Note 244-5 — Chapter II

On the Bushmen, see Barrow, Journey in Africa, 379 ff.; on the Hottentots, among whom even the wealthy aged are killed by exposure, see Kolb, Caput bonæ Spei, 1719, I, 321; on the Scandinavian, old Germans,[TN 77] Wendes, Prussians, Grimm, D. Rechtsalterthümer, 486 ff.; on the most ancient Romans, Cicero, pro Rosc. Amer, 35, and Festus v. Depontani, Sexagenarios; on Ceos, Strabo, X, 486; on the ancient Indians, Herodot., III, 38, 99; on the Massagetes, Herodot., I, 216; on the Caspians, Strabo, XI, 517, 520. Touching picture of an old man abandoned in the desert, unable to follow his tribe compelled to emigrate for want of food: Catlin, N. American Indians, I, 216 ff. We here see how the killing of helpless old people may be considered a blessing among many nations. Death is also sometimes desired by reason of superstition. For instance, the Figians think that after death they will continue to live of the same age as that at which they died. (Williams, Figi and the Figians, I, 183.) The Germans who died of disease did not get to Walhalla! (W. Wackernagel, Kl. Schriften, I, 16.)