THE KOSEKIN
These people call themselves the Kosekin. Their chief characteristic,
or, at least, their most prominent one, is their love of darkness,
which perhaps is due to their habit of dwelling in caves. Another
feeling, equally strong and perhaps connected with this, is their love
of death and dislike of life. This is visible in many ways, and
affects all their character. It leads to a passionate self-denial, an
incessant effort to benefit others at their own expense. Each one
hates life and longs for death. He, therefore, hates riches, and all
things that are associated with life.
Among the Kosekin everyone makes perpetual efforts to serve others,
which, however, are perpetually baffled by the unselfishness of these
others. People thus spend years in trying to overreach one another, so
as to make others richer than themselves. In a race each one tries to
keep behind; but as this leads to confusion, there is then a universal
effort for each one to be first, so as to put his neighbor in the
honorable position of the rear. It is the same way in a hunt. Each one
presses forward, so as to honor his companion by leaving him behind.
Instead of injuring, everyone tries to benefit his neighbor. When one
has been benefited by another, he is filled with a passion which may
be called Kosekin revenge--namely, a sleepless and vehement desire to
bestow some adequate and corresponding benefit on the other. Feuds
are thus kept up among families and wars among nations. For no one is
willing to accept from another any kindness, any gift, or any honor,
and all are continually on the watch to prevent themselves from being
overreached in this way. Those who are less watchful than others are
overwhelmed with gifts by designing men, who wish to attain to the
pauper class. The position of Almah and myself illustrates this. Our
ignorance of the blessings and honors of poverty led us to receive
whatever was offered us. Taking advantage of our innocence and
ignorance, the whole city thereupon proceeded to bestow their property
upon us, and all became paupers through our fortunate arrival.
No one ever injures another unless by accident, and when this occurs
it affords the highest joy to the injured party. He has now a claim on
the injurer; he gets him into his power, is able to confer benefits on
him and force upon him all that he wishes. The unhappy injurer, thus
punished by the reception of wealth, finds himself helpless; and where
the injury is great, the injured man may bestow upon the other all his
wealth and attain to the envied condition of a pauper.
Among the Kosekin the sick are objects of the highest regard. All
classes vie with one another in their attentions. The rich send their
luxuries; the paupers, however, not having anything to give, go
themselves and wait on them and nurse them. For this there is no help,
and the rich grumble, but can do nothing. The sick are thus sought out
incessantly, and most carefully tended. When they die there is great
rejoicing, since death is a blessing; but the nurses labor hard to
preserve them in life, so as to prolong the enjoyment of the high
privilege of nursing. Of all sick the incurable are most honored,
since they require nursing always. Children also are highly honored
and esteemed, and the aged too, since both classes require the care of
others and must be the recipients of favors which all are anxious to
bestow. Those who suffer from contagious diseases are more sought
after than any other class, for in waiting on these there is the
chance of gaining the blessing of death; indeed, in these cases much
trouble is usually experienced from the rush of those who insist on
offering their services.
For it must never be forgotten that the Kosekin love death as we love
life; and this accounts for all those ceremonies which to me were so
abhorrent, especially the scenes of the Mista Kosek. To them a dead
human body is no more than the dead body of a bird: there is no awe
felt, no sense of sanctity, of superstitious horror; and so I learned,
with a shudder, that the hate of life is a far worse thing than the
fear of death. This desire for death is, then, a master-passion, and
is the key to all their words and acts. They rejoice over the death of
friends, since those friends have gained the greatest of blessings;
they rejoice also at the birth of children, since those who are born
will one day gain the bliss of death.
For a couple to fall in love is the signal for mutual self-surrender.
Each insists on giving up the loved one; and the more passionate the
love is, the more eager is the desire to have the loved one married to
someone else. Lovers have died broken-hearted from being compelled to
marry one another. Poets here among the Kosekin celebrate unhappy love
which has met with this end. These poets also celebrate defeats
instead of victories, since it is considered glorious for one nation
to sacrifice itself to another; but to this there are important
limitations, as we shall see. Poets also celebrate street-sweepers,
scavengers, lamp-lighters, laborers, and above all, paupers, and pass
by as unworthy of notice the authors, Meleks, and Kohens of the land.
The paupers here form the most honorable class. Next to these are the
laborers. These have strikes as with us; but it is always for harder
work, longer hours, or smaller pay. The contest between capital and
labor rages, but the conditions are reversed; for the grumbling
capitalist complains that the laborer will not take as much pay as he
ought to while the laborer thinks the capitalist too persistent in his
efforts to force money upon him.
Here among the Kosekin the wealthy class forms the mass of the people,
while the aristocratic few consist of the paupers. These are greatly
envied by the others, and have many advantages. The cares and burdens
of wealth, as well as wealth itself, are here considered a curse, and
from all these the paupers are exempt. There is a perpetual effort on
the part of the wealthy to induce the paupers to accept gifts, just
as among us the poor try to rob the rich. Among the wealthy there is
a great and incessant murmur at the obstinacy of the paupers. Secret
movements are sometimes set on foot which aim at a redistribution of
property and a levelling of all classes, so as to reduce the haughty
paupers to the same condition as the mass of the nation. More than
once there has been a violent attempt at a revolution, so as to force
wealth on the paupers; but as a general thing these movements have
been put down and their leaders severely punished. The paupers have
shown no mercy in their hour of triumph; they have not conceded one
jot to the public demand, and the unhappy conspirators have been
condemned to increased wealth and luxury, while the leaders have
been made Meleks and Kohens. Thus there are among the Kosekin the
unfortunate many who are cursed with wealth, and the fortunate few who
are blessed with poverty. These walk while the others ride, and from
their squalid huts look proudly and contemptuously upon the palaces of
their unfortunate fellow-countrymen.
The love of death leads to perpetual efforts on the part of each to
lay down his life for another. This is a grave difficulty in hunts and
battles. Confined prisoners dare not fly, for in such an event the
guards kill themselves. This leads to fresh rigors in the captivity of
the prisoners in case of their recapture, for they are overwhelmed
with fresh luxuries and increased splendors. Finally, if a prisoner
persist and is recaptured, he is solemnly put to death, not, as with
us, by way of severity, but as the last and greatest honor. Here
extremes meet; and death, whether for honor or dishonor, is all the
same--death--and is reserved for desperate cases. But among the
Kosekin this lofty destiny is somewhat embittered by the agonizing
thought on the part of the prisoner, who thus gains it, that his
wretched family must be doomed, not, as with us, to poverty and want,
but, on the contrary, to boundless wealth and splendor.
Among so strange a people it seemed singular to me what offences could
possibly be committed which could be regarded and punished as crimes.
These, however, I soon found out. Instead of robbers, the Kosekin
punished the secret bestowers of their wealth on others. This is
regarded as a very grave offence. Analogous to our crime of piracy
is the forcible arrest of ships at sea and the transfer to them of
valuables. Sometimes the Kosekin pirates give themselves up as slaves.
Kidnapping, assault, highway robbery, and crimes of violence have
their parallel here in cases where a strong man, meeting a weaker,
forces himself upon him as his slave or compels him to take his purse.
If the weaker refuse, the assailant threatens to kill himself, which
act would lay the other under obligations to receive punishment from
the state in the shape of gifts and honors, or at least subject him
to unpleasant inquiries. Murder has its counterpart among the Kosekin
in cases where one man meets another, forces money on him, and kills
himself. Forgery occurs where one uses another's name so as to confer
money on him.
There are many other crimes, all of which are severely punished. The
worse the offence is, the better is the offender treated. Among the
Kosekin capital punishment is imprisonment amid the greatest splendor,
where the prisoner is treated like a king, and has many palaces and
great retinues; for that which we consider the highest they regard as
the lowest, and with them the chief post of honor is what we would
call the lowest menial office. Of course, among such a people, any
suffering from want is unknown, except when it is voluntary. The
pauper class, with all their great privileges, have this restriction,
that they are forced to receive enough for food and clothing. Some,
indeed, manage by living in out-of-the-way places to deprive
themselves of these, and have been known to die of starvation; but
this is regarded as dishonorable, as taking an undue advantage of a
great position, and where it can be proved, the children and relatives
of the offender are severely punished according to the Kosekin
fashion.
State politics here move, like individual affairs, upon the great
principle of contempt for earthly things. The state is willing to
destroy itself for the good of other states; but as other states are
in the same position, nothing can result. In times of war the object
of each army is to honor the other and benefit it by giving it the
glory of defeat. The contest is thus most fierce. The Kosekin, through
their passionate love of death, are terrible in battle; and when they
are also animated by the desire to confer glory on their enemies by
defeating them, they generally succeed in their aim. This makes them
almost always victorious, and when they are not so not a soul returns
alive. Their state of mind is peculiar. If they are defeated they
rejoice, since defeat is their chief glory; but if they are victorious
they rejoice still more in the benevolent thought that they have
conferred upon the enemy the joy, the glory, and the honor of defeat.
Here all shrink from governing others. The highest wish of each is to
serve. The Meleks and Kohens, whom I at first considered the highest,
are really the lowest orders; next to these come the authors, then the
merchants, then farmers, then artisans, then laborers, and, finally,
the highest rank is reached in the paupers. Happy the aristocratic,
the haughty, the envied paupers! The same thing is seen in their
armies. The privates here are highest in rank, and the officers come
next in different graduations. These officers, however, have the
command and the charge of affairs as with us; yet this is consistent
with their position, for here to obey is considered nobler than to
command. In the fleet the rowers are the highest class; next come the
fighting-men; and lowest of all are the officers. War arises from
motives as peculiar as those which give rise to private feuds; as, for
instance, where one nation tries to force a province upon another;
where they try to make each other greater; where they try to benefit
unduly each other's commerce; where one may have a smaller fleet or
army than has been agreed on, or where an ambassador has been
presented with gifts, or received too great honor or attention.
In such a country as this, where riches are disliked and despised, I
could not imagine how people could be induced to engage in trade.
This, however, was soon explained. The laborers and artisans have to
perform their daily work, so as to enable the community to live and
move and have its being. Their impelling motive is the high one of
benefiting others most directly. They refuse anything but the very
smallest pay, and insist on giving for this the utmost possible labor.
Tradesmen also have to supply the community with articles of all
sorts; merchants have to sail their ships to the same end--all being
animated by the desire of effecting the good of others. Each one tries
not to make money, but to lose it; but as the competition is sharp and
universal, this is difficult, and the larger portion are unsuccessful.
The purchasers are eager to pay as much as possible, and the merchants
and traders grow rich in spite of their utmost endeavors. The wealthy
classes go into business so as to lose money, but in this they seldom
succeed. It has been calculated that only two per cent in every
community succeed in reaching the pauper class. The tendency is for
all the labors of the working-class to be ultimately turned upon the
unfortunate wealthy class. The workmen being the creators of wealth,
and refusing to take adequate pay, cause a final accumulation of the
wealth of the community in the hands of the mass of the non-producers,
who thus are fixed in their unhappy position, and can hope for no
escape except by death. The farmers till the ground, the fishermen
fish, the laborers toil, and the wealth thus created is pushed from
these incessantly till it all falls upon the lowest class--namely, the
rich, including Athons, Meleks, and Kohens. It is a burden that is
often too heavy to be borne; but there is no help for it, and the
better-minded seek to cultivate resignation.
Women and men are in every respect absolutely equal, holding precisely
the same offices and doing the same work. In general, however, it is
observed that women are a little less fond of death than men, and a
little less unwilling to receive gifts. For this reason they are very
numerous among the wealthy class, and abound in the offices of
administration. Women serve in the army and navy as well as men, and
from their lack of ambition or energetic perseverance they are usually
relegated to the lower ranks, such as officers and generals. To my
mind it seemed as though the women were in all the offices of honor
and dignity, but in reality it was the very opposite. The same is true
in the family. The husbands insist on giving everything to the wives
and doing everything for them. The wives are therefore universally the
rulers of the household while the husbands have an apparently
subordinate, but, to the Kosekin, a more honorable position.
As to the religion of the Kosekin, I could make nothing of it. They
believe that after death they go to what they call the world of
darkness. The death they long for leads to the darkness that they
love; and the death and the darkness are eternal. Still, they persist
in saying that the death and the darkness together form a state of
bliss. They are eloquent about the happiness that awaits them there in
the sunless land--the world of darkness; but for my own part, it
always seemed to me a state of nothingness.