persons. They were called “name-tablets,” and were made of pear-wood or mahogany. They were about two inches long and a half inch wide. There was writing upon both sides. At the top on one side was the name of the ward where the boy lived; below it were the words “leisure-fellow,” meaning that he was not a servant; then came the boy’s name, and lastly his date of birth. On the other side was the date on which the tablet was issued, and the seal of the officer who gave it. When a boy was older his “name-tablet” was of box-wood; still later—after he had passed an examination—his tablet was cut from black horn; when finally he took highest honors, it was made of ivory. Poor people, of the lowest class, also carried tablets, but of a different sort; upon these the bearer was described.

In Corea there is much cold weather with ice and snow. Much clothing is needed for warmth, and several garments of one sort may be worn one over another. In the houses they have kangs for warmth at night. Under the house, or under a certain part of it, there is built a sort of oven or furnace; above this is a floor of stones and, perhaps, earth upon which oiled paper is smoothly spread. A fire is built in the furnace and the sleepers stretch themselves upon the heated floor. It is not a satisfactory mode of heating, but is used not only among the Coreans but also among their Tatar neighbors.

Everywhere in Corea, Japan, China, and Tibet the people are Buddhists. But in all these countries we find also much worship of demons or bad spirits. Nowhere is there more of this than in Corea. They believe that there are spirits everywhere, some good, some bad. They are afraid of these bad spirits and do many things to ward off their mischief. Upon the roof of the king’s palace are a lot of ugly figures of bronze that resemble pigs and monkeys. All are different, but all are as terrible as their makers could shape. These are intended to frighten bad spirits away. No one but the king may have just these guardian animals; other important persons have two pictures fastened at the door; at the doors of the poor are hung a bunch of rice straw, and a bit of old rag. The two pictures represent two great generals, one a Chinese and the other a Corean, who were such valiant fighters against demons that their very pictures scare them. As for the things on the poor man’s door, it is believed that the spirits will stop to eat the grains of rice, and that they will think the rag the man’s clothing and will do their harm to it without entering the house.

Among the Coreans the tiger is much admired and much feared. They believe that bad men and evil spirits can turn themselves into tigers, and they have many strange stories of these tiger-men magicians. Thus they say that once a man was travelling through a lonely and desolate region. Toward evening he was surprised to come upon a fine house. Entering and asking shelter he found an old man living alone there. He felt sure things were wrong and that the old man was a tiger-magician. He was right; it was the king of all the tiger-magicians. If he had shown his fear he would have been torn to pieces, but he pretended to be brave. When the old man asked him who he was and where he was going, he boldly declared he was hunting for tiger-magicians, of whom he meant to kill two hundred, that he might carry their skins to the king. When the old man—who you remember was king of the tiger-magicians—heard this bold talk he was terribly scared. Secretly he called his subjects together and told them of their danger. They advised him to kill two hundred tiger-magicians who were in jail and give their skins to the hunter, begging him to spare the rest. The traveller gladly accepted, and taking the skins sold them for much money. This man had a cowardly neighbor who heard the story and determined to try the same trick. When he reached the tiger-king’s palace, however, he got scared, the tigers knew his fraud, and falling upon him they killed him.

XV.
TIBETANS.

Few countries are naturally so difficult of access as Tibet. It is a lofty plateau. To reach it from any side frightful mountains must be passed. Not only is the country itself difficult to reach, but the Tibetans do not like strangers. They do everything in their power to keep white men out of the country. Few travellers of our race have ever been to the heart of Tibet. Recently the American traveller, W. W. Rockhill, has visited that country and written interestingly of it, and later Walter Savage Landor claims to have had exciting adventures there. But the journey that is best known and has been most talked of was made more than fifty years ago by two French missionaries named Huc and Gabet.

Starting from China these gentlemen traversed Mongolia and Tatary and penetrated to the sacred Tibetan city of Lhassa. They returned to China over a different route. It was a fearful journey. The road led along the side of vast cliffs, over raging torrents where the bridges were composed of chains hung from bank to bank with boards laid crosswise of them, through snowdrifts, and over sheets of glacier ice.

The people of Tibet vary in stature, color, hair, and other characters, but all are Mongolic and all speak Tibetan. Some of the tribes are nomads—either herders or pillagers; others are settled and live by agriculture, notwithstanding the climate. In Lhassa itself they are tradespeople and traders. They are good weavers and make excellent woollen stuffs. They are skilled goldsmiths, and their fine wares go to decorate the temples and monasteries. They make the finest incense in the world.

The most important thing in Tibet is religion. Their religion, which is called Lamaism, is a sort of Buddhism peculiar to Tibet. Tibet might be called a theocracy, or a land where a god rules. For the ruler of Tibet, called the Dalai-lama, is considered no common man, but a real god on earth. Many centuries ago, in India, there lived a man named Gautama or Sakyi-muni. He was wise and good, and the new religion which he taught was a great improvement upon the Brahmanism of India. On account of his wisdom and goodness, he was called Buddha, but he never claimed to be himself a god. Since his death, however, many millions of people in many lands have worshipped him as a god.

All Buddhists believe that there may be many Buddhas—that Gautama was one Buddha, and that there were others before him and will be others hereafter. In Tibet, however, they think that there are always Buddhas on earth, and that when one Buddha dies his spirit at once enters the body of some little babe, who becomes a Buddha in his place. The Dalai-lama is the greatest of living Buddhas. There are many others in different parts of Tibet and Tatary, all of whom are worshipped as gods. The Dalai-lama lives in Lhassa, the sacred city, in a beautiful palace, and has many priests to serve him. He is the all-powerful being in the land.

TIBETAN LAMAS BLOWING ON SHELLS (VERNEAU).

But he does not trouble himself about governing his people. He appoints a nomekhan to rule for him. The nomekhan has four kalons who are appointed to assist him. These four appoint all the other officers, most of whom are lamas or priests. Really the lamas control everything in Tibet. Generally they live together in great buildings called lamaseries. These are to be seen everywhere in the land, and are often perched upon the summits of lofty mountains, from which they overlook the country for miles around. Some lamaseries contain but a few priests, others contain many thousands. The lamas are at once known from the people by their dress.

The lamas receive support from the common people, and when it is not brought to them, they go to gather it. Huc met two lamas on horseback gathering gifts of butter from the shepherds. “Their course is this: they present themselves at the entrance of each tent and thrice sound a marine conch.[1] Thereupon some member of the family brings out a small roll of butter, which, without saying a word, he deposits in a bag suspended from the saddle of each lama’s horse. The lamas never once alight, but content themselves with riding up to each tent, and announcing their presence to the inmates by the sound of the shell.”

1. A shell used as a trumpet.

When a Dalai-lama dies, search is made for the new one. Prayers are said in all the lamaseries, processions are made, incense is burned. Even the common people everywhere pray. There are certain signs by which a baby shows that the spirit of a lama has entered him. All parents who think their baby the one send word to Lhassa and bring their babies there. All are carefully examined, and the three who best show the signs of being Buddha are taken. After fasting for six days, the priests who decide the matter take a golden urn containing three little fish of gold, upon each of which is engraved the name of one of the three babies. The urn is shaken and one of the fish is drawn. The baby whose name is engraved on it becomes the Dalai-lama. To the unlucky babies before they are sent home a present of five hundred ounces of silver is given.

MONGOLS CHOOSING A LAMA (HUC).

Every day near sunset in Lhassa, all the men, women, and children stop whatever they may be doing and gather in the public squares of the city. There, grouped by sex and age, they kneel and chant their evening prayer. This prayer would seem to us curious, for it asks for nothing. The commonest prayer is—om mani padme hum, which means “the jewel in the lotus.” By the jewel they mean divine power. The lotus is a water-lily. The prayer is about the same thing as calling on the name of God. This prayer they repeat over and over again.

To write this prayer where it will be seen is a good act. One may see it everywhere. It is printed on the flags that fly above the buildings. Pious rich men pay lamas to go through the country and chisel these sacred words on rocks and cliffs.

Tibet is the land of prayer wheels. Prayer wheels contain the prayer written many times: every time the wheel is turned, so many prayers are supposed to have been said. Prayer wheels are of all sizes. The commonest stand near lamaseries, and are set to turning with the hand. Some lazy lamas, however, find it too much work to turn the wheels themselves and so arrange them that they are turned by wind or water.

On the twenty-fifth of each month pious lamas “send horses to weary travellers.” On the roads there are many hardships, and travellers often become weary and perish. To help them the lamas send them horses, and the way they do it is this. Going to some lofty summit where the wind blows heavily, they throw strips of paper bearing pictures of horses into the air, and the wind carries them away. The lamas believe that by this sacrifice of paper horses they supply real ones to the needy travellers.

XVI.
JAPANESE.

It is a great mistake to think of the Chinese and Japanese as much alike; they are really vastly different. The Japanese is smaller, more delicately built, quicker, and more lively than the Chinese; he delights in novelties and borrows them from everywhere and from everybody. The Chinese language consists chiefly of words of one syllable; the Japanese have many long words of many syllables. While unlike in body, disposition, and language, the Chinese and Japanese are alike in many customs, arts, and ideas. For long centuries the Japanese borrowed much from China, or from Corea, which had learned from China. The Japanese owe their writing, the cultivation of tea, silk raising and weaving, lacquer work, porcelain, metal working, and many religious ideas to China. But lately, in their hurry to borrow all sorts of things from the European and American whites, they have become ashamed of many of their Chinese ideas and customs.

JAPANESE GIRL WITH BABY (ARNOLD).

On the seventh day of a Japanese baby’s life, the little head is shaved clean except for a tuft on the nape of the neck. From that time on, the head is shaved until the boy goes to school, but tufts are left here and there, according to the fancy of the mother. After a boy begins school, his hair is left to grow. Japanese children have many sports and games, but they are quiet and gentle in them all. The older children carry their baby brothers and sisters strapped firmly on their backs. There are many interesting things for Japanese children to see on the streets. There is the sand painter; he sweeps a space clean and then opens several bags of different colored sand; he sprinkles handfuls of it here and there on the ground until he has made a pretty picture. There is the man who moulds and blows rice paste into all sorts of queer shapes, while the little buyers look on with delight; his sweet stuff is shaped into rabbits, foxes, monkeys, flowers, jinrikishas, fans, umbrellas, etc. There is the man who sells sugared peas, candied beans, and other sweets; he beats a drum and sings a song as he walks, so as to attract a crowd of children, and when he stops he tells a story, or does some trick, to amuse them. Then there is the little old woman of the batter cakes; she carries a little earthenware stove with a fire of charcoal in it; this she hangs at one end of a pole balanced upon her shoulder, and at the other end hang a griddle, ladles, cake turners, a jar of batter, and a sauce of salt and beans to eat with the cakes; the children pay five cents, and the old lady sets everything down, whereupon the children have great fun making their own cakes and eating them on the street.

Japanese children are ever gay and happy, but there are two days in the year of especial joy. The third day of the third month is the Dolls’ Festival. This is the day for the little girls. At that time dolls and all sorts of toy tools, implements, vessels, and dishes are for sale. The Japanese are fond of dolls, and in some families they have dolls that have been kept more than two hundred years. In some families they will have dozens or scores of dolls. Among these there is always one that represents the Emperor, another the Empress, and others the courtiers. At the time of the festival all these dolls are carefully arranged on a stepped platform. The Emperor and Empress are given the seats of honor, and the rest are grouped around them. With these are arranged all the toy objects. The fifth day of the fifth month is the Boys’ Festival. Then they are selling bows and arrows and other toy weapons everywhere. Everywhere they hang out great paper fishes, shaped like carp, and brightly painted. These are hung to tall bamboo poles of which there is one set in front of every house where they have a boy in the family. One fish is hung for each boy, and it is a gay sight to see the hundreds of bright fish waving and tossing in the wind. The reason why the carp is represented is because it swims up the river against the current; so it is hoped “the sturdy boy, overcoming all obstacles, will make his way in the world and rise to fame and fortune.”

BOYS’ FESTIVAL: JAPAN (BRAMHALL).

Japanese houses consist of a light framework supporting a heavy thatched or tiled roof. The sides of the house are wooden slides, which are usually removed in the daytime, leaving the sides open. In cold weather, slides consisting of frames covered with paper can be fitted in to form walls. The house is divided into rooms by sliding screens of paper, which can be easily removed so as to join two, three, or more rooms into one. There are no tables or chairs. The floors are covered with thick mats. At night quilts are brought in and laid down for beds; in the morning these are rolled up and stored away.

Japanese gardens are curious and beautiful. They may be small, and frequently they contain no flowers. Sometimes a pretty landscape is built of rocks and water: there are little mountains and hills, valleys, streams, waterfalls, lakes. Wonderful in such gardens are the dwarfed trees. They may be pine trees, fifty or one hundred years old, flourishing and perfect in form, but not more than a foot in height.

While Japanese gardens frequently contain none, the people are wonderfully fond of flowers. Among the favorites are the chrysanthemum, plum blossoms, and cherry blossoms. When these are in bloom every one goes to the places where they grow and delight in their beauty. These flower picnics are looked forward to for months. The cherry and plum trees are covered: “You see no leaves—only one great filmy mass of petals. Japanese chrysanthemums are wonderful; there are many strange or beautiful varieties. At one place in Tokyo, these flowers are wrought into all sorts of curious compositions—men and gods, boats, bridges, castles, etc.”

The Japanese love to hear stories. There are fairy stories for the little people and tales of adventure and history for the larger ones. There are men whose business is story telling. Some of these wander about until they find a good spot, when they will stop and begin the tale; a crowd soon gathers to listen. Others are hired to tell their stories in a story-telling house, where people gather every evening, just as at the theatre.

We have said so much about amusements and festivals that you may think the Japanese are always playing. No indeed, they are hard workers. They cultivate their fields industriously; they have many trades; they are great traders; they are fine artists. Their silk weaving, their metal work, their lacquer work, and their porcelains are famous.

In these last years Japan has made great changes. She has borrowed so much from the whites that they have little left to teach her. To-day she has all our great inventions—telegraphs and telephones, electric lights and railroads; and in borrowing so much that is new she has lost and is losing much—very much—of the happy old life.

XVII.
AINU.

Before the Japanese entered what is now Japan that country was occupied by the Ainu, among the most interesting people of the world. There are not many of them. In Yezo, the northern island of Japan, there are about seventeen thousand, and in the island of Saghalien, formerly Japanese, but now Russian, there are others. They are not like the Japanese, but are considered whites, not Mongolians. The men measure about five feet four inches; the women not more than five feet two inches. Their color is flesh, with a tinge of red or yellow; their eyes are large and do not appear to slant like those of the yellow peoples; their hair is abundant and tangled and they have much beard. Their body is very hairy. They are filthy and rarely wash themselves.

The women tattoo, beginning in girlhood. The patterns are cut in the flesh with a razor and soot is rubbed into the lines; to render the color permanent, water in which ash-tree bark has been steeped is rubbed over the part tattooed. The tattooing first done is at the centre of the upper lip; later the lower lip. The marks are added to from time to time until they cover the upper lip and reach from ear to ear. Such women appear to have a great moustache. After marriage a woman’s forehead may be tattooed, also patterns may be made up the backs of the hands and on the arms, and rings may be tattooed around her fingers.

AINU: A HAIRY SPECIMEN (BATCHELOR).

Ainu clothing is generally made of elm bark, and that worn by men and women is much alike. The bark is stripped from the tree in spring, when it is full of sap. It is soaked in water to separate the inner and outer bark. Fibres are secured from the inner bark, which can be woven like thread into cloth. The men’s garments of this fibre cloth are adorned with patterns embroidered with colored threads; those of women are generally plain.

AINU WOMEN: SHOWING TATTOOING (FROM A PHOTOGRAPH).

The Ainu house is rectangular, with a rather frail support and a substantial thatched roof. The roof is built first; then the chief posts of the walls are set and the roof is lifted up and put on them. Ainu houses grow as the family grows. A young married couple build a small house; as they have children a new and larger house is built behind the old one, which remains as a sort of hall; when the family is still larger and richer, the hall is torn down and a larger house is built behind the second one, which now becomes a hall or porch to it. There are two windows and one door in these houses. The windows are on the south and east sides, while the door is at the west end. The east end of the house and its window are sacred; people must not throw things through this window nor spit out of it. Sometimes the men worship the rising sun as they see it through this east window.

The Ainu are hunters and have ingenious ways of capturing or killing animals. In hunting deer they use a little squeaking whistle, the sound of which attracts the animals. They set bows, with arrows on the stretched cord, near trails over which deer and bears pass; in passing, the animal strikes a cord which lets loose a trigger, and the arrow flies. They also set a trap consisting of a stout bow, which, when sprung, shuts two boards tightly together; the foot of the animal is caught between these and held fast. Formerly the Ainu used poisoned arrows in hunting. These had a broad, hollowed point, in which a little of the poisonous paste was stuck. The poison was made from the root of aconite mixed with tobacco, peppers, and poisoned spiders. These, and other substances, were carefully mixed into a gummy paste. At present the Japanese government forbids the Yezo Ainu to use these poisoned arrows.

The bear hunt is looked forward to with anxiety. It is in the spring while snow is yet on the ground. Before starting the hunters pray to their gods for help and direction. Dogs accompany them. When a den is found, there is great excitement. They try to draw the animal out by teasing him with long poles. If he will not come out, one of the men draws his knife, enters the den, and faces the bear. The animal pushes him aside, when the hunter pricks him from behind with his knife. The angry animal then rushes forth, growling and snarling. The hunters and dogs waiting outside soon despatch him, though frequently some one is hurt or killed. The hunters then sit down near the dead bear and say all kinds of pretty things to him, pretending that they are sorry to have killed him, and asking his forgiveness. They then skin him, cut up the meat, carry it home, and have a feast.

At Ainu feasts the men always become dreadfully drunk from drinking rice wine. When he drinks, the Ainu uses a little stick to lift his moustache and keep it from the wine. These moustache lifters are made for the purpose and are frequently neatly carved.

Sometimes Ainu hunters secure a little bear cub, which they carry carefully home. It is fed with the best of food, and treated as a great pet. When it is so big as to be rough and troublesome, they put it in a cage. When it is quite grown, a bear feast is planned. Many guests are invited. The men eat millet-cakes and drink rice wine. After feasting for some time two men noose the bear with ropes and drag him around; the whole company then worry and tease the poor creature, finally choking him, after which they eat him.

The Ainu have many gods. In praying to them they use inao. These are little sticks which are so whittled with knives that curls of shavings hang from them. There are several ways of cutting these, and they are believed to please the gods. They are stuck up in the ground and left where prayers are made. Ainu men spend much time whittling these inao.

XVIII.
HINDUS.

The Hindus are but one of the many peoples living in India. They are considered a Caucasic, white people, though their skin is a dark brown and they have black hair and eyes. Their language belongs to the Aryan family, to which most European languages belong.

The dress of the Hindus is too well known to need description. Hindu women are fond of jewelry, and wear rings, arm-rings, ankle rings, earrings, and nose rings of many kinds and made of gold, silver, or brass. The Hindus bear marks stamped upon themselves. Thus a round spot in the middle of the forehead, horizontal lines across the forehead, or perpendicular lines from the root of the nose to the top of the forehead, show to which of the great religious sects the man belongs. These marks are made fresh every morning.

The Hindus are divided into four castes, or classes. These are named Brahmans, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, and Sudras. There is a yet lower population called Pariahs. The Brahmans are the highest; they are priests or religious men; everybody must yield to them. The Kshatriyas come second, and are soldiers or warriors. The Vaisyas are the traders, or merchant class. The Sudras are the lowest, and are the people who have trades, or are laborers. The Hindus say that these different classes of men came from the body of Brahma, their great god; that the Brahmans came from his mouth; the Kshatriyas from his arm; the Vaisyas from his thigh; and the Sudras from his feet. As for the poor Pariahs, they do not seem to have come from Brahma, and no one has anything to do with them. Each of these castes was so much higher than the next one that they might not even be touched by them without being defiled and needing to be purified. People of different castes might not drink from the same vessel or eat from the same dish. One writer says: “I saw a high-caste Hindu dash an earthen jar of milk upon the ground and break it to atoms, merely because the shadow of a Pariah had fallen upon it as he passed.” Under English government many of these notions in India are passing away. The Pariah’s lot, however, is perhaps as hard as ever.

Many trades are practised in India, some of them most skilfully. Whatever trade a man follows will be that of his son after him, as it was that of his father before him. Hindus are fine weavers, and some of their muslins are delicate and costly. They are glass-makers, potters, carpenters, blacksmiths, goldsmiths, brass founders, shell workers, shoemakers, barbers. These trades are carried on in the open streets; the men carry tools with them, and when they secure an order they set up their outfit and fall to work. Among pretty things sold in India are figures in clay representing all sorts of tradesmen at work.

HINDU DANCING GIRLS AND MUSICIANS (VERNEAU).

Hindus tame and train elephants as beasts of burden. The native princes, in particular, use them. A palanquin in which the prince sits is mounted on the elephant’s back. These royal elephants are gorgeously decked out, and the palanquin is brilliant with metals and precious stones. Elephants are also employed in caravans and in the exciting tiger hunts.

The Hindus love amusements. They are fond of music and have many curious instruments. Dancing girls dance for the amusement of guests at feasts given in the homes of the wealthy. They usually take their own musicians with them; one of these plays upon a little drum, the other on a kind of guitar. Street exhibitions are frequent. Parties of acrobats go about performing feats. Everyone has heard of the Hindu jugglers. Mr. Ward describes some tricks he saw done. Thus, the juggler spreads a cloth on the ground: in a moment a movement is seen under it: the cloth is raised and under it are pineapples growing. The juggler picks the fruit and presents it to the spectators to show that it is real. Again, he takes a large, clay jar, fills it with water, and turns it upside down to let the water run out; when he turns it up again, it is full of water. Again, he puts a lean dog into a common basket; opening it, he shows the dog with a litter of pups; covering these and opening again, there is a goat; again the basket is put down and raised and shows a live pig; again—and the pig is dead with its throat cut; then he ends the trick by again covering and uncovering, when the pig is seen alive and well. How does he do it? Almost as wonderful as these juggler’s tricks are the performances of the snake charmers. They carry the dreaded, poisonous cobras around in baskets and handle them, playing at the same time on their little flutes, quite as if the creatures were entirely harmless.

HINDU SNAKE CHARMERS (BREHM).

Nowhere in the world are there more dreadful religious customs than in India. People there are so crowded that life is hard. The result of this was that parents often destroyed their little babies, particularly girls. Often the mothers themselves threw the little beings into the sacred river, where they were drowned in its waters or were eaten by crocodiles. At the great religious festivals, men tortured themselves fearfully, or threw themselves under the chariot of the god that they might be crushed to death. The dead among the Hindus were usually cremated—burned upon a great open fire of wood. Formerly the widow of the dead man mounted the funeral pyre and was burned with his body. The English government has put an end to many of these practices, and among them this suttee, or burning of the widow. It has really done little good, as a widow’s life is so sad that she might almost better die. A widow must shave her head, wear miserable clothing, and serve every one like a slave: she is despised and harshly treated.

Few peoples have caused as much wonder as the Gypsies. With their swarthy complexions, black hair and eyes, and handsome faces, they are a striking type. They love out-door life, and hate to be within walls. They wander from place to place, pitching their tents where fancy leads them. They are tinkers, mending pots and kettles; they are horseshoers, jockeys, horse traders, horse doctors; they tell fortunes, in which almost all of us believe a little, and every one fears them a little. There are many thousands of them in the United States: there are many in Great Britain, Spain, Italy, Poland, and other European countries; they are in North Africa, in Mexico, in Brazil, in India. Everywhere they are the same, and everywhere they talk their own language, the Romany. It is believed that they first came from India, and that they are related to the Hindus.

XIX.
TODAS.

In the “hill country” of India live many curious brown peoples whose languages are different from the Aryan tongue of the Hindus. These peoples, called Dravidians, are considered the earliest occupiers of India. Among them no tribe is more curious than the Todas. In some ways they are like the Ainu. Though brown, they are probably really white or Caucasic. They have the features, strong beards, and hairy bodies of whites, and in these respects are like the Ainu.

The Todas live on a tableland whose surface is covered with hills and rolling prairies. The hills are clad with coarse grass, and in some of the valleys are deep forests. The sunshine is bright and warm, and the dry season is long.

The Todas think only of their cattle. They do not hunt—in fact, they have no weapons; they do not cultivate any fields, getting what plant food they use from the Badagas and other neighboring tribes. But they do raise cattle—buffalo. Their villages are located in the midst of pasture land. No village is occupied for a whole year, but the people have always at least two villages and live first in one, then in the other. This is to have fresh pasture for their cattle and to be secure in the wet season. Toda villages contain but few houses, most of which consist of a single room eight feet square; sometimes two or three such rooms are set side by side—these do not open into each other, but each has an outside door. The roofs of these houses are thatched and project a yard or so beyond the house walls. The people sit under the shelter of these projecting roofs while they work or visit. There are no windows or chimneys to the houses. Everything in the house has its proper place—the pestle and mortar for pounding grain, the fireplace, and the raised bank of clay that serves the old people as a sleeping place. Near the house is a pen of stones and mud for the owner’s cattle.

All the cattle of the villages are herded together. There is one dairy for the village, and all the cattle are milked there by special dairymen. After milking, these men give out so much milk as is needed to every one in the village; from the balance they make butter which they divide to the men of the village according to the number of cattle each owns. We have already said that the Todas raise no crops. The Badagas and Kotas live on the land of the Todas; they are stronger and more vigorous than the Todas, and both tribes have weapons and could easily defeat them in battle. But they live in peace with them and pay them, as rent for their land, grains and other produce they need.

We have spoken of the common village herds. There are other (sacred) herds, which are cared for by dairymen priests, who are themselves almost worshipped. The priest has an assistant who cuts wood for him and otherwise serves him. When the priest milks the sacred cows, and he alone may do so, he repeats a prayer. He does the same when he carries the milk into the dairy. The village people treat him and his assistant with great respect and may not touch them, nor any of the implements they use. Men and boys may go to the wall that encloses the dairy buildings, but may not enter. Women may not go near the place.

The cows in the sacred herds have descended from sacred cows of the past. In each herd there is an especially sacred “bell-cow.” This means that she is the owner of an ancient cow-bell which the dairyman priest keeps in the dairy. It belonged to her mother before her and to her mother, and so on back. When a bell-cow dies, the bell has to be put upon her daughter. The priest brings it out from the dairy and waves it around and around the head of the cow morning and night for three days. As he does so he says:—

“What a fine cow your predecessor was.

How well she supported us with milk;

Won’t you supply us in like manner?

You are a god among us.

Do not let the Tirieri[2] go to ruin.

Let one become a thousand!

Let all be well!

Let us have plenty of calves!

Let us have plenty of milk!”

The cow wears the bell for three days and nights, after which it is taken off forever. It is not used again until the old cow dies and her daughter is then made bell-cow in her place.

2. Sacred dairy.

GROUP OF TODAS (VERNEAU).

Perhaps you would like to know how the priest fills his time? One day is much like another with him. When he rises he washes his face, hands, and teeth. He makes a little lamp from a leaf and after filling it with butter places five wicks in it. After lighting it he sets it to burn in front of the ancient bells and other sacred objects. He then takes his staff and bamboo milk pail and goes to milk the cows. He salutes them and prays to them before milking. Carrying the milk into the dairy, he sprinkles some drops upon the sacred bells as an offering and repeats the names of the gods. He then makes butter from the milk of the preceding day. His work is now done, and he prepares food for himself and his assistant. This man then drives the herd to pasture and gathers firewood. The last thing before going to sleep at night, the priest puts fresh butter and wicks into the little lamp before the bells.

The Todas have other curious customs, but we have no space to describe them. Their salutations, the naming of children, the yearly feast, when they eat a young buffalo bull (they rarely eat meat at any other time), and their funeral customs are all interesting. Every man who dies among the Todas has two funerals, called the green and the dry funeral, a year apart.

XX.
ANDAMANESE: MINCOPIES.

East of British India and south of Cochin-China in the Bay of Bengal are the Andaman Islands, on which the Mincopies live. They are small in stature, black or dark brown, with broad round heads, and crinkly or woolly hair. They are often called negritos, or little negroes.

An Englishman named Man lived for some years in the Andaman Islands and became much interested in the little blacks. He learned their language and has described their customs.

The Mincopies are true savages, living entirely on wild food; they are gentle and non-savage in disposition. The islands are well supplied with food. “The sea which washes their coasts is full of fish and abounds with turtles; the jungles are filled with wild pigs; the bees furnish abundance of wild honey.” From plants they get roots and fruits. They have no cultivated fields and no domestic animals. Although savages, these little people know how to build good houses. These are huts some thirty-five by forty feet; the framework is of posts and poles and the firm thatch is of palm leaves. The huts are arranged about an oval or elliptical cleared space, where they hold their dances. When off on long hunting trips the Mincopies build rude shelters of branches and leaves. In their villages boys and girls, unless they are still babies, do not sleep in the houses with grown persons, but there are two special sleeping houses—one for boys and the other for girls. In the houses of the Mincopies fires are kept burning. It is said that these people do not know how to kindle fire; if this is true, they are almost the only people who are ignorant of this important knowledge. They are careful of the fires they have and feed them well.

Unless they think they have some reason to fear strangers, the Mincopies receive them kindly. The little children are taught to respect visitors. “They are the first served; the best dishes are offered to them; they are accompanied at their departure; before separating they clasp hands, and instead of embracing they blow in each other’s faces; then they engage in an affectionate dialogue. Finally they separate with mutual promises of meeting again.”

The adoption of children is common among Mincopies. It is rare that any child remains with its parents after it is six or seven years old. Some friend of the family wishes to show his friendship and asks to adopt the child. The little one goes to his house and belongs to him. The parents may visit him in his new home, but no longer have any control over him. His new father may do what he likes with him, even to giving him away to some other person who may wish to adopt him. When children are about twelve years of age, they begin a fast, which is kept up until they are almost men and women; during that time they must not eat turtle, pork, fish, or honey. After several years of thus fasting, they may again eat these foods.

There are rules about foods for grown persons, too. During certain parts of the year they must not eat some kinds of roots and fruits; their god Puluga will be displeased if they do. Children must not eat the flesh of the two water animals, the dugong and porpoise. And to every person there is some one kind of food which he must not eat in all his life; this forbidden food differs with the persons.

We have said a good deal about the kindness of the Mincopies: they are not always good. They have their quarrels and battles like the rest of the world. They are quick-tempered and often become angry for a small offence. When a Mincopy is angry, he acts like a naughty child, striking and breaking everything around him, even his own choicest treasures. Trouble sometimes breaks out between two tribes in the midst of a feast. In their wars they destroy and carry off property; they take no prisoners among the men, killing the wounded, but children of the enemy are usually kept alive and kindly treated. Sometimes they try to harm enemies by witchcraft, or conjuring. They think that Puluga dislikes the smell of burning beeswax and will, in his anger, send forth a storm. So, when they know that their enemy is going fishing or hunting, they burn beeswax so that the angry Puluga will send a storm.

ANDAMAN MINCOPIES (TYLOR).

Most curious is the funeral of a child among the Andamanese. When a little one dies there is general weeping. Parents and friends paint their bodies with clay; their heads are fresh shaved, and upon them, over the forehead, men place a lump of clay, while women put one upon the top of the head. The mother prepares the little body for burial; she shaves and paints the head, neck, wrists, and knees with red ochre; she then folds the little body together and wraps it in great leaves and binds the bundle thus made with cords. The grave is dug in the floor of the hut, under the fireplace. After gently blowing a few times upon the little face in farewell, the child is buried and the fire is rebuilt over the grave. The mother leaves a few drops of her own milk in a cup on the grave. The hut is then deserted, a garland of rushes being fastened around it to show that a death has taken place. The whole village then moves, that the child’s spirit may not be disturbed. After three months of mourning, they all return. The little skeleton is dug up, the bones are painted red or yellow and distributed as keepsakes to the friends, who wear them as necklaces in memory of the dead child. This seems dreadful to us, but our people often keep locks of hair cut from a dead child’s head; it is the same thing. At this time the lumps of clay, signs of mourning, are removed from the heads and foreheads. Some days later, there is a gathering of all the friends. The father, holding his remaining children in his arms, sings a mourning song: the women take part in the chorus, and all the rest cry noisily. The parents then dance “the dance of tears,” after which they withdraw to the hut. The visitors keep up the dance some hours longer.

XXI.
ARABS.

The old home of the Arabs was Arabia; to-day they are found not only in Arabia, but over half of Asia and all of Northern Africa. Their great wanderings began with the founding of Mohammedanism about the year 622 A.D. Full of zeal, the Arabs carried the new religion in every direction.

The Arab is a white man, but a dark one. His language belongs to the Semitic family and resembles the old Hebrew language. Arabic is a soft and poetical language which is spoken to-day by myriads of people who are not Arabs by blood. The Arab is of moderate stature; he is thin but muscular, and has great endurance; he has a long head and a narrow, oval face; his nose is long, thin, and prominent; his hair and eyes are black.

We always think of the Arab as dwelling in tents. This is only partly true. In Arabia itself about one-fourth of the Arabs are wandering tent-dwellers; in Northern Africa, especially near the great desert, many are nomadic. But everywhere we also find settled, town-inhabiting Arabs also.

The tents of the desert Arabs are large, low, and flat; the covering is a firm wool and camel’s-hair cloth. During the daytime, at least, the sides are raised to permit the air to circulate. These tents are easily taken down and packed, and as easily set up. Desert Arabs have flocks of sheep and herds of goats, camels, and horses. Every one has heard of the beauty, gentleness, and spirit of the Arabian horses—the finest perhaps in the world. Their owners love them and treat them as tenderly as children. Horses are rarely used by Arabs as draught animals or burden bearers, but only for riding. The camel it is upon which the Arab packs his heavy burdens for desert travel. The nomad Arab lives chiefly on food drawn from his flocks and herds. Mutton is his most important meat; couscous is a favorite food (see Kabyles). The nomad Arabs are pillagers, and fall upon caravans of traders to rob them. Still they are hospitable to the stranger who comes to their tent asking shelter; in fact, they treat him with the greatest politeness. A table is set before him; he is given water to wash his hands; the master himself receives the food from the servants and places it before his guest. The Arabs admire strength and agility, and at evening, before their tents, the young men of the encampment practise tumbling, wrestling, hurling, and other feats of strength.

CAMEL AND PALANQUIN (FROM A PHOTOGRAPH).

The town Arabs live in comfortable houses. Most of these are of a single story, though some are of two; they enclose a central open court; they are flat-roofed; a large gateway gives entrance to the court, and is high enough for a man on horseback to ride through. The flat house tops make a favorite resting-place in the cool of the day. Streets in Arab towns are narrow, crooked, and filthy. In Arab towns are noticed at once many domes and minarets: the domes usually mark some famous grave; the minarets, mosques. These graves are those of some pious Mohammedan saint. There are thousands of them to which the Arabs flock to say their prayers and to be cured of disease. Often at such tombs dervishes go through with their strange performances. Some pierce themselves with swords, with no signs of pain; others spin around and around on their heels until one wearies of watching them, and wonders why they do not fall.

The town Arab is more particular about his religion than the Bedouin dweller in the desert. He must—and every good Mohammedan should—wash his hands before eating; he must pray five times a day with his face turned toward Mecca. Mecca is so sacred to them because it was the home of Mohammed; every Arab and other good Mohammedan tries, once in his life, to go on a pilgrimage to Mecca, where he must see the Kaabah, or black-stone. Arabs are much given to pious exclamations. Thus before eating or beginning any business they say Bismallah, which means In God’s name, and on finishing the meal or successfully completing the business they say Hamdouallah, Praise God. This piety does not interfere with the town Arab driving hard bargains in business. He loves trade and money. He frequently goes in caravans to trade in other places. The Arabs, too, are the slave-traders in Africa. This cruel business has not yet been stopped completely. The traders buy negroes where they can, and hunt them almost like wild animals when they cannot buy them. In some places the hunted beings take refuge in trees, which have been prepared as places of safety from which they defend themselves.

Formerly the Arabs were more important than now. Seven or eight hundred years ago Arabia was the world’s centre of learning—or at least the Arab cities were. At a time, when Europe had lost much of what she once possessed, the Arab world was full of philosophers, physicians, poets, and astrologers. From the Arabs Europe gained much of the knowledge that we now possess. But those bright days of Arabian glory are past. To-day the boys in Arab schools learn little but reading, writing, and arithmetic. They learn long passages from the Koran—the sacred book of Mohammedanism. The little fellows—for girls do not go to school—sit on the floor, and all study aloud, the louder the better, because then the teacher will know that they are studying.

XXII.
THE PEOPLES OF AFRICA: KABYLES.

We rightly think of Africa as the home of the negroes, but it is a mistake to think that no other peoples dwell in that continent. The peoples of North Africa are white peoples; their complexions are often dark, but in head, form, features, and character they are like Europeans, rather than negroes. There are many types in North Africa. There are the modern Egyptians, who look like their great and famous distant ancestors; there are the Berbers and Kabyles, of whom we shall say more later; there are Arabs; there are “Jews,” especially in Algeria, Morocco, and the other Barbary States; there are Moors also, who are a mixed people with some negro blood.

True Negro-Africa begins near the Equator and stretches southward. The Sudan is the great negro country. There are four areas in this Sudanese negro belt: the upper Nile valley, the Sudan proper, the Senegambian district, and Guinea. In these four sections the people are negroes, though here and there somewhat mixed. Most of Africa south of this negro belt is occupied by negroids, who consist of many tribes and resemble negroes in their narrow heads and woolly hair; they are, however, less dark in color, more graceful in build, and more intelligent. Scattered here and there in Equatorial Africa are bands of Pygmies, men and women among whom are like boys and girls among us in size. In far Southern Africa live the Bushmen and Hottentots, among negroid tribes.

The Kabyles are among the most interesting of North African peoples. There are two types, the dark and the light Kabyles. The latter have light skin, fair hair, blue eyes, and much resemble the light whites of Europe. The Kabyles are tall, well built, and active. They are industrious and love labor. They are a mountain people and love their home. Their towns are located upon the slopes or on the summits. The houses are usually of one story and have flat roofs. There are two rooms,—one for the family and the other for the animals. When there are two stories to a house, it shows that the owner has a married son living with him; the upper story has been built above the old house for the young couple. A little garden always surrounds the house. The Kabyl country is rather cold, and the houses are not widely separated, so that they assist in protecting each other against the winds. In winter the family lives in a sort of cellar under the house.

GROUP OF KABYLES: ALGERIA (FROM A PHOTOGRAPH).

The Kabyles work hard to raise their little crops. Their fields are down in valleys or are terraced out on the hill slopes. They raise barley, wheat, gourds, cucumbers, and melons; they raise flax; they have some common cultivated plants that have been introduced from Mexico, as the prickly-pear cactus, maguey, maize, tobacco, and potato. The prickly pear and maguey are so common that landscapes in Algeria resemble those of Mexico. The Kabyles raise apples, pears, apricots, olives, figs, grapes, and nuts. They keep bees, and have quite a trade in wax. The men are good workers in metals and leather, and trade their wares to their neighbors.

The women, like all women in the Mohammedan world, delight in jewelry and ornaments, and as they are not wearers of veils they have a good chance to display their treasures. Couscous is a favorite food in Northern Africa, not only among Kabyles, but Arabs and other peoples. Kabyl women spend much of their time in its preparation. Flour is mixed with water into a sort of thick dough, which is divided into little masses which are rolled between the fingers. These little pellets, almost like seeds, they steam and eat with bits of meat and hot, peppery sauce.

The Kabyles love horseback riding, and are bold hunters. They fight bravely in defence of their homes. Among their amusements, perhaps falconry stands first. The falcon, you know, is a bird much like a hawk, which is trained to chase and kill or capture smaller birds or animals. It is carried to the field by the hunter on horseback. The bird is perched upon its master’s wrist, and is blinded by a hood over its head. When the hunter sees game, he unhoods the falcon and lets it fly after the victim.

MAKING COUSCOUS IN THE DESERT (FROM A PHOTOGRAPH).

XXIII.
NEGROES.

We have already spoken of the district of true negroes. In the Sudan they are at their best and purest type. The skin is almost black; the head long and narrow; the face narrow; the hair kinky and woolly. The lower part of the face projects far beyond the upper part. The lips are thick. Negroes have an odor which is peculiar to them, and which most white persons dislike. Many of the negro tribes are composed of persons who are tall, strong, and well built.

Almost all negroes are agriculturists, living in settled villages. Their houses are usually round huts. The Bongo of the upper Nile build huts about twenty feet in diameter and the same in height, which are firm and well built, though made only of poles and thatch. The entrance is so low that one crawls into the hut on hands and knees. On the conical roof are built benches of straw, on which persons sit to overlook and guard the planted fields. The floor inside the hut is made of hard, well-beaten clay. Skins of animals serve as beds. The Wolofs of the Sudan make very similar huts, but do not construct the seats on the roof. Among both tribes they build little granaries near the huts; these are made of basketwork and are set up on posts to place them out of reach of animals.

The African negroes are fond of bright colors and tawdry ornaments. Objects of metal and glass beads are particularly prized. They use rings of iron, copper, and brass of all sizes for the arms, legs, and fingers. Sometimes so many rings will be put upon the arms that they completely cover them. The negroes in some tribes pierce ears, noses, and lips for inserting ornaments. The Bongo women, for example, pierce a series of holes along the rim of each ear, along the edges of the nose, and at the corners of the mouth, and through each hole they thrust a short bit of grass stalk. The men in negro tribes often bear a tribal mark; this is usually the scar or scars left by cutting lines or patterns on the face or chest. Thus the mark of one tribe might be three cuts across each cheek; that of another a pattern of criss-cross lines upon the forehead; another tribe in the central lake district had a line of wart-like swellings, at equal distances from each other, extending from the root of the nose to the top of the forehead. All these tribal marks were cut in childhood, and the cutting must have been painful. It is said that the Bornu baby boys have one hundred and three cuts made on their little bodies for their tribal sign.

African negroes often dress their hair into strange and curious forms, as do also the neighboring negroids. They build it up into great horns, train it out in little strings, the ends of which they fasten to a wooden ring, build it into thick mats or wigs, and insert all sorts of fibres, beads, and ornaments in it. Of course such carefully trained hair must not be spoiled by lying on it, so they have the same sort of wooden pillows as the Fiji Islanders, to keep the head off the ground.

These wooden pillows are often decorated with carvings of human and animal figures. Many negroes delight in wood-carving and sometimes make strange masses of many human and animal figures crowded together in the most curious way. These they paint in bright colors. Near the west coast of Africa several tribes are ivory carvers, and their artists will cover an elephant’s tusk with human figures, animal forms, and geometrical designs; no space will be lost; every spot will be filled.

NEGRO SMITHS AT WORK (RATZEL).

Most of the negro tribes know how to weave, and some of their cloth made from grass or vegetable fibres is closely and well woven. The most remarkable art of the negroes, however, is their working of iron. They know how to get iron from its ore and to work it into desired forms. They build a little conical smelting furnace or oven of clay, into which they put their fuel and ore. They then blow air through the fire with their rude bellows. This consists of two earthen vessels, or boxes of some sort, over the top of which bladders or skin are tied; tubes lead from these vessels and the lower end of a stick is tied to the middle of each bladder covering. The smith takes the upper ends of the sticks in his hands and works them up and down, first one and then the other. He thus forces air first into one tube and then into the other: these two tubes end in a single clay tube which conducts the air into the furnace. After the blacksmith gets his iron from the ore he works it with heat and beating to the forms wanted. At Benin City, which was at the head of a dreadful negro kingdom, they had learned how to cast bronze and made wonderful objects in it. They made rings, bells, animal figures, plaques with human figures represented on them, and masks of the human head of life size.

Negroes love music and have many instruments, not only rattles, drums, whistles, flutes, and trumpets, but stringed instruments also. In some tribes there are wandering minstrels, who go from place to place playing on their three-stringed guitar and singing songs in praise of the chief or king whom they visit. They sing in his praise if he pays them well; if, however, he is stingy, their songs make bitter fun of him. These minstrels are either men or women: they are feared and disliked, but well treated, as no one wishes to gain their ill will.

Some of the most brutal and cruel acts in the world are done among negro kingdoms like Ashanti, Dahomey, and Benin. No human life is there safe. The king orders instant death to those who offend him. The executioner’s knife is kept busy. Cruel butcheries are connected with their religion, and sometimes the king will have dozens, scores, or even hundreds of men killed to carry messages to his dead father. It is also among negroes that we find cannibalism existing in revolting forms and frightful belief in witchcraft. Any old man or old woman may be accused, at any time, of being a witch: it takes little to prove their guilt, and they are speedily executed.

Negroes often believe that some men can change themselves into wild animals and then resume their own form. They are especially afraid of man-leopards: not unfrequently men who have been thought to be such have been executed. We cannot, however, blame the negroes much for such ideas. Not long ago white Europeans generally believed in werewolves (or manwolves), and there are still districts in Europe where such beliefs exist.

Many African negroes wear charms to protect themselves against harm. Such charms are called gri-gris. Almost anything may be a gri-gri: a part of some animal, a plant, a curious stone. Where the negroes have had much to do with Arabs or other Mohammedans a favorite gri-gri is a verse from the Koran, written on paper done up in a little leathern pouch and hung about the neck. Sometimes a man will be almost covered with gri-gris. He may have so many “as to weigh thirty pounds,” and they may hamper him so “that he must be helped in mounting a horse.”

We have already told you that the Arabs still hunt negro slaves. Many of the negro tribes themselves keep slaves—thus the Wolofs do so. They, however, treat their slaves more kindly than the Arabs do.

XXIV.
NEGROIDS.

The negroids of Southern and Eastern Africa resemble the negroes. They are generally tall; they have a fine dark brown color, long narrow heads, hair less kinky and woolly than the negroes, flat nose and thick lips. They do not have the negro’s odor. The negroids comprise many different tribes, but all speak related languages known as the Bantu languages. The tribes we shall consider are the Zulus, Kaffirs, and Waganda.

The Zulus and Kaffirs wear generally but little clothing. A man wears a cord about the waist with flaps of leather hanging from it in front and behind; the woman wears a fringed girdle about her waist. Sometimes they wear a mantle of hairy skins. At great festivals the men deck themselves finely. A traveller, describing a young man who was going visiting, says: “He will wear furs, among them the Angora goat; feathers in his head-dress; globular tufts of beautiful feathers on his forehead or at the back of his head; eagle feathers in fine head-dresses, as also ostrich, lory, and peacock feathers. He ties so many tufts and tails to his waist girdle that he may almost be said to wear a kilt.”

The negroids, like the negroes, are agriculturists and live in towns of huts. Some tribes are raisers of cattle and have large herds that yield milk, meat, and skins. They are hunters, too, and that on a large scale. They set up long hedges or lines of brush and stakes, which converge toward certain points where they dig pits and cover them. They then scatter over a large district and beat it, scaring in the animals and driving them between the lines of brush into the pits, where they easily kill them.

The two great weapons of the southern negroids are the kerry and the assegai. The kerry is a short wooden club with a knob at the end. This is thrown at the game. The assegai is a spear, the shaft of which is long and slender and the head of which, made of iron, is long and wide. Assegais are used all through South and Central Africa. The form and size of the blade varies with tribes: sometimes it is two feet in length and several inches across. Mrs. French-Sheldon saw the assegai maker, in one tribe she visited, using a natural leaf as his pattern, and he was careful to exactly copy its form. Both negro and negroid tribes in some parts of Africa, especially Western Central Africa, use throwing-knives; they are made from a flat piece of iron, worked into several blades projecting in different directions. They are thrown through the air, and some one of the ugly blades is quite sure to strike.

Kaffirs and Zulus make long oval shields almost as tall as themselves, for protection in battle. A cowskin, with the hair on, is stretched over a light and simple wooden frame. Each great section of Africans has its own kind of shield. The Niam-Niams and some Congo tribes weave beautiful close and light shields of wicker or basket work; they are long and narrow, and protect the whole body. The splints of which they are woven differ in color and are worked into rather handsome patterns. In Nubia they use shields made of thick and heavy hide, like elephant or rhinoceros hide; these are circular, not very large, and have a round or conical knob or boss raised at the centre.

WAGANDA MUSICIANS (RATZEL).

Kaffirs and Zulus are fond of war and are brave in battle. They have war dances in which they are inflamed for the fray. A Kaffir who slays an enemy may have a great gash cut in his leg on his return home to show that fact. The scars of such gashes are objects of great pride. The Kaffirs are fine speakers and their speeches on important occasions are stirring and impressive. Like negroes, the negroids delight in music and have many instruments. None, however, is a greater favorite than the noisy drum.

Among Zulus and Kaffirs, the sorcerer is much feared and dreaded. When men are ill, or in trouble, they go to him for help and advice. He goes through with many strange performances. The people believe that he can detect thieves and find stolen property, that he can bewitch and cure bewitchment; he is frequently, also, a rain-maker. There is much jealousy between the sorcerers or rain-makers in a tribe, and they sometimes challenge each other to tests of their power. The description of such a test between two rain-makers, in one of Rider Haggard’s books, is probably true to life.

XXV.
PYGMIES.

Many centuries ago, the Greek writers, Homer, Herodotus, and Aristotle, spoke of dwarf peoples, whom they called Pygmies, living in Africa. On an ancient Egyptian wall there is painted a queer little dwarf-like figure with the word Akka written near it. It is plain that little African peoples were known both to the Greeks and Egyptians. But for hundreds of years after the old Greek writers and Egyptian artists were dead, no one believed in real Pygmies. Every one felt that the accounts of them were “travellers’ lies,” told to amuse people. But travellers who have been going into Africa during the last two hundred years and more have from time to time told us of such tribes, and to-day there can be no doubt of their existence. There are really Pygmies, and they are curious and interesting.

When the great German traveller Schweinfurth was visiting King Munza of the Monbuttus in “the heart of Africa,” he learned that tribes of Pygmies lived near. There were nine clusters of them, and they were called Akkas—just like the little creature represented on the old Egyptian wall—and each cluster had its own chief. At one time Schweinfurth saw several hundred of these little people together. Munza traded one of these Pygmies, whose name was Neevoué, to Schweinfurth. The traveller was kind to the little fellow, and wanted to take him to Germany, but Neevoué died in Egypt. He was a cruel little creature, not very bright, and had great difficulty in learning. Later on, in Ashango Land, much farther to the west, Du Chaillu found the dwarf Obongos, whom he described, and whose houses he pictured. An Italian traveller named Miani secured two Akkas in trade. He planned to take them to Italy, but he died on his journey home. His two Pygmies, however, reached Italy, where a kind-hearted nobleman took care of them. They were gay and happy, though fitful, and were rather quick to learn; they learned to speak, read, and write Italian.

HUTS OF ASHANGO-LAND DWARFS (DU CHAILLU).

So much was known about the Pygmies before Stanley’s journey. He saw many of them, and tells a good deal about them and their life. The Akkas were the tribe he saw. They measure from three feet to four feet and six inches; a full-grown man weighs about ninety pounds. Some of them have long heads, long, narrow faces, small, reddish eyes placed near together, and are sour looking and morose. The others have round faces with fine, large, bright eyes placed wide apart, high foreheads, skin of a rich ivory-yellow color. All African Pygmies seem to have their bodies covered with short, rather stiff, grayish hair. Stanley says the Akkas place their villages near the towns of bigger people, and that sometimes eight to twelve Pygmy villages will surround one negro (or negroid) town. These Pygmies are lively and active; they do not cultivate any plants, but devote themselves to hunting.

They use little bows and arrows, and small spears. The tips of the arrows and spears are often poisoned. With these weapons these little folk attack and kill antelopes, buffalo, and even elephants. They dig pitfalls and make traps. Some of their traps are like sheds, the roofs of which are held in place by vines; bananas and nuts are placed in these as bait; when chimpanzees or other animals try to take the bait, the roof falls. The Pygmies catch birds for their feathers, and hunt for wild honey.

The Pygmies use two kinds of arrow poison. One is dark and thick and made from the leaves of a plant quite like our Jack-in-the-pulpit or Indian turnip. The other is believed to be made from red ants,—which are dried and crushed to powder,—mixed with palm oil. Both are said to act quickly when fresh. Stanley mentions one man who died within one minute from a small wound in his right arm and chest. When the poison is old it acts less rapidly.

These Pygmies live in low oval huts, with doors two or three feet high. The houses are arranged in a circle about an open cleared space, in which the chief’s house stands. About one hundred yards from the village, along every path that leads to it, is a little guard house, only big enough for two Pygmies. These are guard houses and toll stations, and all strangers who pass must pay toll. The Pygmies are usually on good terms with their big neighbors, and both are useful to the other. The little people sell their ivory, skins, honey, and poison to their neighbors, or trade them for vegetable food. The Pygmies, keen and watchful, are good pickets for the others, and often warn them of danger from approaching enemies.

XXVI.
BUSHMEN AND HOTTENTOTS.

Far to the south in Africa, in and about the Desert of Kalahari, live the Bushmen. They are somewhat like the Pygmies. They are little—full-grown men being from four feet to four feet six inches in stature. They are of a yellow-brown color; their hair is black and kinky, but appears to grow in little tufts with bare spaces between; the jaws project and the lips are thick; they wrinkle early. They are quick and lively in movements, and are bold hunters.

Little bands of them wander from place to place, without any fixed home. They build no houses. Usually they live in holes among the rocks; at most, they build rude, temporary shelters. They live chiefly on game, which they kill with the bow and arrow, or sometimes with the spear. They sometimes trail an animal a long distance, and when they overtake and kill it, stop at the spot to eat it. They are wonderful at following the trail of either animals or men, and see signs of their having passed which a white man would never notice. They get a hard living; they gather seeds and roots, fruits and gums; they hunt the honey of wild bees; they catch lizards and snakes. They are so fond of the white grubs, or pupæ of ants—which we usually, but wrongly, call ants’ eggs—that the Boers, living near the little people, call them “Bushmen’s rice.” They also eat the huge eggs of the ostrich, and make water vessels out of the empty shells.

Their bows are small and their arrows are hardly more than a foot in length; the points of bone, stone, or iron are poisoned, and are so attached to the shaft that they separate and remain in the wound. The spear and darts which they use are also small and have poisoned tips. In the quivers with their arrows they carry a little sharpening stone for grinding the points and a brush for applying the poison. For digging roots the Bushmen use a pointed stick, which is weighted with a stone ring. These few simple weapons and tools are all that these poor people possess, except a few wooden dishes and a smoking pipe, which is said to be owned by a whole family or band.

Livingstone says that their arrow poison comes from a sort of caterpillar or grub, which they crush and dip the arrow tip into. They always clean their nails carefully after handling the poison, as it causes damage if it comes into contact with any scratch or cut. The pain caused by the poison is so great as almost to make the man who has been wounded crazy. When a lion has been struck with one of these poisoned arrows he roars terribly and bites and tears the ground and trees. To cure a person who has been bitten they use an ointment made of the crushed caterpillar mixed with grease. They believe that the caterpillar is hungry for grease; when it does not find fat in a person it kills him; when they supply it the fat it wants, it does no harm. It is said that this caterpillar is sacred and that they pray to it, asking it to give them plenty of game when they are hunting.

GORA-PLAYER: BUSHMAN (RATZEL).

These little people are fond of music and drawing. Their finest musical instrument is a gora. This is a hunter’s bow, with a ring on the bow string. By sliding this ring they change the note which it gives when twanged. The twang of a bowstring is not a very loud sound; to increase it a gourd is hung to the lower end of the bow. All over the country of the Bushmen cliffs and the walls of caves are covered with their pictures, which represent animals, birds, and men; hunting scenes and battles are also represented. These pictures are sometimes just pecked out in the rock; sometimes they are painted; sometimes they are first pecked out and then filled with color. The colors most used in these pictures are red, yellow, and black.

The negroid Kaffirs and the Hottentots who live near the poor Bushmen hate them and harm them. Meeting them on the road, they sometimes kill them without pity. In 1804 a Kaffir who went to Cape Town on business found a Bushman boy eleven years old working as a servant in the government building. He killed the little fellow with a spear. This, of course, was long ago, but it shows how the Kaffirs despise the Bushmen.

The Hottentots live near the Bushmen and are a mixture between them and the negroids. They are taller than the Bushmen, but have much the same yellowish brown skin color and the same sort of hair. Their language, too, is much like that of the Bushmen. In both languages there are some strange sounds, hard for white men to pronounce, called “clicks.” These sounds come in the middle of words, and are called “clicks” because they sound something like the sound made in driving horses. Among the Bushmen there are nine different sounds of this kind; the Hottentots have only four.

BUSHMAN ROCK PICTURE (RATZEL).

The Hottentots are cattle-raisers, but do not cultivate plants. They gather wild fruits and dig roots. They move with their herds from one pasture to another; their settlements are called kraals. Their huts are dome-shaped and consist of a light framework of poles over which mattings are hung. When they move it takes only a few minutes to take the houses to pieces and pack them on to their cattle. The huts are always set up in a circle, enclosing a clear space where the cattle are herded.

Both men and women of the Hottentots wear fur caps, and it is considered indecent for a woman to be seen with her head bare. Hottentot clothing consists of leather aprons and cloaks. Hottentots rarely kill their cattle, which they keep for milk rather than for meat.

They are quite warlike, and each tribe has a leader. They honor brave warriors. They are gay in disposition and like to say sharp and funny things about each other; this often leads to quarrels and fights. When a man is angry with another, he takes a handful of dust and offers it to him; if the offender is willing to fight, he seizes the hand and scatters the dust on the ground; if he refuses to fight, the angry man throws the dust upon him to show that he is a coward. In fighting to settle quarrels, they kick and club each other and even use spears.

HOTTENTOT KRAAL (RATZEL).

The Hottentots have many songs and prayers which they repeat to, or about, their sacred beings. Among their stories are some about the rabbit and his adventures. They worship the stars which we call the Pleiades. When these stars rise for the first time in the year, the people greet them. Mothers take their babies in their arms and teach them to stretch out their little hands toward the friendly stars. They then have a dance and sing a song in honor of one of their gods. There is a large insect called the mantis, which, when it stands still, raises its long front legs into a curious position; the Hottentots think that it is praying. When a praying mantis appears in a kraal every one is pleased, as they think it brings good luck. No one thinks of killing it, and they make an offering to it.

When a Hottentot man goes hunting, his wife kindles a fire at home and does nothing while he is gone but carefully tend it. They believe if she lets it go out that he will fail in his hunting. Hottentot conjurers are thought to be great snake charmers. It is said that they can hiss in such a way that all the snakes in the district will be attracted to them. So much are these conjurers feared that every one wears some object about him to protect himself against their power.

XXVII.
MALAYS.

The Malays live in the Malay Peninsula, on the great islands near it,—Sumatra, Borneo, and Java,—and on a host of lesser islands in that part of the world. They also form part of the population of the great island, Madagascar, lying east of Africa.

They are short, with brown skin, dark eyes, straight and coarse black hair, and broad, round heads. Their forms are slight and graceful. They are active and gay, quick and intelligent; they are easily offended, do not readily forgive injuries, and are often deceitful and treacherous.

The Malays are believed to have come from the continent of Asia not more than three thousand years ago.

They are fairly industrious in working their fields, the most important crop from which is rice. They have other crops, however, and also raise many fruits. They use the buffalo as a help in field work and for drawing carts. Those Malays who live near the coast fish, and use both fresh and salted fish for food. They are good sailors, making journeys by water to China, Australia and other islands. They are shrewd in trading. Formerly, many Malays were bold pirates, as indeed in some parts they still are.

Malay houses are usually built of boards, are rectangular in form, and have a two-pitched roof. They are almost everywhere, set up on posts quite high above ground, and must be reached by means of ladders.

The Malays are great chewers of betel nut. A piece of the nut is mixed with a little lime, placed in a leaf, and chewed. It colors the saliva red and stains the teeth a brownish black. So used are the Malays to these stained teeth that they no longer admire white teeth. Of a man whose teeth are not stained with betel they will say, “he has teeth like a dog,” and seem to consider it a disgrace. They even chip off or file away the enamel on the front of the teeth of children so that they may become sooner blackened.

MALAY FAMILY: JAVA (VERNEAU).

All Malays like amusement; even the most civilized celebrate many festivals. Animal fights and theatrical performances are favorites. Almost every man among the Malays keeps a fighting cock of which he is proud and fond; while he works in his field, the bird is tied by a cord to a stake near him, and he stops now and again to stroke and pet him. Cock-fights take place frequently, but the birds are not allowed—as in Mexico—to kill each other. The bull-fights in the Malay region are also much less cruel than those of Mexico and Spain. In these countries the bull is made to fight against a trained company of human fighters; among the Malays he fights another animal of his own kind. The Malay buffalo-tiger fight is famous. A buffalo and tiger are placed in a pen together and then excited until they attack each other. The buffalo is quite frequently the victor. Most curious, however, is the battle between crickets. The contest between these insects is watched with great interest and excitement by the Malays. It occurs also in Japan.

Malays delight in dances and the theatre. At the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago there was a complete Javanese village. It contained a dance house where dances were given to the sound of the strange gongs and other musical instruments of the Javan people. The dancing was by girls who were gayly dressed in velvet, silk, and satin with gold and silver tinsel. They wore curious gilt helmets. They did not dance with their feet, but kept time to the music by graceful movements of the arms, hands, head, and eyes. In the same building they gave plays, in which the players wore small and curious masks of wood. In other plays, somewhat like our Punch and Judy, puppets were moved and played the parts. The Javanese also have shadow plays, where jointed human figures, cut from cardboard, are moved by sticks and their shadows are thrown upon a screen.

BUFFALO CART: JAVA (RATZEL).

“Running amuck” is fearfully common among Malays. Suddenly a man, on the street or in some public place, becomes insane with a desire to kill. Seizing a weapon, he starts down a street filled with people and strikes right and left at every one as he runs. The police hurry after the murderer and are usually compelled to kill him before his dreadful work can be stopped. The Malays are really a nervous and excitable people; it is said that frequently a steady look at a person will throw him into a trance or hypnotized state.

KRISES: JAVA (RATZEL).

Of the various weapons used by the Malays the kris seems to be the favorite. In Java this was often a remarkable object. A kris is a short sword or dagger with a fine steel blade which ends in a point, and the sides of which are wavy instead of straight. Probably they think of this as a stinging serpent; anyway the handle is frequently in the form of a serpent’s head. Sometimes this handle is finely carved and often it is set with gems. Some that belonged to the old Javan princes were a mass of precious stones. The sheath for the kris might be plain, but it might also be decorated with carvings or encrusted with jewels.

Strangest of the Malays are the Dyaks of Borneo and the Battaks of Sumatra. Both are a little larger and have longer heads than the Javanese. The Dyaks are great “head-hunters.” No man is respected until he has brought in a head as a trophy. Usually only the skull is kept; sometimes this will be engraved with patterns or stained with coloring matter; sometimes designs are cut in the bone and foil is set in the patterns. The Battaks are industrious and have made progress in many ways. They have a system of writing. Inscriptions are usually carved upon staves of bamboo; they also have books made of strips of palm or other vegetable substances. The Battaks are among the most dreadful of cannibals.

XXVIII.
THE PEOPLES OF THE PHILIPPINES.

The Philippine Islands lie northeast from the great Malay Islands. The group extends for one thousand miles and includes almost two thousand islands of sizes from barren rock masses too small for use up to the great Island of Luzon, which is about the size of Ohio. All together the islands have an area equal to that of New York and the New England States united. It is uncertain how large a population occupy the islands, but it is probably between seven and eight million.

Dr. Blumentritt, an Austrian who has studied the Philippine peoples for many years, says that fifty-one different languages are spoken among them. He thinks that the peoples have come at various times to the islands from various places. He believes that the first people here were the negritos and that they once occupied the whole region. Perhaps three thousand years ago Malay tribes, a good deal like the Dyaks of Borneo, crowded in upon the unfortunate little natives, seizing their land and driving them into the mountains of the interior and to the more remote parts of the coast. Later, from eighteen hundred to fourteen hundred years ago, other Malays crowded in, but this time they were more like those of Java. Much later, only about five hundred years ago, a third lot of Malays, bold and hardy seamen, began a movement into the islands. But just then the Spaniards discovered the Philippines and checked these pirates before they had gained much of a foothold. Blumentritt speaks of these invasions of Malays as the first, second, and third Malay migrations.

PHILIPPINE NEGRITO (MEYER).

The negritos, or old population, are a little people much like the Mincopies of the Andaman Islands. They are short, black skinned, and crinkly haired. They do not live to be old, but a person of thirty or forty looks as if much older. They build no true houses; in bad weather they put up rude shelters. They are wanderers and have no agriculture; they make no pottery; they wear but little clothing; some scar or tattoo; they are fond of ornaments. Their chief weapon is the bow and arrow, though they also have spears. They are skilful in throwing stones. They make fire by friction, sawing one sharp piece of bamboo across another. If a negrito dies, his fellows believe he was bewitched by some Tagal or other Malay, and will not be satisfied until one has been killed in revenge. When two negritos wish to swear friendship, they cut their arms and each sucks blood from the other; they thus become of one blood and are like brothers. They used to send messages by knotting grass which either had a meaning itself or helped the person who carried it to remember what he had been told. There are now perhaps twenty thousand negritos and they live mostly on the larger islands—Luzon, Mindanao, and Negros.

Many tribes in the Philippines represent the first Malay invasion. They are much alike in life and character; all are bold and cruel; most of them are head-hunters. They depend, in part, on agriculture, and have settled villages which are usually in the mountains or forests. The Igorrotes are a good example of them. They live in North Luzon. Both men and women tattoo; they gild their teeth and are fond of ornaments. The men go armed with spears, bows and arrows, and knives. Their peculiar weapon, however, is a hatchet-knife called ligua; the thin broad blade, set like that of a hatchet, has a concave cutting edge which runs into a long point above. The houses of the Igorrotes are large, rectangular, and raised on piles. These people are good agriculturists, tending their fields—which they irrigate—with care. The girls of the village are in charge of an old woman, and they all live and sleep together in one special house; this is unlike the other houses of the village and is not set up on posts. The Igorrotes have much respect for the souls of their ancestors. In each village there is a sacred tree in which they believe these souls abide. Though industrious and settled the Igorrotes are dreadful head-hunters. They organize war-parties to attack neighboring tribes for victims. The party shown in the picture were on such an errand. Only a few days after the photograph was taken they fell upon a Tingian village, killed thirty-nine persons, and carried away twenty-five heads as trophies.

HOUSES OF IGORROTES (MEYER).

The Tagals, one of the tribes of the second invasion, are the most important of the Philippine peoples. They industriously work their fields and raise rice, yams, maize, and several fleshy-root plants. Of fruits they cultivate mangoes, bananas, pineapples, cocoanuts, and others. Of industrial plants they produce manila hemp, cotton, indigo, and tobacco. Many of these plants they have only had since the coming of the Spaniards. They have long had domestic animals, among them the buffalo, pig, dog, hens, and ducks. The Tagals have towns of considerable size, with well-built houses perched on posts. They are well dressed in good cloth woven by the women. They are fond of gain and good traders. They are active in body and mind. They delight in poetry, and it is said “boys on the street will improvise by the yard.” The Tagals write their language with an alphabet which was probably brought from India long ago. They formerly wrote on bamboo or on the bark of certain trees. The Tagals are passionately fond of cock-fighting. Every one chews betel nut.

HEAD-HUNTING PARTY: IGORROTES (MEYER).

As to the third migration, it failed to reach the great island of Luzon. The immigrants were Mohammedan Malays from Borneo. They were sea-rovers and pirates. They gained possession of the Sulu Islands, the farthest to the southwest of the Philippines, and had landed on Mindanao when the arrival of the Spaniards put an end to their movements. They are usually called Moros or Moors, from their religion. They are polygamous and keep slaves. Their ruler is called the Sultan of Sulu.

Such are the people of the Philippines: at least fifty-one tribes, speaking as many different languages. But there are also many foreigners there: thousands of Japanese and Chinese; descendants of American Indians, brought by the old Spaniards from Mexico and Peru; Spaniards and other whites. And lastly there are all sorts of mestizos, or mixed persons, produced by the intermarriage of all these so many different stocks—native and foreign.

XXIX.
MELANESIANS.

Several great groups of people occupy the vast island world of the Pacific. We have already spoken of the Malays. In Australia live many tribes differing in language and customs. They are mostly dark brown with bushy or curly hair. They are savages in culture. South of Australia, in Van Diemen’s Land, or Tasmania, there formerly lived a dark brown people, not tall in stature, with peculiar features and long curly hair; they are now all gone. North of Australia, in Papua or New Guinea, are many tribes with curious and interesting arts and customs. The real Papuans are dark brown in color and have woolly hair, which, like that of the Bushmen, seems to grow in tufts with bare spaces between. They are of medium stature. The islands to the east and south of Australia and New Guinea are occupied by black, woolly-haired tribes, who are called Melanesians, and who are related to the Papuans. Among them are the natives of Fiji, New Britain, New Ireland, and the Solomon Islands.

The Fijians of fifty years ago will well represent the Melanesians. Thomas Williams, Fiji and the Fijians, will give us our facts.

The Fijian hair-dressing was striking. Each chief had a special hair-dresser, who frequently spent several hours a day in arranging his master’s hair. The hairs were trained to stand out from the head so as to form a great mass that might be trimmed into curious shapes. This smooth, soft, solid, cushion-like mass of hair was stained with colors—jet black naturally, it might be blue-black, ashy white, or shades of red. The whole mass of hair, except a band in front, might be black, while that was white; sometimes the hair behind was twisted into cords ending with tassels; one man had a knot of fiery red hair on the crown while the rest of his head was shaved; sometimes the hair mass measured four feet or more in circumference. Such grand hair-dressing would be ruined by lying down with the head on the ground—so the Fijians had a wooden head-rest or pillow, which was set under the neck and held the head up, off the ground.

FIJIAN (RATZEL).

Men wore a long sash of bark cloth, which was anywhere from three to one hundred yards long. This was passed between the legs and wound around the waist any number of times; if it were long and the man wanted to present a fine appearance it was folded several times up against the upper part of his body; the ends were allowed to trail behind. The men wore a turban of the same material, but fine and gauzy; from four to six feet long, it was wrapped around the head, several times if need be; if the hair mass was large, however, it would go little more than once. Women wore little but a fringed waist band, which hung to the knees.

Like the Polynesians, from whom they probably learned it, the Fijians used much kava, a drink which produces a stupefied or intoxicated condition. The preparation of kava for the king was a great occasion. The great kava bowl, made of wood carefully polished, was placed upon the ground. The guests seated themselves around it. A number of young men took pieces of the root from which the drink was to be made and chewed them well in their mouths; they stacked up the pellets in the dish; water was poured in until the bowl was nearly full and the balls of chewed root were well stirred about and squeezed in it. Then a man, especially trained to the work, strained them out with a bunch of fibre, in which, by twisting, he squeezed the pellets until no more juice or water ran out. The liquid was now ready for drinking. Prayer and song had accompanied the making of the kava. The king, receiving a cupful from a servant, spilled a little to the gods, and then drank. The others then drank in their order. It was a high honor to drink next after the king.

PILE-DWELLING VILLAGE: NEW GUINEA (RATZEL).

CANOE: NEW GUINEA (RATZEL).

The Fijians carved neat bowls and other vessels from wood. The kava bowls, though usually plain, were carefully cut and beautifully polished. The Fijians—almost alone of Pacific Islanders—made pottery; the vessels were in various strange though rather graceful forms, and were somewhat glazed. They made remarkable war clubs of fine, heavy, dark woods which varied much in form, were decorated with carving, and were handsomely polished. Fijians were not good sailors, but they made better canoes than some of those made by Polynesians, who were bold sailors. It is said that the Tongans (Polynesians) gave up their own style of canoe to adopt that of the Fijians. The canoes were, like those of many of the Pacific Islands, double canoes; two canoes of the same shape and size were placed side by side—with some little space between—and united by a platform of boards; one sail was sometimes hoisted; paddles were used for sculling and a great steering oar was employed. A much larger book than this would be needed for describing all the craft used on the water by Malayans, Melanesians, and Polynesians. The Fijians enjoyed music and had two or three kinds of drums, sticks that were beaten together, pan-pipes, a bamboo jew’s-harp, a conch-shell trumpet, and a little flute that was blown by the nose.

The Fijians were a polite people—that is, they had rules about greetings, behavior, and the treatment of superiors. One curious rule was that a servant or inferior, in case his master fell or got into some ridiculous position, must also fall or place himself in a similar ridiculous position. Afterward it was expected that he would be rewarded for his politeness. Mr. Williams tells us an incident that illustrates this practice:—

“One day I came to a long bridge formed of a single cocoanut tree, which was thrown across a rapid stream, the opposite bank of which was two or three feet lower, so that the declivity was too steep to be comfortable. The pole was also wet and slippery, and thus my crossing safely was very doubtful. Just as I commenced the experiment a heathen said, with much animation, ‘To-day I shall have a musket.’ I had, however, just then to heed my steps more than his words, and so succeeded in reaching the other side safely. When I asked him why he spoke of a musket, the man replied, ‘I felt certain you would fall in attempting to go over, and I should have fallen after you; and, as the bridge is high, the water rapid, and you a gentleman, you would not have thought of giving me less than a musket.’”

The tabu is one of the most curious habits of Pacific Islanders. Though it occurred in Fiji, it was Polynesian, rather than Melanesian. Tabu was forbidding persons to touch, or use, or make some object. Chiefs and priests set most of the tabus, but lesser people might sometimes do so. A man might tabu all the cocoanuts in a district, setting up some sign or mark to show that he had done so; no one might thereafter touch a nut there until the tabu had been removed. A chief might tabu a man’s working; he could not do work of any kind until the chief removed the tabu. A chief might tabu the building of canoes by the people of a certain village; the people thenceforth would need to secure canoes from others. Thousands of tabus were set, and they made much trouble and inconvenience. The man who broke a tabu was punished, sometimes by death.

The Fijians were dreadful cannibals. England governed Fiji for many years, and it was believed that the practice had disappeared. A few old men were considered almost as curiosities because they had eaten flesh of men and were called “the last of the cannibals.” Then suddenly in 1889 the old custom broke out again. A party of Fijians killed some victims and ate them in a cave. A party in pursuit found evidence of the dreadful feast. Among these were some of the curious wooden forks used because it was not proper that the flesh should be touched with the fingers!

XXX.
POLYNESIANS.

The Pacific Islands lying east from the Melanesian Islands, beginning with New Zealand and stretching to Easter Island, were occupied by Polynesians. The best known of their island groups were New Zealand, the Society Islands, Samoa, and the Hawaiian Islands. These islands are either volcanic islands or coral islands, and the natural animal and vegetable life occurring on them is less varied than on the great islands lying nearer to the Asiatic or Australian continents.

The Polynesians present a fine type. They are often tall and well built; their skins, though brown, are frequently light; the features are regular and the faces handsome. They are quick and intelligent, think and reason well, take new ideas readily, and are fond of beauty. They were barbarians, but had made so much progress that they were at the border-line of civilization. Living in a mass of islands that presented few natural resources, they had made the most of everything nature gave them.

TATTOOED NEW ZEALANDER (VERNEAU).

Many Polynesian tribes tattoo. Elaborate patterns are pricked into the skin, with lines of needles set side by side and dipped in color. The New Zealanders tattooed their faces with curious curved-line patterns, each line had its proper place, and the patterns probably had a meaning. The Marquesas Islanders covered their bodies with elaborate and graceful patterns. The process was painful and only a small space was done at one time; the whole work required years.

Polynesian dress differed somewhat with the region. In New Zealand fine, soft, and flexible robes and blankets were woven of the native flax. In Hawaii the king and chiefs had wonderful feather cloaks which hung to the knees or even to the ankles. The little feathers of which these were composed were red and yellow; a garment composed only of yellow feathers could be worn only by the king; when both colors of feathers were used, they were arranged in diamond-shaped or other ornamental forms, with spots and lines of dark purple or black feathers. Besides the cloaks, there were tippets of feathers, which were generally worn by lower chiefs, who had not, or might not have, feather cloaks. In these feather garments the dress was made of a sort of netted foundation, into which these bright feathers were worked. Chiefs also had wonderful helmets of wickerwork which were covered with feathers. The helmet might be simple, just fitting the head, or large, ridged, or crested, and rising high above the head. In some islands the clothing consisted of a fringed girdle hanging from the waist to the knees.

HELMETS AND IDOL-HEADS OF FEATHERS: HAWAII (RATZEL).

But everywhere in Polynesia the common dress was made of tapa. This was a kind of paper or cloth beaten out of the bark of certain trees. The bark was removed from the tree and soaked in water; it was laid upon a large piece of wood and beaten with a sort of club or mallet. This was made of hard wood and was round at one end for being taken in the hand; the remainder was squared, and the four faces were either smooth or ribbed by longitudinal grooves. By this beating the wood was separated into its fibres, and these were mashed together into a sheet of firm paper or cloth. This tapa differs with the tree from the bark of which it is made. Some is thin and dark brown; that from the bark of the breadfruit tree is fawn-colored; that from the paper-mulberry, best and finest of all, is beautifully white. The women were so expert at beating tapa that single strips, four yards wide and two hundred yards long, were beaten. Such cloth might be left plain, or it might be stained with colors, or it might be stamped with patterns. Wooden blocks or strips of bamboo were carved with designs which were smeared with color and stamped on the cloth; sometimes ferns were laid in coloring matter, then the form transferred to the tapa.

The two chief food supplies in Polynesia were breadfruit and cocoanuts; yams (much like sweet potatoes) and bananas were plenty. A favorite food in places is poi, a sort of gruel or pudding made from the root of taro. It was not eaten with a spoon, but the finger was dipped into it and stirred around to get a good load of the sticky stuff on it, when it was stuck into the mouth and sucked clean. Fish were much eaten, though not all kinds nor at all times.

The Polynesian oven was a hole, three or four feet across, and a foot deep, dug in the ground. The bottom was lined with stones, which were covered with dry leaves, upon which a brisk fire was built. When the stones were red-hot, the dust and ashes were brushed out of the oven, and the potatoes, yams, and taro, or the pigs, dogs, fish, and birds were wrapped in leaves, and laid upon the hot stones. When all the food to be cooked had been neatly placed, leaves were laid above them, and hot stones on these. All was then covered in with leaves and earth, and left until thoroughly baked through.

Many of the strange peoples we have considered are filthy; Polynesians were unusually cleanly, and bathed frequently. In some islands surf bathing was the chief sport. Every traveller to Hawaii has described the practice. Babies were taken into the sea by their mothers within two or three days of their birth, and could swim as soon as they could walk. Old and young, men and women, bathe in the surf, and the heavier the waves the greater the sport. The surf-bathing board was five or six feet long, and a foot wide; it was carefully polished. Taking his board and pushing it before him, the man swam far out to sea, diving under the billows as he met them. When far enough out, he lay himself on the end of the board and waited for a great wave. When it came, he poised himself on its very crest, and paddling with hands and feet rode in upon it almost to the shore.

The Polynesians were warriors, and their battles were cruel and bloody. They rarely ventured into battle until their gods, through their priests, promised them success. To prepare themselves for war they practised in warlike arts. Thus they slung stones at marks, threw javelins, and wrestled. It is said that, in slinging, they were able to strike a small stick at fifty yards’ distance, four times out of five. In their javelin practice, the man at whom the weapon was thrown often caught it and hurled it back; some were so skilled that they “would allow six men to throw their javelins at them, which they would either catch and return on their assailants, or so dextrously turn aside that they fell harmless to the ground.” In going to war, a chief summoned all his friends and subordinates. When they had gathered, the gods—especially the war gods—were brought out to assist and encourage them. During the battle there was great noise and confusion; effort was made to kill the great chiefs of the enemy, so that their followers might be discouraged. Many were killed. Survivors fled to some fortress, or the mountains, or found safety in one of the curious “places of refuge,” within whose sacred precincts no harm could be done them.

For weapons, the Hawaiians had spears of great length, javelins, clubs which were used both for thrusting and striking, a hard wood dagger, and slings often made of human hair. On the Kingsmill Islands the natives made weapons, in many shapes or sizes, of wooden shafts, along the sides of which great numbers of sharks’ teeth were securely lashed. These weapons were used both for thrusting and striking, and were fearful things on naked bodies. In those same islands, and on account of these shark-tooth weapons, the natives had curious protective clothing or armor of cocoanut fibre.

KINGSMILL ISLANDER (TYLOR).

Many Polynesians were cannibals: some of them dreadful cannibals. Their eating of human flesh was often connected with their religion. They had many gods, whom they represented by idols. The Hawaiian war god is an example. His idol was an image four or five feet high; the upper part was of wickerwork covered with red feathers; the hideous face was supplied with a great mouth with triple rows of dog’s or shark’s teeth; the eyes were of shell, and upon the head was a helmet crested with long tresses of human hair.

XXXI.
CONCLUSION.

We have spoken of many Strange Peoples. We have gone around the world in our search. But after all we have examined but a small part. Remember that there are fifty-one peoples at least in the Philippines alone. We have not examined the Australians, or the unfortunate Tasmanians, or the many tribes of Siberia, or the sixty native populations of India. We have omitted great nations like the southeast Asians,—Siamese, Burmese, Annamese. In fact there are many times more Strange Peoples in the world whom we have not examined, than whom we have. But we have examined enough, I hope, to learn that they are interesting and deserve our acquaintance and our sympathy.

There are few unknown peoples left. Travellers have gone to almost all parts of the world. The spots which represent absolutely unexplored regions on our maps are now neither large nor numerous. There are many peoples about whom we know little, but there are not many who are actually unknown. Those that may be discovered hereafter will be interesting, but they are not likely to be very different from those now known.

Many of the Strange Peoples are becoming less “strange” every year. Old customs and peculiar practices are dying out in every part of the world. Travellers, missionaries, and merchants from white men’s lands are taking our ideas, our tools, our weapons, our dress, our learning, our religion, and our vices to the remotest parts of the world. Some of the Strange Peoples here described have already lost most of their old customs. The Polynesians and Fijians have little of the old life which we have described. Many American Indian tribes have changed less. Some populations have still changed little. But a tribe must indeed be remote and difficult of access to actually escape our touch absolutely. Usually the change is not improvement. Other people more quickly adopt our vices than our virtues. Many tribes have become drunken, diseased, and depraved through the white man’s influence. It is rare, indeed, that a lower people gains in happiness or virtue by contact with “higher civilization.”

Many of the Strange Peoples will disappear. The Tasmanians were killed off almost like so many animals by the English. American Indian tribes have suffered almost as badly at our hands. Many tribes have gone; others are going. The Lipans were once a fairly numerous tribe. In 1892 I saw all who were left in the United States—four women and one man; six months later I saw them again—the man was dead and only four women remained. The Tonkaways are dying out at the rate of one-third each eight years. The Polynesians, strong, handsome, active, and happy as they were when James Cook visited their islands little more than one hundred years ago, have dwindled, and fifty years more may blot them from the earth. Not all American Indian tribes are dying out; it is possible too that Polynesian decline began before Cook’s travels. But it is certain that on the whole the changes brought by the newcomers sealed the doom of the Indian and Polynesian.

There have always been movements of peoples from place to place. We have seen the Malays pouring three great masses of immigrants into the Philippines. There are white peoples in Asia; there are yellow peoples in Europe. Recently plenty of whites and of blacks have poured into America. Such movements contain some danger. The fair whites will probably never be able to live in the tropical lands. A certain sort of skin, hair, nose, breathing apparatus, is necessary for men who are to live and prosper in low, hot, marshy parts of Africa. For Germans to try to colonize equatorial Africa is probably a fatal blunder. So far as we know the dark whites—Spaniards, Italians, south Frenchmen—make better tropical colonizers than we do; but even they are not successful. The negro is a bad colonizer, he hardly holds his own even in our Southern states. Of all the peoples of the globe the Chinese seem to be the best able to colonize differing countries. He seems to go to hot lands and cold lands, to small islands and to great continents, but flourishes everywhere. So true is this that some writers have urged that Africa be opened up for settlement to the crowded millions of the old empire. For most peoples, however, migration, if they must migrate, is best along the lines of latitude into lands as much like the old home as possible. Many Scandinavians live to-day happily where Wisconsin, Iowa, and Michigan join; and they may be expected to prosper there, for land and water, soil and products, scenery and climate, are there much what they were in the fatherland.

LIST OF BOOKS REGARDING STRANGE PEOPLES.

This list makes no pretension to completeness; a few only of the many books of the kind are mentioned. Those with a prefixed asterisk will be useful to teachers; those without will interest children; those followed by an asterisk have directly contributed to this book in reading matter or illustration.

- Arnold: Japonica.*
- Batcheller: The Ainu of Japan.*
- Bramhall: The Wee Ones of Japan.*
- *Brinton: Races and Peoples.
- Du Chaillu: The Land of the Dwarfs.*
- *Deniker: The Races of Man.
- Doolittle: Social Life of the Chinese.*
- Ellis: Polynesian Researches.*
- Fielde: A Corner of Cathay.
- Hearn: Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan.

- Huc: Travels in Tartary, Thibet, and China.*

- *Keane: Ethnology.

- *Keane: Man; Past and Present.

- Lane: The Modern Egyptians.

- Leonowens: The English Governess at the Siamese Court.

- *Lowell: Chosön.*
- *Lubbock: Origin of Civilization.
- *Lummis: The Land of Poco Tiempo.*
- Marshall: Phrenologist among the Todas.*
- *Meyer: Album von Philippinen-Typen.*
- Miln: Little Folk of Many Lands.*
- Nansen: Eskimo Life.
- *Peschel: The Races of Man.
- De Quatrefages: The Pygmies.
- *Ratzel: History of Mankind.
- *Ratzel: Völkerkunde.*
- *Réclus: Primitive Folk.
- Rockhill: The Land of the Lamas.
- Schweinfurth: The Heart of Africa.*
- Smith: Chinese Characteristics.
- Stanley: In Darkest Africa.*
- *Turner: Samoa.
- *Tylor: Anthropology.*
- *Verneau: Les Races Humaines.*
- Wallace: The Malay Archipelago.
- Ward: India and the Hindoos.*
- Williams: Fiji and the Fijians.*

ADVERTISEMENTS

American Indians
By FREDERICK STARR, Ph.D.,
Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of Chicago.
Cloth. 240 Pages. | Fully Illustrated. | Price, 45 Cents.
D. C. HEATH & CO., Publishers,
BOSTON. | NEW YORK. | CHICAGO.

W. N. Hailman, Supt. of Schools, Dayton, O., formerly U. S. Commissioner of Indian Schools: The book is beyond question the most attractive and conscientious presentation of the subject I have met.

M. V. O’Shea, School of Education, Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis.: I am glad to say that I regard Starr’s “American Indians” as one of the most appropriate books for grammar grade reading that I have seen.

Richard E. Dodge, Prof. in Teacher’s College, Columbia Univ., in “The Journal of School Geography”: The name of the author is a sufficient guarantee as to the accuracy and value of the little book whose title is noted above. We have long needed a well-written and true account of the much misused and misunderstood American Indians, and more especially an account that would appeal to the young, and give them different impressions from those gathered from nursery tales, school primers or Cooper’s stories. The book is attractive in general appearance, in typography, and illustration, and is well divided into thirty-three short chapters, each devoted to a pertinent topic. It deals with all the aspects of Indian life, as is shown by the following selected chapter headings—Houses, Dress, the Baby and Child, War, Hunting and Fishing, Picture Writing, Money, Medicine Men and Secret Societies, Dances and Ceremonials, The Algonquins, the Six Nations, the Creeks, the Cherokees, The Pueblos, Totem Posts, The Aztecs, etc. The author has made good use of authorities and includes notes concerning each author quoted. The book shows that great care has been expended in selecting and organizing materials, and is authoritative. It should receive a hearty welcome, and be used not only in schools, but in homes, as a book for boys and girls, or as a book for a parent to use in selecting true facts for family talks and conferences. Two valuable maps are included in the text, and are both very pertinent.

Journal of Education, Boston, Mass.: The book is interesting and instructive throughout, and should be read widely in school and out.

The American, Philadelphia, Pa.: This book, prepared especially for younger people, is a careful, interesting history of the chief tribes of North American Indians, their peculiarities and ways of life. The picture drawn is good and highly instructive.

Tribune, Chicago, Ill.: Professor Starr is already a recognized authority on Indian lore, having a personal acquaintance with some thirty tribes, from Alaska to Yucatan. His book condenses into 240 pages the main facts gathered by students and explorers among the red men since the discovery of America. One cannot read many pages without feeling that the author is deeply in sympathy with the people of whom he is writing.

Supplementary Reading
A Classified List for all Grades.
GRADE I. Bass’s The Beginner’s Reader | .25
| Badlam’s Primer | .25
| Fuller’s Illustrated Primer | .25
| Griel’s Glimpses of Nature for Little Folks | .30
| Heart of Oak Readers, Book I | .25
| Regal’s Lessons for Little Readers | .35
GRADE II. Warren’s From September to June with Nature | .35
| Badlam’s First Reader | .30
| Bass’s Stories of Plant Life | .25
| Heart of Oak Readers, Book I | .25
| Snedden’s Docas, the Indian Boy | .35
| Wright’s Seaside and Wayside Nature, Readers No. 1 | .25
GRADE III. Heart of Oak Readers, Book II | .35
| Pratt’s America’s Story, Beginner’s Book | .35
| Wright’s Seaside and Wayside Nature Readers, No. 2 | .35
| Miller’s My Saturday Bird Class | .25
| Firth’s Stories of Old Greece | .30
| Bass’s Stories of Animal life | .35
| Spear’s Leaves and Flowers | .25
GRADE IV. Bass’s Stories of Pioneer Life | .40
| Brown’s Alice and Tom | .40
| Grinnell’s Our Feathered Friends | .30
| Heart of Oak Readers, Book III | .45
| Pratt’s America’s Story—Discoverers and Explorers | .40
| Wright’s Seaside and Wayside Nature Readers, No. 3 | .45
| GRADE V. Bull’s Fridtjof Nansen | .30
| Grinnell’s Our Feathered Friends | .30
| Heart of Oak Readers, Book III | .45
| Pratt’s America’s Story—The Earlier Colonies | .00
| Kupfer’s Stories of Long Ago | .35
GRADE VI. Starr’s Strange Peoples | .40
| Bull’s Fridtjof Nansen | .30
| Heart of Oak Readers, Book IV | .50
| Pratt’s America’s Story—The Colonial Period | .00
| Dole’s The Young Citizen | .45
GRADE VII. Starr’s American Indians | .45
| Penniman’s School Poetry Book | .30
| Pratt’s America’s Story—The Revolution and the Republic | .00
| Eckstorm’s The Bird Book | .60
| Heart of Oak Readers, Book IV | .50
| Wright’s Seaside and Wayside Nature Readers, No. 4 | .50
GRADES VIII and IX. Heart of Oak Readers, Book V | .55
| Heart of Oak Readers, Book VI | .60
| Dole’s The American Citizen | .80
| Shaler’s First Book in Geology (boards) | .40
| Goldsmith’s Vicar of Wakefield | .50
| Addison’s Sir Roger de Coverley | .35
Descriptive circulars sent free on request.

Elementary Mathematics

Atwood’s Complete Graded Arithmetic. Presents a carefully graded course, to begin with the fourth year and continue through the eighth year. Part I, 30 cts.; Part II, 65 cts.

Badlam’s Aids to Number. Teacher’s edition—First series, Nos. 1 to 10, 40 cts.; Second series, Nos. 10 to 20, 40 cts. Pupil’s edition—First series, 25 cts.; Second series, 25 cts.

Branson’s Methods in Teaching Arithmetic. 15 cts.

Hanus’s Geometry in the Grammar Schools. An essay, with outline of work for the last three years of the grammar school. 25 cts.

Howland’s Drill Cards. For middle grades in arithmetic. Each, 3 cts.; per hundred, $2.40.

Hunt’s Geometry for Grammar Schools. The definitions and elementary concepts are to be taught concretely, by much measuring, and by the making of models and diagrams by the pupils. 30 cts.

Pierce’s Review Number Cards. Two cards, for second and third year pupils. Each, 3 cts.; per hundred, $2.40.

Safford’s Mathematical Teaching. A monograph, with applications. 25 cts.

Sloane’s Practical Lessons in Fractions. 25 cts. Set of six fraction cards, for pupils to cut. 10 cts.

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Table of Contents

- STRANGE PEOPLES

- PREFACE.

- CONTENTS.

- LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

- I. INTRODUCTORY.

- II. THE PEOPLES OF NORTH AMERICA: ESKIMO.

- III. WILD INDIANS.

- IV. MEXICANS.

- V. SOUTH AMERICAN PEOPLES.

- VI. THE PEOPLES OF EUROPE: FAIR WHITES.

- VII. DARK WHITES.

- VIII. BASQUES.

- IX. FINNS.

- X. LAPPS.

- XI. TURKS.

- XII. THE PEOPLES OF ASIA.

- XIII. CHINESE.

- XIV. COREANS.

- XV. TIBETANS.

- XVI. JAPANESE.

- XVII. AINU.

- XVIII. HINDUS.

- XIX. TODAS.

- XX. ANDAMANESE: MINCOPIES.

- XXI. ARABS.

- XXII. THE PEOPLES OF AFRICA: KABYLES.

- XXIII. NEGROES.

- XXIV. NEGROIDS.

- XXV. PYGMIES.

- XXVI. BUSHMEN AND HOTTENTOTS.

- XXVII. MALAYS.

- XXVIII. THE PEOPLES OF THE PHILIPPINES.

- XXIX. MELANESIANS.

- XXX. POLYNESIANS.

- XXXI. CONCLUSION.

- LIST OF BOOKS REGARDING STRANGE PEOPLES.

- THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE