The origin and development of the moral ideas

IT seems that man, like many other animals, is naturally endowed with a certain tendency to cleanliness or aversion to filth. Of Caspar Hauser—the boy who had been kept in a dungeon separated from all communication with the world from early childhood to about the age of seventeen—Feuerbach tells us that “uncleanliness, or whatever he considered as such, whether in his own person or in others, was an abomination to him.”1 And the savage boy of Aveyron, though filthy at first, soon became so scrupulously clean in his habits that “he constantly threw away, in a pet, the contents of his plate, if any particle of dirt or dust had fallen upon it; and, after he had broken his walnuts under his feet, he took pains to clean them in the nicest and most delicate manner.”2

Many savages are praised for their cleanliness.3 The Veddahs of Ceylon wash their bodies every few days, as opportunity occurs.4 Among the South Sea Islanders bathing is a very common practice; the Tahitians bathe in fresh water once or twice a day,5 and the natives of Ni-afu, in the Tonga Islands, are said to spend half their life in the water.6 So, also, many Indian tribes both in North, Central, and South America are very fond of bathing.7 The Omahas generally bathe every day in warm weather, early in the morning and at night, and some of them also at noon.8 Among the Guiana Indians it is a custom for men and women to troop down together to the nearest water early in the morning and many times during the day.9 The Tehuelches of Patagonia not only make morning ablutions and, when encamped near a river, enjoy bathing for hours, but are also scrupulously careful as to the cleanliness of their houses and utensils, and will, if they can obtain soap, wash up everything they may be possessed of.10 The Moquis and Pueblos of New Mexico are remarkable both for their personal cleanliness and the neatness of their dwellings.11 Cleanliness is a common characteristic of many natives of Africa.12 The Negroes of the Gold Coast wash their whole persons once, if not oftener, during the day.13 The Megé, a people subject to the Monbuttu, wash two or three times a day, and when engaged in work constantly adjourn to a neighbouring stream to cleanse themselves.14 The Marutse-Mabundas, rather than lose their bath, are always ready to run the risk of being snapped up by crocodiles, and they are

in the habit of keeping their materials in well-washed wooden or earthenware bowls or in suitable baskets or calabashes.15 The cleanliness of the Dinka in every thing that concerns the preparation of food is said to be absolutely exemplary.16 Among the Bari tribes the dwellings “are the perfection of cleanliness.”17 So also the Bachapins, a Bechuana tribe, are remarkable for the cleanliness of their dwellings, showing the greatest carefulness to remove all rubbish and everything unsightly; but at the same time they are lacking in personal cleanliness.18