Psychology of the tribesman
is in him the less developed of the two fundamentals: his
freedom is more lawless than it should be. It is, however,
genuine; it emancipates his being; through it
Metus omne et inexorabile fatum
Subiecit pedibus, strepitumque Acheronris avari.
And the discipline which the semi-civilized invoke
against him is not genuine at all, a production not construc-
tive but merely of fear. The tribesman in his heart knows
that freedom, his own virtue, comes first in the order of
things: it can at a pinch stand alone, while the beauty of
law is of a secondary order, dependent for its excellence
on the existence of the other as a basis. Even the worst
politician tacitly admits this, bolstering himself up with
words. The tribesman feels the falsehood of the alien
code, and of the two complementary virtues, rightly prefers
his own.
In many cases he will refuse the greater comfort of the
settled life because he definitely prefers his spiritual heritage
to more material things. He is an aristocrat. In our com-
plicated lives the advantage of aristocracy is that of being
able voluntarily to undergo those disciplines which are
forced without choice on men less fortunately circum-
stanced: to eat bread and water from necessity has a depress-
ing effect; to do so from choice is, in a reasonable measure,
good for the soul: and the civilized use of riches is to become
voluntarily independent of them. The nomad does not
go so far: but he does prefer his lean emancipation to the
flesh-pots of settled behaviour; and this makes him an
insufferable neighbour but a gallant man.
The Aiwan, however, have gone some way already in
the selling of their souls. Their lands stretch over a great
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