Chapter 88

37Simons, ‘Exploration of the Goajira Peninsula,’ inProceed. Roy. Geo. Soc.N.S. vii. 786.

38von Rosenberg,Der malayische Archipel, p. 167.

39Ta Tsing Leu Lee, sec. cccxxix. p. 357.

40Ibid.sec. cccxxvii. p. 356.

41Laws of Manu, viii. 267sq.Cf.Gautama, xii. 8sqq.It is also said that “a once-born man (a Sûdra), who insults a twice-born man with gross invective, shall have his tongue cut out; for he is of low origin” (ibid.viii. 270. See alsoInstitutes of Vishnu, v. 23;Gautama, xii. 1;Âpastamba, ii. 10. 27. 14).

42Keyser,Efterladte Skrifter, ii. pt. i. 295.

43Hunter,Exposition of Roman Law, p. 164. Mommsen,Römisches Strafrecht, p. 786, n. 3.

44Digesta, xlvii. 10. 15. 35. Hunter,op. cit.p. 165.

45Gotlands-Lagen, i. 19. 37.

The condemnation of such conduct as is offensive to other persons’ self-regarding pride includes condemnation of pride itself, when displayed in an excessive degree; whereas the opposite disposition—modesty—which implies regard for other people’s “self-feeling,” is praised as a virtue. The Fijians say of a boasting person, “You are like thekaka(parrot); you only speak to shout your own name.”46On the other hand, among the Tonga Islanders “a modest opinion of oneself is esteemed a great virtue, and is also put in practice.”47Confucius taught that humility belongs to the characteristics of a superior man.48Such a man, he said, is modest in his speech, though he exceeds in his actions;49he has dignified ease without pride, whereas the mean man has pride without a dignified ease;50he prefers the concealment of his virtue, when it daily becomes more illustrious, whereas the mean man seeks notoriety when he daily goes more and more to ruin.51So also humility has a distinguished place in the teachings of Lao-tsze:—“I have three precious things which I hold fast and prize, namely, compassion, economy, and humility”; “He who knows the glory, and at the same time keeps to shame, will be the whole world’s valley …, eternal virtue will fill him, and he will return home to Taou.”52In the Book of the Dead the soul of the ancient Egyptian pleads, “I am not swollen with pride.”53According to Zoroastrianism, the sin of pride has been created by Ahriman.54Overbearingness was censured in ancient Scandinavia,55Greece,56and Rome. During our prosperity, says Cicero, “we ought with great care toavoid pride and arrogance.”57The Hebrew prophets condemned not only pride but eminence, because an eminent man is apt to be proud.58We read in the Talmud:—“He who humiliates himself will be lifted up; he who raises himself up will be humiliated. Whosoever runs after greatness, greatness runs away from him; he who runs from greatness, greatness follows him.”59Christianity enjoined humility as a cardinal duty in every man.60In the Koran it is said, “God loves not him who is proud, and boastful.”61Pride has thus come to be stigmatised not only as a vice, but as a sin of great magnitude. One reason for this is that it is regarded as even more offensive to the “self-feeling” of a great god or the Supreme Being than it is to that of a man. But pride must also appear as irreligious arrogance to those who maintain that man is by nature altogether corrupt, and that everything good in him is a gift of God.62

46Williams and Calvert,op. cit.p. 107.

47Mariner,op. cit.ii. 164.

48Lun Yü, v. 15.Chung Yung, xxvii. 7.

49Lun Yü, xiv. 29.

50Ibid.xiii. 26.Cf.ibid.xx. 2. 1.

51Chung Yung, xxxiii. 1.

52Douglas,Confucianism and Taouism, p. 194sq.Tâo Teh King, xxviii. 1.

53Book of the Dead, ch. 125, p. 216.Cf.Amélineau,Essai sur l’évolution des idées morales dans l’Égypt Ancienne, p. 353.

54Vendîdâd, i. 11.

55Maurer,Die Bekehrung des Norwegischen Stammes zum Christenthume, ii. 150.

56Schmidt,Die Ethik der alten Griechen, i. 253. Hermann,Lehrbuch der Griechischen Antiquitäten, ii. pt. i. 34sq.Blümner,Ueber die Idee des Schicksals in den Tragödien des Aischylos, p. 131.

57Cicero,De officiis, i. 26.

58Cf.Kuenen,Religion of Israel, i. 62sq.

59Deutsch,Literary Remains, p. 58.

60St. Matthew, v. 11, 12, 39; vi. 25, 26, 30sqq.; xviii. 4; &c.

61Koran, iv. 40.Cf.Ameer Ali,Ethics of Islâm, p. 44.

62Manzoni,Osservazioni sulla morale cattolica, p. 182sqq.

At the same time, whilst pride is held blamable, humility may also go too far to be approved of, and may even be an object of censure. In early ethics, as we have noticed above, revenge is enjoined as a duty and forgiveness of enemies is despised; and this is the case not only among savages.63The device of Chivalry was, “It is better to die than to be avenged by shame”;64and side by side with the nominal acceptance of the Christian doctrine of absolute placability the idea still prevails, in many European countries, that an assault upon honour shall be followed by a challenge to mortal combat. Too great humility is regarded as a sign of weakness, cowardice, hypocrisy, or a defective sense of honour. We are not allowed to be indifferent to the estimation in which we are held by our neighbours. Such indifference springs either from a feeble moral constitution and absence of moral shame, or froma depreciation of other people’s opinions in comparison with our own, and this is offensive to theiramour-propre. Outward humility may thus suggest inward pride and appear arrogant.

63Supra,i. 73sq.

64Laurent,Études sur l’histoire de l’Humanité, vii. 184.

A person’s “self-feeling” may be violated in innumerable ways, by words and deeds. Almost any deviation from what is usual may arouse a suspicion of arrogance. This largely accounts for the fact mentioned in a previous chapter that habits have a tendency to become true customs, that is, rules of duty. Transgressions of the established forms of social intercourse are particularly apt to be offensive to people’s self-regarding pride. Many of these forms originated in a desire to please, but by becoming habitual they at the same time became obligatory. Politeness is a duty rather than a virtue.

There is probably no people on earth which does not recognise some rules of politeness. Many savages are conspicuous for their civility.65It has been observed that Christian missionaries working among uncivilised races often are in manners much inferior to those they are teaching, and thus lower the native standard of refinement.66The Samoans, we are told, “are a nation of gentlemen,” and contrast most favourably with the generality of Europeans who come amongst them.67On their first intercourse with Europeans, the Maoris “always manifest a degree of politeness which would do honour to a more civilised people”; but by continued intercourse they lose a great part of this characteristic.68Among the Fijians “the rules of politeness are minute, and receive scrupulous attention. They affect the language, and are seen in forms of salutation, in attention to strangers, at meals, in dress, and, indeed, influence their manners in-doors andout. None but the very lowest are ill-behaved, and their confusion on committing themselves shows that they are not impudently so.”69The Malagasy “are a very polite people, and look with contempt upon those who neglect the ordinary usages and salutations”;70“even the most ragged and tattered slave possesses a natural dignity and ease of manner, which contrasts favourably with the rude conduct and boorish manners of the lower class at home.”71Of the Point Barrow Eskimo Mr. Murdoch observes that “many of them show a grace of manner and a natural delicacy and politeness which is quite surprising”; and he mentions the instance of a young Eskimo being so polite in conversing with an American officer that “he would take pains to mispronounce his words in the same way as the latter did, so as not to hurt his feelings by correcting him bluntly.”72The forms of Kafir politeness “are very strictly adhered to, and are many.”73Of the Negroes of Fida Bosman wrote, “They are so civil to each other and the inferior so respectful to the superior, that at first I was very much surprised at it.”74Monrad found the Negroes of Accra surpass many civilised people in politeness.75So also in Morocco even country-folks are much more civil in their general behaviour than the large majority of Europeans. “The conversations of the Arabs,” says d’Arvieux, “are full of civilities; one never hears anything there that they think rude and unbecoming.”76Politeness is a characteristic of all the great nations of the East. The Chinese have brought the practice of it “to a pitch of perfection which is not only unknown in Western lands, but, previous to experience, is unthought of and almost unimaginable. The rules of ceremony, we are reminded in the Classics, are threehundred, and the rules of behaviour three thousand.”77In Europe courtesy was recommended as the most amiable of knightly qualities; and from “the wild and overstrained courtesies of Chivalry” has been derived our present system of manners.78

65Waitz-Gerland,Anthropologie der Naturvölker, vi. 143sqq.(Polynesians). Macdonald,Oceania, p. 195 (Efatese). Cranz,History of Greenland, i. 157. MacGregor, ‘Lagos, Abeokuta and the Alake,’ inJour. African Soc.July, 1904, p. 466 (Yorubas).

66Brenchley,Jottings during the Cruise of H.M.S. ‘Curaçoa’ among the South Sea Islands, p. 349.

67Hood,Cruise in H.M.S. ‘Fawn’ in the Western Pacific, p. 59sq.

68Dieffenbach,op. cit.ii. 108sqq.See also Colenso,op. cit.p. 53sqq.

69Williams and Calvert,op. cit.p. 129.Cf.ibid.pp. 128, 131sq.; Anderson,Notes of Travel in Fiji, p. 135.

70Sibree,The Great African Island, p. 325.

71Little,Madagascar, p. 71.

72Murdoch, ‘Ethn. Results of the Point Barrow Expedition,’ inAnn. Rep. Bur. Ethn.ix. 42.

73Leslie,Among the Zulus and Amatongas, p. 203.

74Bosman,Description of the Coast of Guinea, p. 317.

75Monrad,Skildring af Guinea-Kysten, p. 9.

76d’Arvieux,Travels in Arabia the Desart, p. 141.

77Smith,Chinese Characteristics, p. 35.

78Ordre of Chyualry, fol. 46. Robertson,History of the Reign of Charles V.i. 84. Milman,History of Latin Christianity, iv. 211. Turner,History of England, iii. 473. Mills,History of Chivalry, i. 161sq.Scott, ‘Essay on Chivalry,’ inMiscellaneous Prose Works, vi. 58.

The rules of politeness and good manners refer to all sorts of social intercourse and vary indefinitely in detail. They tell people how to sit or stand in each other’s presence, or how to pass through a door; a Zulu would be fined for going out of a hut back first.79They prescribe how to behave at a meal; the Indians of British Columbia consider it improper to talk on such an occasion,80and it appears that in England also, in the fifteenth century, “people did not hold conversation while eating, but that the talk and mirth began with the liquor.”81Politeness demands that a person should never interrupt another while speaking;82or that he should avoid contradicting a statement;83or, not infrequently, that he should rather tell a pleasant untruth than an unpleasant truth.84At times it requires the use of certain phrases, words of thanks, flattery, or expressions of self-humiliation. In Chinese there is “a whole vocabulary of words which are indispensable to one who wishes to pose as a ‘polite’ person, words in which whatever belongs to the speaker is treated with scorn and contempt, and whatever relates to the person addressed is honourable. The ‘polite’ Chinese will refer to his wife, if driven to the extremity of referringto her at all, as his ‘dull thorn,’ or in some similar elegant figure of speech.”85

79Tyler,Forty Years among the Zulus, p. 190sq.

80Woldt,Kaptein Jacobsens Reiser til Nordamerikas Nordvestkyst, p. 99.

81Wright,Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England during the Middle Ages, p. 396.

82Domenech,Seven Years Residence in the Great Deserts of North America, ii. 72. Richardson,Arctic Searching Expedition, i. 385 (Kutchin). Cranz,History of Greenland, i. 157. Dobrizhoffer,Account of the Abipones, ii. 136sq.d’Arvieux,op. cit.p. 139sq.; Wallin,Reseanteckningar från Orienten, iii. 259 (Bedouins).

83Nansen,First Crossing of Greenland, ii. 334sq.; Cranz,op. cit.i. 157 (Greenlanders). Dobrizhofifer,op. cit.ii. 137 (Abipones). d’Arvieux,op. cit.p. 141 (Bedouins).

84Supra,ii. 111.

85Smith,Chinese Characteristics, p. 274.

Politeness enjoins the performance of certain ceremonies upon persons who meet or part. The custom of salutation is of world-wide prevalence, though there are certain savages who are said to have no greetings except when they have learnt the practice from the whites.86As a ceremony prescribed by public opinion it is an obligatory tribute paid to another person’s “self-feeling,” whatever be the original nature of the act which has been adopted for the purpose. The form of salutation has sometimes been borrowed from questions springing from curiosity or suspicion. Among the Californian Miwok, when anybody meets a stranger he generally salutes him, “Whence do you come? What are you at?”87The Abipones “would think it quite contrary to the laws of good-breeding, were they to meet any one and not ask him where he was going”;88and a similar question is also a very common mode of greeting among the Berbers of Southern Morocco. Very frequently a salutation consists of some phrase which is expressive of goodwill. It may be an inquiry about the other person’s health or welfare, as the English “How are you?” “How do you do?” Among the Burmese two relatives or friends who meet begin a conversation by the expressions, “Are you well? I am well,” if they have been some time separated; whereas those who are daily accustomed to meet say, “Where are you going?”89The Moors ask, “What is your news?” or, “Is nothing wrong?” The ordinary salutation of the Zulus is, “I see you, are you well?” after which the snuffbox, the token of friendship, is passed round.90Among several tribes of California, again, a person when greeting anothersimply utters a word which means “friendship.”91The goodwill is often directly expressed in the form of a wish, like our “Good day!” “Good night!” Among the Hebrews the salutation at meeting or entering another’s house seems at first to have consisted most commonly in an inquiry after mutual welfare,92but in later times “Health!” or “Peace to thee!” became the current greeting.93According to the Laws of Manu, a Brâhmana should be saluted, “May thou be long-lived, O gentle one!”94The Greeks said χαῖρε (“Be joyful!”); the Romans,Salve!(“Be in health!”) especially on meeting, andVale!(“Be well!”) on parting. The good wish may have the form of a prayer. The Moors say, “May God give thee peace!” “May God give thee a good night!” and the English “Good-bye” and the FrenchAdieuare prayers curtailed by the progress of time. But there is no foundation for Professor Wundt’s assertion that “the words employed in greeting are one and all prayer formulæ in a more or less rudimentary state.”95A salutation may, finally, be a verbal profession of subjection, as the Swedish “Ödmjukaste tjänare,” that is, (I am your) “most humble servant.”

86Krasheninnikoff,History of Kamschatka, p. 177. Dall,op. cit.p. 397 (Aleuts). Egede,Description of Greenland, p. 125; Rink,Danish Greenland, p. 223; Cranz,op. cit.i. 157 (Greenlanders). Prescott, in Schoolcraft,Indian Tribes of the United States, iii. 244 (Dacotahs). Lewin,Wild Races of South-Eastern India, pp. 230 (Kumi), 256 (Kukis).

87Powers,Tribes of California, p. 347.

88Dobrizhoffer,op. cit.ii. 138.

89Forbes,British Burma, p. 69.

90Tyler,op. cit.p. 190.

91Powers,op. cit.p. 58.

92Genesis, xliii. 27.Exodus, xviii. 7.

93Judges, xix. 20.1 Chronicles, xii. 18.Cf.Keil,Manual of Biblical Archæology, ii. 183.

94Laws of Manu, ii. 125.

95Wundt,Ethik, p. 179.

Salutations may consist not only in words spoken, but in conventional gestures, either accompanied by some verbal expression or performed silently.96They may be tokens of submission or reverence, as cowering, crouching, and bowing. Or they may originally have been signs of disarming or defencelessness, as uncovering some particular portion of the body. Von Jhering suggests that the offering of the hand belongs to the same group of salutations, its object being to indicate that the other person has nothing to fear;97but in many cases at least handshaking seems to have the same origin as other ceremonies consistingin bodily contact. Salutatory gestures may express not only absence of evil intentions but positive friendliness; among respectable Moors it is a common mode of greeting that each party places his right hand on his heart to indicate, as Jackson puts it, “that part to be the residence of the friend.”98Various forms of salutation by contact, such as clasping, embracing, kissing, and sniffing, are obviously direct expressions of affection;99and we can hardly doubt that the joining of hands serves a similar object when we find it combined with other tokens of goodwill. Among some of the Australian natives, friends, on meeting after an absence, “will kiss, shake hands, and sometimes cry over one another.”100In Morocco equals salute each other by joining their hands with a quick motion, separating them immediately, and kissing each his own hand. The Soolimas, again, place the palms of the right hands together, carry them then to the forehead, and from thence to the left side of the chest.101But bodily union is also employed as a method of transferring either blessings or conditional curses, and it seems probable that certain salutatory acts have vaguely or distinctly such transference in view. Among the Masai, who spit on each other both when they meet and when they part, spitting “expresses the greatest goodwill and the best of wishes”;102and in a previous chapter I have endeavoured to show that the object of certain reception ceremonies is to transfer a conditional curse to the stranger who is received as a guest.103On the same principle as underlies these ceremonies, handshaking may be a means of joining in compact, analogous to a common meal104and the blood-covenant.105

96See Tylor, ‘Salutations,’ inEncyclopædia Britannica, xxi. 235sqq.; Ling Roth, ‘Salutations,’ inJour. Anthr. Inst.xix. 166sqq.

97von Jhering,Der Zweck im Recht, ii. 649sqq.

98Jackson,Account of Timbuctoo, &c.p. 235.

99Seeinfra, on theOrigin and Development of the Altruistic Sentiment.

100Hackett, ‘Ballardong or Ballerdokking Tribe,’ in Curr,The Australian Race, i. 343.

101Laing,Travels in the Timannee, Kooranko, and Soolima Countries, p. 368.

102Thomson,Through Masai Land, p. 166.

103Supra,i. 590sq.

104Supra,i. 587.

105Seeinfra, on theOrigin and Development of the Altruistic Sentiment.

Being an homage rendered to other persons self-regardingpride, the rule of politeness is naturally most exacting in relation to superiors. Many of its forms have, in fact, originated in humble or respectful behaviour towards rulers, masters, or elders, and, often in a modified shape, become common between equals after they have lost their original meaning.106It has been noticed that the cruelty of despots always engenders politeness, whereas the freest nations are generally the rudest in manners.107Politeness is further in a special degree shown by men to women, not only among ourselves, but even among many savages;108in this case courtesy is connected with courtship. Strangers or remote acquaintances, also, have particular claims to be treated with civility, whereas politeness is of little moment in the intercourse of friends; it imitates kindness, and is resorted to where the genuine feeling is wanting.109And in the capacity of guest, the stranger is often for the time being flattered with exquisite marks of honour, for reasons which have been stated in another connection.

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