rs are rooted in the savage theory of things, and if
the savage is too sluggish to invent or half consciously evolve a theory
of things, our hypothesis is baseless. Again, we expect to find in
savage myths the answer given by savages to their own questions. But
this view is impossible if savages do not ask themselves, and never have
asked themselves, any questions at all about the world. On this topic
Mr. Spencer writes: "Along with absence of surprise there naturally
goes absence of intelligent curiosity".(2) Yet Mr. Spencer admits that,
according to some witnesses, "the Dyaks have an insatiable curiosity,"
the Samoans "are usually very inquisitive," and "the Tahitians are
remarkably curious and inquisitive". Nothing is more common than to
find travellers complaining that savages, in their ardently inquiring
curiosity, will not leave the European for a moment to his own
undisturbed devices. Mr. Spencer's savages, who showed no curiosity,
displayed this impassiveness when Europeans were trying to make them
exhibit signs of surprise. Impassivity is a point of honour with many
uncivilised races, and we cannot infer that a savage has no curiosity
because he does not excite himself over a mirror, or when his European
visitors try to swagger with their mechanical appliances. Mr. Herbert
Spencer founds, on the statements of Mr. Bates already quoted, a notion
that "the savage, lacking ability to think and the accompanying desire
to know, is without tendency to speculate". He backs Mr. Bates's
experience with Mungo Park's failure to "draw" the negroes about the
causes of day and night. They had never indulged a conjecture nor formed
an hypothesis on the matter. Yet Park avers that "the belief in one God
is entire and universal among them". This he "pronounces without the
smallest shadow of doubt". As to "primitive man," according to Mr.
Spencer, "the need for explanations about surrounding appearances does
not occur to him". We have disclaimed all knowledge about "primitive
man," but it is easy to show that Mr. Spencer grounds his belief in the
lack of speculation among savages on a frail foundation of evidence.

(1) Vol. ii. p. 162.

(2) Sociology, p. 98.

Mr. Spencer has admitted speculation, or at least curiosity, among New
Caledonians, New Guinea people, Dyaks, Samoans and Tahitians. Even where
he denies its existence, as among the Amazon tribes mentioned by Mr.
Bates, we happen to be able to show that Mr. Bates was m