Part 1
Ethno-Geographic Reader, No. 1
STRANGE PEOPLES
BY
FREDERICK STARR
BOSTON, U.S.A.
D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS
1901
Ethno-Geographic Readers.
BY FREDERICK STARR.
No. 1. STRANGE PEOPLES. 40 CENTS. No. 2. AMERICAN INDIANS. 45 CENTS. No. 3. HOW MEN DO. IN PREPARATION.
D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS
COPYRIGHT, 1901, BY FREDERICK STARR.
Plimpton Press H. M. Plimpton & CO., PRINTERS & BINDERS NORWOOD, MASS., U.S.A.
THIS BOOK
STRANGE PEOPLES
IS DEDICATED TO
WILLIAM FOSTER YOUNG
PREFACE.
The author claims no originality for the matter of this book for young readers on _Strange Peoples_. He has culled material where he could. His aim has been to present a series of sketches which may render the maps in the geography more interesting and give school children a broader and deeper sympathy with other races and peoples. Indebted to many books, he has been under constant obligations to Verneau’s _Les Races Humaines_ and Ratzel’s _Völkerkunde_. Other books which have been helpful will be found listed at the close of this volume.
At first the author planned to use only original or new illustrations. It has been, however, impossible to carry out this plan. Less than one fourth of the pictures are really new; it is believed, however, that all are authentic and will prove instructive.
It would have been easy to make the book more interesting by the introduction of descriptions, more detailed, of the ridiculous or dreadful practices of some races. The purpose has, however, not been to hold other peoples up to ridicule nor to teach morality by contrast; there are, indeed, too many matters for criticism in our own mode of life to warrant such a treatment. Nor would it be possible in a book for children to present that full discussion which might be expected in a treatise on ethnology for students. The book makes no pretence to systematic treatment; only a few people are taken, here and there, almost at haphazard, to illustrate the marvellous richness of the field for study which, even now, is presented by the _Strange Peoples_ of the globe.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAGE I. INTRODUCTION 1
II. THE PEOPLES OF NORTH AMERICA: ESKIMO 6
III. WILD INDIANS 13
IV. MEXICANS 17
V. SOUTH AMERICAN PEOPLES 26
VI. THE PEOPLES OF EUROPE: FAIR WHITES 33
VII. DARK WHITES 38
VIII. BASQUES 43
IX. FINNS 47
X. LAPPS 53
XI. TURKS 60
XII. THE PEOPLES OF ASIA 65
XIII. CHINESE 69
XIV. COREANS 76
XV. TIBETANS 81
XVI. JAPANESE 88
XVII. AINU 95
XVIII. HINDUS 101
XIX. TODAS 107
XX. ANDAMANESE: MINCOPIES 112
XXI. ARABS 118
XXII. THE PEOPLES OF AFRICA: KABYLES 123
XXIII. NEGROES 128
XXIV. NEGROIDS 134
XXV. PYGMIES 138
XXVI. BUSHMEN AND HOTTENTOTS 143
XXVII. MALAYS 150
XXVIII. THE PEOPLES OF THE PHILIPPINES 156
XXIX. MELANESIANS 163
XXX. POLYNESIANS 172
XXXI. CONCLUSION 180
LIST OF REFERENCE BOOKS 185
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Australian (Ratzel) _Frontispiece_
PAGE 1. Group of Greenland Eskimo. (Nansen.) 9
2. A Greenland Eskimo Fishing. (Nansen.) 11
3. Victorio—an Apache Warrior. (Lummis.) 14
4. Mexican Ox-cart. (From photograph.) 21
5. Mexican Water-carrier. (From photograph.) 22
6. Otomi Indian Girls, Mexico. (From photograph.) 24
7. Peruvian Antiquities. (Ratzel.) 27
8. Botocudo Indian with Lip-plug. (Tylor.) 31
9. Fish-girl of Scheveningen, Holland. (From photograph.) 35
10. Boats made from Shoes, Holland. (From drawing by Haité.) 36
11. Italian Child. (Miln.) 39
12. Basque Cart. (Verneau.) 46
13. Finns Singing. (Verneau.) 51
14. A Group of Lapps. (Verneau.) 54
15. Laplander on Snow-runners. (Verneau.) 57
16. Caravan preparing to start: Asiatic Turks. (Verneau.) 62
17. Chinese Mandarin. (Ratzel.) 71
18. Chinese Boy choosing Toys. (Doolittle.) 73
19. Corean Hat. (Lowell.) 78
20. Tibetan Lamas blowing on Shells. (Verneau.) 84
21. Mongols choosing a Lama. (Huc.) 86
22. Japanese Girl with Baby. (Arnold.) 89
23. Boys’ Festival: Japan. (Bramhall.) 92
24. Ainu—a Hairy Specimen. (Batchelor.) 96
25. Ainu Women, showing Tattooing. (From a photograph.) 97
26. Hindu Dancing girls and Musicians. (Verneau.) 103
27. Hindu Snake Charmers. (Brehm.) 105
28. Group of Todas. (Verneau.) 111
29. Andaman Mincopies. (Tylor.) 116
30. Camel and Palanquin. (From a photograph.) 120
31. Group of Kabyles: Algeria. (From a photograph.) 125
32. Making Couscous in the Desert. (From a photograph.) 127
33. Negro Smiths at Work. (Ratzel.) 131
34. Waganda Musicians. (Ratzel.) 137
35. Huts of Ashango-land Dwarfs. (Du Chaillu.) 140
36. Gora-player: Bushman. (Ratzel.) 145
37. Bushman Rock Picture. (Ratzel.) 147
38. Hottentot Kraal. (Ratzel.) 149
39. Malay Family: Java. (Verneau.) 152
40. Buffalo Cart: Java. (Ratzel.) 154
41. Krises: Java. (Ratzel.) 155
42. Philippine Negrito. (Meyer.) 158
43. Houses of Igorrotes. (Meyer.) 160
44. Head-hunting Party: Igorrotes. (Meyer.) 162
45. Fijian. (Ratzel.) 165
46. Pile-dwelling Village: New Guinea. (Ratzel.) 167
47. Canoe: New Guinea. (Ratzel.) 168
48. Tattooed New Zealander. (Verneau.) 173
49. Helmets and Idol-heads of Feathers: Hawaii. (Ratzel.) 175
50. Kingsmill Islander. (Tylor.) 179
STRANGE PEOPLES.
I. INTRODUCTORY.
We are to read about some of the _Strange Peoples_ of the world. We shall find many curious customs. There is an old saying,—
“Many men of many minds; Many birds of many kinds; Many fishes in the sea; Many men who don’t agree.”
Peoples differ in so many ways. There are tall Patagonians and short Bushmen. There are white peoples, and black, yellow, and brown peoples. There are peoples whose bodies are so covered with hair as almost to be called furry, and there are peoples whose faces even are hairless except for eyebrows and eyelashes. There are lively peoples and there are sluggish peoples; gay peoples and sad ones. Negroes do not think and feel like white men, and the Chinaman thinks and feels differently from either. All peoples have their own customs. When we speak of other peoples as _Strange Peoples_, we must never forget that we are as _strange_ to them as they are to us. We think it curious that the Chinese dwarf, by bandaging, the feet of their women; they think it strange that we do _not_. To us the Chinese face seems much too flat; the Chinese think ours are like the face of an eagle and that they are harsh and cruel. We think the flat, wide nose of the negro is ugly; negroes think it far handsomer than ours. So we will remember that all these peoples are “strange” only because they are _unlike_ us: that we ourselves are just as strange as they are. They have as much right to their ideas and customs as we have to ours: often indeed we might find theirs better than our own.
We begin with North America. We then pass to South America; then to Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Pacific Islands in order. We shall find that the different peoples of the world are not scattered haphazard; on the contrary, they are quite regularly distributed by types. Thus until lately the peoples living in America were all Indians, with red-brown skin, straight and coarse black hair, and high and wide cheek bones. Europe and Northern Africa (which really belongs rather to Europe than Africa) form the land of the white peoples. South Africa—Africa proper—is the home of negroes and negroids, with dark brown, almost black, skin, narrow heads and faces, and woolly hair. The proper population of Asia is yellow peoples, with round heads, slant eyes, and straight, long, black hair. In Australia are brown peoples with curly or bushy hair. In Oceanica are several well-marked types—the little brown Malays, the dark, almost black, Melanesians with crinkly hair, and the tall, well-built, fine-featured, light Polynesians. This is, in general, the distribution of the human races. But there has been much movement. There are now both white and blacks in America; the English whites have crowded in upon the natives of Australia; in Asia there are white peoples, like the Ainu and Todas, who have certainly lived there a long time.
The different peoples are unlike in their culture. Some peoples live on wild food, having no cultivated plants or domestic animals. They hunt animals and catch fish; they search for birds’ eggs and honey; they grub up roots and gather barks, leaves, fruits, seeds, and nuts for food. To such tribes, who usually wander in little bands from place to place, the name savage is given. The word does not mean that they are fierce and cruel in disposition; most savage tribes, to-day living, are neither. The Eskimo and Mincopies are savages, but they are quite kind and gentle. When peoples settle down to cultivate the soil and build homes, or when they raise herds of animals with which they move from time to time for new pastures, their life is easier. To such peoples—so long as they do _not_ know how to work iron by smelting, to write by means of characters that represent sounds, and to make animals assist them in tilling the ground—the name barbarian is applied. When any peoples have learned these three great helps, they are called civilized. There are then three great stages of culture,—savagery, barbarism, and civilization. The Eskimo is in savagery; the American Indians are mostly in barbarism; the Chinese are in civilization.
The way in which the life of peoples is affected by the lands in which they live is most interesting. The Eskimo live in the cold north; there is little wood there for construction; fuels such as are used elsewhere are rare; no fibre-yielding plants grow there. Yet the Eskimo has made full use of what nature gives him. He builds his house, when necessary, of the snow itself, heats it with animal fats and oils, clothes himself in excellent garments of skins, knows the ways of all the animals and birds around him for their destruction, and has invented an ideal hunter’s boat and devised a beautiful series of weapons and tools. The way in which he has fitted himself to the place in which he lives is wonderful. The world over we notice the same thing: man everywhere ransacks his home-land to find out what is useful and turns it to his needs.
Often where two different peoples live in the same district marriage takes place between them, and mixed types arise. Where one people has long occupied a country alone the type is very well-marked, and all look alike. Thus in the Andaman Islands, the little Mincopies look so much alike that a person needs to know them well to tell them apart. We, ourselves, are a great mixture. Even in one family there may be tall and short, light and dark, blue-eyed or brown-eyed persons. Such differences are only found where there has been much mixing between different peoples. In Mexico, once purely Indian, there has been since the coming of the Spaniards much mixture, and to-day a large part of the population is of a new type—part Indian, part Spanish. The people range in color from almost white to dark brown according to the amount of Spanish or Indian blood each has.
II. THE PEOPLES OF NORTH AMERICA: ESKIMO.
For the larger part, North America is now occupied by populations of our own kind. The greater part of the people of Canada is of French or English descent; the people of our own country are mainly Europeans or of European descent. There are of course many negroes, especially in the South, who have descended from African slaves. There are also some Chinese, Japanese, Hindus, Malays, and others. Formerly the United States and Canada were occupied by Indians, but now there are few left, who mostly live upon reservations. South of the United States lie Mexico and Central America. They, too, were Indian lands when first visited by white men. In Northern Mexico a new, mixed population live; Southern Mexico is yet quite purely Indian. In Central America we find the mixed Spanish-Indian in some districts, and pure Indians in others. In the northmost part of the continent live the Eskimo. We shall speak about the Eskimo, wild Indians, and Mexicans.
The home-land of the Eskimo is dreary. They live in Labrador, Greenland, and the Arctic country stretching from Greenland west to Northern Alaska. Generally, it is a land of snow and ice, where it is impossible to raise even the most hardy plants. The people are forced to live chiefly on animal food. Not only is the weather usually cold, but for a large part of the year the Eskimo do not see the sun, and for the rest of it they see the sun all the time. In some districts the swarms of mosquitoes in the warmer part of the year are a great trouble. There are few trees, and those are stunted; wood is precious, and drift wood is carefully gathered to make into tools and weapons. But notwithstanding his dreary home the Eskimo are rarely ugly and ill tempered.
They are little people with yellowish brown skin. Some Greenlanders are of fair stature. Their faces are broad and round, with coarse features. The eyes are small, dark, and often oblique, like the Chinese; the nose is narrow at the root, but fat; the cheeks are round and full; the mouth is big, with good, strong teeth. Eskimo are usually filthy and appear much darker than they really are.
The clothing is generally made of skins with the hair left on. Men and women dress much alike. Trousers are worn by both: a shirt or jacket with a hood attached is much used. That worn by men is often made of bird skins, and the feather side is worn next the body. The lower part of the legs and the feet are encased in _kamiks_, skin socks and boots. The little babies are carried naked in a great pouch at the back of their outer jacket. This pouch makes a fine nest for the little creatures, as it is lined with soft sealskin or reindeer skin. Formerly—and perhaps sometimes now—the Eskimo mothers used to wash their babies by licking them with their tongues.
In Greenland the Eskimo houses are usually built of stones and earth. They are partly below ground, and only the upper part shows outside, like a mound of dirt. To enter the house one crawls through a long and narrow passage, also built of stones and earth, and which is also partly below ground. The house is not large, and consists of one room. It is lined with skins. Wide benches around the sides, covered with skins and moss, serve as beds. Several families live crowded together in one house. One house in East Greenland, measuring twenty-seven by fifteen feet, contained eight families,—thirty-eight persons. The houses are so low that a tall man cannot stand upright in one. Until lately the only heating was by stone lamps. These were flat and hardly deeper than a plate: oil was burned in them. They were kept burning day and night, and above them were racks of poles on which wet clothing was dried. In the middle part of the Eskimo land they build the quaint round-topped huts made of blocks of snow, of which you have often seen pictures.
The Eskimo eat the flesh of seals, whales, birds, hares, bears, dogs, foxes, and deer. In that cold country they like _fat_ meat. Sometimes meat and fish are eaten raw, but they may be boiled or fried. Fresh, raw blubber is much loved. The skin of whales, seals, and halibut is favorite food. Travellers tell astonishing stories of the quantities of candles and oil that Eskimo eat and drink when they are supplied to them. The supply of plant food is small: stalks of angelica, dandelion, sorrel, berries, and seaweed are used.
The man’s great business is hunting. He has studied the habits of the bear, deer, seal, and walrus, and has learned just how to capture or kill them. He has invented many curious darts, harpoons, spears, bolas, etc. The bird spears have several points projecting in different directions from the shaft, so that if one misses, another may strike, or several birds may be impaled at once. The bolas consists of several pebbles attached to cords, which are knotted together at the end. These are set to whirling and then hurled through the air at birds to entangle them. The point of the harpoon separates from the shaft when an animal is struck; it remains in the game while the shaft floats on the water; the point is connected by a line to a bladder, which, floating, shows where the animal goes, and helps to tire him out. In hurling harpoons and darts the Eskimo uses a spear-throwing stick which enables him to send them with more force and directness than by his hand alone.
Much of his hunting is done from his canoe or _kayak_. This is narrow, sharp-pointed at both ends, and light. It consists of a slight framework over which skins are tightly stretched. The opening above is but large enough for him to get his legs and body through. When he has crept in, he ties a collar of skin, that surrounds the opening, about his body, below his arms, to prevent the water dashing into the _kayak_, and paddles away. His different weapons are all fastened in their proper places on top of the canoe, where he can seize them when wanted. The Eskimo are wonderful boatmen and drive their _kayaks_ over the waves like seabirds. If they tip over, they easily right themselves.
Formerly the Greenland Eskimo made long summer trips along the coast. The clumsy, great, woman’s boat was brought out. The oldest man, the women, children, and baggage went in it. The younger men went in their _kayaks_. In the big boat the women rowed while the old man steered. They often went fifty miles a day. At good spots they landed and built a tent of thin skins. They loved these summer journeys as our boys love their camping trips.
III. WILD INDIANS.
There are no really wild Indians left in the United States. Formerly there were many tribes of them, but some have disappeared, and others have lost their old-time spirit. To-day our Indians live idly on the reservations or work their little farms with fair industry. Sometimes a tribe, roused by new wrongs inflicted on it by the white man, takes the war-path; sometimes some religious idea goes from tribe to tribe creating great excitement, like the Ghost Dance. But such outbreaks and excitements are less and less common.
Mr. Lummis has written of the Apache warrior and described the war led by Geronimo. It was a daring thing. There was but a handful of the Indians. “Thirty-four men, eight well-grown boys, ninety-two women and children”—that was all. Only forty-two who could be called fighters. On May 17, 1885, the little band broke forth from their reservation and headed for Mexico. It took the United States a year and a half of useless trouble and expense to pursue them. Time after time, when it seemed certain that the Indians were trapped, they vanished. They never stood for a pitched battle. But anywhere, concealed behind rocks or hidden in brush, they picked off the soldiers sent to capture them. The forces of the United States and Mexico were both kept constantly upon the move. When a year had passed about sixty of the Indians returned home. Twenty warriors, with fourteen women, kept up the battle, when they too went home. During the year and a half of fighting more than four hundred whites and Mexicans were killed; only two of the Indian band were destroyed. During that time Arizona and New Mexico and all the northern part of Mexico were kept in constant terror. These Apaches were truly “wild Indians.”
The Navajo are _not_ wild Indians though they are related to the Apaches and were formerly bold fighters. They live near the settled Pueblos and have learned from them many things. They are a prosperous tribe, numbering fully ten thousand. They are well-to-do, having nine thousand cattle, one hundred and nineteen thousand horses, and one million six hundred thousand sheep and goats. They dress well in their own way and wear many ornaments.
A Navajo house is a simple affair. It consists of sticks or poles stacked up so as to meet in a point above; they are then covered over with bark, weeds, or earth, a hole being left for an entrance and one at the top for smoke escape: an old blanket hung over the entrance hole serves as a door. Near this hut there is often a little shelter of boughs where the family spend most of their time on fine days. The Navajo also build sweat houses for vapor baths. These are like the regular hut, but have no smoke hole, and are thickly covered over with earth. Stones are heated in a fire outside and carried into the sweat house between sticks; water is dashed over them, and in the steam thus made the bather sits.