Chapter 86

90Among various peoples perjury is punished even by custom or law. Thus among the Gaika tribe of the Kafirs a person may be fined for taking a false oath in a law case (Brownlee, in Maclean,Compendium of Kafir Laws and Customs, p. 124). In Abyssinia a man convicted of perjury “would not only lose his reputation, and be for ever incapacitated from being witness even on the most trivial question, but he would likewise in all probability be bound and severely fined, and might indeed think himself fortunate if he got off with all his limbs in their proper places, or without his hide being scored” (Parkyns,Life in Abyssinia, ii. 258sq.). The laws of the Malays punish perjury (Crawfurd,History of the Indian Archipelago, iii. 90). In India, according to the Laws of Manu (viii. 219sq.), he who broke an agreement after swearing to it was to be banished, imprisoned, and fined. Mediæval law-books punished perjurers with the loss of the right hand, by which the oath was sworn (Wilda,Das Strafrecht der Germanen, p. 983sq.; Pollock and Maitland,History of English Law before the Time of Edward I.ii. 541). In a Danish law of 1537 it is said that the perjurer shall lose the two offending fingers so as to appease the wrath of God (Stemann,Den danske Retshistorie indtil Christian V.’s Lov, p. 645). In other cases, again, no civil punishment is affixed to a false oath—for instance, among the Rejangs (Marsden,History of Sumatra, p. 240) and Bataks of Sumatra (Glimpses of the Eastern Archipelago, p. 86), the Ossetes (Kovalewsky,Coutume contemporaine, p. 324), Persians (Polak,Persien, ii. 83), and, as it seems, the ancient Hebrews (Keil,Manual of Biblical Archæology, ii. 348; Greenstone, ‘Perjury,’ inJewish Encyclopedia, ix. 640), Greeks (Rohde,Psyche, p. 245, note), and Teutons in early times (Wilda,op. cit.p. 982; Brunner,Deutsche Rechtsgeschichte, ii. 681). Cicero says (De legibus, ii. 9) that “the divine punishment of perjury is destruction, the human punishment infamy”; but though perjuryper sewas not punished in Rome, the law appears from very early times to have contained provisions for punishing false testimony (Hunter,Roman Law, p. 1063; see also Mommsen,Römisches Strafrecht, p. 681). However, the fact that perjury is not treated as a crime by no means implies that it is not regarded as a sin. The punishment of it is left to the offended deity (Marsden,op. cit.p. 219;Glimpses of the Eastern Archipelago, p. 86; Crawfurd,op. cit.iii. 90 [Javanese]).

It seems that sometimes the habit of oath-taking has, in another respect also, made it prudential for men to speak the simple truth in all circumstances. Sir W. H. Sleemanobserves that among the woods and hills of India the cotton and other trees are supposed by the natives to be occupied by deities who are vested with a local superintendence over the affairs of a district, or perhaps of a single village. “These,” he says, “are always in the view of the people, and every man knows that he is every moment liable to be taken to their court, and to be made to invoke their vengeance upon himself or those dear to him, if he has told a falsehood in what he has stated, or tells one in what he is about to state. Men so situated adhere habitually, and I may say religiously, to the truth; and I have had before me hundreds of cases in which a man’s property, liberty, or life, has depended upon his telling a lie, and he has refused to tell it to save either.”91On the other hand, there are peoples among whom a person’s word can hardly be trusted unless confirmed by an oath.92And one of the arguments adduced by the Quakers against the taking of oaths is that, if on any particular occasion a man swear in addition to his yea or nay, in order to make it more obligatory or convincing, its force becomes comparatively weak at other times when it receives no such confirmation.93

91Sleeman,op. cit.ii. 111sq.

92See, besidessupra, Kingsley,West African Studies, p. 414; Chanler,Through Jungle and Desert, p. 186sq.(Wamsara).

93Gurney,Views and Practices of the Society of Friends, p. 327.

Modes of conduct which are recommended by prudence tend on that account in various ways to be regarded as morally compulsory or praiseworthy. This subject will be discussed in connection with duties and virtues which are called “self-regarding,” but in the present place it is necessary to remind ourselves of the share which early education has in making prudence a matter of moral consideration. Few duties owe so much to the training of parents and teachers as does veracity. Children easily resort to falsehood, in self-defence or otherwise, and truthfulness is therefore enjoined on them with particular emphasis.94

94Cf.Priestley, in ‘Essay III.’ introductory to Hartley’sTheory of the Human Mind, p. xlix.sq.

The moral ideas referring to truthfulness are, finally, much influenced by the force of habit. Where lying is frequent it is, other things being equal, less strenuously condemned, if condemned at all, than in communities which are strictly truthful. It is natural to speak the truth. Von Jhering’s suggestion that man was originally a liar, and that veracity is the result of human progress,95is not consistent with facts. Language was not invented to disguise the truth, but to express it. As Hutcheson remarked long ago, “truth is the natural production of the mind when it gets the capacity of communicating it, dissimulation and disguise are plainly artificial effects of design and reflection.”96It may be doubted whether there are any other mendacious creatures in the world than men.97It is said that “lies are told, if not in speech yet in acts, by dogs”;98but the instances reported of canine deceitfulness99are hardly conclusive. As a cautious writer observes, the question is not whether there may be “objective deceitfulness” in the dog’s conduct, but whether the motive is deceit: and “the deceitful intent is a piece, not of the observed fact, but of the observer’s inference.”100Nor is the child, strictly speaking, a born liar. M. Compayré even goes so far as to say that, if the child has not been subjected to bad influences, or if a discipline of repression and constraint has not driven him to seek a refuge in dissimulation, he is usually frankness and sincerity itself.101Montaigne remarked that the falsehood of a child grows with its growth.102According to M. Perez, useful dissimulations are practised by children already at the age of two years, but generally it is only after they are three or four years old that fear of being scolded or punished will leadthem into falsehood.103We are even told that certain savages are too stupid or too ignorant to tell lies. A Hindu gentleman of the plains, in the valley of the Nerbudda, when asked what made the uncultured people of the woods to the north and south so truthful, replied, “They have not yet learned the value of a lie.”104But as we know how readily truthful savages become liars when their social conditions change, we may conclude that their veracity was due rather to absence of temptation than to lack of intelligence. In a small community of savages living by themselves, there is no need for lying, nor much opportunity to practise it. There is little scope for those motives which most commonly induce people to practise falsehood—fear and love of gain, combined with a hope of success.105Harmony and sympathy generally prevail between the members of the group, and deception is hardly possible since secrets do not exist.

95von Jhering,Zweck im Recht, ii. 606.

96Hutcheson,System of Moral Philosophy, ii. 28.Cf.Reid,op. cit.vi. 24, p. 428sqq.; Dugald Stewart,op. cit.ii. 333.

97Cf.Schopenhauer,Essays, p. 145.

98Spencer,Principles of Ethics, i. 405.

99Romanes,Animal Intelligence, pp. 443, 444, 451.

100Lloyd Morgan,Animal Life and Intelligence, p. 400.

101Compayré,L’évolution intellectuelle et morale de l’enfant, p. 309. See also Sully,Studies of Childhood, p. 263sq.

102Montaigne,Essais, i. 9 (Œuvres, p. 16).

103Perez,First Three Years of Childhood, pp. 87, 89.

104Sleeman,op. cit.ii. 110.

105Cf.Sarasin,Forschungen auf Ceylon, iii. 543 (Veddahs).

The case is different when savages come into frequent contact with foreigners. To deceive a stranger is easy, and no scruple is made of doing so. On the contrary, as we have seen, he is regarded as a proper object of deception, and this opinion is only too often justified by his own behaviour. But when commonly practised in relation to strangers, falsehood easily becomes a habit which affects the general conduct of the man. Hamzé, the teacher of the Druses, said, “When a man once gets into the way of speaking falsely, it is to be apprehended that, in spite of himself, and by the mere force of habit, he will get to speak falsely towards the brethren”; hence it is advisable to speak the truth at all times and before all men.106There is indeed abundant evidence that intercourse with strangers, and especially with people of a different race, has had a destructive influence on savage veracity.

106Churchill,Mount Lebanon, iii. 225sq.

This has been noticed among many of the uncivilised tribes of India. “Formerly,” says Mr. Man, “a Sonthal, as a rule,disdained to tell a falsehood, but the influences of civilisation, transfused through the contagious ethics of his Bengali neighbours, have somewhat impaired his truthfulness. In the last four or five years a great change for the worse has become evident, although even now, as a people, they are glorious exceptions to the prevailing idiosyncrasy of the lower class of natives in Bengal. With the latter, speaking the truth has been always an accident; with the Sonthal it was a characteristic principle.”107Indeed, the Santals in Singbhúm, who live much to themselves, are still described by Colonel Dalton as “a very simple-minded people, almost incapable of deception.”108The Tipperah, “where he is brought into contact with, or under the influence of the Bengallee, easily acquires their worst vices and superstitions, losing at the same time the leading characteristic of the primitive man—the love of truth.”109Other tribes, like the Garos and Bhúmij, have likewise been partly contaminated by their intercourse with Bengalis, and acquired from them a propensity to lie, which, in former days, was altogether foreign to them.110The Kakhyens are at the present time lazy, thievish, and untrustworthy, “whether their character has been deteriorated by knavish injustice on the part of Chinese traders, or high-handed extortion and wrong on the part of Burmese.”111The Ladakhis are, in general, “frank, honest, and moral when not corrupted by communication with the dissolute Kashmiris.”112Of the Pahárias, who according to an earlier authority would sooner die than lie,113it is now reported that “those who have most to do with them say they cannot rely on their word, and that they not only lie without scruple, but are scarcely annoyed at being detected.”114The Todas, whilst they call falsehood one of the worst vices and have a temple dedicated to Truth, seem nowadays only too often to forget both the temple and its object;115and we are told that the dissimulation they practise in their dealings with Europeans has been brought about by the habit of paying them for every insignificant item of information.116According to anIndian civil servant quoted by Mr. Spencer, various other hill tribes, originally distinguished by their veracity, have afterwards been rendered less veracious by contact with the whites.117

107Man,Sonthalia, p. 14.Cf.ibid.p. 20.

108Dalton,Ethnology of Bengal,op. cit.p. 217.

109Lewin,Wild Races of South-Eastern India, p. 216.

110Dalton,op. cit.pp. 68, 177.

111Anderson,Mandalay to Momien, p. 151.

112Moorcroft and Trebeck,Travels in the Himalayan Provinces of Hindustan, i. 321.

113Shaw, quoted by Dalton,op. cit.p. 274.

114Cumming,In the Himalayas, p. 404sq.

115Harkness,A Singular Aboriginal Race inhabiting the Neilgherry Hills, p. 18.

116Metz,Tribes inhabiting the Neilgherry Hills, p. 13.

117Spencer,Principles of Sociology, ii. 234. See also Hodgson,Miscellaneous Essays, i. 152. (Bódo and Dhimáls); Dalton,op. cit.p. 206 (Múndas).

Of the Andaman Islanders Mr. Man observes:—“It has been remarked with regret by all interested in the race, that intercourse with the alien population has, generally speaking, prejudicially affected their morals; and that the candour, veracity, and self-reliance they manifest in their savage and untutored state are, when they become associated with foreigners, to a great extent lost, and habits of untruthfulness, dependence, and sloth engendered.”118Riedel makes a similar remark with reference to the natives of Ambon and Uliase.119Mr. Sommerville believes that the natives of New Georgia, in the Solomon Islands, learned their practice of cheating from European traders.120

118Man, inJour. Anthr. Inst.xii. 92.

119Riedel,De sluik- en kroesharige rassen tusschen Selebes en Papua, p. 41.

120Sommerville, inJour. Anthr. Inst.xxvi. 394.

Among the Ostyaks increasing civilisation has proved injurious to their ancient honesty, and those who live in the neighbourhood of towns or large villages have become even more deceitful than the colonists.121A similar change has taken place with other tribes belonging to the Russian Empire, for instance the Tunguses122and Kamchadales.123

121Castrén,op. cit.ii. 121.

122Dall,Alaska, p. 518.

123Steller,Beschreibung von dem Lande Kamtschatka, p. 285. Sarytchew, ‘Voyage of Discovery to the North-East of Siberia,’ inCollection of Modern and Contemporary Voyages, v. 67.

We hear the same story from America.124Among the Omahas “formerly only two or three were notorious liars; but now, there are about twenty who do not lie.”125The old men of the Ojibwas all agree in saying that before the white man came and resided among them there was less lying than there is now.126The Indians of Mexico, Lumholtz writes, “do not tell the truth unless it suits them.”127But with reference to some of them, the Tarahumares, he adds that, where they have had little or nothing to do with the whites, they are trustworthy, and profit is no inducement to them, as they believethat their gods would be angry with them for charging an undue price.128

124Domenech,Seven Years Residence in the Great Deserts of North America, ii. 69.Cf.Hearne,Journey to the Northern Ocean, pp. 307, 308, 310 (Chippewyans); Morgan,League of the Iroquois, p. 335sq.

125Dorsey, ‘Omaha Sociology’ inAnn. Rep. Bur. Ethn.iii. 370.

126Schoolcraft,Indian Tribes of the United States, ii. 139.

127Lumholtz,Unknown Mexico, ii. 477.

128Lumholtz,Unknown Mexico, i. 244, 418.

The deceitfulness of many African peoples is undoubtedly in some degree a result of their intercourse with foreigners. In Sierra Leone, says Winterbottom, the natives on the sea coast, who are chiefly engaged in commerce, “are in general shrewd and artful, sometimes malevolent and perfidious. Their long connection with European slave traders has tutored them in the arts of deceit.”129The Yorubas, according to Burton, are eminently dishonest only “in and around the cities.”130Among the Kalunda those who live near the great caravan roads and have had much to do with foreign traders are suspicious and false.131And the Hottentots, of whose truthfulness earlier writers spoke very highly, are nowadays said to be addicted to lying.132

129Winterbottom,Native Africans in the Neighbourhood of Sierra Leone, i. 206.

130Burton,Abeokuta, i. 303.

131Pogge,Im Reiche des Muata Jamwo, p. 236.

132Fritsch,Die Eingeborenen Süd-Afrika’s, p. 307sq.

It has also been noticed that mendacity is favoured among children by much intercourse with strangers, when “first impressions” are consciously made, as also by frequent change of environment, or of school or residence, as such changes give rise to a feeling that “new leaves” can be easily turned.133

133Stanley Hall, inAmerican Journal of Psychology, iii. 70.

When a social unit is composed of loosely connected sub-groups, the intercourse between members of different sub-groups resembles in many respects that between foreigners. Social incoherence is thus apt to lead to deceitful habits, as was the case in the Middle Ages. The same phenomenon is to be observed in the East; perhaps also among the Desert Arabs and the Fuegians, who live in small parties which only occasionally meet and soon again separate.

Another factor which has favoured deception is social differentiation. The different classes of society have often little sympathy for each other, their interests are not infrequently conflicting, deceit is a means of procuring advantages, and, for the inferior classes especially, a means of self-protection. As Euripides observes, slaves are inthe habit of concealing the truth.134In Eastern Africa, says Livingstone, falsehood is a vice prevailing among the free, but still more among the slaves; “one can scarcely induce a slave to translate anything truly: he is so intent on thinking of what will please.”135

134Euripides,Phœnissæ, 392.Cf.Burton,Arabian Nights, i. 176, n. 1.

135Livingstone,Expedition to the Zambesi, p. 309. See also Polack,Manners and Customs of the New Zealanders, ii. 59.

Hardly anything has been a greater inducement to falsehood than oppression. Whilst the old Makololo were truthful, this is not the case with their sons, “who, having been brought up among the subjected tribes, have acquired some of the vices peculiar to a menial and degraded race.”136The Wanyoro, who are described as “splendid liars,” exercised deception chiefly to evade the intolerable exactions of their own chiefs, whereas they are fairly truthful in contact with Europeans who attempt to treat them justly.137The duplicity and cunning of the Malagasy are “the natural result of centuries of superstition, ignorance, and submission to the rule of tyrannical despots, with whom the spy system has always been a necessity.”138In Morocco the independent Jbâla, or mountaineers of the North, are more to be trusted than the Arabs of the plains, who have long been suffering from the extortions of rapacious officials. The duplicity of Orientals is very largely due to their despotic form of government.139In India, Mr. Percival observes, “despotism in one form or other that has so long prevailed, and the consequent oppression attendant thereon, must have rendered it difficult to make way without fraud. Deception and arts of cunning, under such circumstances, being the only means at the command of the inferior portions of the community for gaining their ends, and securing the plainest rights, they would resort to them as the only way of avoiding certain ruin.”140The Chinese habit of lying hasbeen attributed partly to the truckling fear of officers.141In China and many other parts of the East, says Sir J. Bowring, “there is a fear of truthastruth, lest its discovery should lead to consequences of which the inquirer never dreams, but which are present to the mind of the person under interrogation.”142

136Livingstone,Expedition to the Zambesi, p. 283.

137Johnston,Uganda Protectorate, ii. 591.

138Little,Madagascar, p. 72.

139Vámbéry,Der Islam im neunzehnten Jahrhundert, p. 231.

140Percival,Land of the Veda, p. 288.Cf.Malcolm,Memoir of Central India, ii. 171; Hodgson,Miscellaneous Essays, i. 152.

141Wells Williams,The Middle Kingdom, i. 835.

142Bowring,Siam, i. 105sq.

The regard for truth displays itself not only in the condemnation of falsehood, but in the idea that, under certain circumstances, it is a person’s duty to inform others of the truth, although there is no deception in withholding it. This duty is limited by utilitarian considerations, and it is less insisted on than the duty of refraining from falsehood; positive commandments, as we have seen, are generally less stringent than the corresponding negative commandments.143But to disclose the truth for the benefit of others, when it is attended with injurious consequences for the person who discloses it, can hardly fail to evoke moral approval, and may be deemed a merit of the highest order.

143Supra,i. 303sqq.

The regard for truth goes a step further still. It may be obligatory or praiseworthy not only to spread the knowledge of truth, but to seek for it. The possession of knowledge, of some kind or other, is universally respected. A Wolof proverb says, “Not to know is bad, not to wish to know is worse.”144In the moral and religious systems of the East knowledge is one of the chief pursuits of man. Confucius described virtue as consisting of knowledge, magnanimity, and valour.145The ancients, he says, “wishing to rectify their hearts, … first desired to be sincere in their thoughts. Wishing to be sincere in their thoughts, they first extended to the utmost their knowledge. Such extension of knowledge lay in the investigation of things.”146Knowledge is to be pursued not for theoretical, but formoral purposes; the Master said, “It is not easy to find a man who has learned for three years without coming to be good.”147The Hindus maintain that ignorance is the greatest of evils, and that the sole and ultimate object of life should be to give and receive instruction.148It is said in the Laws of Manu, “A man is not therefore considered venerable because his head is gray; him who, though young, has learned the Veda, the gods consider to be venerable.”149According to the Mahabharata, it is by knowledge that a creature is liberated, by knowledge that he becomes the Eternal, Imperceptible, and Undecaying.150Buddhism regards sin as folly and delusion as the cause of crime;151“the unwise man cannot discover the difference between that which is evil and that which is good, as a child knows not the value of a coin that is placed before him.”152And the highest of all gifts, the source of abiding salvation, is the knowledge of the identity between the individual and God, in whom and by whom the individual lives, and moves, and has his being.153According to one of the Pahlavi texts, wisdom is better than wealth of any kind;154through the power of wisdom it is possible to do every duty and good work;155the religion of the Mazda-worshippers is apprehended more fully by means of the most perfect wisdom, and “even the struggle and warfare of Irân with foreigners, and the smiting of Aharman and the demons it is possible to effect through the power of wisdom.”156A strong dash of intellectualism is a prominent feature in the Rabbinic religion. The highest virtue lies not only in the fulfilment but in the study of the law. There is a special merit bound up in it that will assist man both in this world and in the world to come; and it is said that even a bastard who is learned inthe law is more honoured than a high-priest who is not.157Among Muhammedans, also, great respect is shown to men of learning.158Knowledge, the Prophet said, “lights the way to Heaven”—“He dies not who gives life to learning”—“With knowledge the servant of God rises to the heights of goodness and to a noble position”—“The ink of the scholar is more holy than the blood of the martyr.”159

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