has need
of aid, if he does not recognize in him, or her, one of his own tribe he
will pass on with indifference and grumble out cynically: "All the worse
for them". But if the same person were to make an appeal to his charity
on the threshold of his rude home, he or she would receive hospitality
without being known, and in the event of an accident or any other
misfortune which has occasioned grief or trouble to a kinsman, however
distant, he will share in their affliction, and do all he can to relieve
them in their distress.
After all this, that close and continual observation permits me to
affirm, may I not ask the public, or at least those who have followed me
in my rambling notes until now: might not this type of savage be held up
as an example of perfection to many of our acquaintances in the
civilized world whose boundary line of honesty is where it ceases to
bring profit, who scorn the thought of gratitude for a favour received
as being inconsistent with their "spirit of independence" and who never
lose an occasion for exemplifying the tender brotherly love of Cain?
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 12: The author of this book has given the pronunciation of the
above words according to the sounds and rules of Italian and it has been
a difficult task to present them in a sufficiently orthoepical form for
English readers to understand, for the reason that all the vowels and
many of the consonants are so differently articulated in the two
languages.
Where _a_ is followed by _h_ it should be pronounced as in _father_; by
_w_ as in _all_; by _y_ as in _may_. The consonants _g_ _k_ and _n_
which precede certain words and which would be mute in English must be
very lightly accented with the same sound they have in the
alphabet.--_Translator's Notes._]
[Footnote 13: The _scudiscio_ is a very large fungus that grows upon
trees. It is easily broken into strips which the Indigines use for tying
up things and for putting round their necks to protect them from fever.
The Sakais call it _tennak kahrah_ that means literally "the root of a
stone".]
[Footnote 14: Go back over the Alps and we shall be brothers again.]
CHAPTER XIII.
First attempts at industry--The story of a hat--Multiplicity--
Primitive arts--Sakai music--Songs--Instruments--Dances--Ball
dresses--Serpentine gracefulness--An unpublished Sakai song.
Primitive, like their language and their agriculture, are also Art and
Industry among the Sak
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