CHAPTER XXIV

328Darmesteter, ‘Introduction’ to the Zend-Avesta, inSacred Books of the East, iv. p. lxxx.

WEhave seen that in early society regard for the life and physical well-being of a fellow-creature is, generally speaking, restricted to members of the social unit, whereas foreigners are subject to a very different treatment. But to this rule there are remarkable exceptions. Side by side with gross indifference or positive hatred to strangers we find, among the lower races, instances of great kindness displayed even towards persons of a foreign race. The Veddahs are ready to help any stranger in distress who asks for their assistance, and Sinhalese fugitives who have sought refuge in their wilds have always been kindly received.1Mr. Moffat was deeply affected by the sympathy which some poor Bushmans showed to him during an illness, although he was an utter stranger to them. Speaking of the mutual affection which the Andaman Islanders display in their social relations, Mr. Man adds that, “in their dealings with strangers, the same characteristic is observable when once a good understanding has been established.”2We have also to remember the friendly manner in which the aborigines in various parts of the savage world behaved to the earliest European visitors. Nothing could be more courteous than the reception which Cook and his party met with in New Caledonia, where the natives guided and accompanied them on theirexcursions. Forster says of the Society Islanders, “We should indeed be ungrateful if we did not acknowledge the kindness with which they always treated us.”3De Clerque observes with reference to the Papuans on the north coast of New Guinea:—“The inhabitants seemed always ready to help…. On our visit to the village all the male and female inhabitants with their children flocked around me, and offered me cocoanuts and sugar-cane; which, for the first contact with Europeans, is certainly remarkable.”4On the arrival of white people in various parts of Australia, the natives were not only inoffensive, but disposed to meet them on terms of amity and kindness.5“In a short intercourse,” says Eyre, “they are easily made friends…. On many occasions where I have met these wanderers in the wild, far removed from the abodes of civilisation, and when I have been accompanied only by a single native boy, I have been received by them in the kindest and most friendly manner, had presents made to me of fish, kangaroo, or fruit, had them accompany me for miles to point out where water was to be procured, and been assisted by them in getting at it.”6Nor must we forget the kind reception which Australian Blacks have given to men cast upon their mercy,7and the tenderness with which the natives of Cooper’s Creek wept for the death of Burke and Wills, and comforted King, the survivor.8Unfortunately, native races have often received anything but favourable impressions from their earliest interviews with Europeans; and both in Australia and elsewhere prolonged intercourse with white people has, in many instances, induced them to changetheir friendly behaviour into unkindness or hostility. The Canadian traders, for instance, when they first appeared among the Beaver and Rocky Mountain Indians, were treated by these people with the utmost hospitality and attention; but by their subsequent conduct they taught the natives to withdraw their respect, and sometimes to treat them with indignity.9Harmon writes, “I have always experienced the greatest hospitality and kindness among those Indians who have had the least intercourse with white people.”10Many facts seem to verify the statement made by a missionary who speaks from forty years’ experience among the natives of New Guinea and Polynesia, that our conduct towards savages determines their conduct towards us.11

1Sarasin,Ergebnisse naturwissenschaftlicher Forschungen auf Ceylon, iii. 544.

2Man, ‘Aboriginal Inhabitants of the Andaman Islands,’ inJour. Anthr. Inst.xii. 93.

3Forster,Voyage Round the World, ii. 157.

4De Clerque, inGlimpses of the Eastern Archipelago, p. 14.

5Breton,Excursions in New South Wales, p. 218. Curr,The Australian Race, i. 64. Salvado,Mémoires historiques sur l’Australie, p. 340. Ridley,Aborigines of Australia, p. 24. Eyre,Journals of Expeditions of Discovery into Central Australia, ii. 212, 382.

6Eyre,op. cit.ii. 211.

7Mathew, ‘Australian Aborigines,’ inJour. & Proceed. Roy. Soc. N. S. Wales, xxiii. 388. Brough Smyth,Aborigines of Victoria, ii. 229. Ridley,Aborigines of Australia, p. 22.

8Jung, ‘Aus dem Seelenleben der Australier,’ inMittheilungen des Vereins für Erdkunde zu Leipzig, 1877, p. 11sq.

9Mackenzie,Voyage to the Frozen and Pacific Ocean, p. 149.

10Harmon,Journal of Voyages and Travels in the Interior of North America, p. 315.

11Murray,Forty Years’ Mission Work in Polynesia and New Guinea, p. 499. For other instances of kindness displayed by savages towards white men, see von Kotzebue,Voyage of Discovery into the South Sea, iii. 174 (people of Radack); Yate,Account of New Zealand, p. 102sq.; Dieffenbach,Travels in New Zealand, ii. 112; Keate,Account of the Pelew Islands, p. 329sq.; Earl,Papuans, p. 79 (natives of Port Dory, New Guinea); Sarytschew, ‘Voyage ofDiscovery to the North-East of Siberia,’ inCollection of Modern and Contemporary Voyages and Travels, vi. 78 (Aleuts); King and Fitzroy,Voyages of the“Adventure”and“Beagle,” ii. 168, 174 (Patagonians); Wilson and Felkin,Uganda, i. 225.

The friendly reception which white men have met with in savage countries is closely connected with a custom which, as it seems, prevails universally among the lower races while in their native state,12as also among thepeoples of culture at the earlier stages of their civilisation13—hospitality towards strangers. This custom presents several remarkable characteristics, which, to all appearance, ill agree with their tribal or national exclusiveness generally. The stranger is often welcomed with special marks of honour. The best seat is assigned to him; the best food at the host’s disposal is set beforehim; he takes precedence over all the members of the household; he enjoys extraordinary privileges. M. Hyades says of the Fuegians, “Quelque encombrée que soit une hutte, et si réduite que soit la quantité d’aliments dont on dispose, le nouvel arrivant est toujours assuré d’avoir une place près du foyer et une part de la nourriture.”14The Mattoal of California, though they are sometimes heartlessly indifferent even to their parents, “will divide the last shred of dried salmon with any casual comer who has not a shadow of claim upon them, except the claim of that exaggerated and supererogatory hospitality that savages use.”15A Creek Indian would not only receive into his house a traveller or sojourner of whatever nation or colour, but would treat him as a brother or as his own child, divide with him the last grain of corn or piece of flesh, and offer him the most valuable things in his possession.16Among the Arawaks, “when a stranger, and particularly an European, enters the house of an Indian, every thing is at his command.”17Notwithstanding the Karen’s suspicious nature, says Mr. Smeaton, his hospitality is unbounded. “He will entertain every stranger that comes, without asking a question. He feels himself disgraced if he does not receive all comers, and give them the very best cheer he has. The wildest Karen will receive a guest with a grace and dignity and entertain him with a lavish hospitality that would become a duke. Hundreds of their old legends inculcate the duty of receiving strangers without regard to pecuniary circumstances either of host or guest.”18Among many uncivilised peoples it is customary for a man to offer even his wife, or one of his wives, to the stranger for the time he remains his guest.19The Bedouins of Nejd have asaying that “the guest while in the house is its lord”;20and in the Institutes of Vishnu we read that, as the Brâhmanas are lords over all other castes, and as a husband is lord over his wives, so the guest is the lord of his host.21

12Azara,Voyages dans l’Amérique méridionale, ii. 91 (Guanas). Southey,History of Brazil, i. 247 (Tupis). Davis,El Gringo, p. 421 (Pueblos). Lafitau,Mœurs des sauvages amériquains, i. 106; ii. 88. Heriot,Travels through the Canadas, p. 318sq.Buchanan,North American Indians, p. 6. Perrot,Mémoire sur les mœurs, coustumes et relligion des sauvages de l’Amérique septentrionale, pp. 69, 202. Neighbors, in Schoolcraft,Indian Tribes of the United States, ii. 132 (Comanches). James,Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains, i. 321sq.(Omahas). Morgan,League of the Iroquois, p. 327sqq.; Loskiel,History of the Mission of the United Brethren among the Indians in North America, i. 15; Colden, in Schoolcraft,op. cit.iii. 190 (Iroquois). Powers,Tribes of California, p. 183. Sproat,Scenes and Studies of Savage Life, p. 56sqq.(Ahts). Boas, ‘Report on the Indians of British Columbia,’ in theReport read at the Meeting of the British Association, 1889, p. 36. Keating,Expedition to the Source of St. Peter’s River, i. 101 (Potawatomis); ii. 167 (Chippewas). Richardson,Arctic Searching Expedition, ii. 18 (Crees and Chippewas).Idem, in Franklin,Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea, p. 66; Mackenzie,Voyages to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans, p. xcvi. (Crees). Dall,Alaska, p. 397; Sarytschew,loc. cit.vi. 78; Sauer,Billing’s Expedition to the Northern Parts of Russia, p. 274 (Aleuts). Lyon,Private Journal, p. 349sq.; Parry,Second Voyage for the Discovery of a North-West Passage, p. 526 (Eskimo of Igloolik). Egede,Description of Greenland, p. 126; Cranz,History of Greenland, i. 172sq.; Kane,Arctic Explorations, ii. 122; Holm, ‘Ethnologisk Skizze af Angmagsalikerne,’ inMeddelelser om Grönland, x. 87, 175sq.(Greenlanders). Beechey,Voyage to the Pacific and Behring’s Strait, ii. 571; Richardson,Arctic Searching Expedition, i. 367; Seemann,Voyage of“Herald,” ii. 65 (Western Eskimo). Hooper,Ten Months among the Tents of the Tuski, pp. 160, 193, 194, 208; Nordenskiöld,Vegas färd kring Asien och Europa, ii. 145 (Chukchi). Dall,op. cit.pp. 381 (Tuski), 517 (Kamchadales), 526 (Ainos). Sarytschew,loc. cit.v. 67 (Kamchadales). Dobell,Travels in Kamtschatka and Siberia, i. 63, 82sq.(Kamchadales); ii. 42 (Jakuts). Sauer,op. cit.p. 124 (Jakuts). Vámbéry,Das Türkenvolk, pp. 159 (Jakuts), 336 (natives of Eastern Turkestan), 411 (Turkomans), 451 (Tshuvashes), 509 (Baskirs), &c. Krasheninnikoff,History of Kamschatka, p. 236 (Kurile Islanders). Georgi,Russia, i. 113 (Mordvins); iii. 111 (Tunguses), 167 (Koriaks); iv. 22 (Kalmucks). Bergmann,Nomadische Streifereien unter den Kalmüken, ii. 281sqq.Prejevalsky,Mongolia, i. 71sq.Castrén,Nordiska resor och forskningar, i. 41 (Laplanders), 319 (Ostyaks). Scott Robertson,Káfirs of the Hindu-Kush, p. 187sq.Fraser,Tour through the Himālā Mountains, pp. 264 (people of Kunawar), 335 (Butias). Dalton,Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal, pp. 46 (Kukis), 68 (Garos). Hunter,Annals of Rural Bengal, i. 215 (Santals). Tickell, ‘Memoir on the Hodésum,’ inJour. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, ix. (pt. ii.) 807sq.(Hos). Lewin,Wild Races of South-Eastern India, p. 217 (Tipperahs). Colquhoun,Amongst the Shans, pp. 160sq.(Steins), 371 (Shans). Foreman,Philippine Islands, p. 187. de Crespigny, ‘Milanows of Borneo,’ inJour. Anthr. Inst.v, 34. Low,Sarawak, pp. 243 (Hill Dyaks), 336 (Kayans). Boyle,Adventures among the Dyaks of Borneo, p. 215. Ling Roth,Natives of Sarawak, i. 82 (Sea Dyaks). Marsden,History of Sumatra, p. 208 (natives of the interior of Sumatra). Raffles,History of Java, i. 249; Crawfurd,History of the Indian Archipelago, i. 53 (Javanese). Riedel,De sluik- en kroesharige rassen tusschen Selebes en Papua, p. 41 (natives of Ambon and Uliase). von Kotzebue,op. cit.iii. 165 (natives of Radack), 215 (Pelew Islanders). Hale,U.S. Exploring Expedition. Vol. VI.—Ethnography and Philology, p. 95 (Kingsmill Islanders). Macdonald,Oceania, p. 195 (Efatese). Erskine,Cruise among the Islands of the Western Pacific, p. 273sq.; Williams and Calvert,Fiji and the Fijians, p. 110; Anderson,Travel in Fiji and New Caledonia, p. 134sq.(Fijians). Ellis,Polynesian Researches, i. 95.Idem,Tour through Hawaii, p. 346sq.Forster,op. cit.ii. 158 (Tahitians) 364 (natives of Tana), 394 (South Sea Islanders generally). Cook,Voyage round the World, p. 40 (Tahitians). Tregear, ‘Niue,’ inJour. Polynesian Soc.ii. 13 (Savage Islanders), Turner,Samoa, p. 114; Pritchard,Polynesian Reminiscences, p. 132; Brenchley,Jottings during the Cruise of H.M.S. Curaçoa among the South Sea Islands, p. 76 (Samoans). Mariner,Natives of the Tonga Islands, ii. 154. Yate,op. cit.p. 100; Dieffenbach,op. cit.ii. 107sq.; Polack,Manners and Customs of the New Zealanders, ii. 155sq.; Angas,Savage Life and Scenes in Australia and New Zealand, ii. 22 (Maoris). Gason, ‘Manners and Customs of the Dieyerie Tribe,’ in Woods,Native Tribes of South Australia, p. 258; Brough Smyth,op. cit.i. 25; Salvado,op. cit.p. 340 (Australian aborigines). Ellis,History of Madagascar, i. 198; Sibree,The Great African Island, pp. 126, 129; Rochon,Voyage to Madagascar, p. 62; Little,Madagascar, p. 61; Shaw, ‘Betsileo,’ inAntananarivo Annual and Madagascar Magazine, ii. 82. Burchell,Travels in the Interior of Southern Africa, ii. 54 (Bushmans), 345 (Hottentots). Kolben,Present State of the Cape of Good Hope, i. 166, 337; Le Vaillant,Travels from the Cape of Good Hope, ii. 143sq.; Schinz,Deutsch-Südwest-Afrika, p. 81 (Hottentots). Lichtenstein,Travels in Southern Africa, i. 272; Leslie,Among the Zulus and Amatongas, p. 203 (Kafirs). Casalis,Basutos, pp. 209, 224. Andersson,Lake Ngami, 198 (Ovambo). Macdonald,Africana, i. 27, 263 (Eastern Central Africans). Wilson and Felkin,op. cit.i. 211, 225 (Waganda). Rowley,Africa Unveiled, p. 47 (natives of Manganja, in the neighbourhood of Lake Nyassa). New,Life, Wanderings, and Labours in East Africa, pp. 102 (Wanika), 361 (Taveta). Thomson,Through Masai Land, p. 64 (Wa-kwafi, of the Taveta). Tuckey,Expedition to explore the River Zaire, p. 374 (Congo natives), Bosman,Description of the Coast of Guinea, p. 108. Burton,Two Trips to Gorilla Land, i. 106 (Mpongwe).Idem,Abeokuta, i. 303 (Yoruba). Caillié,Travels through Central Africa, i. 165 (Bagos). Chavanne,Die Sahara, p. 185 (Touareg). Hanoteau and Letourneux,La Kabylie, ii. 45sqq.Munzinger,Ostafrikanische Studien, p. 534 (Barea). Lobo,Voyage to Abyssinia, p. 82sq.For the deteriorating influence which contact with a “higher culture” exercises on savage hospitality, see Nansen,First Crossing of Greenland, ii. 306sq.; Ellis,Tour through Hawaii, p. 346; von Kotzebue,op. cit.iii. 250 (Hawaiians); Meade,Ride through the Disturbed Districts of New Zealand, p. 164; Dieffenbach,op. cit.ii. 107, 108, 110.

For the deteriorating influence which contact with a “higher culture” exercises on savage hospitality, see Nansen,First Crossing of Greenland, ii. 306sq.; Ellis,Tour through Hawaii, p. 346; von Kotzebue,op. cit.iii. 250 (Hawaiians); Meade,Ride through the Disturbed Districts of New Zealand, p. 164; Dieffenbach,op. cit.ii. 107, 108, 110.

13According to a law of the Peruvian Incas, strangers and travellers should be treated as guests, and public houses were provided for them (Garcilasso de la Vega,First Part of the Royal Commentaries of the Yncas, ii. 34). For Yucatan, see Landa,Relacion de las cosas de Yucatan, p. 134. Though hospitality, according to Mr. Wells Williams (Middle Kingdom, i. 835), is not a trait of the character of the modern Chinese, kindness to strangers and travellers is enjoined in their moral and religious books (Chalmers, ‘Chinese Natural Theology,’ inChina Review, v. 281. Douglas,Confucianism and Taouism, p. 273.Indo-Chinese Gleaner, iii. 160). In Corea it would be a grave and shameful thing to refuse a portion of one’s meal with any person, known or unknown, who presents himself at eating-time (Griffis,Corea, p. 288). For the Hebrews, seeGenesis, xviii. 2sqq., xxiv. 31sqq.;Leviticus, xix. 9sq., xxv. 35;Deuteronomy, xiv. 29, xvi. 11, 14;Judges, xix. 17sqq.;Job, xxxiv. 32; also Bertholet,Die Stellung der Israeliten und der Juden zu den Fremden, p. 22sqq., and Nowack,Lehrbuch der hebräischen Archäologie, p. 186sq.For Muhammedans, see Lane,Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, p. 296sq.; Burckhardt,Notes on the Bedouins and Wahábys, pp. 100-102, 192sqq.; Wood,Journey to the Source of the River Oxus, p. 148; Hamilton,Researches in Asia Minor, ii. 379. For ancient India, see Leist,Alt-arisches Jus Gentium, pp. 39, 40, 223sqq.For Greece, see Schmidt,Ethik der alten Griechen, ii. 325sqq.For Rome, see Leist,Alt-arisches Jus Civile, i. 355sqq.; von Jhering,Geist des römischen Rechts, i. 227sq.For ancient Teutons, see Grimm,Deutsche Rechtsalterthümer, p. 399sq.; Gummere,Germanic Origins, p. 162sqq.; Keyser,Efterladte Skrifter, ii. pt. ii. 93; Weinhold,Altnordisches Leben, p. 441sqq.; Gudmundsson and Kålund, ‘Sitte,’ in Paul’sGrundriss der germanischen Philologie, iii. 450sq.For Slavonians, see Schrader,Reallexikon der indogermanischen Altertumskunde, i. 270; Krauss,Die Südslaven, p. 644sqq.

14Hyades and Deniker,Mission scientifique du Cap Horn, vii. 243.

15Powers,op. cit.p. 112.

16Bartram, ‘Creek and Cherokee Indians,’ inTrans. American Ethn. Soc.iii. pt. i. 42.

17Hilhouse, inJour. Roy. Geo. Soc.ii. 230.Idem,Indian Notices, p. 14.Cf.von Martins,Beiträge zur Ethnographie Amerika’s, i. 692.

18Smeaton,Loyal Karens of Burma, p. 144sq.

19Westermarck,History of Human Marriage, p. 73sqq.

20Palgrave,Journey through Central and Eastern Arabia, i. 345.

21Institutes of Vishnu, lxvii. 31. For other instances of the precedence granted to guests, see Man, inJour. Anthr. Inst.xii. 94, 148 (Andaman Islanders); Buchanan,North American Indians, p. 324 (Indians of Pennsylvania); Lyon,Private Journal, p. 350 (Eskimo of Igloolik); Seemann,Voyage of“Herald,” ii. 65 (Western Eskimo); Krasheninnikoff,op. cit.p. 211 (Kamchadales), Georgi,op. cit.iii. 153sq.(Kamchadales), 183sq.(Chukchi). Ling Roth,Natives of Sarawak, i. 86 (Sea Dyaks); Mariner,op. cit.ii. 154 (Tonga Islanders); New,op. cit.p. 102 (Wanika); Hanoteau and Letourneux,op. cit.ii. 45 (Kabyles); Wells Williams,op. cit.i. 540 (Chinese): Krauss,op. cit.p. 649sq.(Southern Slavs).

Custom may require that hospitality should be shown even to an enemy. Captain Holm tells us of a Greenlander of bad character who, though he had murdered his step-father, was received, and for a long time entertained, when he paid a visit to the nearest kindred of the murdered man; and this, as it seems, was agreeable to old custom.22Among the Aeneze Bedouins, says Burckhardt, all means are reckoned lawful to avenge the blood of a slain relative, “provided the homicide be not killed while he is a guest in the tent of a third person, or if he has taken refuge even in the tent of his deadly foe.”23In Afghanistan “a man’s bitterest enemy is safe while he is under his roof.”24We read in the Hitopadesa:—“On even an enemy arrived at the house becoming hospitality should be bestowed; the tree does not withdraw its sheltering shadow from the wood-cutter…. The guest is everyone’s superior.”25The old Norsemen considered it a duty to treat a guest hospitably even though it came out that he had killed the brother of his host.26A mediævalknight granted safe conduct through his territories to all who required it, including those who asserted pretensions which, if established, would deprive him of his possessions.27

22Nansen,First Crossing of Greenland, ii. 305sq.

23Burckhardt,Bedouins and Wahábys, p. 87.Cf.Daumas,La vie Arabe, p. 317 (Algerian Arabs).

24Elphinstone,Kingdom of Caubul, i. 296.

25Hitopadesa, Mitralâbhâ, 60, 62.

26Grimm,Deutsche Rechtsalterthümer, p. 400. Weinhold,Altnordisches Leben, p. 441. For other instances of hospitality towards enemies, see James,Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, i. 322 (Omahas); Bartram, inTrans. American Ethn. Soc.iii. pt. i. 42 (Creeks and Cherokees); Lomonaco, ‘Sullerazze indigene del Brasile,’ inArchivio per l’antropologia e la etnologia, xix. 57 (Tupis); Krauss,op. cit.p. 650 (Montenegrines).

27Mills,History of Chivalry, p. 154.

To protect a guest is looked upon as a most stringent duty under all circumstances. “Le Kabyle qui accorde sonânaïadoit, sous peine d’infamie, y faire honneur, dût-il s’exposer à tous les dangers…. La violation de leurânaïaest la plus grave injure que l’on puisse infliger à des Kabyles. Un homme qui viole, ou, suivant l’expression consacrée, qui brise l’ânaïade son village ou de sa tribu, est puni de mort et de la confiscation de tous ses biens; sa maison est démolie.”28Among the Bedouins a breach of the law ofdakheel“would be considered a disgrace not only upon the individual but upon his family, and even upon his tribe, which never could be wiped out. No greater insult can be offered to a man, or to his clan, than to say that he has broken thedakheel.”29Among the Aenezes, according to Burckhardt, “a violation of hospitality, by the betraying of a guest, has not occurred within the memory of man.”30In Egypt, “most Bedawees will suffer almost any injury to themselves or their families rather than allow their guests to be ill-treated while under their protection.”31Among the Kandhs, “for the safety of a guest life and honour are pledged; he is to be considered before a child”; in order to save his guest a man is even allowed to speak falsely, which is otherwise condemned by them as a heinous sin.32Vámbéry tells us of cases in which the Kara-Kirghiz have preferred being harassed with war by the Chinese to surrendering to them such Chinese fugitives as have sought and received their hospitality.33Among the Ossetes the host not only considers himself responsible for the safety of his guest,but “revenges the murder or wounding of the latter as he would that of a kinsman.”34In Albania it is considered infamous to leave an injury inflicted on a guest unavenged.35Among the Takue, though a man would accept compensation for the murder of a relative, he would in all cases exact blood-revenge for the murder of his guest.36On the other hand, in Sierra Leone a guest “is scarcely accountable for any faults which he may commit, whether through inadvertency or design, the host being considered as responsible for the actions of ‘his stranger.’”37

28Hanoteau and Letourneux,op. cit.ii. 61sq.

29Layard,Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon, p. 317.

30Burckhardt,Bedouins and Wahábys, p. 100.Cf.ibid.p. 192.

31Lane,Modern Egyptians, p. 297.

32Macpherson,Memorials of Service in India, pp. 65, 94.

33Vámbéry,Das Türkenvolk, p. 268.Cf.ibid.p. 411 (Turkomans).

34von Haxthausen,Transcaucasia, p. 412.

35Gopčević,Oberalbanien und seine Liga, p. 328.

36Munzinger,Ostafrikanische Studien, p. 208. Among the Barea and Kunáma a man avenges the death of his guest by killing the guest of the murderer (ibid.p. 477).

37Winterbottom,Native Africans in the Neighbourhood of Sierra Leone, i. 214.

Hospitality is not only regarded as a duty of the first order, but has, in a remarkable degree, been associated with religion. Among the doctrines held up for acceptance by the religious instructors of the Iroquois there was the following precept:—“If a stranger wander about your abode, welcome him to your home, be hospitable towards him, speak to him with kind words, and forget not always to mention the Great Spirit.”38The natives of Aneiteum, of the New Hebrides, maintained that generous hospitality would receive the highest reward in the Land of the Dead.39The Kalmucks believe that want of hospitality will be punished by angry gods.40The Kandhs say that the first duty which the gods have imposed upon man is that of hospitality; and “persons guilty of the neglect of established observances are punished by the divine wrath, either during their current lives, or when they afterwards return to animate other bodies,” the penalties being death, poverty, disease, the loss of children, or any other form of calamity.41In the sacred books of India hospitality is repeatedly spoken of as a most important duty, the discharge of which will beamply rewarded. “The inhospitable man,” the Vedic singer tell us, “acquires food in vain. I speak the truth—it verily is his death…. He who eats alone is nothing but a sinner.”42“He who does not feed these five, the gods, his guests, those whom he is bound to maintain, the manes, and himself, lives not, though he breathes.”43According to the Vishnu Purána, a person who neglects a poor and friendless stranger in want of hospitality, goes to hell.44On the other hand, by honouring guests a householder obtains the highest reward.45“He who entertains guests for one night obtains earthly happiness, a second night gains the middle air, a third heavenly bliss, a fourth the world of unsurpassable bliss; many nights procure endless worlds. That has been declared in the Veda.”46It is said in the Mahabharata that “he who gives food freely to a fatigued wayfarer, whom he has never seen before, obtains great virtuous merit.”47According to Hesiod, Zeus himself is wrath with him who does evil to a suppliant or a guest, and at last, in requital for his deed, lays on him a bitter penalty.48Plato says:—“In his relations to strangers, a man should consider that a contract is a most holy thing, and that all concerns and wrongs of strangers are more directly dependent on the protection of God, than wrongs done to citizens…. He who is most able is the genius and the god of the stranger, who follows in the train of Zeus, the god of strangers. And for this reason, he who has a spark of caution in him, will do his best to pass through life without sinning against the stranger. And of offences committed, whether against strangers or fellow-country-men, that against suppliants is the greatest.”49Similar opinions prevailed in ancient Rome.Jus hospitii, whilstforming no part of the civil law, belonged tofas; the stranger, who enjoyed no legal protection, was, as a guest, protected by custom and religion.50Thedii hospitalesand Jupiter were on guard over him;51hence the duties towards a guest were even more stringent than those towards a relative.52Cæsar53and Tacitus54attest that the Teutons considered it impious to injure a guest or to exclude any human being from the shelter of their roof. The God of Israel was a preserver of strangers.55In the Talmud hospitality is described as “the most important part of divine worship,”56as being equivalent to the duty of honouring father and mother,57as even more meritorious than frequenting the synagogue.58Muhammedanism likewise regards hospitality as a religious duty.59“Whoever,” said the Prophet, “believes in God and the day of resurrection, must respect his guest.”60But the idea that a guest enjoys divine protection prevailed among the Arabs long before the times of Muhammed.61The Bedouins say that the guests are “guests of God.”62The Christian Church, again, regarded hospitality as a duty imposed by Christ.63

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