e
in that land, as shown by the "lying heaps" of sticks or stones along
the roadside here and there. "Each heap is in remembrance of some man
who has told a stupendous lie, or failed in carrying out an engagement;
and every passer-by takes a stick or a stone to add to the accumulation,
saying at the time he does it, 'For So-and-so's lying heap.' It goes on
for generations, until they sometimes forget who it was that told the
lie, but, notwithstanding that, they continue throwing the stones."[8]
What a blocking of the paths of civilization there would be if a "lying
heap" were piled up wherever a lie had been told, or a promise had
been broken, by a child of civilization!

[Footnote 1: Denham, and Palgrave, cited in _Cycl. of Des. Social_.,
V., 30,31.]

[Footnote 2: See Morgan's _League of the Iroquois_, p. 335; also
Schoolcraft, and Keating, on the Chippewas, cited in _Cycl. of
Descrip. Sociol_., VI., 30.]

[Footnote 3: Snow, cited in _Ibid_.]

[Footnote 4: Kolben, and Barrow, cited in _Cycl. of Descrip. Sociol_.,
IV., 25.]

[Footnote 5: _Cycl. of Descrip. Sociol_., IV., 26.]

[Footnote 6: _Cycl. of Descrip. Social_., IV., 27.]

[Footnote 7: _Head Hunters of Borneo_, p. 209. See also Boyle, cited
in Spencer's _Cycl. of Descrip. Social_., III., 35.]

[Footnote 8: St. John's _Life in the Forests of the Far East_, I., 88
f.]

The Veddahs of Ceylon, one of the most primitive of peoples, "are
proverbially truthful."[1] The natives of Java are peculiarly free
from the vice of lying, except in those districts which have had most
intercourse with Europeans.[2]

[Footnote 1: Bailey, cited in Spencer's _Cycl. of Descrip. Social_.,
III., 32.]

[Footnote 2: Earl, and Raffles, cited in _Ibid_., p. 35.]

It is found, in fact, that in all the ages, the world over, primitive
man's highest ideal conception of deity has been that of a God who
could not tolerate a lie; and his loftiest standard of human action
has included the readiness to refuse to tell a lie under any
inducement, or in any peril, whether it be to a friend or to an enemy.
This is the teaching of ethnic conceptions on the subject. The lie
would seem to be a product of civilization, or an outgrowth of the
spirit of trade and barter, rather than a natural impulse of primitive
man. It appeared in full flower and fruitage in olden time among the
commercial Phoenicians, so prominently that "Punic faith" became a
synonym of falsehood in social dealings.

Yet