92 
 
 Social Evils of the 
 > ^ Non=Christian World 
 
 Oak Street 
 UNCLASSIFIED 
 
 REV. JAMES S. DENNIS, D.D. 
 
; 
 
Social Evils of the Non-Christian World 
 
Delegates Attending United Presbyterian Jubilee, Scotland, 189 7. 
 
Social Evils 
 
 of the 
 
 Non-Christian World 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. JAMES S. DENNIS, D.D. 
 
 Students’ Lecturer on Missions^ Princeton, 1893 and 1896; Author of 
 Missions After a Century;” Member of the American 
 Presbyterian Mission, Beirut, Syria 
 
 New York 
 
 Student Volunteer Movement for 
 Foreign Missions 
 
 1899 
 
 “ Foreign 
 
Copyright, 1897 
 by 
 
 Fleming H. Revell Company 
 
 Copyright, 1898 
 by 
 
 Fleming H. Revell Company 
 
SB 
 
 IX 
 
 EXPLANATORY NOTE 
 
 This text-book, prepared for the use of Mission Study 
 Classes in institutions of higher education, contains a reprint 
 of a portion of Volume I. of “ Christian Missions and Social 
 Progress / 71 by the Rev. James S. Dennis, D. D., a work 
 characterized by Germany's distinguished missionary professor, 
 Dr. Gustav Warneck, as one of the strongest yet produced. 
 As the selected portions reprinted contain but a small part of 
 one volume, only four out of the seven sections of the lecture 
 dealing exclusively with the social evils of the non-Christian 
 world being given, it has been thought best to present in this 
 text-book a synopsis of the contents of both volumes. This 
 synopsis will lay before the reader a brief summary of the 
 larger scope of the entire work, and show him the secondary, 
 or rather preliminary, place in the discussion which the part 
 here reprinted occupies. In dealing with the relation of 
 Christian missions to social progress a review of the evils of 
 non-Christian society was necessary, in order to make plain 
 the imperative need of a moral crusade, and at the same time 
 to emphasize the main contention of the book, which is that 
 Christian missions, if successful, are bound to promote social 
 as well as individual righteousness, and prove a powerful cor- 
 rective for the evils named. It will appear also that they are 
 able to impart the secret of moral progress, both national and 
 personal. The few illustrations reproduced will also be a 
 revelation of the helpfulness afforded by the nearly two hun- 
 dred carefully selected photographs which constitute a most 
 valuable feature of the work. 
 
 Classes using this little book should have for consultation 
 and for side-light readings the volume from which it has been 
 
 IN 
 
 \ 
 
 1 Fleming H. Revell Company , Publishers. 
 
 5 
 
6 
 
 EXPLANATORY NOTE 
 
 taken, as its full notes constitute an important commentary 
 upon the subject matter treated of in the text. Moreover, 
 these footnotes indicate exactly the sources whence most of the 
 information has been derived, and hence, with the copious 
 bibliography following each chapter, will be most helpful to 
 those who wish to give the topics fuller study. 
 
 Special attention is called to the Analytical Index which has 
 been prepared for the use of members of classes. It is at once 
 an index of the book and a help to the student, who is advised 
 to use it for gaining a fuller idea of what is to be studied be- 
 fore taking up the assigned lesson, and also after the study by 
 way of review and as a reminder of what may have been for- 
 gotten. 
 
Contents 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Synopsis of Volume I. of “ Christian Missions and Social 
 
 Progress,” 9 
 
 I. Introductory, 13 
 
 II. The Individual Group 17 
 
 III. The Family Group, 40 
 
 IV. The Tribal Group, 71 
 
 V. The Social Group, 109 
 
 Synopsis of Volume II. of “ Christian Missions and Social 
 
 Progress,” 160 
 
 Analytical Index, 164 
 
 7 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Delegates Attending United Presbyterian Jubilee, 
 
 Scotland, 1897. Frontispiece . 
 
 Lovedale Institution, South Africa . . . Facing page 34 
 
 — , 
 
 A Communion Scene at Banza Manteka | 
 
 u 
 
 u 
 
 86 
 
 New Scenes and Faces on the Congo J 
 
 
 
 Serampore College, Bengal ^ 
 
 (t 
 
 t( 
 
 1 10 
 
 College Square, Calcutta, India ^ 
 
 
 
 
 Moukden Hospital Staff and Students . 
 
 a 
 
 a 
 
 1 14 
 
 Scenes in India ...... 
 
 cc 
 
 (i 
 
 144 
 
 8 
 
SYNOPSIS OF LECTURE I 
 
 THE SOCIOLOGICAL SCOPE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 
 
 The lecture is a study of the social influence and humanitarian scope of 
 missions, with a view to emphasizing their power as a sociological factor 
 in the non-Christian world. The evangelistic results have always been 
 prominent, and need no accentuation ; but in order to a fully rounded 
 survey of the potentialities of missions as a factor in social regeneration, 
 we must measure their possibilities as a reconstructive force. The subject 
 is introduced with some preliminary remarks bearing upon the following 
 points: (i) The social influence of missions affects the ethical and 
 humane rather than the economic status of society. (2) The testimony 
 of history to the social power of Christianity has always been emphasized 
 in apologetic literature. (3) The fact that this deeper and broader view 
 of the indirect results of missions has been very imperfectly recognized. 
 (4) The special timeliness of this theme in the present horoscope of mis- 
 sions. 
 
 The relations of Christian missions to sociology are discussed, and an 
 important place claimed for them as a factor in social progress. The 
 sociological power of the religious environment is insisted upon, and the 
 broader view of sociology as a philosophy and an art, as well as an exact 
 science, is advocated. Sociology is a study of the history and laws of 
 social groupings, but it includes also philosophic ideals and a practical 
 ministry to the higher welfare of society. It is constructive and utilitarian 
 in its larger scope and wider influence. Like theology, medicine, law, 
 and political economy, it cannot be restricted in its applied aspects to a 
 scholastic discipline. 
 
 The question whether universal evolution in its rigid and exclusive 
 sense is the only postulate of a true sociological system is considered, and 
 a place is claimed for the supernatural as an essential factor of the divine 
 training and government of the race. The function of Christian missions 
 as a power divinely ordered and introduced into the history of belated 
 civilizations with a distinct purpose of giving impulse and direction to 
 social changes is discussed in several of its aspects. The contention that 
 Christianity is a religious and ethical environment which is conducive to 
 the development of the highest type of moral character is supported and 
 emphasized. The dignity of the evangelistic aspects of missions is main- 
 tained as in no way affected by this larger view of mission possibilities. 
 
 Some a priori arguments are advanced in support of this optimistic out- 
 look, based upon analogy, history, and the prophetic import of Scripture. 
 
 SYNOPSIS OF LECTURE II 
 
 THE SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 The extent of this lecture renders any attempt to summarize it imprac- 
 ticable, but the following syllabus indicates the order in which the social 
 evils of the non-Christian world have been treated. 
 
 9 
 
10 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 I. — The Individual Group. (Evils affecting primarily the individual, 
 and secondarily society through the individual.) (i) Intemperance; (2) 
 The Opium Habit; (3) The Gambling Habit; (4) Immoral Vices; (5) 
 Self-torture; (6) Suicide; (7) Idleness and Improvidence ; (8) Exces- 
 sive Pride and Self-exaltation ; (9) Moral Delinquencies. 
 
 II. — The Family Group. (Evils affecting primarily the family, and 
 secondarily society through the family.) (1) The Degradation of 
 Woman; (2) Polygamy and Concubinage; (3) Adultery and Divorce ; 
 (4) Child Marriage and Widowhood; (5) Defective Family Training ; 
 (6) Infanticide. 
 
 III. — The Tribal Group. (Evils which pertain to intertribal rela- 
 tionships, and find their origin in the cruel passions of savage life.) (1) 
 The Traffic in Human Flesh; (2) Slavery; (3) Cannibalism; (4) 
 Human Sacrifices; (5) Cruel Ordeals; (6) Cruel Punishments and Tor- 
 ture; (7) Brutality in War ; (8) Blood Feuds; (9) Lawlessness. 
 
 IV. — The Social Group. (Evils which are incidental to the social 
 relationships of uncivilized communities, and are due to lack of intelli- 
 gence or the force of depraved habit.) (1) Ignorance; (2) Quackery; 
 (3) Witchcraft; (4) Neglect of the Poor and Sick; (5) Uncivilized and 
 Cruel Customs; (6) Insanitary Conditions; (7) Lack of Public Spirit ; 
 (8) Mutual Suspicion; (9) Poverty; (10) The Tyranny of Custom; 
 (11) Caste. 
 
 V. — The National Group. (Evils which afflict society through the 
 misuse of the governing power.) (1) Civil Tyranny; (2) Oppressive 
 Taxation; (3) The Subversion of Legal Rights; (4) Corruption and 
 Bribery; (5) Massacre and Pillage. 
 
 VI. — The Commercial Group. (Evils incidental to low commercial 
 standards or defective industrial methods.) (1) Lack of Business Con- 
 fidence ; (2) Commercial Deceit and Fraud; (3) Financial Irregulari- 
 ties ; (4) Primitive Industrial Appliances. 
 
 VII. — The Religious Group. (Evils which deprive society of the 
 moral benefits of a pure religious faith and practice.) (1) Degrading 
 Conceptions of the Nature and Requirements of Religion; (2) Idolatry; 
 (3) Superstition; (4) Religious Tyranny and Persecution ; (5) Scanda- 
 lous Lives of Religious Leaders. 
 
 SYNOPSIS OF LECTURE III 
 
 INEFFECTUAL REMEDIES AND THE CAUSES OF THEIR FAILURE 
 
 The evils discussed in the previous lecture have accentuated the call for 
 an effective remedy. It is the purpose of the present lecture to pass in 
 review some remedial expedients which, although sometimes advocated 
 with much assurance, have nevertheless failed to vindicate their efficacy 
 apart from the inspiration, guidance, and cooperation of Christianity. It 
 is not asserted that they are in every instance inherently and necessarily 
 without value, but that, in view of the ordinary tendencies of human 
 nature, they are found to be for the purposes of social reconstruction de- 
 fective and misleading, incompetent to cope with the difficulties and de- 
 mands of the environment, unless pervaded and directed by the moral 
 
SYNOPSIS OF LECTURE IV 
 
 11 
 
 power and spiritual enlightenment of Christian ideals. With a view to 
 test the social fruitage of these agencies apart from Christianity, the fol- 
 lowing propositions are discussed : 
 
 I. Secular education apart from Christian truth does not hold the 
 secret of social regeneration. 
 
 II. Material civilization, as exemplified in temporal prosperity, artistic 
 luxury, and commercial progress, cannot guarantee the moral transforma- 
 tion of non-Christian society. 
 
 III. State legislation in and by itself, apart from Christianized public 
 sentiment, is not an effective instrument of social righteousness. 
 
 IV. Patriotism cannot be trusted to insure the moral or political re- 
 form of non-Christian peoples. It may represent simply a blind and 
 prejudiced adherence to all that is objectionable and injurious in the re- 
 ligious, social, and national life. 
 
 V. The moral forces of ethnic religions are not capable of an uplifting 
 and beneficent renewal of society. The individual and social product of 
 Buddhism is found to be a paralyzed personality ; of Confucianism an 
 impoverished personality ; of Hinduism a degraded personality ; of Islam 
 an enslaved personality. The making of a perfected society is not in 
 Shintoism, nor in Taoism, nor in Jainism, nor is Parsism equal to the task. 
 Other and lesser religious lights lead only into social darkness. 
 
 Christianity is the supreme gift of God to human society. It is full of 
 religious truth, moral energy, and penetrating influence, making it instru- 
 mental, wherever introduced, in changing the current of social life in the 
 direction of higher ideals and nobler culture. As a religious environment 
 it becomes an inspiring and a guiding force in the formation of a new 
 public opinion and in the lifting up of the purer standards of civilization. 
 
 SYNOPSIS OF LECTURE IV 
 
 CHRISTIANITY THE SOCIAL HOPE OF THE NATIONS 
 
 The need of a supernatural remedy for the evils of non-Christian society 
 is asserted and advocated, and the adaptation of Christianity to wage a 
 beneficent and effective crusade against the moral lapses and social cruel- 
 ties of heathenism is argued, under the following heads : 
 
 I. Christianity alone offers the perfect and final solution of the problem 
 of sin. Its method of expiation and its assurance of justification and for- 
 giveness contrast favorably with every expedient known in the religious 
 history of man. 
 
 II. It provides a new and powerful motive in the moral experience of 
 mankind. 
 
 III. It suggests new views of society. Its estimate of the individual 
 man brings it into sharp and significant contrast with the pagan concep- 
 tion, which is substantially the prevailing one in the non-Christian world 
 of to-day. 
 
 IV. The code of social ethics advocated by Christianity is an immense 
 improvement upon that which prevails under any ethnic system of re- 
 ligion. The ethical systems of Buddhism, Confucianism, Hinduism, and 
 Mohammedanism are examined and compared with the social ethics of 
 
12 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 Christianity. The superior ideals and the beneficent fruitage of the 
 Christian code are demonstrated. 
 
 V. Christianity introduces new moral forces into heathen society, 
 especially the noble impulse to missionary service. 
 
 VI. Philanthropic ideas are generated and quickened into activity by 
 the entrance of Christian teaching and example among non-Christian 
 peoples. 
 
 VII. Historic Christianity is declared to be equal to the task above 
 outlined. Its power is shown to be in its supernaturalism and its trans- 
 cendent appeal to the heart and will of man. Its sufficiency in itself, 
 without any compromise with the ethnic faiths or any surrender of its 
 unique and exclusive character, is insisted upon. Its claim to be a 
 supreme, absolute, universal, and final religion, having its origin in the 
 infinite wisdom and condescending love of God, is accepted unreservedly 
 and in opposition to the theory that it is a product of natural evolution, 
 or the outcome and consummation of the religious searchings of the race, 
 or the outgrowth of other religious systems. Christianity is from Christ, 
 and Christ is from God. In His own incarnate personality He is the 
 highest source of wisdom. In His teaching and example we have the 
 inspiration and pledge of individual righteousness and social morality. 
 
I 
 
 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 Character of the Present Inquiry. — i. The subject 
 before us is so vast and complicated that one may well ap- 
 proach it with diffidence and even with dismay. Its range is 
 so immense, and its details involve such a mass of facts, that 
 first-hand treatment of the theme is entirely beyond the grasp 
 of even the most learned student or the most observant travel- 
 ler. We might well shrink from the responsibility involved 
 were it not for the abundant testimony at our command in 
 current literature, and especially as the result of an extensive 
 private correspondence entered upon with the special purpose 
 of securing reliable data from those whose observation and 
 personal experience qualify them to speak with authority. 
 
 2. It is a theme which should be approached with all hu- 
 mility and sobriety, and treated not with a view to impression- 
 ism or with any attempt to exploit the evils of non-Christian 
 society. The aim should be rather to present a faithful and 
 at the same time unflinching portraiture of the true state of 
 human society in the less favored nations of the earth. We 
 shall not aim at a highly wrought picture, but rather at a ju- 
 dicial presentation. Whatever of realism may characterize it 
 will be fully justified by the facts of the case, and to those 
 who can read between the lines there will be no difficulty in 
 tracing the presence of a darker coloring and a more ghastly 
 background to the picture than the proprieties of the printed 
 page will allow. One thing we shall seek especially to guard 
 against, and that is any attempt either to magnify the evils of 
 the non-Christian world or to minimize those of Christendom. 
 Our object will not be to make out a case by special pleading, 
 or even to institute a comparison, but rather to unfold realities. 
 
 3. Excellencies not to be underestimated . — Our purpose 
 requires that we note what is objectionable and discreditable ; 
 yet, on the other hand, we wish neither to hide nor ignore the 
 existence of many virtues, both individual and social, which 
 lend a peculiar interest and charm to the personal and national 
 
 13 
 
14 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 character of Eastern peoples, especially the more advanced 
 among them. There is much that is beautiful and dignified 
 in their social life. The great nations of the Orient, when 
 once thoroughly purified and possessed by the spiritual culture 
 of Christianity, will be as refined, as gracious, as gentle, as 
 noble, and as true as any other people which the world con- 
 tains. They have inherited and preserved, in many instances 
 with singular fidelity, the best products and many of the most 
 commendable customs of the ancient civilizations, and to re- 
 fuse to recognize this would indicate a complacency on our 
 part, at once invidious, ungenerous, and unjustifiable. 
 
 The Chinese , for example, could teach a considerable 
 portion of the Occidental world profitable lessons in filial 
 piety, respect for law, reverence for superiors, economy, in- 
 dustry, patience, perseverance, contentment, cheerfulness, 
 kindliness, politeness, skill in the use of opportunities, and 
 energy in the conquering of an adverse environment. The 
 merchants of China, in contradistinction to the officials and 
 small traders, are held in high esteem as men of probity and 
 business honor. The capabilities of the Chinese people, under 
 favorable auspices, will surely secure to them an unexpectedly 
 high and honorable place in the world’s future. There is a 
 staying power in their natural qualities and a possibility of 
 development under helpful conditions which deserve more 
 recognition than the world seems ready at present to accord. 
 With proper discrimination as to specifications, and some 
 necessary modification and readjustment of the precise em- 
 phasis of the characterization, similar statements might be 
 made concerning the Japanese, Hindus, and other Asiatic 
 peoples. We must bear in mind also that these nations have 
 been obliged to struggle with crushing disabilities, and are 
 weighted with ponderous burdens, which have handicapped 
 them for ages in the race of progress. Considerations such as 
 these, and others which will occur to the student, but to which 
 we have not time here to refer, will suggest that a spirit of 
 charitable and calm discrimination should mark the treatment 
 of our present theme. 
 
 Evils of Christendom. — i. It is not to be denied, more- 
 over, that some of the gravest counts in the indictment would 
 hold against society, considered in its totality, in more civi- 
 lized lands, even those most fully under the influence of 
 Christianity. In fact, a catalogue of social evils pertaining to 
 
INTR OD UCTOR Y 
 
 15 
 
 Occidental nations might be made, which would prove a 
 formidable rival to its less civilized contemporary, although 
 in many vital respects it would be different. If we consider 
 the immense advantages of the environment of Christendom, 
 it becomes a pertinent and searching question whether Occi- 
 dental races under similar historic conditions, without the 
 inspiration of Christian ideals, would have done better than 
 their less fortunate brethren. 
 
 2. It must be acknowledged also that there is an oppor- 
 tunity for a sombre and dismal retort on the part of the less 
 civilized races, based upon the treatment they have experi- 
 enced at the hands of professedly Christian nations, or upon 
 the personal dealings and conduct of the unworthy representa- 
 tives of Christendom with whom they have come in contact. 
 There is little comfort to the sufferers in the statement that the 
 truer Christian sentiment and the higher moral standards of 
 Christendom condemn and repudiate these evils as abhorrent 
 and disgraceful ; yet that this is the truth is a fact which has 
 in it a deep consolatory significance to a believer in the re- 
 ligion of Christ, and gives an added impulse to the missionary 
 enterprise as a debt of Christianity to offset treatment on the 
 part of so-called Christian nations which was far from com- 
 mendable. 
 
 The Supreme Test.— i. There is little that gives reason 
 for any tone of exaltation in the consideration of this whole 
 matter, yet there is one test in which Christian civilization 
 can serenely rest. The ground not of boasting, but of hope- 
 fulness and gratitude in Christendom, is that the forces of re- 
 sistance to evil are alert and vigorous. The standards of life 
 and conduct are permanently elevated. The demands of 
 public opinion are enforced by regnant principles. The pre- 
 vailing temper and tone of society are in harmony with es- 
 sential Christian ethics. The moral forces which represent 
 law and order, peace and sobriety, justice and brotherhood, 
 truth and honor, are in the ascendant, and working steadily 
 toward a beneficent goal. The leaven of Christianity has 
 permeated society, and is quickening it with a steadily ex- 
 panding energy, and holds the balance of power in directing 
 the educational machinery of civilization. 
 
 2. In the non-Christian world almost the reverse is true. 
 There is a totally different tone and temper in the public con- 
 science. The trend is under the influence of other masters. 
 
16 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON- CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 The social status is marked by spiritual demoralization and 
 ethical decadence. There is poverty of blood and paralysis 
 of moral muscle. The heathen world now, as of old, is mori- 
 bund. It is destitute in itself of recuperating power. It 
 lacks the one vital force which can alone guarantee the moral 
 hopefulness of social evolution. The Incarnation of the Son 
 of God, and the practical stimulus of contact with that 
 sublime fact and its spiritual corollaries, constitute the true 
 secret of progress in the realm of higher social transformation. 
 
 The subject now in hand hardly admits of analysis ; yet we 
 have thought it best to make an attempt to present the facts in 
 orderly sequence, with a crude and confessedly artificial 
 nexus. The effort must be regarded as simply tentative, and 
 with a view to our present convenience. We have, therefore, 
 divided the social evils to be noted into groups, with some- 
 what random specifications under each group. 
 
II 
 
 THE INDIVIDUAL GROUP 
 
 (Evils affecting primarily the individual, and secondarily society 
 through the individual) 
 
 Intemperance. — i. A survey of the present state of the 
 world with special reference to the drink habit reveals the 
 lamentable fact that it prevails more or less in almost all 
 sections of the earth. A still further scrutiny exhibits the 
 startling truth that regions where it has been least known are 
 the very places where the emissaries of Satan, drawing their 
 supplies from within the precincts of Christendom, are most 
 eager to thrust this vile and demoralizing traffic. There are 
 large sections of the world, including vast populations, where 
 only the milder and less dangerous forms of semi-intoxicants 
 were in common use until the cruel greed of those human 
 harpies, the traders in intoxicants, introduced the foreign 
 forms of stronger alcoholic poisons. We must acknowledge 
 that the drink habit seems to be one of the deplorable phenomena 
 of civilization, and that a comparative survey of the use of in- 
 toxicants reveals the fact that in no countries is it so prevalent as 
 in those of the European and the North and South American 
 Continents. If we turn our attention to the broader outlook 
 of the world, we find that wherever European civilization has 
 established itself or has a controlling influence, just there this 
 scourge of intemperance, like a malign contagion, has ap- 
 peared and is spreading, and that, although native races 
 usually have intoxicants of their own manufacture, yet the evil 
 effects have everywhere been immensely increased by the 
 introduction of foreign alcoholic drinks. 
 
 2. Turning our attention now exclusively to foreign mission 
 fields , and including among them the countries where Roman 
 Catholicism prevails, while exact comparative statistics are not 
 to be found, yet the burden of evidence seems to indicate that 
 none surpasses the South American Continent , Central America, 
 and Mexico in the excessive use of intoxicants. 
 
 17 
 
18 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 Next perhaps would come India and Burma y where the 
 British Government holds a gruesome monopoly of both the 
 drink and opium traffics, and derives a revenue from both by 
 auction sale of licenses and custom tax, which seems to blind 
 its eyes to the moral evils of the system, and to sear the official 
 conscience as to any sense of responsibility for the rapid and 
 fearful increase of the drinking habit. 
 
 Next to India we must place some sections of Africa , where 
 the same dismal story of foreign liquor introduction must be 
 told. The West Coast, and to a less extent the East Coast, of 
 the Continent are flooded with the white man’s “fire-water.” 
 Millions of gallons enter every year, and the demoralizing cus- 
 tom of paying the wages of natives in liquor is becoming 
 alarmingly prevalent. If we follow up the direct avenues of 
 the Congo from the West Coast, and the inland waterways and 
 caravan routes of the East Coast, we will find that the traffic is 
 penetrating the recesses of the Continent. Commissioner 
 Johnston estimates that at least thirty per cent, of those who 
 die in Central Africa are the victims of alcohol. Pathetic in- 
 stances of protest and appeal from native chiefs and even 
 native communities are reported, which reveal the instinctive 
 recognition on their part of the dangers of the habit. In 
 Madagascar the native Government has taken strenuous action 
 to prevent the extension of the trade in intoxicants, and has 
 succeeded in greatly checking the advances of the evil, but 
 how it will be now that French influence has obtained control 
 is a matter of doubt. 
 
 In Japan , Korea and China , while intemperance is a social 
 curse, — increasingly so in Japan, — yet it seems to be restrained 
 to an extent which makes it far less of a national evil and a 
 social danger than in the lands which we have passed in re- 
 view. Of the Ainu of Northern Japan it is said, however, 
 that they are “ a nation of drunkards,” and in the larger cities 
 of Japan there is an increasing tendency to intoxication. In 
 Korea also there are ominous signs of danger. In China, 
 while drinking is sadly prevalent in the large cities, yet the 
 nation as a whole sets an example of sobriety. The country is 
 not as yet afflicted to any extent with the public saloon, and 
 drinking is restricted to the home or to festive gatherings, and 
 cannot be considered as by any means so demoralizing as the 
 opium habit. Its extension is at present confined almost ex- 
 clusively to the foreign ports. 
 
THE INDIVIDUAL GROUP 
 
 19 
 
 In Moha?nmedan lands the use of intoxicants is greatly on 
 the increase. In the Turkish Empire, in Persia, and in North 
 Africa, Mohammedans as well as the nominal Christian popula- 
 tion seem to be yielding to the besetting temptation. The 
 Koran, to be sure, prohibits wine, but the Moslem conscience 
 by a species of exegetical legerdemain has interpreted the in- 
 junction as having no application to the concoctions of the 
 modern still. In the Pacific Islands we have, with only one 
 or two remarkable exceptions, the universal story of the in- 
 troduction of foreign liquors and the prompt surrender of the 
 native to the resistless enticement. 
 
 3. The result of our survey is that intemperance, largely 
 through foreign introduction, is rapidly on the increase 
 throughout the earth, and that Christianity owes it to herself 
 and to the honor of Christendom to support and encourage 
 every effort of missions and every agency of reform for saving 
 the world from its ravages. 
 
 The Opium Habit. — The area of the prevalence of the 
 opium habit may be said to be limited to the eastern half of 
 the continent of Asia, including the islands to the southeast of 
 China, the Empire of Japan being a notable exception. 
 
 1. The storm-centre of the vice is China, and here again 
 we meet with the same amazing phenomenon of a civilized na- 
 tion seriously compromised by complicity in the extension of 
 a demoralizing traffic. The part which the British Govern- 
 ment has taken in the introduction of opium into China is an 
 indelible chapter in the history of the nineteenth century, and 
 the persistent encouragement to its production in India up to 
 the present time, and the advantage which is taken of its ex- 
 portation to China by the British Government to swell the 
 Indian revenue, is an aspect of English foreign policy which 
 is exciting intense indignation and loathing on the part of 
 rapidly increasing multitudes of the British public. While the 
 habit has been known in the East for centuries to a very 
 limited extent, yet its modern development and the fearful 
 ravages of its excessive use may be said to be coincident with 
 its production in India under the British rule and its recent 
 cultivation in China as a native product, under the stimulus of 
 the demand which has arisen within a half-century. 
 
 2. The present production in India in round numbers is 
 54,700 cwts. annually, and of this amount the annual exporta- 
 tion, almost exclusively to China, reaches 49,512 cwts., or 
 
20 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 90.5 per cent. The revenue of the British Government in 
 India from opium has decreased of late. Ten years ago it was 
 fully twice what it is to-day. Its victims in China, however, 
 are constantly increasing in number, and are estimated at 
 present to be over 20,000,000, and by some as high as 40,- 
 000,000, while the expense to China is about ^25,000,000 
 annually. 
 
 3. The real points at issue in the conflict are the extent of 
 the evil resulting from the use of opium, and the responsibility 
 of the British Government in the matter. The British admin- 
 istration in India, for reasons of expediency and revenue, is 
 inclined to defend itself by minimizing both these considera- 
 tions. It is on the defensive, and contends vigorously and 
 recklessly that the evils are insignificant, and therefore, as a 
 matter of course, that no responsibility exists. On the other 
 hand, a large and influential section of the British people con- 
 tend with irrepressible earnestness and increasing vehemence 
 that the opium traffic as conducted by the British Government 
 in India is a national scandal and an indefensible crime, in- 
 volving responsibility on the part of Great Britain, and dis- 
 crediting to a painful degree the fair honor of a Christian na- 
 tion. The Government has been hitherto unimpressible, and 
 has maintained in general a policy of immobility or pleaded 
 the non posswnus argument. The agitation has been regarded 
 in official circles with incredulous unconcern, and, while some 
 measure of formal deference has been shown, the practical out- 
 come has been of trifling value. Recent developments, how- 
 ever, indicate a marked advance along the lines of an effective 
 and victorious crusade. 
 
 4. The subject has been before Parliament at various times, 
 and in 1891 a resolution was passed which declared that the 
 methods of the British Government in connection with the 
 opium revenue were “ morally indefensible.” On September 
 2, 1893, a Royal Commission was appointed by Parliament to 
 investigate the question of opium in India, the report of which 
 was presented early in 1895. It should be noted that the 
 Commission did not undertake to investigate the question of 
 its exportation to China and the results of its use there, but 
 confined its attention to opium as used in India. This restric- 
 tion limits greatly the usefulness of such an investigation, and 
 gives a misleading impression to its conclusions. 
 
 The report of this Commission is altogether in the interests 
 
THE INDIVIDUAL GROUP 
 
 21 
 
 of the present status, but its report is one thing and the mass 
 of evidence which it has collected is quite a different matter. 
 A member of the Commission, Mr. H. J. Wilson, presented a 
 Minority Report dissenting from the judgment of the majority. 
 Such searching analyses of the evidence as are presented in his 
 “ Minute of Dissent ,’ 1 and also in a published “ Review of the 
 Evidence” by Mr. Joshua Rowntree, reveal a mine of in- 
 formation on the subject of opium which can be worked to the 
 manifest advantage of the anti-opium cause. The Royal Com- 
 mission will not by any means have things its own way. Its 
 voluminous documents, filling several large Government Blue 
 Books, its accessory literature, in the shape of petitions, 
 memorials, public addresses, and press discussions, and the 
 awakening of general interest in the question will all serve to 
 mark an era in the history of the campaign against opium, from 
 which a large volume of new and striking data will emerge, 
 and from which the agitation will derive new impulse and 
 vigor and reap a decided advantage. The war is by no means 
 on the wane. 
 
 5. The recent action of the British Government in restrict- 
 ing the opium traffic in Bur?na may be regarded as a victory 
 on the part of the opponents of the opium policy, although the 
 reasons assigned by the British Government for that action re- 
 vealed a studied indifference to the agitation, and in fact 
 credited Buddhism with the moral influence against opium; 
 yet the fact that the action was taken is highly significant, and 
 stands with all the force of a moral paradox as a self-inflicted 
 indictment of the Government policy for India and China. 
 No one can read the official notification which announces that 
 “ the use of opium is condemned by the Buddhist religion , and 
 the Government, believing the condemnation to be right, in- 
 tends that the use of opium by persons of the Burmese race 
 shall forever cease,” without finding himself face to face with 
 the puzzling enigma of how the condemnation is right when 
 pronounced by Buddhism, and of indifferent value when 
 pronounced by Christianity. He will find it difficult also to 
 restrain a lively and irrepressible inquiry as to why, if the 
 Government, “believing the condemnation to be right,” feels 
 under obligation to prohibit forever the Burmese race from 
 using it, it should not also carry out the same prohibition in 
 the case of the Indian races, and, so far as its participation is 
 concerned, in the case of the Chinese race. The truth seems 
 
22 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 to be that the report of the recent Royal Commission was 
 rendered in the interest of financial and political expediency 
 rather than with any profound consideration of the moral re- 
 sponsibility involved. 
 
 6. As to the real extent of the evil , geographically, physic- 
 ally, morally, and socially, the evidence seems conclusive to 
 one who receives it in an unprejudiced spirit and studies its 
 significance. A geographical survey of the area of the opium 
 habit presents at the outset the striking fact that Japan is free. 
 The wisdom of her statesmen has guaranteed her by treaty 
 against the introduction of the drug, while the laws against its 
 manufacture and use are of exemplary severity and are strictly 
 enforced. 
 
 It had been carried into Korea by the Chinese, and was 
 rapidly gaining headway, but there is reason to hope that if 
 Japanese influence and supervision rather than Russian are to 
 prevail in Korea, the evil will be checked. Throughout the 
 length and breadth of China , even in her far western prov- 
 inces of Shensi, Szechuan, and Yunnan, it prevails to an ex- 
 tent which may be regarded as a frightful and demoralizing 
 social evil. The testimony as to its prevalence in Yunnan 
 and the remoter provinces reports as high as eighty per cent, 
 of the men and fifty per cent, of the women addicted to the 
 pernicious habit. In Formosa opium and whiskey have been 
 counted as two of the main evils to be contended with. The 
 recent prohibition of the opium trade by the Japanese has, 
 however, given the hope of a change for the better. In the 
 Eastern Archipelago there is the same story of its desolating 
 effects. In Siam and Laos it ranks as a baneful custom. In 
 the Straits Settle7nents it has securely established itself. In 
 Burma it was rapidly doing its deadly work until the revolt 
 of the Burmese effected a remarkable change of policy on the 
 part of the British Government. In India , owing to the Gov- 
 ernment custom of licensing for a consideration its use, and 
 practically facilitating its consumption, it is an evil which is 
 growing with alarming rapidity. Testimonies from all parts 
 of India leave no doubt upon this point. Opium dens are be- 
 coming a feature of dissipation in the cities of India, and are 
 not unknown even in the larger villages. The Island of Cey- 
 lon is plentifully supplied with them, especially its principal 
 city of Colombo. One of the most distressing aspects of its 
 use in India is the habit of giving it to children, even during 
 
THE INDIVIDUAL GROUP 
 
 23 
 
 infancy, to stupefy them into quietness. Its effect upon their 
 physical and mental constitution induces a state of paralysis 
 and collapse which frequently results in lifelong injury. In 
 Persia the drug is both cultivated and used in considerable 
 quantities. In Teheran, Meshed, and other cities opium dens 
 are to be found. Beyond the boundaries mentioned, while 
 there is a scattering and dangerous tendency to the prevalence 
 of the vice, yet we cannot regard it as in the same sense a 
 dominant social evil, as it certainly must be considered within 
 the above-indicated geographical limits. 
 
 7. As to its physical and moral effects a large volume 
 might be written. We cannot enter into the subject at any 
 length, and yet it should not be dismissed without at least a 
 decisive verdict. To a candid student of the testimony of 
 those whose assertions can be relied upon and who speak from 
 personal observation, there can be but one conclusion, and 
 that is that it is one of the most threatening and militant evils 
 of China, and, indeed, of all sections of the earth where it is 
 gaining headway. 
 
 The Gambling Habit. — Although gambling is to be found 
 in Japan, and apparently in some places to excess, despite a 
 laudable effort on the part of the Government to suppress it, 
 yet the contrast with China in this particular is greatly to the 
 credit of the Japanese. 
 
 1. In Korea the passion is widespread, and is apparently 
 
 unrestrained. China , however, seems to lead the van of the 
 
 gambling fraternity throughout the world. The indulgence of 
 the Chinese is immemorial and inveterate ; in fact, it is justly 
 regarded as the most prominent vice in China, its only rival 
 being the opium habit. To be sure, it is forbidden by the 
 Government, but the prohibition seems to be a dead letter, 
 either through bribery or through the utter inefficiency of the 
 authorities, and it can hardly be said that there is the slightest 
 official restraint upon the universal passion, which seems to 
 hold sway among all classes, from the mandarins and literati 
 down to the homeless and poverty-stricken beggars, who are 
 often in their way the most hopeless slaves to the habit. 
 
 2. In Siam the vice seems to carry the nation by storm, 
 but vigorous attempts at suppression have been made by the 
 authorities, and it is now forbidden, except on holidays, when 
 it is allowed unchecked. It cannot be said, however, that the 
 efforts of the Government are ingenuous, as it draws a large 
 
24 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 revenue from this source by licensing lotteries and gambling- 
 houses. These licenses are farmed out to the highest bidder, 
 and give him a monopoly, with the power of prosecuting all 
 competitors. It is next to impossible for a government to sup- 
 press a vice with one hand and encourage it for its own private 
 gains with the other. We are not surprised to read, there- 
 fore, that “ gambling-houses and their natural concomitants 
 and next-door neighbors, the pawnshops, are numerous in 
 Bangkok/ ’ and that “ this deadly national trade can but in- 
 crease so long as a native government prefers to use it as a 
 source of profit rather than to check it as a national curse/’ 
 
 3. In Burma it is “ the bane of the country,” and in 
 India , although checked by the British Government, it is still 
 a social vice of large magnitude. It is a special feature of 
 some religious festivals, when the British policy of non-inter- 
 ference in matters of religion leads the Government to allow 
 it, on the ground that it is a concomitant of a religious cele- 
 bration. In Persia and the Turkish Empire it is apparently 
 increasingly prevalent. 
 
 4. It hovers around the coast-line of Africa , including 
 Madagascar, but is little known in the interior. The whole 
 Continent of South America seems to be under the demorali- 
 zation of this social curse. In Central America and Mexico it 
 is found to excess in all its forms, and often under official 
 patronage. The South American Government lotteries are 
 sources of vast revenues, portions of which are applied to the 
 support of philanthropic institutions, and the remainder is ap- 
 propriated by the State. Prizes as high as six hundred thou- 
 sand dollars are given, and some as high as a million are al- 
 ready in contemplation. 
 
 Immoral Vices. — The immemorial story of human frailty 
 and lust, with their cruel adjuncts of brutality and crime and 
 the wretched aftermath of shame and misery, is still in our 
 day the most indelible moral taint of society which the 
 world’s history presents. There is no temptation more uni- 
 versal and more formidable than the solicitations of immo- 
 rality. It is a theme which leads us by a short cut into the 
 depths of human depravity, and we soon find that there are 
 sins which cannot be named and revolting aspects of vice 
 which can only be referred to with cautious reserve. It is in 
 this connection that Christian morality wages its most stub- 
 born conflicts and vindicates most engagingly its saintly 
 
THE INDIVIDUAL GROUP 
 
 25 
 
 beauty and its heavenly charm. It is the same old story in 
 all ages, and the state of the world to-day, except as Christian 
 purity has hallowed the relation of the sexes, is as abominable 
 and nameless as ever. 
 
 i. The old Roman status in its essential abandon is faith- 
 fully reproduced in the licensed and wholly undisguised Yoshi- 
 wara of Tokyo, which is quite as much a matter-of-fact feature 
 of the city, in spite of its horrid commerce in girls, as its 
 hotels and temples. The same plan of government provision 
 for “regulated" vice prevails in all Japanese cities, and seems 
 to be regarded with quite as much complacency as the public 
 parks and the innocent-looking tea-houses. The inmates are 
 virtually the galley-slaves of lust, having often been sold by 
 fathers or brothers to the cruel servitude ; yet, strange to say, 
 they do not necessarily lose social caste, so that the transfer to 
 the relation of legal marriage with the assumption of an hon- 
 orable position in the home is entirely free from the shock 
 which such an incident would involve in Western or even in 
 other Eastern lands. A Japanese may find there either a wife 
 or a concubine, as he prefers, with hardly more comment upon 
 the act in the one case than in the other. The fact that this 
 is only rarely done may be conceded, but the possibility of 
 its being accomplished with the easy and complacent assent of 
 social sentiment is a significant sign of the lax views that pre- 
 vail. Many Mikados, even in recent times, have been born 
 of concubines. 
 
 It is true that Japanese law prohibits bigamy, and that 
 marital fidelity is exacted so far as the conduct of the wife is 
 concerned, but there is no such demand upon the husband, 
 and still less upon men who are not married. A dual code is 
 as clearly recognized as the distinction of sex itself. The 
 man is under no bonds which society or even his own wife 
 can insist upon. He is free to legally register concubines as 
 inmates of his home, and his indulgence, however open, meets 
 no challenge or rebuke, not even from Japanese law, which 
 does not recognize this kind of infidelity as even a partial plea 
 for divorce. 
 
 A candid survey of the social history of Japan would in- 
 dicate immorality as her national vice . Relics of phallic 
 worship are still to be found, and its spirit as well as its 
 openly displayed symbols form even yet a feature of festival or 
 holiday hilarity in certain sections of Japan. Hardly an ex- 
 
26 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 pression of profanity is in use, but obscene references are 
 common. Indecent pictures are tolerated with strange in- 
 difference in some sections in the interior of the country, even 
 in public places where they catch the gaze of multitudes. 
 Art and literature are made the medium of gross suggestive- 
 ness, and in too many cases are defiled with shameless in- 
 delicacy. Some strange and startling unconventionalities in 
 connection with bathing customs and scantiness of attire seem 
 to characterize the every-day life of the people. We should 
 not, however, judge too hastily and severely customs like these 
 as necessarily an indication of special moral depravity, since 
 so much depends upon the spirit of the participants and the 
 atmosphere of local sentiment. It cannot be disguised, how- 
 ever, that the “ social evil” and all its concomitants are the 
 open shame of Japan more than of any other people outside 
 the license of tropical barbarism. An extract from Neesima’s 
 diary in 1864 gives an insight into the shocking condition of 
 the coast cities and towns. There has been no change for the 
 better, except as Christian effort has succeeded in grappling 
 with the evil. “The finest houses in Japan belong to the 
 woman in scarlet. . . . The licensed government brothel, 
 
 covering acres of land, is the most beautiful part of the capital. 
 Oriental splendor — a myth in the streets — becomes reality 
 when the portals of the Yoshiwara are crossed.” 
 
 2. In Korea a severe code of reserve surrounds woman ; 
 yet concubinage, amounting, in fact, to practical polygamy, is 
 legal and common, while harlotry flaunts itself with exceptional 
 boldness. Vices of the deepest dye, “suggestive of the 
 society of Gomorrah,” are known to be practiced even in the 
 highest social circles. Dancing-girls of immoral character 
 are employed and paid by the Government, and are subject to 
 the call of the magistrate at any time. 
 
 3. In China female chastity is severely guarded, and there 
 is no licensed immorality; yet a state of things which is 
 frankly acknowledged in Japan is simply an open secret 
 among the Chinese. Society regards it with a sly frown, the 
 Government prohibits and professes to discipline it ; yet vice 
 festers in every city of China and presents some shamefully 
 loathsome aspects. The traffic in young girls, especially 
 those who may be afflicted with blindness, is the usual 
 method of supplying brothels with their inmates. The in- 
 famous trade of the “pocket-mother” and her colonies of 
 
THE INDIVIDUAL GROUP 
 
 27 
 
 native slave-girls, and its relation to the opium habit in the 
 Straits Settlements and China, have been recently brought 
 vividly to the attention of the British public by Mrs. Andrew 
 and Dr. Kate Bushnell. In the every-day conversation of the 
 Chinese, especially of the poorer classes, expressions so ex- 
 ceptionally vile that they cannot be hinted at are only too well 
 known. “ An English oath is a winged bullet; Chinese abuse 
 is a ball of filth,” says the author of “Chinese Character- 
 istics.” The notorious books and placards of Hunan are 
 an indication of the interior furnishing of the Chinese im- 
 agination. 
 
 4. In Siam adultery is lightly condemned, and unclean 
 vices are practiced. In Thibet the moral status is low. 
 Marriage is often a convenient fiction, and may be adjusted as 
 a temporary bargain wherever a man may happen to be. Not 
 only is polygamy common, but polyandry is recognized and 
 practiced among the peasantry. 
 
 5. India occupies an unenviable prominence as a land 
 where immoral tendencies have flourished and brought forth 
 their fruit with tropical luxuriance. There is a panoramic 
 variety in the phases of its social vice, the ill-concealed 
 obscenity of much of its sacred literature, and the immoral 
 aspects of some of its religious rites and festivals. The social 
 demoralization which attends vice is revealed there to an un- 
 usual extent — the tell-tale stringency in the seclusion of 
 woman, child marriage, low views of woman’s place and 
 function in society, a contemptuous estimate of her character 
 and capacity, tainted family life, unseemly marriage customs, 
 obscenity in talk and song, prostitution, concubinage, lax 
 views of adultery, and the contamination of so-called religious 
 rites and services with uncleanness. The spirit of that now 
 happily obscure phase of nature-worship which is known as 
 phallicism is distinctly traceable in India. Its symbols and 
 signs are still visible at many of the shrines of Hinduism. Its 
 grosser and more intolerable features have been permitted to 
 lapse in recent times, but that unhallowed association of 
 fancied religious fervor with lustful abandon is still hardly 
 masked in some of the religious festivals and customs of 
 Hindu society. 
 
 It could hardly be otherwise when even the sacred literature 
 is not free from gross impurity, and many of the gods wor- 
 shipped are examples in vice; when continence is not in- 
 
28 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 culcated; when widows, often young and helpless, are con- 
 demned by necessity either to a life of social misery or shame; 
 when the zenana system involves the frequent separation of 
 husbands and wives, the former compelled to be absent, and 
 the latter hidden in unnatural seclusion; and when social 
 customs and even religious observances encourage and min- 
 ister to lewd license. The nautch dancing, so common, gives 
 to immoral women social eclat, which is too often stimulated 
 and enhanced by European patronage ; harlotry is notoriously 
 common in the towns and cities, although village life is com- 
 paratively free from it, and village women are as a class 
 morally # well behaved. Hindu temples are in many instances 
 disgraced by indecent symbols and sculptures ; while the old 
 Greek custom of having female attendants attached to the 
 temples is a well-known fact in many of the Hindu shrines of 
 India. These dancing-girls call themselves deva-dasi (“ slaves 
 of the gods” ), and in the sense of being at the service of 
 every comer, of whatever caste, are also the slaves of men. 
 Young girls are frequently dedicated in infancy to some 
 popular Hindu god, and the simple meaning of this is that 
 they are devoted to a life of shame — branded and married to 
 the god, to be forever known as consecrated to depravity in 
 the name of religion. In fact, immorality is more distinctively 
 a feature of Hinduism than morality. 
 
 It is not to be supposed that Indian society without ex- 
 ception is wholly given over to this state of things. There 
 are multitudes of worthy natives who regard these features of 
 Hinduism with contempt and loathing, but they are ex- 
 ceptions, and they have broken with Hinduism, or at least 
 with its moral laxity. English army life in India, and to a 
 deplorable extent the habits of foreign residents, present a 
 sadly compromising feature of social vice. The repeal of the 
 Contagious Disease Act, although a moral victory, has been 
 too inoperative to remedy entirely official complicity in the 
 supervision and regulation of vice, as the evidence before the 
 Committee recently appointed by the Indian Government on 
 this subject clearly shows. This fact was brought to light 
 chiefly by the testimony of Mrs. Elizabeth W. Andrew and 
 Dr. Kate Bushnell, two American ladies connected with the 
 W. C. T. U., who in the service of the cause of purity in 
 India gave themselves to the heroic investigation of the true 
 status of this question. 
 
THE INDIVIDUAL GROUP 
 
 29 
 
 The English Government is not unmindful, however, of its 
 moral responsibility and its evident duty to deal vigorously 
 with this burning subject of immorality in India. Penal 
 codes and official regulations seem to open the way for the 
 suppression or restriction of many forms of vice, but the evil 
 is so gigantic that it can elude and defy the law, while in 
 deference to the fanatical religious temper of India a significant 
 exception has been made by the Government. In the clause 
 of the penal code against obscenity in literature and art is the 
 following caveat: “This Section does not extend to any 
 
 representation sculptured, engraved, painted, or otherwise 
 represented on or in any temple, or on any car used for the 
 conveyance of idols, or kept or used for any religious pur- 
 pose.’ * The various governments of India, British and 
 native, united in expressing their judgment, with reference to 
 the above exception, that “native public opinion is not yet 
 sufficiently advanced to permit the destruction of such in- 
 decencies.” The result of this policy of non-interference on 
 the part of the authorities with the religious customs of the 
 people is that, however much of a saturnalia their festivals and 
 celebrations may become, they are free from legal restraint if 
 their indecencies are becomingly pious and their wickedness is 
 under the shelter of religion. The British Government has 
 already accomplished a beneficent role of reform in several 
 respects where the interests of humanity required it, and the 
 time will come — Christianity indeed is hastening it — when 
 the unclean scandals of Hinduism must go also, and the 
 various unsavory abominations of temple, festival, and pil- 
 grimage will be consigned to oblivion. 
 
 6. The Mohammedan lands of Afghanistan, Arabia, 
 Persia, Turkey, and Northern Africa are not above other 
 sections of Asia characterized by exceptional immorality 
 among the sexes. Prostitution is not carried on as a profes- 
 sion, except in the larger cities, where it is as well known as 
 elsewhere ; but easy divorce and lax arrangements as to mar- 
 riage relations open the way for a whited-sepulchre species of 
 promiscuity gratifying to the pious Moslem, since it is sanc- 
 tioned by his religion and counted as socially respectable. As 
 is usually the case, however, where the relation of the sexes 
 is severely guarded by artificial restrictions in a low moral en- 
 vironment, the prevalence of unnatural vices shows that the 
 stream of lust if barred in one direction makes for itself a 
 
30 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 channel in another. There are aspects of vice in Moham- 
 medan lands, and indeed throughout the Eastern world, which 
 can only be referred to in veiled phrases as veritable mysteries 
 of iniquity. 
 
 7. The South American Continent is, with Central Amer- 
 ica, Mexico, and the West Indies, notorious for profligacy. 
 The tone of society is dissolute. The influence and example 
 of the Romish clergy are in favor of laxity. Society both 
 high and low is exceptionally unchaste and vitiated by an at- 
 mosphere of suspicion, distrust, and prurient sensitiveness. 
 Respectable parents guard their daughters with the utmost 
 watchfulness until married, while their sons, with few ex- 
 ceptions, give way to vicious indulgence. The masses con- 
 cern themselves little with legal restraints or formalities. 
 
 8. If we turn now to the barbarous and savage races of the 
 African Continent and the Pacific Islands , we find a state of 
 morals which is truly appalling in its bestiality. The morally 
 gruesome details are too repulsive to admit of an attempt even 
 to summarize them, and we must forbear. 
 
 Self-torture. — 1. This is usually practiced under the 
 stimulus of religious fanaticism either to secure merit or 
 reverence or to quiet superstitious fears. It is especially com- 
 mon in India on the part of the devotees who court venera- 
 tion on account of supposed sanctity. As the torture is self- 
 inflicted, at first thought one is inclined to denounce its folly 
 and withhold sympathy for the sufferer ; but when we reflect 
 that it is often endured with a sincere, although mistaken, zeal 
 as a religious act, one is rather inclined to pity the victim of 
 such a delusion. The system of ascetic legalism which en- 
 courages such self-inflicted pain is largely responsible for the 
 folly of its victims, and the spirit of the Gospel only will 
 banish the haunting consciousness of condemnation which 
 drives men to such cruel expedients to secure the favor of 
 God. 
 
 2. There is a ghastly variety in the methods of self-torture 
 practiced in India . Some of them, such as hook-swinging, 
 have been abolished by the British Government as offences 
 against society. In several of the native states, however, it is 
 still in vogue, and recent reports in many directions seem to 
 indicate defiant attempts to revive the barbarous spectacle even 
 in British India. Devotees and fakirs are accustomed to give 
 themselves up to torture by fire, or by reclining for a long 
 
THE INDIVIDUAL GROUP 
 
 31 
 
 period upon beds of spikes or sharp stones. Others will re- 
 fuse to give themselves rest, or abstain altogether from sleep, 
 or hold some limb in a painful position until it becomes 
 shrivelled and rigid. Others will allow themselves to be fed 
 on any kind of revolting or improper food, having made a 
 vow to reject nothing which is offered them to eat. The tests 
 to which they are put are often horrible in the extreme. If 
 they should refuse what is offered them they would thereby 
 forfeit their sanctity and the veneration of their credulous ad- 
 mirers. A common practice is to pierce the body with large 
 needles. Frequently iron skewers are thrust through the 
 cheeks and tongue, which are thereby caused to swell to 
 frightful proportions. The flesh is cut with knives or pierced 
 with wire. Men are sometimes buried to the neck, or are 
 hung by the heels to a tree. The worship of some of the 
 cruel Hindu divinities, especially the goddess Kali, is fre- 
 quently attended with shocking exhibitions, which must in- 
 volve intense suffering to the participants. 
 
 3. In China a prominent motive to self-mutilation is de- 
 votion to sick parents. Dutiful sons and daughters will cut 
 off pieces of their own flesh, of which soup is made and 
 given to a sick or infirm parent. Other species of voluntary 
 suffering, not always, however, from religious or filial motives, 
 but with a view to gain, are walking with the feet or back bare 
 in severe wintry weather, or appearing upon public occasions 
 with iron chains around the body and heavy wooden collars 
 around the neck, or swinging weighty censers fastened to the 
 flesh by brass hooks, or causing self-deformity or loathsome 
 ulcers upon the person with a view to excite sympathy and 
 secure gain. 
 
 4. In Mohammedan lands religious celebrations are fre- 
 quently attended with these fanatical cruelties. Devotees will 
 pierce and mutilate themselves, and in some instances pros- 
 trate themselves upon the ground to be trampled upon by 
 horses with riders seated on their backs. Hinduism and 
 Mohammedanism seem to present almost the only exhibition 
 of this delusion, although Romanism has encouraged in the 
 shape of ascetic penances much grievous bodily suffering, 
 while among the pagan Indians of British Columbia acts of 
 extreme self-cruelty are known to be practiced. 
 
 Suicide. — There is nothing distinctive in the act of self- 
 destruction in non-Christian lands except its prevalence, or 
 
32 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 the fact that it results from some pessimistic influence of the 
 environment. 
 
 1. It is more common in China than in any other nation 
 of the earth, and is resorted to for reasons peculiar to Chinese 
 modes of thought. Its frequency results, no doubt, from the 
 frivolous estimate placed upon human life, and the strange 
 notion that personal grievances may be avenged in this way 
 and that more injury may be done to the living than to the 
 victim himself. There is a singular theory in Chinese official 
 circles that self-destruction on the part of a ruler in times of 
 public danger is a matter of high merit. “ The perfect man/’ 
 according to Confucius, “ is one who in the view of danger is 
 prepared to give up his life.” The act is sometimes resorted 
 to by military leaders in time of defeat, either for the above 
 reason, from a sense of shame, or to escape punishment at the 
 hands of the Government. The causes which lead to it in 
 most cases are trivial, such as a shortage in accounts, a family 
 quarrel, jealousy, or marital infelicity arising from the prac- 
 tice of polygamy. Even children of tender years resort to it 
 when disciplined by teachers or parents. It is especially prev- 
 alent among women, on account of domestic unhappiness or 
 from the desire to punish an incorrigible husband. It is con- 
 sidered an act of merit for a widow to follow her husband to 
 the grave. Dread of the matrimonial alliance sometimes leads 
 to self-destruction by young girls. The wives of native con- 
 verts to Christianity have been known to adopt this vigorous 
 method of protest to their husbands* change of faith. The 
 doctrine of transmigration no doubt renders suicide easier, 
 since the victim expects to continue his existence in a state 
 possibly better than the one he now occupies. 
 
 The most popular methods of accomplishing the act are by 
 opium, by drowning, or by eating matches, as none of these 
 instrumentalities mutilates the person, which passes intact into 
 another life, the popular opinion being that any mutilation of 
 the body in death must be continued in the existence beyond. 
 The use of opium has had a tendency greatly to facilitate and 
 multiply suicides. The Chinese New Year is a favorite time 
 for accomplishing the act. A missionary physician reports 
 having been called to ten cases in a single month, and to 
 nearly as many in the month following. 
 
 2. In Japan suicide has occupied a position of historic 
 honor which has characterized it nowhere else in the world. 
 
THE INDIVIDUAL GROUP 
 
 33 
 
 It has been even canonized and admired as an object of hero- 
 ism and a sign of distinction. Japanese history and fiction 
 mention with pride the various heroes and heroines, sometimes 
 by the thousands, who have distinguished themselves by com- 
 mitting hara-kiri , the theory of which is that it is an exhibi- 
 tion of supreme loyalty to conviction, of patriotic sacrifice in 
 the interests of family pride, or for the honor of one’s country. 
 The vanquished samurai in the old feudal days preferred death 
 at his own hand to falling into the power of his conqueror. 
 Later the practice came to be regarded as a privileged way of 
 dying in the execution of a judicial sentence rather than hav- 
 ing the punishment inflicted by other hands. 
 
 The modus operandi of hara-kiri , or rather seppuku , as it 
 is called in more classical dialect, was that the victim himself 
 with his own hand plunged a dirk into the abdomen until 
 death ensued. An improvement has been introduced in mod- 
 ern times by enlisting the services of a friend upon the occa- 
 sion, who is expected, as soon as the dirk has been used by 
 the victim, to complete the act by immediately beheading the 
 would-be suicide. This formal and privileged method of sui- 
 cide is not, however, common in Japan at present, although, 
 as a great favor, capital sentences may be executed in this 
 manner. 
 
 Other methods , however, are in vogue, such as poisoning or 
 hanging. The act is more common on the part of women 
 than of men, and that for trivial causes. The favorite method 
 is by drowning. The number of suicides officially reported 
 in 1891 was 7,479, an d in 1892 it was 7,240. 
 
 3. In India in a majority of instances suicide is the result 
 of unhappy marriages or as a release from domestic cruelty. 
 According to the statement of a native journal, suicide is com- 
 mon among married women, amounting to eighty-one per 
 cent, of the total. A native Brahman, writing on the present 
 social condition of the Hindus, states that in connection with 
 domestic trouble “ suicides are not uncommon.” Deserted 
 wives are apt to seek their own destruction. 
 
 In the East Indies , and still more so in New Guinea , “ sui- 
 cide is very common, on account of the notoriety it confers.” 
 In Africa, although not as frequent as might be expected, it is 
 often resorted to. 
 
 Idleness and Improvidence. — Idle and shiftless habits in 
 the individual rob society of the personal increment of labor 
 
34 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 and thrift which he might contribute, and make him rather a 
 burden to others as well as a hindrance to progress. A dili- 
 gent and thrifty spirit, on the other hand, is a positive factor 
 in social prosperity. 
 
 1. Idleness results not alone from indolence, but among 
 African savages it is the fruit of pride. Labor is a disgrace in 
 the estimation of millions of lusty barbarians, whose ideal of dig- 
 nity is luxurious laziness. The heavier as well as the lighter 
 toils of life are left for the women to assume, who are in most 
 African communities doomed to drudgery and severe servi- 
 tude. The result is an undisciplined, flabby, and shiftless 
 character, living in such careless, happy-go-lucky ways that 
 the native African as a rule is socially a worthless drone, ex- 
 cept when it suits his barbarous fancy to play the equally ob- 
 jectionable role of a professional warrior and plunderer. The 
 Mashonas are said to be “born tired/’ so incorrigible is their 
 aversion to work. On the West Coast labor is regarded with 
 both contempt and dread. 
 
 2. In the Pacific Islands the same spirit of sloth prevails 
 among the primitive races. “The conduct of the men of 
 Aniwa is to stand by or sit and look on while their women do 
 the work,” was the unctuous reply of a group of New Hebri- 
 des worthies to the appeal of Dr. Paton that they should en- 
 gage in some useful occupation. Among the Negro and In- 
 dian races of the world, wherever the blight of barbarism pre- 
 vails, industrious habits are practically unknown. Life is 
 given over to shiftlessness and vice, while the storehouses 
 stand empty and the fields lie barren and neglected. 
 
 3. Idleness in the more advanced nations, such as China , 
 Korea , and India, is productive of a vast system of vagrancy, 
 and is responsible for much pitiable poverty. There are Beg- 
 gars’ Guilds in most of the large cities of China, so organized 
 that what amounts to a regular tax of blackmail is exacted 
 from society. If the expected contribution is not forthcom- 
 ing, it is enforced by formidable raids or persecuting appeals, 
 which are generally effective. Korea is “ full of Micawbers.” 
 They play the role of parasites, blackmailers, and uninvited 
 guests, forming themselves into a sort of syndicate of social 
 harpies, from whose impertinence and tyranny the Government 
 is often called upon to protect the well-to-do classes. Official 
 plunderers, however, are just as bad in their way, and are re- 
 sponsible for much of the improvidence of the people, as their 
 
Class in Agriculture— Industrial Department. 
 Class in Printing — Industrial Department. 
 
 Lovedale Institution, South Africa 
 
THE INDIVIDUAL GROUP 
 
 35 
 
 rapacity makes prosperity and providence almost impossible, 
 since any effort at accumulation only tempts the officials to 
 prey upon those who have the good fortune to lay up anything 
 in store. 
 
 4. In India the evils of ?ne 7 idicancy prevail. The poverty 
 is extreme, and with it there is much improvidence and reck- 
 lessness as to debt. Costly and exacting social customs are 
 responsible for the impoverishment of many families, espe- 
 cially the expenses connected with marriages and burials. 
 The economic problems of India are truly formidable. Debt, 
 thriftlessness, and the prevalent poverty make the social con- 
 dition of the people pitiable, and any hopeful reform or eco- 
 nomic expedients which would help India to wiser methods of 
 living would be an unspeakable benefit. 
 
 5. In the countries of South America there is a blight of 
 indolence and thriftlessness which sadly depresses social pros- 
 perity. An infusion of energy, foresight, and industrial as- 
 pirations would be of the highest economic value to all South 
 American peoples. The idler and the drone are there, as 
 elsewhere, an injury and a bane to society. 
 
 Excessive Pride and Self-exaltation. — 1. Inordinate 
 
 self-esteem in the individual affects society when it becomes a 
 barrier to the entrance of new and progressive ideas from 
 without. Vanity, conceit, and self-worship may so prejudice 
 the mind that it becomes blind to better things, and shuts it- 
 self up in its own provincial ignorance, refusing all help and 
 inspiration from other sources. Progress becomes impossible. 
 Rigid conservatism hardens into stupid contentment with 
 things as they are. Conceit and self-complacency bar the 
 path of improvement. The modern world is viewed with con- 
 tempt, and all outside the little environment of primitive life 
 which surrounds the victim of his own foolish pride is viewed 
 with suspicion and disdain. This pitiable exaltation of igno- 
 rance may be intellectual and spiritual, shutting out the light 
 of truth, or it may be social and material, rejecting the facilities 
 and discoveries of the modern world. In either case it is an 
 incalculable injury to society. It retards and arrests social 
 development, and postpones indefinitely the entrance of nobler 
 and larger life. 
 
 2. Every Asiatic nation suffers more or less from this con- 
 sciousness of its own superiority, although the energy and push 
 of modern enterprise and the growing influence of missionary 
 
36 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 education are rapidly breaking down prejudice and letting in 
 the light of wiser methods and larger knowledge. Of all 
 Asiatic nations the Chinese are conspicuous for stolid conserv- 
 atism and inflated pride. They belong to the ‘ ‘ Middle King- 
 dom/’ and the outside world of barbarism lies around them 
 as the centre. Everything outside of China is inferior, and 
 all foreigners or foreign ideas are looked upon with contempt 
 and hatred. One of the chief functions of the Chinese is to 
 humiliate the rest of the world and teach it useful lessons of 
 its own insignificance. 
 
 3. I?i Japan this trait reveals itself rather in national vanity 
 and intellectual conceit. There is some excuse, however, for 
 Japan’s self-consciousness. She is in marked and favorable 
 contrast with China in her readiness to recognize the progress 
 of more enlightened nations and avail herself of every benefit 
 which the genius of the Occident has provided. Her great 
 danger is that intellectual pride and moral hauteur will deprive 
 her fair land of the uplifting influences of Christian enlight- 
 enment. Much, however, will be said elsewhere to encourage 
 the hope that the Japanese will resist this tendency to intel- 
 lectual arrogance, and welcome the nobler teachings of Chris- 
 tianity. 
 
 4. Korea has shut herself up in the seclusion of ignorance 
 for centuries, and only recently, through the force of circum- 
 stances, has the spell of her isolation been broken. Her 
 upper classes and literati are steeped in pride, while the lower 
 classes are still blinded with prejudice. 
 
 5. In Siam the spirit of Oriental self-complacency greatly 
 retards the development of the nation, although the influence 
 of an enlightened and liberal king is doing much to encourage 
 larger aspirations among his people. 
 
 6. India is the camping-ground of Brahmanic pride, the 
 very acme of supercilious conceit, and presents also notable 
 illustrations of that absurd self-exaltation of the so-called dev- 
 otees and holy men of Hinduism. The whole tendency of 
 Hinduism is to stimulate self-esteem, while caste is a bulwark 
 of pride in its most sublime proportions. The subtle specula- 
 tions of Hindu religious thought have given a fascination to 
 philosophical themes, and have developed intellectual conceit 
 to an extraordinary degree. The Hindu religionist is pride 
 incarnate, while the shadow of a Brahman is a natural phe- 
 nomenon more impressive than a sunrise. 
 
THE INDIVIDUAL GROUP 
 
 37 
 
 7. The Mohammedan is a noted rival of the Hindu in re- 
 ligious and intellectual pride. No more striking exhibition of 
 the paralyzing effect of the haughty spirit of Islam can be 
 found than the social and intellectual condition of the lands 
 dominated by the Moslem. The Turkish Empire, Persia, the 
 North African countries, and Arabia are samples of lands 
 where pride rules with blighting sway. 
 
 8. The African , as a rule, may be said to be vain and con- 
 ceited in proportion to the density of his ignorance. If we 
 take the Matabele as a sample, we can hardly find his equal 
 for overweening pride and self-importance. The result has 
 been manifest in thirty years of stagnation even under the in- 
 fluence of faithful missionary effort. The conquest of the na- 
 tion by British arms, when permanently accomplished, will be 
 a blessing, and no doubt beat down those hitherto impene- 
 trable barriers which pride has erected. The pitiable condi- 
 tion of the proud savages of the earth is owing in some meas- 
 ure to their intense satisfaction with their own fancied supe- 
 riority, and is a telling lesson of the social perils of pride. A 
 religion which would teach to these nations the true exaltation 
 of humility — its beauty, its nobility, and its gentle charm — 
 would be a helpful blessing to the soul itself and to all its social 
 environment. 
 
 Moral Delinquencies. — 1. A terrible and pitiable count 
 must be made under this head against the entire non-Christian 
 world. The very foundations of social integrity and pros- 
 perity are shaken by such vices as untruthfulness and dishon- 
 esty. Truthfulness is a prime essential to mutual confidence, 
 and honesty is a fundamental condition of just and fair inter- 
 course. Where society is permeated with a spirit of deceit 
 and knavery, where a lie is a commonplace and cheating is 
 resorted to without compunction, all moral health and stability 
 seem to have been destroyed. A lie will be met by a lie. 
 Deceit will overreach deceit. Cheating will be matched by 
 cheating; and all the arts of dishonesty will be excelled by 
 some fresh ingenuity in fraud. 
 
 As the status of non- Christian nations in respect to these 
 moral qualities is studied, one is tempted to say, not in haste, 
 but with calm deliberation, “ All men are liars.” That there 
 are individual exceptions is happily true, but as a rule the 
 world of heathenism lieth in the wickedness of deceit and dis- 
 honesty. Little can be said of any one nation in favorable 
 
3a SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 contrast with others. Each in turn seems to pose as an expert 
 in the guilty arts of deception. 
 
 2. Among the Japanese lying is a sadly common fault of 
 daily life. This is acknowledged by themselves, and such is 
 the testimony of those who know the country well. To their 
 credit, however, it may be said that their patriotism and ex- 
 ceptional loyalty to public responsibilities save them to a nota- 
 ble extent from the official dishonesty and corruption which 
 characterize the Chinese. 
 
 3. China is preeminently “ empire of make-believe.” 
 Amid high-sounding pretensions “a universal dishonesty of 
 mind poisons the sap of the nation and produces all the can- 
 cers and evils which have made China a byword for deceit 
 and corruption.” True honor and uprightness seem to be 
 lightly esteemed by all classes of society. The Rev. Arthur 
 Smith, in “ Chinese Characteristics,” has an entire chapter on 
 “ The Absence of Sincerity.” The testimony of Dr. S. Wells 
 Williams, in summing up his estimate of the Chinese charac- 
 ter, includes “the universal practice of lying and dishonest 
 dealings.” The Chinese seem to share with the Persians the 
 melancholy distinction of being “a nation of liars.” A fla- 
 grant exhibition of the Chinese capacity for misrepresentation 
 has recently attracted the attention of the world in the anti-for- 
 eign publications which are so full of monstrous falsehoods. 
 A Chinaman will steal almost as easily as he will lie, and will 
 cheat with a facility and deftness which make him proverbial 
 for “ ways that are dark and tricks that are vain.” 
 
 4. In Siam , j B urma, and Assam the rule of untruthfulness 
 still holds. A fresh illustration of the ready application of 
 the inveterate habit was discovered by Dr. McKean of Laos, 
 who has recently introduced vaccination among the people. 
 As soon as its beneficial effects were manifest, unprincipled 
 charlatans were going about the country vaccinating the peo- 
 ple with some worthless compound of their own, boldly assert- 
 ing that they had obtained vaccine virus from the foreigner in 
 Chieng Mai. Dr. Marston at Ambala has detected the same 
 exhibition of unscrupulous dishonesty in sly medicine-selling 
 behind her back. The Assamese have hardly a proper word 
 in their language to indicate honesty. “ Trade does not go 
 on without falsehood,” is a proverb among them. 
 
 5. India is a realm where untruthfulness, dishonesty, and 
 perjury are all characteristic of the people. We mean charac- 
 
THE INDIVIDUAL GROUP 
 
 39 
 
 teristic in the sense that they are notoriously common. Ad- 
 vancing through Central Asia, Thibet and the lands that lie 
 in our pathway toward Persia present the same monotonous 
 traits of unscrupulousness in word and dealing, while in Per- 
 sia “ every one walks warily and suspiciously through a maze 
 of fraud and falsehood/ ’ According to the testimony of a 
 Persian nobleman in conversation with Mrs. Bishop, “Lying 
 is rotting this country. Persians tell lies before they can 
 speak.’ ’ The land is said to be “ a hotbed of lies and intrigue. 
 Nothing can be done without stratagem. The thing that 
 strikes them about an Englishman is that he does not lie.” 
 To be called a liar in Persia is considered a very mild insult. 
 Curzon, in his book on Persia, remarks, “I am convinced 
 that the true son of Iran would sooner lie than tell the truth, 
 and that he feels twinges of desperate remorse when upon oc- 
 casions he has thoughtlessly strayed into veracity.” 
 
 6. The Ticrkish Empire is full of dissimulation. The arts 
 of lying are not by any means monopolized by the Moslem 
 population, but the subject Christian races, incited by fear in 
 the presence of their unscrupulous rulers, have long practiced 
 in self-defence habits of falsehood and deceit, for which they 
 are still noted. The whole routine of life is fairly riddled 
 with a running fire of deception and dishonest dealing. 
 
 7. Poor Africa may be said to be a continent of lies and 
 a paradise of thievery. The native savage is trained in the 
 arts of plunder, and lives by crafty wiles. Here, above all 
 places on the face of the earth, a lie seems to be loved for its 
 own sake, and a man must be taken for a thief and a rogue 
 until he is proved to be the contrary. 
 
 8. The barbarous races of the Pacific Islands present no 
 exception to this sombre catalogue of nations who love a lie. 
 Thievery and cheating seem to be habitual and universal char- 
 acteristics of these poor people, who have known no higher 
 standards of morality than those suggested by the master pas- 
 sions of covetousness and lust. 
 
 Substantially the same story applies to the West Indies ; and 
 even South America and Mexico, where nominal Christianity 
 has been in evidence for centuries, are lands where lying and 
 dishonesty are grievously to the front. 
 
Ill 
 
 THE FAMILY GROUP 
 
 (Evils affecting primarily the family, and secondarily society through the 
 
 family) 
 
 Family Status in Classical and Heathen Civiliza- 
 tions. — The historic result of heathenism is a demoralized 
 family life. In no particular does the inexorableness of the 
 evolutionary process, apart from the culture of Christianity, 
 appear more clearly than in the steady and invariable trend of 
 pagan society towards the disruption and practical destruction 
 of the ideal family relation. 
 
 i. The status of marriage and of domestic life in ancient 
 Grecian and Roman civilization was marked by a dreary deg- 
 radation of the marital relation to a political institution whose 
 highest function was the service of the State in producing citi- 
 zens, and in which all sacredness and refinement seemed to 
 have been sunk in communal laxity. Marriage was considered 
 as a species of political incubator, and woman was simply a 
 necessary tool, to be used indiscriminately in case the highest 
 interests of the State required it. It was Plato’s suggestion 
 that in the perfect republic the warriors should have the women 
 in common. The aim of marriage was purely civil, and was 
 looked upon in the light of a duty to the State. The natural 
 result was a degraded womanhood and an easy descent into a 
 state of indifference as to all legal forms and restrictions. 
 Ancient heathen civilization was committed by the force of 
 tradition and custom to the degradation of woman. It offered 
 no goal of social dignity, no inspiration of hope; it gave no 
 promise of grateful recognition and sacred security. Woman 
 was made to feel that she was a mere convenience, and was 
 allowed to have no real basis of self-respect. Her existence 
 was, as a rule, passed in practical slavery, and her outlook was 
 one of hopeless inanity. This situation, as was to be expected, 
 developed those peculiar vices and weaknesses which, with 
 some notable exceptions, have marked her character in non- 
 Christian society for ages. 
 
 40 
 
THE FAMILY GROUP 
 
 41 
 
 2. On the other hand, Christianity from the first has rec- 
 ognized her equality of soul, her personal rights, her moral 
 and intellectual capabilities, and has given her a sacred place 
 of honor in the home. The Christian ideal of the family has 
 been substituted for the communal function of a propagator of 
 the State on the one hand, and a victim of lust on the other. 
 The secret springs of the social degradation of woman in an- 
 cient heathenism are pride and selfishness on the part of her 
 immemorial masters. Pride kept her in subjection, relegated 
 her to a political nursery, and treated her with disdain and 
 contumely. Selfishness refused her considerate and kindly 
 treatment, denied her privileged companionship, and made 
 her the sport of sensual desires. 
 
 3. One does not have to look long at the social status of 
 woman to-day in non- Christian lands to discover how largely 
 that same pride and selfishness take the old causal relation to 
 her present degradation. Even the sorry dignity accorded 
 her as the servant of the State has for the most part disap- 
 peared, and she has become rather a useful instrument in 
 maintaining the male line of descent for the satisfaction of 
 her master. Almost without exception, in the heathen civili- 
 zations of the present day she is regarded with severe suspi- 
 cion, scant respect, and cool superciliousness. Her marital 
 rights are scouted, while as a rule her marital duties are jeal- 
 ously exacted. The conception of an elevated, honored, and 
 sacred womanhood may be said to be sadly uncommon in the 
 traditions and customs of purely heathen civilization. What- 
 ever of dignity and consideration she has received in the mod- 
 ern transformations of non-Christian society has been the re- 
 sult, more or less direct, of the modifying influence of Chris- 
 tian teaching. 
 
 The group of social evils which centres about the family 
 presents several salient aspects which call for specific notice. 
 Among these we note : 
 
 The Degradation of Woman. — 1. One of the most con- 
 spicuous and unmistakable insignia of false religious systems is 
 their treatment of woman. They seem to be both bewildered 
 and undone by her very existence. The sentiments they pro- 
 mulgale co?icerning her and the treatment they accord her 
 stamp them with defects and blunders differentiating them at 
 once and forever from the pure code and the high ideal of 
 Christianity. Ethnic religions and barbarous civilizations 
 
42 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 have united their forces in the consignment of womankind to 
 a state of degradation — a fact which rises up in judgment 
 against these erroneous systems in all ages of history, and in 
 no period more pronouncedly than in our present century. 
 She is still regarded, as of old, in a non-Christian environment 
 as a scandal and a slave, a drudge and a disgrace, a tempta- 
 tion and a terror, a blemish and a burden — at once the touch- 
 stone and stumbling-block of human systems, the sign and 
 shame of the non-Christian world. 
 
 The status of woman outside of Christendom may be indi- 
 cated by the estimate put upon her, by the opportunity given 
 her, by the function assigned her, by the privilege accorded 
 her, and by the service expected of her. The estimate, as a 
 rule, is low, rarely rising above a physical or sensuous plane ; 
 the opportunity afforded her is meagre, in fact, often prohibi- 
 tory ; the function assigned her is that of reproduction and 
 the gratification of man’s baser passions; the privilege ex- 
 tended to her is rarely other than to be suspected, distrusted, 
 guarded with jealous seclusion, sometimes bought and sold as 
 a chattel, married at the will of fathers or brothers, or pos- 
 sibly consigned to some worse fate, beaten if necessary, and 
 kept in due subjection by tokens and signs of inferiority; the 
 service expected of her is for the most part the menial drudg- 
 ery and the hard toil of life. This indictment is too general 
 to pass unchallenged in specific cases, and it will not, of 
 course, hold in every particular in all countries alike; but as 
 an average, all-around statement it is not beyond what the 
 facts will justify, and can be supported by abundant and in- 
 dubitable evidence. 
 
 It will be sufficient for our present purpose if we can gather 
 into clusters or groups the facts which indicate the social con- 
 dition of woman, collecting them, as it were, around some 
 characteristic feature of her status. 
 
 2. Take, for instance, the various signs and tokens of in- 
 feriority which are imposed upon her. These seem to form a 
 motley group by themselves, clustering together in grim pic- 
 turesqueness as a grotesque medley of grimaces and scowls, of 
 haughty airs and self-complacent attitudes, of boorish vulgari- 
 ties and malicious insults. The common bond of affinity run- 
 ning through them all is well symbolized by that significant 
 confession of a bland Hindu , that there was at least one doc- 
 trine upon which all Hindu sects were agreed : “ We all be- 
 
THE FAMILY GROUP 
 
 43 
 
 lieve in the sanctity of the cow and in the depravity of 
 woman.” 
 
 The Japanese contribution to the picture has less of gross- 
 ness and more of natural refinement in it than that of any 
 other Eastern nation. Japanese women are gentler and more 
 attractive than those of the ruder lands of the East, and al- 
 though the estimate in which they are held is one of pro- 
 nounced inferiority, yet the signs and tokens of it are not so 
 offensive as elsewhere. The usual exacting manifestations of 
 subjection to the husband are less conspicuous; neither are 
 they insisted upon with such ruthless inconsiderateness as in 
 China, India, and throughout Mohammedan lands. The 
 power of a father, natural and right within proper limitations, 
 is, however, often grievously misused in committing a daugh- 
 ter to a life of disrepute. Among the peasantry drudgery is 
 shared by husbands, fathers, and brothers. In fact, there is 
 probably no nation outside of Christendom, with possibly the 
 exception of Burma, where woman’s lot is so free from the 
 signs of inferiority as in Japan. 
 
 The Chinese contingent in the scene is largely in evidence. 
 The tokens of disdain are not wanting in China. Woman is 
 “ moulded out of faults.” Even the Chinese hieroglyphic for 
 woman, if doubled, signifies “to wrangle”; if trebled it means 
 “ intrigue ” ; a compound of the symbols for “ women ” and 
 “together” yields a composite sign which signifies “to sus- 
 pect, dislike, or loathe.” No husband would willingly appear 
 in public with his wife. If he is obliged to escort her, she 
 must walk well in front as a sign of her inferior position. If 
 by chance he refers to her, he is apt to designate her as his 
 “dull thorn,” or some equally derogatory expression. Little 
 or no mourning follows her death. Her marriage is at the 
 will, and in accordance with the choice, of parents, who 
 usually commit the matter to professional matchmakers, an 
 untrustworthy and unscrupulous class, who generally drive 
 their own bargains with a view to their own sordid advantage. 
 The bride rarely sees her husband before marriage, and does 
 not even eat with him afterward. The Chinese idea of wifely 
 demeanor is that of abject dependence and subdued inanity. 
 She is by no means to be known outside of her own house, 
 and even in it she must disappear altogether if any chance 
 male visitor should come. She is considered a burden by her 
 parents, and must be their servant until married, which 
 
44 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 amounts simply to an entrance into another state of servitude 
 to her parents-in-law, often a cruel and exacting bondage from 
 which relief is sometimes sought in suicide ; and even in this 
 there is no escape from the lifelong lot of service, since she is 
 thought to become in the next life the servant of her husband, 
 to whom, according to the Chinese code, she belongs both for 
 time and eternity. The husband’s power over her, like that 
 of the father in Japan, is almost limitless. 
 
 What has been said of the condition of women in China is 
 applicable, with hardly any variation, to her lot in Korea . It 
 is a relief, however, to note that in both countries the every- 
 day, commonplace life of the laboring classes is largely free 
 from this whole round of finical and farcical exactions. 
 
 India makes a conspicuous contribution of signs and tokens 
 of inferiority in her estimate of woman. She is there counted 
 little more than a “ necessary machine for producing children.” 
 Her degradation, if indeed she is allowed to live, begins at 
 her birth, which is a time of condolence rather than of re- 
 joicing, and when she is received rather as a nuisance and a 
 burden. She is forbidden access to the sacred books of the 
 Hindu religion. While still young the only ceremonial acts 
 of worship and sacrifice allowed her are with a view to secur- 
 ing a husband, and after her marriage all right of approach 
 to the gods in her own name and on her own behalf is denied 
 her. Even her worship must be entirely in the name of her 
 husband. After her marriage she is bound forever in life and 
 in death by indissoluble bonds to her husband, according to 
 the plain precepts of Manu, although the British law now 
 grants the liberty of remarriage to a widow. She must revere 
 her husband as a god, and bear meekly his infidelity without 
 the slightest claim to divorce. She must never go out of the 
 house without the consent of her husband. If he goes upon a 
 journey, according to the teaching of the Sastra, his wife shall 
 not “divert herself by play, nor see any public show, nor 
 laugh, nor dress herself in jewels and fine clothes, nor see 
 dancing, nor hear music, nor sit at the window, nor ride out, 
 nor behold anything choice and rare, but shall fasten well the 
 house door and remain private.” And, finally, she must be 
 reborn into the world as a man before she can hope for any 
 favored lot in the life beyond. 
 
 In Mohammedan India , and all through the belt of Islamic 
 lands to the northwest corner of Africa, substantially the same 
 
THE FAMILY GROUP 
 
 45 
 
 spirit of punctilious disdain of womankind prevails. The 
 code of the harem is virtually one, and it is the same with the 
 doctrine of the zenana. 
 
 In savage Africa and among the barbarous nations of Poly- 
 nesia the signs and tokens of woman’s inferiority become more 
 painful and brutal. She is bought and sold like a chattel, 
 and for a consideration so insignificant that we can hardly 
 rank her as superior to the domestic animals. “ Five large 
 blue glass beads will buy a woman” in some sections of 
 Africa, but it takes “ ten to buy a cow.” Even stranger 
 stories than this are reported of daughters sold and wives pur- 
 chased among the interior tribes. She often eats with the 
 dogs, and she may be thankful if when her husband dies she 
 is not tossed with his dead body into the same grave. Many 
 a burly savage thinks it unmanly to treat her with kindness 
 and consideration. She is reckoned of little account to heart 
 or home. Inferiority sinks almost into worthlessness in the 
 estimation of masculine barbarians. 
 
 3. Notice again the various deprivations and restrictions , 
 many of them cruel and humiliating, which are inflicted upon 
 her. She is deprived of knowledge and all opportunity for in- 
 tellectual culture. She must not be taught to read. The 
 more profound her ignorance, the more safely is she preserved 
 from the perils of wisdom. According to the latest census re- 
 port in India, an average of only six women in a thousand 
 know how to read, and only one out of every hundred between 
 the ages of five and fifteen enjoys any educational advantage. 
 The total of absolutely illiterate women in the country 
 amounts, in round numbers, to 128,000,000. This same ter- 
 rible standard of ignorance is maintained, with some modifi- 
 cations, throughout the entire non-Christian world. The de- 
 lights and benefits of knowledge, except where Christian 
 influences have been introduced, are ruthlessly denied her as 
 both unnecessary and dangerous. 
 
 In the same spirit she is deprived of her legitimate liberty . 
 She is imprisoned in the zenanas of North India, shut up in 
 the harems of Mohammedans, confined to the inner seclusion 
 of her Chinese home, and among the higher classes of Korea 
 her isolation is perhaps more prison-like and terrible than else- 
 where. In China if she ventures out of her house she must be 
 carefully hidden in the sedan-chair, or if she should appear 
 upon the streets unguarded she must expect to be jeered and 
 
46 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CIIRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 berated, even if she is not insulted. Pleasant exceptions to 
 these severe restrictions may be noted in Japan, Siam, and 
 Burma, where women (except in the case of royalty) enjoy a 
 freedom unusual in Eastern lands. In Southern India the 
 zenanas of the Punjab are not known, and much more personal 
 freedom is allowed. It is gratifying to note also that among 
 the peasantry and the working classes, living for the most 
 part in villages, these artificial restrictions are almost alto- 
 gether discarded. 
 
 A severe code of obligation is almost universally main- 
 tained with reference to woman’s duty in case of her husband* s 
 death. She is almost altogether deprived of the pleasure of 
 mutual affection as a preliminary basis of marriage, since, ac- 
 cording to the immemorial standards of the East, it is regarded 
 as both immoral and indecorous. If even her betrothed 
 should die before marriage she is expected in China to refrain 
 from all further alliance, and in case of the death of her hus- 
 band the truly honorable thing for her to do is either to com- 
 mit suicide or remain forever a widow out of respect to his 
 memory, although in China and Korea the singular concession 
 is made that she may become a concubine and yet escape those 
 depths of disgrace into which she would fall by becoming a 
 legitimate wife. In Southern China this duty of suicide has 
 been performed in the presence of an applauding crowd, with 
 spectacular ceremonies. If the unfortunate widow should 
 shrink from the ordeal, it sometimes happens that the surviving 
 friends of her husband will force her to the performance of the 
 rash act. In Korea substantially the same inexorable etiquette 
 prevails, although in India the abominations of sati have now 
 been legally prohibited. 
 
 If, however, her husband lives, she must be prepared to 
 welcome other women to share her conjugal rights , as he may 
 desire ; not, to be sure, as legitimate wives, but as concubines. 
 The same rule prevails in this respect in China, Korea, and 
 Japan, while in India and throughout the Mohammedan world 
 there may be several legal wives. In Africa the universal rule 
 is as many wives as a man can purchase, and the more he 
 possesses the greater his social dignity. The position of a 
 concubine is often one of bitter bondage not only to the hus- 
 band, but also to the first or legal wife. 
 
 If the hour of divorce comes, as it often does at the whim 
 of the husband, nothing is easier than the destruction of all 
 
THE FAMILY GROUP 
 
 47 
 
 her legal rights by a cruel and arbitrary decree. There is one 
 universal rule in this matter throughout the non-Christian 
 world. It is as quickly and irreversibly done in Japan as 
 elsewhere. A single passionate declaration will accomplish it 
 in Korea, in China, in India, in every harem of Islam, and 
 wherever an African savage chooses to speak the word. 
 
 The power of life and death seems to be almost universally 
 in the hands of the husband, unless the authority of some civi- 
 lized government can call him to account. “ Either to be 
 killed or to be married is the universal female fate ” in China. 
 In Japan, even a father must be obeyed to the extent of self- 
 immolation, if required. In times of dire distress and famine, 
 alike in China and in Africa, wives and daughters may be 
 sold without restraint in the open market. In such strange 
 ways as these is woman robbed of her birthright and deprived 
 of her heritage. 
 
 4. There is still a final group of indignities and burdens , 
 both physical and moral, which pertain to woman’s lot in her 
 non-Christian environment. The mere list of physical in- 
 juries inflicted upon her is painful. In almost all Eastern 
 lands she is beaten without legal restraint and maltreated 
 sometimes with brutal cruelty. She is often neglected when 
 sick, as in many an Indian zenana. She is married every- 
 where at a tender age, — in India as early as seven years, — and 
 the marriage is often consummated at eleven or twelve. There 
 seems to be no law in Mohammedan lands restricting the 
 wishes of her rulers in this respect. Among the Kabyles she 
 is often a married child at seven or eight. Nor is there any 
 constraint of custom as to the age of the bridegroom, who 
 may be far advanced in years and yet married to a child. 
 Amid the dismal barbarism of Chinese Turkestan even young 
 children are sometimes drugged and forcibly married. In one 
 of the islands of the New Hebrides a woman’s marriage is at- 
 tended by the painful ordeal of having her 4t two upper front 
 teeth knocked out by the medicine-man, aided by half a dozen 
 old women, who hold the girl’s arms and legs while the cruel 
 operation is being performed.” Among the African tribes she 
 is always liable to the charge of witchcraft, exposing her to 
 torture or death, as among the Matabele and the Buie and the 
 tribes of the East Equatorial region. In Uganda a wife was 
 recently killed upon the supposition that she made her hus- 
 band sick. On some of the South Pacific Islands, as in 
 
48 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON- CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 Aneityum and Efate, she is liable to be buried alive in the 
 same grave with her husband or sacrificed in his honor by 
 methods of extraordinary cruelty. Among all savage and 
 ignorant races she is likely to be the victim of brutal quackery 
 and barbarous surgical torture in her times of peril and dis- 
 tress. When widowhood becomes her lot she is everywhere 
 the victim of suspicion and often of cruel neglect. Not in- 
 frequently her unprotected condition exposes her to violence. 
 In China even the bright days of her childhood are shadowed 
 by the lingering torture of bound, or rather crushed, feet, in 
 accordance with that abominable custom. If afterward in 
 maturer life she is obliged to work, the burdens of her toil are 
 immensely enhanced by the physical disability of her maimed 
 person. 
 
 The rough-and-tumble toil of life in mountain and field and 
 garden seems to be her lot everywhere in heathen lands. Her 
 daily lesson is drudgery, and throughout the East and in 
 Africa every form of hard work is her appointed lot. She is 
 “ a hewer of wood and a carrier of water. ” In the fields and 
 vineyards and olive orchards, on the tea plantations and at the 
 wine-presses, carrying heavy loads upon her back and heavy 
 jars upon her head, sometimes yoked to plows, usually walking 
 while men ride, frequently with her babe strapped on her back 
 — she goes through the weary round of her daily task. The 
 filthy and loathsome service of fertilizing the soil and of pre- 
 paring the fuel, made from offal, is always her menial task. 
 The situation is well illustrated by the story of a native African 
 who ordered his wife to carry him on her shoulders over a 
 deep and perilous ford of a river. She obeyed his command 
 successfully. The husband, on being remonstrated with by a 
 white man, asked in astonishment, “ Then whose wife should 
 carry me over if my own does not?” Thus, while it is true 
 that there are many industries in which women can and do 
 happily engage, yet their lot, as a rule, is to be the slave and 
 drudge of men who spend their time in idleness or sport, with 
 no effort to lighten the burdens of life falling so heavily upon 
 the women. 
 
 Her indignities and burdens are not, however, physical 
 alone. There are outrages upon her virtue inflicted by lust 
 and greed. The Laws of Manu give the old Indian estimate 
 of woman. She is regarded with intense distrust and counted 
 £S simply a malevolent snare to men. If a widow she is ever 
 
THE FAMILY GROUP 
 
 49 
 
 the victim of malicious gossip. “ Scandals cluster around a 
 widow’s door,” is a Chinese proverb. “ No daughter’s virtue 
 can be praised until she is dead,” is an Indian proverb. “ She 
 is married to the gods” in India, which means that she is 
 married to no one, although the slave of all. She is set apart 
 and trained for the indecencies of the nautch while still a 
 child. If there is any difficulty attending her marriage, so 
 inexorable is the law that no one must remain unmarried that 
 she is given perhaps as the fortieth or fiftieth wife to some old 
 man among the Brahmans whose special business it is to marry 
 girls for a consideration, so that if they fail to find a husband 
 in any other way this resource is still open. Then, again, ac- 
 cording to the savage etiquette of African hospitality, they 
 must serve as occasion may demand in the capacity of tem- 
 porary wives to guests. 
 
 5. As might be expected, the natural result of woman's 
 environment and experience where Christianity is unknown is 
 seen in her dwarfed intellectual capacity and her moral and 
 physical degradation. Her service to society has in it neces- 
 sarily little that is helpful or elevating. Among savage races 
 even the instincts of her humanity seem to have given place to 
 a grovelling and loathsome animalism . In the higher walks 
 of heathenism she seems doomed to live in an atmosphere of 
 suspicion, ignorance, and superstition. The Hindu zenana 
 and the Moslem harem are, as a rule, the haunts of frivolous 
 inanity, fleshly vulgarity, and intriguing jealousy. She knows 
 little of the true ideal of home, and appreciates but feebly the 
 dignity and responsibility of motherhood. False conceptions 
 of duty, virtue, and responsibility govern her life ; society is 
 thus robbed of the helpful influence, the brightness, the fra- 
 grance, and the charm of her pure companionship, and 
 the world is enfeebled, darkened, and saddened by its ab- 
 sence. 
 
 Mr. Rudyard Kipling , in one of his stories of Indian life, 
 gives the following trenchant verdict as to the real secret of 
 India’s degradation. He says by the mouth of one of his 
 characters: “What’s the matter with this country is not in 
 the least political, but an all-round entanglement of physical, 
 social, and moral evils and corruptions, all, more or less, due 
 to the unnatural treatment of women. You can’t gather figs 
 from thistles, and so long as the system of infant marriage, 
 the prohibition of the remarriage of widows, the lifelong im- 
 
50 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON- CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 prisonment of wives in a worse than penal confinement, and 
 the withholding from them of any kind of education or treat- 
 ment as rational beings continues, the country cannot advance 
 a step. Half of it is morally dead, and worse than dead, and 
 that is just the half from which we have a right to look for 
 the best impulses. It is right here where the trouble is, and 
 not in any political considerations whatsoever. The founda- 
 tions of their life are rotten — utterly rotten — and beastly rot- 
 ten. The men talk of their rights and privileges. I have 
 seen the women that bear these very men, and again — may 
 God forgive the men I n 
 
 6. It has been said, and no doubt truthfully, that, in spite 
 of all her disabilities, there is much of happiness as well as of 
 dignity and influence in woman' s lot in Eastern lands. This 
 is certainly the case in Japan, where there are many bright 
 modifications of the dark picture which has been presented, 
 and where woman is naturally winsome and gentle, and, accord- 
 ing to the standards of her country, refined and modest, with 
 a degree of neatness, diligence, devotion, self-sacrifice, and 
 affectionate concern for those she loves which places her on 
 perhaps the highest plane of womanly excellence outside of 
 the home life of Christendom. We must bear in mind in this 
 connection that there is no zenana system in Japan, and very 
 little physical ill-treatment of women. They are looked upon 
 rather as babies and toys. 
 
 It is not unusual also in China, as well as in Japan, in 
 Korea, and even in India, for women to win their way in some 
 instances to a position of dignity, influence, and power, 
 which secures the respect and admiration of all; yet these 
 cases are confessedly exceptional, and they are especially 
 creditable and honorable to woman herself in that she rises 
 above her limitations and discouragements, and exhibits such 
 characteristic cheerfulness, contentment, and patient docility 
 in such untoward surroundings. The credit of this is due to 
 her, and not to her environments, and shows her to be a tact- 
 ful and resourceful conqueror of circumstances. Mere happi- 
 ness, moreover, is not a sign that all is well. Slaves may be 
 happy in their slavery, the ignorant may be contented in their 
 degradation, the oppressed may have such a hopeless and nar- 
 row view of life that they make the best of their condition, 
 and move blindly and carelessly on in the path of destiny ; but 
 this does not make their degradation the less real ; it only re- 
 
THE FAMILY GROUP 
 
 51 
 
 veals the capacity of endurance, of cheerful submission, and 
 patient contentment, which abides in humanity. 
 
 Polygamy and Concubinage. — Incidental mention has 
 already been made of these subjects, but they can hardly be 
 passed over without some more explicit and detailed reference 
 to the facts concerning them. 
 
 i. The unique teachings of Christianity concerning mar- 
 riage form one of the most unmistakable evidences of the hal- 
 lowed origin of the Christian code. It is in conflict with the 
 immemorial customs of human history, stamping with instant 
 and uncompromising disapproval the ordinary ways of men as 
 revealed in the conventional non-Christian attitude of society 
 through all time. The wisdom of Christ seems to have led 
 Him to depart from His usual custom, and to legislate in de- 
 tail as to the invariable Christian rule of morality in the case 
 of marriage. He realized that in this matter not only prin- 
 ciple but precept must be explicit and final if the world was to 
 be guided aright. 
 
 The necessity for definite directions on the part of the 
 Founder of Christianity becomes all the more manifest when 
 we note the devices that have been popular both in ancient 
 and modern society, except where the divine code has ruled, 
 to give a large scope to sensual instincts, while at the same 
 time avoiding the recognized scandal of universal lewdness. 
 The differ e7it forms of marriage recognized by Roman law, 
 especially that of usus, gave wide vent to laxity, while even to 
 these was added, in the Augustan age, the omnium gatherum 
 of concubinage. 
 
 In the non- Christian world of to-day polygamy and con- 
 cubinage, in connection with easy divorce, are still the recog- 
 nized expedients for giving an official sanction to the wanton 
 range of passion without the sacrifice of social caste. The con- 
 venient fiction of legality and the powerful password of cus- 
 tom lift the disgrace and save the pride of the Eastern world. 
 In the East, as in the West, there is a ready condemnation 
 and denunciation, in theory at least, if not always in practice, 
 of the vice of prostitution. Nowhere will we find it more 
 vigorously and scornfully berated than among Moslems, Hin- 
 dus, and other Eastern nationalities. A Moslem will defend 
 his piety and moral standing as passionately as he guards the 
 honor of his hidden retinue of the harem, and will repudiate 
 with indignation any hint of irregularity or license in his 
 
 U 
 
 Of 
 
 
 
52 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 habits of life. He insists, of course, that he is not holden to 
 Christian standards and cannot be judged by them, his own 
 moral code being the only one that he acknowledges. Thus 
 we will find that the entire non-Christian world is prepared to 
 defend stoutly the traditional moral environment of marriage, 
 including polygamy, concubinage, and divorce at will, as 
 wisely and happily ordered so as to combine a maximum of 
 privilege with a minimum of scandal. This elastic legalization 
 of compromising relations gives, in the eyes of the Oriental, a 
 sufficient respectability to what would otherwise be pronounced 
 illicit and scandalous. 
 
 2. Strickly speaking, therefore, according to the recog- 
 nized social code, there is no polygamy in Japan , Korea , or 
 China , and comparatively little even in India. The rule is 
 that there is only one bona fide legal wife of the first rank, and 
 she rides but once in her lifetime in the bridal chair. To be 
 sure, there are secondary wives and concubines, but this does not 
 interfere with the monogamous supremacy and dignity of the 
 first or chief wife, to whom the others often bear the relation 
 of servants and underlings. In the imperial palaces, how- 
 ever, there are ranks upon ranks, and among the madarins 
 and the more wealthy classes of Japan, Korea, and China 
 there is an indulgence in this domestic luxury proportionate 
 to position and ability. While this is all true, it must be said, 
 however, that, except among the higher classes in these coun- 
 tries, the polygamous household is the exception. The middle 
 and lower classes, presumably rather under the stress of cir- 
 cumstances, usually observe the rule of monogamy. In Siam 
 and LaoSy also, polygamy is confined to a few, while in 
 Burma it prevails to a very moderate extent. 
 
 In India the rule among the Hindus in all ordinary castes 
 is one wife, with the usual margin for concubines. In case, 
 however, the first wife after seven years fails to bear a son, 
 another wife is sure to be taken. There is one conspicuous 
 exception to this general observation of monogamy, and this 
 is among the Kulin Brahmans, whose bewildering code of 
 polygamy without bounds or restraints is too complicated to 
 deal with here. These much-married Brahmans, now found 
 mostly in Bengal, seem to be able in view of their caste dis- 
 tinction to sell themselves as husbands to innumerable wives, 
 whose friends will gladly pay a good round sum for the privi- 
 lege of having daughters married in such an exalted connec- 
 
THE FAMILY GROUP 
 
 53 
 
 tion. In India, as elsewhere, rajahs and princes are, as usual, 
 unrestrained polygamists, while the lower classes are, as a 
 rule, monogamists. The singular custom of polyandry is 
 rarely met with. It exists, however, among the peasantry of 
 Thibet, among some of the Nilgiri Hill tribes of South India, 
 and somewhat also in Ceylon. 
 
 The well-known rule of the Koran limits the Mohammedan 
 to four legitimate wives at any one time, with a large license 
 as to concubines and slaves. The facility of divorce, how- 
 ever, is always a ready expedient to make a convenient 
 vacancy, so that the limit need not be exceeded, and the let- 
 ter of the law observed. The Turkish harem and the Persian 
 andarun are one and the same, and exhibit substantially the 
 same phases of life. In Persia, moreover, an audaciously 
 flagrant device of a temporary marriage seems to be in use to 
 give a fictitious standing to a laxity wholly vicious and deplor- 
 able. This so-called marriage may be for a day or for years. 
 At certain seasons of the year, when cultivators of the soil re- 
 quire special help, in accordance with this custom they adopt 
 the expedient of marrying with a temporary contract as many 
 women as they require. In the spring of the year the rice- 
 planters of Ghilan and Mazanderan will thus secure a full con- 
 tingent of cultivators of their fields, and when the autumn 
 harvesting is over, by a process of wholesale divorce the con- 
 tract comes to an end. 
 
 The savage races brush aside all these fine distinctions of 
 moral finesse so popular among the more advanced Orientals, 
 and recognize no legal limitations whatever to their polyga- 
 mous practices. Wives are a badge of social distinction, and 
 give a princely eclat to the household. Throughout the whole 
 African Continent and in the island homes of paganism the 
 highest ambition, next to distinction in war, seems to be un- 
 limited ownership of wives. 
 
 Adultery and Divorce. — i. Apparent absence of these 
 acts . According to the social and legal standards of non- 
 Christian lands, using the term in its strict technical sense, 
 there is less adultery than one would expect. So far as the 
 wife is concerned, she is guarded with extraordinary care, and 
 her punishment in case of a lapse is severe and merciless. In 
 theory it is usually death either by strangling or lapidation, 
 but this extreme penalty is in most cases allowed to lapse in 
 practice. So far as the man is concerned, the liberty which 
 
54 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON- CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 he claims to take to himself under legal forms secondary wives 
 and concubines, and the right which he exercises of swift and 
 informal divorce, put adultery in its technical sense outside the 
 usual range of his indulgence. He finds such large license 
 within the limits of custom and safety that an adulterous con- 
 nection is not sought for, nor is it, as a rule, very practicable. 
 Judged, however, by Christian standards, half the flimsy 
 marital relations of the Asiatic and African nations are 
 adulterous. 
 
 2. Divorce is everywhere easily accomplished with little 
 formality and upon the most trivial pretexts. Almost the only 
 restraint is the fear of scandal or of personally offending the 
 relatives of the wife. It is practically at the will of the hus- 
 band. It is his prerogative, not the wife’s. It is hardly pos- 
 sible, nor is it usually conceded even in theory in non- Chris- 
 tian law , that a woman can either divorce or secure a divorce 
 from her husband, although a separation by mutual consent 
 can be everywhere resorted to without fear of legal conse- 
 quences. A power so arbitrary and despotic on the part of 
 the husband is, as might be expected, a facile expedient for 
 wrecking the marriage relation. It is the ready instrument of 
 wanton desire, and at the same time introduces heartless un- 
 certainty and gross injustice into the lot of woman. She is 
 the passive victim, and has no redress for the wrong done her. 
 
 In China the husband’s power of divorce seems to be un- 
 limited so far as his secondary wives are concerned. In the 
 case of the first or chief wife, however, he must run the gant- 
 let of possible complications arising from opposition on the 
 part of her family friends. Still further embarrassments arise 
 in case the wife’s parents have died since her marriage, or if 
 she has served the husband’s parents until their death, or if 
 her husband has grown rich since her marriage. Theoretically 
 the husband is free to divorce for any one of the “seven justi- 
 fying causes, ” namely, “ barrenness, lewdness, jealousy, 
 talkativeness, thievery, disobedience to her husband’s parents, 
 and loathsome disease .* 9 This would seem to open the door 
 to the unrestricted exercise of the right. In reality, however, 
 public opinion and the power of precedent and custom exert 
 considerable influence in restraining intemperate impulses on 
 the part of the husband. 
 
 In Japan the list of justifying causes is substantially identi- 
 cal with those mentioned above, and the husband is practically 
 
THE FAMILY GROUP 
 
 55 
 
 under some constraint for the same reasons that hold in China, 
 especially the possibility of offending the wife’s family in case 
 she is from the higher ranks of society. Among the lower 
 classes of Japan, however, there is much less restraint, and 
 divorce is frequently resorted to. In the five years from 1885 
 to 1889, inclusive, there was a total of 1,579,648 marriages in 
 the Empire of Japan, and a total of 559,032 divorces — or an 
 average of 111,806 divorces annually, or one divorce to a frac- 
 tion (2.88) less than every three marriages. In 1891 the 
 marriages were 325,651, and the divorces 112,411, substan- 
 tially the same proportion. Comparing these statistics with 
 those of France for the same years, we find that from 1885 to 
 1889, inclusive, there were 29,148 divorces, or an average of 
 5,829 annually, while the proportion of divorces to marriages 
 was, in 1885, 14 for 1,000, which had increased, however, 
 so that it amounted to 24 for 1,000 in 1891. In the United 
 States there were slightly over 40,000 divorces granted in 
 1894. Recent legislation in Japan has modified somewhat the 
 legal features of divorce, so that at the present moment the 
 whole subject is under the cognizance of law in a way which 
 was unknown a few years ago. It has become possible now 
 for a wife to legally sue for a divorce. The immemorial rule, 
 however, has been that a wife must give her husband full lib- 
 erty to do as he will and should not even be jealous if he 
 sought other society. 
 
 In India divorce does not seem to be prevalent, except 
 among Moslems. The Islamic code of divorce gives more 
 license than is usual among Oriental nations. It is almost lit- 
 erally without restraint, except that the husband is required to 
 pay the divorced wife’s dowry. The absolute secrecy which 
 enshrouds the Mohammedan harem covers many dark and 
 cruel wrongs. According to Moslem tradition and custom, 
 the Mohammedan husband can exercise absolute and irrespon- 
 sible power within the precincts of his harem. Even the po- 
 lice are prohibited from entering on any pretext whatever. 
 He can cast out his wife simply by the use of a familiar 
 spoken formula, brief and peremptory, and she has no redress. 
 
 In Turkey divorce is often resorted to among Moslems, and, 
 except that certain legal formalities are required among the 
 upper classes, it is a commonplace of domestic life. No dis- 
 grace attends it, nor is it any barrier to subsequent alliances. 
 Even girls not yet twenty years of age may have been divorced 
 
56 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 and remarried a dozen times. This is virtually prostitution 
 under guise of domestic relations, and the final lot of the 
 victim is sooner or later to become a social outcast. 
 
 In India an important aspect of this whole question is the 
 proper regulation, by legal enactments, of the undoubted 
 right of divorce where Christian converts are unjustly bound 
 by non-Christian alliances. According to Mohammedan law 
 in India, conversion to Christianity on the part of either hus- 
 band or wife dissolves the marriage tie, and the party remain- 
 ing a Moslem is free to contract another alliance. Legislation 
 is needed which will secure to native Christian converts under 
 these circumstances a legal divorce which will free them from 
 bondage. In the case also of child marriage, which is re- 
 garded by present British law as binding, although it may 
 have been contracted in infancy and remains still unconsum- 
 mated, legislative reform is needed which will allow it to be 
 regarded in the light simply of betrothal. 
 
 Child Marriage and Widowhood. — i. Child marriage 
 is in defiance of a law of nature at once beneficent and su- 
 preme. Its evils are multiform and deplorable. It is physic- 
 ally injurious, morally deleterious, mentally weakening, de- 
 structive of family dignity, productive of enfeebled offspring, 
 increases the probability of early widowhood, provokes the 
 curse of poverty, and tends to rapid over-population. The 
 testimony of native Indians of education and independent 
 judgment (especially medical men) is clear and emphatic as 
 to its sad and dangerous tendencies. The population of India 
 to-day is largely the children of children, and, as marriage is 
 contracted with little or no regard to the ability of the hus- 
 band to support a family, this is one secret of the terrible and 
 grinding poverty of the country. National vigor in many sec- 
 tions of the great peninsula has suffered a notable decline, 
 owing to the constant stream of infant life born of immaturity, 
 and called to struggle with insanitary conditions and blighting 
 disease. 
 
 2. Child marriage in its worst forms seems to be associated 
 with the higher castes, among whom also the restrictions of inter- 
 marriage with other castes are inexorable, and involve a nar- 
 rowing of the marriage relation within a too limited circle. 
 The custom of infant marriage is not equally prevalent 
 throughout India, and facts which may be true of one sec- 
 tion of the country may not apply to others ; yet the practice 
 
THE FAMILY GROUP 
 
 57 
 
 is sufficiently prevalent to make it a gigantic evil of Indian 
 society and characteristic of the country. The census of i8gi 
 reports 17,928,640 girls in India between the ages of five and 
 nine. Of this number 2,201,404 were already married and 
 64,040 were widows. The report further shows that there 
 were 12,168,592 girls between the ages of ten and fourteen, 
 and of this number 6,016,759 were carried and 174,532 
 were widows. In the province of Mysore the number of girls 
 married under nine years of age in the year 1881 was 12,000, 
 while in 1891 it was 18,000, showing an increase of 50 per 
 cent. In 1891 out of 971,500 married women 11,157 had 
 been married at or before the age of four years, and 180,997 
 between the ages of five and nine, showing that one out of 
 every five of the wives was married under the age of nine. 
 There were in the province at the time 23,000 child widows 
 below the age of fourteen. The total of married children in 
 all India under five years of age is as follows: boys, 103,000; 
 girls, 258,000. The total of widowed children under five 
 years of age is, boys, 7,000, and girls, 14,000. 
 
 3. The average age of marriage for girls among the Brah- 
 mans is between six and seven. Some are married before 
 seven years of age. Nearly all are married before ten. Even 
 babes are often married as soon as they are born. Twelve 
 seems to be the limit of age beyond which it is a disgrace for 
 the girl not to be married and a sin for the father not to have 
 found her a husband. 
 
 4. The discussions of the Indian sacred books as to the 
 marriageable age of girls are not fit for quotation. They are 
 part of the prurient vulgarity of Hinduism in its treatment of 
 woman. The reasons usually assigned for infant marriage are 
 that it is essential to the peace of a man’s soul after death that 
 he should have children who can duly perform his funeral 
 rites, and that early marriages increase the probability of off- 
 spring, and on this account are to be commended. It is also 
 argued that the custom tends to morality, and that it is justi- 
 fied in India for physical reasons. 
 
 The arguments that early marriages are required in the in- 
 terests of morality and are justified by the early development 
 of Indian girls are not sustained by facts. On the contrary , 
 the custom is a dangerous stimulus to immorality, and quickens 
 to an unnatural precocity the relation of the sexes. It is, 
 moreover, denied by competent authority that climatic con- 
 
58 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 ditions in India are to the extent claimed responsible for early 
 maturity. The pernicious customs of the country as regards 
 marriage have unbalanced nature and prematurely forced the 
 physical and mental growth of Indian children of both sexes. 
 
 5. The physical sufferings induced by early marriage form 
 a shocking indictment against a cruel custom. In a recent 
 memorial , signed by fifty-five lady doctors, petitioning the 
 Indian Government on the subject of child marriage, and for- 
 warded by Mrs. Dr. Mansell of Lucknow to the Governor- 
 General, a strong appeal based upon medical experience was 
 presented, urging that fourteen years be the minimum age for 
 the consummation of marriage. The appeal is sustained by 
 most pitiful facts, drawn from medical experience, as to the 
 physical cruelties attending the prevalent custom of infant 
 marriage. 
 
 6. According to what is known as the “ Native Marriage 
 Act ” of 1872, forced marriages are prohibited under the age 
 of eighteen for men and fourteen for women, while the written 
 consent of parents or guardians is required when either party 
 is under twenty-one. This at first sight seems to be valuable 
 legislation, but, as the law remains a dead letter unless its 
 protection is sought, it practically has little effect as a remedy 
 for existing evils, since neither parents nor children appear 
 inclined, except very rarely, to avail themselves of its provi- 
 sions. 
 
 According to the penal code of India, the minimum age for 
 the consummation of marriage, so far as Hindus are concerned, 
 was until quite recently ten years. It has now been raised to 
 twelve by an act which became law on March 19, 1891. The 
 significance of this is that it is regarded as a crime to consum- 
 mate the marriage earlier than twelve years of age, but, owing 
 to the supreme difficulty of prosecution and the many em- 
 barrassments attending it, the infraction of the law is rarely 
 brought to book, and in the great majority of instances it is 
 practically inoperative. As the limitation of ten years was 
 often disregarded, so in all likelihood that of twelve years will 
 be observed even to a less extent. The Parsees have secured 
 for themselves by special legislation in their interest the age of 
 fourteen, as also have the Brahmos (members of reform socie- 
 ties, like the Brahmo-Somaj and others) at their own request. 
 The Kulin Brahmans, however, seem to break all rules with 
 their barbarous customs. It is not unusual for individual 
 
THE FAMILY GROUP 
 
 59 
 
 members of this marrying syndicate to have from fifty to 
 seventy-five girl wives scattered about the country, so that 
 when the much-married husband dies it brings the social 
 miseries and sorrows of widowhood upon a large circle of 
 helpless victims. 
 
 7. There is at the present time much agitation for new 
 Indian legislation upon this burning subject. Another point 
 upon which reform legislation is needed is to secure the non- 
 recognition on the part of British law of the binding valid- 
 ity of infant marriage, so customary in India. It should be 
 regarded in the light of a betrothal until bona fide marriage 
 relations are established. 
 
 8. We have referred as yet only to India, but the custom 
 of early marriages is known also in Korea, China, Chinese 
 Turkestan, Persia, Turkey, along the northern coast of Africa, 
 and largely throughout the Continent, and it produces every- 
 where the same evil results. 
 
 9. Child widowhood is a natural result of child marriage, 
 and the evil is greatly enhanced by the uncompromising pro- 
 hibition of remarriage in India. The singular prohibition is 
 one of the fruits of the traditional subjection of woman. Ac- 
 cording to the social and religious standards of India, she is 
 regarded as still bound to do reverence even to a dead hus- 
 band, and his dominion is considered as lasting during her 
 life, even though he has ceased to live. This idea of enslave- 
 ment was carried to such an extreme that the widow was until 
 recently bound to self-destruction at the death of her husband, 
 in order that she might continue to be his wife and engage in 
 his service in the life beyond. 
 
 10. The prohibition of remarriage was lifted by what is 
 known in British Indian legislation as the “ Widow Marriage 
 Act,” passed by Lord Canning in 1856. The force of this act 
 is simply that it removes the legal obstacles to remarriage on 
 the part of the widow, if it is desired, but at the same time it 
 requires her, in case of remarriage, to forfeit all property 
 which she has inherited from her husband. This law has been 
 modified by a special enactment in the case of native Chris- 
 tians and the theistic reformed sects of India, but it is still in 
 force so far as the entire Hindu population is concerned. It 
 is in reality, however, a dead letter, as the Hindus regard it 
 with abhorrence, and have not mitigated in the least their 
 strenuous opposition to the remarriage of a widow. Thirty 
 
60 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 years after its enactment only about sixty remarriages are 
 reported in all India. It was a generation or more in advance 
 of native opinion, which, however, at the present time is be- 
 ginning to agitate for larger liberty in this matter. The law, 
 being simply permissive in its character, legalizes without 
 urging or facilitating the act of remarriage. It remains for 
 native public opinion to relax its tyrannical stringency and 
 yield itself to the urgent call for a more enlightened liberty. 
 As the case stands now, the loss of property on the part of the 
 widow is not the only penalty attending her remarriage; both 
 she and her husband are ruled out of caste, and must suffer 
 social ostracism in its most intense and virulent form. 
 
 n. The condition of the Hindu widow is, almost with- 
 out exception, a lamentable one. It has been fully de- 
 scribed in books referring to the social and religious state of 
 India. The chief features which make her fate a hard one, 
 especially if she is widowed in childhood, are that she is im- 
 mediately obliged to shave her head, is deprived forcibly of 
 her jewels and ordinary clothing, and made to wear for the 
 rest of her life a distinctive garb, which is a badge of humili- 
 ation. She is allowed to eat only once in the twenty-four 
 hours, and every two weeks is required to observe a strict fast, 
 omitting even the one meal. It has been decreed, however, 
 by the highest religious court of Hinduism that if, acting on 
 medical advice, the widow on these fast-days should drink a 
 little water the offence should be condoned. Her person is 
 forever held in contempt, and even her touch may be con- 
 sidered pollution. Her widowhood is regarded as an afflic- 
 tion brought upon her in punishment for heinous sin in a 
 previous state of existence. If it come upon her in childhood 
 she must grow to years of maturity with the painful conscious- 
 ness of her isolation and unhappy ostracism shadowing the early 
 years of her life. She is forever an object of suspicion, and 
 is looked upon as capable of all evil. She is the victim of 
 special temptations, and is often driven to a life of shame 
 through sheer self-loathing and despair. 
 
 12. It should not be understood that all widows are in- 
 variably treated with the same degree of severity and contempt 
 throughout India. The treatment shown them varies in dif- 
 ferent castes, and even in different families. It may, of 
 course, be mitigated by the personal kindness and consider- 
 ation of their immediate circle, and it may be, on the other 
 
THE FAMILY GROUP 
 
 61 
 
 hand, intensified by fanaticism. In the Punjab, and es- 
 pecially in Bengal, the worst features of the widow’s sad lot 
 are prevalent. In other parts of India she may be treated with 
 far less personal contumely, but the main features of isolation, 
 suspicion, distinctive dress, cruel restrictions, and prohibition 
 of remarriage prevail everywhere. 
 
 13. According to the census of 1881, there were in India 
 at that time 20,938,626 widows. The census of 1891 reports 
 22,657,429, but as this report was given with reference only 
 to 262,300,000 out of a total population of 287,223,431, if 
 the same proportion holds, the total number in all India would 
 not be less than 25,000,000. Nearly every fifth woman in 
 India is a widow. This large percentage may be traced di- 
 rectly to the custom of early marriages and the stringent pro- 
 hibition of remarriage. 
 
 14. The same shadow rests upon the widow in China and 
 Korea, although the exactions of custom are by no means so 
 inexorable as in India. If, however, she should remarry she 
 loses her social position and is regarded as guilty of an un- 
 natural and immodest act. 
 
 15. In connection with the subject of widowhood and its 
 enforced hardships, mention may be made of the now hap- 
 pily extinct custoin of sati , or widow-burning. The usual 
 form of the word in English is “ suttee,” but it is more cor- 
 rectly written sati , from a root signifying “good ” or “ pure,” 
 the significance of the word being that self-destruction on the 
 part of the widow is a preeminently virtuous act. The hor- 
 rible custom was unknown among the early Aryans, nor is it 
 inculcated in the Vedas. It is supposed that the Hindus 
 adopted it from the Scythian tribes, who were accustomed to 
 immolate “ concubine and horse and slave on the tomb of the 
 dead lord.” Possibly the custom may have commended itself 
 to the Hindus as one eminently fitting and in harmony with 
 their ideas of what is becoming in a widow. At all events, it 
 became prevalent to a fearful extent, and the relatives of the 
 unhappy widow may have been all the more eager to insist 
 upon it so that they might obtain her inheritance and be al- 
 together relieved of the burden of supporting her. She was 
 assured that untold happiness would follow this supreme 
 sacrifice, and even those who aided in the act of burning 
 would obtain for themselves extravagant merit. In number- 
 less instances the unhappy victim would shrink from her ter- 
 
62 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 rible fate, and would be forced to it in a way which made it a 
 most abominable species of murder. 
 
 In the year 1817 it was found that, on an average, two 
 widows were burned alive in Bengal every day. In some 
 cases death was by burial while alive instead of by burning. 
 This most awful crime was abolished by the British Govern- 
 ment in 1829 by the decisive action of Lord William Ben- 
 tinck. The Hindus objected most vigorously to the regula- 
 tion placing the practice of sati among the crimes punishable 
 by law. They presented memorials to the Government, in 
 which they justified the act of immolation as a sacred duty 
 and exalted privilege, and claimed that the action of the authori- 
 ties was an unwarranted interference with the religious customs 
 of India. The appeal was transmitted to the Privy Council 
 in England, but Lord Bentinck’s action in the matter was sus- 
 tained. The prohibition applied only to British territory, but 
 the Government has also used its best influence in restricting 
 the custom in Native States, and at the present time, although 
 rare instances are still reported, it has been practically sup- 
 pressed everywhere. The agitation for its abolition was be- 
 gun under missionary auspices by Dr. Carey in 1801. 
 
 Defective Family Training. — The delicate and respon- 
 sible offices of parental training, although everywhere in the 
 non-Christian world more or less under the guiding instincts 
 of natural feeling, are yet, through ignorance, passion, and 
 thoughtlessness, sadly ineffective as a helpful discipline to the 
 young. Family training can rise no higher in its temper and 
 wisdom than the family character. Its aspirations may be the 
 best, and its aims the highest that can be expected under the 
 circumstances, yet they are not likely to transcend the family 
 environment, except as Christian teachings give an uplifting 
 impulse to parental desires. 
 
 1. The sketch of Japanese child life given by Miss Bacon, 
 in her chapter on childhood in “ Japanese Girls and Women,” 
 is a pleasing picture, and, owing to the kindness with which 
 children are treated, Japan has been called a “ paradise of 
 babies.” So far as gentleness and natural affection are con- 
 cerned, the elements of happy family life seem to be present 
 in Japan. The danger is rather in the lack of a wise self-re- 
 straint on the part of parents, modifying the tendency to an 
 undue laxity which in the end may work injury. The ab- 
 sence of a high moral purpose and a deep sense of parental 
 
THE FAMILY GROUP 
 
 63 
 
 responsibility can hardly be atoned for by mere fondness. 
 Later on in the life of a Japanese child comes the shadow of 
 parental absolutism, which in many instances is guilty of in- 
 flicting grave wrongs upon confiding and obedient children, 
 especially the daughters. 
 
 2. In China there is a somewhat severe and elaborate ethical 
 code of training which, if put into practice with wisdom and 
 kindliness, is by no means void of good results. Its influence, 
 however, is largely neutralized by the force of example and the 
 power of the imitative instinct in the young. The “Nii Erh 
 Ching ; or, Classic for Girls” has been translated into English 
 by Professor Headland, of Peking, and is full of sage advice and 
 excellent counsel. Moral maxims and conventional polite- 
 ness, however, may be insisted upon with much carefulness ; 
 yet if a child’s mind “ is filled with ill-natured gossip, low 
 jests, filthy sayings, and a thousand slavish superstitions ” the 
 result is sure to be disastrous. Even though the letter of the 
 discipline may be free from serious defect, yet the fact that it 
 is ignored in thousands of families, and in its place is sub- 
 stituted the foolish and idolizing weakness of fond parents, 
 interspersed with bursts of furious brutality, quite transforms 
 the ideal Chinese home into a school of selfishness, conceit, 
 and disobedience. The ordinary training of Chinese children 
 is characterized by grave moral lapses, and sometimes by 
 shocking cruelty. Punishment is frequently brutal and even 
 criminal. Parental care is in many cases neglected. In fact, 
 the children are sometimes cast off and turned loose in the 
 world under heartless conditions which insure either death, 
 slavery, or shame. Child slavery is one of the reproaches of 
 Chinese society. 
 
 3. In India and Burma , and, in fact, throughout all 
 Asiatic countries, the utter neglect of family training seems to 
 be the feature most to be noted in this connection. The 
 children, except those of the higher classes, are left to their 
 own devices to grow up under the influence of their tainted 
 environment. Where the climate will allow they are un- 
 clothed, until natural modesty ceases to exist, and are usually 
 unwashed, unkempt, and covered with filth, flies, and vermin. 
 In India “ there exists a superstition according to which it is 
 unlucky to wash children until they reach a certain age.” 
 The “ joint family system,” as known in India, is a dangerous 
 one to family peace, and attended with practical disadvantages 
 
64 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 which are objectionable from many points of view. Its effect 
 upon children is to concentrate the power of evil example and 
 bring them into contact with every aspect of domestic in- 
 felicity. A sad aspect of the matter is the prurient precocity 
 of children, who begin their vile language with their infant 
 prattle and grow old in pollution while yet young in years. 
 The average Indian mother seems to be all unconscious of the 
 fact that she has anything to do in forming the character of 
 her children. 
 
 4. In Mohammedan lands the same physical and moral 
 neglect prevails, and the young grow up under the unwhole- 
 some culture of surrounding influences. Parental petting 
 alternates with parental passion in the daily treatment of 
 children. 
 
 5. In Africa family life is not very far above the plane of 
 mere animalism, modified, of course, by human instincts; yet 
 there is really no family training. Children run wild and 
 grow up with untamed and grossly tainted natures. The mis- 
 sion school is the best gift of heaven to African children, and 
 under its auspices the long, slow process of making over those 
 wild natures has commenced. 
 
 6. A word should be said in this connection concerning 
 the abuse of pare 7 ital authority in Eastern lands — not a new or 
 strange thing in heathenism, as we may read in classical 
 history. In China it is answerable for much brutality and for 
 the sale of children into slavery, while in Japan it often seals 
 the doom of a daughter to a life of misery. In all the realms 
 of savagery it suggests a dread possibility in the case of 
 millions of little ones who may at any time become the 
 victims of a sudden whim or a loathsome purpose on the part 
 of those who are the irresponsible masters of young lives. 
 
 Infanticide. — 1. That the exposure of children in such a 
 way as to insure their destruction was common in classical 
 heathenism is too well known to require more than a passing 
 notice. It is perhaps a less familiar fact that this inhuman 
 crime prevailed among the pagan barbarians of Central and 
 Northern Europe as late as the thirteenth century. 
 
 2. The heathenism of to-day, even in the centres of its 
 most advanced civilization, is still red-handed with the traces 
 of infanticide. Japan is in pleasing and humane contrast 
 with her more barbarous neighbors, the Chinese , as regards 
 this dark and cruel crime. That the custom, although often 
 
THE FAMILY GROUP 
 
 65 
 
 practiced in secret, prevails in China cannot be doubted. 
 The united testimony of those who have had ample oppor- 
 tunities to know the facts presents a body of evidence which is 
 irresistibly strong, although the custom is confined almost ex- 
 clusively to the destruction of girls, unless in case of deformed 
 or weakly infants. It is more prevalent in Central and 
 Southern China, and is comparatively rare in the north. It is 
 said that poverty and the desire to be free from the burden of 
 caring for girls are the chief causes of its prevalence. The 
 spirit which seems to reign in the hearts of Chinese mothers is 
 illustrated by a conversation which Miss Fielde reports in “ A 
 Corner of Cathay” (p. 72). A pagan Chinese woman, dis- 
 coursing upon the subject of daughters, remarked, “ A 
 daughter is a troublesome and expensive thing anyway. Not 
 only has she to be fed, but there is all the trouble of binding 
 her feet, and of getting her betrothed, and of making up her 
 wedding garments ; and even after she is married off she must 
 have presents made to her when she has children. Really, 
 it is no wonder that so many baby girls are slain at their 
 birth ! ” 
 
 While the difficulty of obtaining accurate data is recognized 
 by all, and also the fact that statements which apply to certain 
 sections of the vast empire are not representative of the true 
 status in other parts, yet the prevalence of infanticide to a 
 frightful extent is beyond question. The author of 4 4 Things 
 Chinese” (p. 233) estimates on the basis of special inquiries 
 that in the province of Fuhkien “an average of forty per 
 cent, of the girls were thus murdered.” Rev. C. Hartwell, in 
 a paper read at the Shanghai Conference of 1877 (“ Report,” 
 p. 387), estimates that at Foochow “from thirty to seventy 
 per cent, of the female infants have been destroyed.” If the 
 act of destruction is not actually committed, another method 
 of accomplishing the result is to leave the infant in some ex- 
 posed place, where it is either destroyed by animals or starved. 
 It may be cast into the living tomb of a baby tower, or placed 
 in a basket or shelter provided for the purpose, from whence 
 some one may take it to sell into slavery or to adopt if so 
 disposed. In the latter case the motive may be evil and the 
 infant’s future may be one of hopeless shame. Dr. W. A. P. 
 Martin, a lifelong resident of China, writes in The Chinese 
 Recorder , October, 1894, as follows: “Of the prevalence of 
 
 infanticide in China there is unhappily no room for doubt. 
 
66 SOCIAL EVILS OF' THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 The question is set at rest by the testimony of the people 
 themselves. Among their moral tracts dissuading from vice 
 and crime a conspicuous place is filled by a class called 
 ‘ Dissuasives from Drowning Daughters.' Official proclama- 
 tions may often be seen posted on gates and walls forbidding 
 the practice." Other veteran missionaries, as Dr. Talmage, of 
 Amoy, have reported the results of careful inquiry and observa- 
 tion to the same effect. Dr. Abeel, whose diary is quoted in 
 the “Life of Talmage " (p. 69), and whose observation dates 
 back about fifty years from the present time, gave it as his 
 verdict, after repeated investigation in the vicinity of Amoy, 
 that “the number destroyed varies exceedingly in different 
 places, the extremes extending from seventy and eighty per 
 cent, to ten per cent., and the average proportion destroyed in 
 all these places amounting to nearly four-tenths, or exactly 
 thirty-nine per cent. In seventeen of these forty towns and 
 villages [visited] my informants declare that one-half or more 
 are deprived of existence at birth." 
 
 “When I reached here thirty-two years ago," writes Rev. 
 J. Macgowan (London Missionary Society), of Amoy, China, 
 “there was a pond in the centre of the town known as the 
 'Babies' Pond ' This was the place where little ones were 
 thrown by their mothers. There were always several bodies 
 of infants floating on its green, slimy waters, and the passers-by 
 looked on without any surprise." The influence of Christianity 
 in Amoy has banished this scene. “As the Church grew," 
 he writes, “ the truth spread, and street preachers pointed to 
 this pond as an evidence of the heartlessness of idolatry that 
 tolerated such wickedness, and the people became ashamed. 
 Foundling Institutions were established, which are carried on 
 to-day and which now have fully 2,000 children in connection 
 with them. To-day thousands of women are alive who, but 
 for Christianity, would have been put to death. The pond has 
 long ago dried up." While, of course, no statement can be 
 made which is other than an estimate, yet it seems beyond 
 question that tens of thousands (we have seen it named as 
 high as 200,000) of infant girls are annually sacrificed in 
 China. The custom is practiced also in Formosa, as Dr. 
 MacKay reports in “From Far Formosa" (p. 298). 
 
 3. The testimony concerning the prevalence of infa 7 iticide 
 in India before the advent of British rule is hardly less abun- 
 dant than in China. It may be drawn largely from Indian 
 
67 
 
 THE FAMILY GROUP 
 
 sources. In a volume on “Medical Jurisprudence, ” quoted 
 by Wilkins, it is stated that “the murder of female children, 
 whether by the direct employment of homicidal means or by 
 the more inhuman and not less certain measures of exposure to 
 privation and neglect, has for ages been the chief and most 
 characteristic crime of six-sevenths of the inhabitants of 
 British India.” Syed A. M. Shah states, in an article on 
 “Hindu Women in India,” that, “among Rajputs, if the 
 child were a girl the poor little creature used often to be 
 killed by her cruel parents, who looked upon her birth as a 
 direct curse from heaven.” In a lecture on “Kathiawar,” 
 delivered by Mr. M. A. Turkhud before the National Indian 
 Association, the lecturer, in speaking of the Jadejas, remarked : 
 “This tribe is noted for the practice of female infanticide. 
 Whenever a child was born, if it was a girl it was immediately 
 killed. How the practice originated is not exactly known, but 
 it was probably due to the ambition among Rajputs to marry 
 their daughters into families higher than their own, and this 
 always involved a ruinous expenditure in dowries. This 
 practice was not confined to the Jadejas alone, but it pre- 
 vailed among the Sumras and Jethavas also.” 
 
 The lecturer quoted, also, a paragraph from the writings of 
 Colonel Watson upon the same theme. Referring to the 
 method employed in the execution of the crime, the words re- 
 ported are as follows: “It is not necessary to describe the 
 mode of killing the unfortunate children. There were several 
 methods. It is not difficult to kill a newborn child. 4 What 
 labor is there in crushing a flower ?* said a Jadeja chief, on 
 being asked what means were employed. The crime was 
 formerly so universal that directly a female child was born it 
 was killed by the women of the house, unless the father had 
 given express orders beforehand that it should be reared, and 
 such an order was rarely given. The father never saw the in- 
 fant himself ; he always pretended to be unconscious of the 
 whole affair, and if any one ventured to ask him . . . the 
 
 answer was, ‘ Nothing.* The event was always passed over in 
 silence, and even when a girl’s life was spared there was no 
 rejoicing.” When Kathiawar came under British rule, the 
 Jains, whose chief religious tenet is total abstinence from tak- 
 ing all animal life, expressly stipulated that no cattle should be 
 killed for the use of English troops ; yet this was in face of the 
 fact that female infanticide had been practiced for ages with- 
 
68 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 out the slightest protest. The sacrifice of children in the pay- 
 ment of vows to Indian deities has been “ known for untold 
 generations/' and not until British legislation had largely 
 abolished the custom were there any signs of its cessation. 
 
 The question as to the extent of infanticide in India at the 
 present time is more difficult to determine, as under the ban of 
 British law it is carried on more secretly. In fifteen years, 
 however, there have been officially reported 12,542 cases, 
 and this number represents only a small proportion of the total. 
 The Indian Social Reformer for August 3, 1895, contains the 
 following statement : “ Infanticide seems to be largely on the 
 increase in the Madras Presidency. Hardly a week passes 
 without our reading in the papers of painful instances in 
 which newborn babies are either killed or deserted. The 
 ‘ Sasilekha ’ rightly attributes this sad state of affairs to the 
 peculiarly rigid and stupid marriage customs of the country, 
 and exhorts all true patriots to do what they can to modify 
 these customs." In a recent issue of The Bombay Gazette is 
 the statement that “ female infanticide continues prevalent in 
 Northern India, and the subject comes under review by the 
 Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab in a resolution on the 
 Sanitary Commissioner’s report. ‘ The unenviable notoriety 
 enjoyed by the districts of Jullundur, Amritsar, and Ludhiana/ 
 he remarks, ‘ by reason of their abnormally high death-rates of 
 female infants, is again brought to notice.’ ’’ A chapter on 
 infanticide in “ AVomen of the Orient’’ gives some significant 
 statements from official sources with reference to the state of 
 affairs in India in 1870, and the author comes to this conclu- 
 sion : “ As the result of careful inquiry while in India, I am 
 morally certain that, at the very lowest estimate admissible, 
 fully one-third of the girls born among the natives of that 
 country are still secretly murdered.” 
 
 The British Government has waged strenuous warfare against 
 infanticide in India, but, owing to the extreme difficulty of 
 discovery and the impossibility of fixing the guilt, it has not 
 been as successful in the matter of infant murder as in the case 
 of other inhuman practices. The crime has been prohibited by 
 British law since 1802, and this proscriptive legislation has 
 gradually been extended to all parts of India, and more 
 recently it has been enacted that in all proclaimed villages the 
 proportion of girls born should bear a certain ratio to the 
 boys, as it has been clearly indicated by experience that the 
 
THE FAMILY GROUP 
 
 69 
 
 normal proportion is about equal. A strict surveillance by 
 the proper officials throughout Northern and Western India 
 has secured at the present time a ratio of four girls to six boys, 
 which is a decided improvement upon the past. The secrecy 
 of the zenana renders it almost impossible to prove a case of 
 infanticide, and, even though the act of murder should not be 
 violently committed, the object can be attained with almost 
 equal certainty by neglect. In the last census the relative 
 number of girls to ioo boys shows a marked improvement 
 over past records. The average for all India is 92 girls to 
 every 100 boys. The lowest recorded ratio is 69/^ in 
 Quetta, British Baluchistan, and the next is 83^^ in Sindh, 
 while in Rajputana, once so noted for the prevalence of 
 infanticide, it has risen to 87^0. It is worthy of note that in 
 Upper Burma, where woman occupies a position of ex- 
 ceptional honor, the recorded ratio is io2 t 7 <j 9 f girls to every 
 100 boys. It is to be hoped that with the progress of Chris- 
 tianity and the abolition of the absurd extravagances of mar- 
 riage the natural heart of India will revolt from the heinous- 
 ness of this crime, and infanticide will disappear forever. 
 
 4. In the Pacific Islands infanticide has prevailed to a 
 frightful extent under circumstances of exceptional heartless- 
 ness and cruelty. “ The early missionaries have testified that 
 not less than two-thirds of the children were put to death. 
 Especially were female children killed. ‘ Why should the 
 girl live?’ they [the natives] would say. ‘She cannot poise 
 the spear, she cannot wield the club.’ A mother would often 
 strangle her own child, with one hand holding the nostrils and 
 the other holding the mouth, and then herself dig the grave 
 and bury the child. M The above statement was made con- 
 cerning the Fiji Islands, but it is substantially true with refer- 
 ence to almost the entire island world. The Samoan Group 
 seems to have presented a remarkable exception to other sec- 
 tions of Polynesia, as infanticide is said never to have pre- 
 vailed there. 
 
 5. As we enter the “ habitations of cruelty ” in the Dark 
 
 Continent, the crime of infanticide is found in ghastly pro- 
 portions. Among certain savage races the advent of twins 
 seems to excite every instinct of fear and brutality. In an ad- 
 dress at a Ladies’ Meeting of the Church Missionary Society, 
 Mrs. Hill, the wife of the lamented Bishop Hill, of Western 
 Equatorial Africa, made the following statement: “The 
 
70 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON- CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 birth of twins is considered a great curse, and the woman that 
 has twins is disgraced for life afterward, and she is compelled 
 to throw the twins into the wood, where they are left to die. 
 In a town five miles distant from where we were there are five 
 hundred infants annually sacrificed in these two ways : they 
 are murdered by hundreds, and left to die in the way which 
 I have stated. ” Dr. Laws (United Presbyterian Church of 
 Scotland), in writing from Old Calabar, a neighboring mission 
 to Bishop Hill’s, says, “ It is almost impossible for any one at 
 home to imagine the horror with which the birth of twins is 
 regarded by the natives, and especially by the native women.” 
 In the same connection he refers to the “ destruction of twins ” 
 as one of the great obstacles to the progress of Christianity in 
 Old Calabar, inasmuch as the missionaries insist upon an entire 
 change of custom as essential to the profession of Christianity. 
 
 The missionary literature of other societies at work in 
 Africa, especially that of the Universities’ Mission and the 
 London Missionary Society, yields similar statements with 
 reference to “the fearful amount of child murder” prevailing 
 in Africa. In some instances the heinous guilt of the little 
 victim is declared to be that it “cut its upper teeth first.” In 
 other instances, strange to say, its fatal offence is reported as 
 “cutting a lower tooth before the upper ones.” In both cases 
 the father was the executioner, fearing death himself if the in- 
 fant lived. If a child should cut a tooth before birth its 
 doom is sealed, according to what is known as the custom of 
 the “ vigego.” 
 
 6. That infanticide has been only too well known among 
 the Indians of North and South America is the testimony of 
 those who are familiar with their history. To the credit of 
 the Mohammedans it may be said that, except in the case of 
 illegitimate children, infanticide is not now practiced, being 
 prohibited in the Koran. 
 
IV 
 
 THE TRIBAL GROUP 
 
 (Evils which pertain to intertribal relationships and find their origin in 
 the cruel passions of savage life) 
 
 Turning now from the consideration of those evils which 
 may be differentiated as individual or domestic in their origin 
 and character, we come to a group whose genesis is tribal, 
 pertaining rather to life in the larger relationships of clan, 
 tribe, or race. As will be noted, this is a classification which 
 is far from precise or exclusive, yet it is perhaps as definite as 
 we can hope to attain. 
 
 The Traffic in Human Flesh. — The slave-traffic and its 
 twin evil, slavery, have shadowed human history from the 
 earliest times. Barbarous pride, inhuman greed, and the for- 
 tunes of war among savage races have proved a sufficient 
 stimulus to this cruel wrong. 
 
 i. A compact survey of the status of slavery in Greece and 
 Rome, and of the enormous extent of the slave-traffic in those 
 great empires, will be found in the excellent little volume of 
 Dr. Ingram, who gives also, in chapter vi., a brief history of 
 the rise of the African slave-trade in the latter half of the fif- 
 teenth century, when the Portuguese, under Prince Henry the 
 Navigator, made their first venture in “ black men and gold- 
 dust.” The awful scourge of colonial slavery and its mon- 
 strous crime of slave hunting and transportation followed with 
 an amazingly rapid development. Its history , covering a 
 period of over two hundred and fifty years, presents perhaps 
 the most colossal wrong that man has ever inflicted upon man, 
 unless we except the age-long records of war. Commerce in 
 slaves was common in Russia until, in the reign of Alexander 
 II., it came to an end with the abolition of serfdom in 1861. 
 By this memorable act of emancipation, in which were in- 
 cluded the serfs of the State, of the imperial appanages, and 
 of the individual proprietors as well, over forty million bond- 
 men were set free. Mohammedanism has been throughout its 
 
 71 
 
72 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 history responsible for the slave-hunt and the slave-market as 
 necessary accompaniments to the slavery it recognizes and 
 sanctions. The African slave-trade in modern times has been 
 maintained to a large extent for the supply of Moslem markets 
 in Arabia, Persia, Turkey, Egypt, Tripoli, and Morocco. 
 
 2. Livingstone was the instrument used by Providence to 
 awaken civilized nations to the enormity of this great evil and 
 its awful cruelties. Pie pronounced it, in words which have 
 lived and burned in the conscience of Christendom, to be 
 “the open sore of the world. ” Since the abolition of the 
 external traffic on the West Coast, which drained the deep re- 
 cesses of the Continent for the supply of the colonial markets, 
 there still lingers an internal trade among the native tribes of 
 West Africa. The main avenues of the traffic , however, have 
 branched out in three directions from East Central Africa and 
 the Soudan as centres, and along these dreary paths the tramp 
 of the ghastly caravans may still be heard. One of these 
 finds its outlet from the Western Soudan in a northerly direc- 
 tion through the burning regions of the Sahara to the Moham- 
 medan States of North Africa, especially Tripoli and Morocco. 
 Another is eastward to the coast, whence the slaves are con- 
 veyed to the markets in Arabia, Persia, and Turkey in the 
 north, and, until recently, to Madagascar in the south. The 
 third route is by the Nile Valley, through which a large traffic 
 was formerly carried on, but which in late years has been so 
 carefully guarded that it is not available except in instances 
 where secrecy or cunning can succeed in eluding detection. 
 
 3. According to a careful estimate, based upon the per- 
 sonal investigations of such explorers as Livingstone, Gordon, 
 Cameron, Lavigerie, and others, the annual sacrifice of lives 
 in Africa by the slave-trade, as conducted a generation ago, 
 was not less than five hundred thousand. If we add to this 
 the victims transported into slavery and those exiled from 
 their burning villages and their ruined homes, we may regard 
 the total number of those who were at that time victims to the 
 slave-trader’s violence as not less than two millions annually. 
 Much has been done within a quarter of a century to mitigate 
 these horrors and lessen their volume, but that the slave-trade 
 still exists to an extent hardly realized by Christendom is a 
 fact which cannot be doubted. It is to a lamentable extent a 
 feature of internal commerce between the African tribes them- 
 selves, and all the efforts to seal its outlets along the extensive 
 
THE TRIBAL GROUP 
 
 73 
 
 unguarded coast-line of East Africa have been as yet only par- 
 tially successful. 
 
 4. In the Congo Free State energetic attempts have been 
 made, with considerable success, to break up the Arab strong- 
 holds of the traffic in the northeasterly regions of the State. 
 The action of the Brussels Conference of 1889-90, which 
 had for one of its objects the suppression of the slave-trade, 
 has given a stimulus among all civilized nations to aggressive 
 and benevolent efforts for its repression. It is in harmony 
 with the agreement entered upon at that Conference that the 
 recent campaign upon the northern and eastern borders of 
 the Congo State was conducted. Germany, England, and 
 France have responded to the sentiment embodied in the 
 Brussels Act, and have throttled the giant evil here and there 
 throughout their vast possessions and spheres of influence in 
 Africa; yet the testimony of travellers who have penetrated 
 the interior, of missionaries in various parts of the Continent, 
 and especially the recent report of Mr. Donald Mackenzie, 
 who in 1895 visited the East Coast of Africa from Suakin to 
 Zanzibar as a special Commissioner of the British and Foreign 
 Anti-Slavery Society, leave no room for doubt that the slave- 
 trade is still a grim reality in Africa. Such is also the testi- 
 mony of Mr. Heli Chatelain who has resided for many years 
 in West Africa, and who has been instrumental in organizing 
 the “ Philafrican Liberators* League** in the United States, 
 for the purpose of establishing colonies in Africa, according 
 to the suggestion of the Brussels Act, for the protection and 
 industrial training of liberated slaves. 
 
 Slave-markets for intertribal trade are scattered along the 
 West Coast. In Yorubaland young children are driven like 
 sheep to be sold in the shambles. In a recent volume on 
 Hausaland, by Charles H. Robinson, M. A., startling state- 
 ments are made concerning the extent and cruelty of the slave- 
 traffic in the Hausa States and throughout the Western Sou- 
 dan. His description of the slave-market at Kano, of the 
 slave-raiding throughout that section of Africa, and of the 
 singular custom of using slaves as currency, indicates that this 
 region, although nominally under English supervision, through 
 the Royal Niger Company, is cursed by the most abandoned 
 and heartless species of slave-raiding and slave-trading. In 
 the market at Kano there is an average of about five hundred 
 human beings daily on sale. It appears, in fact, that about 
 
74 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 every important town in the Hausa States possesses a slave- 
 market. The tribute paid by the smaller States to the larger 
 consists usually of slaves. The Sultan of Sokoto receives a 
 small army of them every year as his annual tribute. Mr. 
 Robinson declares that “ one out of every three hundred per- 
 sons now living in the world is a Hausa-speaking slave,” and 
 justifies the statement upon the basis of a Hausa-speaking pop- 
 ulation of fifteen millions, or one per cent, of the world’s in- 
 habitants. As he regards it as beyond question that at least 
 one- third of these are in a state of slavery, this would result 
 in one Hausa-speaking slave to every three hundred of the 
 world’s population. 
 
 In “ Fire and Sword in the Sudan,” by Slatin Pasha, trans- 
 lated by Major Wingate, is another harrowing account of 
 slavery and the slave-trade in the Soudan , chiefly in the east- 
 ern section . His descriptions of the desert slave-routes, and 
 how women and girls are treated, present records of cruelty 
 which are almost too appalling to quote. 
 
 5. The existence of slave-markets in Morocco , supplied by 
 transportation across the Sahara from the Western Soudan and 
 the regions of the Upper Niger, is confirmed by abundant 
 testimony. Mr. Henry Gurney assures us that he himself vis- 
 ited slave-markets in Morocco City and Fez, in 1894. Sub- 
 stantially the same information is given by correspondents who 
 accompanied the Embassy of Marshal Martinez Campos to 
 the Court of Morocco, who report the sale of slaves within 
 view of the Imperial Palace, and by Luis Morote in a commu- 
 nication to the Spanish Anti-Slavery Society, describing the 
 slave-markets in Morocco City, after a visit to Morocco in the 
 winter of 1893-94. Mr. Morote speaks of the horrors of the 
 slave-raids and the long caravan journeys across the trackless 
 desert from Timbuctoo or the far Soudan. A correspondent 
 of The New York Tribune , in a letter from Mogador, quoted 
 in Illustrated Africa , November, 1895, p. 11, declares that 
 the trade has never been so thriving and prosperous as it is at 
 present. 
 
 There is also a restricted traffic through the ports of Tripoli , 
 although carried on under the cover of various disguises, since 
 by treaty with England the slave-trade in that province is ille- 
 gal. In Egypt the trade is happily under strict espionage, and 
 at Cairo a home for freed women slaves has been established, 
 where in 1895 seventy-one were received; but of these only 
 
THE TRIBAL GROUP 
 
 75 
 
 three were found to have been imported recently from outside, 
 and the remainder were domestic slaves who had been set free. 
 The English Government has established stations in the Nile 
 Valley for watching the traffic, and along the Red Sea coast 
 north of Suakin a camel corps is constantly patrolling to de- 
 tect any signs either of export or import. Unfortunately, 
 south of Suakin the Red Sea coast is practically unguarded, 
 and the slaver still finds in that section an outlet for his chat- 
 tel. 
 
 6. The Red Sea coast from Suakin southward to the Strait 
 of Bab-el-Mandeb, and the entire coast-line around Cape 
 Guardafui to Zanzibar, have hardly any effective restraint put 
 upon the traffic. The report of Mr. Donald Mackenzie, al- 
 ready referred to as special Commissioner of the British and 
 Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, gives an elaborate account of 
 his visit of investigation, in 1895, along the coast and to the 
 opposite shores of Arabia. The evidence that he presents of 
 a considerable traffic is convincing. The main recruiting - 
 ground is Danakli and Aussa, and from the ports of Massowah, 
 Mader, Eid, Margebelah, and Roheitah the slaves are shipped 
 across to the Fursan Islands, which are a hotbed of slavery, 
 and to Hodeidah and other ports. In some instances they are 
 transported around to the eastern coast of Arabia. His report 
 is strange reading for the nineteenth century, and gives some 
 revolting details of cruelty and suffering. 
 
 The report of Mr. Mackenzie concerning the slave-traffic in 
 Zanzibar and Pemba brings a still more unwelcome surprise. 
 The Sultanate of Zanzibar has been a protectorate of Great 
 Britain since 1890, and according to treaties made in 1873, 
 confirmed by a decree of the Sultan, August 12, 1890, the 
 slave-trade is under prohibition with severe penalties. Ac- 
 cording to evidence gathered by Mr. Mackenzie during his 
 visit in the spring of 1895, these restrictions are practically a 
 dead letter. Out of a total population of 400,000, about 266,- 
 000 are slaves, and to maintain this status of slavery an impor- 
 tation from the mainland of at least 6,000 annually is required, 
 representing a yearly sacrifice of not less than 24,000 lives. 
 He estimates further that some 1 1,000 are annually shipped 
 either from the mainland or from the islands of Zanzibar and 
 Pemba to the Arabian coast, representing a further slaughter 
 of 40,000 lives, since every slave who leaves the coast is 
 roughly calculated as standing for four others who have been 
 
76 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 slain in the process of his capture and transportation to the 
 coast. 
 
 Upon the basis of these facts most urgent appeals are made 
 for the total abolition by the British Government of the status 
 of slavery in Zanzibar. The British and Foreign Anti-Slavery 
 Society is in communication with the Government on the sub- 
 ject. Bishop Tucker of Uganda has also written, emphasizing 
 the imperative demand for some Government action which will 
 forever abolish the present scandal. Mr. Mackenzie also passes 
 severe strictures upon the system of securing porters for trips 
 into the interior. He regards them as in reality slaves, who 
 are owned by masters in Zanzibar, and who hand over to their 
 owners one half of their earnings. The mortality among 
 these caravans of porters he estimates as high as thirty per 
 cent., and his account of the system indicates that it should 
 be under more effective regulations. A confirmation of Mr. 
 Mackenzie’s statements about exportation to Arabia is found 
 in an extract from a letter of the Rev. P. J. Zwemer, of the 
 Arabian Mission, dated Muscat, October 9, 1895. He says : 
 “ A large number of Negroes are still imported sub rosa from 
 Africa. Although slave-importation as a trade is no longer 
 carried on, yet the method of supplying the Arab with free 
 Negro labor is very simple. Africa is the source of supply, 
 and transportation is easily effected under the tricolor (French), 
 which defies British inspection.” 
 
 Mr. Mackenzie also visited the German territory in East 
 Africa south of Zanzibar, and reports the existence of an 
 enormous slave-traffic from the interior of the Continent into 
 German East Africa, but almost an entire prohibition of any 
 export through the ports. His account of cruelties to the na- 
 tives under German rule is hardly credible, yet it is fully con- 
 firmed by Miss Balfour in her recent book, “ Twelve Hundred 
 Miles in a Waggon,” in an account of her visit to Dar-es- 
 Salam. 
 
 7. In the regions around Lake Nyassa , now a British 
 protectorate, vigorous measures have been taken by Commis- 
 sioner H. H. Joii 7 iston to stamp out the slave-traffic. Mili- 
 tary operations upon a considerable scale have been conducted, 
 and several prominent leaders among the Arab slave-traders 
 have been slain and their business broken up. A chain of 
 forts has been established in the Nyassaland Protectorate under 
 the administration of this energetic representative of the British 
 
THE TRIBAL GROUP 
 
 77 
 
 Government, which guard the old slave-routes so effectively 
 that the whole traffic may be said to be under surveillance and 
 control within the limits of the protectorate. The Commis- 
 sioner reports (Africa, No. 4, 1896, p. 25): “I have the 
 
 pleasure now to inform your Lordship that, as far as I am 
 aware, there does not exist a single independent avowedly 
 slave-trading chief within the British Central Africa Protec- 
 torate. ” He also writes in a recent letter: “We have had 
 
 splendid news from Lake Nyassa lately. I do not think now 
 there is a recalcitrant slave-trading chief left unconquered. 
 With the fall of Tambala the last slave- trading Yao chief in 
 the protectorate has gone.” 
 
 Interesting tidings from this section of Africa have come 
 through the reports of Mr. E. J. Glave , who was sent out by 
 the Century Company to obtain information on the slave-trade 
 for publication in The Century Magazine . Mr. Glave entered 
 Africa at the Zambezi, and journeyed to Lake Nyassa, and 
 from thence in a northwesterly direction until he descended 
 the Congo and reached Matadi. While waiting there for the 
 homeward-bound steamer, he was stricken with fever and 
 died. A series of illustrated articles made up of extracts from 
 his journal are to be found in The Ceritury Magazine , com- 
 mencing with August, 1896, in which graphic pictures are 
 given of the struggles with the exporting slave-trade in the 
 Nyassa Protectorate. He speaks incidentally of Livingstone and 
 his wife as the pioneers of civilization in those regions. In Cen- 
 tral Africa for October, 1895, printed an extract from one of 
 his letters, describing his journey from Lake Nyassa to Lake 
 Bangweolo, in which he speaks of the earnest request of natives 
 whom he met, that white men might come to their country 
 and protect them against the slave-raiders, “who are playing 
 terrible havoc all over the land.” He reports seeing “ the 
 ruins of dozens of villages which have been destroyed by these 
 raiders, and the occupants carried into slavery.” 
 
 8. In the Island of Madagascar a decree of the Queen, in 
 1877, freed the African slaves in her dominion, and forbade 
 their import or export ; yet domestic native slaves and serfs 
 exist in abundance, and, according to a special correspondent 
 of The London Times, writing under date of April n, 1895, 
 slave-raids are still carried on in the interior of the island, and 
 in another communication an account is given of the slave- 
 market in the capital. The Ibara tribesmen and the Sakalava 
 
78 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON- CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 are represented as inveterate slave-dealers. The Hovas them- 
 selves stand in terror of these cruel forest tribes. The status, 
 however, has been happily changed from what it was at the 
 beginning of the present century, when Madagascar was an 
 original source of supply for the slave-trade, and from three 
 to four thousand Malagasy were, according to reliable data, 
 exported annually to America or the West Indies. In 1817 
 this slave-trade was abolished by treaty between England and 
 Madagascar. 
 
 9. Our survey of the African Continent reveals encouraging 
 progress in comparison with the state of things a generation 
 ago, but it is plain that there is still much to be done before 
 the barbarities of the slave-trade will cease. Were it not for 
 the restraining influence of European governments, albeit as 
 yet too imperfectly exercised, we should still have this cursed 
 business in full blast. With the entrance of European con- 
 trol, the establishment of commerce, the opening of roads, 
 and especially of railways, and the more vigorous intervention 
 of the authorities, we may hope that the traffic in slaves will 
 gradually disappear. 
 
 10. In the Pacific Islands the kidnapping of natives for 
 purposes of the slave-trade has been known even under 
 European traders, and Pacific Islanders have been trans- 
 ported to South America. Even as late as 1890, “ the ship 
 i Alma * took four hundred natives of Micronesia to Guatemala, 
 and two years afterward only one hundred and eighty of them 
 were living, the rest having died of fevers contracted in the 
 malarious swamps of the plantations. In 1892 the brig 
 * Tahiti ’ took three hundred natives from the Gilbert Islands 
 to labor on plantations in Central America, and was capsized 
 near the coast of Mexico. Not one of its living freight was 
 ever heard of.” Even steamers have been employed in the 
 same service. These unfortunate islanders on arrival in 
 Guatemala are put to work upon the plantations under condi- 
 tions which virtually amount to slavery. Rev. John G. Paton, 
 of the New Hebrides Mission, has investigated the Kanaka 
 labor-traffic, which he pronounces a species of colonial slavery. 
 He has estimated that seventy thousand Pacific Islanders have 
 been taken from their homes by slave-hunters. It was in 
 revenge for the crime of kidnapping by traders that Bishop 
 Patteson was slain upon one of the islands of the Santa Cruz 
 group in September, 1871. An account of the Queensland 
 
THE TRIBAL GROUP 
 
 79 
 
 Kanaka traffic and its horrors is given by the Rev. Oscar 
 Michelsen. 
 
 n. The trade in coolies from China and India y and to a 
 very limited extent from Japan, for the South American and 
 West Indian plantations has been in some respects not far re- 
 moved from a veritable slave- traffic. The slave-trade as it is 
 known in Africa does not exist in China, but the coolie-traffic 
 gained a bad prominence before it was brought within re- 
 strictions. The Japanese Government, to its honor, fought it 
 fiercely and successfully. The coolie-traffic from India for 
 the West Indian plantations has been, and is still, open to the 
 same strictures. The position of the so-called coolie emi- 
 grant when he reaches his destination is little better than a 
 slave. As late as 1893 there were one Dutch and seven Eng- 
 lish agencies engaged in the transportation of coolies. They 
 are usually transported in sailing vessels, of which seventeen 
 cleared from Calcutta alone in 1893, as well as three steam- 
 ships. The exportation from Calcutta amounted to 10,674, 
 making an average of 533 per vessel. “ Recently about four 
 hundred of these i voluntary 1 emigrants begged the people of 
 Calcutta to be liberated, as they had been made to leave their 
 homes and relations by force. They attacked their escort, and 
 about thirty escaped. The rest, however, were driven down 
 to the landing by the police as if they were sheep.” 
 
 12. In India there is no slave-trade so called, but children 
 are often sold, especially in times of famine, and there is also 
 a secret trade in female slaves in certain districts of the country. 
 “ Malwa has long been noted for its traffic in females.” Many 
 of the Rajput chiefs have their retinue of slaves. At the time 
 of the distressing famine in Rajputana, in 1868-70, “ children 
 were sold by their parents for sums varying from one to five 
 rupees.” These incidents are happily rare, however, in India 
 at the present day, and the watchfulness of the Government is 
 most effective. In Persia there is slavery to a considerable 
 extent, the ranks being recruited from the African coast, by 
 way of the Persian Gulf or across Arabia overland. 
 
 13. The atrocioics cruelties of the African slave-trade have 
 been vividly described by Livingstone, Stanley, Baker, 
 Cameron, and others, and there is no need of dwelling upon 
 the subject here. “ Fire and Sword in the Sudan,” by Slatin 
 Pasha, previously referred to, contains recent information. 
 
 Slavery. — Slavery is linked with the slave-trade, both as 
 
80 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 cause and effect. It is one of the ancient sorrows of the 
 world, but we cannot deal with its history here. It is pleasant 
 to observe that there are some sections of the Oriental world 
 where it has never existed. This is notably the case among 
 the Japanese. 
 
 1. There are other regions where happily it has been abol- 
 ished. With the singular exception of the Sultanate of Zanzibar, 
 this has been true of the British Empire since 1833, including 
 its West Indian colonies and British Guiana. In 1848 France 
 declared that no more slaves should be admitted into French 
 territory. Serfdom in Russia ceased with the decree of Alex- 
 ander II., in 1861, and the Emancipation Proclamation of 
 President Lincoln, in 1863, restored to freedom 6,000,000 
 bondmen in the United States. In 1889 slavery was abolished 
 in Brazil, as it had been in most of the South American re- 
 publics at the time of their establishment. It is now the 
 universal policy of civilized nations to prohibit the status of 
 slavery. 
 
 2. It is an evil which still exists , however, in vast sec- 
 tions of the non- Christian world. It may be said to be uni- 
 versal in Africa, except where European influence has been 
 exerted in prohibition. It is characteristic of all Moham- 
 medan society, and is found in Madagascar, where fully one- 
 third of the population is in bondage. In China, Korea, 
 Siam, Assam, in some of the Native States of India, in Afghan- 
 istan, and in Central America it is also to be found. It is 
 hardly necessary to refer at any length to the fact of its preva- 
 lence in Africa, as every explorer, traveller, and missionary 
 bears witness to the evil ; nor does the fact that it is a feature 
 of the social and religious system of Islam need to be dwelt 
 upon. In Madagascar, although slavery is rather of a domes- 
 tic and patriarchal kind, with less severity than usual in the 
 treatment of slaves, yet its evils are by no means light. The 
 slave-market is a familiar sight, and the separation of families 
 is of common occurrence. As France has now assumed colo- 
 nial supervision of Madagascar, the question of the application 
 to the island of the laws of France pertaining to the abolition 
 of slavery has engaged the attention of the French Govern- 
 ment. M. Lebon, the French Minister for the Colonies, has 
 declared that the law of abolition is now applicable to Mada- 
 gascar, but he remarks further that “ the Government reserved 
 to itself the right of promulgating this law at the time when it 
 
THE TRIBAL GROUP 
 
 81 
 
 deemed fitting, in order that the situation might not be com- 
 plicated by a too hurried application of its provisions.* ’ 
 
 3. In China domestic slavery , mostly of females, exists ex- 
 tensively throughout the empire. The girls are usually pur- 
 chased from their parents while still young, and the trade is 
 especially active in times of famine, drought, or pestilence, or 
 merely as an expedient in poverty. There is much that is 
 shocking and suggestive of grinding drudgery, attended often 
 by ill-treatment, which comes to light now and then concern- 
 ing the domestic features of Chinese slavery. A darker aspect 
 of it is that servitude is often another name for immorality. In 
 Korea , although the abolition of slavery has been declared by 
 edict, the institution still exists, and the law is practically in- 
 operative, but it is almost altogether confined to the nobles 
 and to the wealthier families of the land. In Siam the Gov- 
 vernment is virtually in place of master over its subjects, and 
 in its demands for service pays little deference to personal 
 rights. In addition, a species of slavery for debt prevails ex- 
 tensively, which is also true in the Laos country. In Assam 
 the same custom of selling children to pay debts, or in some 
 cases as offerings to the demons, is a pitiable incident in many 
 a family history. If some child of the family is stricken with 
 disease, the superstitious parents, while dreading and bemoan- 
 ing the supposed necessity, will sell their children one after 
 another in the hope of providing an appeasing sacrifice for the 
 demon and securing the release and recovery of the sick mem- 
 ber of the family. Children thus sold are rarely redeemed, 
 and what is practically a state of slavery is thereby created. 
 
 4. In India , although the status of slavery is not recog- 
 nized by the British Government, and the institution as such 
 is prohibited, yet in the Native States, and to some extent in 
 British territory, is found a system of labor slavery which is 
 substantially the same as the bondage for debt above referred 
 to. It is one of the advantages of British rule that the days of 
 the old slave-kings have forever passed. The attachment of 
 serfs to the soil, which amounted to slavery a century ago, has 
 been gradually mitigated and banished by British law. Until 
 1843, however, the hereditary slaves in Madras were sold with 
 the land. 
 
 5. In Afghanistan the Amir has come into notoriety of 
 late upon charges of being a kidnapper and slave- raider among 
 neighboring independent tribes, especially the Kafirs of the 
 
82 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 Hindu-Kush. In fact, the extinction of the latter people 
 seems to be well under way. That slavery exists in Afghan- 
 istan is evident. A recent volume by John Alfred Gray, 
 M. B., late Surgeon to the Amir, entitled “At the Court of the 
 Amir/ ’ gives undoubted testimony upon this point. He re- 
 ports that “the slaves of Kabul are those who have been kid- 
 napped from Kafiristan, and who are prisoners of war taken 
 when some tribe breaks out in rebellion against the Amir.” 
 Other quotations fully confirming the status of slavery might 
 be given. 
 
 6. Slavery for debt exists in some sections of Central 
 America. The Rev. E. M. Haymaker (Presbyterian Board of 
 Foreign Missions, North), of Guatemala City, writes : “ Virtual 
 slavery exists in some parts of the republic. The law compels 
 a laborer to stay and work with his employer till his debt is 
 discharged. The employer, however, has the means at hand 
 by which he can, through an ever-increasing debt, keep the 
 laborer in his power forever, the debt descending from father 
 to son. He can abuse and beat the laborer as he pleases, for 
 a mere 1 Indian 9 would have no hope whatever before the judge 
 against so powerful an opponent.” 
 
 7. The existence of slavery in the Sultanate of Zanzibar, 
 an English protectorate since 1890, is an anomaly which is 
 exciting vigorous discussion in anti-slavery circles in England, 
 and the British Government has been repeatedly memorialized 
 to abolish finally the status of slavery in Zanzibar and Pemba. 
 The recent death of the Sultan and the attempt at revolution 
 will perhaps facilitate this step on the part of the Government. 
 The importation of slaves has been forbidden by treaty since 
 1872, and by a decree of the British Government all children 
 born within the bounds of the sultanate after December, 1889, 
 are free, so that the only really lawful slaves in the protector- 
 ate at the present time are the survivors of those imported be- 
 fore June, 1873, or their children born before 1890. The 
 drift of events, however, has been to maintain slavery at about 
 its usual standard, since a secret importation, of an average of 
 6,000 slaves annually, has been going on in defiance of the 
 treaty. The number actually in bondage in Zanzibar and 
 Pemba is variously estimated from 140,000 by government of- 
 ficials, to 266,000 by Mr. Donald Mackenzie, the recent 
 special Commissioner of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery 
 Society to investigate slavery and the slave-trade on the East 
 
THE TRIBAL GROUP 
 
 83 
 
 Coast of Africa. The effort to secure from the Government 
 the total abolition of the recognized status of slavery in Zanzi- 
 bar is timely, since the existence of slavery is an overwhelm- 
 ing temptation to the slave-trade, and adds immensely to the 
 difficulties of preventing it. In a communication, before re- 
 ferred to, published in The Times (London), June 23, 1896, 
 Bishop Tucker of East Africa urges most earnestly the im- 
 mediate abolition of the status of slavery in the protectorate. 
 His letter was accompanied by a memorial, which was for- 
 warded to the Consul-General at Zanzibar by English mission- 
 aries of East Africa, praying that the action suggested might 
 be speedily taken by Her Majesty’s Government. 
 
 8. Of the characteristic evils of slavery little need be said. 
 They are too manifest to require discussion. Its cruel wounds, 
 wherever it exists, are as fresh to-day as in the past, and its 
 gross scandals are as pronounced now as at any former period. 
 That Christian missions have had an honorable record in miti- 
 gating the miseries of slavery and dealing sturdy blows at the 
 abominable traffic in slaves is a fact to which we shall give at- 
 tention in another connection. 
 
 Cannibalism. — 1. Cannibalism is one of the most fiend- 
 ish and loathsome aspects of social barbarism. It is a fearful 
 incentive to the crime of murder, and a stimulus to every 
 bloodthirsty passion in the human breast. Strange to say, at 
 a recent meeting of the British Association for the Advance- 
 ment of Science, at Ipswich, it found a mild apologist in Mr. 
 H. A. Thrum, who deprecated its classification among vices, 
 and would regard it rather as “ a habit 99 ! Its story for ages 
 has been written in blood amid brutal scenes and inhuman 
 orgies. Its prevalence has probably been far more extensive 
 than the civilized world has realized. It is one of those hid- 
 den mysteries of iniquity which even heathenism instinctively 
 conceals. Although much has come to light concerning it, 
 its dark secrets will ever remain as part of the unwritten his- 
 tory of pure savagery. 
 
 2. The testimony as to its existence in the past among de- 
 graded races is abundant and cumulative, and need not be re- 
 viewed at any length here. Our interest in the subject centres 
 rather in the question of its existence at the present time. 
 Are we to regard it as a relic of the past, or must we consider 
 it as still characteristic of the savage life of the world to-day ? 
 A tendency to minimize its practice and make light of its ex- 
 
84 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 istence has been manifest in some quarters, but the evidence 
 that it is still practiced in our day in many of the haunts of 
 savagery is sufficient to justify its place in the list of the reg- 
 nant evils of pagan society. Among the aborigines of Aus- 
 tralia, especially the Papuans of Queensland, cannibal feasts 
 are a common occurrence, as Lumholtz declares. The Maoris 
 of New Zealand were detestable cannibals until the British 
 Government took control of the islands, and the saving touch 
 of Christianity transformed the whole social economy of a 
 wildly savage race. In New Guinea } the Rev. James Chal- 
 mers has discovered abundant evidence of cannibal practice 
 of the most filthy and barbarous description. He reports that 
 it is the custom among the natives, when a man is shot down, 
 for all to rush upon him for the purpose of biting his nose 
 clean off and swallowing it, as the one who succeeds in ac- 
 complishing this feat “ is looked upon as greater than the 
 person who shot him.” It is only a few years ago that the 
 unfortunate ship “St. Paul,” with three hundred and sixty 
 Chinese passengers, fell into the hands of the natives. “ They 
 cooped up the victims like animals marked for slaughter, and 
 clubbed and cooked so many every day till only four were left.” 
 In the New Hebrides cannibal feasts are still of frequent 
 occurrence, although upon several of the islands Christian 
 missionary work has banished these scenes of cruelty. Among 
 the “head-hunters” of Formosa a certain fastidiousness seems 
 to control their cannibal instincts, as they usually select such 
 delicacies as the brain and heart for their feasts. In many of 
 the Pacific Islands the reign of cannibalism has been long and 
 terrible, especially in the Fiji, Plervey, Society, and Marquesas 
 groups. Among the Fijis in the early days of missionary 
 labors scenes were witnessed which were “too horrible to be 
 described, too full of fiendish cruelty to be imagined.” The 
 people were represented as “going beyond the ordinary limits 
 of rapine and bloodshed, and violating the elementary in- 
 stincts of mankind.” While the aspect of many of these 
 islands has been greatly changed by missionary effort and by 
 the controlling power of civilized governments, yet there are 
 dark corners where the old customs still linger, and from 
 which the inhumanities of cannibalism have not wholly disap- 
 peared. In Fiji, however, cannibalism is now wholly extinct, 
 and Christianity has fairly illumined the dismal darkness of 
 former years. 
 
THE TRIBAL GROUP 
 
 85 
 
 3. The African Continent has been and is still the scene of 
 innumerable cannibal atrocities. The northern and southern 
 sections are, however, comparatively free, as there is nothing 
 to report north of the Soudan or south of the Congo State, 
 although, according to Dr. Liengme, of the Romande Mission 
 in Southeast Africa, Gasaland , in Portuguese territory, south 
 of the Zambesi, is not free from the charge of cannibalism. 
 We quote his words as recorded in the Bulletin Missionaire . 
 The testimony of the Rev. Josiah Tyler, for many years a 
 missionary in Zululand , is to the effect that no Zulu* speaking 
 people are addicted to cannibalism, with the single exception 
 of some tribes living on the shores of Lake Tanganyika and 
 Lake Nyassa. 
 
 In the central belt of the Continent, however, from the East 
 Coast to the West, especially up and down the many tributaries 
 of the Congo, cannibalism is still practiced with every possible 
 accompaniment of atrocious cruelty. In a paper descriptive 
 of three years of travel in the extreme easterly regions of the 
 Congo State, read before the Royal Geographical Society in 
 London, on March n, 1895, by Captain S. L. Hinde, of the 
 Belgian service, startling details are given illustrative of the 
 ferocious spirit and horrible customs of some of the Congo 
 tribes living between the Lualaba and Lomami rivers. In his 
 descriptions of N’Gandu (Gandu), a fortified town on the 
 bank of the Lomami River, he speaks of four gates to the 
 city, the approach to which is in each case a pavement of 
 human skulls. He counted more than two thousand skulls in 
 the pavement of one gate alone. The stakes forming the en- 
 trenchment around the town were crowned with skulls. These 
 skulls were largely relics of cannibal practices. He speaks of 
 a slave-raider who had gathered together about ten thousand 
 cannibal brigands. He recounts, among incidental illustra- 
 tions of native barbarity, the death of a chief a short time 
 previous to his visit, into whose grave one hundred men were 
 thrown, having previously been killed. Upon these the chiefs 
 body was laid, and over it were thrown one hundred live 
 women and the grave closed upon them. Over this mausoleum 
 a magnificent house was built. Other details, referring more 
 especially to cannibalism, are given. A French explorer 
 named De Poumayrac, who ascended the Mobangi, a tributary 
 of the Congo, in 1892, was attacked by members of a canni- 
 bal tribe and murdered with many of his party. The occasion 
 
86 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 was celebrated by a cannibal feast. The Ngombes, who oc- 
 cupy a long strip of land between the Lopori and Congo 
 rivers, are all fierce cannibals, and are the terror of neighbor- 
 ing tribes. Mr. Vincent presents the same testimony in his 
 chapter on the Congo Free State. Similar statements have 
 been made concerning the Babus, Bangelas, Balubas, and 
 Malelas, all tribes of the Congo. Mr. Dorsey Mohun , a 
 United States commercial agent and an associate of Captain 
 Hinde in his travels in Eastern Congo, who has resided two 
 years in the Congo Free State, reports it as his judgment that 
 there are not less than twenty million cannibals at the present 
 time in that State. He speaks of surprising a village one day 
 in the midst of a cannibal feast, and of witnessing the funeral 
 of a great chief and the burial alive of fourteen persons in the 
 grave with his dead body. 
 
 The whole West Coast north of the equator , as far as the 
 Upper Niger, if we penetrate the Continent but a short dis- 
 tance from the sea, seems to be alive with cannibals. In 
 November, 1895, Miss Kingsley, the niece of the late Charles 
 Kingsley, returned to England from a visit to the West Coast 
 in the vicinity of the Gaboon River. She explored the Ogowe 
 for a distance of two hundred and six miles, and during her 
 journey through the country of the Fang tribe encountered 
 cannibalism in the shape of a determined purpose to kill and 
 eat some of her attendants, who were members of a hostile 
 tribe. The Fangs are one of the few tribes in Africa who eat 
 their own dead. She reports that she found no burial-places, 
 but in most of the native mud huts pieces of human bodies 
 were being kept just as civilized people keep eatables in their 
 larders. Similar statements as to the cannibal habits of the 
 Fangs are made by the Rev. W. S. Bannerman, of the Ga- 
 boon Mission of the American Presbyterians. 
 
 A missionary explorer, the Rev. F. Autenrieth, of the Basel 
 Mission, has recently made an extensive journey back of the 
 German colony of Cameroons, into the interior range of the 
 great Cameroons Mountains , and penetrated into regions 
 where no white man had previously been. He reports that the 
 country he explored is inhabited by cannibals, and that he 
 himself, without his knowledge at the time, was condemned to 
 be killed and eaten, but fortunately escaped the fate assigned 
 him. Proceeding still farther north to the delta of the Niger 
 and the immense region which forms its hinterland y we find 
 
A Communion Scene at Banza Manteka. 
 
 The assembled native converts, with few exceptions, were formerly savage cannibals. 
 
 The first Christian Endeavor Society in the Congo Valley. 
 
 New Scenes anp Faces on the Congo, 
 
THE TRIBAL GROUP 
 
 87 
 
 abundant evidence in the reports of Government officials, 
 recent explorers, and resident missionaries to confirm the 
 statement that the reign of cannibalism is almost undisturbed, 
 except in regions under the immediate control of European 
 administration. A report of Sir Claude Macdonald, in 1893, 
 upon the state of affairs in the Oil Rivers Protectorate, speaks 
 of cannibals who inhabit the banks of the Cross River. The 
 report of Sir John Kirk on the recent disturbances at Brass, in 
 the Niger Coast Protectorate, speaks of the murder of prison- 
 ers by the natives, and the cannibalism of the people. Their 
 excuse for such conduct was that it was their custom under 
 such circumstances to kill and eat their captives. 
 
 The writings of the late Bishop Crowther contain state- 
 ments to the same effect. He says : ‘ ‘ Cannibalism prevails 
 to a very great extent among the tribes from the delta to the 
 regions of the Lower Niger, for instance, as among the people 
 of Okrika, by whom one hundred and fifty prisoners taken 
 from the opposite shore were divided among the chiefs to be 
 killed and eaten. With the exception of eleven which fell to 
 the lot of the church-goer chiefs, who took care of their share 
 and spared them, the one hundred and thirty-nine remaining 
 prisoners, which were divided among the heathen chiefs and 
 people, were killed and eaten.” A letter from the Rev . E . 
 Deas, of the United Presbyterian Mission to Old Calabar, re- 
 counting the state of things in that region, refers to the ex- 
 istence of cannibal markets where slaves are sold for food. 
 He himself had quite recently saved two sick women from 
 being eaten by their fellow-creatures. The Katholische Mis - 
 sionen of Freiburg, in a recent account of a journey made in 
 T ^95 by Father ' Bubendorf , of the Congregation of the Holy 
 Cross, from Onitsha (on the Niger) to a neighboring district, 
 reports his statement that he was a horrified eye-witness of the 
 slaughter of a group of unfortunate captives before a king’s 
 dwelling. He writes: “ Every moment men, women, and 
 
 even children, passed me, one with a human leg on his shoul- 
 der, others carrying the lungs or the heart of an unfortunate 
 Kroo boy in their hands. Several times I was offered my 
 choice of these morsels dripping with gore.” 
 
 Several communications in the English papers in the sum- 
 mer of 1895 reported the atrocities committed by an African 
 band in the region of Sierra Leone, known as the “Human 
 Leopards .” Several of them have been captured and exe- 
 
83 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 cuted. They were accustomed to clothe themselves in leopard 
 skins, attack their victim from behind, and stab him with a 
 three-pronged dagger. The result was a cannibal feast. 
 
 A correspondent of The Saturday Review , referring to the 
 recent trial of members of this band, calls attention to the 
 difference in method of cannibalism on the West Coast from 
 that which prevails on the East Coast. In West Africa the 
 custom is to have the barbaric feast follow immediately the 
 slaughter of the victims. On the East Coast an element of 
 domestic economy seems to pervade cannibal customs, since 
 the flesh of the old, the infirm, and the useless is dried and 
 preserved, with a sort of sacramental reverence, in the family 
 larder. It is offered to guests as a special compliment, to re- 
 fuse which would be a deadly insult, while its acceptance se- 
 cures friendship. The correspondent remarks: * ‘Many of our 
 travellers in East Africa have eaten thus sacramentally of the 
 ancestors of some dark-skinned potentate. 0 He refers to the 
 cannibalism of the West Coast, however, as the refinement of 
 gluttony, based upon a hideously genuine appetite for fresh 
 human flesh. “ Young boys are bought from the dark inte- 
 rior, kept in pens, fattened upon bananas, and finally killed 
 and baked. 0 
 
 4. A singular confirmation of these statements concerning 
 cannibalism on the West Coast comes from another part of 
 the earth, where some of the West Coast superstitions have 
 been transplanted in connection with the slave-trade. In 
 Hayti the so-called vaudoux worship is still found among the 
 secret practices of the Negroes. It is marked by the adora- 
 tion of the serpent, and attended with the sacrifice of children 
 and feasting upon their flesh. An abominable trade in human 
 flesh for cannibal feasts, and cannibalism as a revolting luxury 
 among natives, are still dark features of inland life upon the 
 island. Froude remarks in this connection: “ Behind the 
 immorality, behind the religiosity, there lies active and alive 
 the horrible revival of West African superstition : the serpent 
 worship, the child sacrifice, and the cannibalism. 0 
 
 Human Sacrifices. — 1. The grim tyranny of superstition 
 has exacted the sacrifice of human life among many savage 
 races. Different motives have inspired the crime, and it has 
 been justified by its perpetrators either as a tribute to the dig- 
 nity and station of some person of distinction who has died, 
 or as a necessary propitiation offered to some object of wor- 
 
THE TRIBAL GROUP 
 
 89 
 
 ship, under the inspiration of fear, or with a desire to placate. 
 It is also frequently resorted to as a supposed means of secur- 
 ing successful harvests, or victories in warfare, or hoped-for 
 success in connection with any new undertaking. It is often 
 considered an essential part of the observance of festival occa- 
 sions, or an indispensable feature of the ceremonial etiquette 
 of savagery. The ghastly realism of the scene appeals in a 
 vivid way to the native imagination. 
 
 2. In many sections of the earth the practice has been 
 greatly checked within a century. “Previous to the year 
 1837, ” writes the Rev. T. E. Slater (London Missionary So- 
 ciety), “about one hundred and fifty human sacrifices were 
 annually offered in Gumsur,” a city situated in East Central 
 India. The Rev. James M. Macphail (Free Church of Scotland) 
 writes that “human sacrifice existed among the Santals until 
 quite recently. ” There are many localities in India where 
 the traditions of human sacrifices, in some instances as a daily 
 event, still linger, especially among the Rajputs, the Khonds, 
 and in the Northern Punjab. In many of the Indian temples 
 the very odor of human sacrifice seems to be still present. 
 The whole subject has been carefully investigated by Dr. 
 Rajendralala Mitra, a distinguished modern scholar of India, 
 who published the result of his researches in The Journal of 
 the Asiatic Society of Bengal. In reply to the contention that 
 human sacrifices are not authorized in the Vedas, but were in- 
 troduced in later times, Dr. Mitra remarks: “ As a Hindu 
 writing on the actions of my forefathers — remote as they are — 
 it would have been a source of great satisfaction to me if I 
 could adopt this conclusion as true, but I regret that I cannot 
 do so consistently with my allegiance to the cause of history.” 
 He brings forward abundant evidence from Indian sources to 
 show that “ for a long time the rite was common all over Hin- 
 dustan, and persons are not wanting who suspect that there 
 are still nooks and corners in India where human victims are 
 occasionally slaughtered for the gratification of the Devi.” In 
 a learned article on “ The Brahmanas of the Vedas/’ by K. 
 S. Macdonald, D. D., published in The Indian Evangelical 
 Review , the references to human sacrifices in the Vedas are 
 given in exhaustive detail. In the case of one hundred and 
 seventy-nine different gods the particular kind of human being 
 who should be sacrificed is named in each instance. 
 
 In Assam not long since children were offered as a sacrifice 
 
90 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 for the forgiveness of sins. Among the Shans a belief in the 
 efficacy of human sacrifice to procure a good harvest still 
 exists. It is supposed by them that certain nats (spirits) are 
 appeased only by human sacrifice. 4 ‘ The guardian spirit of 
 one of the Salween ferries claims a victim every year, prefer- 
 ably a Chinaman. The nat saves trouble by capsizing a boat 
 and securing his victim. The ferry is then safe for the rest of 
 the year.” Mr. J. George Scott, in an article on “The Wild 
 Wa : A Head-Hunting Race,” presents many illustrations of 
 the abominable atrocities long prevalent among the tribes in 
 the border-lands between the Shan tribes and Yunnan. 
 
 3. Among some of the aborigines of Australia the custom 
 is said still to prevail that in the case of the death of any 
 member of a given tribe his fellow-tribesmen are thereby 
 placed under obligations to kill some one else in the next 
 tribe, to equalize matters. Among the Dyaks of Borneo and 
 the mountain tribes of Formosa human sacrifices have been 
 common, and are even at the present time resorted to in 
 connection with public events, such as the proclamation of 
 war. 
 
 4. In the history of the Pacific Islands there are many 
 traces of the bloody rites of human sacrifices. They were 
 known among the Maoris, and in the New Hebrides, and al- 
 most universally throughout Polynesia. In the early chroni- 
 cles of South Sea missions are repeated references to the cus- 
 tom. Worship was frequently attended with the sacrifice of 
 life. It is recorded of King Pomare of the Society Islands 
 that “during his reign of thirty years he had sacrificed two 
 thousand human victims as offerings to his idols.” Upon al- 
 most every public occasion a human sacrifice was required. 
 If war was to be declared or some chief died or was threat- 
 ened with serious illness ; if some public building was to be 
 dedicated or even a new house built for a chief ; if a new 
 idol was to be set up or a new canoe launched, the blood of 
 some human victim, or in some instances of many such, must 
 be offered in honor of the occasion. The horrible reputation 
 of the inhabitants of the Fiji Islands for every species of 
 brutality and cruelty makes it easy to believe that their record 
 for human sacrifices is one of exceptional atrocity. 
 
 5. Among the aborigines of the West Indies and the pagan 
 Indians of Guiana there is clear evidence of this odious 
 crime. And even at the present time, according to the state- 
 
THE TRIBAL GROUP 
 
 91 
 
 ment of Dr. Sheldon Jackson, the people of Alaska , during 
 an epidemic of the grippe, “ felt that a more malignant spirit 
 than common had got hold of them, and they must needs 
 make greater sacrifices; so men, women, and children were 
 caught by the medicine-men and sacrificed — buried alive to 
 appease the spirit of the grippe. ” 
 
 6. The darkest record of all, however, is reserved for 
 Africa, where rivers of blood have been poured out in human 
 sacrifice. The almost universal practice in connection with 
 the death of African chieftains is a bloody holocaust at the 
 burial. Cameron, in an account of his journey across the 
 Continent in 1874, speaks of “ the atrocious sanguinary rites 
 which attend the death of African despots.” The resting- 
 place of a chieftain’s body is often a bed of living women, 
 and his grave deeply saturated with the blood of victims slain 
 in his honor. Ashanti, Dahomey, and the whole Niger delta 
 with its tributaries have witnessed many a scene of sacrificial 
 horror. The reports of English correspondents who accom- 
 panied the recent Ashanti expedition of the British Govern- 
 ment, speak of hideous masses of bones and skulls of the 
 victims of human sacrifice. An editorial in the London Times, 
 November 13, 1895, referring to the fact that the ruler of 
 Ashanti had expressly agreed by treaty to renounce human 
 sacrifices and slave-raids, states that “ it is notorious that these 
 savage processes still continue.” 
 
 In a chapter on the “ City of Blood,' in the life of Thomas 
 Birch Freeman, an account is given, based upon the testimony 
 of missionaries who were present at the time, of the funeral 
 ceremonies attending the death of a king, at which forty vic- 
 tims were immolated within two days, and the streets strewn 
 with headless bodies. The ground around fetich trees was wet 
 with the blood of victims, while from their branches were 
 suspended portions of human bodies. In the early history of 
 the United Presbyterian Mission in Old Calabar are accounts 
 of the same shocking scenes. On the death of Eyamba, a 
 native king, a massacre of his wives and slaves, and even of 
 many other women, took place ; of his hundred wives, thirty 
 were slaughtered. Even late reports from these dark regions 
 bear the same story of unabated bloodshed. The Ijebus have 
 recently sacrificed two hundred and fifty victims to their gods, 
 in order to prevent the white man from taking their country. 
 The king of Eboe, at his death in 1893, was accompanied by 
 
92 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 forty sacrificial victims. The late Rev. J. Vernall wrote from 
 the Yoruba Mission to the Church Missionary Society that 
 human sacrifices were offered in honor of the dead body of 
 the head chief, Sasere, in 1893. The late Bishop Crowther, 
 a native African in connection with the Church Missionary 
 Society, often testified to the existence of these cruel practices 
 in the valley of the Niger. 
 
 The Congo contributes its full quota of gruesome evidence. 
 United States Commercial Agent Dorsey Mohun, in his recent 
 Report to Congress, states that he was an eye-witness to the 
 tragic death of fourteen persons who were buried alive in 
 honor of a great chief who had died. Dr. W. H. Leslie, a 
 missionary of the American Baptist Missionary Union, located 
 upon the Congo, states that a native chief presented himself 
 for professional treatment whose hand was so shockingly dis- 
 eased that at first he thought it would have to be amputated, 
 but by powerful remedies he succeeded in saving all but a 
 small portion of it. The chief remarked to the doctor that 
 “thirty of his subjects had been put to death at different 
 times because he thought they were eating it. ” “ At Luken- 
 
 go's royal city'' writes Dr. Snyder, of the Southern Presby- 
 terian Church Mission on the Congo, “there is being enacted 
 a horrible tragedy. The brother of the king is lying dead 
 wrapped in cloth, under a shed, and, what is more, he has 
 lain there for two months. And why ? Because they have 
 not caught and killed enough people to satisfy the demands of 
 their diabolical superstition. They have killed one hundred, 
 and are now trying to catch one hundred more.” 
 
 In Uganda, according to the statement of Mr. Ashe, King 
 Mtesa confessed that “before the coming of white men to his 
 country he had practiced the horrid rites of the kiwendo , 
 when thousands of victims were ruthlessly slaughtered in the 
 performance of the sanguinary rites of Uganda. It was said 
 that when Mtesa rebuilt his father Suna’s tomb, the throats of 
 two thousand unhappy human victims were cut at the dead 
 king’s grave.” In Abyssinia , according to Macdonald, “ hu- 
 man sacrifices to their divinities are common among the peo- 
 ple of Senjero.” In Southern Africa the Kaffirs (those tribes 
 south of the Zambesi) and the Zulus, even in recent times, 
 have been guilty of the same unspeakable atrocities, as Dr. 
 Tyler and Dr. Emil Holub testify. 
 
 The world’s barbarism is by no means ended. In some of 
 
THE TRIBAL GROUP 
 
 93 
 
 its fairest regions the passions of demons seem to rage in the 
 human breast. 
 
 Cruel Ordeals. — i. In most instances the ordeals which 
 involve physical torment or exposure to death are resorted to 
 with a view of testing and so discovering the innocence or 
 guilt of some suspected person. These ghastly trials have 
 been widely known in the world in various forms. The ordeal 
 has been sometimes by fire or, again, by water or by the use 
 of poisons or through personal encounter. Torture has also 
 been employed to ascertain if the consciousness of guilt will 
 bear the test. The peculiar horror which attaches to this cus- 
 tom is the probability in numberless instances of putting an 
 absolutely innocent person to death, and in any case, of sub- 
 jecting the victim to excruciating torture. 
 
 2. Among the Ainu of Northern Japan various barbarous 
 expedients have prevailed to secure confession where a crime 
 was suspected. One was the hot- water ordeal, which was 
 practiced in two ways. According to one method, the victim 
 was placed in an immense caldron of cold water, under which 
 a blazing fire was kindled, and was kept there until the suffer- 
 ing was so intense that a confession was extorted. This severe 
 test, however, was not common unless the evidence of guilt 
 was strong. Still another method was compelling the accused 
 person to thrust an arm into a pan of boiling water. If the 
 test was refused it was regarded as indicative of guilt ; or if 
 accepted and the result was a severe scalding, this also was 
 supposed to be evidence against the accused person. Only in 
 case the flesh was uninjured was the innocence fully demon- 
 strated. Other expedients were by grasping hot iron, or a hot 
 stone held in the palm of the hand. Still another, which was 
 especially a favorite in the case of testing the guilt or inno- 
 cence of women, was to make them smoke an unusual quan- 
 tity of tobacco and then drink the ashes of the weed. If 
 made ill they were guilty ; if not, their innocence was estab- 
 lished. A more innocent trial was affected by causing a per- 
 son to drink a cup of water and then throw the empty cup be- 
 hind him over his head. If the cup fell the right way upward 
 innocence was demonstrated ; if otherwise, guilt was regarded 
 as manifest. Another singular trial consisted of seating the 
 person before a large tub of water with his mouth placed to it 
 in such a way that he must drink continuously until it was all 
 gone. This process perhaps does not seem very terrifying, 
 
94 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 but in reality it involved intense pain. If the water was all 
 drank the person was innocent, but if he gave up the attempt 
 it was an indication of guilt. The stake ordeal, hanging by 
 the hair, and beating were also resorted to. In China confes- 
 sion is often extorted by processes of ingenious and frightful 
 torture. The diabolical versatility of the Chinese in this re- 
 spect is notorious. 
 
 3. In India festivals are sometimes the scenes of ordeals 
 by passing through fire to exhibit fortitude and devotion in 
 evidence of the religious sincerity of devotees. Among some 
 of the native tribes, as, for example, the Mairs and Kois, it 
 was customary to challenge one accused to prove his innocence 
 by thrusting his hand into boiling oil or by grasping red-hot 
 shot. In case any one among the Kois died a natural death it 
 was considered to be the result of the machinations of some 
 enemy, and when the most likely person was settled upon, the 
 corpse of the deceased was brought into his presence, and he 
 was called upon to demonstrate his innocence by undergoing 
 the ordeal of thrusting his hand into boiling oil or water. In 
 Siam and neighboring countries the trial by ordeal has long 
 been known. The tests were similar to those already men- 
 tioned, though several of them were of exceptional cruelty. 
 The interest in the subject at present is happily only historical, 
 as the tests are not now practiced. In Madagascar the ordeal 
 by poison, or the use of tangena , was formerly shamefully fre- 
 quent. One out of every ten of the people, it has been com- 
 puted, has been subjected to it, and half of the victims have 
 died. According to the Rev. W. Ellis, “ three thousand peo- 
 ple perished every year a sacrifice to this superstition, for the 
 belief, of course, was that while innocent people survived the 
 ordeal, it invariably proved fatal to the guilty. M 
 
 4. Africa has the melancholy distinction of continuing 
 these practices, although in sections of the Continent under 
 the control of European administration such cases are now 
 usually the subject of judicial investigation. In former times 
 in Old Calabar the death of a chief was supposed to be 
 because he was bewitched by some one. The suspected per- 
 sons would be at once subject to the ordeal of drinking the 
 powdered esere-bean, on the supposition that if guilty they 
 would retain it and die; if innocent, they would be relieved 
 of it and survive. The result was usually the death of the 
 victims. Other grim variations in different sections of the 
 
THE TRIBAL GROUP 
 
 95 
 
 Continent are mwave-drinking in Nyassaland, reported as late 
 as 1893, by Livingstonia missionaries of the Free Church of 
 Scotland and mentioned also in a private letter from Dr. Laws, 
 dated May 3, 1895, and the test of thrusting the hand into 
 boiling water. In the latter case if the skin comes off the guilt 
 is demonstrated, and the victim is then cut to pieces and 
 burned. These superstitious customs have become to such an 
 extent a part of the social code of savagery that nothing short 
 of legal restriction backed by force can uproot them, except 
 the enlightened teachings of Christianity. In the islands of 
 the Pacific these strange and fiery ordeals have always been 
 prevalent, but great changes have taken place in native cus- 
 toms on many of the islands since the entrance of Christian 
 missions. 
 
 Cruel Punishments and Torture. — 1. The just and 
 proper method of inflicting punishment upon the guilty is a 
 subject of great sociological interest, and has engaged the 
 earnest thought and taxed the practical wisdom of distinguished 
 modern reformers. Notable changes have been introduced in 
 present-day penology, and it is one of the humane triumphs 
 of Christian civilization that the old barbarities in the treat- 
 ment of criminals have almost wholly disappeared within the 
 bounds of Christendom. A succinct sketch of the cruel aspects 
 of early judicial procedure, and of the processes of intimidation 
 and torture which were not unknown even in the most cultured 
 nations of the world until within a recent period, is given by 
 Dr. Frederick Howard Wines in his interesting volume on the 
 punishment of criminals. One is impressed, in reading that 
 harrowing record, with the immense progress which is mani- 
 fest in the humane transformations which distinguish the 
 present system from the old. He is also, alas ! reminded that 
 there has been little improvement among the uncivilized 
 peoples of the earth in respect to these penal cruelties, since 
 the same horrid methods of inflicting punishment and tortur- 
 ing criminals are still practiced in many barbarous com- 
 munities. A punishment may be pronounced cruel when it is 
 unjustly severe, or inflicts excessive suffering, or is administered 
 with barbarous torture, without legal sanction or restraint, as 
 the whim or passion of the one in authority may dictate. That 
 all this is true of much of the punishment which is practiced in 
 the non-Christian world is a fact beyond question. 
 
 2. To begin with Western Asia, it is a notorious fact that 
 
96 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON- CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 Turkey — the land which is even now the scene of such un- 
 paralleled atrocities — is full of dismal cruelties to those who fall 
 under the ban of the law. This state of things pertains in a 
 measure to all prisoners, but chiefly to non-Moslems who, per- 
 haps most unjustly, fall under penal condemnation. Turkish 
 prisons are horrible beyond description, and the treatment of 
 prisoners is most inhuman. Shocking torture is not un- 
 frequently inflicted to extract information or to serve some 
 secret purpose of the authorities. The accounts of the recent 
 massacres in Armenia, which have been spread before the 
 world by reliable correspondents and by official reports, 
 reveal what Turks and Kurds are capable of in the line of 
 diabolical cruelty. An incident reported by Mr. Donald Mac- 
 kenzie, special Commissioner of the British and Foreign Anti- 
 Slavery Society, which fell under his own observation at 
 Hodeidah, illustrates the awful possibilities of cruelty in a land 
 of irresponsible power like Arabia. 
 
 In Persia methods of punishment involving excruciating 
 torture are resorted to, as illustrated articles in The New York 
 Tribune of May io, 1896, and The Graphic (London) cf 
 August 15, 1896, recount in detail. The latter article, repro- 
 duced in The New York Tribune of August 30th, gives an 
 account by an eye-witness who succeeded in obtaining a 
 photograph of the scene, describing the burial alive of five 
 prisoners in a preparation of plaster of Paris, so placed as to 
 enclose the body up to the chin — a method of execution which 
 is attended with intense suffering, as the plaster soon swells, 
 hardens, and stops the circulation. In this instance the 
 victims were selected from the prisoners in the jail at Shiraz, 
 and were put to death not because of their personal guilt, but 
 as an example to strike terror into the hearts of the population 
 and put a stop to pillage and robbery in the province, the 
 actual perpetrators of which the authorities were not able to 
 secure. The bastinado, and mutilation of the person, with 
 other ingenious devices for inflicting suffering, are character- 
 istic features of penal administration throughout Persia. It is 
 reported of the late Shah that his method of punishing some 
 obstinate subjects of his realm who tampered with the tele- 
 graph-wires when they were first introduced into Persia, was 
 to bury the offenders alive, one at the base of each telegraph- 
 pole, as a hint that he would allow no trifling with his admin- 
 istration and no opposition to his will. In Central Asia the 
 
THE TRIBAL GROUP 
 
 97 
 
 prisons are described as inexpressibly foul, and imprisonment 
 is apt to be attended with dismal tortures. In Afghanistan 
 there are characteristic cruelties of penal discipline, to which 
 reference has been made by a recent correspondent of the 
 London Tunes. 
 
 3. In India the police administration has always been char- 
 acterized by cruelties which even British administration has 
 not been able wholly to stamp out. In a report of the com- 
 missioners for the investigation of alleged cases of torture in 
 the Madras Presidency in 1855, subject is dealt with in 
 considerable detail, and aggravated instances of cruelty on the 
 part of the police are brought to light. The punishment even 
 of school-children used to be a species of torture. Many of 
 the penalties recommended in the Code of Manu are abomina- 
 ble in character, especially those connected with violations of 
 the proprieties of caste. Under British administration a 
 changed state of things exists, although the shooting of sepoys 
 bound at the cannon’s mouth by British soldiers at the time 
 of the mutiny was surely a strange lesson for a Christian gov- 
 ernment to give to the people of India. 
 
 4. The subject of punishments in China leads us into a 
 veritable Chamber of Horrors, to which Mr. Norman, in his 
 “Peoples and Politics of the Far East,” has devoted an entire 
 chapter, which, with its illustrations, presents a vivid picture 
 of these frightful scenes (chap. xv.). In the Chinese Empire 
 these things are not done in a corner, but are a recognized 
 feature of judicial procedure. The ingenuity and variety of 
 Chinese tortures have been fully described by standard writers 
 upon the social customs of that strange empire. The infliction 
 of torture is not confined to the prisoner who is on trial, but 
 the unfortunate witnesses are also likely to receive the unwel- 
 come attentions of the inquisitors. There is nothing that the 
 Chinese dread more than the law itself and its administrators. 
 Even a charge of wrong-doing, however unsubstantiated, is 
 usually a signal for a series of painful ordeals. The abomina- 
 ble extremities of the Chinese system do not stop with actual 
 guilt, but the relatives of one who is under suspicion, es- 
 pecially if his crime is proved, are often regarded as equally 
 amenable to the law. Chinese executions are usually by be- 
 heading in public, the execution ground being open to all. 
 The stroke of an executioner’s sword is a comparatively mer- 
 ciful proceeding ; the prisoner may be thankful if he escapes 
 
98 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 the process of lingchi, which is being cut to pieces while still 
 alive. The prisons of China are described as “loathsome, 
 horrible dungeons, the scenes of cruelty and barbarism too 
 fearful for description.” In his chapter on “ The Absence of 
 Sympathy,” Rev. Arthur Smith refers to the “ deliberate routine 
 cruelty with which all Chinese prisoners are treated who can- 
 not pay for their exemption.” In the Island of Formosa sub- 
 stantially the same system has prevailed. 
 
 5 . In Korea ‘ ‘ the vocabulary of torture is sufficiently copious 
 to stamp Cho-sen as still a semi-civilized nation.” The inven- 
 tory of its implements as found in a court of justice or prison 
 is ghastly in its suggestiveness. Public executions have always 
 been conducted in brutal fashion, and are often attended with 
 excruciating tortures of the prisoners. According to the old 
 law of the realm, every member of a man’s family was equally 
 implicated in his offense. We read of the use of the rack 
 even at the present time. Before we leave the Continent of 
 Asia it should be noted that the Japanese, in comparison with 
 all other Asiatic nations, stand in a favorable light so far as 
 the general charge of cruelty is concerned. 
 
 6. If we turn to the Continent of Africa we enter the shad- 
 ows of pure savagery, and a record of barbarities meets us 
 which is appalling to contemplate. The simple infliction of a 
 death-penalty becomes a comparatively merciful punishment. 
 It is well if an unfortunate prisoner escapes a fate which is full 
 of lingering agony and painful mutilation. In the “ Life of 
 Livingstone” instances are given of the severing of members 
 of a living prisoner for even trifling offenses. The use of the 
 knife upon the living victim was often a barbarous preliminary 
 to his final execution. Capital punishment was resorted to as 
 a penalty for insignificant offenses. Even speaking unadvisedly 
 was a crime for which the lips were roughly sand-papered in a 
 way to produce a painful excoriation. The sufferings of the 
 poor slaves throughout Africa make one of the most horrible 
 chapters in human history. Of the Awemba it is reported 
 that they have a “ kind of feudal system and discipline which 
 is very strict, the slightest disobedience being punished with 
 loss of fingers or hands, eyes put out, ears and nose cut off. 
 Often through mere caprice these dreadful sufferings are in- 
 flicted, while occasionally the chief kills a number of his peo- 
 ple simply to let them know he is chief and to keep them in 
 constant fear of him.” 
 
THE TRIBAL GROUP 
 
 99 
 
 The cruelties of Lobengula have filled a large place 
 in recent South African history. Severing the nose and 
 the ears of a victim seemed to be commonplace incidents 
 in his administration. Among the Zulus , as the banana 
 was set apart for royal use, if it was eaten by an ordinary 
 person the death-penalty was promptly inflicted, and the 
 same punishment was administered for theft. Thieves had 
 their throats cut or their eyes extracted or their hands 
 and feet cut off. In the capital of Ashanti the mere will of the 
 king inflicted death for the least transgression of the most 
 whimsical laws. Before the English missionaries entered 
 Uganda, in the days of King Mtesa, executions took place by 
 the hundreds by any method which seemed to suit the fancy 
 of the king. Among the barbarous West Coast tribes the pun- 
 ishment of wives by their husbands is often cruelly painful. 
 Among the Pondos there is a punishment which one can hardly 
 read of without shuddering. The victim is bound or stretched 
 upon an ant-hill from which thousands of virulent ants emerge 
 and proceed to devour him, penetrating nostrils, eyes, ears, 
 and mouth. But we must end this dismal recital. Enough 
 has been said to show that a reign of cruelty still lingers in the 
 earth, and that there is a pressing call for some transforming 
 lessons from the Gospel of divine mercy. 
 
 Brutality in War. — i. The awful realities of war are in 
 many instances attended by unspeakable cruelties and wild 
 outbursts of brutal passions. Civilization has, however, so far 
 asserted itself as to insist upon every possible expedient for al- 
 leviating the miseries of the wounded and restraining the bru- 
 talities incident to the conflict. The code governing the con- 
 duct of war is now recognized among all civilized nations, and 
 its humane provisions are of great value in mitigating the hor- 
 rors of the field, diminishing suffering, securing a proper re- 
 spect for prisoners and a sufficient recognition of their neces- 
 sities. With all that has been done, however, to lessen its 
 brutalities, war, even in modern times and among civilized 
 nations, is often attended with experiences which are appalling 
 to the imagination. Even contemporary warfare is not always 
 free from the charge of unnecessary barbarity ; and when we 
 consider the facilities for maiming the person and destroying 
 life which are now in use, the question arises whether war un- 
 der modern conditio7is has, after all, to any great extent lost 
 its ancient terrors. 
 
100 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 2. The recent Oriental war between Japan and China, 
 while it revealed, no doubt, a strenuous and to a marked de- 
 gree successful effort on the part of the Japanese to banish the 
 old traditional savagery of the Orient, was yet not without its 
 dismal scenes of brutality on the part of both combatants. 
 With the Japanese such scenes as were enacted at Port Arthur 
 were, however, exceptional, and no doubt were stimulated by 
 awful provocation. The improvement in present Japanese 
 methods over those which prevailed even a generation or so 
 ago reveals a remarkable readiness to adopt the modern code 
 of warfare. 
 
 3. The Chinese, on the other hand, exhibited all the old 
 ferocity of their race. Not only were Japanese prisoners and 
 wounded combatants who fell into their hands made the vic- 
 tims of savage torture and mutilation, but even their own 
 wounded were neglected with shocking inhumanity. The 
 spirit of Chinese warfare was represented by the remark of 
 a high official to some Red Cross agents when he said, i ‘We 
 have no use for wounded soldiers.’ ’ Statements still further 
 illustrating the cold-blooded horrors of Chinese warfare are 
 given by Mr. Henry Norman in his “ Peoples and Politics of 
 the Far East.” He remarks: “It must never be forgotten 
 that acts of appalling and almost incredible barbarity are the 
 common accompaniment of all Chinese warfare. If it were not 
 that the details are indescribable, I could give a blood-curd- 
 ling list of horrors that have been described to me” (p. 86). 
 In the same volume a correspondent of The Times is quoted 
 as follows: “The Chinese take no prisoners. From dead, 
 wounded, and vanquished alike they shear off the heads, mu- 
 tilate them in various ways, and string them together by a 
 rope passed through the mouth and gullet. The Japanese 
 troops have seen these ghastly remnants of their comrades. 
 A barrelful of them was found after the fight at Ping-Yang, and 
 among the horrible trophies was the head of a young officer 
 who had fallen wounded in a fort evacuated by General Osh- 
 ima’s men.” 
 
 4. Throughout Central Asia , Tersa f and Turkey we find 
 a state of things which is in horrible rivalry with the worst 
 that China can reveal. The most atrocious chapter of modern 
 history is the recent story of Kurdish and Turkish brutality in 
 Asia Minor. It cannot be called warfare; it is rather the 
 brutal spirit of fiends gratifying a diabolical passion for blood- 
 
THE TRIBAL GROUP 
 
 101 
 
 shed and cruelty. The past history of India, extending down 
 even to the advent of British rule, is full of shocking incidents. 
 The barbarities of the great Afghan invasions “ form one of 
 the most appalling tales of bloodshed and wanton cruelty ever 
 inflicted on the human race.” Among the Rajputs it was 
 a custom when victory seemed assured to their enemies to 
 slaughter all their women rather than permit them to fall into 
 the hands of the enemy. In the siege of Chittoor by the Mo- 
 hammedans it is recorded that Padmani, the beautiful wife of 
 the Rana, and all the women, to the number of many thou- 
 sands, were entombed in immense caves, the mouths of which 
 were closed, and all were destroyed by fires which were kin- 
 dled within. The supremacy of British rule has now brought 
 India under the code of modern warfare, and although the 
 tragedy of the sepoy rebellion is still fresh in the memory, 
 and there is no guarantee beyond the authority of British con- 
 trol that the old savagery will not reappear, yet the present out- 
 look is that the brutalities formerly so prevalent have vanished, 
 never to return. 
 
 5. In the northern States of Africa, especially in Morocco, 
 the most sanguinary customs are characteristic of Mohamme- 
 dan warfare. An incident recently reported in the London 
 papers gives an insight into the ghastly realities of war in that 
 section. A telegram announced the arrival at Fez of a large 
 consignment of salted heads that were being transported from 
 Morocco as trophies of a recent victory. It is even considered 
 a merciful proceeding by the fierce soldiery of Morocco to 
 bury their wounded comrades before life is extinct, so that 
 the enemy may have no opportunity of mutilating their bodies. 
 In the recent Italian campaign with Abyssinia the hands and 
 feet of the wounded were cut off by the enemy on the field of 
 battle, and they were left to the mercy of the vultures. In 
 the interior of the Continent and along the West Coast there 
 is nothing more terrible than the scenes of harrowing atrocity 
 which have been and are still incidental to barbarous strife. 
 As we move southward there is nothing to relieve the dark 
 shadows of brutal warfare. It is a carnival of cruelty and 
 beastly savagery. The last journal of Livingstone contains an 
 account of a massacre so terrible in its atrocity that it seems 
 to have made an overwhelming impression upon his mind. 
 The well-known reputation of the Matabele warrior has been 
 often referred to. 
 
i 02 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON- CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 In the recent French war in Madagascar even a civilized 
 nation seems to have been deeply compromised by the adoption 
 of barbarous methods of warfare. The alliance of the blood- 
 thirsty Sakalava with the French resulted in indiscriminate 
 massacres of women and children who fell into their hands. 
 In one case, writes the correspondent of the London Times , 
 “ there can be no doubt that the Sakalava, who are well 
 armed, murdered four hundred women and children.” 
 
 6. The savage races of the Pacific are not a whit less cruel 
 than their fellow-barbarians of the Dark Continent. In New 
 Guinea, the New Hebrides, and throughout the island realms 
 of the South Seas, the ferocity of savage warfare has been 
 illustrated for unknown generations. Happily, the encroach- 
 ments of civilization, the spiritual victories of missions, and 
 the extension of foreign authority over so many island groups 
 of Oceania are influences which have greatly restrained the 
 barbarities that have prevailed in the past. 
 
 Blood Feuds. — i. War is not confined to nations and 
 tribes alone, but sometimes occurs between clans, communities, 
 villages, families, and even individuals, who engage in a kind of 
 mimic warfare under the name of blood feuds. These have 
 frequently resulted in serious and desperate conflicts prolonged 
 for generations and involving intense bitterness of feeling, 
 with vindictive reprisals and cruel atrocities. The causes of 
 strife may differ ; in some instances it may spring from reli- 
 gious hatred, in others it may result from trespass and vio- 
 lence, and at times it is the outcome of family intrigue, jeal- 
 ousy, and enmity. 
 
 2. The Continent of Africa is all astir with these virulent 
 feuds; tribes, communities, and families are in numberless 
 instances pitted against one another in irreconcilable strife. 
 Now it is a feud between neighboring villages, which means 
 indiscriminate war to the knife between entire communities ; 
 now it is a quarrel over boundary lines, or a raid for plunder 
 or retaliation for trespass and murder, or the avenging of some 
 insult which cannot be passed unnoticed. A constant state of 
 anarchy and bloody hostility is thus kept up among neighbor- 
 ing clans and communities. “ When the Word of God came 
 among us,” said a Kaffir chief in 1836, “ we were like the 
 wild beasts ; we knew nothing — nothing but war and blood- 
 shed. Every one was against his neighbor, every man tried 
 to destroy his brother.” Dr. Moffat has given vivid descrip- 
 
THE TRIBAL GROUP 
 
 103 
 
 tions of the desperate character of the tribal feuds which he 
 found prevailing in South Africa. Lust, revenge, and rapine 
 were continually on the war-path. Throughout the length 
 and breadth of Zambesia raids and counter-raids, attended 
 with savage barbarities, always have been, and, where oppor- 
 tunity offers, are still, the constant occupation of hostile tribes. 
 The popular theory of punishment or revenge in Africa is not 
 to seek out the guilty and inflict upon them the penalty ; it is 
 to strike an indiscriminate blow at the entire community or 
 tribe to whom the offender belongs. Vengeance is sweet to 
 the native African, and under some circumstances it becomes, 
 according to his social code, an imperative duty. 
 
 3. In Turkey and Persia , where national and religious dis- 
 tinctions honeycomb society, there is hardly a village which is 
 not ready for sectional strife upon the slightest provocation. 
 The horrors in Armenia show the fearful excesses to which re- 
 ligious and political hostility, when once aroused, will lead. 
 The Kurd, who is facile princeps in his fiendishness, not only 
 delights in barbarities upon Christians, but is often at war 
 with his own people in local feuds. 
 
 4. In India there is perpetual hostility between Hindus 
 and Moslems, resulting in feuds which are handed down with 
 religious fidelity from generation to generation, and are always 
 ready to break out into bloody violence if some trifling cause 
 awakens the spirit of strife. Among the wild tribes of the 
 mountains trial by combat is a favorite method of settling dis- 
 putes, while their blood feuds are transmitted as a sacred in- 
 heritance from father to son. The unforgiving character of 
 the Hindus makes them cling tenaciously to the hope of re- 
 venge, and wait patiently and long for their opportunity. In 
 Assam murder is regarded as a social accomplishment. “ No 
 young Naga,” remarks The Indian Witness , i ‘ is considered a 
 man unless his hands have been imbrued in the blood of his 
 fellow-man, whether in war or in cold blood makes no differ- 
 ence.’ , In Burma the war of clans and even smaller com- 
 munities has been common. 
 
 5. China is a network of clans ready to engage in hostile 
 strife upon the slightest provocation. Massacre and bloodshed 
 are the usual result of these conflicts. Village feuds are com- 
 mon among the Chinese. If they do not result in actual 
 bloodshed they are sure to develop a system of petty trespass 
 and the destruction of the property, especially the crops, of 
 
104 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 the village. In Formosa fierce and sanguinary warfare, last- 
 ing sometimes for half a century, has attended these feuds 
 among savage tribes. The practice of head-hunting may be 
 traced back to these village and tribal wars. The Chinese in 
 Formosa are especially the objects of hatred, and the head of 
 a Chinaman is a trophy highly prized. “No savage is es- 
 teemed/ ’ says Dr. Williams, “ who has not beheaded a China- 
 man, while the greater the number of heads brought home from 
 a fray the higher the position of a brave in the community. ” 
 The traditions of Japan are full of reports of conflicts between 
 the old feudal lords and their retainers, but in the present new 
 era of advancing civilization and national reconstruction these 
 petty strifes have almost entirely disappeared. A character- 
 istic sight in Korea f usually in connection with the advent of 
 the new year, is a promiscuous battle with clubs and stones 
 between neighboring villages. It is often in sport, but in 
 many instances it becomes a veritable mimic war. 
 
 In New Guinea and throughout Oceania turmoil and strife 
 are commonplace features of savage life. “Blood for blood 
 is a sacred law almost of nature wherever Christianity has not 
 prevailed.” Trespass or violence on the part of any member 
 of a tribe is regarded as fastening the guilt upon the entire 
 tribe, and thus indiscriminate bloodshed follows. The sounds 
 of savage warfare have echoed among the islands of the Pacific 
 for unknown generations, and where the happier arts of peace 
 now prevail they are almost entirely the result of Christian 
 missionary teaching and influence. If we penetrate in almost 
 any direction into the comparatively unknown and inaccessible 
 recesses of heathenism we will find the same shocking story of 
 blood feuds and perpetual outbursts of sanguinary hostility. 
 An officer of a prominent trading company who has lived long 
 among the Eskimos has given it as his opinion that “ he did 
 not think there was a single Eskimo frequenting that post, 
 and who had attained thirty years of age, who had not 
 murdered a human being.” The reign of the Prince of 
 Peace is sadly needed among the warring factions of heathen 
 society. 
 
 Lawlessness. — i. One of the noblest missions of civiliza- 
 tion is the establishment and enforcement of just and effective 
 laws restraining and punishing crimes against both the person 
 of the individual and the good order of society. The spirit 
 of lawlessness has brought sorrow and unrest to humanity 
 
THE TRIBAL GROUP 
 
 105 
 
 during all its history, and were it not for the majestic sway of 
 law and its efficient administration there would be no guaran- 
 tee of security and order even in civilized communities. The 
 study of criminology within the bounds of civilization has been 
 made a specialty by expert students (e. g., Wines, Henderson, 
 Lombroso, and MacDonald), who have published the results 
 of their investigations in instructive volumes. In the wide 
 realms of barbarism crimes of every kind afflict society. The 
 criminal is comparatively unrestrained by law, and pursues his 
 wild career with little fear of justice. There are primitive 
 and rude methods of punishment in vogue everywhere, and 
 even in the less civilized states of the world the administration 
 of justice would be prompt and effective were the practice 
 equal to the theory. The possibility and, in many instances, 
 the probability that justice will miscarry, combined with the 
 allurements of lawlessness to untamed natures, give a fatal 
 stimulus to criminal instincts and make the non-Christian 
 world to a deplorable extent a prey to lawless violence. 
 
 2. There are many sections both of Asia and Africa that 
 have been in the past noted for disorder and misrule which are 
 to-day under the control of civilized governments , and are im- 
 mensely benefited by their vigorous police administration. 
 India is a prominent example. Crime and violence were 
 rampant all through the vast peninsula before the advent of 
 British rule. The native rulers themselves were arch-crim- 
 inals, and society groaned under the miseries of rapine and 
 vicious depravity. The terrible exploits of thugs, dacoits, and 
 the robber castes, numbering over a hundred, make a vivid 
 chapter in Indian lawlessness, which, thanks to the British 
 Government, is now largely a thing of the past. What has 
 been said of India is true of various portions of Burma, the 
 Straits Settlements, Australasia wherever foreign rule prevails, 
 and of many islands of the Pacific, together with extensive 
 sections of Africa which have come under European super- 
 vision. It is impossible, of course, for a foreign power to re- 
 strain altogether the forces of disorder, and it need not sur- 
 prise us to hear that under British as well as other European 
 administrations the outlaws are not all cowed or old habits of 
 crime entirely eradicated. In the Straits Settlements and in 
 some districts of Burma there is unusual difficulty in breaking 
 up the haunts of outlaws and destroying their power to do 
 evil. To vast sections of the Asiatic and African world, how- 
 
106 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 ever, it is an immense boon to have the judicial and police 
 administration in the hands of foreign authorities. 
 
 3- I f we turn now to the purely native governments of 
 Asia and Africa } we find that the criminal classes are allowed 
 to prey upon society to a frightful extent. The Empire of 
 Japan , under its new regime, may be regarded as a notable 
 exception, owing to the fact that the Japanese have a genius 
 for government which is not found elsewhere in the Oriental 
 world. They have adopted the criminal code of the most 
 advanced nations, and are proceeding to enforce it with sur- 
 prising impartiality, fidelity, and efficiency. It is to be hoped 
 that the Island of Formosa, hitherto so noted for its piracy 
 and brigandage, with all the atrocious deeds of its “ Black 
 Flags,” or head-hunters, will be brought, at the hands of the 
 Japanese authorities, under effective discipline. This task, 
 apparently, is taxing severely the self-restraint of the Japanese 
 officials. It is not easy for an Oriental government to 
 break at. once with traditional methods of administration, 
 especially if there should be a supposed necessity for reviving 
 them. 
 
 In China , in spite of its fierce and relentless system of deal- 
 ing with criminals, we find many secret organizations for the 
 fomenting of disorder and the prosecution of lawless raids. 
 A turbulent and reckless element is ever ready for mob 
 violence and brigandage. Clans of banditti are the terror of 
 many sections of the empire. Especially in times of disturb- 
 ance is human life unsafe, and summary execution is often the 
 result of mere suspicion. Chinese pirates have always had a 
 notorious reputation, and even the regular soldiers of the 
 Government are often little better than freebooters. The 
 foreign residents of China have had dire experiences of the 
 treachery and cruelty of lawless mobs, attended in some in- 
 stances by fatal results. There is hardly a province in the 
 country which is free from desperate perils at the hands of 
 lawless marauders. The recent outrages upon missionaries in 
 Western China and the deplorable tragedy at Kucheng, not 
 to speak of other experiences of lesser moment, are still fresh 
 in our memories. 
 
 In Manchuria the state of things is hardly less serious. 
 Bands of vagabonds link themselves together in a brotherhood 
 of vice and engage in systematic blackmail of well-to-do 
 citizens, playing the part of burdensome parasites, from whom 
 
THE TRIBAL GROUP 
 
 107 
 
 it is impossible to obtain deliverance. The highways are be- 
 set with robber bands who attack travellers in such force that 
 resistance is hopeless. In Korea the turbulent Tonghaks 
 have recently been in open rebellion. It is a question, how- 
 ever, whether the Government, by its oppression and tyran- 
 nical abuse of power, has not justified resistance on the part 
 of its subjects. Disorder and robbery are, however, all too 
 prevalent in every section of Korea, and it is to be hoped that 
 whatever change of government may occur, will be in the in- 
 terests of better discipline throughout the kingdom. 
 
 In Upper Burma, Assam, and Central Asia lawless deeds 
 are of frequent occurrence. The Afghans are for the most 
 part untamable outlaws. In Assam deeds of blood are com- 
 mitted without compunction. In Burma ferocious dacoity, 
 for purposes of plunder and extortion, has been practiced for 
 generations. The cruelties of the Burman dacoits are phenom- 
 enal. The Turcomans on the eastern borders of Persia have 
 been robbers for centuries. In Persia and in the mountains 
 of Kurdistan especially there is hardly any security for life or 
 property, while in distressed Armenia an awful whirlwind of 
 lawlessness has swept away almost every vestige of security and 
 order. The traditional attitude of Moslems toward Christians 
 is that of insult and aggression. Dr. William H. Thomson, who 
 formerly resided in Asiatic Turkey and is familiar with 
 Eastern life, has said : “ It is not safe at present to travel alone 
 for a mile's space in the Moslem world beyond the reach of 
 some Christian occupying power." Arabia , now as of old, 
 is a land where every man's hand is against his neighbor, so 
 that except in settled localities there is no safety, even for an 
 hour. 
 
 Africa , except as foreign control is exercised, is a favorite 
 hunting-ground of the outlaw and plunderer. Robbery is a 
 profession ; murder is a commonplace incident. From the 
 “tiger-men" of the West Coast through all the central 
 stretches of the Continent warfare and plunder are the most 
 characteristic features of savage life. The Angonis and Yaos 
 in the region of Lake Nyassa, the bloody Masai east of the 
 Victoria Nyanza, and innumerable lesser tribes and clans, live 
 in the constant practice of their hereditary tendencies to law- 
 less violence. The African rivers are often the haunts of 
 pirates. Even in those countries bordering on the Mediter- 
 ranean the interior regions are the scenes of violence. In 
 
108 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 Madagascar the dreaded raids of robber bands render much 
 of the island unsafe. In the East Indies and the Pacific 
 Islands where European authority is not in control, native life 
 for centuries has been a gruesome record of conspiracy, mur- 
 der, rapine, and robbery. 
 
V 
 
 THE SOCIAL GROUP 
 
 (Evils which are incidental to the social relationships of uncivilized com- 
 munities, and are due to lack of intelligence or the force of depraved 
 habit) 
 
 Introductory. — The previous section brought to our at- 
 tention some of the grosser and more inhuman aspects of non- 
 Christian society, such as have arisen chiefly from intertribal 
 warfare and race hostility. There remains to be dealt with a 
 cluster of evils connected with social relationships of a more 
 personal character , revealed in individual conduct and do- 
 mestic habits of life. They are in some respects similar to 
 those mentioned in the previous group, with perhaps less of 
 the brutal impulses of barbarism, while, on the other hand, 
 they may be said to reveal with no less precision the moral 
 tone and the social temper of heathen peoples. The fact, 
 however, that they are upon a different and higher plane, and 
 more intimately identified with personal character and feeling, 
 gives them a special significance as representative of the more 
 subtle inner spirit of society. Several of the evils included 
 in this list are not of a character to excite reproach so much 
 as to inspire pity and stimulate a desire to overcome them. 
 
 Ignorance. — i. The first specification which suggests 
 itself under this general category is ignorance. This is rather 
 a misfortune to be lamented than a crime to be condemned, 
 yet it is none the less an evil of stupendous magnitude , the 
 fountain of a whole series of deplorable miseries and social 
 disabilities. Human life everywhere needs for its wholesome 
 development and higher progress the guidance and stimulus of^ 
 knowledge, the incitement of quickening ideals, and the cul- 
 ture of refining customs. Ignorance is a blighting and de- 
 pressing environment, in which the higher graces of human 
 intercourse cannot be developed, and wherein the nobler life 
 of the social man languishes, while his lower and meaner 
 tendencies are under little restraint. It produces a rank 
 
 109 
 
110 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON- CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 growth of positive evils, which are both a peril and a stigma 
 to society. It places, moreover, a serious embargo upon in- 
 dustrial enterprise, and fixes life in the old routine of anti- 
 quated methods, with little hope of improvement. 
 
 2. By ignorance in this connection we do not mean mere 
 illiteracy , although this is usually a prominent feature of it. 
 We refer rather to an ignorance which may be coincident with 
 advanced educational attainments in the heathen classics and 
 in the standard literature of Oriental nations. Its scope is 
 much broader than mere mental vacuity, and includes also a 
 grievous dearth of that intellectual, moral, and social training 
 which comes through contact with truth, and is a part of the 
 broader culture which scientific knowledge gives. A very 
 learned man in the scholastic lore of the Orient may be at the 
 same time a slave to the most degrading customs and a victim 
 to the most puerile superstitions. In India and China , for ex- 
 ample, we find vast systems of philosophy and imposing 
 curriculums of education, but with it all an obtuseness, a 
 narrowness, a pedantry, an intensity of intellectual pride 
 combined with a pitiful emptiness of mind, which justify the 
 charge of ignorance, whatever may be the measure of attain- 
 ment. An expert analysis of the actual condition of the 
 educated mind of China is given by Dr. Martin in his 
 “Hanlin Papers, ” and a more striking exhibition of what 
 might be called learned ignorance it would be difficult to find. 
 There is, no doubt, even in lands where education is not un- 
 known, an astonishing degree of absolute, unmitigated illiter- 
 acy, but in large sections of the non-Christion world there is 
 this and nothing else. 
 
 The most remarkable exception to this statement is Japan , 
 where education is now pushed with energy, and where the 
 Government system of schools will already bear comparison 
 with some of the nations of Western Christendom. Even in 
 India , according to the last census, an appalling prevalence of 
 illiteracy is revealed. Less than six per cent, of the entire 
 population can read or write, and among the women only one 
 in three hundred and thirty is able to do so. In many of the 
 Native States there are no educational facilities, and even if 
 provided they are only for the higher castes. The great mass 
 of the population of India resides in its villages, where ed- 
 ucational privileges exist only to a very limited extent. The 
 education of India is a colossal task, which, with all the 
 
First Christian College in the East. Built by Carey and his associates in 1819. 
 Carey’s house, in which he died, visible on the left. 
 
 Serampore College, Bengal. 
 
 Senate House of Calcutta University on the left. Presidency College on the right. 
 The Square is one of the most important centres of student life in the East. 
 
 College Square, Calcutta, India. 
 
THE SOCIAL GROUP 
 
 111 
 
 facilities of the English school system and missionary institu- 
 tions, is as yet but just begun. In Assam popular education 
 was unknown before the British occupation of the country in 
 1826, and even at the present time about eighty-five per cent, 
 of the people are illiterate. The movement for popular ed- 
 ucation all over India has only begun to be felt in that land. 
 
 3. China , although one of the most ancient nations of the 
 world, is still in its infancy as regards education . The Rev. 
 John C. Gibson, in an essay on Bible versions, read at the 
 Shanghai Missionary Conference of 1890, reckoned a total 
 population of 300,000,000, of which 75,000,000 were children 
 too young to read. If the remaining 225,000,000 of maturer 
 years were divided equally, half being men and the other half 
 women, he estimates that of the 112,500,000 women only one 
 per cent., or 1,125,000, are able to read, and of the men ten 
 per cent, is named as a liberal estimate, or 11,250,000 who 
 are readers. The result is that out of 225,000,000 only 
 1 2, 375,000 are able to read. Another estimate, by Dr. 
 Martin, reduces the number of readers to about 6,000,000. 
 The significance of these estimates is emphasized by a com- 
 parison which Mr. Gibson makes with the percentage of 
 readers in twenty-one of the Northern States in America, 
 which is ninety-five and five tenths per cent, of the entire pop- 
 ulation over ten years of age, leaving a percentage of illiteracy 
 of only four and five tenths per cent, as compared with 
 ninety per cent, men and ninety-nine per cent, women in the 
 Chinese Empire. Miss Adele M. Fielde, in referring to the 
 mistaken idea, which many entertain, that education is uni- 
 versal among the men of the Middle Kingdom, states it as her 
 judgment that “ not more than one Chinese man in a hundred, 
 taking the empire through, knows how to read, and still fewer 
 can write a letter. Of the women not more than one in a 
 thousand can read.” The Rev. Jonathan Lees, of the London 
 Missionary Society, who has resided thirty-five years in 
 China, coincides with these statements. The Rev. A. H. 
 Smith, in his chapter on “Intellectual Turbidity/’ dwells 
 with much emphasis upon the brooding ignorance which 
 shadows the intellectual life of China. “ The Western child 
 of ten years of age,” says a writer in The Chinese Recorder , 
 “knows more about the earth, the universe, and the immu- 
 table laws of nature than the average Hanlin, or member of the 
 Imperial Academy.” 
 
112 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 4. The effect of all this is sadly depressing, not only to 
 the individual, but to the social, political, and industrial life of 
 China. If we take into consideration the incompetency of 
 such a powerful political factor in the empire as the Tsungli 
 Yamen, arising from sheer ignorance, we can discover what an 
 incalculable injury it is to the political life of a great empire 
 to be controlled by a body of men concerning whom a recent 
 correspondent of The Times , who “ had the honor of discuss- 
 ing with their Excellencies some of the burning questions of 
 the day,” remarked that “the strongest impression which I 
 carried away with me was that the whole world of thought in 
 which the Western mind is trained and lives seems to be as 
 alien to the Chinese mind as the language which we speak.” 
 Then, as regards the incalculable damage done to the in- 
 dustrial interests of the empire by the crass ignorance and un- 
 conquerable prejudices of the people, much might be said. 
 Western methods and facilities in all departments of industrial 
 enterprise are regarded with inane suspicion and supercilious 
 contempt. Political economy is quite unknown as a modern 
 science, nor is there any general recognition of the advantages 
 of international trade and the possibilities of industrial en- 
 terprise. The Rev. Timothy Richard, in an address before 
 the Peking Missionary Association in October, 1895, expressed 
 the opinion that “ China loses a million taels a day by igno- 
 rance.” A curious study in Chinese questions by the Rev. J. 
 H. Horsburgh, missionary of the Church Missionary Society 
 in Szechuan, is interesting as a revelation of their remarkable 
 capabilities in that line, and also of the childish range of the 
 information which they seek. 
 
 5. In Korea substantially the same statements will hold 
 true. It is a land of undeveloped, almost untouched resources, 
 simply because of the intellectual slumber of the people and 
 the inanity of what little education they can attain. In 
 Formosa , where hardly any literature exists except such as 
 has been provided by the missionaries, in the Pacific Islands , 
 where a similar statement would hold, in Moslem lands, where 
 education as conducted under native auspices is of practically 
 little value, throughout the Continent of Africa y in many 
 sections of South America and the West Indies , there are 
 deep needs arising from the lack of educational facilities. A 
 large part of the world, in fact, may be said to be still deeply 
 wrapped in the slumber of ignorance , and, were it not for the 
 
THE SOCIAL GROUP 
 
 113 
 
 educational efforts of foreign missions, there would be little 
 hope of a speedy awakening. 
 
 Quackery. — i. Ignorance in some of its aspects may be 
 regarded as only a negative evil, but when it undertakes to 
 practice medicine and surgery it becomes a positive evil of an 
 aggressive and deadly character. The agonies and sorrows 
 which result from the stupid and cruel inflictions of quackery 
 upon suffering humanity make an awful chapter in the daily 
 experience of mankind. These miseries have been endured 
 for centuries, and must continue indefinitely, unless scientific 
 knowledge and competent skill take the place of the wretched 
 incompetence which now does such harm to stricken victims. 
 The vagaries of quackery would be only an interesting and 
 curious study, were it not for the serious and shocking reality 
 of the harm involved. After all, the thing to be lamented is 
 not so much the resort to useless remedies as the ignorance and 
 credulity which make them possible. It is natural for dis- 
 tressed humanity to seek relief from its sufferings, and this 
 gives to ignorant assumption its opportunity, and opens the 
 way for the adoption of those useless and dangerous expedients 
 which have added such an untold increment to the world's 
 misery. 
 
 2. It is amazing to note the ignorance of even practitioners 
 of wide reputation in lands where no scientific medical instruc- 
 tion is known. In Clima the so-called doctors are “ the merest 
 empirics, and, having no fear of medical colleges or examina- 
 tion tests before their eyes, prey on the folly and ignorance of 
 the people without let or hindrance." With no knowledge of 
 physiology or anatomy, pathological diagnosis is the merest 
 guesswork. Such a remedy as amputation is never, under any 
 circumstances, thought of, since it is regarded as indicating 
 disrespect to ancestors to mutilate the body. A Chinese 
 doctor, entirely ignorant of the distinction between arteries 
 and veins, will feel the pulses of both wrists, with an idea that 
 the beating of the pulse of the left arm indicates the state of 
 the heart, while that of the right represents the health of the 
 lungs and liver. If these signs fail, the tongue will surely 
 yield some mystic augury concerning the nature of the 
 disease. 
 
 As to remedies , they are composed of many vegetable, min- 
 eral, and animal substances, some of them of the most absurd 
 irrelevance. They are referred to in some detail by Mr. 
 
114 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE HON- CHRISTIAN IVOR LB 
 
 Douglas in his chapter on medicine. A remedy of noted 
 efficacy is the carcass of a tiger. It can be used in a variety 
 of ways and is supposed to possess marvellous tonic qualities. 
 There is a potent remedial power in dried scorpions, and as a 
 remedy for Asiatic cholera nothing excels a needle thrust into 
 the abdomen. In a recent report of one of the Chinese hos- 
 pitals of the Methodist Episcopal Mission in Central China, 
 an account is given of a woman who had been sick for a long 
 time before she came for treatment, and “ had eaten more 
 than two hundred spiders, and a large number of snakes’ eggs, 
 without being helped.” A native medical prescription in 
 Northern China required a wife to take some of her own flesh 
 and, having properly prepared it, to give it to her sick hus- 
 band to eat. The directions were heroically carried out, but 
 without avail. In the case of bullet wounds, prayers are writ- 
 ten on a piece of red paper, which is burned, and from its 
 ashes medicine is made. Frequent cases of blood-poisoning 
 result from the putrid animal flesh so often applied to wounds. 
 The superstition of the natives, and their suspicions of foreign 
 treatment, are well illustrated in a letter from the Rev. C. 
 Bennett (Church Missionary Society), on the plague in Hong 
 Kong, published in The Church Missionary Intelligencer , 
 October, 1894, p. 752. Some of the remedies are not only 
 absurd, but characterized by cruel barbarity. 
 
 3. Dr, Mac Kay , in writing of Formosa , has given many 
 interesting facts bearing upon this theme. In a recent report 
 of his mission hospital, an account of some of the native 
 specifics for various diseases in North Formosa is given. For 
 anaemia is prescribed a jelly made of the bones of a savage 
 recently killed. An execution of some criminal will be numer- 
 ously attended by practitioners to obtain the requisite mater- 
 ial for making this valuable remedy. For Asiatic cholera the 
 body is pierced with needles. For catarrh a chip is taken 
 from some coffin after it has been let down into the grave, and 
 boiled with other ingredients, and then laid aside for future 
 use. In case of dog bite the tartar from teeth is considered 
 an effective antidote. A dyspeptic must be fed on dog’s flesh, 
 especially that of puppies. For ophthalmia the intestines of a 
 bedbug are applied to the eye. For rheumatism a soup is 
 made of the feet of the monkey, combined with other ingre- 
 dients, such as pork and spirituous liquors. Then there are 
 boiled toads and dried grass, while numerous other childish 
 
Moukden Hospital Staff and Students. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
THE SOCIAL GROUP 
 
 115 
 
 nostrums are resorted to as expedients for coping with the 
 dread emergencies of disease. 
 
 4. The Korean doctor and his methods are described in an 
 article by Dr. Busteed in The Korean Repository for May, 
 1895. He seems to be very fond of the needle, which he 
 thrusts into the flesh as a sovereign remedy for many maladies. 
 For hydrophobia he prescribed a powder made of the skull of 
 a tiger. This is to be taken internally, and a poultice of 
 garlic applied to the bite. The bones of a tiger are highly 
 valued by the Koreans for their medicinal qualities, and they 
 are regarded as a specific for cowardice. A good strong soup 
 of tiger bones is supposed to make a hero of the most arrant 
 coward. For general debility a Korean sufferer partakes of 
 boiled bear's gall. The loathsome character of some of the 
 poultices applied to wounds by the native practitioner is too 
 sickening to mention. Various diseases are supposed to have 
 special demoniacal attendants, and in a case of smallpox, for 
 example, the principal function of a doctor is to exorcise its 
 demon. This done, all will be well. Dr. Rosetta Sherwood 
 Hall (Methodist Episcopal Missionary Society) gives an ac- 
 count of the visit of a Korean doctor to a sick child. The 
 first thing he did was to make a little pyramid of brownish- 
 looking powder upon each breast of the child, and then to set 
 it afire until it burned the tender skin. This was followed by 
 the use of a large darning-needle, which was thrust through 
 each little foot, the palms of the hands, the thumb-joints, and 
 through the lips into the jaw just beneath the nose. In some 
 cases this species of treatment results in suppuration with fatal 
 consequences. 
 
 5. The Aimt of Northern Japan, when he is sick, sends 
 for his medicine-man, who, “ falling into a sort of trance and 
 working himself up into a kind of frenzy, tells why the dis- 
 ease has come and what demon has sent it.” He prescribes 
 some charms which, if worn by the sufferer, will banish the 
 demon and relieve the distress. 
 
 6. In Thibet the favorite remedy is butter , which is rubbed 
 freely on the patient. Where this fails, as, for example, in 
 case of smallpox, which they especially dread, they often adopt 
 summary methods and dispose of the victims either by burn- 
 ing them or by throwing them into rapid torrents; or per- 
 haps they carry them to a mountain-top, where they leave 
 them to recover or die. If the internal or external use of 
 
116 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 butter is of no avail for ordinary illnesses, the lamas , whose 
 methods are peculiar, are summoned to the rescue. They 
 make a life-sized image of the sick person, dressing it in his 
 or her clothes, not forgetting personal ornaments, and place it 
 in the courtyard. They then sit around this image and read 
 passages from the sacred classics supposed to be suitable for 
 the case. A wild dance with incantations follows, and this is 
 supposed to be effective in transferring the malady from the 
 patient to his effigy. After this the effigy is burned outside 
 the village. 
 
 7. Even in lands where Western intelligence has pene- 
 trated to a considerable extent the old tricks of quackery are 
 still found. In India sickness is often ascribed to demons or 
 to the anger of gods and goddesses, who are thought to pre- 
 side over epidemics, and who must be propitiated in order to 
 secure their suppression. “ Killed by ignorance ” is still the 
 verdict in numberless cases of fatality, and when we remem- 
 ber that the total number of deaths in India every year is be- 
 tween five and six millions, we can appreciate how disastrous 
 are the results of quackery, which has, no doubt, been the 
 only ministry which the vast majority have received in their 
 fatal illnesses. To be sure, the old system, with its charms 
 and incantations, its profitless and often cruel remedies, is 
 gradually passing away, yet the native hakim is the only re- 
 course in the case of vast multitudes. It is estimated by Sir 
 William Moore that “not five per cent, of the population is 
 reached by the present system of medical aid.” Even in the 
 great cities, where there are hospitals and dispensaries, more 
 than half of the people die unattended in sickness either by 
 educated doctor or native quack. “If this is the case in the 
 cities,” writes Dr. Wanless, “what must be the condition in 
 the 566,000 villages, each with a population of less than 500, 
 not to mention thousands of large towns with a population of 
 from 1,000 to 5,000, without even a native doctor ? ” The 
 difficulties attending medical practice in India arising from 
 the severity of the conventional rules of society add, no doubt, 
 to the volume of neglect to which we referred. In an instruc- 
 tive discussion in the pages of The Indian Magazine and Review 
 for the latter part of the year 1895 and the earlier numbers of 
 1896, concerning “Medical Aid to Indian Women,” are to 
 be found repeated references to the lamentable woes of Indian 
 women in times of illness and suffering, even though, as in 
 
THE SOCIAL GROUP 
 
 117 
 
 many instances, medical aid might be available. It is a ques- 
 tion whether the so-called hakims or vaidyas } with their fool- 
 ish and worthless remedies, are any relief, or whether to be 
 unattended is not a milder fate than to be ministered to by 
 those who will gravely prescribe the powdered horn of the 
 sacred bull as a remedy of special efficacy, or who repeat 
 verses out of their sacred books for the relief of a person who 
 has been bitten by a poisonous insect. 
 
 8. In Burma and eastward the reign of quackery is still 
 the occasion of numberless woes to those who might be re- 
 lieved by intelligent medical aid in their times of distress. 
 The singular and painful custom of roasting the abdomen of 
 the mother of a newborn child is mentioned by Dr. Thomas, 
 of Lakawn, Laos (“ Report of the Presbyterian Board of For- 
 eign Missions,” 1895, p. 183). The same Report, in the sec- 
 tion on Persia (p. 168) mentions the case of a woman who had 
 obtained from a mullah two or three prayers written on paper. 
 Every morning she was to put one of these in a glass of water 
 and when the writing had disappeared from the paper she was 
 to drink the water. In her despair she had come to the hos- 
 pital at Teheran for treatment. Surgery in Persia is heroic 
 and reminds one of the various methods of torture rather than 
 of an attempt to relieve suffering. In Arabia an ingenious 
 expedient for relieving a patient is “burning holes in the 
 body to let the disease out, branding sick children with red- 
 hot bars, chopping off wounded limbs and sealing them with 
 boiling tar.” Who can doubt the dread woes of quackery 
 when such measures as these are employed ? 
 
 9. Throughout Africa the belief in the influence of evil 
 spirits and their ever-active machinations is all-powerful. 
 They are thought to people the very atmosphere and to dwell 
 in a thousand otherwise innocent things which are common- 
 place features of every-day environment. They are supposed 
 to be forever busy in inflicting trouble and suffering upon 
 humanity. Some of them are good, but the great majority 
 are evil and bent upon doing harm. Sickness or disaster or 
 distress of any kind is considered due to their malign inter- 
 vention. There are, therefore, two classes of individuals in 
 African communities whose supposed power is either dreaded 
 or eagerly sought. One consists of those who are looked upon 
 as capable of commanding the evil spirits and so controlling 
 and directing their activity. The other consists of those who 
 
118 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 have power to banish them or render nugatory their influence. 
 They are known respectively as witches and witch-doctors, 
 although the native titles are many and various. 
 
 Medical practice, therefore, is almost entirely in the hands 
 of these witch-doctors , magicians, diviners, medicine-men, and 
 devil-doctors. They are usually shrewd, cunning, and cruel, 
 sometimes thoroughly demented, or it may be that possibly 
 they are in some instances actually under the awful sway of 
 demons, of whose mysterious activity in the dark realms of 
 heathenism we know little and cannot therefore dogmatize. 
 The service rendered by these weird characters, being a func- 
 tion which pertains exclusively to them, and consisting, ac- 
 cording to native ideas, of an actual conflict with malign 
 spirits, whose brooding terror rests upon every heart, is con- 
 sidered as of special value and regarded with reverential awe. 
 The reign of such an awful delusion in the innermost con- 
 sciousness of ignorant creatures is fearful to contemplate. We 
 who live in the freedom of enlightenment can hardly imagine 
 the dread alarms of a life supposed to be in actual contact 
 with demons, exposed to their whims and spites, their deadly 
 anger, and their cruel malignity. What an opportunity does 
 all this offer for a species of demoniacal blackmail, and what 
 power is given to one whose ministry is supposed to be an 
 effective remedy for all the sorrows and woes of life ! It is no 
 wonder that they turn in their ignorance to one who is re- 
 garded as possessing the power to deliver and defend them in 
 the desperate emergencies in which they find themselves. 
 
 The Rev. R. F. Acland Hood, in a few “ Notes on Witch- 
 craft, ” published in Central Africa , March, 1895, has de- 
 scribed some of the methods by which the supposed presence 
 of witchcraft is discovered, and the remedies which a witch- 
 doctor will apply for the relief of his patients. “ To begin 
 with,” he remarks, “ there are two classes of spiritual practi- 
 tioners, which we are constantly meeting in African books of 
 travel as the ‘ witches ’ and the ‘ witch-doctors/ The witches, 
 or wachani , are the people (men and women) who know how 
 to make and to use medicines and charms ( uchani ). If any 
 one wishes to make use of uchani he will first go to a wachani 
 and persuade him by gift to let him have the uchani which he 
 requires. No one, at least here, wishes to use uchani except 
 for the purpose of harming another. If any one is more pros- 
 perous than his neighbors, or if he is merely conceited, then 
 
THE SOCIAL GROUP 
 
 119 
 
 let him look out, as he is sure to be bewitched. Uchani is 
 generally practiced at night ; then the wachani go about, when 
 every one is in bed. They call to one another, but no one 
 except the specially gifted can hear them. Perhaps they will 
 go in a body to the house of the person to be bewitched. 
 They go naked, and no one can see them. Before they enter 
 the house they wrest open the door and throw some powdered 
 stuff on the fire, which ensures the man’s sleeping ; then they 
 enter. If the man has been cautious he will have provided 
 himself with a charm to hold in his hand while he sleeps, and 
 then when the wachani come he will awake. As the wachani 
 see him wake they will beseech him not to tell any one of 
 their coming and will offer him large presents to be silent. It 
 is believed that either if he accepts their presents or if he tells 
 the chief the wachani will kill him, but if he refuses the pres- 
 ents and keeps silence he is safe.” There are various other 
 methods of accomplishing the purpose of bewitching an enemy, 
 but when this is achieved the universal recourse is to the spe- 
 cialists, who are supposed to be able to cope with the situation. 
 
 Upon this subject the same author remarks : “ Now comes 
 
 the remedy for witchcraft , which brings in the witch-doctor. 
 But the witch-doctor is called in for everything — not only 
 when a person is bewitched, but when any accident occurs, or 
 if crops fail, or if war is imminent, in fact, in all emergencies. 
 The stock in trade of a witch-doctor is a set of gourds, or horns, 
 or in these days bottles with different medicines in them, 
 which are not ‘ taken/ but only consulted, and a skin of some 
 small animal, often a squirrel, which is stuffed with uchani. 
 In the eyeholes are sewn two beads. This stuffed skin is gen- 
 erally held by the tail, and is supposed to answer questions 
 put to it by standing up, nodding, etc. When a person wishes 
 to consult a witch-doctor, he will first find out which of them 
 has the best chisango , as their divining instruments are called. 
 Let us suppose him to be going to inquire why his child is ill 
 and what he should do to ensure recovery ; the first thing for him 
 to ascertain is whether the witch-doctor has a good chisango; 
 so he will at first try to deceive him. ‘My brother was 
 wounded by a leopard out hunting, and we want to know why 
 it happened.' Then the witch-doctor consults his chisango 
 and says, ‘No, you haven’t come for that reason.’ ‘A herd 
 of wild boars has been rooting up the crops in my farm, and 
 I want to know how to stop them.’ And so he goes on until 
 
120 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 he mentions the real cause of his visit. In case the witch- 
 doctor is taken in by any of these stories, the man goes off 
 without paying anything, and makes it known that so-and-so's 
 chisango is of no use ; but when the witch-doctor is correct, 
 he is asked to < prescribe.' " 
 
 The above description represents the modus operandi in 
 merely one section of Africa, and chiefly in connection with 
 a single tribe on the borders of Lake Nyassa. The customs 
 vary in different localities, and there may be said to be in- 
 numerable expedients which are in use in the practice of these 
 masters of the black art. We have here to do rather with 
 their remedies, which are sufficiently wonderful and terrible. 
 The red-hot iron is often resorted to and applied freely to the 
 quivering flesh of the patient. Burning under various devices 
 is a supposed cure for many distresses. They cut and slash 
 the flesh and rub irritating and painful medicine into the 
 open wounds. It is indeed hardly possible to mention in de- 
 tail the many absurdly futile ways in which they seek to ac- 
 complish their purpose. 
 
 Another popular function of the medicine-man is adminis- 
 tering some mysterious tonic to the warriors on the eve of bat- 
 tle. It is usually the preliminary to some military expedition. 
 When an army is thus called to “eat medicine,” some secret 
 concoction by a medicine-man is administered to the warriors 
 with as much formality as attends the reading of an official 
 address to a European army. Unhappily, the ceremonies are 
 often attended with human sacrifice. In addition, animals are 
 slaughtered, the right fore leg being torn off while alive. This 
 must be done without the use of knife or other utensil, by 
 sheer wrenching of native hands. What then happens in con- 
 nection with these mysterious ceremonies has been described 
 by Dr. Liengme, a Swiss missionary located in the vicinity of 
 Delagoa Bay. A similar military rite is described by a cor- 
 respondent of The Mail (London Times'), April 8, 1896, as 
 falling under his observation in Swaziland. “ This concoc- 
 tion, when duly finished,” he writes, “is administered to the 
 would-be warrior, and so great is its supposed power that the 
 very minutest dose makes the tsi buts , or young soldier, invul- 
 nerable, and casts a spell over his enemies, delivering them 
 into his hands and assuring him victory on all occasions.” 
 Facts like these only serve to illustrate that quackery has a far 
 wider scope in Africa than elsewhere and is not confined merely 
 
THE SOCIAL GROUP 
 
 m 
 
 to medical practice. In Madagascar substantially the same 
 malign reign of the witch-doctor prevails. 
 
 io. In the Pacific Islands the subtle power of the charms 
 and incantations of the sorcerer is a commonplace of native 
 experience. The anger of the spirits is a daily dread, and 
 the expedients adopted in illness are with a view to placating 
 the spirits rather than relieving the patient. “Natives never 
 believe in being sick,” writes the Rev. James Chalmers, “ from 
 anything but spiritual causes, and consider that death, unless 
 by murder, can take place from nothing but the wrath of the 
 spirits. When there is sickness in a family, all the relatives 
 begin to wonder what it means. The sick person getting no 
 better, they conclude something must be done. A present is 
 given ; perhaps food is taken and placed on the sacred place, 
 then removed and divided among friends. The invalid still 
 being no better, a pig is taken on to the sacred place and there 
 speared and presented to the spirits ; it is then returned and 
 divided to be eaten. When death comes, great is the mourn- 
 ing, and the cause, if not already known, is still inquired into. 
 It may have been breaking some taboo or doing something the 
 spirits did not like. Soon the body must be buried, and gen- 
 erally a grave is dug under the house. The older women of 
 the family stand in the grave and receive the body, holding it 
 in their hands if a child, or laying it on one side if heavy, 
 saying, ‘ O great Spirit, you have been angry with us. We 
 presented you with food, and that did not satisfy. We gave a 
 pig, and still that did not satisfy. You have in your wrath 
 taken this. Let that suffice your wrath, and take no more/ 
 The body is thus placed in the grave and buried. ” 
 
 n. Among the Indians of North and South America the 
 same terrible superstitions prevail with reference to the causes 
 and remedies of simple illnesses. Is it not apparent that if 
 Christian missions had no other function than to introduce the 
 resources of enlightened medical science among these victims 
 of the wretched delusions of ignorant quackery throughout the 
 world, there would still be a noble mission and an imperative 
 call for the humane messengers of truth ? 
 
 Witchcraft. — i. This subject in its relations to medical 
 practice has been referred to in the previous section. The 
 witch-doctor, or medicine-man, in his well-known role as the 
 “smeller out” or “ smiter ” of evil spirits, depends upon 
 witchcraft as a powerful adjunct in the practice of quackery. 
 
122 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 He is believed to be the master of all the powers of evil, and 
 able to deliver victims from those diseases and sufferings which 
 are supposed to be produced by malignant spirits. In the 
 present section we shall refer to witchcraft as connected with 
 demonology and occultism . It is indeed a black art and has a 
 fearful sway over the imaginations of those who, through ig- 
 norance or dominant credulity, fall under its spell. It prevails 
 to an amazing extent throughout the superstitious Orient and 
 in the pagan realms of fetichism and nature-worship. Wher- 
 ever it exists it casts a dismal shadow over life, gives a grim 
 and sombre aspect to nature, and turns the commonplace se- 
 quences of human experience into terrifying signs of the pres- 
 ence and malign activity of some mysterious and implacable 
 enemy. The whole realm of occultism is a favorite camping- 
 ground of the Oriental imagination. The vague lore of Asiatic 
 and African nations is full of the mystic and gruesome en- 
 chantments of witchcraft. The true deliverance from the 
 dominion of these wretched delusions is through the entrance 
 into the mind of that truth which can “make us free” from 
 superstition. Healthful and joyous mental vision comes through 
 spiritual companionship with Him who is able to save from all 
 the powers of evil, who has Himself conquered them, and can 
 give even the most ignorant mind grace and wisdom to gain 
 a like victory. 
 
 2. Witchcraft has haunted savage life in all sections of the 
 earth , but its great stronghold in its grosser forms is Africa, 
 where it exerts a truly terrible power in the domestic, social, 
 and even political life of the people. Its vagaries are in- 
 numerable. Where it holds sway it pervades all human ex- 
 perience, and curses with its blighting touch the whole routine 
 of life. It is an ever ready instrument of persecution and re- 
 venge, and at any moment may become a swift and fatal 
 weapon in the hands of suspicion. It is often made an engine 
 of torture, and in the service of impostors is an unfailing 
 agency of extortion. It has had a momentous part to play in 
 politics and war, and has been the favorite tool of savage des- 
 pots. There are chapters still fresh in the history of Western 
 nations which reveal the ungovernable and resistless power of 
 its delusions even among those who have had the advantages 
 of enlightenment and civilization, and we can well imagine 
 what must be the cruel records of its sway among those whose 
 minds are darkened and pervaded by superstitious fears. 
 
THE SOCIAL GROUP 
 
 123 
 
 3, Throughout the West Coast of the African Continent 
 the arts of witchcraft are prevalent. It is supposed by some 
 of the native tribes that a man may turn himself into an ani- 
 mal and in that form may injure his enemy. At Port Lokkoh, 
 as reported by Bishop Ingham, of Sierra Leone, a man was 
 burned in 1854 for having, as it was thought, changed himself 
 into a leopard. Among the Buie of West Africa, east of 
 Batanga, the master in the arts of witchcraft is known as ngee. 
 He is supposed to be able to kill or cure at will and to have 
 command of all the secret forces of the spirit world. Even 
 to look upon this incarnate terror is believed to cause death, 
 and when he enters an African village all the women and 
 children and uninitiated men flee as for their lives. He exer- 
 cises his authority at will over his victims. Dr. John Leigh- 
 ton Wilson, formerly a missionary in Africa, and the author 
 of “ Western Africa : Its History, Condition, and Prospects, " 
 a volume which was pronounced by Dr. Livingstone to be the 
 best book ever written on that part of Africa, has given in a 
 brief paragraph the results of his observation. 
 
 4. Concerning its prevalence in Central Africa , the Rev. 
 
 J. S. Wimbush, of the Universities' Mission, writes: “The 
 
 practical religion of the natives may be summed up in the 
 word witchcraft. Their belief in the supernatural seems to 
 come out especially in times of calamity of any kind, as war, 
 sickness, famine, or pestilence. They attribute it to the 
 power of an evil spirit, but also believe that some person 
 among themselves has induced or caused the evil spirit to send 
 it. Having fixed on some person or persons by the help of a 
 wizard or witch-doctor, the accused have to establish their in- 
 nocence by drinking poison. If they vomit the poison they 
 are no worse, as they have stood the ordeal and are considered 
 innocent. If the poison kills them, they are considered 
 guilty and deserving of death." Among the Mashonas, the 
 Matabele, and the Kaffirs the belief in witchcraft is universal. 
 So powerful has been its influence among the South African 
 tribes that it has been an historical factor of considerable in- 
 fluence in occasioning war and regulating the attitude of the 
 native tribes to European administration. Wilmot, in his 
 “Expansion of South Africa," gives an account of a disaster 
 in 1857, when, through the medium of witchcraft, the Kaffirs 
 were induced to destroy their cattle as an expedient for defeat- 
 ing the British. The result, as stated in Mr. Wilmot’s vol- 
 
124 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CIIRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 ume, was the death from starvation of seventy thousand na- 
 tives. The Government of Cape Colony has found it so dif- 
 ficult to overcome the subtle and all-powerful thrall of witch- 
 craft that a Bill has been introduced quite recently in the 
 Legislative Council for the effective suppression of its in- 
 fluence. It is known as “ The Witchcraft Suppression Act, 
 1895,” and is truly in the interest not only of good govern- 
 ment, but of native progress and enlightenment. 
 
 5. Still another stronghold of sorcery is among the 
 Negroes of the West Indies , where what is known as oheahism 
 has for many generations exercised a potent sway over the 
 imagination. It is a species of witchcraft by which a malign 
 or blighting spell is supposed to rest upon the victim through 
 the instrumentality of an obeah man or woman. So powerful 
 is the delusion that the person who has been selected seems in- 
 capable of resisting the spell, and is either smitten with some 
 secret disease or pines away until death. The obeah thus be- 
 comes a secret agency for working injury and blighting the 
 life of its victim. In his volume entitled “ Cruising Among 
 the Caribbees,” Dr. C. A. Stoddard has devoted an interest- 
 ing chapter to this subject. Obeahism has been very preva- 
 lent in Jamaica and in other West Indian islands. So serious, 
 moreover, were the effects of these superstitious practices that 
 severe laws have been passed against them, the penalty in some 
 instances being death ; yet so deeply rooted were they in the 
 credulity of the people that no legislation has been able to 
 prevent the secret resort to this dismal art. In the islands of 
 the Pacific similar delusions have prevailed. This has been 
 notably the case in Hawaii, and even at the present time many 
 natives are under the sway of sorcery. By the instrumentality 
 of a kahuna i or witch, a person is supposed to be able to pro- 
 duce the death of an enemy, and even the advent of the 
 i( white doctor” has not been able wholly to deliver the na- 
 tive mind from the power of these impostors, as has been 
 illustrated during the recent visitation of Asiatic cholera. 
 
 6. The Rev. William Wyatt Gill, in his “ Life in the 
 Southern Isles,” reports a curious device known as a “ soul- 
 trap f which he discovered among the so-called “ sacred 
 men ” of Danger Island. By means of this trap the sorcerer 
 was supposed to be able actually to obtain possession of the 
 soul, which when once entangled in its meshes could be hurried 
 off to the shades of the spirit world and served up as a dainty 
 
THE SOCIAL GROUP 
 
 125 
 
 morsel at a mystic feast of spiritual cannibalism. u It would 
 then be speedily known throughout the island world that so- 
 and-so had lost his soul, and great would be the lamentation.’ ’ 
 The sorcerer must thereupon be propitiated by elaborate offer- 
 ings, and every effort made to induce him to restore the cap- 
 tured soul. This was often accomplished, but sometimes it 
 was pronounced impossible. The soulless victim would then 
 give himself up to despair and fall a prey to such profound 
 mental distress that he would eventually die. In New Guinea 
 and the New Hebrides we have accounts of similar uses of 
 sorcery, or witchcraft, for the same base designs. Their 
 sorcerers would claim the power of life and death, health and 
 sickness, and seem to find little difficulty in exercising it. 
 The black art known as nahak is reported by Dr. Paton to be 
 the cause of most of the bloodshed and terror upon Tanna. 
 In “ Cannibals Won for Christ,” by the Rev. Oscar Michel- 
 sen, the author writes concerning Tongoa, of the New Heb- 
 rides group: “ Every village had its sacred man, who was 
 sometimes a chief. He undertook many functions, sacrificing 
 to the spirits to avert their anger on behalf of sick persons, 
 and practicing kaimasi (a kind of witchcraft) to compass the 
 evil or bring about the death of obnoxious individuals ” 
 (p. 1 19). 
 
 7. Even in the more civilized countries of the Orient we 
 find a lively belief in the arts of witchcraft. So impressive 
 have been the evidences of demon possession in China that a 
 distinguished missionary, after a residence of forty years in 
 that empire, has written a large volume upon “ Demon Pos- 
 session and Allied Themes,” chiefly based upon what he has 
 observed among the Chinese, and upon information which he 
 has gathered from India, Japan, and other lands. The evi- 
 dence which he brings forward in support of the theory of the 
 actual fact of demon possession in China is sufficiently start- 
 ling and curious, whatever may be the correct interpretation 
 of it. Unhappily, the victims of supposed possession are 
 often treated with shocking barbarity, cases of which are men- 
 tioned by Dr. Christie. At all events, the Chinese are pro- 
 foundly under the influence of the system known as fung-shui , 
 which, although regarded as a capital crime according to the 
 Sacred Edict, is one of the mightiest forces in the social life 
 of the people. The profession of fortune-teller is common, 
 and the constant consultation of these diviners is a favorite ex- 
 
126 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 pedient of the people. In Japan the belief in demon posses- 
 sion is found among the Ainu . I?i Korea the exorcism of 
 spirits has the dignity of a profession. In India , especially in 
 the Native States, a considerable belief in witchcraft still pre- 
 vails, although throughout the peninsula as a whole severe re- 
 straint is put upon all cases. In Siam and Laos the usual re- 
 sort in the event of sickness is to the spirit-doctor, that through 
 him it may be ascertained whose spirit it is that is causing the 
 trouble. The unfortunate victim of illness is often punished 
 unmercifully to compel him to tell who it is that is the author 
 of his affliction. If in his delirium or excitement some name 
 is mentioned, possibly that of his best friend, the evidence is 
 regarded as sufficient, and the culprit is warned that he must 
 flee for his life. It is unnecessary, however, to give further 
 instances of the melancholy sway of these spiritual delusions 
 and the piercing sorrows that they bring to their superstitious 
 victims. 
 
 Neglect of the Poor and Sick. — i. Tenderness and 
 
 sympathy in the presence of suffering are characteristic of 
 Christian rather than no n- Christian society. Even the most 
 cultured heathen nations of antiquity seem to have been lack- 
 ing in those refined sensibilities which are so distinctively the 
 insignia of Christianity. We search in vain among barbarous 
 races for any sustained manifestation of that humane spirit 
 which instinctively seeks to relieve distress and minister to the 
 necessities of the helpless and afflicted. The heart of the 
 world when untouched by Christian sentiment has always been 
 singularly callous to the appeal of weakness and suffering. 
 Christ has taught with the force of a new revelation the pre- 
 cious mission of sympathy and the sacred duty of healing. The 
 consciousness of kinship and the instinctive promptings of nat- 
 ural affection have in varying degrees exerted their influence 
 among all peoples, in some instances with results far more 
 marked than in others. In the case of individuals, families, 
 and tribes striking exceptions, no doubt, may be noted, which 
 reveal unusual tenderness of heart and kindly habits in the 
 treatment of dependents. As a rule, however, the heartless 
 attitude of the non-Christian world in the presence of distress 
 and helplessness, especially outside the bonds of kinship, has 
 ever been a sad commentary upon “ the brotherhood of man.” 
 The fact that this is in many instances due to ignorance, in- 
 competence, and lack of facilities, or is the result of misdirected 
 
THE SOCIAL GROUP 
 
 127 
 
 efforts prompted by superstitious notions, while it in a measure 
 excuses the fault, does not alleviate the miseries of the victims. 
 
 2. In some countries, as, for instance, Japan, the social 
 disorganization attendant upon the transition from an old to a 
 new order may be largely responsible for the failure to care 
 properly for those in distress. According to the old feudal 
 system, the suzerain lord was responsible for the welfare of all 
 his retainers; but this custom has now passed away, and as 
 yet no adequate substitute has been incorporated in the new 
 social regime. There is at the present time great need of 
 charitable organizations in Japan . The poor are sadly neg- 
 lected, as well as the many lepers, and although hospitals and 
 charitable institutions are being established, it is to be hoped 
 that the Japanese will soon institute more systematic and ade- 
 quate provision for their dependent classes. 
 
 3. In other countries much of this neglect is the result of 
 sheer ignorance or incapacity to meet the emergencies which 
 arise, or it may be due to dependence upon resources suggested 
 by superstition, which are not only utterly useless, but in many 
 instances aggravate the sufferings of the victim. The idea that 
 sickness is the result of sin and so an infliction of the gods, or 
 an evidence of the displeasure of demons, as we have previously 
 noted, prevails to a great extent. The recourse is therefore 
 not to curative expedients, but rather to sacrifices with a view 
 to appeasing the evil spirits. In Assam, for example, a long 
 process of inane experiment is necessary to ascertain the cause 
 of illness. Usually the method of discovery is through the 
 breaking of eggs, and the revelation comes through some oc- 
 cult sign, which is as meaningless as it is absurd. 
 
 4. In India the superstitious reverence for the Ganges has 
 induced the custom of exposing the sick, especially those who 
 are supposed to be fatally ill, upon the banks of the river. 
 The practice arises from motives partly devout and partly 
 benevolent, with a view to conferring benefit upon the person 
 thus exposed, as death upon the banks of the sacred river is 
 supposed to secure a speedy entrance into heaven. The whole 
 subject is carefully and fully treated by Wilkins, whose in- 
 formation is derived almost entirely from Hindu sources. 
 The custom was far more prevalent in the past than it is at 
 present. When missionaries first entered India the scenes on 
 the banks of the Ganges presented a panorama of horrors . 
 The helpless and suffering were placed there to die, fre- 
 
128 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 quently with their mouths and ears filled with mud, by friends, 
 who thus sought to secure their speedy death in proximity to 
 those sacred waters. In spite of the supervision of the present 
 Government of India, the old customs have not as yet entirely 
 disappeared. Many other instances could be given illustrat- 
 ing the baneful results of mistaken ideas as to the nature of 
 illness and the methods of cure. The neglect thus induced 
 by superstition and ignorance is not, therefore, a clear indica- 
 tion of heartless cruelty, but may be the result of sheer inca- 
 pacity to provide a proper remedy. 
 
 5. There are still other cases of neglect resulting from a 
 failure to carry into practice theories and acknowledged obli- 
 gations which if duly recognized and executed would relieve 
 much suffering and misery. In Chma , for example, there is 
 a code of charity having both a religious and social basis, but 
 it is largely inoperative through willful neglect and indiffer- 
 ence. Its stimulus is mainly the desire of obtaining merit as 
 the reward of good works, and where this stimulus is suffi- 
 ciently vigorous much may be done, but if the craving for 
 merit grows cold the good works lapse into inactivity. There 
 are scattered here and there homes and asylums for the aged, 
 the friendless, the orphans, and the incapable, but side by 
 side with these institutions we find much shocking callousness 
 to suffering. In many sections of China, however, there are 
 no hospitals, dispensaries, or charitable institutions, and the 
 afflicted classes are left to the most awful sufferings. Cases of 
 cruel neglect arise from the lack of any suitable provision for 
 the insane, or from the dread of contact with loathsome dis- 
 eases, or on account of superstitious fear of the presence and 
 intervention of evil spirits. The insane are often confined 
 and chained under circumstances of shocking misery, while 
 the sick, if homeless, are transported from doorway to door- 
 way, since it is the legal custom to hold a man responsible for 
 the funeral expenses of a stranger dying at his gate, and he is, 
 moreover, exposed to blackmail under such suspicious circum- 
 stances. 
 
 In Korea an instance is recorded, in a recent communica- 
 tion from a missionary, in which a sick man was hurriedly 
 transported from village to village for a period of five days, 
 without food, the inhabitants of each village fearing, in case 
 he should die within its precincts, “ that his spirit would re- 
 main to haunt them and work them mischief/* 
 
THE SOCIAL GROUP 
 
 129 
 
 6. Aside, however, from the instances already mentioned, 
 there are numberless cases of neglect of the poor and the sick 
 which are the result of pure heartlessness, and are productive 
 of harrowing sufferings. The aged are cast out to die or ex- 
 posed to wild beasts or to the lingering ravages of starvation. 
 Cases of desperate illness or contagious diseases are left with- 
 out attention or the victims are consigned in some secluded 
 place to their fate. In many lands lepers are utter outcasts, 
 without sympathy or care, and in some instances are put to 
 death. “Lepers and people suffering from unpleasant dis- 
 eases are usually destroyed/' writes the Rev. G. M. Lawson, 
 of the Universities' Mission to Central Africa. The blind 
 and deformed must shift for themselves. The poor are indeed 
 friendless, and can only hope to prolong their lives as they 
 are able to beg for sustenance. Not infrequently the sick and 
 the aged are cruelly killed, in some instances by being buried 
 alive. This last crime has been practiced in the case of 
 lepers, lunatics, and also infants, who among some degraded 
 races are buried alive in case the mother dies. While it is not 
 customary in China actually to bury children alive, yet what 
 is hardly less cruel is all too common. In case of the serious 
 illness of an infant, it is placed on one side pending the issue. 
 If death ensues, it is cast into the street, to be picked up, 
 carried off in a cart, and taken to a common pit outside the 
 city walls. References confirmatory of these statements could 
 be multiplied, but the facts are so notorious that there is no 
 necessity for other than general statements concerning them. 
 
 Uncivilized and Cruel Customs. — i. The social habits 
 of heathenism referred to in previous sections have cer- 
 tainly not been lacking either in barbarity or in cruelty. 
 There remain, however, some customs, not as yet mentioned, 
 which are beyond question cruel, and others which if judged 
 by the standards of a true civilization — such as a consensus of 
 the average culture of Christendom would sanction and en- 
 force — must be designated as indecent and uncivilized, if not 
 brutal. It is not sufficient to say in challenging this state- 
 ment that many of these customs are regarded as unobjection- 
 able by those who practice them. This, if true, only indi- 
 cates faulty standards of civilization and shows that they need 
 a thorough reconstruction. Civilization is much more than a 
 local subjective code which any barbarian can determine for 
 himself. The mere fact that he is a barbarian renders him in- 
 
130 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 competent to fix the standards of social order and refinement. 
 Civilization is the matured product of intellectual culture and 
 material progress formed under the guiding influence of reli- 
 gion, morality, decency, justice, brotherhood, knowledge, 
 science, industrial enterprise, and the inventive genius of 
 man. Its goal is prosperity, peace, happiness, and the high- 
 est good of the race. Its code consists of those principles, 
 laws, and customs which have become regulative among the 
 enlightened nations of the earth, and have been drawn from 
 the higher and purer sources of morality and culture. The 
 elevating and fixing of refined standards of civilization is an 
 achievement which cannot be surrendered at the dictum of a 
 less civilized society, nor levelled down to coincide with the 
 views and traditions of those peoples who have not yet passed 
 the stage of barbarism. Civilization at is best must rather 
 be maintained and cherished as a helpful incentive and guid- 
 ing standard to communities which are still in a state of ar- 
 rested development, under the power of blinding ignorance or 
 degrading custom. 
 
 2. The specific atiojis which seem to call for notice under 
 this general head of uncivilized and cruel customs are such as 
 foot-binding, barbarous and filthy manners, uncleanness in 
 person and habits, lack of domestic privacy, insufficient 
 clothing of the body, promiscuous bathing, disgusting pecul- 
 iarities in diet, abominable dances and orgies, ascetic cruel- 
 ties, and heathenish burial rites. 
 
 3. The process of foot-binding has been accurately de- 
 scribed by Miss Adele M. Fielde, long a resident of China, 
 in her “ Pagoda Shadows.” The suffering inflicted is no 
 doubt most distressing and in some cases intense. Taking all 
 China together, it is estimated that “ probably nine- tenths of 
 the women have bound feet. ’ ’ The origin of the practice seems 
 to be obscure. It was first known in the imperial household 
 during the T‘ang dynasty. It is said to have been adopted 
 as a disguise to natural deformity. At present it is a tool of 
 vanity, and has been made an arbitrary sign of respectability. 
 It was not known in the classical period, and made its ap- 
 pearance about fourteen hundred years after the time of Con- 
 fucius. It cannot therefore be said to have the sanction of 
 the Chinese sages. It has, however, so firmly established 
 itself in Chinese society that the emperors themselves have 
 been unable to dislodge it. No Manchu lady, it is said, binds 
 
THE SOCIAL GROUP 
 
 131 
 
 her feet, and, strange to say, “the Empress of China and the 
 highest ladies of the imperial court allow their feet to grow to 
 their natural form and size. Foot-binding is therefore in de- 
 fiance of imperial example. ” 
 
 Dr. Henry is of the opinion that “ any persistent attempt 
 on the part of the Government to interfere with the practice 
 would probably lead to rebellion.” Dr. Talmage, of Amoy, 
 has expressed his opinion that foot-binding is one great cause 
 of the prevalence of infanticide in China, and this opinion is 
 confirmed by a statement made by the Rev. F. P. Gilman. It 
 is a hopeful sign of the passing of this deplorable custom that 
 in connection with Christian enlightenment the powerful 
 persuasions of Christianity are beginning to undermine its 
 social status, and that Anti- Foot- Binding Societies are now a 
 recognized feature of Christian missions in China. 
 
 4. It is not worth while to describe in detail the filthy habits 
 and the unclean ways of the heathen world. It is as a rule 
 unkempt, malodorous, and monotonously repulsive. There 
 are exceptions, of course, in every land, and many instances 
 of cleanly ways and refined instincts, which only serve to 
 make more offensive the habits of the multitude. In some 
 cases, as, for example, among the better class of Japanese, 
 there is exceptional cleanliness of person ; yet even in Japan 
 we find the Ainu, whose habits are especially objectionable. 
 As a rule, however, heathenism in its more savage haunts sits 
 in squalor, filth, and imperturbable dirtiness. A description 
 of the Karens, given by one who resides among them, might 
 serve for many other places where the statements would be 
 equally applicable. 
 
 5. The question of clothes is one upon which Christian 
 civilization has a very firm and pronounced opinion. What- 
 ever variety and adaptability there may be in the styles of 
 clothing in different countries, the person should be decently 
 covered, and this surely is not the case as yet among most 
 savage races. Among semi-civilized peoples, and even within 
 the precincts of civilization, there are customs in dress which 
 are certainly not prompted by the truer instincts of refinement. 
 For a race as advanced as the Japanese their habits in this 
 respect are open to criticism. That they do not recognize the 
 indecorum of the customs which prevail among them is to 
 their discredit, and until there is a decided change in Japa- 
 nese ways the influence of such laxity cannot but be degrading 
 
132 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 to the social life of the people. It is noticeable that Japa- 
 nese Christians “ at once become more careful about exposing 
 the person, even among themselves.” A missionary writes: 
 “ It must in truth be said that there is now in Japan much 
 less nudity than there used to be, but there is room for great 
 and immediate improvement upon present customs.” 
 
 6. In connection with scantiness of clothing, the idea 
 seems to have prevailed from ancient times that tattooing and 
 a graceless overloading with ornaments must supplement the 
 lack of clothing. The tattooing process is often most elabo- 
 rately grotesque and hideous, as is the case among the Chins 
 of Burma, the Maoris, and the island populations of the East 
 Indies and the South Seas. In its complete and fantastic 
 forms it produces corrugated ridges of flesh protruding in the 
 shape of ugly and irregular designs, turning the face, which is 
 usually selected for the highest exhibition of the art, into a 
 shocking caricature of the human features. Tattooing is known 
 also in Japan, India, Formosa, Africa, and among the Indian 
 tribes of North and South America. The clumsy and even 
 painful profusion of barbaric ornaments worn upon the lips, 
 nose, ears, neck, and other parts of the person is one of the 
 signs of savagery which only the refining power of Christian 
 enlightenment is able to banish. 
 
 7. Promiscuous bathing , as in Japan , with all due allow- 
 ance for what may be said in justification of it as an imme- 
 morial custom, and granting that it should not be regarded as a 
 manifest indication of immorality or even of indelicacy among 
 the Japanese, is yet a habit which they will inevitably aban- 
 don as they become more responsive to the spirit of a sensitive 
 and refined civilization. In other countries it is very rarely 
 tolerated, or if practiced at all, is recognized as objectionable 
 and something to be concealed. 
 
 8. In the matter of diet , while there is much that is repul- 
 sive in almost every land, yet nothing seems quite so loath- 
 some as the carrion -eating of the low castes and outcastes in 
 India. Dr. Uhl, an American Lutheran missionary at Gun- 
 tur, writes : “ The non-caste people have the foul and physic- 
 ally defiling habit of eating the carcasses of animals which have 
 died from disease and which often are but a little departure 
 from carrion. The results are seen in the puffy nature of the 
 face and body of those who unceasingly follow this habit, and 
 in their passionate nature.” 
 
THE SOCIAL GROUP 
 
 133 
 
 9. The prevalence of abominable dances , marked by wild 
 and unnatural orgies, is characteristic of savage life. These 
 dances are sometimes inspired by the spirit of war. Again, 
 they are religious, or they are festal and social in their charac- 
 ter. In many instances they are obscene revels, and present 
 temptations which no savage nature is able to resist. In de- 
 scribing one of these performances in Micronesia, the Rev. 
 Francis M. Price speaks of it as “a most subtle device of 
 Satan, and his most powerful weapon, doing far more harm 
 than all the wars and other evils combined. It is exciting, 
 furnishes the only opportunity that their natural vanity has for 
 expressing itself in decorating the body, and is licentious 
 through and through. 0 A similar incident in Africa is com- 
 mented upon by Mr. George D. Adamson, a missionary among 
 the Bakete in the Congo State. 
 
 10. Ascetic cruelties have been referred to in a previous 
 section, where self-torture was under consideration. Eastern 
 asceticism is often accompanied by gross features, stamping it 
 with a demoralizing taint. Besides its vulgar character, the 
 cruel nature of many of its exhibitions makes it a degrading 
 and hardening spectacle for those who habitually contemplate 
 it. It prevails extensively in India, except in its more objec- 
 tionable forms, which have been prohibited by law. 
 
 11. The customs associated with burial services are often 
 barbaric and deplorable. A bereavement, sad and dreary 
 enough in itself, becomes the occasion of extortion, and 
 involves an amount of expensive ceremonialism which is ex- 
 tremely burdensome. It is often accompanied by rites and 
 ceremonies which are debasing in their character, and as fre- 
 quently it presents an opportunity for outbursts of barbarous 
 fanaticism or the indulgence in wicked orgies, which would 
 be objectionable at any time, but become shockingly so in the 
 presence of death. In fact, one of the most beautiful and 
 vivid touches of the religion of Christ is the transformation it 
 works in the presence of death. There is hardly a more strik- 
 ing manifestation of the social tendencies of Christianity, as 
 contrasted with those of heathenism, than that which is re- 
 vealed at a Christian funeral when compared with the customs 
 incidental to heathen burial. 
 
 12. Miss Adele Fielde writes concerning the “Mortuary 
 Customs” of China: “ When the Chinese wish to declare 
 the extreme vexatiousness of any piece of work, they say, * It 
 
134 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 is more trouble than a funeral/ the obsequies of a parent be- 
 ing reckoned the most maddening affair in human experience. ” 
 Chinese burial ceremonies frequently last many days, and are 
 described as “ a ruinous burden to the poor, since relatives, 
 friends, and strangers all crowd in and fairly eat them out of 
 house and home.” As regards infant burial in China, it is a 
 summary proceeding, usually without coffins, if indeed any 
 burial is attempted. The shocking custom of leaving babes 
 unburied, to be the prey of dogs or other animals, is all too 
 common. Among the Parsis of India burial is conducted 
 with great decorum, but consists in placing the dead body in 
 a “ Tower of Silence,” which is an enclosure surrounded by 
 very high walls and open to the sky. It is the home of vul- 
 tures, which swarm in its vicinity and swoop down upon the 
 corpse as soon as it is deposited within the tower. In an in- 
 credibly brief time nothing is left but the skeleton. This 
 method of disposing of the dead seems to be preferred to burial. 
 
 13. Among the more savage races burial ceremonies are 
 attended with the most debasing customs. It is well if the 
 living escape, since human sacrifices often form a ghastly 
 feature of the scene. Funeral rites in the South Seas are said 
 to beggar description “for obscenity, noise, cruelty, and 
 beastly exposure.” Around the grim realities of death have 
 clustered innumerable heathen superstitions that often lead to 
 strange treatment of the bodies of those who have passed 
 away. Many of these singular customs are traceable to the 
 belief, universal in Polynesia, that the soul of the dead person 
 is not separated at once from the body, but lingers in some 
 state of mystic alliance with it, and may be ministered to by 
 the living relatives of the deceased. An Oriental funeral is 
 frequently the scene of wild outbursts of grief, no doubt often 
 sincere and expressive of the intense bitterness of sorrow ; yet 
 in many cases the well-known fact that much of this fanatical 
 fury and noise is in accordance with commonplace custom 
 rather than indicative of genuine sorrow deprives it of its im- 
 pressiveness, and turns a funeral occasion in not a few in- 
 stances into little more than a ceremonial function. 
 
 Insanitary Conditions. — The science of modern sanita- 
 tion may be said to be both a creation and a sign of civiliza- 
 tion, yet even in the most enlightened communities proper 
 arrangements can be secured only by the oversight and pressure 
 of legal authority. 
 
THE SOCIAL GROUP 
 
 135 
 
 1. In the non- Christian world, where neither knowledge, 
 custom, public spirit, nor legal enactment exerts any very ef- 
 fective influence in controlling private habits or guarding com- 
 mon interests with a view to sanitary requirements, the whole 
 matter has been left with little or no supervision. Even the 
 crude and imperfect arrangements which are made for public 
 and domestic sanitation are often not only useless, but harm- 
 ful. In personal as well as domestic habits the most fright- 
 fully filthy and abominable customs prevail, and carry with 
 them the penalties of defying nature’s laws. 
 
 2. Strange to say, some of the most advanced nations of 
 the Orient, as, for example, India and China, are as indiffer- 
 ent as the most barbarous peoples to the simplest laws, and 
 even the ordinary decencies, of a sanitary code. In the vil- 
 lages of India , and also in the large centres of population, 
 even the most rudimentary provision for proper sanitation is 
 neglected, while the most unspeakable desecration not only of 
 the laws, but of the proprieties, of hygienic living exists. 
 The water which is used for drinking and for all household 
 purposes is almost invariably loaded with impurities of the 
 most loathsome and dangerous character. Sir Richard Tem- 
 ple states with emphasis that impure water in India “ has pro- 
 duced more physical mischief than any cause whatsoever, and 
 perhaps as much mischief as all other causes put together 
 could produce.” At the Eighth International Congress of 
 Hygiene and Demography, held at Budapest in 1894, the 
 President of the Tropical Section, Dr. Theodore Duka, a sur- 
 geon in the Indian Army, presented an address on “ Tropical 
 Medicine,” in which he referred in some detail to the sanitary 
 state of Indian villages. The following passage is sufficiently 
 explicit as to their condition : 
 
 “It is almost needless to enter upon a description of the 
 sanitation of an Indian village, for there is a total absence of 
 it. The huts composing the villages and hamlets are erected, 
 for the most part, on flat land or on slightly elevated ground, 
 exposed to the scorching sun and fiery winds, or drenched by 
 rain. The people drink from the pond in which they bathe 
 and in which their cattle wallow, surrounded by the refuse of 
 their daily lives. The cattle consist of cows and buffaloes, 
 occasionally of goats, donkeys, and pigs. All live under the 
 same roof and lie upon the ground beside their master and his 
 family. There is hardly a window or an opening for ventila- 
 
136 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CIIRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 tion. The dung-pit is not far from the well-water supply, 
 where the washing of clothes, of animals, and of men is car- 
 ried on from day to day ; and the women provide their house- 
 holds from this source with water for cooking purposes and for 
 drinking. The people have so lived for centuries, knowing 
 and apparently caring for nothing better. ” Even the larger 
 centres of population are no better, except as the British Gov- 
 ernment, in spite of enormous difficulties, enforces sanitary 
 regulations. These Government provisions for the public 
 health are often extremely unwelcome to the people, and are 
 looked upon as tyrannical and impertinent, and disregarded 
 whenever it is safe to do so. Even in the city of Calcutta the 
 inf ant death-rate under one year of age, in 1894, was 402 per 
 1,000, and in 1893 it was 415. The Health Officer of the 
 city expresses his opinion that the ‘ ‘ high infantile death-rate 
 is due to a want of knowledge on the part of parents as to the 
 care of infants, and to the insanitary conditions of the house.” 
 Indian pilgrimages, festivals, and enormous concourses at the 
 holy places, with the consequent defilement of water used for 
 both bathing and drinking by the multitude, and the prevalent 
 mortuary customs, are also large counts in this indictment of 
 polluted India. The result is disease and suffering to an ex- 
 tent distressing to contemplate. A missionary writes : “ In 
 some villages [of Ceylon], chiefly owing to the filth and im- 
 morality of the people, there is hardly a home free from a 
 painful kind of sickness. In one of the new village schools, 
 out of sixty children present only two were free from sick- 
 ness.” 
 
 The British Govermnent in India is making heroic efforts 
 to remedy these evils. Sanitary Boards are established and 
 proper provisions for public health are being pushed as rapidly 
 as possible. In the Blue Book for 1894-95, on “The Moral 
 and Material Progress and Condition of India,” interesting 
 details are given as to the sanitary undertakings now in prog- 
 ress, which consist chiefly in providing pure water-supply for 
 cities, in establishing sewerage schemes, in devising rules and 
 regulations with reference to drainage, in the prohibiting of 
 offensive and dangerous nuisances, and disseminating the 
 knowledge of sanitary rules among the populace. The work 
 of the sanitary engineering department is important, and the 
 introduction of the “Village Sanitation Act” is reported in 
 hundreds of villages. Many costly and splendid plants for 
 
THE SOCIAL GROUP 
 
 137 
 
 the water-supply of important cities and towns are referred to 
 as having been completed, as in Cawnpore, Lucknow, Delhi, 
 and smaller places, with a high-level reservoir in Rangoon. 
 Others are reported as in progress throughout the British prov- 
 inces, with important drainage schemes ; yet, with all the care 
 and oversight which the British Government can give this stu- 
 pendous task, the statistics as to the death-rate and the fatali- 
 ties from various diseases tell with painful emphasis how much 
 there is still to be done. The year 1894 was marked by an 
 exceptionally high death-rate, as the following figures reveal : 
 from dysentery and diarrhoea, 257,808 deaths, as against 196,- 
 66 7 in 1893; from cholera, 521,647, being in the ratio of 2.44 
 per 1,000 of population, as against 216,827 in 1893; from 
 fever, 4,952,328, equal to 23.23 per 1,000, as compared with 
 3,716,926, or 17.44 in 1893. The total number of successful 
 vaccinations during 1894-95 amounted to 6,869,271. The 
 result of this precautionary measure was that the deaths re- 
 ported from smallpox were only 41,604, representing a ratio 
 of 0.19 per 1,000. The condition of the Native States, and 
 of Farther India, including Assam, is even less sanitary than 
 that of British India. 
 
 3. China is notorious for the entire neglect of proper sani- 
 tation. There is even a lively rivalry among its most impor- 
 tant cities as to which deserves the prize for surpassing filthi- 
 ness. Peking, the capital, seems to be by no means an un- 
 worthy candidate for the highest laurels in the contest, and 
 has even been pronounced by competent judges as the dirtiest 
 city on the face of the globe. Mr. Curzon’s description of 
 an entrance into the Chinese capital is graphic in its realism. 
 
 * 4 Above all other characteristics of Peking ,” says Mr. Nor- 
 man, “one thing stands out in horrible prominence. Not to 
 mention it would be willfully to omit the most striking feature 
 of the place. I mean its filth. It is the most horribly and 
 indescribably filthy place that can be imagined; indeed, im- 
 agination must fall far short of the fact. Some of the daily 
 sights of the pedestrian in Peking could hardly be more than 
 hinted at by one man to another in the disinfecting atmosphere 
 of a smoking-room.” We forbear to finish the paragraph. 
 
 If all this can be said of the capital of the empire, what 
 must be the state of things (if, indeed, there is any possibility 
 of anything worse) throughout the thronging cities, towns, and 
 thickly populated provinces of the great imperial cloaca of the 
 
133 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 Chinese Empire ! In fact, the attempt to describe the sani- 
 tary state of China seems to exhaust the linguistic capacities of 
 all who undertake it. The impression which one has in read- 
 ing their struggling efforts is that the reality is literally beyond 
 description. We are not surprised, therefore, to hear of the 
 recent plague and its awful ravages in Chinese cities, and yet 
 the lesson seems to be quite lost. Dr. S. Wells Williams 
 has described in several places his impressions of the noisome 
 and reeking aspects of Chinese cities. The testimony in 
 private letters from residents of the country indicates that the 
 China of to-day is no improvement upon the China of the past. 
 Japan is perhaps the cleanest country in Asia, yet at the op- 
 posite extreme of nauseating defilement is its neighbor Korea. 
 
 This repulsive story of slovenly sanitation could be con- 
 tinued with dismal monotony as descriptive of the status in all 
 purely Asiatic countries. In fact, the annual threat of cholera 
 which comes in connection with the pilgrimage to Mecca, and 
 gathers sufficient cumulative power to throw a shadow of 
 danger over all Europe, is a sharp reminder of the deadly re- 
 sults of the defiance of all sanitary laws. We could still trace 
 in Africa and the isles of the Pacific the signs of the same in- 
 sanitary foulness which is almost universal in the heathen 
 world. A striking result of the investigation would be to con- 
 vince us that “ cleanliness is next to godliness/’ and that 
 Christianity, in cooperation with sanitary regulations, has a 
 cleansing mission of colossal magnitude in the world. 
 
 Lack of Public Spirit. — i. One of the most subtle char- 
 acteristics of heathenism is the absence of a humanizing sym- 
 pathy , that is, a sympathy which is not indifferent to human 
 welfare. In its social relations and activities this broad and 
 generous interest in the common good is known as public 
 spirit. Selfishness is a deep and regnant law in non-Christian 
 society. Even within the precincts of Christian civilization 
 an interest in the general welfare sufficiently assertive to act as 
 a practical stimulus to sacrifice and service is none too com- 
 mon, and is recognized as a very choice and noble quality in 
 public and private life. Outside of Christendom “ every man 
 for himself” is the rule pretty much everywhere. The re- 
 straints and requirements of law remedy the evil results of this 
 spirit in some measure, but there are certain respects in which 
 it is left wholly free, with no one to challenge its injurious 
 tendencies. It is this heedless unconcern for the public good 
 
THE SOCIAL GROUP 
 
 139 
 
 which makes nearly every street in the villages, larger towns, 
 and cities of Asia under native, as distinguished from Euro- 
 pean rule, simply an elongated cesspool or a common dump- 
 ing-ground of filth, breeding disease and death. 
 
 2. It is this universal spirit of “ passing by on the other 
 side” and refusing to recognize the obligations of neighbor- 
 hood, much less of common humanity, which is the explana- 
 tion of such absurd and shameful rascality as often character- , 
 izes the treatment of those who are in trouble in China . The 
 Rev. Arthur Smith, in his “ Chinese Characteristics,” re- 
 marks: “ Unwillingness to give help to others , unless there is 
 some special reason for doing so, is a trait that runs through 
 Chinese social relations in multifold manifestations. The gen- 
 eral omission to do anything for the relief of the drowning 
 strikes every foreigner in China.” The same spirit is shown 
 also, as he further remarks, “in a general callousness to the 
 many cases of distress which are to be seen almost everywhere, 
 especially along lines of travel. It is a common proverb that 
 to be poor at home is not to be counted as poverty, but to be 
 poor when on the highroad away from home will cost a man 
 his life.” 
 
 A special chapter in “Chinese Characteristics” is entitled 
 “The Absence of Public Spirit,” in which many instances are 
 given revealing the indifference to the common welfare which 
 prevails in China. In the original edition of the book, pub- 
 lished at Shanghai, is a chapter on “The Absence of Altru- 
 ism,” which has been omitted in the American edition. Its 
 contents only emphasize the subject in hand. The tendencies 
 of this same spirit are also manifested in the prevalent habit of 
 trespass upon the rights of the weaker members of society by 
 those who are strong. “ The misery of the poor in China is 
 their poverty and their inability to lift themselves out of it, 
 since if they cannot do it themselves it will not be done at 
 all.” The North China Herald , a prominent journal pub- 
 lished at Shanghai, in a recent editorial on the war with 
 Japan, traces the weakness of China to the latter’s regnant 
 selfishness. Each individual, considering only his own inter- 
 ests, is indifferent as to what happens to his neighbors or his 
 country. “ Patriotism , national pride , esprit de corps f it 
 remarks, “are all unknown, and, what is worse, undesired in 
 the Celestial Empire. . . . The dynasty may be over- 
 
 thrown and kings may come and kings may go, but so long as 
 
140 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 the Chinese official can continue to get hold of the dollar he is 
 serenely indifferent to any crisis which may be convulsing the 
 political world.” 
 
 The instinctive egoism of primitive savagery still pervades 
 the barbaric life of the present day, and if public spirit is so 
 slow in developing even in the atmosphere of the highest civi- 
 lization, surely we cannot expect that it will ripen quickly and 
 yield a generous harvest where the promptings of selfishness 
 are so powerful and so free from restraint. 
 
 Mutual Suspicion. — i. Social life involves such a web 
 of personal contact and interdependence, and is so based upon 
 general confidence between man and man, that mutual suspi- 
 cion, if it prevails to any extent, becomes a solvent of the very 
 bonds which link society together. Public confidence is only 
 another term for financial and industrial stability. Private 
 confidence of man in man is the secret of contentment and 
 security and an essential of social development. Mutual 
 suspicion begets timidity , and prevents that frank and free in- 
 terchange so necessary to prosperity and mutual helpfulness. 
 Distrust is, however, one of the most universal sentiments 
 which govern the intercourse of man with man in the heathen 
 world. Men fear one another because they know one another, 
 and they recognize the fact that there is ground for misgiv- 
 ings. The effect is depressing and paralyzing. Every one is 
 alert, cautious, and on the defensive. The Chinese, for ex- 
 ample, are especially suspicious ; the Koreans are like them ; 
 and the Japanese, although not to the same extent, are yet wary 
 and watchful. Some ulterior and secret motive of a dark and 
 scheming, or at least a doubtful, character is usually taken for 
 granted by Orientals in their dealings with one another. It is 
 hard for them to believe in the simplicity and genuine disin- 
 terestedness of any one. Nothing is looked upon as square, 
 upright, and open ; it is more likely to be crooked, cunning, 
 and deceitful, or at least to have some concealed design. The 
 atmosphere is full of suspicions, which put a painful constraint 
 upon social and personal relations, and add immensely to the 
 difficulties of frank and friendly contact with one another. 
 
 2. In China the officials are mutually distrustful, perhaps 
 with good reason, since each one either knows or suspects 
 that the other is a rascal. The Tsung-li Yamen eye one 
 another with caution and reserve, and they all look upon the 
 foreigner with the most lively distrust. No mandarin can be 
 
THE SOCIAL GROUP 
 
 141 
 
 seen with a foreigner, or accept his hospitality, without imme- 
 diately falling under grave suspicion. Sinister designs and 
 portentous conspiracies are always in the air, and it is this 
 deep-rooted distrust and hatred which make the life of the for- 
 eigner so full of insecurity in China. The effect of this gnaw- 
 ing suspicion is especially manifest in Chinese domestic life 
 and in all relations between the sexes. The real reason for 
 any course of action is rarely accepted as the true one. If 
 another is not apparent, one must be invented. The Rev. 
 Arthur Smith, writing upon “ Mutual Suspicion ” in “Chi- 
 nese Characteristics” (chap, xxiv.), gives many illustrations 
 to indicate the spirit of Chinese intercourse. They seek pro- 
 tection from one another, and are continually on guard lest 
 they should be taken by surprise. The wondrous and mis- 
 chievous character of Chinese gossip arises largely from the 
 morbid intensity of their suspicions. Chinese family life is 
 often clouded and irritated by this inveterate distrust. A 
 stranger in a Chinese village gives occasion for the most lively 
 solicitude as to who he is, what his business is, and what he 
 purposes to do. If he arrives after dark he will often find that 
 no one will come out of the house to meet or direct him. The 
 effect of this temper in society is to render it exceedingly dif- 
 ficult to establish any new enterprise or undertake anything 
 which is out of the ordinary line. Something dark and dread- 
 ful must be back of it all in the opinion of the wary China- 
 man. 
 
 3. In India it is exceedingly difficult for natives to coop- 
 erate with one another on account of mutual distrust. Even 
 philanthropic effort is often misunderstood and viewed with 
 suspicion. In Persia the role of deceit and venality has be- 
 come so commonplace that the people have lost all confidence 
 in one another. Among savages in the South Seas there is 
 constant apprehension of evil designs on the part of some one. 
 They live a life of disquietude, and the shadow of distrust 
 clouds every relationship. Says Dr. Chalmers, in “ Work and 
 Adventure in New Guinea”: “The state of fear of one 
 another in which the savage lives is truly pitiful. To him 
 every stranger seeks his life, and so does every other savage.” 
 In Africa it is difficult to convince a native that any one dies 
 a natural death, so prevalent is the suspicion of evil designs. 
 Poisoning is so much feared that the people are exceedingly 
 loath to eat in one another's houses. Even the kings and 
 
142 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 chiefs are accustomed not to touch their food until either the 
 one who has cooked it, or others appointed for the purpose, 
 have partaken of it. It is not at all uncommon for one who 
 gives food to another to eat part of it himself in order to prove 
 that it contains nothing hurtful. The African Kaffir “ breathes 
 an atmosphere of suspicion and jealousy in which freedom can- 
 not live.” “We never trust one another/’ remarked one of 
 the Hovas to a recent correspondent of The Times (London) 
 in Madagascar , and the same statement might be made by a 
 man of almost any Asiatic or African nationality. The social 
 effect of these brooding misgivings is to make mutual inter- 
 course reserved, constrained, and wary, while, on the other 
 hand, frank and open confidence gives assurance, courage, and 
 cheerfulness to men, and adds to the happiness and prosperity 
 of society. 
 
 Poverty. — i. The problem of poverty is an old one in 
 the economic life of man. The struggle to live has been cease- 
 less . Slowly and surely man has added other resources to the 
 ordinary products which nature supplies for his support, and 
 has utilized her forces and cultivated her fructifying powers 
 for his maintenance and comfort. The great difference be- 
 tween the abundant economic harvests of modern material 
 civilization, so fruitful in provisions for human needs, and the 
 pinched and meagre resources of early civilization, is due in 
 large part to man’s power over nature and his ability to subsi- 
 dize her capabilities and extract her hidden wealth. The be- 
 lated civilization of the non-Christian world is still in various 
 stages of ignorance and incompetence as regards the mastery 
 over nature and the intelligent use of her productive capaci- 
 ties. This is especially true so far as the modern industrial 
 plant is concerned, and all those processes of developing and 
 utilizing nature’s generous resources which have been brought 
 about by the inventive genius and the economic enterprise of 
 modern times. 
 
 2. This backward status is due not only to ignorance and 
 the disabilities of primitive environment, but to the working 
 of oppression and injustice, on the one hand, and, on the 
 other, to the influence of prejudice, obstinacy, inertia, pride, 
 incapacity, shiftlessness, the power of custom, and general 
 heedlessness as to better modes of living. The result is that 
 an awful status of poverty has weighted a large section of 
 heathen society, and holds it prostrate in helpless and hopeless 
 
THE SOCIAL GROUP 
 
 143 
 
 indigence. Dependence upon agricultural and pastoral re- 
 sources, even if man escapes the ravages of war and pillage, is 
 destined as population increases either to become a scant reli- 
 ance or to fail altogether, so that the history of uncivilized 
 man, and even of races with tolerably advanced methods, has 
 been, and is still, often marked by a long and desperate strug- 
 gle for livelihood or in many instances even for a meagre sub- 
 sistence. 
 
 Christia?iity as an agency for the teaching of saving moral 
 principles, the production of a higher order and system in life, 
 the cultivation of broader intelligence, the humanizing of law, 
 the protection of property rights, the introduction of science, 
 the establishment of philanthropy, the awakening of aspira- 
 tion, the kindling of hope, and the heralding of a new and 
 progressive era among uncivilized man, has a truly helpful mis- 
 sion in the material betterment of society. In cooperation 
 with commerce, economic science, and modern industrial fa- 
 cilities, it will do much to mitigate the sorrows of poverty, and 
 provide a remedy for the suffering and despair which penury 
 produces among races where there is little or no relief from its 
 grinding miseries. 
 
 3. Where the struggle for the support of life is intense and 
 prolonged, yielding at best only a sustenance, and often only 
 the daily bread necessary to sustain life, with now and then a 
 temporary failure which threatens starvation, as is the case in 
 China, and would be still in India were it not for governmental 
 assistance, poverty becomes a social evil of portentous and 
 gloomy import. It puts society into a state of distress and 
 helplessness, in which life becomes a desperate and exhausting 
 slavery to daily need. This struggle for existence may contain 
 in an important sense the potency of evolutionary progress, 
 but after it has gone on for centuries with little revelation of 
 its power to alleviate and benefit, one longs for some outside 
 help from a source which will give a new impetus to life, bring 
 more hope and security, provide more sane and effective reme- 
 dies, and lift the shadows of despair. 
 
 4. This is one of the many reasons why the introduction 
 of Christianity and modern civilization into China, and in 
 fact throughout the non-Christian world, is a noble and be- 
 neficent undertaking. Once introduced there, it will become 
 a saving power, as it has been in Christendom ; not that it will 
 at once banish poverty, but that it will provide many remedial 
 
144 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 forces and introduce many alleviating instrumentalities. It 
 will at least give a helping hand to many who in their extremity 
 are now without aid. It will tend also to break up that colos- 
 sal system of pauperism which is incidental, more or less, to 
 all false religious systems, and is so burdensome to the people, 
 under the guise and sanction of priestly requirement, cere- 
 monial obligation, or ascetic practice. Half the pauperism of 
 the non-Christian world is religious, and a large section be- 
 sides makes its plea in the name of religion, and so plays upon 
 superstitious fears as to gain a ready hearing and impose large 
 exactions. In this connection, however, we are not concerned 
 so much with the explanation of this state of poverty as with 
 the reality and extent of its existence and its social results. 
 
 5. India is perhaps, more than other non-Christian lands, 
 the home of poverty. This is due to the immense population, 
 which has increased for centuries within the fixed geographical 
 limits of the peninsula, taxing its agricultural resources to the 
 utmost. At the same time a burden of social and religious 
 customs, far more expensive than the people can support, has 
 rested upon them. The result of this two fold impoverishment 
 has been the most grinding poverty among almost the entire 
 rural population of India. 
 
 If, as sometimes happens, the rains fail, and with them the 
 harvests, the people are plunged into the extremities of 
 famine. No more pathetic and dreadful scenes of starvation 
 have been witnessed than those which characterized some of 
 the great famines of Indian history. Even as late as the 
 famine of 1868-70 in Rajputana 1,250,000 people perished. 
 A century or so ago there were famines which destroyed 
 millions of the people. Mr. John Eliot, in a recently pub- 
 lished volume on Indian Famines, states that there have been 
 seventeen within one hundred and twenty-two years. The 
 total mortality of these calamities, extending over centuries, 
 is something appalling. In 1832-33, Madras, one of the dis- 
 tricts affected, lost from 150,000 to 200,000 inhabitants out 
 of a total population of 500,000. In 1837, in Upper India 
 there were at least 800,000 victims. In 1860-61, in the 
 Northwest Provinces and the Punjab, 500,000 human beings 
 perished. In 1865-66, in Orissa alone 1,000,000 people 
 died out of a total population of 3,000,000. These awful 
 visitations have greatly increased the prevalence of leprosy 
 throughout India. The Leprosy Commission in 1890-91 
 
A Typical Group from one of the Indian Hill Tribes. 
 Victims of an Indian Famine, Madras, 1877. 
 
 Scenes in India. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
THE SOCIAL GROUP 
 
 145 
 
 expressed the conviction that “ the greater the poverty of a 
 district, the more prone the latter is toward leprosy. ” It is 
 also one of the causes of child labor, so detrimental at the 
 tender age at which it is exacted by so many of the poor in 
 India. 
 
 The British Government has now established a system of 
 famine relief, or rather prevention, which makes past scenes 
 of suffering no longer possible ; but it cannot, of course, do 
 more than save the people from extremities. As regards their 
 condition of poverty , it is still distressing. The rule among 
 the vast agricultural population of the Indian villages is that 
 they live upon what is sufficient for sustenance, or little more. 
 A careful estimate based upon the census shows that there are 
 multitudes who have not more than from six to twelve rupees a 
 year for support. The mean annual income of the people of 
 India is from twenty to twenty-seven rupees, equivalent at the 
 present rates of silver in India to about six or eight dollars. 
 
 Among the resolutions offered and passed at the Indian 
 National Congress of Madras, 1894, was one bearing upon 
 the problem of poverty, introduced by Mr. Seymour Keay, 
 M. P., in which it was urged that “ this Congress, concurring in 
 the views set forth in previous Congresses, affirms that fully 
 50,000,000 of the population, a number yearly increasing, are 
 dragging out a miserable existence on the verge of starvation, 
 and that in every decade several millions actually perish by 
 starvation ; and humbly urges once more that immediate steps 
 be taken to remedy this calamitous state of affairs. ” Sir 
 William Hunter is authority for the statement that 40,000,000 
 (that is, about one-sixth part of the population of India) go 
 through life upon insufficient food. The address of Mr. Keay 
 in support of the resolution is full of startling statements as to 
 the deep social misery which Indian poverty inflicts upon the 
 people. Dr. Uhl, in an account of a missionary tour in 1895, 
 in which he visited one hundred and eight Indian villages, 
 speaks of the poverty of the people as “ a bondage killing the 
 soul.” The subject has been fully and ably treated in a very 
 recent volume entitled “The Poverty Problem in India,” by 
 Prithwis Chandra Ray, published in Calcutta. He states sub- 
 stantially the same facts that have been given above. At the 
 present time (November, 1896) a serious famine seems immi- 
 nent in the Central and Northwest Provinces. The Govern- 
 ment is already opening relief works, and with the greatly 
 
146 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 increased railway facilities of the country at its command, can 
 with energy and promptitude do much to alleviate the distress. 
 
 6. In the teeming Empire of China , with all its vast natural 
 resources, its extensive agricultural labors, the industry and 
 frugality of its people, there is still a state of poverty widely 
 prevalent, which threatens the immediate destruction of vast 
 multitudes in case there is the slightest failure in ordinary 
 production. The Rev. Timothy Richard , of Shanghai, re- 
 marked at a public meeting in Peking, October 18, 1895, that 
 “ there has been deep poverty and intense suffering in China 
 for years ” ; and he estimates that “ from three to four millions 
 die every year of hunger.” Instructive facts are also given 
 by the same author in a powerful article on “ China’s Ap- 
 palling Need of Reform.” In the midst of their poverty, 
 when distress deepens, no temporary financial relief can be 
 obtained, except at an exorbitant rate of interest, stated by 
 Mr. Richard to be at least thirty per cent., and sometimes 
 reaching one hundred per cent. He traces to the exigencies 
 of poverty the recurring attempts at rebellion and the forma- 
 tion of so many secret societies. He refers to the fact that 
 the name of Pharaoh is execrated because he threatened the 
 extinction of two or three millions of the children of Israel, 
 while in China “ there is a greater number actually starved 
 every year, and ten times that number exterminated every ten 
 years.” 
 
 In an article by the Rev. A. G . Jones , of the English 
 Baptist Mission, on “The Poverty of Shantung: Its Causes 
 and Treatment,” after referring to the poverty-stricken con- 
 dition of the great mass of the population of that province, 
 amounting in all to 30,000,000, the bearing of this fact upon 
 their social status, and its influence as a hindrance to all 
 progress, he proceeds to show that this status is in part due to 
 the excessive proportion of economic expenditure necessary for 
 the support of a Chinaman, as compared with that which ob- 
 tains in Western nations. The rent of his land (the article 
 refers especially to Shantung Province) is eight or nine per 
 cent, on its value, as compared with three per cent, in Great 
 Britain, France, and Germany. The money which he borrows 
 on his land as security costs him about twenty-two per cent, 
 annual interest, while in England it can be obtained at an 
 annual interest of from four to five per cent. His land yields 
 ordinarily about ten bushels of wheat an acre, or in the very 
 
THE SOCIAL GROUP 
 
 147 
 
 best years about thirteen and a quarter, as compared with 
 twenty-eight bushels to the acre in England. While recog- 
 nizing the fact that natural causes have something to do with 
 the existence of poverty, he considers that their influence is 
 small as compared with other causes which are in large 
 measure preventable. He names as chief among these igno- 
 rance, especially of the methods of industrial success, the 
 hampering power of superstition, the prevalence of trickery 
 and injustice, the extortions of the Government, especially the 
 “squeezing” which results from the system of farming the 
 taxes, the existence of bad roads, making distribution and ex- 
 change of commodities difficult, costly, and slow, cumbrous 
 currency, and extortionate rates of interest, combined with 
 antiquated appliances and slovenly management. An inter- 
 esting aspect of the paper referred to treats of the bearing of 
 missionary labors in their broader results as in a large and 
 true sense remedial in their workings even in the realm of 
 economic life. 
 
 In his volume on “ The Real Chinaman,” Mr. Chester Hol- 
 combe has a chapter on “The Poor in China,” in which he 
 remarks that the status of poverty there differs from that of 
 Western lands in that it usually means “ actual hunger and 
 nakedness, if not starvation within sight.” He describes in 
 considerable detail the condition of the Chinese poor and the 
 extent of their extremity. The Rev. Paul Bergen, of Chefoo, 
 China, in a recent article refers to the distressing poverty of 
 the people as one of the great difficulties of missionary work. 
 The facts previously stated go far to explain the frequency and 
 seriousness of Chinese famines . They may come either as the 
 result of a flood or of a scant grain-supply, or may be produced 
 by any one of many contingencies. “ China's Sorrow ” is the 
 title of a chapter by Mr. R. S. Gundry in his recent volume 
 on China. The reference is to the Yellow River and the fear- 
 ful devastation of its floods. Mr. Gundry’s volume has in- 
 structive chapters on the progress and resources of China. 
 These famines are so common that only great calamities attract 
 attention and obtain notice. “Ten millions in one province 
 of China,” writes Dr. March, “ perished for want of food and 
 from diseases that follow in the wake of famine. A slight 
 change in the rainfall for a single season will at any time strew 
 the fields and pathways of the East with the skeletons of mul- 
 titudes who die of want and of the pestilence which comes to 
 
148 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 glean in the fields where death has already gathered the har- 
 vest of millions of sheaves and left nothing but stubble be- 
 hind. 0 Even in ordinary times the desolations of a unher- 
 alded, almost unnoticed, famine attain the magnitude of a 
 calamity. Poverty is the cause, no doubt, of the throngs of 
 beggars who roam through China in their rags and filth and 
 desperate wretchedness. Truly one of the social miseries of 
 China is its poverty. 
 
 7. In Korea , although there is widespread poverty, strange 
 to state there is said to be no beggar class as in China, owing 
 to the generous disposition of the people to aid one another. 
 Korean hospitality is proverbial. These kindly customs open 
 the door to grave abuses, and the well-to-do are forced into 
 positions where they are obliged, whether willing or not, to 
 help the improvident, who are not lacking, also, in a readiness 
 to impose upon kindness. The causes of Korean poverty are 
 stated by Mr. Hillier, the British Consul-General at Seoul, and 
 are summarized in The Messenger of Shanghai. 
 
 8. In Japan the struggle for existence is strenuous, although 
 poverty is hardly more general than in Western lands. A re- 
 cent Japanese newspaper has called attention to the fact that 
 suicide has greatly increased of late, as high as ten thousand 
 cases a year having been reported. The same authority traces 
 this fact to the greater intensity of the struggle for life, in 
 view of the increased cost of living connected with the intro- 
 duction of Western civilization. It is reported that the poor 
 are becoming more numerous throughout Japan than was the 
 case under the old regime. In Persia there is much pitiful 
 destitution, while in poor Turkey , as the result of the cruel 
 policy of the present Sultan, there is a reign of agony and de- 
 spair which appeals to the charities of the world. 
 
 9. In Africa the same story of poverty has been written 
 large in the history of savage tribes, with the dire 7 ?iiseries of 
 famine recurring at frequent intervals. The poor people seem 
 to have been swept off by the thousands and tens of thousands, 
 in circumstances of suffering which cannot be depicted. Even 
 now there are the same ever-recurring experiences in different 
 sections of the vast continent, as in Bechuanaland and Swazi- 
 land at the present moment. The terrible famine in Bondei 
 and Usagara has only just ceased from its ravages. “ A party 
 of eight hundred natives, 0 writes the Rev. Godfrey Dale, 
 under date of April 14, 1895, “ had started for the coast to 
 
THE SOCIAL GROUP 
 
 1491 
 
 seek food and work, but every one perished on the road.” In 
 the Pacific Islands, the West Indies, Mexico, and South Amer- 
 ica there is much extreme and hopeless poverty. 
 
 io. The result of our survey is only to confirm the saying 
 of Christ, u Ye have the poor always with you,” which is true 
 of all lands, even those where wealth abounds and the best 
 civilization which the world has yet known is found. The 
 pertinence of placing this subject among the social evils of the 
 non-Christian world arises from the severity and extent of the 
 poverty which exists, the misery it causes, the social depres- 
 sion it produces, and the pathetic appeal it makes for the in- 
 troduction of such remedies as Christianity and civilization 
 can offer to alleviate the sorrows of the poor. 
 
 The Tyranny of Custom. — i. Customs are conven- 
 tional methods of living and acting according to established 
 precedents, which have the power of habit and are generally 
 recognized and observed throughout the community. These 
 laws of life include social manners, political methods, eco- 
 nomic habits, and religious observances. They exert their 
 control not only in the sphere of practical living, but extend 
 their influence to the realm of thought and feeling. They 
 arise spontaneously, follow the leadings of instinct in their de- 
 velopment, and become the accepted, cherished, often revered, 
 rules and methods of social, civil, and religious habit. They 
 control conduct with varying power. In some cases they rule 
 with despotic sway ; in others their demands may be somewhat 
 relaxed. In all Oriental lands they exert a wide, exacting, and 
 even fatalistic power. They wield the sceptre of arbitrary 
 dominion over all life. They tyrannize with an imperious 
 and resistless sway, and hold their supreme authority from one 
 generation to another with undiminished rigor. They assume 
 over the life and thought of the East a governing and proscrip- 
 tive power which is most impressive in its mastery, so that 
 they must be reckoned with as a mighty, conservative, and de- 
 termining force in all efforts to introduce social changes or re- 
 ligious reforms. They exercise a function which seems to 
 combine constitutional, legislative, judicial, and executive 
 powers in one comprehensive control of all phases of life and 
 all points of contact between man and man, and even between 
 man and the material universe around him, or the Supreme 
 Power above him. 
 
 2. The East has so learned this lesson of reverence for and 
 
150 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 obedience to customs that those which are evil and detrimental 
 have just as firm a hold upon men as those which are good 
 and useful. An established custom becomes, therefore, the 
 open sesame of every otherwise closed door. It is the arbiter 
 of dispute ; it gives the word of command ; it pronounces a 
 verdict from which there is no appeal ; it surmounts difficulty 
 and it settles destiny ; it deals kindly with all who submit to 
 its decree, but it subdues and crushes all who venture to call 
 in question its wisdom or defy its authority. 
 
 3. It is evident that a social force of such binding and de- 
 cisive power may be of great benefit, or it may work untold 
 injury. Unfortunately, in the non-Christian world custom is 
 at many crucial points the greatest hindrance to social progress. 
 It sanctions, establishes, and enforces that which is to the 
 infinite injury of society, and has the power to oppose itself 
 strenuously to all reform, and to stay the progress of all change 
 for the better. The tyranny of custom is therefore a fact of 
 immense social import. It weighs heavily against Christianity, 
 against civilization, against all social reform and useful prog- 
 ress, and is usually bitterly hostile to the entrance of liberal 
 views and enlightened methods, opposing with singular tenacity 
 the establishment of more cleanly, refined, and in every respect 
 sane standards of living. It is exceedingly difficult for those 
 who are accustomed to Occidental independence of thought 
 and action to realize the smiting and tyrannizing power of 
 custom in the conservative, restricted social life of the East. 
 It is especially difficult to understand the irrepressible sway of 
 customs in themselves narrowing, retarding, dehumanizing, 
 and detrimental in their tendencies. The giant system of 
 caste in India is an illustration. The customs of child mar- 
 riage, of enforced widowhood, of sati, of ascetic barbarities, 
 of degrading superstitions, of inane ceremonies, and of many 
 other objectionable features of Indian life, are all of a kind 
 which one would think easy to overthrow when a better way 
 was shown ; but, on the contrary, the observance of the whole 
 inflexible routine of custom is the very point of strenuous in- 
 sistence. It is the breach, not the observance, of the custom 
 which brings ignominy, sorrow, and social ostracism. 
 
 4. So in the vast social organization of conservative China , 
 from the state functions of the Emperor to the binding of the 
 tender feet of some child victim, this dominance of customs is 
 manifest. They cluster around birth, marriage, and death; 
 
THE SOCIAL GROUP 
 
 151 
 
 they determine the downsitting and uprising of all China; 
 they regulate the eating, drinking, and visiting ; they dictate 
 domestic, social, commercial, industrial, political, and re- 
 ligious manners and observances. A Chinese must even be ill 
 according to custom, and when he sins he must at least avoid 
 the crowning and unpardonable impertinence of presuming to 
 sin in some unusual way. Finally, when he dies custom seizes j 
 him in its iron grip, and he goes to his ancestors with the con- 
 ventional funeral ceremonies which have been the torment and 
 sorrow of the living for centuries. 
 
 5. It would be impossible and altogether unnecessary to 
 undertake to review in detail the innumerable predilections 
 and practices which hold sway in non-Christian society, to its 
 detriment and degradation, since they have already occupied a 
 large share of our attention. There are customs, to be sure, 
 which are excellent and deserve to be perpetuated ; but in 
 many cases, usually where the tyranny is most exacting, they 
 are a heritage of sorrow and misery, bringing with them bur- 
 dens heavy to bear, and hindrances to progress difficult to 
 overcome. What we are concerned to note just here is the 
 tyrannical sway of their influence in society , their power to 
 shut out the guiding light of truth and to stay the transforming 
 entrance of a higher and nobler civilization. We shall have 
 something to say elsewhere of missions as a power singularly 
 effective in the gradual disintegration and final overthrow of 
 the despotic authority of evil customs. 
 
 Caste. — 1. The social system known as caste, a word sup- 
 posed to be derived from casta , the Portuguese term for race, 
 is so prominent and important a feature of Hindu society that 
 its consideration fixes our attention almost exclusively upon 
 India. Social distinctions have existed more or less among all 
 races. They are found in classic and medieval society, where 
 they are the outcome either of family rank or political station, 
 or are based upon the grade and character of occupation. 
 Trade guilds were known in the Roman Empire, and also in 
 medieval Europe. Such social distinctions, if based upon 
 qualities which deserve recognition and respect, are inevitable, 
 and do not necessarily involve injustice, extinguish brother- 
 hood, or destroy the natural and friendly intercourse of man 
 with man. The peculiarity of the Hindu system, however, is 
 that it creates and insists upon mutually exclusive orders or 
 ranks of humanity, involving an inexorable status of “ repul- 
 
152 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 sion between man and man,” and that this conception is car- 
 ried to an extreme which produces among the higher castes an 
 estimate of the lower — and especially of all outcastes — which 
 accords them a position hardly superior, if indeed equal, to 
 that of the brutes. The whole system thus becomes simply an 
 artificial and arbitrary device for exalting one social class and 
 degrading another, upon the basis of purely imaginary distinc- 
 tions so far as our common humanity is concerned. 
 
 2. The origin of caste is involved in some obscurity. It is 
 the opinion of Dr. John Muir, a distinguished student of San- 
 scrit literature, and of Professor Max Muller, that in its remote 
 origin it is based upon differences of race, color, and occupa- 
 tion. The fact that the vernacular names by which the caste 
 system is known in the various languages of India are those 
 which signify race, color, and occupation, and are usually 
 fatalistic in their meaning, goes to support this view. While 
 this may be the true view of the remoter origin, it seems cer- 
 tain that the caste system as developed in India is the creation 
 of Hinduism at the hands of the Brahmans or their immediate 
 predecessors known by the similar title of Rishas. It is thus a 
 product of Brahmanical legislation, and in its developed form 
 may be regarded as an evolution culminating in a giant system 
 of ranks and orders, in which humanity is separated and 
 labelled, and to each is given a fixed place in the social 
 organism. These distinctions are, for the most part, based 
 upon religious, military, literary, social, and industrial asso- 
 ciations. 
 
 3. It is therefore in its original conception a scheme of 
 social and religious classification with a view to establishing 
 and fixing once for all a system of inflexible allotment, which 
 involves at one and the same time cohesion and separation, 
 firmly uniting some members of the community, and rigorously 
 excluding others. It provides for a perpetual system of social 
 segregation, not only on the basis of heredity, but as a method 
 of classified absorption of every foreign element which 
 in future generations might become a part of the Indian 
 social system through conquest or assimilation. No one can 
 doubt that it was an inherent feature of the original concep- 
 tion to designate the supreme place in the social system to the 
 Brahman, and regulate all the rest of society upon a sliding 
 scale of relative inferiority to him, his rank being virtually 
 divine in its superiority and dignity. This supremacy of the 
 
THE SOCIAL GROUP 
 
 153 
 
 Brahman was not, however, actually secured without a severe 
 struggle. 
 
 4. It may be true, as Mr. Bhattacharya contends in his 
 “ Hindu Castes and Sects ” (an author to whom I would ex- 
 press my indebtedness for much valuable information upon 
 this, to the ordinary lay intelligence, complex and inchoate 
 subject), that the originators of the caste system were not, 
 consciously at least, conspirators against the welfare and 
 happiness of society, nor were they able to foresee the aniazing 
 and ramifying influence for evil which it was destined to exert. 
 In fact, this learned student, who has treated his theme with 
 admirable system and clearness, is inclined to credit its authors 
 with “large-hearted statesmanship ” in designing such a facile 
 instrumentality for keeping every one in his place in the social 
 scale. He is, indeed, free to acknowledge that “ the ambition 
 that led the Hindu lawgivers to place their own class above 
 the rest of mankind has no doubt an appearance of selfishness 99 
 (p. s). He stoutly contends, however, that they were surely 
 moved by a most benevolent and liberal spirit. Be this as it 
 may, the truth remains that, both religiously and socially, the 
 Brahman claims a monopoly of power and an eminence of po- 
 sition which have solidified into the most extravagant canoni- 
 zation, and even deification, of humanity as represented in his 
 person, which history presents,. Not only the substance, but 
 even the very shadow, of the Brahman is sacred. As they 
 were historically the authors of the developed system, so they 
 have remained the most prominent representatives of the caste 
 idea. They illustrate its tendency, and reveal in their charac- 
 ters and claims the ultimate results of its workings, which are 
 seen in all other castes as well as in this supreme one. In its 
 own place each caste is a typical product of the system, and 
 in many respects presents hardly less marked evidence than 
 that found in the Brahmans themselves of its powerful impress 
 upon the social character. The system presents perhaps the 
 most complete example of power over human will and action 
 that can be found in the history of mankind, not excepting 
 religion or governmental despotism. 
 
 5. Religion, even though it has controlled the higher life 
 and moulded the character and aims of men in accordance 
 with moral standards, has never entered the details of human 
 life and experience with such minute and peremptory decrees, 
 and shaped it in all its minutiae with such an overshadowing 
 
154 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 mastery , as has resulted from the inexorable and bewildering 
 requirements of caste regulations. The influence of caste 
 penetrates the innermost recesses of the spiritual life, and 
 reaches to the uttermost bounds of outward conduct and habit, 
 concerning itself with the most trivial as well as the most 
 dignified aspects of daily experience. Sir M. Monier- 
 Williams remarks : “ It is difficult for us Europeans to under- 
 stand how pride of caste as a divine ordinance interpenetrates 
 the whole being of the Hindu. He looks upon caste as his 
 veritable god, and thus caste rules, which we believe to be a 
 hindrance to the acceptance of true religion, are to him the 
 very essence of all religion. They influence his whole life and 
 conduct.’ ’ As it exists at the present day in India it is still 
 as assertive in the lives of its devotees as it ever has been in 
 the past, and over all other classes still towers the Brahman, 
 who is regarded by the great mass of Hindus with a reverence 
 which hardly differs from worship. 
 
 By Brahman in this connection we do not refer to offici- 
 ating priests, for, although the priestly caste is Brahmanical, 
 the great mass of Brahmans are not priests, and in fact look 
 down with considerable contempt upon the priestly class 
 known as Pujari Brahmans. It is not the priestly office, but 
 his birthright, which makes the Brahman. The proportion 
 of Brahmans to the Hindu population may be roughly esti- 
 mated as one-twentieth, and they are separated into numerous 
 divisions and subdivisions. “ As a matter of fact,” says Mr. 
 Bhattacharya, “the divisions among the Brahmans are so 
 numerous that it is exceedingly difficult, if not actually im- 
 possible, to frame an exhaustive and accurate list thereof” (p. 
 33). The number of separate castes is enormous, and diffi- 
 cult to determine with precision. The “Madras Census Re- 
 port for 1881 ” contained 19,044 caste names, and Sir Wil- 
 liam Hunter states that there are “not fewer than 3,000 of 
 them which have separate names, and which regard themselves 
 as separate classes.” One of the most terrible counts against 
 the system is that it belittles moral distinctions, while it exalts 
 other tests of character and conduct of no moral significance. 
 
 6. The social evil of the caste system is the aspect of the 
 subject which calls for notice here. As a matter of course, 
 caste is admired and defended by the great mass of Hindus, 
 and, strange to say, even some English officials in India have 
 defended it as facilitating the exercise of authority by foreign 
 
THE SOCIAL GROUP 
 
 155 
 
 government, and would therefore sustain and foster it as a 
 political convenience. The substance of what has been said 
 in its advocacy may be summed up as follows : First, it in- 
 
 sures a certain degree of excellence in labor by virtue of its 
 assignment of the sphere of toil to successive generations. 
 Second, it affords some measure of protection by uniting 
 classes with similar interests and bound to help one another. 
 Third, it promotes to some extent cleanliness by its regulations 
 concerning the care of utensils, bathing, etc. Fourth, it pro- 
 motes respect for authority. Fifth, it puts certain restraints 
 upon immorality by confining it within caste lines. 
 
 7. After all has been said, however, in its favor, an over- 
 whelming indictment can be brought against it as involving 
 enormous disadvantages and disabilities to Hindu society. We 
 condense again, from Papers on Indian Social Reform, the 
 following summary : First, it is productive of physical 
 degeneracy in that it involves the intermarriage of near rel- 
 atives, and is mainly responsible for early marriages. Second, 
 it is one source of India's poverty, since it places restrictions 
 on foreign intercourse, and makes professions hereditary and 
 labor degrading. Third, it hinders intellectual progress, since 
 it frowns upon general education. Fourth, it is antagonistic 
 to social reform, and fights fiercely for the continuance of 
 every social evil which burdens and crushes Indian society. 
 Fifth, it destroys individual liberty, since it places inexorable 
 disabilities upon its victims. Sixth, it hinders the growth of 
 national sentiment, since it elevates caste above the idea of 
 nationality. It is, in fact, an expedient for ruling out national 
 unity, so that “ * a nation divided against itself' is the proper 
 description of the Hindu race." This, it will be noted, is 
 the very argument used by Sir Lepel Griffin in advocacy of 
 caste as facilitating foreign dominion. Seventh, it creates dis- 
 cord among different classes of society, and has been in the 
 past the fruitful cause of dissensions and quarrels. Eighth, 
 it hardens the heart against human suffering, since the 
 alleviation of suffering can never be attempted in violation of 
 caste regulations. Ninth, it consigns to hopeless degradation 
 nearly the entire human race, and even assigns to a large 
 section of mankind a rank lower than the brutes. Tenth, it 
 fills certain classes with unspeakable arrogance and pride. 
 The most consummate illustration of conceit in the world is 
 the Brahman. Eleventh, it identifies religion with outward 
 
156 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 ceremony, and degrades moral standards to the level of ex- 
 ternal forms and customs. The offences against caste are con- 
 fined to such things as eating, drinking, and marrying con- 
 trary to rule, or neglecting some of the multiplied regulations 
 of caste behavior. Caste pollution becomes the merest fiction, 
 while moral uncleanness and gross crime are passed over with 
 little, if any, notice. Twelfth, the whole system is based 
 upon false conceptions of the Deity, and its most intense con- 
 tentions have no basis whatever in truth. Thirteenth, it is in 
 defiance of human rights and all strict justice between man 
 and man. Its arbitrary divisions of sacred and common, 
 clean and unclean, holy and unholy, noble and ignoble, have 
 become crystallized into a regnant system which is despotic to 
 the last degree. 
 
 8. A striking commentary upon the whole system is the 
 lamentable, almost hopeless, social degradation of the Pariahs , 
 a low caste section of Indian population. An admirable 
 resume of their state is given by the Rev. L. L. Uhl, Ph. D., 
 of the American Lutheran Mission, Guntur, in a paper pre- 
 sented at the Bombay Conference of 1892-93, and published 
 on page 550 of its report. The picture he draws is one of 
 crushing social ostracism, of terrible restrictions in everything 
 that concerns their hygienic, physical, intellectual, and moral 
 welfare. The strenuousness of this social excommunication 
 seems to vary somewhat in different sections of India. It 
 prevails in the Native States more than in British India, and 
 among them none is more caste-ridden than Travancore t in 
 the southwesterly extremity of the peninsula. Brahmanism 
 reigns there with its most extravagant pretensions. Mrs. 
 Murray Mitchell, in a volume entitled “ In Southern India,” 
 refers to Brahmanism as found in that section as follows : 
 (i Caste is intensely and exceptionally strong, and, as else- 
 where, stands in the way of all progress. The degradation of 
 the low castes, consequent on the absurd and oppressive laws 
 of caste, is terrible here, and hardly to be believed. For ex- 
 ample, no native Christian, however educated and intelligent, 
 nor any person of low caste, can obtain employment in a 
 public office, for fear of polluting those officials who may be 
 of higher caste. Then the school difficulties are endless. 
 The children of some of the inferior castes dare not even ap- 
 proach a school where higher-caste lads are taught. The dis- 
 abilities are inconceivable and so are the injustice and inequal- 
 
THE SOCIAL GROUP 
 
 157 
 
 ity of the laws. Women, too, are degraded to a degree one 
 hardly finds equalled in these days of reform in any other part 
 of India. It is terrible to look at some of the poor, miser- 
 able-looking creatures, with hardly any clothing and no sense 
 even of decency.” 
 
 9. A consensus of influential opinion as to the evils of caste 
 by both foreign and native students of Indian history and so- 
 ciety might be given at considerable length. Some of the 
 most distinguished and intelligent natives of India have had 
 the courage — and it has required great moral heroism — to re- 
 nounce caste, and in some instances eminent Indians have 
 done valiant service in seeking to deliver their countrymen 
 from its stupendous bondage. Among them may be mentioned 
 the late Rev. Dr. Krishna Mohun Banerjea, Pandit Bishan 
 Narayan Dar, Raja Rammohun Roy, Keshub Chunder Sen, 
 Sasipada Banerjee, Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar, Raja Sir Tan- 
 jore Madhava Row, Protab Chunder Mozumdar, Pandit Shiva 
 Nath Sastri, and Mr. Behramji M. Malabari, the accomplished 
 editor of The Indian Spectator , who, although born a Parsi, 
 had a Hindu mother and knew the system through and 
 through. In the sketch of his life and times by Mr. R. P. 
 Karkaria an instance is given (p. 116) of what it means for a 
 Hindu to break caste. Other names might be given, and 
 several of the native papers of India might be designated 
 which have done excellent service in this direction, although 
 edited by Hindus. 
 
 10. As viewed from a missionary standpoint, the present 
 workings of caste in Hindu society must be regarded as a 
 social evil of immensely depressing and paralyzing power. 
 Missionaries are not alone in this opinion, as learned students, 
 such as Sir M. Monier-Williams and Professor Max Muller, 
 have expressed most emphatic judgments as to the indefensible 
 pretensions and terrible social evils of caste. Anglo-Indian 
 officials of distinction have also united in this verdict. In the 
 “ Madras Census Report for 1871 99 Dr. Cornish, in an “ In- 
 troduction on Caste , 99 expresses it as his conclusion that it ** is 
 now the greatest bar to the advance of the Indian people in 
 civilization and aptitude for self-government.” In agreement 
 with this is the judgment of Sir Henry Maine that caste is 
 “ the most disastrous and blighting of all human institutions.” 
 There is evidently a hard fight, in fact a social convulsion, 
 which must come in connection with the break-up of this 
 
158 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON- CHRISTIAN WORLD 
 
 tremendous system. Its solidarity is something which no mere 
 words can describe. It will be one of the most signal triumphs 
 of Christianity over human ignorance, superstition, pride, and 
 stout-hearted defiance when it shall finally make a successful 
 breach in these massive ramparts. The disciples of caste are 
 no doubt aware that their system can never assimilate modern 
 civilization, and can never coalesce with the spirit of the 
 Gospel. It is now the policy of Christian missions not to 
 recognize caste in the Church. 
 
 11. In some sections of India, especially in the Native 
 States, the position of native Christians is one of difficulty, 
 and characterized by many unjust disabilities. They are even 
 regarded as outcasts, and have been visited with some of the 
 ignominy and ostracism which are common in the case of non- 
 caste people. Their property rights have been declared as 
 forfeited in the Province of Mysore. There is serious inter- 
 ference with the custody of children, prohibition of the use 
 of public wells, and other minor annoyances. The Bangalore 
 Native Christian Association has presented an address to the 
 Lord Bishop of Madras, recounting the objectionable features 
 of this situation, and in view of the fact that there are 30,000 
 Christians in the Province of Mysore, its members requested 
 his aid to secure the removal of these disabilities. A similar 
 movement is in operation for the Native State of Travancore, 
 where the situation is still more trying. 
 
 12. The overshadowing import of castes as found in India 
 seems to render it a comparatively insignificant matter in other 
 lands. It is, indeed, not found in China or Japan, although 
 the old feudal distinctions were nearly as pronounced as caste 
 classification in India. A powerful class spirit, however, is 
 still found in Japanese society, but perhaps not more so than 
 elsewhere. It is not found at all in Siam, although it prevails 
 in all its intensity just north in Assam. We have mild phases 
 of it in Korea, chiefly in connection with trade distinctions, 
 for example, the butchers as a class were obliged to observe 
 certain restrictions, which, however, have recently been 
 abolished, largely through Christian influence, by official 
 action of the Korean Government. In some of the South Sea 
 Islands there is a strong caste feeling, and in certain sections 
 of Africa it is quite pronounced, as in Dahomey and Bechuan* 
 aland. 
 
Note 
 
 The remaining sections of the lecture not reprinted here, 
 treat of the national, commercial, and religious groups of evils 
 which are found in non-Christian society. For sub-divisions, 
 see Synopsis of Lecture II. on page io. 
 
 159 
 
Christian Missions and Social Progress 
 Volume II 
 Synopsis of Contents 
 
 SYNOPSIS OF LECTURE V 
 
 THE DAWN OF A SOCIOLOGICAL ERA IN MISSIONS 
 
 The process of social change in the case of degraded races must nec- 
 essarily advance slowly. Christianity must begin by making its own new 
 environment. Long and patient preliminary work is required. In the 
 present lecture it will be expedient to take a survey of the foundations 
 which have been laid for the inauguration of a new era of sociological 
 development in backward nations. These preliminary achievements are 
 studied with a view to understanding their true significance as the pre- 
 cursors of great and splendid advances in the social regeneration of the 
 earth during the coming centuries. 
 
 Turning, then, to the foundations rather than to the superstructure, and 
 considering preliminary transformations rather than present activities 
 (which will form the subject of a subsequent lecture,) we shall proceed to 
 designate, and endeavor to characterize, some achievements of missions 
 which are philosophically and historically of fundamental value and 
 necessity, in anticipation of the thorough and final renovation of non- 
 Christian society after the ideals of Christianity. 
 
 I. The creation of a new type of individual character. A degenerate 
 individuality is* the first point of contact between Christian missions and 
 heathenism, and the reconstruction of character is the earliest task of the 
 missionary. In this way alone can a regenerate element be introduced 
 into the social life of non-Christian races. Illustrations of changed lives 
 are produced from mission fields. 
 
 II. The creation of a new public opinion. A perverted social con- 
 science is as much a reality in non-Christian lands as a perverted individ- 
 ual conscience, and in the form of public opinion, it is a factor of amazing 
 force and stability. Christian missions represent almost the only power 
 which with any transforming result has ever grappled with it aggressively 
 and successfully. The power of missions to dethrone many of the ruling 
 ideas in heathen society is vindicated by examples. 
 
 160 
 
SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS OF VOLUME II 
 
 161 
 
 III. The establishment and promotion of education. This is one of 
 the noblest sociological aspects of missionary effort. The present educa- 
 tional plant of foreign missions throughout the world is a marvelous 
 achievement, considered not only in itself, but as representing literally a 
 free gift of Christianity to the nations. Its import as a stimulus to social 
 progress is made evident. 
 
 IV. The literary contribution of missions to the intellectual life of 
 non-Christian races is a fundamental factor of social progress. The crown 
 and glory of this is the Bible, around which all mission literature is 
 grouped. The old literature is usually antiquated, effete, moribund, and 
 useless for the purposes of modern progress. The scope of the literary 
 activities of missionaries is dwelt upon, and the value of their contribu- 
 tions illustrated. 
 
 V. The influence of missions in awakening the philanthropic spirit. 
 Benevolence, both as a grace and a duty, has always been part of the 
 historic outcome of Christianity. The Christian religion is still assuming 
 the role of the Good Samaritan among the nations. Exemplifications of 
 this statement are brought forward, and its elevating influence in society 
 is dwelt upon. 
 
 VI. The influence of the personal example of missionaries and native 
 converts. This is a contribution of missions to social progress which is 
 of manifest value. Illustrations from Christian history, and from mission 
 fields at the present day, sufficiently justify the high estimate placed upon 
 the power of the Christian life as exemplified in the presence of the 
 heathen world. Some recent tributes to the personal character of mis- 
 sionaries, and the social value of their lives, are given from non-mission- 
 ary sources. 
 
 VII. The introduction of new national aspirations and higher concep- 
 tions of government. Missions have introduced a new ideal of patriotism, 
 and work steadily in the direction of purer laws and larger freedom. 
 Political and social despotism is undermined. Christian rulers among 
 native races are possessed by new conceptions of responsibility and duty. 
 
 VIII. The work of missions in laying the foundation of a new social 
 order will inevitably excite much opposition. An era of such transforma- 
 tion implies a struggle with dominant religious, social, and political power. 
 The Reformation was a period of conflicts ; the Huguenots and Puritans 
 were soldiers of conscience ; the early struggles of Christianity with pagan 
 Rome, were sharp and terrible ; the victories of religious history must be 
 repeated in the experience of Christian missions. The moral value of 
 missions as sponsors of true civilization is noted. 
 
 IX. A symposium of missionary opinion as to the social value of mis- 
 sions. The judgment of missionaries in all parts of the world is quoted. 
 
 X. The evidence of native witnesses is confirmatory of the views of 
 missionaries, and is of value, especially where the source is non-Christian. 
 
 XI. Additional testimony from prominent laymen and government 
 officials as to the social value of missions is brought forward. Distin- 
 guished men of high position in the foreign service of Christian govern- 
 ments cordially and emphatically endorse the missionary enterprise as a 
 saving factor in the development of belated races. 
 
 The above survey of fundamental transformations in non-Christian 
 society, preparatory to coming changes in the higher life of the nations, 
 
162 
 
 SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS OF VOLUME II 
 
 indicate that an era of social progress is sure to follow the entrance of 
 missions and the sincere acceptance of the benefits they bring. In view 
 of this fact a special suggestiveness attaches to the varied missionary activ- 
 ities presented in detail in the following lecture. 
 
 SYNOPSIS OF LECTURE VI 
 
 THE CONTRIBUTION OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS TO SOCIAL PROGRESS 
 
 Our survey of the function and efficiency of missions as instrumental in 
 preparing the way for social changes, by introducing new forces, giving 
 needed stimulus, and providing the unique equipment required, must now 
 be supplemented by a more detailed review of present activities of a soci- 
 ological import in many fields. Having studied the scope and funda- 
 mental conditions of social progress as affected by missions, let us now 
 seek to enter the very workshop, inspect the tools, observe the machinery 
 in motion, understand its processes, and see with our own eyes the results 
 it produces. Let us note at the outset that we are not dealing in this con- 
 nection primarily with the spiritual or evangelistic outcome of missions. 
 We are endeavoring rather to ascertain and emphasize their more indirect 
 results in the sphere of social reformation and progress. For the sake of 
 convenience, as in our study of “ The Social Evils of the Non-Christian 
 World,” the varied aspects of the subject may be classified into groups or 
 clusters. 
 
 I. Results Manifest in the Individual Character : 
 
 (i) Temperance Reform. (2) Deliverance from the Opium 
 Habit. (3) Restraint upon Gambling. (4) Establishing 
 Higher Standards of Personal Purity. (5) Discrediting 
 Self-Inflicted Torture or Mutilation. (6) Arresting Pes- 
 simistic and Suicidal Tendencies. (7) Cultivating Habits 
 of Industry and Frugality. (8) Substituting Christian 
 Humility and Proper Self-Respect for Barbaric Pride and 
 Foolish Conceit. (9) Cultivation of the Personal Virtues. 
 
 II. Results Affecting Family Life : 
 
 (I) The Elevation of Woman. (2) Restraining Polygamy and 
 Concubinage. (3) Checking Adultery and Divorce. (4) 
 Seeking the Abolishment of Child Marriage. (5) Alle- 
 viating the Social Miseries of Widowhood. (6) Mitigating 
 the Enforced Seclusion of Woman. (7) Improving the 
 Condition of Domestic Life and Family Training. (8) 
 Rendering Aid and Protection to Children. (9) Diminish- 
 ing Infanticide. 
 
 III. Results of a Humane and Philanthropic Tendency : 
 
 (1) Hastening the Suppression of the Slave-Trade and Labor- 
 Traffic. (2) Aiding in the Overthrow of Slavery. (3) 
 Abolishing Cannibalism and Inhuman Sports. (4) Arrest- 
 ing Human Sacrifices. (5) Banishing Cruel Ordeals. 
 (6) Initiating the Crusade against Foot-Binding. (7) 
 Promoting Prison Reforms and Mitigating Brutal Punish- 
 
SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS OF VOLUME II 163 
 
 ments. (8) Securing Humane Ministration to the Poor 
 and Dependent. (9) Organizing Famine Relief. (10) 
 Introducing Modern Medical Science. (11) Conducting 
 Medical Dispensaries, Infirmaries, and Hospitals. (12) 
 Founding Leper Asylums and Colonies. (13) Establish- 
 ing Orphan Asylums. (14) Promoting Cleanliness and 
 Sanitation. (15) Mitigating the Brutalities of War. (16) 
 Instilling a Peaceable and Law-Abiding Spirit. 
 
 IV. Results Tending to Develop the Higher Life of Society : 
 (I) The Introduction of Educational Facilities. (2) Indus- 
 trial Training Schools. (3) Modern Methods of Univer- 
 sity Extension. (4) Christian Associations for Young Men 
 and Women. (5) The Production of Wholesome and In- 
 structive Literature. (6) The Quickening of General In- 
 telligence. (7) The Abolishment of Objectionable Social 
 Customs. (8) The Disintegration of Caste. 
 
 V. Results Touching National Life and Character : 
 
 (1) Cultivating the Spirit of Freedom. (2) Advocating a Just 
 and Orderly System of Taxation. (3) Seeking to Purify 
 Official Corruption. (4) Modifying Extortion and Legal 
 Robbery. (5) Promoting the Reconstruction of Laws and 
 the Reform of Judicial Methods. (6) Elevating the Stand- 
 ard of Government Service. (7) Furthering Proper Inter- 
 national Relations. (8) Serving the Interests of Science 
 and Civilization. 
 
 VI. Results Affecting the Commercial and Industrial Status : 
 (1) Commending New Standards of Commercial Integrity. (2) 
 Establishing Better Methods of Transacting Business. (3) 
 Seeking to Regulate Financial Dealings. (4) Developing 
 Trade and Commerce with the Outside World. (5) Intro- 
 ducing Material Civilization and Modern Facilities. 
 
 VII. Results Connected with Religious Faith and Practice : 
 
 (I) A More Spiritual Conception of Religion. (2) The De- 
 cline of Idolatry. (3) The Overthrow of Superstition. (4) 
 Associating Morality with Religion. (5) Elevating the 
 Standard of Personal Character in Religious Leaders. (6) 
 Teaching Lessons of Religious Freedom and Toleration. 
 (7) Cultivating Sabbath Observance. 
 
 The above survey suggests an imperfectly explored field of research as 
 to the full scope and significance of missions. It will yield results of un- 
 expected apologetic import and value; Christian missions exhibit the 
 social benefits and results of Christianity in regions where there is little 
 else to encourage the hope of better things. They are aptly typified by 
 that tree of life on the banks of the river, the leaves of which are for 
 “ the healing of the nations.” 
 
Analytical Index 
 
 Besides indicating the location of important topics, this index is also 
 intended for use in preparing the various studies. Having read over its 
 analytical outline before taking up each study, the student sees exactly 
 what ground is covered by the section to be mastered. So, too, after 
 having studied the portion assigned, its outline can again be used in lieu 
 of questions put by a teacher, thus enabling the student to see what topics 
 have been forgotten. The numerals following each topic and sub-topic 
 refer to the pages where they may be found. For the convenience of 
 those who spend eight hours on this book, the suggested places for be- 
 ginning each lesson are inserted in brackets. While this breaks the con- 
 tinuity of thought in some cases, it is as convenient a division as may be 
 made. 
 
 I 
 
 Introductory 
 
 I. Character of the present inquiry, 13, 14. 
 
 1. Its wide range, 13. 
 
 2. Its spirit and aim, 13. 
 
 3. Excellencies not to be ignored or minimized ; the Chinese, 13, 14. 
 
 II. Evils of Christendom, 14, 15. 
 
 1. The indictment, 14, 15. 
 
 2. The retort of non-Christian nations, 15. 
 
 III. The test of Christian civilization, 15, 16. 
 
 1. This test applied to Christendom, 15. 
 
 2. Failure of non-Christian nations to meet this test, 15, 16. 
 
 II 
 
 The Individual Group 
 
 [Study I.] 
 
 I. Intemperance, 17-19. 
 
 1. The world survey, 17. 
 
 2. Intemperance in foreign mission fields, 17-19. 
 
 (1) Spanish America, 17. (2) India and Burma, 18. (3) 
 
 Africa, 18. (4) Japan, Korea, China, 18. (5) Moham- 
 medan lands, 19. (6) Pacific Islands, 19. 
 
 3. Results of the survey, 19. 
 
 II. The opium habit, 19-23. 
 
 1. China the storm centre of the vice, 19. 
 
 164 
 
ANALYTICAL INDEX 
 
 165 
 
 2. Present production of opium, 19, 20. 
 
 3. The real points at issue, 20. 
 
 4. The Royal Commission on opium, 20, 21. 
 
 (1) Limits of its investigations, 20. (2) Its report, 20, 21. 
 
 (3) Minority report, 21. 
 
 5. British restrictions in Burma, 21, 22. 
 
 (1) Buddhism’s protest, 21. (2) Real fact in the case, 22. 
 
 6. Extent of the evil, 22, 23. 
 
 7. Physical and moral effects of the opium habit, 23. 
 
 III. The gambling habit, 23, 24. 
 
 1. The habit in Korea and China, 23. 
 
 2. Relation of Siamese Government to gambling, 23, 24. 
 
 3. Southern and Western Asia, 24. 
 
 4. Africa and Spanish America, 24. 
 
 IV. Immoral vices, 24-30. 
 
 1. Vices prevalent in Japan, 25, 26. 
 
 (1) Yoshiwara system of “regulated vice,” 25. (2) Dual 
 
 code of sexual morality, 25. (3) Proofs that immorality 
 
 is Japan’s national sin, 25, 26. 
 
 2. Korean forms of immorality, 26. 
 
 3. Impurity of lip and life in China, 26, 27. 
 
 Siamese and Thibetan forms of vice, 27. 
 
 The vices of India, 27-29. 
 
 (1) Its manifold forms, 27. (2) Reasons for its presence, 
 
 27, 28. (3) Proofs that better elements in Hindu 
 
 society are opposed to it, 28. (4) Attitude of British 
 
 Government toward immoral vices, 29. 
 
 Exceptional immorality of Mohammedan lands, 29, 30. 
 Profligacy in Spanish and Portuguese America, 30. 
 
 8. Africa and the Pacific Islands, 30. 
 
 V. Self-torture, 30, 31. 
 
 1. Its usual causes, 30. 
 
 2. Austerities endured by the devotees and fakirs of India, 30, 31. 
 
 3. Motives of self-mutilation, etc., in China, 31. 
 
 4. Fanatical cruelties of Mohammedan lands, 31. 
 
 VI. Suicide, 31-33. 
 
 1. Self-destruction in China, 32. 
 
 (i) Causes of its frequency, 32. (2) Popular methods of 
 
 suicide, 32. 
 
 2. Hara-kiri in Japan, 32, 33. 
 
 (1) Esteem in which it has been held, 32, 33. (2) Modus 
 
 operandi, 33. (3) Other methods, 33. 
 
 3. Suicide in India and the East Indies, 33. 
 
 (1) Its causes and extent in India, 33. (2) Notoriety 
 
 gained by suicide in the East Indies and New Guinea, 
 33. 
 
 [Study II.] 
 
 VII. Idleness and Improvidence, 33-35. 
 
 1. How esteemed and exhibited in Africa, 34. 
 
 2. Idleness among Pacific Islanders. Negroes, and Indians, 34. 
 
 4 - 
 
 5 - 
 
 6 . 
 
 7 - 
 
166 
 
 ANALYTICAL INDEX 
 
 VIII. 
 
 IX. 
 
 I. 
 
 II. 
 
 3. Forms of idleness in China and Korea, 34, 35. 
 
 4. Evils of mendicancy in India, 35. 
 
 5. The blight of indolence in South American countries, 35. 
 Excessive pride and self-exaltation, 35-37. 
 
 1. Some results of such a spirit, 35. 
 
 2. China’s inflated pride and its aim, 35, 36. 
 
 3. Japan’s excusable but dangerous vanity, 36. 
 
 4. Korean pride, 36. 
 
 5. Effects on the natives of Siamese self-complacency, 36. 
 
 6. Hinduism’s tendency to stimulate self-esteem, 36. 
 
 7. Striking effects of the haughty spirit of Islam, 37. 
 
 8. Prevalence and results of African pride, 37. 
 
 Moral delinquencies, 37-39. 
 
 1. Blighting effects and prevalence of untruthfulness and dis- 
 
 honesty, 37, 38. 
 
 2. Private mendacity and official honesty in Japan, 38. 
 
 3. China, “ an empire of make-believe ; ” stealing and cheating, 38. 
 
 4. Untruthfulness and dishonesty in Southeastern Asia, 38. 
 
 5. Indian and Persian untruthfulness, 38, 39. 
 
 6. The Turkish Empire full of dissimulation, 39. 
 
 7. Africa a continent of lies and thieving, 39. 
 
 8. Pacific Islanders’ love for lying, other countries, 39. 
 
 Ill 
 
 The Family Group 
 
 Family status in classical and heathen civilization, 40, 41. 
 
 1. Marriage and domestic life in classical times, 40. 
 
 2. The Christian ideal of the family contrasted with pagan 
 
 views, 41. 
 
 3. General status of woman in non-Christian lands to-day, 41. 
 
 The degradation of woman, 41-51. 
 
 1. Her status outside of Christendom, 41, 42. 
 
 (1) Estimate of woman, 41, 42. (2) Indications of this es- 
 
 timate, 42. 
 
 2. Signs and tokens of woman’s inferiority, 42-45. 
 
 (1) In India, 42, 43. (2) Japanese woman’s less objection- 
 able lot, 43. (3) Woman’s life in China, 43, 44. (4) 
 
 Her lot in Korea, 44. (5) Details of woman’s life in 
 
 India, 44. (6) Mohammedan women, 44, 45. (7) 
 
 Treatment of women in Africa and Polynesia, 45. 
 
 3. Deprivations and restrictions of womanhood, 45-47. 
 
 (1) Intellectual deprivations, 45. (2) Deprived of legiti- 
 mate liberty, 45, 46. (3) Duty of widows to deceased 
 
 husbands, 46. (4) Polygamy and concubinage, 46. 
 
 (5) Divorce, 46, 47. (6) Power of life and death, 47. 
 
 4. Her indignities and burdens, 47-51. 
 
 (1) Physical injuries, 47. (2) Marriage indignities and 
 
ANALYTICAL INDEX 
 
 167 
 
 sufferings, 47, 48. (3) Sufferings from quackery and 
 
 widowhood, 48. (4) Lot as a laborer, 48. (5) Out- 
 
 rages upon her virtue, 48, 49. 
 
 5. The results upon her personal character, 49, 50. 
 
 6. Modifications of this dark picture, 50, 51. 
 
 [Study III.] 
 
 III. Polygamy and concubinage, 51-53. 
 
 1. Moral dignity of the Christian code of marriage, 51, 52. 
 
 (1) Its antagonism to immemorial custom, 51. (2) Ancient 
 
 forms of marriage, 51. (3) Position of the non-Chris- 
 
 tian world to-day, 51, 52. 
 
 2. Licensed polygamy characteristic of ethnic systems, 52, 53. 
 
 (I) In Japan, Korea, China and Southeastern Asia, 52. (2) 
 
 The rule in India, 52, 53. (3) Mohammedan rules, 
 
 53. (4) Among savage races, 53. 
 
 IV. Adultery and divorce, 53-56. 
 
 1. Apparent absence of these acts, 53, 54. 
 
 2. Arbitrary power of divorce granted by heathen systems, 54-56. 
 
 (1) Theory in non-Christian law, 54. (2) Power of divorce 
 
 and limitations in China, 54. (3) Justifying causes in 
 
 Japan ; Japanese statistics compared with Occidental, 
 
 54. 55. (4) Divorce among Indian Mohammedans, 
 
 55. (5) Turkish customs, 55, 56. (6) Native Chris- 
 
 tians and divorce in India, 56. 
 
 V. Child marriage and widowhood, 56-62. 
 
 1. Evils of child marriage, 56. 
 
 2. Some statistics from the census of 1891, 56, 57. 
 
 3. Average age of marriage among the Brahmans, 57. 
 
 4. Reasons assigned for early marriage ; counter arguments, 57, 58. 
 
 5. Testimony of physicians, 58. 
 
 6. Marriage acts of 1872 and 1891, 58, 59. 
 
 7. Further reforms needed in India, 59. 
 
 8. Child marriage in other lands, 59. 
 
 9. Reasons underlying prohibition of re-marriage of widows, 59. 
 
 10. The “ Widow Marriage Act ” of 1856, 59, 60. 
 
 11. The causes of Hindu widowhood, 60. 
 
 12. Mitigations and differences in the sufferings of widows, 60, 61. 
 
 13. Statistics concerning Indian widowhood from census of 1891, 61. 
 
 14. Widowhood in other lands, 61. 
 
 15. Extinct custom of widow-burning, 61, 62. 
 
 (1) Reasons for its prevalence, 61, 62. (2) Abolition of the 
 
 practice, 62. 
 
 VI. Defective family training, 62-64. 
 
 1. Comparative happiness of Japanese child life ; dangers, 62, 63. 
 
 2. Theory and practice as to child training in China, 63. 
 
 3. Life of Hindu and Burmese children, 63, 64. 
 
 4. Character of child-nurture in Mohammedan lands, 64. 
 
 5. Lack of training in African homes, 64. 
 
 6. The abuse of parental authority in eastern lands, 64. 
 
168 
 
 ANALYTICAL INDEX 
 
 VII. Infanticide, 64-70. 
 
 1. The crime in classical and mediaeval Europe, 64. 
 
 2. Infanticide among the Chinese, 64-66. 
 
 (1) Causes, 64, 65. (2) Its prevalence, 65, 66. (3) 
 
 “ Babies’ Pond,” 66. 
 
 3. Hindu infanticide, 66-69. 
 
 (1) Indian testimony concerning its prevalence, 66, 67. 
 
 (2) Parental indifference to the crime, 67, 68. (3) Its ex- 
 
 tent at the present time, 68. (4) Government pro- 
 
 hibition and its results, 68, 69. 
 
 4. Heartless and cruel infanticide in the Pacific Islands, 69. 
 
 5. Doom of twins in Africa ; other reasons for child murder, 69, 
 
 70. 
 
 6. Indian and Mohammedan attitude toward infanticide, 70. 
 
 IV 
 
 The Tribal Group 
 
 [Study IV.] 
 
 I. The traffic in human flesh, 71-79. 
 
 1. Historical genesis of the slave-trade, 71, 72. 
 
 2. The centre and three main avenues of the traffic, 72. 
 
 3. Annual sacrifice of lives due to the trade, 72, 73. 
 
 4. Slave markets of the West Coast and its hinterland, 73, 74. 
 
 (1) The Congo Free State, 73. (2) In Hausaland, 73, 74. 
 
 (3) Eastern Soudan, 74. 
 
 5. The traffic in North Africa, 74, 75. 
 
 (1) In Morocco, 74. (2) In Tripoli, 74. (3) In Egypt, 
 
 74 , 75 - 
 
 6. The slave-traffic on the East Coast, 75, 76. 
 
 (1) The main recruiting ground, 75. (2) Extent of the 
 
 trade in Zanzibar, 75, 76. (3) Appeals for its aboli- 
 tion in Zanzibar, 76. (4) Slave-traffic in German 
 
 East Africa, 76. 
 
 7. Restrictions in the Nyassaland Protectorate, 76, 77. 
 
 (1) Commissioner Johnston’s vigorous measures, 76, 77. 
 (2) Reports of Mr. Glave, 77. 
 
 8. The status in Madagascar, 77, 78. 
 
 9. Summary of the African survey, 78. 
 
 10. Kidnapping natives of the Pacific Islands, 78, 79. 
 
 11. Coolie trade in China and India; character and extent, 79. 
 
 12. Modified slave-trade of India; trade in Persia, 79. 
 
 13. Atrocious cruelties of the traffic, 79. 
 
 II. Slavery, 79-83. 
 
 1. Regions where slavery has been abolished, 80. 
 
 2. Its present extent and general character, 80, 81. 
 
 3. Varieties of slavery in China, Korea, and Southeastern Asia, 
 
 81. 
 
 4. Servitude for debt in India’s Native States, 81. 
 
 5. The status in Afghanistan, 81, 82. 
 
ANALYTICAL INDEX 
 
 169 
 
 6. Slavery for debt in Central America, 82. 
 
 7. The question of slavery in Zanzibar, 82, 83. 
 
 8. The characteristic evils of slavery, 83. 
 
 III. Cannibalism, 83-88. 
 
 1. Its general character and results, 83. 
 
 2. Its prevalence and character in various Pacific Islands, 83, 84. 
 
 3. Cannibal ferocity in Africa, 85-88. 
 
 (1) In Gasaland, 85. (2) In Zululand, 85. (3) In the 
 
 central belt of the Continent, 85. (4) Mr. Mohun’s 
 
 estimate for the Congo Free State, 86. (5) Among 
 
 the Fangs, 86. (6) Back of Cameroons, 86, 87. (7) 
 
 Testimony of Bishop Crowther, Rev. E. Deas and 
 Father Bubendorf, 87. (8) The “ Human Leopards,” 
 
 87, 88. (9) Different Cannibalistic methods of East 
 
 and West Coasts, 88. 
 
 4. The vaudoux worship of Hayti, 88. 
 
 [Study V.] 
 
 IV. Human Sacrifices, 88-93. 
 
 1. Different motives inspiring the crime, 88, 89. 
 
 2. Its prevalence in India and Southeastern Asia, 89, 90. 
 
 3. Human sacrifice in Australia, Borneo and Formosa, 90. 
 
 4. Bloody rites in the Pacific Islands, 90. 
 
 5. In the West Indies, Guiana and Alaska, 90, 91. 
 
 6. The horrors of human sacrifice in Africa, 91-93. 
 
 (1) In the Niger delta, 91. (2) The “ City of Blood,” 91. 
 
 (3) The Congo, 92. (4) Uganda, Abyssinia and 
 
 Southern Africa, 92. 
 
 V. Cruel ordeals, 93-95. 
 
 1. Object and character of these ordeals, 93. 
 
 2. Barbarous expedients of the Ainu ; in China, 93, 94. 
 
 3. In India, Siam, and Madagascar, 94. 
 
 4. African ordeals ; Islands of the Pacific, 94, 95. 
 
 VI. Cruel punishments and torture, 95-99. 
 
 1. Gradual improvement in the penology of civilized lands, 95. 
 
 2. Methods of punishment in Western Asia, 95-97. 
 
 (1) Turkish cruelties, 96. (2) Persian punishments, 96. 
 
 (3) Central Asia, 96, 97. (4) Afghanistan, 97. 
 
 3. Relics of barbarous torture in India, 97. 
 
 4. A Chinese chamber of horrors, 97, 98. 
 
 5. Korea’s “ vocabulary of torture,” 98. 
 
 6. The cruelties of punishment in Africa, 98, 99. 
 
 VII. Brutality in war, 99-102. 
 
 1. Horrors of war in civilized countries, 99. 
 
 2. The Japanese in the late war with China, 100. 
 
 3. Horrors of Chinese warfare illustrated, 100. 
 
 4. Cruelties of war in Central Asia, Persia and Turkey, 100, 101. 
 
 5. Sanguinary customs in African warfare ; in Madagascar, 10 1, 
 
 102. 
 
 6. Ferocity of savage warfare in the Pacific, 102. 
 
170 
 
 ANALYTICAL INDEX 
 
 VIII. Blood feuds, 102-104. 
 
 1. Definition and character, 102. 
 
 2. Prevalence and bitterness of blood feuds in Africa, 102, 103. 
 
 3. Sectional feuds in Turkey and Persia, 103. 
 
 4. Feuds in India, 103. 
 
 5. Chinese, Formosan and Korean feuds; strife in Oceania, 103, 
 
 104. 
 
 IX. Lawlessness, 104-108. 
 
 1. The spirit of lawlessness and the restraints of law, 104, 105. 
 
 2. Effect of civilized governments in Asia and Africa, 105, 106. 
 
 3. Lawlessness under native Asiatic and African rule, 106- 108. 
 
 0 ) Japan an exception, 106. (2) China’s lawless maraud- 
 ers, 106. (3) Manchurian, 106, 107. (4) Disorder 
 
 and robbery in Korea, 107. (5) Southeastern Asia, 
 
 107. (6) Persia, 107. (7) Turkey and Arabia, 107. 
 
 (8) Africa the haunt of lawless violence, 107, 108. 
 
 V 
 
 The Social Group 
 
 [Study VI.] 
 
 I. Introductory : Character of this cluster of evils, 109. 
 
 II. Ignorance, 109-113. 
 
 1. Evils growing out of ignorance, 109, no. 
 
 2. Ignorance not always synonymous with illiteracy ; illustration, 
 
 no, hi. 
 
 3. Enormous percentage of illiteracy in China, in. 
 
 4. The highly educated ignorance of Chinese officials, 112. 
 
 5. A large part of the world in the slumber of ignorance, 112, 1 13. 
 
 III. Quackery, 113-121. 
 
 1. The contribution of quackery to the world’s misery, 113. 
 
 2. The charlatanism of the Chinese doctor, 113, 114. 
 
 (1) His ignorance, 113. (2) Chinese remedies, 113, 114. 
 
 3. Dr. Mackay’s account of Formosan native specifics, 114. 
 
 4. The Korean doctor and his methods, 115. 
 
 5. Medicine men among the Ainu of Japan, 115. 
 
 6. Butter and incantations used in Thibet, 115, 116. 
 
 7. Medical destitution in India, 116, 117. 
 
 8. Empirical devices in Burma, Laos, Persia and Arabia, 117. 
 
 9. The horrors of quackery in Africa, 117-121. 
 
 (1) Respective relation of witches and witch-doctors to evil 
 spirits, 1 17, 1 18. (2) Power of witch-doctors, 118. 
 
 (3) Their methods, 118, 119. (4) Remedy for 
 
 witchcraft, 119, 120. (5) Burning remedies and fiery 
 
 tonics, 120. (6) Warriors «« eating medicine,” 120, 121. 
 
 10. The sorcerer’s art in the Pacific Islands, 121. 
 
 11. Superstitious quacks among North and South American In- 
 
 dians, 1 2 1. 
 
ANALYTICAL INDEX 
 
 171 
 
 IV. Witchcraft, 121-126. 
 
 1. Witchcraft as connected with demonology, 121, 122. 
 
 2. The spell of demons in various realms, 122. 
 
 3. Arts of witchcraft in Western Africa, 123. 
 
 4. Its prevalence in Central and South Africa, 123, 124. 
 
 5. Malign power of obeahism in the West Indies and Pacific 
 
 Islands, 124. 
 
 6. Soul-hunting in the South seas; nahak; kaimasi, 124, 125. 
 
 7. Demon possession and witchcraft among Asiatic people, 125, 
 
 126. 
 
 [Study VII.] 
 
 V. Neglect of the poor and sick, 126-129. 
 
 1. The compassionate spirit of Christianity, 126, 1 27. 
 
 2. Philanthropic needs of Japan, 127. 
 
 3. Superstitious ideas concerning sickness in other countries, 1 27. 
 
 4. Old Indian custom of exposing the sick on the banks of the 
 
 Ganges, 127, 128. 
 
 5. Treatment of the sick, suffering and insane in China; in 
 
 Korea, 128. 
 
 6. The pitiless fate of the helpless and suffering in many lands, 129. 
 
 VI. Uncivilized and cruel customs, 129-134. 
 
 1. What are the standards of civilization? 129, 130. 
 
 2. List of customs calling for notice, 130. 
 
 3. Foot-binding in China, 130, 131. 
 
 (1) Its origin and prevalence, 130. (2) Its fruitage, 131. 
 
 (3) Anti-Foot-Binding Societies, 13 1. 
 
 4. Uncleanly habits, 131. 
 
 5. Unseemly nudity, 13 1, 132. 
 
 6. Tattooing and barbaric use of ornaments, 132. 
 
 7. Promiscuous bathing in Japan, 132. 
 
 8. Loathsome diet, 132. 
 
 9. Prevalence of abominable dances, 133. 
 
 10. Tainted asceticism, 133. 
 
 11. Funeral orgies, 133. 
 
 12. Mortuary custom of the Chinese and Parsis, 133, 1 34. 
 
 13. Burial rites in the South Seas, 134. 
 
 VII. Insanitary conditions, 134- 138. 
 
 1. General insanitary condition of the non-Christian world, 135. 
 
 2. India’s sanitary condition, 135- 137. 
 
 (1) Impure water, 135. (2) Cattle, 135. (3) Infant 
 
 death-rate, 136. (4) Sanitary measures of the British 
 
 Government, 136, 137. 
 
 3. Malodorous China, 137, 138. 
 
 (1) Peking, 137. (2) Other parts of the Empire, 137, 138. 
 
 VIII. Lack of public spirit, 138-140. 
 
 1. Selfishness characteristic of non-Christian nations, 138, 139. 
 
 2. Absence of public spirit in China, 139, 140. 
 
 (1) General unwillingness to help others, 139. (2) Tres- 
 passing on the rights of the weaker, 139. (3) Patriot- 
 
 ism unknown in the Empire, 139. 
 
172 
 
 ANALYTICAL INDEX 
 
 IX. Mutual suspicion, 140-142. 
 
 1. Effects of mutual suspicion and distrust, 140. 
 
 2. Every man his own detective in China, 140, 14 1. 
 
 3. The distrustful spirit in India, Persia, the South Seas, Africa 
 
 and Madagascar, 14 1, 142. 
 
 [Study VIII.] 
 
 X. Poverty, 142- 149. 
 
 1. The ceaseless struggle for survival, 142. 
 
 2. The genesis of poverty ; Christianity’s relation to its removal, 
 
 142, 143. 
 
 3. Effect of poverty on the social life, 143. 
 
 4. Remedial and alleviating forces instituted by Christianity, 143, 
 
 144. 
 
 5. India’s recurring misery, 144-146. 
 
 (1) Twofold reason for her impoverishment, 144. (2) Fam- 
 ines, 144, 145. (3) Distressing conditions of poverty, 
 
 145. (4) Resolutions passed by the Indian National 
 
 Congress, 145, 146. 
 
 6. Chinese poverty and its causes, 146-148. 
 
 (1) Mr. Richard’s statement, 146. (2) Causes of poverty in 
 
 Shantung, 146, 147. (3) Results of Chinese poverty, 
 
 147. (4) Famines, 147, 148. 
 
 7. Causes of Korean poverty, 148. 
 
 8. Poverty in Japan, Persia and Turkey, 148. 
 
 9. The horrors of African famine, 148, 149. 
 
 10. Result of this survey, 149. 
 
 XI. The tyranny of custom, 149-151. 
 
 1. Custom an impersonal despot on an invincible throne, 149. 
 
 2. Good and evil customs not differentiated, 149, 150. 
 
 3. Custom a fact of great social import, 150. 
 
 4. China’s homage to established precedents, 150, 15 1. 
 
 5. Their influence in society, 15 1. 
 
 XII. Caste, 151-158. 
 
 1. Caste versus social distinctions, 15 1, 152. 
 
 2. Its origin, 152. 
 
 3. Special significance of caste, 152, 153. 
 
 4. Its evolution into a social monstrosity, 153. 
 
 5. The overshadowing mastery of caste; the Brahman; number 
 
 of castes, 153, 154. 
 
 6. What can be said in its defence ? Five replies, 154, 155. 
 
 7. Thirteen counts in the indictment against caste, 155, 156. 
 
 8. Social degradation of the Pariahs ; caste-ridden Travancore, 
 
 156, 157- 
 
 9. Some representative opinions on caste, 157. 
 
 10. Caste as viewed from a missionary standpoint, 157, 158. 
 
 11. Efforts to fix caste disabilities upon native Christians, 158. 
 
 12. Milder forms of caste spirit in other lands, 158. 
 

 
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