We are apt to think of the savage as a freakish creature, all moods--at one moment a friend, at the next moment a fiend.

So he might be, if it were not for the social drill imposed by his customs.

So he is, if you destroy his customs, and expect him nevertheless to behave as an educated and reasonable being.

Given, then, a primitive society in a healthy and uncontaminated condition, its members will invariably be found to be on the average more law-abiding, as judged from the standpoint of their own law, than is the case any civilized state.
But now we come to the bad side of custom.

Its conserving influence extends to all traditional practices, however unreasonable or perverted.