I
cannot find in any of these definitions evidence of altruistic
affection, unless it be in the "marks of devotion," which expression,
however, I suspect, is Philadelphian rather than Peruvian.
V. The Tupi-Guarani have one word only to express all the varieties of
love known to them--_aihu_. Dr. Brinton thinks he "cannot be far
wrong" in deriving this from _ai_, self, or the same, and _hu_ to find
or be present; and from this he infers that "to love," in Guarani,
means "to find oneself in another," or "to discover in another a
likeness to oneself." I submit that this is altogether too airy a
fabric of fanciful conjecture to allow the inference that the
sentiment of love was known to these Brazilian Indians, whose morals
and customs were, moreover, as we have seen, fatal obstacles to the
growth of refined sexual feeling. Both the Tupis and Guaranis were
cannibals, and they had no regard for chastity. One of their
"sentimental" customs was for a captor to make his prisoner, before he
was eaten, cohabit with his (the captor's) sister or daughter, the
offspring of this union being allowed to grow up and then was devoured
too, the first mouthful being given to the mother. (Southey, I., 218.)
I mention this because Dr. Brinton says that the evidence that the
sentiment of love was awake among these tribes "is corroborated by the
incidents we learn of their domestic life.
Pages:
1250
1251
1252
1253
1254
1255
1256
1257
1258
1259
1260
1261
1262
1263
1264
1265
1266
1267
1268
1269
1270
1271
1272
1273
1274