----- Original Message -----
 > An interesting note on the term "noble savage";  the word "noble refers to
a class or caste of people rather than a character trait; early European
explorers noted that all Native American men engaged in hunting, a practice
which in Europe was reserved for the nobility -- hence within the tribe,
every man was a noble.

Interesting take, to be sure,  and accurate insofar as hunting being the
privilege of European nobility, but the concept of the "noble savage"
originated with the French Romantic Jean-Jacques Rousseau in the 1762 novel
Émile.

The "noble savage" is an "idealized human prototype, inherently good in a
state of nature before being corrupted by 'civilization.'"  (Brewer's
Dictionary of
Phrase & Fable, 1999)

HTH,
Theola