s are based not on observation but on purely
theoretical deductions, a most precarious foundation on which to erect a
science of man or indeed of anything. As such, they cannot be weighed in
the balance against the positive testimony of many witnesses who have
lived for years with the savage and affirm emphatically the logical
basis which underlies and explains his seeming vagaries. At all events I
for one have no hesitation in accepting the evidence of such men to
matters of fact with which they are acquainted, and I unhesitatingly
reject all theories which directly contradict that evidence. If there
ever has been any race of men who invariably acted first and thought
afterwards, I can only say that in the course of my reading and
observation I have never met with any trace of them, and I am apt to
suppose that, if they ever existed anywhere but in the imagination of
bookish dreamers, their career must have been an exceedingly short one,
since in the struggle for existence they would surely succumb to
adversaries who tempered and directed the blind fury of combat with at
least a modicum of reason and sense. The myth of the illogical or
prelogical savage may safely be relegated to that museum of learned
absurdities and abortions which speculative anthropology is constantly
enriching with fresh specimens of misapplied ingenuity and wasted
industry. But enough of these fantasies. Let us return to facts.

[Sidenote: The Kai theory of the soul.]

The life of the Kai people, according to Mr. Keysser, is dominated by
their conception of the soul. That conception differs greatly from and
is very much more extensive than ours. The Kai regards his reflection
and his shadow as his soul or parts of it; hence you should not tread on
a man's shadow for fear of injuring his soul. The soul likewise dwells
in his heart, for he feels it beating. Hence if you give a native a
friendly poke in the ribs, he protests, saying, "Don't poke me so; you
might drive my soul out of my body, and then I should die." The soul
moreover resides in the eye, where you may see it twinkling; when it
departs, the eye grows dim and vacant. Moreover, the soul is in the foot
as much as in the head; it lurks even in the spittle and the other
bodily excretions. The soul in fact pervades the body just as warmth
does; everything that a man touches he infects, so to say, with his
soul; that mysterious entity exists in the very sound of his voice. The
sorcerer catch