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Management of Savages.


from it, rather than by the criminal code of civilised countries. The traveller must settle in his own mind what his scale of punishments should be; and it will be found a convenient principle that a culprit should be punished in proportion to the quantity of harm that he has done, rather than according to the presumed wickedness of the offence. Thus, if two men were caught, one of whom had stolen an ox, and the other a sheep, it would be best to flog the first much more heavily than the second ; it is a measure of punishment more intelligible to savages than ours. The principle of double or treble restitution, to which they are well used, is of the same nature. If all theft be punished, your administration will be a reign of terror; for every savage, even your best friends, will pilfer little things from you, whenever they have a good opportunity. Be very severe if any of your own party steal trifles from natives : order double or treble restitution, if the man does not know better ; and, if he does, a flogging besides, and not in place of it.

Seizing Foocd.--On arriving at an encampment, the natives commonly run away in fright. If you are hungry, or in serious need of anything that they have, go boldly into their huts, take just what you want, and leave fully adequate payment. It is absurd to be over-scrupulous in these cases.

Feast-Days.-Interrupt the monotony of travel, by marked days, on which you give extra tobacco and sugar to the servants. Avoid constant good feeding, but rather have frequent slight fasts to ensure occasional good feasts ; and let those occasions when marked stages of your journey have been reached, be great gala-days. Recollect that a savage cannot endure the steady labour that we Anglo-Saxons have been bred to support. His nature is adapted to alternations of laziness and of severe exertion. Promote merriment, singing, fiddling, and so forth, with all your power. Autolycus says, in ` A Winter's Tale,'

"Jog on, jog, on, the foot-path way, Merrily bent the stile-a:

A merry heart goes all the day, Your sad tires in a mile-a."

Flogging.-Different tribes have very different customs in