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MAN 

PAST  AND  PRESENT 


CAMBRIDGE  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 

C.  F.  CLAY,  Manager 

LONDON   :  FETTER  LANE,   E.  C.  4 

NEW  YORK    :    G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 

BOMBAY       1 

CALCUTTA  V  MACMILLAN  AND  CO.,  Ltd. 

MADRAS      ) 

TORONTO  :  J.  M.  DENT  AND  SONS,  Ltd. 

TOKYO  :  MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI-KAISHA 

ALL   RIGHTS    RESERVED 


MAN 

PAST  AND  PRESENT 

BY 

A.  H.  KEANE 

REVISED,  AND  LARGELY  RE-WRITTEN,  BY 

A.  HINGSTON  QUIGGIN 

AND 

A.  C.  HADDON 

READER    IN    ETHNOLOGY,    CAMBRIDGE 


CAMBRIDGE 

AT  THE  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 

1920 


PREFACE  TO  NEW  EDITION 

THOSE  who  are  familiar  with  the  vast  amount  of  ethno- 
logical literature  published  since  the  close  of  last  century 
will  realize  that  to  revise  and  bring  up  to  date  a  work  whose 
range  in  space  and  time  covers  the  whole  world  from  prehistoric 
ages  down  to  the  present  day,  is  a  task  impossible  of  accom- 
plishment within  the  compass  of  a  single  volume.  Recent 
discoveries  have  revolutionized  our  conception  of  primeval 
man,  while  still  providing  abundant  material  for  controversy, 
and  the  rapidly  increasing  pile  of  ethnographical  matter, 
although  a  vast  amount  of  spade  work  remains  to  be  done,  is 
but  one  sign  of  the  remarkable  interest  in  ethnology  which  is 
so  conspicuous  a  feature  of  the  present  decade.  Even  to  keep 
abreast  of  the  periodical  literature, devoted  to  his  subject  pro- 
vides ample  occupation  for  the  ethnologist  and  few  are  those 
who  can  now  lay  claim  to  such  an  omniscient  title. 

Under  such  circumstances  the  faults  of  omission  and  com- 
pression could  not  be  avoided  in  revising  Professor  Keane's 
work,  but  it  is  hoped  that  the  copious  references  which  form 
a  prominent  feature  of  the  present  edition  will  compensate  in 
some  measure  for  these  obvious  defects.  The  main  object  of 
the  revisers  has  been  to  retain  as  much  as  possible  of  the 
original  text  wherever  it  fairly  represents  current  opinion  at 
the  present  time,  but  so  different  is  our  outlook  from  that  of 
1899  that  certain  sections  have  had  to  be  entirely  rewritten 
and  in  many  places  pages  have  been  suppressed  to  make  room 
for  more  important  information.    In  every  case  where  new 


vi  Preface  to  New  Edition 

matter  has  been  inserted  references  are  given  to  the  responsible 
authorities  and  the  fullest  use  has  been  made  of  direct  quotation 
from  the  authors  cited. 

Mrs  Hingston  Quiggin  is  responsible  for  the  whole  work 
of  revision  with  the  exception  of  Chapter  XI,  revised  by 
Miss  Lilian  Whitehouse,  while  Dr  A.  C.  Haddon  has  criticized, 
corrected  and  supervised  the  work  throughout. 

A.  H.  Q. 
A.  C.  H. 

lo  October,  1919. 


CONTENTS 

CHAP.  PAGE 

.       I.    GENERAL  CONSIDERATIONS        ..'....  i 

II.     THE  METAL  AGES— HISTORIC  TIMES  AND  PEOPLES  20 

III.  THE  AFRICAN  NEGRO :  I.  SUDANESE       ....  40 

IV.  THE  AFRICAN  NEGRO  :    II.    BANTUS— NEGRILLOES— 

BUSHMEN— HOTTENTOTS 84 

V.     THE    OCEANIC    NEGROES:    PAPUASIANS    (PAPUANS 

AND  MELANESIANS)— NEGRITOES— TASMANIANS  132 

VI.     THE  SOUTHERN  MONGOLS 163 

VII.     THE  OCEANIC  MONGOLS 219 

VIII.     THE  NORTHERN  MONGOLS 254 

IX.     THE  NORTHERN  MONGOLS  {continued)       ....  300 

X.     THE  AMERICAN  ABORIGINES 332 

XI.     THE  AMERICAN  ABORIGINES  (continued)    ....  388 

Xn.     THE    PRE-DRAVIDIANS:    JUNGLE    TRIBES    OF    THE 

DECCAN,  SAKAI,  AUSTRALIANS 422  , 

XIII.  THE  CAUCASIC  PEOPLES 438 

XIV.  THE  CAUCASIC  PEOPLES  {continued) 488 

XV.     THE  CAUCASIC  PEOPLES  {conHnued) 501 

APPENDIX 556 

INDEX 562 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

(at  the  end  of  the  volume) 

PLATE  I. 

1.  Hausa  slave  of  Tunis  (Western  Sudanese  Negro). 

2.  Zulu  girl,  South  Africa  (Bantu  Negroid).  , 

3.  4.    Abraham  Lucas,  Age  32,  South  Africa  (Koranna  Hottentot). 
5,  6.    Swaartbooi,  Age  20,  South  Africa  (Bushman). 

PLATE  IL 

1.  Andamanese  (Negrito). 

2.  Semang,  Malay  Peninsula  (Negrito). 

3.  Acta,  Philippines  (Negrito). 

4.  Central  African  Pygmy  (Negrillo). 

5-7.     Tapiro,  Netherlands  New  Guinea  (Negrito). 

PLATE  in. 

1,  2.    Jemmy,  native  of  Hampshire  Hills,  Tasmania  (Tasmanian). 
3,  4.    Native  of  Oromosapua,  Kiwai,  British  New  Guinea  (Papuan). 

5.  6.    Native  of  Hula,  British  New  Guinea  (Papuo-Melanesian). 

PLATE  IV. 

1.  Chinese  man  (Mixed  Southern  Mongol), 

2.  Chinese  woman  of  Kulja  (mixed  Southern  Mongol). 

3.  4.    Kara-Kirghiz  of  Semirechinsk. 

5.  Kara- Kirghiz  woman  of  Semirechinsk, 

6.  Solon  of  Kulja  (Manchu-Tungus). 

PLATE  V. 

1.  Jelai,   an    Iban  (Sea-Dayak)  of  the   Rejang   river,    Sarawak,   Borneo 

(mixed  Proto-Malay). 

2.  Buginese,  Celebes  (Malayan). 

3.  Bontoc  Igorot,  Luzon,  Philippines  (Malayan). 

4.  Bagobo,  Mindanao,  Philippines  (Malayan). 

5.  6.    Kenyah  girls,  Sarawak,  Borneo  (mixed  Proto-Malay). 

PLATE  VI. 

1.  Samoyed,  Tavji. 

2.  Tungus. 

3.  Ostiak  of  the  Yenesei  (Palaeo-Siberian). 

4.  Kalmiik  woman  (Western  Mongol). 

5.  Gold  of  Amur  river  (Tungus). 

6.  Gilyak  woman  (N.E.  Mongol). 


X  List  of  Illustrations 

PLATE  VII. 

1.  Ainu  woman,  Yezo,  Japan  (Palaeo-Siberian). 

2.  Ainu  man,  Yezo,  Japan  (Palaeo-Siberian). 

3.  4.    Fine  and  coarse  types  of  Japanese  men  (mixed  Manchu-Korean  and 

Southern  Mongol.) 

5.  Korean  (mixed  Tungus-Eastern  Mongoloid). 

6.  Lapp  (Finnish). 

PLATE  VI il. 

1.  Eskimo,  Port  Clarence,  West  Alaska. 

2.  Indian  of  the  north-west  coast  of  North  America.   .'Kwakiutl  (Waka- 

shan  stock). 

3.  Cocopa,  Lower  California  (Yuman  stock). 

4.  Navaho,  Arizona  (Athapascan  linguistic  stock). 

5.  6.    Buffalo  Bull  Ghost,  Dakota  of  Crow  Creek  (Siouan  stock). 

PLATE  rx. 

1.  Carib,  British  Guiana. 

2.  Guatuso,  Costa  Rica. 

3.  Native  of  Otovalo,  Ecuador. 

4.  Native  of  Zdmbisa,  Ecuador. 

5.  Tehuel-che  man,  Patagonia. 

6.  Tehuel-che  woman,  Patagonia. 

PLATE  X. 

1.  Sita  Wanniya,  a  Henebedda  Vedda,  Ceylon  (Pre-Dravidian). 

2.  Sakai,  Perak,  Malay  Peninsula  (Pre-Dravidian).  1 

3.  Irula  of  Chingleput,  Nilgiri  Hills,.  South  India  (Pre-Dravidian), 

4.  Paniyan  woman,  Malabar,  South  India  (Pre-Dravidian). 

5.  Kaitish,  Central  Australia  (Australian). 

6.  Mulgrave  woman  (Australian). 

PLATE  XI. 

I,  2.    Dane  (Nordic). 

3.  Dane  (mixed  Alpine). 

4.  Breton  woman  of  Guingamp  (mixed  Alpine). 

5.  Swiss  woman  (Nordic). 

6.  Swiss  woman  (Alpine). 

PLATE  XII. 

1.  Catalan  man,  Spain  (Iberian). 

2.  Irishman,  Co.  Roscommon  (Mediterranean). 

3.  4.    Kababish,  Egyptian  Sudan  (mixed  Semite). 

5.  Egyptian  Bedouin  (mixed  Semite). 

6.  Afghdn  of  Zerafsh^n  (Iranian). 

PLATE  XIII. 

I,  2.    Bisharin,  Egyptian  Sudan  (Hamite). 

3.  Beni  Amer,  Egyptian  Sudan  (Hamite). 

4.  Masai,  British  East  Africa  (mixed  Nilote  and  Hamite). 

5.  Shilluk,  Egyptian  Sudan  (Nilote,  showing  approach  to  Hamitic  type). 

6.  Shilluk,  Egyptian  Sudan  (Nilote). 


List  of  Illustrations  xi 

PLATE  XIV. 

I,  2.    Kurd,  Nimrud-Dagh,  lake  Van,  Kurdistan,  Asia  Minor  (Nordic). 
3,  4.    Armenian,  Kessab,  Djebel  Akrah,  Kurdistan  (Armenoid  Alpine). 

5.  Tajik  woman  of  E.  Turkestan  (Alpine). 

6.  Tajik  of  Tashkend  (mixed  Alpine  and  Turki). 
PLATE  XV. 

I,  2.  Sinhalese,  Ceylon  (mixed  "Aryan"). 

3.  Hindu  merchant.  Western  India  (mixed  "  Aryan  "). 

4.  Kling  woman,  Eastern  India  (Dravidian). 

5.  Linga  Banajiga,  South  India  (Dravidian). 

6.  Vakkaliga,  Canarese,  South  India  (mixed  Alpine). 

PLATE  XVI. 

I,  2.    Ruatoka  and  his  wife,  Raiatea  (Polynesian). 

3.  Tiawhiao,  Maori,  New  Zealand  (Polynesian). 

4.  Maori  woman,  New  Zealand  (Polynesian). 

5.  6.     Girls  of  the  Caroline  Islands  (Micronesian). 

We  offer  our  sincere  thanks  for  the  use  of  the  following  photographs  : 
A.  H.  Keane,  Ethnology  (1896),  iv.  2,  3,  4,  S,  6;  ix.  3,  4 ;  xii.  6;  xiv.  5,  6. 

A.  H.  Keane,  Man,  Past  and  Present  (1899),  i.  2 ;  11.  3 ;  v.  2 ;  vi.  4,  5, 6 ;  vii.  5  ; 
IX.  I,  2  ;  X.  4,  6;  XII.  5. 

A.  R.  Brown,  II.  i. 

Prof  R.  B.  Yapp,  11.  2. 

Field  Museum  of  Natural  History,  Chicago,  11.  4 ;  v.  4;  vii.  i,  2  ;  viii.  i,  2, 

3,4;  IX.  5,6;  XV.  I,  2. 
Dr  WoUaston,  cf  Pygmies  and  Papuans,  p.  212 ;  II.  5,  6,  7. 
Dr  G.  Landtman,  ill.  3,  4. 
Anthony  Wilkin,  III.  5,  6. 

Prof  C.  G.  Seligman,  v.  i;{The  Veddas,  pi.  v)x.  i ;  xii.  3,  4;  xiii.  i,  2,  3,  5,  6. 
L.  F.  Taylor,  V.  3. 
A.  C.  Haddon,  I.  3,  4,  5,  6;  m.  i,  2 ;  iv.  i ;  v.  j,  6;  vii.  6;  xi.  i,  2,  3;  xii. 

I,  2;  XIII.  4;  XVI.  I,  2,  3,  4. 
Miss  M.  A.  Czaplicka,  VI.  i,  2,  3. 
Dr  W.  Crooke  (cf  Northern  India,  pi.  ill),  XV.  3. 
Baelz,  VII.  3,  4.  ' 

Bureau  of  American  Ethnology,  viii.  5,  6. 
E.  Thurston  {Castes  and  Tribes  of  Southern  India,  II.  p.  387),  x.  3  ;  {ibid.  IV. 

pp.  236,  240),  XV.  5;  XV.  6. 
Sir  Baldwin  Spencer  and  F.  J.  Gillen  and  Messrs  Macmillan  &  Co.  {Across 

Australia,  11.  fig.  169),  x.  5. 
Prof  J.  KoUmann,  XI.  5,  6. 

P.  W.  Luton,  XII  2.  ' 

Prof  F.  von  Luschan  and  the  Council  of  the  Royal  Anthropological  Institute 

{Journ.  Roy.  Anth.  Inst.,  XLI.,  pi.  xxiv,  i,  2,  pi.  xxx,  i,  2),  xiv.  i,  2,  3,  4. 

Dr  W.  H.  Furness,  XVl.  5,  6. 


CHAPTER   I 


GENERAL   CONSIDERATIONS 

The  World  peopled  by  Migration  from  one  Centre  by  Pleistocene  Man— The 
Primary  Groups  evolved  each  in  its  special  Habitat— Pleistocene  Man : 
Pithecanthropus  erecUis;  The  Maner  ]?lw,  Homo  Heidelbergensis ;  The  Piltdown 
skull,  Eoanthropus  Dawsoni — General  View  of  Pleistocene  Man — The  first 
Migrations — Early  Man  and  his  Works — Classification  of  Human  Types  :  H. 
primigenius,  Neandertal  or  Mousterian  Man ;  H.  recens,  Galley  Hill  or  Aurig- 
nacian  Man — Physical  Types — Human  Culture:  Reutelian,  Mafflian,  Mesvinian, 
Strepyan,  Chellean,  Acheulean,  Mousterian,  Aurignacian,  Solutrian,  Magda- 
lenian,  Azilian — Chronology — The  early  History  of  Man  a  Geological 
Problem — The  Human  Varieties  the  Outcome  of  their  several  Environments 
— Correspondence  of  Geographical  with  Racial  and  Cultural  Zones. 

In  order  to  a  clear  understanding  of  the  many  difficult 
questions  connected  with  the  natural  history  of  the  human 
family,  two  cardinal  points  have  to  be  steadily 
borne  in  mind — the  specific  unity  of  all  existing   peopled °by  Mi- 
varieties,  and  the  dispersal  of  their  generalised   gration  from  one 
precursors  over  the  whole  world  in  pleistocene   p^"*''^  ^'J  ^'^is- 
times.      As   both   points   have  elsewhere  been 
dealt  with  by  me  somewhat  fully  ^  it  will  here  suffice  to  show 
their  direct  bearing  on  the  general  evolution  of  the  human 
species  from  that  remote  epoch  to  the  present  day. 

It  must  be  obvious  that,  if  man  is  specifically  one,  though 
not  necessarily  sprung  of  a  single_pair,  he  miJsFTiave" FaHTin 
homely  language,  a  single  cradTe-Iand,  fromjvhich  the  peopling 
of  the  earth  was"broiight  aBouf  "H)rinigra|imi,  hi5t "by  inde- 
'pendeot  developmenTs""  from  different  species  in  so  many 
independent  geographical  areas. 

It  follows  further,  and  this  point  is  all-import-ant,  that, 
since   the    world    was   peopled    h^  pleistocene^roari,    it  was 

'  Ethnology ^  Chaps.  V.  and  VII. 


2  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

peopled  by  a  generalised  ^.S^^z^I^SSlJ^^E^-S^SL..^—^ 
later  racial  differences^  The  existing  grougs^^_according  to 
this  IiypotEesis,  have  developed  in  different  areas. -Jjide- 
pendently  and  divergently  by  continuous  adaptation  Jo  their 
TTie  Prima  several  envjronm.ents.     Tf  they  still  constitute 

Groups  evolved  mere  varieties,  and  not  distinct  species,  the 
each  in  its  reason  is  because  all  come  of  like  pleistocfine 

special  Habitat,  g^jj^estry,  while  the  divergences  have  been  con- 
fined to  relatively  narrow  limits,  that  is,  not  wide  enough  to 
be  regarded  zoologically  as  specific  differences. 

The  battle  between  monogenists_an d  polygenists  cannot 
be  decided  until  more  facts  are  at  ourolsposair  and  much 
wili  doubtless  be  said  on  both  sides  lor  some  time  to  come  . 
Among  the  views  of  human  origins  brought  forward  in  recent 
years  should  be  mentioned  the  daring  theory  of  Klaatsch". 
Recognising  _two  distinct  human  types,  Neandertal  and 
xAurignac  (see'pprS,  9  below),  and  two  distinct  antliropbid 
types,  gorilla  and  orang-utan,  he  '~derives"Neandeftal  man 
ana^mciy^OTll'lirTrolB  one^^^^c^^  cincesfor,  and  Aiirighac 

man  and  Asiatic  orang-utan  from  another.  Though  ana- 
tomists,  especially  those  conversant  with  anthropoid  structure', 
are  not  able  to  accept  this  view,  they  admit  that  many  diffi- 
culties may  be  solved  by  the  recognition  of  more  than  one 
primordial  stock  of  human  ancestors*.  The  questions  of 
adaptation  to  climate  and  environment  ^  the  possibilities  of 
degeneracy,  the  varying  degrees  of  physiological  activity,  of 
successful  mutations,  the  effects  of  crossing  and  all  the  com- 
plicated problems  of  heredity  are  involved  in  the  discussion, 
and  it  must  be  acknowledged  that  our  information  concerning 
all  of  these  is  entirely  inadequate. 

Nevertheless  all  speculations  on  the  subject  are  not  based 
merely  On  hypotheses,  and  three  discoveries  of  late  years 
have  provided  solid  facts"  lor  'the  worEihg'  out"'orthe 
problem. 

These  discoveries  were  the  remains  of  Pithecanthropus 

^  See  A.  H.  K^ne,  Ethnology,  1909,  Chap.  VII.  ^ 

2  H.  Klaatsch,  "Die  Aurignac-Rasse  und  ihre  Stellung  im  Stammbaum  des 

Menschen,"  Ztschr.  f.  Eth.  ui.  1910.     ^•e.t.  ^■io  Prdhistorische  Zeitschrift,  Vol.  i. 

1909. 

'  Cf.  A.  Keith's  criticisms  in  Nature,  Vol.  LXXXV.  191 1,  p.  50,8. 

*  W.  L.  H.  Duckworth,  Prehistoric  Man,  1912,  p.  146. 

*  W.  Ridgeway,  "The  Influence  of  Environment  on  VLaxi,"  Journ.  Roy.  Anthr. 
Inst,  Vol.  XL.  1910,  p.  10. 


i]  General  Considerations  3 

lereciits^  in  Java,  in  1892,  of  the  M auer  jaw",  near  Heidelberg, 
in  1907^  and  ot  thePutdowrrskiaTl''  ili^ussexTn 
^191^'     XltHougEl;Tiriilauer7av^  Man.'"''™^ 

without  hesitation,  the  controversy  concerniog 
the  correct  interpretation  of  the  Javan  fossils  has  been  raging 
for  more  than  twenty  years  and  shows  no  sign  of  abating, 
while  Eoanthropus  Dawsoni  is  too  recent  an  intruder  into  the 
arena  to  be  fairly  dealt  with  at  present.  Certain  facts  how- 
ever stand  out  clearly.  In  late  pliocene  or  early  pleistocene 
times  certain  early  ancestral  forms  were  already  in  existence 
which  can  scarcely  be  excluded  from  the  Hominidae.  In 
range  they  were  as  widely  distributed  as  Java  in  the  east  to 
Heidelberg  and  Sussex  in  the  west,  and  in  spite  of  divergence 
in  type  a  certain  correlation  is  not  impossible,  even  if  the 
Piltdown  specimen  should  finally  be  regarded  as  representing 
a  distinct  genus^  Each  contributes  facts  of  the  utmost  im- 
portance for  the  tracing  out  of  the  history  of  human  evolution. 
Pithecanthropus  raises  the  vexed  question  as  to 
whether  the  erect  attitude  or  brain  development  freS"*""^"^ 
came  first  in  the  story.  The  conjunction  of  pre- 
human braincase  with  human  thighbone  appeared  to  favour 
the  popular  view  that  the  erect  attitude  was  the  earlier,  but 
the  evidence  of  embryology  suggests  a  reverse  order.  And 
although  at  first  the  thighbone  was  recognised  as  distinctly 
human  it  seems  that  of  late  doubts  have  been  cast  on  this 
interpretation",  and  even  the  claim  to  the  title  erectus  is  called 
in  question.  The  characters  of  straightness  and  slenderness 
on  which  much  stress  was  laid  are  found  in  exaggerated  form 
in  gibbons  and  lemurs.  The  intermediate  position  in  respect 
of  mental  endowment  (in  so  far  as  brain  can  be  estimated  by 
cranial  capacity)  is  shown  in  the  accompanying  diagram  in 
which  the  cranial  measurements  of  Pithecanthropus  are  com- 
pared with  those  of  a  chimpanzee  and  prehistoric  man.     The 

1  E.  Dubois,  "  Pithecanthropus  erectus,  transitional  form  between  Man  and  the 
Apes,"  Sci.  Trans.  R.  Dublin  Soc.  i8g8. 

2  O.  Schoetensack,  Der  Unterkiefer  des  Homo  Beidelbergensis,  etc.,  1908. 

3  C.  Davson  and  A.  Smith  V^^oodward,  "On  the  Discovery  of  a  Palaeolithic 
Skull  and  Mandible,"  etc.,  Quart.  Journ.  Geol.  Soc.  1913.  •   ■     ■ 

*  This  was  the  view  of  A.  Smith  Woodward  when  the  skull  was  first  «xhvbit6d 
{Joe.  cit.),  but  in  bis  paper,  "  Missing  Links  among  Extinct  Animals/'  Brit.  Ass.^ 
Biraiingham,  19 13,  he  is  inclined  to  regard  "  Piltdown  man,  or  some  .close  relative" 
as  "  on  the  direct  Une  of  descent  with  ourselves."  For  A.  Keith's  criticism  see 
The  An'tiquity  of  Mem,  191 S,  p-  S°3- 

*  W.  L.  H.  Duckworth,  Prehistoric  Man,  i^ii,  p.  8. 


Man:  Past  and  Present 


[CH. 


teeth  strengthen  the  evidence,  for  they  are  described  as  too 
large  for  a  man  and  too  small  for  an  ape.     Thus  Pithecan- 
thropus has  been  confidently  assigned  to  a  place;  in  a"fefandh 
the  humanTamuy  tree. 

Cro-Magnon 


POSITION   OF   p.   ERECTUS. 
(Manouvrier,  Bui.  Soc.  d'Anihrop.  1896,  p.  438.) 

The  Mauer  jaw,  the  geological  age  of  which  is  undisputed, 
also  represents  intermediate  characters.  .The  extraordinary 
Mauer  jaw.  Strength  and  thickness  of  bone,  the  wide  as- 
Homo  Heidei-  cending  ramus  with  shallow  sigmoid  notch 
bergensis.  (distinctly  simian  features)  and  the  total  absence 

of  chin'  would  deny  it  a  place  among  human  jaws,  but  the 
teeth,  which  are  all  fortunately  preserved  in  their  sockets,  are 
not  only  definitely  human,  but  show  in  certain  peculiarities 
less  simian  features  than  are  to  be  found  in  the  dentition  of 
modern  man  I 

1  For  the  relation  between  chin  formation  and  power  of  speech',  see  E.  Walkhoff, 
"  Der  Unterkiefer  der  Anthropomorphen  und  des  Menschen  in  seiner  funktionellen 
Entwicklung  und  Gestalt,"  E.  SAexiVdi,  Menschenqffen,  1902  ;  H.  Obermaier,  Der 
Mensch  der  Vorzeit,  1912,  p.  362;  and  W.  Wright,  "The  Mandible  of  Man  from 
the  Morphological  and  Anthropological  points  of  view,"  Essays  and  Studies  pre- 
sented to  W.  Ridgeway,  1913. 

2  Cf.  W.  L.  H.  Duckworth,  Prehistoric  Man,  1912,  p.  10,  and  A.  Keith,  The 
Antiquity  of  Man,  191 5,  p.  237. 


I] 


General  Considerations 


The  cranial  capacity  of  the  Piltdown  skull,  though  variously 
timatecl\    is   certaiJnjTgTeater  than""™that    of  puMown  .k«ii 


estimSCT    IS   certainly   greater   ui^„    mat    oi    patdown  skull. 
J^tthecanthropus,  the  general  outlines  with  steeply   Eoanthropus 
rgundedforehead    resenible™lhari°of'^^         Dawsoni. 
mattj^S^nfRe"  bGhes"  are  almost  without  exception  typically 


RECENT 


PLEISTOCENE 
•4,000  ft 

400J000  YEARS 


/>yy 


PLIOCENe 

epoo  ft 
500.000  YEARS 


MIOCENE 

apoo  f * 
900;000YIARS: 


■  *.ji   '"'  ■■■■- 


HeioELBeio 


eoAHTMoopua 

PiTHEC^NTMftoPVS 


KC/MOCPTHAL 


GENEALOGICAL  TREE  OF   MAN's   ANCESTRY. 

(A.  Keith,  T&e  Antiquity  of  Man,  1915 ;  fig.  187,  p.  501.) 

Jl'irP^"       The  jaw,   however,    though  usually   attributed  to 
the   same   individual^   recalls  the  primitive  features  of  the 

'  A.  Smith  Woodward,  1070  c.c. ;  A.  Keith,  1400  c.c. 

2  G.  G.  MacCurdy,  following  G.  S.  Miller,  Smithsonian  Misc.  Colls.  Vol.  65, 
No.  12  (1915),  is  convinced  that  "in  place  of  Eoanthropus  dawsoni  we  have  two 
individuals^belonging  to  different  genera,"  a  human  cranium  and  the  jaw  of  a 
chimpanzee.     Science,  N.S.  Vol.  XLIII.  1916,  p.  231.     See  also  Appendix  A. 


6  Man :  Past  and  Present  [cri. 

Mauer  speciffien  in  its  thick  ascending  portion  and  shallow 
notch,  while  iii  certain  characters  it  differs  ffoifi  any  kflO^ft 
jaw,  ancient  or  tnoderfl'.  The  evidence  afforded  by  the  teeth 
is  even  more  striking.     The  teeth  of  Pitke^jmtMdfiMH  tf^nd  q£ 

and  although  primitive  in  type,  are  far  more  advanced  in  the 
line  of  human  evolution  than  the  lowly  features  with  which 
they  are  associated  would  lead  one  to  expect.  The  Piltdown 
teeth  are  more  primitive  in  certain  characters  than  those  of 
either  the  Javan  or  the  Heidelberg  remains.  The  first  molar 
has  been  compared  to  that  of  Taubach,  the  most  ape-like  of 
human  or  pre-human  teeth  hitherto  recorded,  but  the  canine 
tooth  (found  by  P.  Teilhard  in  the  same  stratum  in  1913')  finds 
no  parallel  in  any  known  human  jaw ;  it  resembles  the  milk 
canine  of  the  chimpanzee  more  than  that  of  the  adult  dentition. 
It  cannot  be  said  that  any  clear  view  of  pleistocene  man 
General  View  of  ^^^  ^^  obtained  from  these  imperfect  scraps  of 
Pleistocene  evidence,  valuable  though  they  are.    Rather  may 

^*"-  we  agree  with   Keith  that  the  problem  grows 

more  instead  of  less  complex.  "In  our  first  youthful  burst 
of  Darwinianism  we  pictured  our  evolution  as  a  simple  pro- 
cession of  forms  leading  from  ape  to  man.  Each  age,  as  it 
passed,  transformed  the  men  of  the  time  one  stage  nearer  to 
us — one  more  distant  from- the  ape.  The  true  picture  is  very 
different.  We  have  to  conceive  an  ancient  -  world  in  which 
the  family  of  mankind  waS~BroIcen"'°ijp~into'n'arrow  groupsjOT 


generaTeach  genus  again  divided  into'aT'number  of  species — 
much  as  we  see  in  the  monkey  or  ape  world  of  to-day.  Xhsn 
out  of  that  great  welter  of  forms  pnespedes  became  the 
dpmmant  form,  and  ultimately  the  soTeL  suryi vi ng  one— the 
species  represented  by  the  modern_  races  of  mankjndj" 

We~  may  assiume~tHerefore  that  the    earth    was    mainlyj 
peopled  by  the  generalised  pleistocene  precursors,  who  moved  I 

aboot,  like  the  other  migrating  faunas,  uncon- 1 
mgrations.         sciously^  everywhere  following  the  lines  of  least 

resistance,   advancing  or  receding,   and    acting 
generally  on  blind  ittipulse  rathef  than  of  any  set  purpose. 

^  For  a  full  description  see  Quart.  Journ.  Geol.  Soc.  March,  1913.  Also 
A.  Keith,  The  Antiquity  of  Man^  19151  P-  320,  dnd  pp.  430-452. 

*  C.  DaeWSoh  and  A.  Siilith  Woodward,  "  Supplementary  Note  on  the  Diseovfery 
of  ai  Paila«olithic  Human  Skull  and  Mandible  at  Piltdcrwh  (Stissex),"  Q^art.  Jouiffi. 
Oeol.  Soc.  Apifil,  1914. 

^  Thi  Antiquity  of  Man^  1915,  p.  209.  . 


i]  General  Considerations  7 

That  such  must  have  been  the  nature  of  the  first  migratory 
movements  will  appear  evident  when  we  consider  that  they 
were  carried  on  by  rude  hordes,  all  very  much  alike,  and 
differing  not  greatly  from  other  zoological  groups,  and  further 
that  these  migrations  took  place  prior  to  the  development  of 
air^turarippIaiicer"Ee"yond  the  aBHttj^to  'wield~a  "Brolcen 
brancK  or  a  saplmg,  or  else  chip  or  flake  primitive  stone 
implements\ 

Herein  lies  the  explanation  of  the  curious  phenomenon, 
which  was  a  stumbling-block  to  premature  systematists,  that 
all  the  works  of  early  man  everywhere  present 
the  most  startling^gg^^E'ces:  affordmg-  abso-  Jis'S^jJi"  ^^ 
lutely  no  elements  for  classification,  for  instance, 
during  the  times  corresponding  with  the  Chellean  or  first 
period  of  the  Old  Stonis  Age.  The  implements  of  palaeo- 
lithic type  so  common  in  parts  of  South  India,  South  Africa, 
the  Sudan,  Egypt,  etc.,  present  a  remarkable  resemblance  to  one 
another.  This,  while  affording  2i  prima  fades  case  for,  is  not 
conclusive  of,  the  migrations  of  a  definite  type  of  humanity. 

After  referring  to  the  identity  of  certain  objects  from  the 
Hastings  kitchen-middens  and  a  barrow  near  Sevenoaks, 
W.  J.  L.  Abbot  proceeds  :  "  The  first  thing  that  would  strike 
one  in  looking  over  a  few  trays  of  these  implements  is  the 
remarkable  likeness  which  they  bear  to  those  of  Dordogne. 
Indeed  many  of  the  figures  in  the  magnificent  '  Reliquiae 
Aquitanicae '  might  almost  have  been  produced  from  these 
specimens^"  And  Sir  J.  Evans,  extending  his  glance  over  a 
wider  horizon,  discovers  implements _in  other  distant  lands 
"so  identical  in  form  and  character  with  British  specimens 
that  they  might  have  be^ejri_manufactured  by  the  sarne  hands  .^^ 
On  the  banks  of  the  Nile,  many  hundreds  of  feet  above  its  "| 
present  level,  implements  of  the  European  types  have  been  4 
discovered,  while  in  Somaliland,  in  an  ancient  river  valley,  at 
a  great  elevation  above  the  sea,  Seton-Karr  has  collected  a 
large  number  of  implements  formed  of  flint  and  quartzite, 
which,  judging  from  their  form  and  character,  might  have 
been  dug  out  of  the  drift-deposits  of  the  Somme  and  the 
Seine,  the  Thames  or  the  ancient  Solent'." 

1  Thus  Lucretius : 

"Anna  antiqua  manus,  ungues,  dentesque  fuerunt, 
Et  lapides,  et  item  silvarum  fragmina  rami." 

2  Jour.  Anthrop.  Inst.  1896,  p.  133. 

3  Inaugural  Address^  Brit.  Ass.  Meeting,  Toronto,  1897. 


8;  Man :  Past  and  Present  [ch.^ 

It  was  formerly  held  that  man  himself  showed  a  similar 
uniformity,  and  all  palaeolithic  skulls  were  referred  to  one 
long-headed  type,  called,  from  the  most  famous  example,  the 
Neandertal,  which  was  regarded  as  having  close  afifihities 
with  the  present  Australians.  But  this  resemblance  is  shown 
by  Boule'  and  others  to  be  purely  superficial,  and  recent 
archaeological  finds  indicate  that  more  than  one  racial  type 
was  in  existence  in  the  Palaeolithic  Age. 
Classification  of  W.  L.  H.  Duckworth  on  anatomical  evi- 
Human  Types,     dence  constructs  the  following  table". 

Group    I.      Early  ancestral  forms. 

Ex.  gr.  H.  heidelbergensis. 

Group  II.     Subdivision  A.     H.  primigenius. 
Ex.  gr.  La  Chapelle. 
Subdivision  B.     H.  recens;  with  varieties 
[H.  fossilis.     Ex.  gr.  Galley  Hill. 
\H.  sapiens. 

H.  Obermaier'  argues  as  follows:  Homo  primigenius  A?, 
neither  the  representative  of  an  intermediate  species  between 
ape  and  man,  nor  a  lower  or  distinct  type  than  Homo  sapiens, 
but  an  older  primitive  variety  (race)  of  the  latter,  which 
survives  in  exceptional  cases  down  to  the  present  day^ 
Clearly  then,  according  to  the  rules  of  zoological  classification, 
we  must  term  the  two,  Homo  sapiens  var.  primigenius,  as 
compared  with  Homo  sapiens  var.  recens. 

Whatever  classification  or  nomenclature  may  be  adopted 
the   dual    division    in    palaeolithic    times    is    now   generally 
H  primigenius     recognised.     The  more  primitive  type  is  cortP»v 
Neandertal  or '    monly  called  Neandertal  man,  from  the  famous 
Mousterian  cranium  found  m  the  Neandertal  cave  in  1857, 

^'  or   Mousterian  man,   from  the  culture  associa- 

tions.    To  this  group  belong  the  Gibraltar  skulP,  and  the 
skeletons  from  Spy°,   and   Krapina,  Croatia",  together  witfi" 

1  M.  Boule,  "L'homme  fossile  de  la  Chapelle-aux-Saints,"  Annales  de  PaUon- 
tologie,  191 1  (1913).     Cf.  also  H.  Obermaier,  Der  Mensch  der  Vorzeit,  1912,  p.  364. 

^  Prehistoric  Man,  1912,  p.  60. 

'  Der  Mensch  der  Vorzeit,  191 2,  p.  365.. 

*  This  is  not  generally  accepted.     See  A.  Keith's  diagram,  p.  5  and  pp.  9-10. 

6  W.  J.  SoUas,  "On  the  Cranial  and  Facial  Characters  of  the  Neandertal  Race," 
Phil.  Trans.  1907,  CXCIV. 

8  J.  Fraipont  and  M.  Lohest,  "  Recherches  Ethnographiques  sur  les  Ossements 
Humains,"  etc.,  Arch,  de  Biologies  1887. 

'  Gorjanovic-Kramberger,  Der  diluviale  Mensch  von  Krapina  in  Kroatia,  1906. 


I] 


General  Considerations 


the  later  discoveries  (i  908-11)  at   La  Chapelle'  (Corr^ze), 
Le  Moustier^  La  Ferassie'  (Dordogne)  and  many  others. 

Palaeolithic  examples  of  the  modern  human  type  have 
been  found  at  Briix  (Bohemia)*,  Brunn  (Moravia)'  and  Galley 
Hill  in  Kent«,  but  the  most  complete  find  was  H.recens, Galley 
tnat  at  i^ombe  Capelle  in  1909^  The  numerous  Hiii  or  Aurig- 
skeletons ,  found  at  Cro-Magnon'  and  at  the  "acianMan. 
Grottes  de  Grimaldi  at  Mentone'  though  showing  certain 
skeletal  differences  may  be  included  in  this  group,  the  earliest 
examples  of  which  are  associated  with  Aurignacian  culture". 

From  the  evidence  contributed   by  these  examples   the 
main  characteristics  of  the   two  groups    may  be   indicated, 
although,    owing   to   the    imperfection    of    the 
records,  any  generalisations  must  necessarily  be    ^''y^"=*'  "^^P^^- 
tentative  and  subject  to  criticism. 

The   La   Chapelle    skull    recalls    many  of  the   primitive 
features  of  the  "ancestral  types."     The  low  receding  fore- 
head,   the    overhanging    brow-ridges,    forming 
continuous  horizontal  bars  of  bone  overshadow-      "g^°  P"™" 
ing  the  orbits,  the  inflated  circumnasal  region,       ^^'""^■ 
the  enormous  jaws,  with  massive  ascending  ramus,  shallow 
sigmoid  notch,  "negative"  chin  and  other  "simian"  characters 
seem    reminiscent    of    Pithecanthropus    and    Homo   Heidel- 
bergensis.     The   cranial    capacity   however   is    estimated    at 
over   1600  cc,   thus  exceeding  that  of  the  average  modern 
European,  and  this  development,  even  though  associated,  as 
M.  Boule  has  pointed  out,  with  a  comparatively  lowly  brain, 
is  of  striking  significance.     The  low  stature,  probably  about 
1600  mm.  (under  5^  feet)  makes  the  size  of  the  skull  and 
cranial  capacity  all  the  more  remarkable.     "  A  survey  of  the 

'  M.  Boule,  "  L'homme  fossile  de  la  Chapelle-aux-Saints,"  UAnthr.  xix.  1908, 
and  Annates  de  Paldontologie,  191 1  (1913). 

^  H.  Klaatsch,  Prahistorische  Zeitschrift,  Vol.  I.  1909. 

2  Peyrony  and  Capitan,  Rev.  de  VEcole  d'Anihrop.  1909 ;  Bull.  Soc.  d'Anthr. 
de  Paris,  1 9 10. 

^  G.  Schwalbe,  "  Der  Schadel  von  Briix,"  Zeitschr.f.  Morph.  u.  Anthr.  1906. 

^  Makowsky,  "Der  diluviale  Mensch  in  Loss  von  Briinn,"  Mitt.  Anthrop.  Gesell. 
in  Wien,  1892. 

"  See  A.  Keith,  The  Antiquity  of  Man,  1915,  Chap.  X. 

'  H.  Klaatsch,  "Die  Aurignac-Rasse,"  etc.,  Zeitschr.f.  Ethn.  LIl.  1910. 

^  L.  Lartet,  "  Une  sepulture  des  troglodytes  du  Pdrigord,"  and  Broca,  "  Sur  les 
crines  et  ossements  des  Eyzies,"  Bull.  Soc.  d'Anthr.  de  Paris,  1868. 

'  R.  Verneau,  Les  Grottes  de  Grimaldi,  1906-11. 

^o  For  a  complete  list  with  bibliographical  references,  see  H.  Obermaier,  "Les 
restes  humains  Quaternaires  dans  I'Europe  centrale,"  Anthr.  1905,  p.  385, 1906,  p.  5 5. 


10  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

characters  of  Neanderthal  man — as  manifested  by  his  skeleton, 
brain  cast,  and  teeth— have  convinced  anthropologists  of  two 
things  :  first,  that  we  are  dealing  with  a  form  of  man  totally 
different  from  any  form  now  living;  and  secondly,  that  the 
kind  of  difference  far  exceeds  that  which  separates  the  most 
divergent  of  modern  human  races\" 

The  earliest j:omplete  and  authentic  example  of. ^Aurig- 
naci"an    man''~"was    the    skeleton    d[scoyer^ed.  near^C^bg 

rr ' ~~CapellelBordoineriri"l969V"  The  stature  is 

Homo  recens.  fowina^S^^amg  that  of  the  Neandertal  type, 
but  the  limb  bones. are  slig'hter  and  the  build  is  altogether 
lighter  anH^more  slender.  Ifie  greatest  contrast Jiesmjthe 
'sgull;;;;^'"Tire  forehead  is  vertical'  instead  of  receding,  and  the 
strongly  projecting  'brow^nSges'are  diminished,  the  jaw  is 
less  massive  and  less  simian  with  regard  to  all  the  features 
mentione3  above.  Especially  is  this  difference  noticeable  in 
the  projection  of  the^in,  which  now  for  the  first  time  showf 
the  modenTliuman  outline.  In  short  there  are  no  salient 
features  which  cannot  be  matched  among  the  living  races  of 
the  present  day. 

On  the  cultural  side  no  less  than  on  the  physical,  the 

„  thousands  of  years  which  the  lowest  estimate 

uman    u  nre.    ^^^j-jj^^^gg  j^  j.|^g  Early  Stone  Age  were  marked 

by  slow  but  continuous  changes. 

The    Reutelian    (at   the   junction   of    the   Pliocene   and 
TTeistocene),  Maffiian  and  Mesvinian  industries, 
SSviS:    recognised  by jr^iltoru^^ 

the  doubtful  Eolithic  Period,„|ig^^y£t,,,g£jae.i:a,lly 
accegted,'.  ^ 

The  lowest  palaeolithic  deposit  is  the  Strepyan^  so  called 

from  Strepy,  near  Charleroi,  typically  represented  at  St  Acheul, 

Amiens,  and   recognised   also   in  the  Thames 

^^    '  Valley*.     The  tools,  exhibit  deliberate  flaking, 

and   mark  the  transition  between  eolithic   and   palaeolithic 

work.    The  associated  fauna  includes  two  species  of  elephant, 

1  A.  Keith,  Tke  Antiquity  of  Man,  1915,  p.  158.     See  also  W.  J.  SoUas,  AncieHt 
Hunters,  1915,  p.  186  if. 

2  H.  Klaatsch,  "  Die  AurigtiaC'Rasse,"  Zeitschf.f.  Eth.  igio,  Lll.  p.  513. 

'  The  Mesviniail  implements  are  now  accepted  as  artefacts  and  placed  by 

H.  Obermaier  immediately  below  the  Chelleafl,  though  M.  Commont  interprets 

them  as  Acheulean  or  even  later.     See  W.J.  SoWas,  Ancient  Hunters,  1915,  p.  132  ff. 

'  *  R.  Smith  and  H.  Dewey,  "  Stratification  at  Swanscombe,"  Archaeologia,  LXlV. 

1912. 


i-t  Genemt  Consideratiom  n 

B.  meridionalis  and  E.  antiques,  two  species  of  rhinoceros, 

R.  Etruscus  and  R.  Merckii,  and  the  hippopotamus.     It  is 

possible  that  the  Mauer  jaw  and  the  Piltdown  skull  belong 

to  this  stage. 

The  Cheljean  |^(;;^psfry^   with  the  typical  coarsely  flaked 

almond-shapeH  implements,  occurs  abundantly  in  the  South  of 

England  and  in  France,^  les*s~c5rrrffi^nly  in  Bel-    -"^ --""  "•- - 

V."  " 7='"- ~ —  A  -  -     .' "- ,-!,.— — ■    .  Chellean. 

_guim,   Germany,  Austria-Hungary  andjRussia, 

""^WHrexampIesTiave  been  recognised  irTTalestine,   Egypt, 

SomaJTlari3rtrape  Colony,  Madras  aiTH"  other  localities.T^ugh 

outside  Europe  the  date  is  not  always  ascertainable  and  the 

form  is  not  an  absolute  criterion^ 

Acheulean  types  succeed  apparently  in  direct  descent  but 
the  implements  are  altogether  lighter,  sharper,  more  .efiSfisiJt, 
and  "  are    characterised    by    finer   workmanship 
and  carefully  retouched  edges.     A  small  finely 
finished  lanceolate  implement  is  typical  of  the  sub-industry 
or  local  development  at  La  Micoque  (Dordogne). 

The  Chellean  industry  is  associated  with  a  warm  climate 
and  the  remains  of  Elephas  antiquus,  Rhinoceros  Merckii  and 
hippopotamus.  Lower  Acheulean  shows  little  variation,  but 
with  Upper  Acheulean  certain  animals  indicating  a  colder 
climatF"make  iheu'  appearance,  including  the  mammoth, 
Elepnasprirm^eniuSy  and  the  woolly  rhinoceros,_i?.  ticho- 
rhinus,  but  nonrelndeer. 

The  Mousterian  industry  is  entirely  distinct  from  its 
predecessors.  The  warm  fauna  has  disappeared,  the  reindeer 
first  occurs  together  with  the  musk  ox,  arctic  ,,  ,  . 
fox,  the  marmot  and  other  cold-loving  animals. 
Man  appears  to  have  jQjjghL. rgfuge.JiL.the  caves,  and  from 
complete  skeleton^.. found  in  cave  deposits  of  this  stage  we 
gam  the  first  clear  ideas  concerning  the  physical  type  oi  man 
of  the  early  palaeolithic  period.  Typical  I^ousterian  irn- 
plements  consist  of  leaf^like  or  triangular  points  made  from 
flakes  struck  from"the  "noSule  instead  of~ffOm^the  dress^ 
nodule  itselfTasin  tKe^arlier  stages.  The  Levallois  flakes, 
occurring  at  the  base  of  the  Mousterian  (sometimes  included 
in  the  Acheulean  Stage),  initiate  this  new  style  of  workman- 
ship,  but  the   Mousterian  point  shows  an  improvement  in 

(S\       1  So  railed  from  Chelles-sur-Marne.  near  Paris. 

2  Cf,  ]•  Ddchelette,  Manuet  d'A nlUologie prikistoriquet  i.  IgdS,  p.  89. 


12  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

shape  and  a  greater  mastery  in  technique,  producing  a  more 
efficient  tool  for  piercing  and  cutting.  Scrapers,  carefully 
retouched,  with  a  curved  edge  are  also  characteristic,  besides 
many  other  forms.  The  complete  skeletons  from  Le  Moustier 
itself,  La  Chapelle,  La  Ferassie,  and  Krapina  all  belong  to 
this  stage,  which  marks  the  end  of  the  lower  palaeolithic 
period,  the  Age  of  the  Mammoth. 

The  upper  palaeolithic  or  Reindeer  Age  is  divided  into 
Aurignacian,  Solutrian;  and  Magdalenian^  culture  stages,  with 
Auri  acian  ^^  Azilian'  separating  the  Magdalenian  from 
ungnacian.  ^^  neolithic  period.  Each  stage  is  distin- 
guished by  its  implements  and  its  art.  The  Aurignacian 
fauna,  though  closely  resembling  the  Mousterian,  indicates  an 
amelioration  of  climate,  the  most  abundant  animals  being  the 
bison,  horse,  cave  lion,  and  cave  hyena,  and  human  settle- 
ments are  again  found  in  the  open.  Among, the  typical 
implements  are  finely  worked  knife-like  blades  (ChS.telperron 
point,  Gravette  point),  keeled  scrapers  (Tart6  type),  burins 
or  gravers,  and  various  tools  and  ornaments  of  bone.  Art  is 
represented  by  engravings  and  wall  paintings,  and  to  this 
stage  belong  statuettes  representing  nude  female  figures  such 
as  those  of  Brassempouy,  Mentone,  Pont-a-Lesse  (Belgium), 
Predmost  and  Willendorf,  near  Krems.  The  Neandertal 
type  appears  to  have  died  out  and  Aurignacian  man  belongs 
to  the  modern  type  represented  at  Combe  Capelle.  If  the 
evidence  of  the  figurines  is  to  be  accepted,  a  steatopygous 
race  was  at  this  time  in  existence,  which  Sollas  is  inclined  to 
connect  with  the  Bushmen'. 

The  Solutrian  stage  is  characterised  by  the  abundance  of 
the  horse,  replaced  in  the  succeeding  period  by  the  reindeer. 
_  ,  ^ .  The  Solutrians  seem  to  have  been  a  warlike 

Solutnan.  ,  ,  .  , 

steppe  people  who  came  irom  the  east  mto 
western  Europe.  Their  subsequent  fate  has  not  been  eluci- 
dated. The  culture  appears  to  have  had  a  limited  range, 
only  a  few  stations  being  found  outside  Dordogne  and  the 
neighbouring  departments.  The  technique,  as  shown  in  the 
laurel-leaf  and  willow-leaf  points,  exhibits  a  perfection  of 
workmanship  unequalled  in  the  Palaeolithic  Age,  and  only 
excelled  by  late  prehistoric  knives  of  Egypt. 

^  From  Aurignac  (Haute-Garonne),  Solutrd  (Saone-et-Loire),  and  La  Made- 
'  leine  (Dordogne). 

^  Mas-d'Azil,  Arifege.  ^  W.  J.  Sollas,  Ancient  Hunters,  191 5,  pp.  378-9. 


i]  General  Considerations  13 

The  rock  shelter  at  La  Madeleine  has  given  its  name  to 
the  closing  epoch  of  the  Palaeolithic  Age.  The  flint  industry 
shows  distinct  decadence,  but  the  working;  in  ,,  .  ,  . 
bone  and  horn  was  at  its  zenith ;  indeed,  so 
marked  is  the  contrast  between  this  and  the  preceding  stage 
that  Breuil  is  convinced  that  "the  first  Magdalenians  were 
not  evolved  from  the  Solutriaris ;  they  were  new-comers  in 
our  region  \"  The  typical  implements  are  barbed  harpoons 
in  reindeer  antler  (later  that  of  the  stag),  often  decorated 
with  engravings.  Sculpture  and  engravings  of  animals  in 
life-like  attitudes  are  among  the  most  remarkable  records  of 
the  age,  and  the  polychrome  pictures  in  the  caves  of  Altamira, 
"the  Sistine  chapel  of  Quaternary  Art,"  are  the  admiration  of 
the.  world  ^ 

In  the  cave  of  Mas-d'Azil,  between  the.  Magdalenian  and 
Neolithic  deposits  occurs  a  stratum,  termed  Azilian,  which,  to 
some  extent,  bridges  over  the  obscure  transition  ^jjilian 
between  the  Palaeolithic  and  Neolithic  Ages. 
The  reindeer  has  disappeared,  and  its  place  is  taken  by  the 
stag.  The  realistic  art  of  the  Magdalenians  is  succeeded  by 
a  more  geometric  style.  In  flint  working  a  return  is  made  to 
Aurignacian  methods,  and  a  particular  development  of  pygmy 
flints  has  received  the  name  Tardenoisian\ 

The  characteristic  implement  is  still  the  harpoon,  but  it 
differs  in  shape  from  the  Magdalenian  implement,  owing  to 
the  different  structure  of  the  material.  Painted  pebbles, 
marked  with  red  and  black  lines,  in  some  cases  suggesting  a 
script,  have  given  rise  to  much  controversy.  Their  meaning 
at  present  remains  obscured 

The  question  of  prehistoric  chronology  is  a  difficult  one, 
and  the  more  cautious  authorities  do  not  commit-  themselves 
to    dates.     Of    late   years,    however,   sUch    re-      chronology 
searches  as  those  of  A.  Penck  and  E.  Bruckner 

1  "Les   Subdivisions  de  paldolithique  sup^rieur,"   Congris  Internat.  d'Anth. 

iqi2,  XIV.  pp.  190-3. 

2  H.  Breuil  and  E.  Cartailhac,  La  Caverne  d^ Altamira,  igo6.  For  a  list  of 
decorated  caves,  with  the  names  of  their  discoverers,  see  J.  D^chelette,  Manuel 
d'ArMologie  prMstorique,  i.  1908,  p.  241.  A  complete  Repertoire  de  I'Art 
Quaternaire  is  given  by  S.  Reinach,  1913;  and  for  chronology  see  E.  Pfette, 
"Classifications  des  Sediments formds  dans  les  cavernes  pendant  I'Age  du  Renne," 
Anthr.  1904.  .        . 

3  From  La  F6re-en-Tardenois,  Aisne. 

<  Cf.  W.  J.  SoUas,  Ancient  Hunters,  191 5,  pp.  95.  534  f- 


H 


Man:   Past  and  Present 


[CH. 


in  the  Alps^  and  of  Baron  de  Geer  and  W.  C.  Br^gger  in 
Sweden^  have  provided  a  sound  basis  for  calculations.  Penck 
recognises  four  periods  of  glaciation  during  the  pleistocene 
period,  which  he  has  named  after  typical  areas,  the  Gunz, 
Mindel,  Riss  and  Wiirm.  He  dates  the  Wiirm  maximum  at 
between  30,000  and  50,000  years  ago  and  estimates  the 
duration  of  the  Riss- Wiirm  interglacial  period  at  about 
100,000  years.  According  to  his  calculations  the  Chellean 
industry  occurs  in  the  Mindel-Riss,  or  even  in  the  Giinz- 
Mindel  interval,  but  it  is  more  commonly  placed  in  the  mild 
phase  intervening  before  the  last  (Wiirm)  glaciation,  this 
latter  corresponding  with  the  cold  Mousterian  stage.  At 
least  four  subsequent  oscillations  of  climate  have  been  recog- 
nised by  Penck,  the  Achen,  Biihl,  Gschnitz  and  Daun,  and 
the  correspondence  of  these  with  palaeolithic  culture  stages 
may  be  seen  in  the  following  table^ 


Penck  and  Bruckner 

Obermaier  and  others           Rutot 

oscillations    \  ^^^^^ 

lAzilian 

Proto-Neolithic 
Azilian 

Magdalenian 

■  Neolithic 

-Magdalejiiaji 
1 

Solutrian  and 
Aurignacian 

IV. 

Wiirm.     4th  Glacial 

Mousterian 
Lower  Mousterian 
and  Acheulean 

Lower    Magda- 
lenian 

Riss-Wiirm.    yd.  Inter- 

Solutrian and 

Chellean 

Upper  Mousterian 

glacial 

Aurignacian 
WarmMousterian 

Ill 

Riss.     3rd  Glacial 

Cold  Mousterian 

Lower  Acheulean 
Chellean 

Mindel-Riss.     2nd  In- 

Acheulean 

Mauer  jaw 

Strepyan 

terglacial 

Chellean 

Pre-Pailaeolithic 

Mesvinian- 
Mafflian 

II. 

MindeL     2nd  Glacial      ~\ 

\ 

Giinz-Mindel,     ist   In- 
terglacial 

-  No  artefacts 

-  No  artefacts 

I. 

Giinz.     1st  Glacial          1 

, 

James  Geikie*,  under  the  heading,  "  Reliable  and  Un- 
reliable estimates  of  geological  time,"  points  out  that  the 
absolute  duration  of  the  Pleistocene  cannot  be  determined, 
but  such  investigations  as  those  of  Penck  "  enable  us  to  form 

>  Die   Alpen   in   Eiszeitalter,    1901-9.      See   also    '"Alter   des    Menschenge- 
scWechts,"  Zeit.f.  Eth.  XL.  i,go8. 

2  See  W.  J.  SoUas,  Ancient  Hunters,  1915,  p.  561. 

^  H.  Obermaier,  Der  Mensch  der  Vorzeit,  1911-2,  p.  332. 

*  The  Antiquity  of  Man  in  Europe,  1914,  p.  301. 


i]  General  Considerations  15 

some  conception  of  the  time  involved,"  He  accepts  as  a 
rough  approximation  Penck's  opinion  that  "the  Glacial  period 
with  all  its  climatic  changes  may  have  extended  over  half  a 
million  years,  and  as  the  Chellean  stage  dates  back  to  at  least 
the  middle  of  the  period,  this  would  give  somewhere  between 
250,000  and  500,000  years  for  the  antiquity  of  man  in  Europe. 
But  if,  as  recent  discoveries  would  seem  to  indicate,  man  was 
an  occupant  of  our  Continent  during  the  First  Interglacial 
epoch,  if  not  in  still  earlier  times,  we  may  be  compelled 
greatly  to  increase  our  estimate  of  his  antiquity"  (p.  303). 

W.  J.  Sollas,  on  the  other  hand,  is  content  with  a  far  more 
contracted  measure.  Basing  his  calculations  mainly  on  the 
investigations  of  de  Geer,  he  concludes  that  the  interval  that 
separates  our  time  from  the  beginning  of  the  end  of  the  last 
glacial  episode  is  1 7,000  years.  He  places  the  Azilian  age  at 
5500  B.C.,  the  middle  of  the  Magdalenian  age  somewhere 
about  8000  B.C.,  Mousterian  15,000  B.C.,  and  the  close  of  the 
Chellean  25,000  b.c.^ 

But  when  all  the  changes  in  climate  are  taken  into  con- 
sideration, the  periods  of  elevation  and  depression  of  the 
land,  the  transformations  of  the  animals,  the  evolution  of 
man,  the  gradual  stages  of  advance  in  human  culture,  the  de- 
velopment of  the  races  of  mankind,  and  their  distribution  over 
the  surface  of  the  globe,  this  estimate  is  regarded  by  many 
as  insufficient.  Allen  Sturge  claims  "  scores  of  thousands  of 
years "  for  the  neolithic  period  alone^  and  Sir  W.  Turner 
points  out  the  very  remote  times  to  which  the  appearance  of 
neolithic  man  must  be  assigned  in  Scotland.  After  showing 
that  there  is  undoubted  evidence  of  the  presence  of  man  in 
North  Britain  during  the  formation  of  the  Carse  clays,  this 
careful  observer  explains  that  the  Carse  cliffs,  now  in  places 
45  to  50  feet  above  the  present  sea-level,  formed  the  bed  of 
an  estuary  or  arm  of  the  sea,  which  in  post-glacial  times 
extended  almost,  if  not  quite  across  the  land  from  east  to 
west,  thus  separating  the  region  south  of  the  Forth  from 
North  Britain.  He  even  suggests,  after  the  separation  of 
Britain  from  the  Continent  in  earlier  times,  another  land 
connection,  a  "  Neolithic  land-bridge  "  by  which  the  men  of 
the  New  Stone  Age  may  have  reached  Scotland  when  the 

1  Ancient  Hunters,  1915,  p.  567. 

2  Proc.  Prehist.  Soc.  E.  Anglia,  i.  ^911,,  p.  ^Q. 


1 6  .  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

upheaved   lOO-foot  terrace  was  still  clothed  with  the  great 
forest  growths  that  have  since  disappeared^ 

One  begins  to  ask,  Are  even  100,000  years  sufficient  for 
such  oscillations  of  the  surface,  upheaval  of  marine  beds, 
appearance  of  great  estuaries,  renewed  connection  of  Britain 
with  the  Continent  by  a  "Neolithic  land-bridge"?  In  the 
Falkirk  district  neolithic  kitchen-middens  occur  on,  or  at  the 
base  of,  the  bluffs  which  overlook  the  Carse  lands,  that  is,  the 
old  sea-coast.  In  the  Carse  of  Cowrie  also  a  dug-out  canoe 
was  found  at  the  very  base  of  the  deposits,  and  immediately 
above  the  buried  forest-bed  of  the  Tay  Valley^ 

That  the  neolithic  period  was  also  of  long  duration  even 
in  Scandinavia  has  been  made  evident  by  Carl  Wibling,  who 
calculates  that  the  geological  changes  on  the  south-east  coast 
of  Sweden  (Province  of  Bleking),  since  its  first  occupation 
by  the  men  of  the  New  Stone  Age,  must  have  required  a 
period  of  "at  least   10,000  years^" 

Still  more  startling  are  the  results  of  the  protracted  re- 
searches carried  on  by  J.  Niiesch  at  the  now  famous  station 
of  Schweizersbild,  near  Schaffhausen  in  Switzerland^  This 
station  was  apparently  in  the  continuous  occupation  of  man 
during  both  Stone  Ages,  and  here  have  been  collected  as 
many  as  14,000  objects  belonging  to  the  first,  and  over  6000 
referred  to  the  second  period.  Although  the  early  settlement 
was  only  post-glacial,  a  point  about  which  there  is  no  room 
for  doubt,  L.  Laloy^  has  estimated  "  the  absolute  duration  of 
both  epochs  together  at  from  24,000  to  29,000  years."  We 
may,  therefore,  ask.  If  a  comparatively  recent  post-glacial 
station  in  Switzerland  is  about  29,000  years  old,  how  old  may 
a  pre-  or  inter-glacial  station  be  in  Gaul  or  Britain  ? 

From  all  this  we  see  how  fully  justified  is  J.  W.  Powell's 
remark  that  the  natural  history  of  early  man  becomes  more 
The  early  ^"^  "^^''^  ^  geological,  and  not  merely  an  ethno- 

Historyof  logical  problem ^     We  also  begin  to  understand 

to  ^a1  Problem    ^^^  '^  ^^  ^^^'  ^^^^"^  ^"^  existence  of  some  five 
ogica     ro  em.    ^^^^^  millenniums,  the  first  specialised  human 

1  Discourse  at  the  R.  Institute,  London,  Nature,  Jan.  6  and  13,  1898. 

2  Nature,  1898,  p.  235. 

5  Tidenfor  Blekingsjforsta  bebyggande,  Karlskrona,  1895,  p.  5. 

*  "Das  Schweizersbild,  eine  Niederlassung  aus  palaeolithischer  und  neo- 
hthischer  Zeit,"  in  Nouveaux  M^moires  Soc.  Helv'etique  des  Sciences  Natu- 
relles,  Vol.  xxxv.  Zurich,  1896.  This  is  described  by  James  Geikie,  The  Antiquity 
of  Man  m  Europe,  1914,  pp.  85-99. 

5  VAnthropologie,  1897,  p.  350.  «  Forum,  Feb.  1898, 


i]  General  Considerations  ly 

varieties  have  diverged  greatly  from  the  original  types,  which 
have  thus  become  almost  "  ideal  quantities,"  the  subjects 
rather  of  palaeontological  than  of  strictly  anthropological 
studies. 

And  here  another  consideration  of  great  moment  presents 
itself.     During  these  long  ages  some  of  the  groups — most 
African    negroes   south   of    the    equator,    most 
Oceanic  negroes  (Negritoes  and  Papuans),  and      varietiesthe 
Australian  and  American  aborigines — have  re-      Outcome  of 
mained  in  their  original  habitats  ever  since  what      t!?^"!  s^^^""^' 

,  11     1     1        r  1  r     1  1         Environments. 

may  be  called  the  first  settlement  of  the  earth 
by  man.  Others  again,  the  more  restless  or  enterprising 
peoples,  such  as  the  Mongols,  Manchus,  Turks,  Ugro-Finns, 
Arabs,  and  most  Europeans,  have  no  doubt  moved  about 
somewhat  freely ;  but  these  later  migrations,  whether  hostile 
or  peaceable,  have  for  the  most  part  been  confined  to  regions 
presenting  the  same  or  like  physical  and  climatic  conditions. 
Wherever  different  climatic  zones  have  been  invaded,  the 
intruders  have  failed  to  secure  a  permanent  footing,  either 
perishing  outright,  or  disappearing  by  absorption  or  more  or 
less  complete  assimilation  to  the  aboriginal  elements.  Such 
are  some  "  black  Arabs "  in  Egyptian  Sudan,  other  Semites 
and  Hamites  in  Abyssinia  and  West  Sudan  (Himyarites, 
Fulahs  and  others),  Finns  and  Turks  in  Hungary  and  the 
Balkan  Peninsula  (Magyars,  Bulgars,  Osmanli),  Portuguese 
and  Netherlanders  in  Malaysia,  English  in  tropical  or  sub- 
tropical lands,  such  as  India,  where  Eurasian  half-breeds  alone 
are  capable  of  founding  family  groups. 

The  human  varieties  are  thus  seen  to  be,  like  all  other 
zoological  species,  the  outcome  of  their  several  environments. 
They  are  what  climate,  soil,  diet,  pursuits  and  inherited 
characters  have  made  them,  so  that  all  sudden  transitions  are 
usually  followed  by  disastrous  results \  "To  urge  the  emi- 
gration of  women  and  children,  or  of  any  save  those  of  the 
most  robust  health,  to  the  tropics,  may  not  be  to  murder  in 
the  first  degree,  but  it  should  be  classed,  to  put  it  mildly,  as 
incitement  to  it'."     Acclimatisation  may  not  be  impossible 

1  The  party  of  Eskimo  men  and  women  brought  back  by  Lieut.  Peary  from  his 
Arctic  expedition  in  1897  were  unable  to  endure  our  temperate  cUmate.  Many 
died  of  pneumonia,  and  the  survivors  were  so  enfeebled  that  all  had  to  be  restored 
to  their  icy  homes  to  save  their  lives.  Even  for  the  Algonquians  of  Labrador 
a  journey  to  the  coast  is  a  journey  to  the  grave. 

2  W.  Z.  Ripley,  TAe  Races  0/ Europe,  1900,  p.  586. 


1 8  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

but  in  all  extreme  cases  it  can  be  effected  only  at  great 
sacrifice  of  life,  and  by  slow  processes,  the  most  effective  of 
which  is  perhaps  Natural  Selection.  By  this  means  we  may 
indeed  suppose  the  world  to  have  been  first  peopled. 

At  the  same  time  it  should  be  remembered  that  we  know 
little  of  the  climatic  conditions  at  the  time  of  the  first  migra- 
tions, though  it  has  been  assumed  that  it  was  everywhere 
much  milder  than  at  present.  Consequently  the  different 
zones  of  temperature'  were  less  marked,  and  the  passage  from 
one  region  to  another  more  easily  effected  than  in  later  times. 
In  a  word  the  pleistocene  precursors  had  far  less  difficulty  in 
adapting  themselves  to  their  new  surroundings  than  modern 
peoples  have  when  they  emigrate,  for  instance,  from  Southern 
Europe  to  Brazil  and  Paraguay,  or  from  the  British  Isles  to 
Rhodesia  and  Nyassaland. 

What  is  true  of  man  must  be  no  less  true  of  his  works  ; 
from  which  it  follows  that  racial  and  cultural  zones  correspond 

Correspondence  ^"^  "^^  "^^^"  ^'^^^  ^°"^^  °f  temperature,  except 
of  Geographical  SO  far  as  the  latter  may  be  modified  by  altitude, 
with  Racial  and  marine  influences,  or  other  local  conditions.  A 
ones.  gj^jj(,g  ^^  p^g|-  ^jjj^  existing  relations  the  world 
over  will  show  that  such  harmonies  have  at  all  times  prevailed. 
No  doubt  the  overflow  of  the  leading  European  peoples  during 
the  last  400  years  has  brought  about  divers  dislocations, 
blurrings,  and  in  places  even  total  effacements  of  the  old  . 
landmarks. 

But,  putting  aside  these  disturbances,  it  will  be  found  that 
in  the  Eastern  hemisphere  the  inter-tropical  regions,  hot,  moist 
and  more  favourable  to  vegetable  than  to  animal  vitality,  are 
usually  occupied  by  savage,  cultureless  populations.  Within 
the  same  sphere  are  also  comprised  most  of  the  extra-tropical 
southern  lands,  all  tapering  towards  the  antarctic  waters, 
isolated,  and  otherwise  unsuitable  for  areas  of  higher 
specialisation. 

Similarly  the  sub-tropical  Asiatic  peninsulas,  the  bleak 
Tibetan  tableland,  the  Pamir,  and  arid  Mongolian  steppes  are 
found  mainly  in  possession  of  somewhat  stationary  com- 
munities, which  present  every  stage  between  sheer  savagery 
and  civilisation. 

In  the  same  way  the  higher  races  and  cultures  are  confined 
to  the  more  favoured  north  temperate  zone,  so  that  between 
the  parallels  of  24°  and  50°  (but  owing  to  local  conditions 


i]  General  Considerations  19 

falling  in  the  far  East  to  40°  and  under,  and  in  the  extreme 
West  rising  to  55°)  are  situated  nearly  all  the  great  centres, 
past  and  present,  of  human  activities — the  Egyptian,  Baby- 
lonian, Minoan  (Aegean),  Hellenic,  Etruscan,  Roman,  and 
modern  European.  Almost  the  only  exceptions  are  the 
early  civilisations  (Himyaritic)  of  Yemen  (Arabia  Felix)  and 
Abyssinia,  where  the  low  latitude  is  neutralised  by  altitude 
and  a  copious  rainfall. 

Thanks  also  to  altitude,  to  marine  influences,  and  the 
contraction  of  the  equatorial  lands,  the  relations  are  almost 
completely  reversed  in  the  New  World.  Here  all  the  higher 
developments  took  place,  not  in  the  temperate  but  in  the 
tropical  zone,  within  which  lay  the  seats  of  the  Peruvian, 
Chimu,  Chibcha  and  Maya-Quiche  cultures ;  the  Aztec 
sphere  alone  ranged  northwards  a  little  beyond  the  Tropic 
of  Cancer. 

Thus  in  both  hemispheres  the  iso-cultural  bands  follow 
the  isothermal  lines  in  all  their  deflections,  and  the  human 
varieties  everywhere  faithfully  reflect  the  conditions  of  their 
several  environments. 


CHAPTER   II 

THE  METAL  AGES— HISTORIC  TlMES   AND   PEOPLES 

Progress  of  Archaeological  Studies — Sequence  of  the  Metal  Ages — The  Copper 
Age — Egypt,  Elam,  Babylonia,  Europe— The  Bronze  Age — Egypt  and  Baby- 
lonia, Western  Europe,  the  Aegean^  Ireland — Chronology,  of  the  Copper  and 
Bronze  Ages — The  Iron  Age — ^Hallstatt,  La  T^ne — Man  and  his  Works  in 
the  Metal  Ages — The  Prehistoric  Age  in  the  West,  and  in  China — Historic 
Times^-Evolution  of  Writing  Systems — Hieroglyphs  and  Cuneiforms — The 
Alphabet^ — The  Persian  and  other  Cuneiform  Scripts — The  Mas-d'Azil 
Markings — Alphabetiform  Signs  on  Neolithic  Monuments — Character  and 
Consequences  of  the.  later  historic  Migrations — The  Race  merges  in  the 
People— The  distinguishing  Characters  of  Peoples — Scheme  of  Classification. 

If,  as  above  seen,  the  study  of  human  origins  is  largely 
a  geological  problem,  the  investigation  of  the  later  develop- 
Progress  of  ments,  during  the  Metal  Ages. and  prehistoric 
Archaeological  times,  belongs  mainly  to  the  field  of  Archaeology. 
Studies.  Hence  it  is  that  for  the  light  which  has  in  recent 

years  been  thrown  upon  the  obscure  interval  between  the 
Stone  Ages  and  the  strictly  historic  epoch,  that  is  to  say,  the 
period  when  in  his  continuous  upward  development  man 
gradually  exchanged  stone  for  the  more  serviceable  metals, 
we  are  indebted  chiefly  to  the  pioneer  labours  of  such  men 
as  Worsaae,  Steenstrup,  Forchhammer,  Schliemann,  Sayce, 
Layard,  Lepsius,  Mariette,  Maspero,  Montelius,  Brugsch, 
Petrie,  Peters,  Haynes,  Sir  J.  Evans,  Sir  A.  J.  Evans  and 
many  others,  all  archaeologists  first,  and  anthropologists  only 
in  the  second  instance. 

From  the  researches  of  these  investigators  it  is  now  clear 
that  copper,  bronze,  and  iron  were  successively  in  use  in 
Europe  in  the  order  named,  so  that  the  current 
wXrAges  expressions,  "  Copper,"  "  Bronze,"  and  "  Iron  " 
Ages  remain  still  justified.  But  it  also  appears 
that  overlappings,  already  beginning  in  late  Neolithic  times, 
were  everywhere  so  frequent  that  in  many  localities  it  is  quite 
impossible  to  draw  any  well-marked  dividing  lines  between 
the  successive  metal  periods. 


CH.  ii]  The  Metal  Ages  21 

That  iron  came  last,  a  fact  already  known  by  vague 
tradition  to  the  ancients S  is  beyond  doubt,  and  it  is  no  less 
certain  that  bronze  of  various  types  intervened  between  copper 
and  iron.  But  much  obscurity  still  surrounds  the  question  of 
copper,  which  occurs  in  so  many  graves  of  Neolithic  and 
Bronze  times,  that  this  metal  has  even  been  denied  an  inde- 
pendent position  in  the  sequence. 

But  we  shall  not  be  surprised  that  confusion  should  prevail 
on  this  point,  if  we  reflect  that  the  metals,  unlike  stone,  came 
to  remain.  Once  introduced  they  were  soon  found  to  be 
indispensable  to  civilised  man,  so  that  in  a  sense  the  "  Metal 
Ages  "  still  survive,  and  must  last  to  the  end  of  time.  Hence 
it  was  natural  that  copper  should  be  found  in  prehistoric 
graves  associated,  first  with  polished  stone  implements,  and 
then  with  bronze  and  iron,  just  as,  since  the  arrival  of  the 
English  in  Australia,  spoons,  clay  pipes,  penknives,  pannikins, 
and  the  like,  are  now  found  mingled  with  stone  objects  in  the 
graves  of  the  aborigines. 

But  that  there  was  a  true  Copper  Age'  prior  to  that  of 
Bronze,  though  possibly  of  not  very  long  duration,   except 
of  course  in  the  New  Worlds  has  been  placed 
beyond   reasonable  doubt  by  recent  investiga-      The  Copper 
tions.    Considerable  attention  was  devoted  to  the 
subject  by  J.  H.  Gladstone,  who  finds  that  copper  was  worked 
by  the  Egyptians  in  the  Sinaitic  Peninsula,  that  is,  in  the 
famous  mines  of  the  Wadi  Maghara,  from  the  fourth  to  the 
eighteenth  dynasty,  perhaps  from  3000  to  1580  b.c*     During 
that  epoch  tools  were  made  of  pure  copper  in  Egypt  and 
Syria,  and  by  the  Amorites  in  Palestine,  often  on  the  model 
of  their  stone  prototypes". 

Elliot  Smith"  claims  that  "  the  full  story  of  the  coming  of 

'  Thus  Lucretius: 

"  Posterius  ferri  vis  est  aerisque  reperta, 
Sed  prior  aeris  erat  quam  ferri  cognitus  usus." 

^  J.  D&helette  points  out  that  the  term  Copper  "Age"  is  not  justified  for  the 
greater  part  of  Europe,  as  it  suggests  a  demarcation  which  does  not  exist  and  also 
a  more  thorough  chemical  analysis  of  early  metals  than  we  possess.  He  prefers 
the  term  2ieas.o\\'0d\c(aeneus,  copper,  XMos,  stone),  coined  by  the  Italians,  to  denote 
the  period  of  transition,  dating,  according  to  Montelius,  from  about  2500  B.C. 
to  igcxj  B.C.  Manuel  d? ArcMologie,  pr^historique,  II.  j,  A^e  du  Bronze.,  ipio, 
pp.  99-100,  105.  ^'  Eth.,  Chap.  XIII. 

*  See  G.  Elliot  Smith,  The  Ancient  Egyptians,  191 1,  pp.  97-8. 

•  Paper  on  "  The  Transition  from  Pure  Copper  to  Bronze,"  etc.,  read  at  the 
Meeting  of  the  Brit.  Assoc.  Liverpool,  i8g6. 

"  Loc.  cit.  p.  3.  But  cf.  H.  R.  Hall,  The  Ancient  History  of  the  Near  East,  1912, 
pp.  33  and  90  n.  I.  ' 


22  Man:  Past  and  Present    ,  [ch. 

copper,  complete  in  every  detail  and  circumstance,  written  in 
a  simple  and  convincing  fashion  that  he  who  runs 
^''*'  may  read,"  has  been  displayed  in  Egypt  ever 

since  the  year  1894,  though  the  full  significance' of  the  evi- 
dence was  not  recognised  until  Reisner  called  attention  to 
the  record  of  pre-dynastic  graves  in  Upper  Egypt  when 
superintending  the  excavations  at  Naga-ed-d^r  in  i9o8\ 
These  excavations  revealed  the  indigenous  civilisation  of  the 
ancient  Egyptians  and,  according  to  Elliot  Smith,  dispose  of 
the  idea  hitherto  held  by  most  archaeologists  that  Egypt 
owed  her  knowledge  of  metals  to  Babylonia  or  some  other 
Asiatic  source,  where  copper,  and  possibly  also  bronze,  may 
be  traced  back  to  the  fourth  millennium  B.C.  There  was 
doubtless  intercourse  between  the  civilisations  of  Egypt  and 
Babylonia  but  "  Reisner  has  revealed  the  complete  absence 
of  any  evidence  to  show  or  even  to  suggest  that  the  language, 
the  mode  of  writing,  the  knowledge  of  copper... were  im- 
ported "  (p.  34).  Elliot  Smith  justly  claims  (p.  6)  that  in  no 
other  country  has  a  similarly  complete  history  of  the  discovery 
and  the  evolution  of  the  working  of  copper  been  revealed,  but 
until  equally  exhaustive  excavations  have  been  undertaken  on 
contemporary  or  earlier  sites  in  Sumer  and  Elam,  the  question 
cannot  be  regarded  as  settled. 

The  work  of  J.  de  Morgan  at  Susa^  (1907-8)  shows  the 
extreme  antiquity  of  the  Copper  Age  in  ancient  Elam,  even  if 
p.  his  estimate  of  5000  b.c.  is  regarded  as  a  millen- 

nium too  early".  At  the  base  of  the  mound  on 
the  natural  soil,  beneath  24  meters  of  archaeological  layers, 
were  the  remains  of  a  town  and  a  necropolis  consisting 
of  about  1000  tombs.  Those  of  the  men  contained  copper 
axes  of  primitive  type ;  those  of  the  women,  little  vases  of 
paint,  together  with  discs  of  polished  copper  to  serve  as 
mirrors.  At  Fara,  excavations  by  Koldewey  in  1902,  and  by 
Andrae  and  Noldeke  in  1903  on  the  site  of  Shuruppak  (the 
.  .  home  of  the  Babylonian  Noah)  in  the  valley  of 
the  Lower  Euphrates,  revealed  graves  attributed 

'  G.  A.  Reisner,  The  Early  Cemeteries  of  Naga^ed-dir  (University  of  California 
Publications),  1908,'and  Report  of  the  Archaeological  Survey  of  Nubia,  .1907-8. 

2  "Campagnes  de  1907-8,"  Comptes  Rendus  de  PAcadimie  des  Inscriptions  et 
Belles-Lettres,  1908,  p.  373. 

3  Cf.  J.  Ddchelette,  Manuel  d' Archiologie  prMstorique,  n.  i.  Age  du  Bronze, 
1910,  pp.  53-4. 


n]  The  Metal  Ages  23 

to  the  prehistoric  Sumerians,  containing  copper  spear  heads, 
axes  and  drinking  vessels\ 

In  Europe,  North  Italy,  Hungary  and  Ireland"  may  lay 
claim  to  a  Copper  Age,  but  there  is  very  little  evidence  of 
such  a  stage  in   Britain.     To  this  period  also 
may  be  attributed  the   nest  or  cache   of  pure'  '"^*'^*' 

copper  ingots  found  at  Tourc'h,  west  of  the  Aven  Valley, 
Finisterre,  described  by  M.  de  Villiers  du  Terrage,  and  com- 
prising 23  pieces,  with  a  total  weight  of  nearly  50  lbs.'  These 
objects,  which  belong  to  "the  transitional  period  when  copper 
was  used  at  first  concurrently  with  polished  stone,  and  then 
disappeared  as  bronze  came  into  more  general  use*,"  came 
probably  from  Hungary,  at  that  time  apparently  the  chief 
source  of  this  metal  for  most  parts  of  Europe.  Of  over  200 
copper  objects  described  by  Mathaeus  Much "  nearly  all  were 
of  Hungarian  or  South  German  provenance,  five  only  being 
accredited  to  Britain  and  eight  to  France. 

The  study  of  this  subject  has  been  greatly  advanced  by 
J.  Hampel,  who  holds  on  solid  grounds  that  in  some  regions, 
especially  Hungary,  copper  played  a  dominant  part  for  many 
centuries,  and  is  undoubtedly  the  characteristic  metal  of  a 
distinct  culture.  His  conclusions  are  based  on  the  study  of* 
about  500  copper  objects  found  in  Hungary  and  preserved  in 
the  Buda  Pesth  collections.  Reviewing  all  the  facts  attesting 
a  Copper  Age  in  Central  Europe,  Egypt,  Italy,  Cyprus,  Troy, 
Scandinavia,  North  Asia,  and  other  lands,  he  concludes  that 
a  Copper  Age  may  have  sprung  up  independently  wherever 
the  ore  was  found,  as  in  the  Ural  and  Altai  Mountains,  Italy, 
Spain,  Britain,  Cyprus,  Sinai ;  such  culture  being  generally 
indigenous,  and  giving  evidence  of  more  or  less  characteristic 
local  features*.  In  fact  we  know  for  certain  that  such  an 
independent  Copper  Age  was  developed  not  only  in  the 
region  of  the  Great  Lakes  of  North  America,  but  also 
amongst  the  Bantu  peoples  of  Katanga  and  other  parts  of 
Central  Africa.     Copper  is  not  an  alloy  like  bronze,  but  a 

^  Cf.  L.  W.  King,  A  History  of  Sumer  and  Akkad,  1910,  p.  26. 

''■  G.  Coffey,  The  Bronze  Age  in  Ireland,  191 3,  p.  6. 

3  UAnthropologie,  1896,  p.  526  sq.  This  antiquary  aptly  remarks  that  "I'ex- 
pression  4ge  de  cuivre  a  una  signification  bien  precise  comme  s'appliquant  J.  la 
partie  de  la  p^riode  de  la  pierre  polie  oil  les  mdtaux  font  leur  apparition." 

*  UAnthropologie,  1896,  p.  526  sq. 

'In  Die  Kupferzeit  in  Europa,  1886. 

8  "  Neuere  Studien  iiber  die  Kupferzeit,"  in  Zeitsckr../.  Eth.  1896,  No.  2. 


24  Man :  Past  and  Present  [CH. 

soft,  easily-worked  metal  occurring  in  large  quantities  and  in 
a  tolerably  pure  state  near  the  surface  in  many  parts  of  the 
world.  The  wonder  is,  not  that  it  should  have  been  found 
and  worked  at  a  somewhat  remote  epoch  in  several  different 
centres,  but  that  its  use  should  have  been  so  soon  superseded 
in  so  many  places  by  the  bronze  alloys. 

From  copper  to  bronze,  however,  the  passage  was  slow 

and  progressive,   the   proper  proportion  of  tin,    which   was 

probably  preceded  in  some  places  by  an  alloy  of 

The  Bronze      antimony,  having  been  apparently  arrived  at  by 

repeated  experiments  often  carried  out  with  no 

little  skill  by  those  prehistoric  metallurgists. 

As  suggested  by  Bibra  in  1869,  the  ores  of  different 
metals  would  appear  to  have  been  at  first  smelted  together 
empirically,  and  the  process  continued  until  satisfactory  results 
were  obtained.  Hence  the  extraordinary  number  of  metals, 
of  which  percentages  are  found  in  some  of  the  earlier  speci- 
mens, such  as  those  of  the  Elbing  Museum,  which  on  analysis 
yielded  tin,  lead,  silver,  iron,  antimony,  arsenic,  sulphur,  nickel, 
cobalt,  and  zinc  in  varying  quantities^ 

Some  bronzes  from  the  pyramid  of  Medum  analysed  by 
J.  H.  Gladstone^  yielded  the  high  percentage  of  9T  of  tin, 
from  which  we  must  infer,  not  only  that  bronze,  but  bronze  of 
the  finest  quality,  was  already  known  to  the  Egyptians  of  the 
fourth  dynasty,  i.e.  2840  B.C.  The  statuette  of  Gudea  of 
Lagash  (2500  B.C.)  claimed  as  the  earliest  example  of  bronze 
in  Babylonia  is  now  known  to  be  pure  copper,  and  though 
objects  from  Tello  (Lagash)  of  earlier  date  con- 
^^\^^t        tain  a  mixture  of  tin,  zinc,   arsenic  and  other 

Babylonia.  •  .'.'...-  „,, 

alloys,  the  proportion  is  insignincant.  1  he 
question  of  priority  must,  however,  be  left  open  until  the 
relative  chronology  of  Egypt  and  Babylonia  is  finally  settled, 
and  this  is  still  a  much  disputed  point^  Neither  would  all 
the  difficulties  with  regard  to  the  origin  of  bronze  be  cleared 
up  should  Egypt  or  Babylonia  establish  her  claim  to  possess 
the  earliest  example  of  the  metal,  for  neither  country  appears 

1  Otto  Helm,  "Chemische  Untersuchungen  vorgeschichtlicher  Bronzen,''  in 
Zeitschr.f.  Eth.  1897,  No.  2.  This  authority  agrees  with  Hampel's  view  that  further 
research  will  confirm  the  suggestion  that  in  Transylvania  (Hungary)  *'eine  Kupfer- 
Antimonmischung  vorangegangen,  welche  zugleich  die  Bronzekultur  vorberei- 
tete"  {ib.  p.  128). 

2  Proc.  Soc.  Bib.  Archaeol.  1892,  pp.  223-6. 

3  For  the  chronology  of  the  Copper  and  Bronze  Ages  see  p.  27. 


ii]  The  Metal  Ages  25 

to  possess  any  tin.  The  nearest  deposit  known  in  ancient 
times  would  seem  to  be  that  of  Drangiana,  mentioned  by 
Strabo,  identified  with  modern  Khorassan'. 

Strabo  and  other  classical  writers  also  mention  the  occur- 
rence of  tin  in  the  west,  in  Spain,  Portugal  and  the  Cassiterides 
or  tin  islands,  whose  identity  has  given  rise  to  so 
much  speculation",  but  "though  in  after  times         Europe" 
Egypt  drew  her  tin  from  Europe  it  would  be 
bold  indeed  to  suppose  that  she  did  so  [in  3000  b.c.J  and  still 
bolder  to  maintain  that  she  learned  from  northern  people  how 
to  make  the  alloy  called  bronze'."    Apart  from  the  indigenous 
Egyptian    origin    maintained   by    Elliot    Smith    (above)   the 
hypothesis    offering    fewest    difficulties    is   that   the    earliest 
bronze  is  to  be  traced  to  the  region  of  Elam,  and  that  the 
knowledge    spread    from   S.    Chaldaea    (Elam-Sumer)   to   S. 
Egypt  in  the  third  millennium  B-C* 

There  seems  to  be  little  doubt  that  the  Aegean  was  the 
centre  of  dispersal  for  the  new  metals  throughout  the  Medi- 
terranean area,  and  copper  ingots  have  been  The'Aeeean 
found  at  various  points  of  the  Mediterranean, 
marked  with  Cretan  signs  ^  Bronze  was  known  in  Crete 
before  2000  b.c.  for  a  bronze  dagger  and  spear  head  were 
found  at  H agios  Onuphrios,  near  Phaistos,  with  seals  re- 
sembling those  of  the  sixth  to  eleventh  dynasties". 

From  the  eastern  Mediterranean  the  knowledge  spread 
during  the  second  millennium  along  the  ordinary  trade  routes 
which  had  long  been  in  use.  The  mineral  ores  of  Spain  were 
exploited  in  pre-Mycenean  times  and  probably  contributed  in 
no  small  measure  to  the  industrial  development  of  southern 
Europe.  From  tribe  to  tribe,  along  the  Atlantic  coasts  the 
traffic  in  minerals  reached  the  British  Isles,  where  the  rich 
ores  were  discovered  which,  in  their  turn,  supplied  the  markets 
of  the  north,  the  west  and  the  south. 

Even  Ireland  was  not  left  untouched  by  Aegean  influence, 

1  Copper  and  tin  are  found  together  in  abundance  in  Southern  China,  but  this 
is  archaeologically  speaking  an  unknown  land;  "to  search  for  the  birth-place  of 

■  jDronze  in  China  is  therefore  barren  of  positive  results,"  British  Museum  Guide  to 
the  Antiquities  of  the  Bronze  Age,  1904,  p.  to. 

2  T.  Rice  Holmes,  Ancient  Britain,  1907,  pp.  483-498. 

3  British  Museum  Guide  to  the  Antiquities  of  the  Bronze  Age,  1904,  p.  10. 
*  J.  de  Morgan,  Les  Premikres  Civilisations,  1909,  pp.  169,  337  ff. 

6  J.  Dichelette,  Manuel d' ArcUologie prihistorique,  II.  i.  Age  du  Bronze,  1910, 
pp.  98  and  397  ff. 

»  J.  D6chelette,  loc.  cit.  p.  63  n. 


26  Man :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

which  reached  it,  according  to  G.  Cofifey',  by  way  of  the 
Danube  and  the  Elbe,  and  thence  by  way  of 
Ireland.  Scandinavia,  though  this  is  a  matter  on  which 
there  is  much  difference  of  opinion.  Ireland's  richness  in 
gold  during  the  Bronze  Age  made  her  "a  kind  of  El  Dorado 
of  the  western  world,"  and  the  discovery  of  a  gold  tore  found 
by  Schliemann  in  the  royal  treasury  in  the  second  city  of 
Troy  raises  the  question  as  to  whether  the  model  of  the  tore 
was  imported  into  Ireland  from  the  south',  or  whether  (which 
J.  D^chelette'  regards  as  less  probable)  there  was  already  an 
exportation  of  Irish  gold  to  the  eastern  Mediterranean  in  pre- 
Mycenean  times. 

Of  recent  years  great  strides  have  been  made  towards 
the  establishment  of  a  definite  chronology  linking  the  historic 
Chronology  of  with  the  prehistoric  periods  in  the  Aegean,  in 
the  Copper  and  Egypt  and  in  Babylonia,  and  as  the  estimates 
Bronze  Ages.  ^f  y^rious  authorities  differ  sometimes  by  a 
thousand  years  or  so,  the  subjoined  table  will  be  of  use  to 
indicate  the  chronological  schemes  most  commonly  followed ; 
the  dates  are  in  all  cases  merely  approximate. 

It  has  often  been  pointed  out  that  there  is  no  reason  why 
iron  should  not  have  been  the  earliest  metal  to  be  used  by 

Th  A  '"^"'  ^^  ^""^^  ^"^^  more  abundant  and  more 
ge.  gg^gjjy  j-gduced  than  any  others,  and  are  worked 
by  peoples  in  a  low  grade  of  culture  at  the  present  day". 
Iron  may  have  been  known  in  Egypt  almost  as  early  as 
bronze,  for  a  piece  in  the  British  Museum  is  attributed  to  the 
fourth  dynasty,  and  some  beads  of  manufactured  iron  were 
found  in  a  pre-dynastic  grave  at  El  Gerzeh'.  But  these  and 
other  less  well  authenticated  occurrences  of  iron  are  rare,  and 
the  metal  was  not  common  in  Egypt  before  the  middle  of  the 
second  millennium.  By  the  end  of  the  second  millennium  the 
knowledge  had  spread  throughout  the  eastern  Mediterranean', 
and  towards  900  at  latest  iron  was  in  common  use  in  Italy 
and  Central  Europe. 

1  G.  Coffey,  The  Bronze  Age  in  Ireland,  I913)  PP-  v,  78. 

^  J.  Ddchelette,  Manuel  d'Archdologie  ^rihistorique,  11.  l,Agedu  Bronze,  1910, 

P-  3SS  »■ 

'  Guide  to  the  Antiquities  of  the  Early  Iron  Age  (British  Museum),  1905,  p.  2. 

*  Wainwright,  "Pre-dynastic  iron  beads  in  Egypt,"  Man,  191 1,  p.  177.     See' 
also  H.  R.  Hall,  "Note  on  the  early  use  of  iron  in  Egypt,"  Man,  1903,  p.  147. 

^  W.  Belck  attributes  the  introduction  of  iron  into  Crete  in  1500  B.C.  to  the 
Phoenicians,  whom  he  derives  from  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Persian  Gulf.  He 
suggests  that  these  traders  were  already  acquainted  with  the  metal  in  S.  Arabia  in 


"] 


The  Metal  Ages 


27 


Chronological  Table. 


Egypt  1 

33CXD  Dynasty  I 

3200 

3100 

3000 

2900 

28ooDyn.III,IV 

2700 

2600  Dyn.  V 

2500  Dyn.  VI 


Babylonia  2 


Aegean* 


Greece* 


Bronze  Age  in 
Europe  ° , 


2400 
iyx>  Dyn. 

22CX) 

2100  Dyn, 
2000  Dyn. 
1900 
i8cx) 

1700  Dyn, 
1600  Dyn. 
1500  Dyn, 
1400 

1300  Dyn, 
1200  Dyn, 
1 100 

1000  Dyn, 
900  Dyn. 


IX 

XI 
XII 


DynastyofOpis    PEarlyMinoanI    ?Pre-Mycenean 
Dyn.  of  Kish 
Dyn.  of  Erech 
Dyn.  of  Akkado 

andDyn.ofErech 

Gutian  Domina-    Early  Minoan  1 1 

tion 
Dyn.  of  Ur 


Dyn.  of  I  sin  MiddleMinoanI 

Mid.  Minoan  II  • 
ist Dyn.  Babylon  Mycenean  I 

2nd  Dyn.  Mid.  Minoan  III 


XIII 
XV 
XVIII 

XIX 
XX 

XXI 
XXII 


3rd  Dyn. 


4th  Dyn. 

Sth  to  7th  Dyn. 

8th  Dyn. 


Late  Minoan  I 

Late  Minoan  II     Mycenean  II 
Late  Minoan  III 

Homeric  Age 

Close  of  Bronze  Age' 


Period  I.  Eneoli- 
thic  (implements 
of  stone,  copper 
and  bronze,  poor 
in  tin) 


Period  II 
Period  III 
Period  IV 

Hallstatt 


the  fourth  millennium,  and  that  it  was  through  them  that  a  piece  found  its  way 
into  Egypt  in  the  fourth  dynasty.  "  Die  Erfinder  des  Eisentechnik,"  Zeitschrift  f. 
Ethnologie,  1910.  See  also  F.  Stuhlmann,  Handwerk  und  Industrie  in  Ostafrika, 
1910,  p.  49  flf.,  who  on  cultural  grounds  derives  the  knowledge  of  iron  in  Africa 
from  an  Asiatic  source. 

1  E.  Meyer,  "Aegyptische  Chronologic,''  Abh.  Berl.  Akad.  1904,  and  "Nach- 
trage,"  ib.  1907.  This  chronology  has  been  adopted  by  the  Berlin  school  and 
others,  but  is  unsatisfactory  in  blowing  insufficient  time  for  Dynasties  XII  to 
XVIII,  which  are  known  to  contain  100  to  200  rulers.  Flinders  Petrie  therefore 
adds  another  Sothic  period  (1461  years,  calculated  from  Sothis  or  Sirius),  thus 
throwing  the  earlier  dynasties  a  millennium  or  two  further  back.  Dynasty  I, 
according  to  this  computation  starts  in  5546  B.C.  and  Dynasty  XII  at  3779. 
H.  R.  Hall,  The  Ancient  History  of  the  Near  East,  1912,  p.  23. 

2  L.  W.  King,  The  History  of  Sumer  and  Akkad,  1910,  and  "  Babylonia," 
Hutchinson's  History  of  the  Nations,  1914. 

5  C.  H.  Hawes  and  H.  Boyd  Hawes,  Crete  the  Forerunner  of  Greece,  1909. 

*  ].'D€cheye:ne,  Manuel  d'ArchMogie prMstorigue,  11.  \,Agedu  Bronze,  1910, 
p.  61. 

5  J.  D^chelette,  loc.  cit.  p.  105  ff.  based  on  the  work  of  O.  Montelius  and 
P.  Reinecke. 

^  The  Dynasty  of  Akkad  is  often  dated  a  millennium  earlier,  relying  on  the 
statement  of  Nabonidus  (556-540  B.C.)  that  Nar4m-Sin  (the  traditional  son  of 
Sargon  of  Akkad)  reigned  3200  years  before  him ;  but  this  statement  is  now  known 
to  be  greatly  exaggerated.  See  the  section  on  chronology  in  the  Art.  "  Babylonia," 
in  Ency.  Brit.  1910.  

7  Guide  to  the  Antiquities  of  the  Early  Iron  Age  (British  Museum),  1905,  p:  i. 


28  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

The  introduction  of  iron  into  Italy  has  often  been  attri- 
buted to  the  Etruscans,  who  were  thought  to  have  brought 
the  knowledge  from  Lydia.  But  the  most  abundant  remains 
of  the  Early  Iron  Age  are  found  not  in  Tuscany,  but  along 
the  coasts  of  the  Adriatic^  showing  that  iron  followed  the 
well-known  route  of  the  amber  trade,  thus  reaching  Central 
Europe  and  Hallstatt  (which  has  given  its  name  to  the  Early 
Iron  Age),  where  alone  in  Europe  the  gradual  transition 
from  the  use  of  bronze  to  that  of  iron  has  been  clearly  traced. 
W.  Ridgeway^  believes  that  the  use  of  iron  was  first  dis- 
covered in  the  Hallstatt  area  and  that  thence  it  spread  to 
Switzerland,  France,  Spain,  Italy,  Greece,  the  Aegean  area, 
and  Egypt  rather  than  that  the  culture  drift  was  in  the 
opposite  direction.  There  is  no  difference  of  opinion  how- 
ever as  to  the  importance  of  this  Central  European  area 
which  contained  the  most  famous  iron  mines  of  antiquity. 

H  tatt  Hallstatt  culture  extended  from  the  Iberian 
peninsula  in  the  west  to  Hungary  in  the  east, 
but  scarcely  reached  Scandinavia,  North  Germany,  Armorica 
or  the  British  Isles  where  the  Bronze  Age  may  be  said  to 
have  lasted  down  to  about  500  B.C.  Over  such  a  vast  domain 
the  culture  was  not  everywhere  of  a  uniform  type  and 
Hoernes"  recognises  four  geographical  divisions  distinguished 
mainly  by  pottery  and  fibulae,  and  provisionally  classified  as 
lUyrian  in  the  South  West,  or  Adriatic  region,  in  touch  with 
Greece  and  Italy ;  Celtic  in  the  Central  or  Danubian  area  ; 
with  an  off-shoot  in  Western  Germany,  Northern  Switzerland 
and  Eastern  France ;  and  Germanic  in  parts  of  Germany, 
Bohemia,  Moravia,  Silesia  and  Posen. 

The  Hallstatt  period  ends,  roughly,  at  500  B.C.,  and  the 
Later  Iron  Age  takes  its  name  from  the  settlement  of  La 

LaTfene  Tene,  in  a  bay  of  the  Lake  of  Neuchdtel  in 
Switzerland.  This  culture,  while  owing  much 
to  that  of  Hallstatt,  and  much  also  to  foreign  sources,  poS' 
sesses  a  distinct  individuality,  and  though  soon  overpowered 
on  the  Continent  by  Roman  influence,  attained  a  remarkable 
brilliance  in  the  Late  Celtic  period  in  the  British  Isles. 

1  Cf.  J.  TUchBieVee,  Manuel  d'ArcMologie  pr^historigue,  11. 1,  Premier  Age  du 
Per,  1913,  PP-  f46,  562-3- 

^  The  Early  Age  of  Greece,  1900,  pp.  594^630. 

3  "  Die  Hallstattperiode,"  Ass.  frangaise  p.  Vav.  des  sciences,  1905,  p.  278,  and 
Kultur  der  Orzeiif  ill.  Eisen^eit,  1912,  p.  54. 


il]  The  Metal  Ages  29 

That  the  peoples  of  the  Metal  Ages  were  physically  well 
developed,  and  in  a  great  part  of  Europe  and  Asia  already  of 
Aryan  speech,  there  can  be  no  reasonable  doubt,     ^^n  and  his 
A  skull  of  the  early  Hallstatt  period,   from  a     Works  in  the 
grave  near  Wildenroth,  Upper  Bavaria,  is  de-     Metal  Ages, 
scribed  by  Virchow  as  long-headed,  with  a  cranial  capacity  of 
no  less  than  1585  cc,  strongly  developed  occiput,  very  high 
and   narrow  face   and   nose,   and  in  every  respect  a  superb 
specimen   of  the   regular-featured,  long-headed    North    Eu- 
ropean'.    But   owing   to   the   prevalence   of   cremation   the 
evidence  of  race   is   inadequate.     The  Hallstatt  population 
was  undoubtedly  mixed,  and  at  Glasinatz  in  Bosnia,  another 
site  of  Hallstatt  civilisation,  about  a  quarter  of  the   skulls 
examined  were  brachycephalicl 

Their  works,  found  in  great  abundance  in  the  graves, 
especially  of  the  Bronze  and  Iron  periods,  but  a  detailed 
account  of  which  belongs  to  the  province  of  archaeology, 
interest  us  in  many  ways.  The  painted  earthenware  vases 
and  incised  metal-ware  of  all  kinds  enable  the  student  to 
follow  the  progress  of  the  arts  of  design  and  ornamentation 
in  their  upward  development  from  the  first  tentative  efforts 
of  the  prehistoric  artist  at  pleasing  effects.  Human  and 
animal  figures,  though  rarely  depicted,  occasionally  afford  a 
curious  insight  into  the  customs  and  fashions  of  the  times. 
On  a  clay  vessel,  found  in  1896  at  Lahse  in  Posen,  is  figured 
a  regular  hunting  scene,  where  we  see  men  mounted  pn 
horseback,  or  else  on  foot,  armed  with  bow  and  arrow,  pur- 
suing the  quarry  (nobly-antlered  stags),  and  returning  to  the 
penthouse  after  the  chase'.  The  drawing  is  extremely  primi- 
tive, but  on  that  account  all  the  more  instructive,  showing  in 
connection  with  analogous  representations  on  contemporary 
objects,  how  in  prehistoric  art  such  figures  tend  to  become 
conventionalised  and  purely  ornamental,  as  in  similar  designs 
on  the  vases  and  textiles  from  the  Ancon  Necropolis,  Peru. 
"  Most  ornaments  of  primitive  peoples,  although  to  our  eye 
they  may  seem  merely  geometrical  and  freely-invented 
designs,  are  in  reality  nothing  more  than  degraded  animal 
and  human  figures'." 

>  "Ein  Schadel  aus  der  alteren  Hallstattzeit,"  in   Verhandl.  Berlin.   Ges.  f. 

Anthrop.  i8g6,  pp.  243-6.  „..,,, 

2  Guide  to  the  Antiquities  of  the  Early  Iron  Age  (British  Museum),  1905,  p.  8. 

3  Hans  Seger,  "  FigUfliche  Darstellungen  auf  schlesischen  Grabgefassen  dfer 
Hallstattzeit,"  Globus,  Nov.  20,  1897.  *  Ibid.  p.  297. 


30  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

This  may  perhaps  be  the  reason  why  so.  many  of  the 
drawings  of  the  metal  period  appear  so  inferior  to  those  of 
the  cave-dwellers  and  of  the  present  Bushmen.  They  are 
often  mere  conventionalised  reductions  of  pictorial  prototypes, 
comparable,  for  instance,  to  the  characters  of  our  alphabets, 
which  are  known  to  be  degraded  forms  of  earlier  pictographs. 

Of  the  so-called  "Prehistoric  Age"  it  is  obvious  that  no 
strict  definition  can  be  given.  It  comprises  in  a  general  way 
The  Prehistoric  ^'^^^  vague  period  prior  to  all  written  records. 
Age  in  the  dim  memories  of  which — popular  myths,   folk- 

West,  lore,  demi-gods\  eponymous  heroes^  traditions 

of  real  events" — lingered  on  far  into  historic  times,  and 
supplied  ready  to  hand  the  copious  materials  afterwards 
worked  up  by  the  early  poets,  founders  of  new  religions,  and 
later  legislators. 

That  letters  themselves,  although  not  brought  into  general 
use,  had  already  been  invented,  is  evident  from  the  mere  fact 
that  all  memory  of  their  introduction  beyond  the  vaguest 
traditions  had  died  out  before  the  dawn  of  history.  The 
works  of  man,  while  in  themselves  necessarily  continuous, 
stretched  back  to  such  an  inconceivably  remote  past,  that 
even  the  great  landmarks  in  the  evolution  of  human  progress 
had  long  been  forgotten  by  later  generations. 

And  so  it  was  everywhere,  in  the  New  World  as  in  the 

Old,  amongst  Eastern  as  amongst  Western  Peoples.      In  the 

..   ^^.  Chinese  records  the  "Agre    of  the   Five   Em- 

and  in  China.  »      r  i  i       •  i 

perors  — five,  though  nme  are  named— answers 

somewhat  to  our  prehistoric  epoch.     It  had  its  eponymous 

hero,  Fu  Hi,  reputed  founder  of  the  empire,  who  invented 

nets  and  snares  for  fishing  and  hunting,  and  taught  his  people 

how  to  rear  domestic  animals.     To  him  also  is  ascribed  the 

institution  of  marriage,  and  in  his  time  Tsong  Chi  is  supposed 

to  have  invented  the    Chinese   characters,   symbols,   not  of 

sounds,  but  of  objects  and  ideas. 

'  Homer's  fifuBeav  yh/os  dvbpav,  II.  XII.  23,  if  the  passage  is  genuine. 

2  Such  as  the  Greek  Atuireas,  the  "First  Man,"  invented  in  comparatively 
recent  times,  as  shown  by  the  intrusive  d'va.  avhpis  for  the  earlier  avepes,  "men." 
Andreas  was  of  course  a  Greek,  sprung  in  fact  from  the  river  Peneus  and  the  first 
inhabitant  of  the  Orchomenian  plain  (Pausanias,  ix.  34,  5). 

^  For  instance,  the  flooding  of  the  Thessalian  plain,  afterwards  drained  by  the 
Peneus  and  repeopled  by  the  inhabitants  of  the  surrounding  mountains  (rocks, 
stones),  whence  the  myth  of  Deucalion  and  Pyrrha,  who'  are  told  by  the  oracle  to 
repeople  the  world  by  throwing  behind  them  the  "bones  of  their  grandmother," 
that  is,  the  "  stones  "  of  mother  Earth. 


ii]  Historic  Times  and  Peoples  31 

Then  came  other  benevolent  rulers,  who  taught  the  people 
agriculture,  established  markets  for  the  sale  of  farm  produce, 
discovered  the  medicinal  properties  of  plants,  wrote  treatises 
on  diseases  and  their  remedies,  studied  astrology  and  as- 
tronomy, and  appointed  "  the  Five  Observers  of  the  heavenly 
bodies." 

But  this  epoch  had  been  preceded  by  the  "Age  of  the 
Three  [six]  Rulers,"  when  people  lived  in  caves,  ate  wild 
fruits  and  uncooked  food,  drank  the  blood  of  animals  and 
wore  the  skins  of  wild  beasts  (our  Old  Stone  Age).  Later 
they  grew  less  rude,  learned  to  obtain  fire  by  friction,  and 
built  themselves  habitations  of  wood  or  foliage  (our  Early 
Neolithic  Age).  Thus  is  everywhere  revealed  the  back- 
ground of'  sheer  savagery,  which  lies  behind  all  human 
culture,  while  the  "Golden  Age"  of  the  poets  fades  with  the 
"  Hesperides  "  and  Plato's  "  Atlantis  "  into  the  region  of  the 
fabulous. 

Little  need  here  be  said  of  strictly  historic  times,  the  most 

characteristic  feature  of  which  is  perhaps  the  general  use  of 

letters.      By    means    of    this    most    fruitful    of 

,  ■       ■'      ■  .1  .  ■,  .  Histonc  Tunes, 

human  mventions,  everythmg  worth  preservmg 

was  perpetuated,  and  thus  all  useful  knowledge  tended  to 
become  accumulative.  It  is  no  longer  possible  to  say  when 
or  where  the  miracle  was  wrought  by  which  the  apparently 
multifarious  sounds  of  fully-developed  languages  were  ex- 
haustively analysed  and  effectively  expressed  by  a  score  or 
so  of  arbitrary  signs.  But  a  comparative  study  of  the  various 
writing-systems  in  use  in  different  parts  of  the  world  has 
revealed  the  process  by  which  the  transition  was  gradually 
brought  about  from  rude  pictorial  representations  of  objects 
to  purely  phonetical  symbols. 

As  is  clearly  shown  by  the  "  winter  counts  "  of  the  North 
American  aborigines,  and  by  the  prehistoric  rock  carvings  in 
Upper  Egypt,  the  first  step  was  a  pictograph,      Evolution  of 
the  actual  figure,  say,  of  a  man,  standing  for  a      writing 
given   man,   and  then   for  any  man   or  human      Systems, 
being.     Then  this  figure,  more  or  less  reduced  or  conven- 
tionalised, served  to  indicate  not  only  the  term  man,  but  the 
full  sound  man,  as  in  the  word  manifest,  and  in  the  modern 
rebus.     At  this  stage  it  becomes  2l  phonogram,  ox  phonoglyph, 
which,  when  further  reduced  beyond  all  recognition  of  its 
original   form,  may  stand  for  the  syllable  ma  -as,  in  ma-ny. 


32  Man :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

without  any  further  reference  either  to  the  idea  or  the  sound 
man.  The  phonogram  has  now  become  the  symbol  of  a 
monosyllable,  which  is  normally  made  up  of  two  elements,  a 
consonant  and  a  vowel,  as  in  the  Devanagari,  and  other 
syllabic  systems. 

Lastly,  by  dropping  the  second  or  vowel  element  the 
same  symbol,  further  modified  or  not,  becomes  a  ktter  repre- 
senting the  sound  m,  that  is,  one  of  the  few  ultimate  elements 
of  articulate  speech.  A  more  or  less  complete  set  of  such 
characters,  thus  worn  down  in  form  and  meaning,  will  then 
be  available  for  indicating  more  or  less  completely  all  the 
phonetic  elements  of  any  given  language.  It  will  be  a  true 
alphabet,  the  wonderful  nature  of  which  may  be  inferred  from 
the  fact  that  only  two,  or  possibly  three,  such  alphabetic 
systems  are  known  with  absolute  certainty  to  have  ever  been 
independently  evolved  by  human  ingenuity^  From  the  above 
exposition  we  see  how  inevitably  the  Phoenician  parent  of 
neafly  all  late  alphabets  expressed  at  first  the  consonantal 
sounds  only,  so  that  the  vowels  or  vowel  marks  are  in  all 
cases  later  developments,  as  in  Hebrew,  Syriac,  Arabic,  Greek, 
the  Italic  group,  and  the  Runes. 

In  primitive  systems,  such  as  the  Egyptian,   Sumerian, 
Chinese,    Maya-Quiche    and    Mexican,  one  or  more   of   the 
various  transitional  steps  may  be  developed  and  used  simul- 
taneously, with  a  constant  tendeticy  to  advance  on  the  lines 
above  indicated, .  by  gradual  substitution  of  the  later  for  the 
Hieroglyphs      earlier  stages.     A  comparison  of  the  Sumerian 
and  Cuiiei-        Cuneiform   and   Egyptian  hieroglyphic  systems 
forms.  brings  out  some  curious  results.     Thus  at  an 

extremely  remote  epoch,  some  millenniums  ago,  the  Sumerians 
had  already  got  rid  of  the  pictorial,  and  to  a  great  extent  of 
the  ideographic,  but  had  barely  reached  the  alphabetic  phase. 
Consequently  their  cuneiform  groups,  although  possessing 
phonetic  value,  mainly  express  full  syllables,  scarcely  ever 
letters,  and  rarely  complete  words.  Ideographs  had  given 
place    first    to    phonograms    and    then    to    mere   syllables, 

1  Such  instances  as  George  Guest's  Cherokee  system,  and  the  crude  attempt  of 
a  Vei  (West  Sudanese)  Negro,  if  genuine,  are  not  here  in  question,  as  both  had  the 
English  alphabet  to  work  upon.  A  like  remark  applies  to  the  old  Irish  and  Welsh 
Ogharn,  which  are  more  curious  than  instructive,  the  characters,  mostly  mere 
groups  of  straight  strokes,  being  obvious  substitutes  for  the  corresponding  letters  of 
the  Roman  alphabet,  hence  comparable  to  the  cryptographic  systems  of 
Wheatstone  and  others. 


ii]  Historic  Times  and  Peoples  33 

"complex  syllables  in  which  several  consonants  may  be 
distinguished,  or  simple  syllables  composed  of  only  one  con- 
sonant and  one  vowel  or  vice  versa^." 

The  Egyptians,  on  the  other  hand,  carried  the  system 
right  through  the  whole  gamut  from  pictures  to  letters,  but 
retained  all  the  intermediate  phases,  the  initial  tending  to  fall 
away,  the  final  to  expand,  while  the  bulk  of  the  hieroglyphs 
represented  in  various  degrees  the  several  transitional  states. 
In  many  cases  they  "had  kept  only  one  part  of  the  syllable, 
namely  a  mute  consonant ;  they  detached,  for  instance,  the 
final  u  from  bu  and  pu,  and  gave  only  the  values  b  and  p  to 
the  human  leg  J  and  to  the  mat  i .  The  peoples  of  the 
Euphrates  stopped  half  way,  and  admitted  actual  letters  for 
the  vowel  sounds  a,  i  and  ti  only'." 

In  the  process  of  evolution,  metaphor  and  analogy  of 
course  played  a  large  part,  as  in  the  evolution  of  language 
itself.  Thus  a  lion  might  stand  both  for  the  animal  and  for 
courage,  and  so  on.  The  first  essays  in  phonetics  took  some- 
what the  form  of  a  modern  rebus,  thus  :  O  =  khau  =  sieve, 
i  =pu  =  mat ;  <=»  =  ru  =  mouth,  whence  O  g  =  kho-pi-ru  =  to 

be,  where  the  sounds  and  not  the  meaning  of  the  several 
components  are  alone  attended  to'. 

By  analogous  processes  was  formed  a  true  alphabet,  in 
which,  however,  each  of  the  phonetic  elements  was  repre- 
sented at  first  by  several  different  characters  .  »,  i^  ^  *. 
derived  from  several  different  words  having  the 
same  initial  syllable.  Here  was,  therefore,  an  embarras  de 
richesses,  which  could  be  got  rid  of  only  by  a  judicious  process 
of  elimination,  that  is,  by  discarding  all  like-sounding  symbols 
but  one  for  the  same  sound.  When  this  final  process  of 
reduction  was  completed  by  the  scribes,  in  other  words,  when 
all  the  phonetic  signs  were  rejected  except  23,  i.e.  one  for 
each  of  the  23  phonetic  elements,  the  Phoenician  alphabet  as 
we  now  have  it  was  completed.  Such  may  be  taken  as  the  real 
origin  of  this  system,  whether  the  scribes  in  question  were 
Babylonians,  Egyptians,  Minaeans,  or  Europeans,  that  is, 
whether  the  Phoenician  alphabet  had  a  cuneiform,  a  hiero- 
glyphic, a  South  Arabian,  a  Cretan  (Aegean),  Ligurian  or 
Iberian  origin,  for  all  these  and  perhaps  other  peoples  have 

'  Maspero,  The  Dawn  of  Civilisation,  1898,  p.  728. 
2  Ibid.  3  jind.  p.  233. 


34  Man :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

been  credited  with  the  invention.     The  time  is  not  yet  ripe 
for  deciding  between  these  rival  claimants  \ 

But  whatever  be  the  source  of  the  Phoenician,  that  of 
the  Persian  system  current  under  the  Achaemenides  is  clear 
_.         .  enough.     It  is  a  true  alphabet  of  37  characters, 

and  other  derived  by  some  selective  process  directly  from 

Cuneiform  the  Babylonian  cuneiforms,  without  any  attempt 

Scnpts.  ^j.    ^    modification    of    their    shapes.     Hence 

although  simple  compared  with  its  prototype,  it  is  clumsy 
enough  compared  with  the  Phoenician  script,  several  of  the 
letters  requiring  groups  of  as  many  as  four  or  even  five 
"wedges"  for  their  expression.  None  of  the  other  cunei' 
form  systems  also  derived  from  the  Sumerian  (the  Assyrian, 
Elamite,  Vannic,  Medic)  appear  to  have  reached  the  pure 
alphabetic  state,  all  being  still  encumbered  with  numerous 
complex  syllabic  characters.  The  subjoined  table,  for  which 
I  have  to  thank  T.  G.  Pinches,  will  help  to  show  the  genesis 
of  the  cuneiform  combinations  from  the  earliest  known  picto- 
graphs.  These  pictographs  themselves  are  already  reduced 
to  the  merest  outlines  of  the  original  pictorial  representations. 
But  no  earlier  forms,  showing  the  gradual  transition  from  the 
primitive  picture  writing  to  the  degraded  pictographs  here 
given,  have  yet  come  to  light". 

Here  it  may  be  asked.    What  is  to  be  thought   of  the 

already-mentioned    pebble-markings    from     the     Mas-d'Azil 

Cave  at  the  close  of  the  Old  Stone  Agre  ?     If 

The  Mas  d'Azil        i  i  i  •  i 

Markings  ^^^  ^''^  truly  phonetic,  then  we  must  suppose 

that  palaeolithic  man  not  only  invented  an 
alphabetic  writing  system,  but  did  this  right  off  by  intuition, 
as  it  were,  without  any  previous  knowledge  of  letters.  At 
least  no  one  will  suggest  that  the  Dordogne  cave-dwellers- 
were  already  in  possession  of  pictographic  or  other  crude 
systems,  from  which  the  Mas-d'Azil  "script"  might  have 
been  slowly  evolved.  Yet  E.  Piette,  who  groups  these 
pebbles,  painted  with  peroxide  of  iron,  in  the  four  categories 
of  numerals,  symbols,  pictographs,  and  alphabetical  characters, 
states,  in  reference  to  these  last,  that  13  out  of  23  Phoenician 
characters  were  equally  Azilian  graphic  signs.  He '  even 
suggests  that  there  may  be  an  approach  to  an  inscription  in 

1  See  P.  Giles,  Art.  "Alphabet,"  Ency.  Brit.  igio. 

2  See  A.  J.  Booth,  The  Discovery  and  Decipherment  of  the  Trilingual  Cuneiform 
Inscriptions,  \tyy2. 


n] 


Historic  Times  and  Peoples 


35 


pne  group,  where,  however,  the  mark  indicating  a  stop 
imphes  a  script  running  Semitic-fashion  from  right  to  left, 
whereas  the  letters  themselves  seem  to  face  the  other  way". 
G.  G.  MacCurdj^',  who  accepts  the  evidence  for  the  existence 


Evolution  of  the   Sumerian  Cuneiforms. 


lOOO  B.C. 

and  later. 


About  2500 
to  1500  B.C. 


^<[< 


Oldest  known  line  forms, 
3000  B.C.  and  earlier. 

N   A 


% 


=0 

»» 


"bird." 

"sheep''  (pro- 
bably a  sheep- 
fold). 

"ox." 

"togo," 
"to  stand." 


—  "hand." 


—  "fish.'^ 


"reed." 


^ 


# 


"reed." 


'corn''      ("ear 
of  com  "). 


% 


"god," 
"  heaven. " 


"  constellation," 
"star." 


of  writing  in  Azilian,  if  not  in  Magdalenian  times,  notes  the 
close  similarity  between  palaeolithic  signs  and  Phoenician, 
ancient    Greek    and    Cypriote    letters.      But   J.    D6chelette^ 

1  LAnthr.  xv.  1904,  p.  164. 

2  Recent  Discoveries  bearing  on  the  Antiquity  of  Man  in  Europe  (Smithsonian 
Report  for  1909),  1910,  p.  566  ff. 

3  Manuel  d! ArMologie prdhistorique,  i.  1908. 


36  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

reviewing  (pp.  234,  236)  the  arguments  against  Piette's  claims, 
points  out  in  conclusion  (p.  320)  the  impossibility  of  admitting 
that  the  population  of  Gaul  could  Suddenly  lose  so  beneficial 
a  discovery  as  that  of  writing.  Yet  thousands  of  years  elapse 
before  the  earliest  appearance  of  epigraphic  monuments. 

A  possible  connection  has  been  suggested  by  Sergi 
between  the  Mas-d'Azil  signs  and  the  markings  that  have 
y  been  discovered  on  the  megalithic  monuments 

form  Signs  on  of  North  Africa,  Brittany,  and  the  British  Isles. 
NeoUthic  These  are  all  so  rudimentary  that  resemblances 

Monuments.  ^^^  inevitable,  and  of  themselves  afford  little 
ground  for  necessary  connections.  Primitive  man  is  but  a 
child,  and  all  children  bawl  and  scrawl  much  in  the  same  way. 
Nevertheless  C.  Letourneau'  has  taken  the  trouble  to  com- 
pare five  such  scrawls  from  "Libyan  inscriptions"  now  in 
the  Bardo  Museum,  Tunis,  with  similar  or  identical  signs  on 
Brittany  and  Irish  dolmens.  There  is  the  familiar  circle 
plain  and  dotted  o  0,  the  cross  in  its  simplest  form  +,  the 
pothook  and  segmented  square  P  n,  all  of  which  recur  in 
the  Phoenician,  Keltiberjan,  Etruscan,  Libyan  or  Tuareg 
systems.  Letourneau,  however,  who  does  not  call  them 
letters  but  only  "signes  alphabdtiformes,"  merely  suggests 
that,  if  not  phonetic  marks  when  first  carved  on  the  neolithic 
monuments,  they  may  have  become  so  in  later  times.  Against 
this  it  need  only  be  urged  that  in  later  times  all  these  peoples 
were  supplied  with  complete  alphabetic  systems  from  the 
East  as  soon  as  they  required  them.  By  that  time  all  the 
peoples  of  the  cultilre-zone  were  well-advanced  into  the 
historic  period,  and  had  long  forgotten  the  rude  carvings  of 
their  neolithic  forefathers. 

Armed  with   a   nearly  perfect  writing   system,   and  the 

correlated  cultural  appliances,  the  higher  races  soon  took  a 

foremost   place    in   the   general    progress    of  mankind,    and 

gradually  acquired  a  marked  ascendancy,  not  only  over  the 

less  cultured  populations  of  the  elobe,  but  in 

Character  and        ,  ^i       r  r  , 

Consequences  ^^rge  measure  over  the  forces  of  nature  herself, 
of  the  later  With  the  development  of  navigation  and  im- 

MT*^°^ans  proved    methods   of    locomotion,    inland    seas, 

barren  wastes,  and  mountain  ranges  ceased  to 
be  insurmountable  obstacles  to  their  movements,  which  within 

1  "Les  signes  libyques  des  dolmens,''  Bui.  Soc.  d'Anthrop.  1896,  p.  319. 


ii]  Historic  Times  and  Peoples  37 

certain  limits  have  never  been  arrested  throughout  all  recorded 
time. 

Thus,  during  the  long  ages  following  the  first  peopling  of 
the  earth  by  pleistocene  man,  fresh  settlements  and  readjust- 
ments have  been  continually  in  progress,  although  wholesale 
displacements  must  be  regarded  as  rare  events.  With  few 
exceptions,  the  later  migrations,  whether  hostile  or  peaceful, 
were,  for  reasons  already  stated',  generally  of  a  partial 
character,  while  certain  insular  regions,  such  as  America  and 
Australia,  remained  little  affected  by  such  movements  till 
quite  recent  times.  But  for  the  inhabitants  of  the  eastern 
hemisphere  the  results  were  none  the  less  far-reaching.  Con- 
tinuous infiltrations  could  not  fail  ultimately  to  bring  about 
great  modifications  of  early  types,  while  the  ever-active 
principle  of  convergence  tended  to  produce  a  general  uni- 
formity amongst  the  new  amalgams.  Thus  the  great  varietal 
divisions,  though  undergoing  slow  changes  from  age  to  age, 
continued,  like  all  other  zoological  groups,  to  maintain  a 
distinct  regional  character. 

Flinders  Petrie  has  acutely  observed  that  the  only  meaning 
the  term  "  race  "  now  can  have  is  that  of  a  group  of  human 
beings,  whose  type  has  become  unified  by  their  -j^g  "Race" 
rate  of  assimilation  exceeding  the  rate  of  change  merges  in  the 
produced  by  foreign  elements  I  We  are  also  "People, 
reminded  by  Gustavo  Tosti  that  "in  the  actual  state  of  science 
the  word  '  race '  is  a  vague  formula,  to  which  nothing  definite 
may  be  found  to  correspond.  On  the  one  hand,  the  original 
races  can  only  be  said  to  belong  to  palaeontology,  while  the 
more  limited  groups,  now  called  races,  are  nothing  but  peoples, 
or  societies  of  peoples,  brethren  by  civilization  more  than  by 
blood.  The  race  thus  conceived  ends  by  identifying  itself 
with  nationality^"  Hence  it  has  been  asked  why,  on  the 
principle  of  convergence,  a  fusion  of  various  races,  if  isolated 
long  enough  in  a  given  area,  may  not  eventually  lead  to  a 
new  ra,cial  "type,  without  leaving  any  trace  of  its  manifold 
origin\ 

Such   new  racial   types  would   be  normal   for  the  later 
varietal  groups,  just  as  the  old  types  were  normal  for  the 

1  Eth.  Chap.  XIII. 

2  Address,  Meeting  British  Assoc.  Ipswich,  1895. 

3  Amer.  J.  of  Socwlogy,  Jan.  1898,  pp.  46^-8: 
*  A.  Vierkandt,  Globus,  ^2,  p..  134- 


38  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

earlier  groups,  and  a  general  application  might  be  given  to 
Topinard's  famous  dictum  that  les  peuples  seuls  sont  des 
rMitds^,  that  is,  peoples  alone — groups  occupying  definite 
geographical  areas — have  an  objective  existence.  Thus,  the 
notion  of  race,  as  a  zoological  expression  in  the  sense  of  a 
pure  breed  or  strain,  falls  still  more  into  the  background,  and, 
as  Virchow  aptly  remarks,  "  this  term,  which  always  implied 
something  vague,  has  in  recent  times  become  in  the  highest 
degree  uncertain"." 

Hence  Ehrenreich  treats  the  present  populations  of  the 
earth  rather  as  zoological  groups  which  have  been  developed 
The  distinguish-  '^"^  '^^i'*  Several  geographical  domains,  and  are 
ing  Characters  to  be  distinguished  not  so  much  by  their  bony 
of  Peoples.  structure  as  by  their  external  characters,  such  as 

hair,  colour,  and  expression,  and  by  their  habitats  and  languages. 
None  of  these  factors  can  be  overlooked,  but  it  would  seem 
that  the  character  of  the  hair  forms  the  most  satisfactory 
basis  for  a  classification  of  mankind,  and  this  has  therefore 
been  adopted  for  the  new  edition  of  the  present  work.  It 
has  the  advantage  of  simplicity,  without  involving,  or  even 
implying,  any  particular  theory  of  racial  or  geographical 
origins.  It  has  stood  the  test  of  time,  being  proposed  by 
Bory  de  Saint  Vincent  in  1827,  and  adopted  by  Huxley, 
Haeckel,   Broca,  Topinard  and  many  others. 

The  three  main  varieties  of  hair  are  the  straight,  the  wavy 
and  the  so-called  woolly,  termed  respectively  Leiotrichous, 
Cymotrichous  and  Ulotrichous^.  Straight  hair  usually  falls 
straight  down,  though  it  may  curl  at  the  ends,  it  is  generally 
coarse  and  stiff,  and  is  circular  in  section.  Wavy  hair  is 
undulating,  forming  long  curves  or  imperfect  spirals,  or  closer 
rings  or  curls,  and  the  section  is  more  or  less  elliptical. 
Woolly  hair  is  characterised  by  numerous,  close,  often  inter- 
locking spirals,  1-9  mm.  in  diameter,  the  section  giving  the 
form  of  a  lengthened  ellipse.  Straight  hair  is  usually  the 
longest,  and  woolly  hair  the  shortest,  wavy  hair  occupying  an 
intermediate  position. 

'  iiUments  d'Anthropologie  Gdnirale,  p.  207. 

^  Rassfinbildung  u.  Erblichkeit;  Bastian-Festschrift,  1896,  p.  i. 

3  From  Gk.  Xetos,  smooth,  <c5jtia,  wave,  ouXor,  fleecy,  and  Bpl^,  rpXxos,  hair. 
J.  Deniker  ( The  Races  of  Man,  1900,  p.  38)  distinguishes  four  classes,  the  Australians, 
Nubians  etc.  being  grouped  3&  frizzy.  He  gives  the  corresponding  terms  in  French 
and  German  : — straight,  Fr.  droit,  lisse,  Germ,  straff,  schlicht ;  wavy,  Fr.  ondS, 
Germ,  wellig ;  frizzy,  Yr.frisd,  Germ,  lockig;  woolly,  Fr.  crdpu.  Germ,  kraus. 


ii]  Historic  Times  and  Peoples  39 

Scheme  of  Classification. 

I.  Ulotrichi  (Woolly-haired). 

1.  The  African  Negroes,  Negrilloes,  Bushmen. 

2.  The  Oceanic  Negroes :    Papuans,   Melanesians  in 

part,  Tasmanians,  Negritoes. 

II.  Leiotrichi  (Straight-haired). 

1.  The  Southern  Mongols. 

2.  The  Oceanic  Mongols,  Polynesians  in  part. 

3.  The  Northern  Mongols. 

4.  The  American  Aborigines. 

III.  Cymotrichi  (Curly  or  Wavy-haired). 

1.  The  Pre-Dravidians  :    Vedda,  Sakai,  etc.,  Austra- 

lians. 

2.  The  "  Caucasic  "  peoples  : 

A.  Southern  Dolichocephals :  Mediterraneans,  Ha- 

mites,  Semites,  Dravidians,  Indonesians,  Poly- 
nesians in  part. 

B.  Northern  Dolichocephals :   Nordics,  Kurds,  Af- 

ghans, some  Hindus. 

C.  Brachycephals :    Alpines,    including    the    short 

Cevenoles  of  Western  and  Central  Europe, 
and  tall  Adriatics  or  Dinarics  of  Eastern 
Europe  and  the  Armenians  of  Western  Asia. 


CHAPTER-  III 


,    THE  AFRICAN  NEGRO :   I.  SUDANESE 

Conspectus — The  Negro-Caucasic" Great  Divide" — The  Negro  Domain — Negro 
Origins — Persistence  of  the  Negro  Type — Two  Main  Sections  :  Sudanese  and 
Bantus — Contrasts  and  Analogies — Sudanese  and  Bantu  Linguistic  Areas — 
The  "  Drum  Language  " — West  Sudanese  Groups — The  Wolofs  :  Primitive 
Speech  and  Pottery ;  Religious  Notions — The  Mandingans :  Culture  and 
Industries;  History;  the  Guind  and  Mali  Empires — The  Felups:  Contrasts 
between  the  Inland  and  Coast  Peoples  ;  Felup  Type  and  Mental  Characters — 

*.  Timni — ^African  Freemasonry — The  Sierra  Leonese— Social  Relations — The 
Liberians — The  Krumen — The  Upper  Guinea  Peoples — Table  of  the  Gold 
Coast  and  Slave  Coast  Tribes — Ashanti  Folklore — Fetishism  ;  its  true  inward- 
ness— Ancestry  Worship  and  the  "Customs" — The  Benin  Bronzes — The 
Mossi — African  Agnostics — Central  Sudanese — General  Ethnical  and  Social 
Relations— 2",4«  Songhai — Domain — Origins — Egyptian  Theories — Songhai 
Records — The  Hau'sas — Dominant  Social  Position — Speech  and  Mental 
Qualities — Origins — Kanembu ;  Kanuri ;  Baghirmi ;  Mosgu—Kthnical  and 
Political  Relations  in  the  Chad  Basin — The  Aborigines — Islam  and  Heathen- 
dom—  Slave-Hunting — Arboreal  Strongholds — Mosgu  Types  and  Contrasts — 
The  Cultured  Peoples  of  Central  Sudan — Kanem-Bornu  Records — Eastern 
Sudanese — Range  of  the  Negro  in  Eastern  Sudan — The  Mabas — Ethnical 
Relations  in  Wadai — The  Nubas — The  Nubian  Probletn — Nubian  Origins 
and  Affinities — The  Negro  Peoples  of  the  Nile-Congo  Watersheds — Political 
Relations — Two  Physical  Types — The  Dinka — Linguistic  Groups — Mental 
Qualities — Cannibalism — The  African  Cannibal  Zone — Arts  and  Industries — 
High  Appreciation  of  Pictorial  Art — Sense  of  Humour. 

Conspectus  of  Sudanese  Negroes. 

Present  Range.  Africa  south  of  the  Sahara,  less 
Distribution  in  Abyssinia,  Galla,  Somali  and  Masai  lands; 
Past  and  TripoUtana,  Mauritania  and  Egypt  sporadically ; 

Present  Times,  several  of  the  southern  United  States;  West 
Indies ;  Guiana  ;  parts  of  Brazil  and  Peru. 

Hair,  always  black,  rather  short,  and  crisp,  frizzly  or 

•woolly,  fiat  in  transverse  section;   skin-colour,  very   dark 

brown   or  chocolate   and  blackish,    never  quite 

Chlrlctirs.  black  ;^  skuU,  generally  dolichocephalous  {index 

72);  iscws,  prognathous ;  cheek-bone,  rather 

small,  moderately  retreating,  rarely  prominent ;  nose,  very 


CH.  Ill]     The  African  Negro:  I.  Sudanese  41 

broad  at  base,  fiat,  small,  platyrrhine ;  eyes,  large,  round, 
prominent,  black  with  yellowish  cornea;  stature,  usually 
tall,  178  m.  (5  ft.  10  «"«.);  lips,  often  tumid  and  everted; 
arms,  disproportionately  long;  legs,  slender  with  small 
calves ;  feet,  broad,  flat,  with  low  instep  and  larkspur  heel. 

Temperament,  sensuous,   indolent,   improvident ;  fitful, 
passionate  and  cruel,   though  often  affectionate 
and  faithful ;   little  sense  of  dignity,  and  slight      characters 
self -consciousness,  hence  easy  acceptance  of  yoke 
of  slavery  ;  musical. 

Speech,  almost  everywhere  in  the  agglutinating  state, 
generally  with  suffixes. 

Religion,  anthropomorphic ;  spirits  endowed  with  human 
attributes,  mostly  evil  and  m,ore  powerful  than  man; 
ancestry-worship,  fetishism,,  and  witchcraft  very  prevalent; 
human  sacrifices  to  the  dead  a  common  feature. 

Culture,  low ;  cannibalism,  formerly  rife,  perhaps  uni- 
versal, still  general  in  some  regions  ;  no  science  or  letters ;  arts 
and  industries  confined  mainly  to  agriculture,  pottery,  wood- 
carving,  weaving,  and  metallurgy ;  no  perc^tible  progress 
anywhere  except  under  the  infiuence  of  higher  races. 

West  Sudanese:  Wolof;  Mandingan;  Felup;  Timni ; 
Kru;    Sierra   Leonese;   Liberian;    Tshi,   Ewe,       Main^ 
and  Yoruba;  Ibo ;  Efik ;  Borgu;  Mossi.  ^  Divisions. 

Central  Sudanese :  Songhai;  Hausa;  Mosgu;  Kanembu; 
Kanuri ;  Baghirmi ;  Yedina. 

East  Sudanese:  Maba;  F-Hr ;  Nuba;  Shilluk ;  Dinka; 
Bari;  Abaka;  Bongo;  Mangbattu;  Zandeh;  Momfu; 
Basd;  Barea. 

From  the  anthropological  standpoint  Africa  falls  into  two 
distinct  sections,  where  the  highest  (Caucasic)  and  the  lowest 
(Negro)  divisions  of  mankind  have  been  con-  TheNegro- 
terminous  throughout  all  known  time.  Mutual  Caucasic 
encroachments  and  interpenetrations  have  prob-  "Great Dmde." 
ably  been  continuous,  and  indeed  are  still  going  on.  Yet  so 
marked  is  the  difference  between  the  two  groups,  and  such  is 
the  tenacity  with  which  each  clings  to  its  proper  domain,  that, 
despite  any  very  distinct  geographical  frontiers,  the  ethno- 
logical parting  line  may  still  be  detected.     Obliterated  at  one 

1  For  a  tentative  classification  of  African  tribes  see  T.  A.  Joyce,  Art.  "  Africa : 
Ethnology,"  Ency.  Brit.  1910,  p.  329. 


42  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

or  two  points,  and  at  others  set  back  always  in  favour  of  the 
higher  division,  it  may  be  followed  from  the  Atlantic  coast 
along  the  course  of  the  Senegal  river  east  by  north  to  the 
great  bend  of  the  Niger  at  Timbuktu ;  then  east  by  south  to 
Lake  Chad,  beyond  which  it  runs  nearly  due  east  to  Khartum, 
at  the  confluence  of  the  White  and  Blue  Niles. 

From  this  point  the  now  isolated  Negro  groups  (Bas^and 
Barea),  on  the  northern  slope  of  the  Abyssinian  plateau,  show 
that  the  original  boundary  was  at  first  continued  still  east  to 
the  Red  Sea  at  or  about  Massowa.  But  for  many  ages  the 
line  appears  to  have  been  deflected  from  Khartum  along  the 
White  Nile  south  to  the  Sobat  confluence,  then  continuously 
south-eastwards  round  by  the  Sobat  Valley  to  the  Albert 
Nyanza,  up  the  Somerset  Nile  to  the  Victoria  Nyanza,  and 
thence  with  a  considerable  southern  bend  round  Masailand 
eastwards  to  the  Indian  Ocean  at  the  equator. 

All  the  land  north  of  this  irregular  line  belongs  to  the 
Hamito-Semitic  section  of  the  Caucasic  division,  all  south  of  it 
to  the  western  (African)  section  of  the  Ulotrichous 
Dom^^'^°  division.     Throughout  this  region — which  com- 

prises the  whole  of  Sudan  from  the  Atlantic  to 
the  White  Nile,  and  all  south  of  Sudan  except  Abyssinia, 
Galla,  Somali  and  Masai  lands — the  African  Negro,  clearly 
distinguished  from  the  other  main  groups  by  the  above  sum- 
marised physical^  and  mental  qualities,  largely  predominates 
everywhere  and  in  many  places  exclusively.  The  route  by 
which  he  probably  reached  these  intertropical  lands,  where  he 
may  be  regarded  as  practically  indigenous,  has  been  indicated 
in  Ethnology,  Chs.  X.  and  XI. 

As  regards  the  date  of  this  occupation,  nothing  can  be. 
clearly  proved.  "The  history  of  Africa  reaches  back  but  a 
jj  Q  .  .  short  distance,  except,  of  course,  as '  far  as  the 
lower  Nile  Valley  and  Roman  Africa  is  con- 
cerned ;  elsewhere  no  records  exist,  save  tribal  traditions,  and 
these  only  relate  to  very  recent  events.  Even  archaeology, 
which  can  often  sketch  the  main  outlines  of  a  people's  history, 
is  here  practically  powerless,   owing  to  the  insufficiency  of 

^  Graphically  summed  up  in  the  classical  description  of  the  Negress  : 
"  Afra  genus,  toti  patriam  testante  figurS,, 
Torta  comam  labroque  tumens,  et  fusca  colorem, 
Pectore  lata,  jacens  mammis,  compressior  alvo, 
Cruribus  exilis,  spatiosi  prodiga  planti." 


Ill]  The  African  Negro:  I.  Sudanese  43 

data.  It  is  true  that  stone  implements  of  palaeolithic  and 
neolithic  types  are  found  sporadically  in  the  Nile  Valley\ 
Somaliland,  on  the  Zambesi,  in  Cape  Colony  and  the  northern 
portions  of  the  Congo  Free  State,  as  well  as  in  Algeria  and 
Tunisia  ;  but  the  localities  are  far  too  few  and  too  widely 
separated  to  warrant  the  inference  that  they  are  to  be  in  any 
way  connected.  Moreover,  where  stone  implements  are 
found  they  are,  as  a  rule,  very  near,  even  actually  on,  the 
surface  of  the  earth,"  and  they  are  rarely,  if  ever,  found  in 
association  with  bones  of  extinct  animals.  "  Nothing  occurs 
resembling  the  regular  stratification  of  Europe,  and  conse- 
quently no  argument  based  on  geological  grounds  is  possible^" 
The  exceptions  are  the  lower  Nile  and  Zambesi  where  true 
palaeoliths  have  been  found  not  only  on  the  surface  (which  in 
this  case  is  not  inconsistent  with  great  antiquity)  but  also  in 
stratified  gravel.  Implements  of  palaeolithic  type  are  doubt- 
less common,  and  may  be  compared  to  Chellean,  Mousterian 
and  even  Solutrian  specimens',  but  primitive  culture  is  not 
necessarily  pleistocene.  Ancient  forms  persisted  in  Egypt 
down  to  the  historic  period,  and  even  patination  is  no  sure 
test  of  age,  so  until  further  evidence  is  found  the  antiquity  of 
man  in  Africa  must  remain  undecided*. 

Yet  since  some  remote  if  undated  epoch  the  specialised 
Negro  type,  as  depicted  on  the  Egyptian  monuments  some 
thousands  of  years  ago",  has  everywhere  been      persistence 
maintained  with  striking  uniformity.     "Within      of  the  Negro 
this  wide  domain  of  the  black  Negro  there  is  a      ^^P®- 
remarkably  general  similarity  of  type.... If  you  took  a  Negro 
from  the   Gold   Coast  of  West  Africa  and  passed  him  off 
amongst  a  number  of   Nyasa  natives,  and  if  he  were  not 
remarkably  distinguished  from  them  by  dress  or  tribal  marks, 
it' would  not  be  easy  to  pick  him  out^" 

Nevertheless  considerable  differences  are  perceptible  to 


1  See  H.  R.  Hall,  papers  and  references  in  Man,  19,  1905. 

2  T.  A.  Joyce,  "Africa  :  Ethnology,"  Ency.  Brit.  1910,  I.  327. 

3  J.  P.  Johnson,  The  Prehistoric  Period  in  South  Africa,  19 12. 

*  See  H.  H.  Johnston,  "A  Survey  of  the  Ethnography  of  Africa,"  Journ.  Roy. 
Anthr.  Inst.  XLiii.  1913. 

'  The  skeleton  found  by  Hans  Reck  at  Oldoway  in  1914  and  claimed  by  him  to 
be  of  Pleistocene  age  exhibits  all  the  typical  Negro  features,  including  the  filed 
teeth,  characteristic  of  East  African  negroes  at  the  present  day,  but  the  geological 
evidence  is  imperfect. 

6  H.  H.  Johnston,  British  Central  Africa,  1897,  p.  393- 


44  Man :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

the  practised  eye,  and  the  contrasts  are  sufficiently  marked 
Two  Main  ^°  justify  ethnologists  in  treating  the  Sudanese 

Sections:  Su-  and  the  Bantu  as  two  distinct  subdivisions  of 
daneseand  the  family.     In  both  groups  the  relatively  full- 

Bantus.  blood  natives  are  everywhere  very  much  alike, 

and  the  contrasts  are  presented  chiefly  amongst  the  mixed  or 
Negroid  populations.  In  Sudan  the  disturbing  elements  are 
both  Hamitic  (Berbers  sind  Tuaregs)  and  Semitic  (Arabs)  ; 
while  in  Bantuland  they  are  mainly  Hamitic  (Galla)  in  all  the 
central  and  southern  districts,  and  Arabs  on  the  eastern  sea- 
board from  the  equator  to  Sofala  beyond  the  Zambesi.  To 
the  varying  proportions  of  these  several  ingredients  may 
perhaps  be  traced  the  often  very  marked  differences  observable 
on  theone  hand  between  such  Sudanese  peoples  as  the  Wolof, 
Mandingans,  Hausa,  Nubians,  Zandeh^  and  Mangbattu,  and 
on  the  other  between  all  these  and  the  Swahili,  Baganda, 
Zulu-Xosa,  Be-Chuana,  Ova-Herero  and  some  other  Negroid 
Bantu. 

But  the  distinction  is  based  on  social,  linguistic,  and 
cultural,  as  well  as  on  physical  grounds,  so  that,  as  at  present 
constituted,  the  Sudanese  and   Bantu  really  constitute  two 

tolerably  well-defined  branches  of  the  Negro 
SaSi."^"*^      family.     Thanks    to    Muhammadan    influences, 

the  former  have  attained  a  much  higher  level  of 
culture.  They  cultivate  not  only  the  alimentary  but  also  the 
economic  plants,  such  as  cotton  and  indigo  ;  they  build  stone 
dwellings,  walled  towns,  substantial  mosques  and  minarets ; 
they  have  founded  powerful  states,  such  as  those  of  the 
Hausa  and  Songhai,  of  Ghana  and  Bornu,  with  written 
records  going  back  a  thousand  years,  although  these  historical 
peoples  are  all  without  exception  half-breeds,  often  with  more 
Semitic  and  Hamitic  than  Negro  blood  in  their  veins. 

No  ■  such  cultured  peoples  are  anywhere  to  be  found  in 
Bantuland  except  on  the  east  coast,  where  the  "Moors" 
founded  great  cities  and  flourishing  marts  centuries  before  the 
appearance  of  the  Portuguese  in  the  eastern  seas.  Among 
the  results  of  the  gold  trade  with  these  coastal  settlements 
may  be  classed  the  Zimbabwe  monuments  and  other  ruins 
explored  by  Theodore  Bent  in  the  mining  districts  south  of 

*  Zandeh  is  the  name  usually  given  to  the  groups  of  tribes  akjn  to  Nilotics,  but 
probably  with  Fulah  element,  which  includes  the  Azandeh  or  Niam  Niatn, 
Makaraka,  Mangbattu  and  many  others.    Cf.  T.  A.  Joyce,  Ipc.  cit.  p.  329. 


Ill]  The  African  Negro:  I.  Sudanese  45 

the  Zambesi.  But  in  all  the  Negro  lands  free  from  foreign 
mfluences  no  true  culture  has  ever  been  developed,  and  here 
cannibalism,  witchcraft,  and  sanguinary  "customs"  are  often 
still  rife,  or  have  been  but  recently  suppressed  by  the  direct 
action  of  European  administrations. 

Numberless  authorities  have  described  the  Negro  as  un- 
progressive,  or,  if  left  to  himself,  incapable  of  progress  in  his 
present  physical  environment.  Sir  H.  H.  Johnston,  who 
knows  him  well,  goes  much  further,  and  speaks  of  him  as  a 
fine  animal,  who,  "in  his  wild  state,  exhibits  a  stunted  mind 
and  a  dull  content  with  his  surroundings,  which  induces 
mental  stagnation,  cessation  of  all  upward  progress,  and  even 
retrogression  towards  the  brute.  In  some  respects  I  think 
the  tendency  of  the  Negro  for  several  centuries  past  has  been 
an  actual  retrograde  one\" 

There  is  one  point  in  which  the  Bantu  somewhat  unac- 
countably compare    favourably   with    the    Sudanese.      In  all 
other  regions  the  spread  of  culture  has  tended 
to  bring  about  linguistic  unity,  as  we  see  in  the      andBiantu 
Hellenic  world,  where  all  the  old  idioms  were      Linguistic     , 
gradually  absorbed  in  the  "common  dialect"  of      ^''^^^• 
the   Byzantine  empire,    again  in  the  Roman  empire,   where 
Latin  became  the  universal  speech  of  the  West,  and  lastly  in 
the  Muhammadan  countries,  where  most  of  the  local  tongues 
have  nearly  everywhere,  except  in  Sudan,  disappeared  before 
the  Arabic,  Persian,  and  Turkish  languages. 

But  in  Negroland  the  case  is  reversed,  and  here  the  less 
cultured  Bantu  populations  all,  without  any  known  exception, 
speak  dialects  of  a  single  mother-tongue,  while  the  greatest 
linguistic  confusion  prevails  amongst  the  semi-civilised  as  well 
as  the  savage  peoples  of  Sudan. 

Although  the  Bantu  language  may,  as  some  suppose  ^  have 
originated  in  the  north  and  spread  southwards  to  the  Congo, 
Zambesi,  and  Limpopo  basins,  it  cannot  now  be  even  remotely 
affiliated  to  any  one  of  the  numerous  distinct  forms  of  speech 
current  in  the  Sudanese  domain.     Hence  to  allow  time  for  its 

1  British  Central  Africa,  p.  472.  But  see  R.  E.  Dennett,  At  the  Back  of  the 
Black  Man's  Mind,  1906,  and  A.  G.  Leonard,  The  Lower  Niger  and  its  Tribes,  1906, 
for  African  mentality. 

2  For  theories  of  Bantu  migrations  see  H.  H.  Johnston,  George  Grenfell  and  the 
Congo,  1908,  and  "  A  Survey  of  the  Ethnography  of  Africa,"  Journ.  Roy.  Anthr. 
Soc.  XLIII.  1913,  p.  391  ff.  Also  F.  Stuhlmann,  Handwerk  und  Industrie  in 
Ostafrika,  1910,  p.  138,  f.  147,  with  map,  PI.  I.  B.    For  the  date  see  p.  92. 


46  Man :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

diffusion  over  half  the  continent,  the  initial  movement  must 
be  assigned  to  an  extremely  remote  epoch,  and  a  corresponding 
period  of  great  duration  must  be  postulated  for  the  profound 
linguistic  disintegration  that  is  everywhere  witnessed  in  the 
region  between  the  Atlantic  and  Abyssinia.  Here  agglutina- 
tion, both  with  prefixed  and  postfixed  particles,  is  the 
prevailing  morphological  order,  as  in  the  Mandingan,  Fulah, 
Nubian,  Dinkan,  and  Mangbattu  groups.  But  every  shade 
of  transition  is  also  presented  between  true  agglutination  and 
inflection  of  the  Hamito-Semitic  types,  as  in  Hausa,  Kanuri, 
Kanem,  Dasa  or  Southern  and  Teda  or  Northern  Tibu\ 

Elsewhere,  and  especially  in  Upper  Guinea,  the  originally 
agglutinating  tongues  have  developed  on  lines  analogous  to 
those  followed  by  Tibetan,  Burmese,  Chinese,  and  Otomi  in 
other  continents,  with  corresponding  results.  Thus  the  Tshi, 
Ewe,  and  Yoruba,  surviving  members  of  a  now  extinct  stock- 
language,  formerly  diffused  over  the  whole  region  between 
Cape  Palmas  and  the  Niger  Delta,  have  become  so  burdened 
with  monosyllabic  homophones  (like-sounding  monosyllables), 
that  to  indicate  their  different  meanings  several  distinguishing 
tones  have  been  evolved,  exactly  as  in  the  Indo-Chinese 
group.  In  Ewe  (Slave  Coast)  the  root  do,  according  as  it  is 
toned  may  mean  to  put,  let  go,  tell,  kick,  be  sad,  join,  change, 
grow  big,  sleep,  prick,  or  grind.  So  great  are  the  ravages 
of  phonetic  decay,  that  new  expedients  have  been  developed 
to  express  quite  simple  ideas,  as  in  Tshi  (Gold  Coast)  addan- 
mu,  room  {addan  house,  mu  interior) ;  akwancherifo,  a  guide 
(akwan  road,  cheri  to  show,  fo  person)  ;  ensahtsiabah,  finger" 
{ensah  hand,  tsia  small,  abbah  child  =  hand's-little-child) ;  but 
middle-finger  =  "hand's-little-chief"  {ensahtsiahin,  where  ehin 
chief  takes  the  place  of  abbah  child  ^). 

Common  both  to  Sudanese  and  Bantus,  especially  about 
the  western  borderlands  (Upper  Guinea,  Cameruns,  etc.)  is 

the  "drum-language,"  which  affords  a  striking 
Language*"         illustration    of    the    Negro's    musical    faculty. 

"Two  or  three  drums  are  usually  used  together, 
each  producing  a  different  note,  and  they  are  played  either 
with  the  fingers  or  with  two  sticks.  The  lookers-on  generally 
beat  time  by  clapping  the  hands.     To  a  European,  whose 

^  Even  a  tendency  to  polysynthesis  occurs,  as  in  Vei,  and  in  Yoruba,  where  the 
small-pox  god  Shakpanna  is  made  up  of  the  three  elements  shan  to  plaster,  kpa  to 
kill,  and  eniu  a  person  =  one  who  kills  a  person  by  plastering  him  (with  pustules). 

2  The  Nilotic  languages  are  to  a  considerable  extent  tonic. 


in]  The  African  Negro:  1.  Sudanese  47 

ear  and  mind  are  untrained  for  this  special  faculty,  the  rhythm 
of  a  drum  expresses  nothing  beyond  a  repetition  of  the  same 
note  at  different  intervals  of  time  ;  but  to  a  native  it  expresses 
much  more.  To  him  the  drum  can  and  does  speak,  the 
sounds  produced  from  it  forming  words,  and  the  whole 
measure  or  rhythm  a  sentence.  In  this  way,  when  company 
drums  are  being  played  at  an  ehsddu  [palaver],  they  are  made 
to  express  and  convey  to  the  bystanders  a  variety  of  meanings. 
In  one  measure  they  abuse  the  men  of  another  company, 
stigmatising  them  as  fools  and  cowards  ;  then  the  rhythm 
changes,  and  the  gallant  deeds  of  their  own  company  are 
extolled.  All  this,  and  much  more,  is  conveyed  by  the  beat- 
ing of  drums,  and  the  native  ear  and  mind,  trained  to  select 
and  interpret  each  beat,  is  never  at  fault.  The  language  of 
drums  is  as  well  understood  as  that  which  they  use  in  their 
daily  life.  Each  chief  has  his  own  call  or  motto,  sounded  b)'^ 
a  particular  beat  of  his  drums.  Those  of  Amankwa  Tia,  the 
Ashanti  general  who  fought  against  us  in  the  war  of  1873-4, 
used  to  say  Ptrthuh,  hasten.  Similar  mottoes  are  also  ex- 
pressed by  means  of  horns,  and  an  entire  stranger  in  the 
locality  can  at  once  translate  the  rhythm  into  words\" 

Similar  contrasts  and  analogies  will  receive  due  illustration 
in  the  detailed  account  here  following  of  the  several  more 
representative  Sudanese  groups. 

West  Sudanese. 

Wolofs.  Throughout  its  middle  and  lower  course  the 
Senegal  river,  which  takes  its  name  from  the  Zenaga  Berbers, 
forms  the  ethnical  "divide"  between  the  Hamites  and  the 
Sudanese  Negroes.  The  latter  are  here  represented  by  the 
Wolofs,  who  with  the  kindred  Jolofs  and  Severs  occupy  an 
extensive  territory  between  the  Senegal  and  the  Gambia 
rivers.  Whether  the  term  "Wolof"  means  "Talkers,"  as  if 
they  alone  were  gifted  with  the  faculty  of  speech,  or  "  Blacks  " 
in  contrast  to  the  neighbouring  "  Red  "  Fulahs,  both  interpreta- 
tions are  fully  justified  by  these  Senegambians,  at  once  the 
very  blackest  and  amongst  the  most  garrulous  tribes  in  the 

1  A.  B.  Ellis,  The\  Tshi-speakin^  Peoples,  etc.,  1887,  pp.  327-8.  Only  one 
European,  Herr  R.  Betz,  long  resident  amongst  the  Dualas  of  the  Cameruns 
district,  has  yet  succeeded  in  mastering  the  drum  language  ;  he  claims  to  under- 
stand nearly  all  that  is  drummed  and  is  also  able  to  drum  himself.  {Athenceum, 
May  7,  1898,  p.  611.) 


48  Man :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

whole  of  Africa.  The  colour  is  called  "  ebony,"  and  they  are 
commonly  spoken  of  as  "  Blacks  of  the  Black."  They  are 
also  very  tall  even  for  Negroes,  and  the  Serers  especially 
may  claim  to  be  "  the  ^atagonians  of  the  Old  World,"  men  six 
feet  six  inches  high  and  proportionately  muscular  being  far 
from  rare  in  the  coast  districts  about  St  Louis  and  Dakar. 
Their  language,  which  is  widespread  throughout  Sene- 
gambia,  may  be  taken  as  a  typical  Sudanese  form  of  speech, 
unlike  any  other  in  its  peculiar  agglutinative 
^^^oL^^nt.      structure,  and  unaffected  even  in  its  vocabulary 

Wolof  bpeecn.  ,       t  •        .  .         i  .   t    ,         i  -  ■  r 

by  the  Hamitic  which  has  been  current  tor  ages 

on  the  opposite  bank  of  the  Senegal.     A  remarkable  feature 

is  the  so-called  "article,"  always  postfixed  and  subject  to  a 

two-fold  series  of  modifications,  first  in  accordance  with  the 

initial  consonant  of  the  noun,  for  which  there  are  six  possible 

consonantal  changes  {w,  m,  b,  d,  s,  g),  and  then  according  as 

the  object  is  present,  near,  not  near,  and  distant,,  for  which 

there  are  again  four  possible  vowel  changes  (i,  u,  o,  a),  or 

twenty-four  altogether,  a  tremendous  redundancy  of  useless 

variants  as  compared  with  the  single  English  form  the.    Thus 

this  Protean  particle  begins  with  b,  d  or  w  to  agree  with  bdye, 

father,  digene,  woman,  or  fos,  horse,  and  then  becomes  bi,  bu, 

bo,  ba  ;  di,  du  etc. ;  wi,  wu  etc.  to  express  the  presence  and 

the  varying  distances  of  these  objects:   bdye-bi—ia.^e.r-th.&- 

here  ;  bdye-bu  =  father-the-there  ;  bdye-bo  =  father-the-yonder  ; 

bdye-bd  =  {a.iher-the-a.vfa.y  in  the  distance. 

All  this  is  curious  enough  ;  but  the,  important  point  is  that 

it  probably  gives  us  the  clue  to  the  enigmatic  alliterative 

system  of  the  Bantu  languages  as  explained  in  Ethnology, 

p.  273,  the  position  of  course  being  reversed.     Thus  as  in 

Zulu  in-  kose  requires  en-  kulu,  so  in  Wolof  bay&  requires  bi, 

dzgene  di,  and  so  on.     There  are  other  indications  that  the 

now  perfected  Bantu  grew  out  of  analogous  but  less  developed 

processes  still  prevalent  in  the  Sudanese  tongues. 

Equally  undeveloped  is  the  Wolof  process   of  making 

earthenware,  as  observed  by  M.   F.   Regnault  amongst  the 

natives  brought  to  Paris  for  the  Exhibition  of 
Woio^Pottery     ^^95-     -^^   noticed    how   one   of    the   women 

utilised  a  somewhat  deep  bowl  resting  on  the 
ground  in  such  a  way  as  to  be  easily  spun  round  by  the  hand, 
thus  illustrating  the  transition  between  hand-made  and  turned 
pottery.     Kneading  a  lump  of  clay,  and  thrusting  it  into  the 


Ill]  The  African  Negro:  I.  Sudanese  49 

bowl,  after  sprinkling  .the  sides  with  some  black  dust  to 
prevent  sticking,  she  made  a  hollow  in  the  mass,  enlarging 
and  pressing  it  against  the  bowl  with  the  back  of  the  fingers 
bent  in,  the  hand  being  all  the  time  kept  in  a  vertical  position. 
At  the  same  time  the  bowl  was  spun'  round  with  the  left 
palm,  this  movement  combined  with  the  pressure  exerted  by 
the  right  hand  causing  the  sides  of  the  vessel  to  rise  and  take 
shape.  When  high  enough  it  was  finished  off  by  thickening 
the  clay  to  make  a  rim.  This'  was  held  in  the  right  hand  and 
niade  fast  to  the  mouth  of  the*  vessel  by  the  friction  caused 
by  again  turning  the  bowl  with  the  left  hand.  This  transi- 
tional process  is  frequently  met  with  in  Africa^ 

Most  of  the  Wolofs  profess  themselves  Muhammadans, 
the  rest  Catholics,  while  all  alike  are  heathen  at  heart ;  only 
the  former  have  charms  with  texts  from  the 
Koran  which  they  cannot  read,  and  the  latter  Notions"^ 
medals  and  scapulars  of  the  "  Seven  Dolours  " 
or  of  the  Trinity,  which  they  cannot  understand.  Many  old 
rites  still  flourish,  the  household  gods  are  not  forgotten,  and 
for  the  lizard,  most  popular  of  tutelar  deities,  the  customary 
milk-bowl  is  daily  replenished.  Glimpses  are  thus  afforded 
of  the  totemic  system  which  still  survives  in  a  modified  form 
amongst  the  Be-Chuana,  the  Mandingans,  and  several  other 
African  peoples,  but  has  elsewhere  mostly  died  out  in  Negro^ 
land.  The  infantile  ideas  associated  with  plant  and  animal 
totem  tokens  have  been  left  far  behind,  when  a  people  like 
the  Serers  have  arrived  at  such  a  lofty  conception  as  Takhar, 
god  of  justice,  or  even  the  more  materialistic  Tiurakh,  god 
of  wealth,  although  the  latter  may  still  be  appealed  to  for 
success  in  nefarious  projects  which  he  himself  might  scarcely 
be  expected  to  countenance.  But  the  harmony  between 
religious  and  ethical  thought  has  scarcely  yet  been  reached 
even  amongst  some  of  the  higher  races. 

Mandingans.     In  the  whole  of  Sudan  there  is  scarcely  a 
more  numerous  or  widespread  people  than  the  Mandingans, 
who — with  their  endless  ramifications,  Kassonkd,      Mandinean 
JallonkS,   Soninkd,   Bambara,    Vei    and    many      Groups, 
others — occupy  most  of  the  region  between  the      Culture  and 
Atlantic  and  the  Joliba  (Upper  Niger)  basin,  as 
far  south  as  about  9°  N.  latitude.     Within  these  limits  it  is 

1  Cf.  H.  S.  Harrison,  Handbook  to  the  cases  illustrating  stages  in  the  evolution 
^fthe  Domestic  Arts.    Part  n.    Horniman  Museum  and  Library.    Forest  Hill,  S.E. 


50  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

often  difficult  to  say  who  are,  or  who  are  not  members  of  this 
great  family,  whose  various  branches  present  all  the  transitional 
shades  of  physical  type  and  culture  grades  between  the  true 
pagan  Negro  and  the  Muhammadan  Negroid  Sudanese. 

Even  linguistic  unity  exists  only  to  a  limited  extent,  as 
the  numerous  dialects  of  the  Mand^  stock-language  have 
often  diverged  so  greatly  as  to  constitute  independent  tongues 
quite  unintelligible  to  the  neighbouring  tribes.  The  typical 
Mandingans,  however — Faidherbe's  Malinka-Soninke  group 
—may  be  distinguished  from  the  surrounding  populations  by 
their  more  softened  features,  broader  forehead,  larger  nose, 
fuller  beard,  and  lighter  colour.  They  are  also  distinguished 
by  their  industrious  habits  and  generally  higher  culture,  being 
rivalled  by  few  as  skilled  tillers  of  the  soil,  weavers,  and 
workers  in  iron  and  copper.  They  thus  hold  much  the  same 
social  position  in  the  west  that  the  Hausa  do  in  the  central 
region  beyond  the  Niger,  and  the  French  authorities  think 
that  "  they  are  destined  to  take  a  position  of  ever  increasing 
importance  in  the  pacified  Sudan  of  the  future\" 

Thus  history  brings  about  its  revenges,  for  the  Mandin- 
gans proper  of  the  Kong  plateau  may  fairly  claim,  despite 
their  late  servitude  to  the  Fulah  conquerors  and  their  present 
ready  acceptance  of  French  rule,  to  be  a  historical  people 
with  a  not  inglorious  record  of  over  looo  years,  as  founders 
of  the  two  great  empires  of  Melle  and  Guin^,  and  of  the 
more  recent  states  of  Moasina,  Bambara,  Kaarta,  Kong,  and 
others  about  the  water-parting  between  the  head-streams  of 
the  Niger,  and  the  rivers  flowing  south  to  the  Gulf  of  Guinea. 
Here  is  the  district  of  Manding,  which  is  the  original  home 
of  the  Manding  ki,  i.e.  "  People  of  Manding,"  as  they  are 
generally  called,  although  Mand^  appears  to  be  the  form 
used  by  themselves ^      Here  also  was  the  famous  city  of  Mali 

1  E.  T.  Hamy,  "  Les  Races  Nfegres,"  in  L'Anthropologie,  1897,  p.  257  sq. 

^  "  Chaque  fois  que  j'ai  demand^  avec  intention  k  un  Mand^, '  Es-tu  Peul,  Mossi, 
Dafina  ? '  il  me  rdpondait  invariablement,  '/«  suis  Mandd:  C'est  pourquoi,  dans  le 
cours  de  ma  relation,  j'ai  toujours  d^signd  ce  peuple  par  le  nom  de  Mandd,  qui  est 
son  vrai  nom."  (L.  G.  Binger,  Du  Niger  au  Golfe  de  Guinie,  1892,  Vol.  11.  p.  373.) 
At  p.  375  this  authority  gives  the  following  subdivisions  of  the  Mand^  family, 
named  from  their  respective  tennd  (idol,  fetish,  totem)  : 

I  Bamba,  the  crocodile  :  Bammana,  not  Bambara,  which  means  kafir  or 
infidel,  and  is  applied  only  to  the  non-Moslem  Mand6  groups. 

2.  Mali,  the  hippopotamus  :  MaWnkd,  including  the  Kagoros  and  the  Tagwas. 

3.  Sama,  the  elephant :  Samdnki. 

4.  Sa,  the  snake :  Sa-mokho. 

Of  each  there  are  several  sub-groups,  while  the  surrounding  peoples  call  them 


■Ill]  The  African  Negro:  I.  Sudanese  51 

or  Melle,  from  which  the  Upper  Niger  group  take  the  name 
of  Mali'nkd,  in  contradistinction  to  the  Sonink^oi  the  Senegal 
river,  the  Jalo'nkd  of  Futa-Jallon,  and  the  Bamana  of  Bam- 
bara,  these  being  the  more  important  historical  and  cultured 
groups. 

According  to  native  tradition  and  the  annals  of  Ahmed 
Bab4,  rescued  from  oblivion  by  Barth\  the  first  Mandingan 
state  of  Guin^  (Ghana,  Gh4nata),  a  name  still 

.  ^,  '        1  •      1  History. 

survivmg     m     the    vague    geographical    term 

"Guinea,"  goes  back  to  pre-Muhammadan  times.     Wakaya- 

mangha,  its  legendary  founder,  is  supposed  to 

have  flourished  300  years  before  the  Hejira,  at     MaU^Emplres^ 

which  date  twenty-two  kings  had  already  reigned. 

Sixty  years  after  that  time  the  Moslem  Arabs  or  Berbers  are 

said  to  have  already  reached  West  Sudan,  where  they  had 

twelve  mosques  in  Ghdna,  first  capital  of  the  empire,  and 

their  chief  stronghold   till   the   foundation    of  Jinni  on  the 

Upper  Niger  (1043  a.d.). 

Two  centuries  later  (1235-60)  the  centre  of  the  Mandin- 
gan rule  was  transferred  to  Mali,  which  under  the  great  king 
Mansa-Musa  (1311-31)  became  the  most  powerful  Sudanese 
state  of  which  there  is  any  authentic  record.  For  a  time  it 
included  nearly  the  whole  of  West  Sudan,  and  a  great  part 
of  the  western  Sahara,  beside  the  Songhai  State  with  its 
capital  Gogo,  and  Timbuktu.  Mansa-Musa,  who,  in  the 
language  of  the  chronicler,  "wielded  a  power  without  measure 
or  limits,"  entered  into  friendly  relations  with  the  emperor  of 
Morocco,  and  made  a  famous  pilgrimage  to  Mecca,  the 
splendours  of  which  still  linger  in-  the  memory  of  the  Mussul- 
man populations  through  whose  lands  the  interminable 
procession  wound  its  way.  He  headed  60,000  men  of  arms, 
says  Ahmed  Bd.bi,  and  wherever  he  passed  he  was  preceded 
by  500  slaves,  each  bearing  a  gold  stick  weighing  500  mitkals 
(14  lbs.),  the  whole  representing  a  money  value  of  about 
^4,000,000  (.-").  The  people  of  Cairo  and  Mecca  were 
dazzled  by  his  wealth  and  munificence ;  but  during  the 
journey  a  great  part  of  his  followers  were  seized  by  a  painful 
malady  called  in  their  language  iuai,  and  this  word  still  lives 
in  the  Oasis  of  Tuat,  where  most  of  them  perished. 

all  collectively  Wakord,  Wangara,  Sakhersi,  and  especially  Diula.  Attention  to 
this  point  will  save  the  reader  much  confusion  in  consulting  Barth,  Caillid,  and 
other  early  books  of  travel. 

1  Travels,  Vol.  IV.  p.  579  sqq. 

4—2 


52  Man :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

Even  after  the  capture  of  Timbuktu  by  the  Tuaregs 
(1433),  Mali  long  continued  to  be  the  chief  state  in  West 
Nigritia,  and  carried  on  a  flourishing  trade,  especially  in  slaves 
and  gold.  But  this  gold  was  still  supposed  to  come  from  the 
earlier  kingdom  of  Guin6,  which  word  consequently  still 
remains  associated  with  the  precious  metal  in  the  popular 
belief.  About  the  year  1500  Mali  was  captured  by  the 
Songhai  king,  Omar  Askia,  after  which  the  empire  fell  to 
pieces,  and  its  memory  now  survives  only  in  the  ethnical  term 
Malinkd. 

Felups.  From  the  semi-civilised  Muhammadan  negroid 
Mandingans  to  the  utterly  savage  full-blood  Negro  Felupa 
„    .     .  the   transition    is    abrupt,    but    instructive.      In 

Contrasts  .  ,       ,  '^  '  i      •      i 

between  the  Other  regions  the  heterogeneous  ethnical  groups 
Inland  and  crowded  into  upland  valleys,  as  in  the  Caucasus, 

eopes.  jj^Yg  been  called  the  "sweepings  of  the  plains." 
But  in  West  Sudan  there  are  no  great  ranges  towering  above 
the  lowlands,  and  even  the  "  Kong  Mountains "  of  school 
geographies  have  now  been  wiped  out  by  L.  G.  Binger". 
Hence  the  rude  aborigines  of  the  inland  plateau,  retreating 
before  the  steady  advance  of  Islim,  found  no  place  of  refuge 
till  they  reached  the  indented  fjord-like  Atlantic  seaboard, 
where  many  still  hold  their  ground.  This  is  the  explanation 
of  the  striking  contrasts  now  witnessed  between  the  interior 
and  so  m,any  parts  of  the  West  Coast ;  on  the  one  hand 
powerful  political  organisations  with  numerous,  more  or  less 
homogeneous,  and  semi-civilised  negroid  populations,  on  the 
other  an  infinite  tangle  of  ethnical  and  linguistic  groups,  all 
alike  weltering  in  the  sheerest  savagery,  or  in  grades  of 
barbarism  even  worse  than  the  wild  state.- 

Even  the  Felups,  whose  territory  now  stretches  from  the 
Gambia  to  the  Cacheo,  but  formerly  reached  the  Geba  and 
Feiup  Type  ^^  Bissagos  Islands,  do  not  form  a  single  group, 
and  Mental  Originally  the  name  of  an  obscure  coast-tribe. 

Characters.  ^.jjg  t&rm  Felup  or  Fulup  has  been  extended  by 

the  Portuguese  traders  to  all  the  surrounding  peoples — 
Ayamats,  Jolas,  Jig'Hshes,  Vacas,  Joats,  Karons,  BanyiinSy 
Banjars;  FuMns,  Bayots  and  some  others  who  amid  much 
local  diversity,  presented  a  sufficiently  general  outward  re- 
semblance to  be  regarded  as  a  single  people  by  the    first 

'  "  La  chaine  des  Montagnes  de  Kong  n'a  jamais  exists  que  dans  I'imaginatioB 
de  quelques  voyageurs  mal  renseignes,"  Du  Niger  au  Golfede  Guinie,  1892, 1,  p.  285. 


Ill]  The  African  Negro:  I.  Sudanese  53 

European  settlers.  The  Felups  proper  display  the  physical 
and  mental  characters  of  the  typical  Negro  even  in  an  ex- 
aggerated ■  form — black  colour,  flat  nose,  wide  nostrils,  very 
thick  and  everted  lips,  red  on  the  inner  surface,  stout 
muscular  frame,  correlated  with  coarse  animal  passions,  crass 
ignorance,  no  arts,  industry,  or  even  tribal  organisation,  so  that 
every  little  family  group  is  independent  and  mostly  in  a  state 
of  constant  feud  with  its  neighbours.  All  go  naked,  armed 
with  bow  and  arrow,  and  live  in  log  huts  which,  though 
strongly  built,  are  indescribably  filthy\ 

Mother-right  frequently  prevails,  rank  and  property  being 
transmitted  in  the  female  line.  There  is  some  notion  of  a 
superhuman  being  vaguely  identified  with  the  sky,  the  rain, 
wind  or  thunderstorm.  But  all  live  in  extreme  terror  of  the 
medicine-man,  who  is  openly  courted,  but  inwardly  detested, 
so  that  whenever  it  can  be  safely  done  the  tables  are  turned, 
the  witch-doctor  is  seized  and  tortured  to  death. 

Timni,  Kru,  Sierra-Leonese,  Liberians.  Somewhat 
similar  conditions  prevail  all  along  the  seaboard  from  Sierra 
Leone  to,  and  beyond,  Cape  Palmas,  disturbed  or  modified 
by  the  Liberian  intruders  from  the  North  American  planta- 
tions, and  by  the  slaves  rescued  in  the  thirties  and  forties  by 
the  British  cruisers  and  brought  to  Sierra  Leone,  where  their 
descendants  now  live  in  settled  communities  under  European 
influences.  These  "coloured"  citizens  of  Sierra  Leone  and 
Liberia,  who  are  so  often  the  butt  of  cheap  ridicule,  and  are 
themselves  perhaps  too  apt  to  scorn  the  kindred  "niggers" 
of  the  bush,  have  to  be  carefully  distinguished  from  these  true 
aborigines  who  have  never  been  wrenched  from  their  natural 
environment. 

In  Sierra  Leone  the  chief  aboriginal  groups  on  the  coast- 
lands  are  the  Timni  of  the  Rokelle  river,  flanked  north  and 
south  by  two  branches  of  the  Bulams,  and  still  further  south  the 
Gallinas,  Veys  and  Golas  ;  in  the  interior  the  Lokkos,  Limbas, 
Konos,  and  Kussas,  with  Kwtankos,  Mendis,  Hubus,^.nA  other 
Mandingans  and  Fulahs  everywhere  in  the  Hinterland, 

Of  all  these  the  most  powerful  during  the  British  occupa- 
tion have  always  been  the  Timni  (Timani,  Tetnti^),  who  sold 
to  the   English  the   peninsula   on   which   now   Timni  BeUefs. 
stands  Freetown,  but  afterwards  crying  off  the 
bargain,  repeatedly  tried  to  drive  the  white  and  coloured 

1  Bertrand-Bocande,  "Sur  les  Floups  ou  f  dloups,"  in  BuL  Soc.  de  Gdogr.  1849. 


54  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

intruders  into  the  sea.  They  are  a  robust  people  of  softened 
Negro  type,  and  more  industrious  farmers  than  most  of  the 
other  natives.  Like  the  Wolofs  they  believe  in  the  virtue 
both  of  Christian  and  Moslem  amulets,  but  have  hitherto  lent 
a  deaf  ear  to  the  preachers  of  both  these  religions.  Never- 
theless the  Protestant  missionaries  have  carefully  studied  the 
Timni  language,  which  possesses  an  oral  literature  rich  in 
legends,  proverbs,  and  folklore^ 

The  Timni  district  is  a  chief  centre  of  the  so-called  porro 
fraternity",   a   sort  of  secret  society  or  freemasonry  widely 

diffused  throughout  the  coastlands,  and  possess- 
^ee^Mon^       ing  its  own  symbols,  skin  markings,  passwords, 

and  language.  It  presents  curious  points  of 
analogy  with  the  brotherhoods  of  the  Micronesian  islanders, 
biit  appears  to  be  even  more  potent  for  good  and  evil,  a 
veritable  religious  and  political  state  within  the  state.  "When 
their  mandates  are  issued  all  wars  and  civil  strife  must  cease, 
a  general  truce  is  established,  and  bloodshed  stopped,  offending 
communities  being  punished  by  bands  of  armed  men  in 
masks.  Strangers  cannot  enter  the  country  unless  escorted 
by  a  member  of  the  guild,  who  is  recognised  by  passwords, 
symbolic  gestures,  and  the  like.  Their  secret  rites  are  cele- 
brated at  night  in  the  depths  of  the  forest,  all  intruders  being 
put  to  death  or  sold  as  slavesl" 

In  studying  the  social  conditions  prevalent  amongst  the 
Sierra  Leonese  proper,  it  should  be  remembered  that  they 

are  sprung,  not  only  from  representatives  of 
Leonese"*  almost  every  tribe  along  the  seaboard,  and  even 

in  the  far  interior,  but  also  to  a  large  extent  from 
the  freedmen  and  runaways  of  Nova  Scotia  and  London, 
besides  many  maroons  of  Jamaica,  who  were  settled  here 
under  the  auspices  of  the  Sierra  Leone  Company  towards 
the  close  of  the  eighteenth  and  beginning  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  Others  also  have  in  recent  years  been  attracted  to 
the  settlements  from  the  Timni  and  other  tribes  of  the  neigh- 
bouring districts.     The  Sierra  Leonese  are  consequently  not 

1  A  full  account  of  this  literature  will  be  found  in  the  Rev.  C.  F.  Schlenker's 
valuable  work,  A  Collection  of  Temne  Traditions,  Fables  and  Proverbs,  London, 
1861.  Here  is  given  the  curious  explanation  of  the  tribal  name,  from  o-tem,  an  old 
man,  and  n^,  himself,  because,  as  they  say,  the  Temn6  people  will  exist  for  ever. 

^  There  is  also  a  sisterhood — the  borido — and  the  two  societies  work  so  far  in 
harmony  that  any  person  expelled  from  the  one  is  also  excluded  from  the  other. 

^  Reclus,  Keane's  English  ed.,  Xll.  p.  203. 


Ill]  The  African  Negro :  I.  Sudanese  55 

themselves  a  tribe,  nor  yet  a  people,  but  rather  a  people  in 
course  of  formation  under  the  influence  of  a  new  environment 
and  of  a  higher  culture.  An  immediate  consequence  of  such 
a  sudden  aggregation  of  discordant  elements  was  the  loss  of 
all  the  native  tongues,  and  the  substitution  of  English  as  the 
common  medium  of  intercourse.  But  English  is  the  language 
of  a  people  standing  on  the  very  highest  plane  of  culture,  and 
could  not  therefore  be  properly  assimilated  by  the  disjecta 
meTnbra  of  tribes  at  the  lowest  rung  of  the  social  ladder. 
The  resultant  form  of  speech  may  be  called  ludicrous,  so 
ludicrous  that  the  Sierra  Leonese  version  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment had  to  be  withdrawn  from  circulation  as  verging  almost 
on  the  blasphemous'. 

It  has  also  to  be  considered  that  all  the  old  tribal  relations 
were  broken  up,  while  an  attempt  was  made  to  merge  these 
waifs  and  strays  in  a  single  community  based 
on  social  conditions  to  which  each  and  all  were  Re?a?ions 
utter  strangers.  It  is  not  therefore  surprising 
that  the  experiment  has  not  proved  a  complete  success,  and 
that  the  social  relations  in  Sierra  Leone  leave  something  to 
be  desired.  Although  the  freedmen  and  the  rescued  captives 
received  free  gifts  of  land,  their  dislike  for  the  labours  of  the 
field  induced  many  to  abandon  their  holdings,  and  take  to 
huckstering  and  other  more  pleasant  pursuits.  Hence  their 
descendants  almost  monopolise  the  petty  traffic  and  even  the 
"  professions "  in  Freetown  and  the  other  colonial  settle- 
ments. Although  accused  of  laziness  and  dishonesty,  they 
have  displayed  a  considerable  degree  of  industrial  as  well  as 
commercial  enterprise,  and  the  Sierra  Leone  craftsmen — 
smiths,  mechanics,  carpenters,  builders — enjoy  a  good  repu- 
tation in  all  the  coast  towns.  All  are  Christians  of  various 
denominations,  'and  even  show  a  marked  predilection  for  the 
"ministry."  Yet  below  the  surface  the  old  paganism  still 
slumbers,  and  vodoo  practices,  as  in  the  West  Indies  and 
some  of  the  Southern  States,  are  still  heard  of. 

Morality  also  is  admittedly  at  a  low  ebb,  and  it  is  curious 
to  note  that  this  has  in  part  been  attributed  to  the  freedom 

"  "  Da  Njoe  Testament,  translated  into  the  Negro-English  Language  by  the 
Missionaries  of  the  Unitas  Fratrum,"  Brit,  and  For.  Bible  Soc,  London,  1829. 
Here  is  a  specimen  quoted  by  Ellis  from  The  Artisan  of  Sierra  Leone,-  Aug.  4, 
1886,  "  Those  who  live  in  ceiled  houses  love  to  hear  the  pit-pat  of  the  rain  overhead ; 
whilst  those  whose  houses  leak  are  the  subjects  of  restlessness  and  anxiety,  not  to 
•mention  the  chances  of  catching  cold,  that  is  so  frequent  a  source  of  leaky  roofs:' 


56  Man :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

enjoyed  under  the  British  administration.  "They  have 
passed  from  the  sphere  of  native  law  to  that  of  British  law, 
which  is  brought  to  this  young  community  like  an  article  of 
ready-made  clothing.  Is  it  a  wonder  that  the  clothes  do  not 
fit  ?  Is  it  a  wonder  that  kings  and  chiefs  arotind  Sierra 
Leone,  instead  of  wishing  their  people  to  come  and  see  how 
well  we  do  things,  dread  for  them  to  come  to  this  colony  on 
account  of  the  danger  to  their  morals  ?  In  passing  into  this 
colony,  they  pass  into  a  liberty  which  to  them  is  license\" 

An  experiment  of  a  somewhat  different  order,  but  with 

much  the  same  negative  results,  has  been  tried  by  the  well- 

.  meaning  founders  of  the  Republic  of  Liberia. 

The  Liberians.      ^^^^  ^^^  ^^^  ^^jj^  ^^  ^^^  "civilised  aristocrats  " 

are  descended  of  emancipated  plantation  slaves,  a  first  con- 
signment of  whom  was  brought  over  by  a  philanthropic 
American  society  in  1820-22.  The  idea  was  to  start  them 
well  in  life  under  the  fostering  care  of  their  white  guardians, 
and  then  leave  them  to  work  out  their  own  redemption  in 
their  own  way.  All  control  was  accordingly  withdrawn  in 
1848,  and  since  then  the  settlement  has  constituted  an  abso- 
lutely independent  Negro  state  in  the  enjoyment  of  complete 
self-government.  Progfess  of  a  certain  material  kind  was 
undoubtedly  made.  The  original  "free  citizens"  increased 
from  8000  in  1850  to  perhaps  20,000  in  1898^,  and  the  central 
administration,  modelled  on  that  of  the  United  States,  main- 
tained some  degree  of  order  among  the  surrounding  aborigines, 
estimated  at  some  two  million  within  the  limits  of  the 
Republic. 

But  these  aborigines  have  not  benefited  perceptibly  by 
contact  with  their  "civilised"  neighbours,  who  themselves 
stand  at  much  the  same  level  intellectually  and  morally  as 
their  repatriated  forefathers.  Instead  of  attending  to  the 
proper  administration  of  the  Republic,  the  "  Weegee,"  as 
they  are  called,  have  constituted  themselves  into  two  factions, 
the  "coloured"  or  half-breeds,  and  the  full-blood  Negroes  who, 
like  the  "  Blancos  "  and  "  Neros  "  of  some  South  American 
States,  spend  most  of  their  time  in  a  perpetual  sti'uggle  for 

1  Right  Rev.  E.  G.  Ingham  (Bishop  of  Sierra  Leone),  Sierra  Leone  after  a 
Hundred  Years,  London,  1894,  p.  294.  Cf.  H.  C.  Lukach,  A  Bibliography  of 
Sierra  Leone,  191 1,  and  T.  J.  Alldridge,  A  Transfortned  Colony,  1910. 

^  This  increase,  however,  appears  to  be  due  to  a  steady  immigration  from  the 
Southern  States,  but  for  which  the  Liberians  proper  would  die  out,  or  become 
absorbed  in  the  surrounding  native  populations. 


Ill]  The  African  Negro:  I.  Sudanese  57 

office.  All  are  of  course  intensely  patriotic,  but  their 
patriotism  takes  a  wrong  direction,  being  chiefly  manifested 
in  their  insolence  towards  the  English  and  other  European 
traders  on  the  coast,  and  in  their  supreme  contempt  for 
the  "stinking  bush-niggers,"  as  they  call  the  surrounding 
aborigines.  In  1909  internal  and  external  difficulties  led  to 
the  appointment  of  a  Commission  by  President  Roosevelt 
with  the  result  that  the  American  Government  took  charge 
of  the  finances,  military  organisation,  agriculture  and  boundary 
questions,  besides  arranging  for  a  loan  of  ;^400,ooo.  The 
able  administration  of  President  Barclay,  a  pure  blooded 
Negro,  though  not  of  Liberian  ancestry,  is  perhaps  the 
happiest  augury  for  the  future  of  the  Republic'. 

The  Krus  (Kroomen,  Krooboys^),  whose  numerous  hamlets 
are  scattered  along  the  coast  from  below  Monrovia  nearly  to 
Cape    Palmas,    are  assuredly  one  of  the  most 
interesting    people    in    the    whole    of    Africa.  *    rumen. 

Originally  from  the  interior,  they  have  developed  in  their 
new  homes  a  most  un-African  love  of  the  sea,,  hence  are 
regularly  engaged  as  crews  by  the  European  skippers  plying 
along  those  insalubrious  coastlands. 

In  this  service,  in  which  they  < are  known  by  such  nick- 
names as  "  Bottld-of-Beer,"  "  Mashed- Potatoes,"  "  Bubble- 
and-Squeak,"  "  Pipe-of-Tobacco,"  and  the  like,  their  word 
may  always  be  depended  upon.  But  it  is  to  be  feared  that 
this  loyalty,  which  with  them  is  a  strict  matter  of  business, 
has  earned  for  them  a  reputation  for  other  virtues  to  which 
they  have  little  claim.  Despite  the  many  years  that  they 
have  been  in  the  closest  contact  with  the  missionaries  and 
traders,  they  are  still  at  heart  the  same  brutal  savages  as 
ever.  After  each  voyage  they  return  to  the  native  village  to 
spend  all  their  gains  and  pilferings  in  drunken  orgies,  and 
relapse  generally  into  sheer  barbarism  till  the  next  steamer 
rounds  the  neighbouring  headland.  "  It  is  not  a  comfortable 
reflection,"  writes  Bishop  Ingham,  whose  testimony  will  not 
be  suspected  of  bias,  "as  we  look  at  this  mob  on  our  decks, 
that,  if  the  ship  chance  to  strike  on  a  sunken  rock  and 
become  unmanageable,  they  would  rise  to  a  man,  and  seize 
all  they  could  lay  hands  on,  cut  the  very  rings  off  our  fingers  if 

'  H.  H.  Johnston,  Liberia,  1906. 

2  Possibly  the  English  word  "  crew,"  but  more  probably  an  extension  of  Kraoh, 
the  name  of  a  tribe  near  Settra-kru,  to  the  whole  group. 


58  Man :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

they  could  get  them  in  no  other  way,  and  generally  loot  the 
ship.  Little  has  been  done  to  Christianise  these  interesting, 
hard-working,  cheerful,  but  ignorant  and  greedy  people,  who 
have  so  long  hung  on  the  skirts  of  civilisation^" 

It  is  only  fair  to  the  Kru  to  say  that  this  unflattering 
picture  of  them  stands  alone.  "  There  is  but  one  man  of  all 
of  us  who  have  visited  West  Africa  who  has  not  paid  a 
tribute  to  the  Kruboy's  sterling  qualities,"  says  Miss  Kingsley. 
Her  opinion  coincides  with  that  of  the  old  coasters  based  on 
life-long  experience,  and  she  waxes  indignant  at  the  ingratitude 
with  which  Kruboy  loyalty  is  rewarded.  "They  have  devoted 
themselves  to  us  English,  and  they  have  suffered,  laboured, 
fought,  been  massacred  and  so  on  with  us  generation  after 
generation... Kruboys  are,  indeed,  the  backbone  of  white 
effort  in  West  Africa'." 

But  the  very  worst  "  sweepings  of  the  Sudanese  plateau  " 
seem  to  have  gathered  along  the  Upper  Guinea  Coast, 
occupied  by  the  already  mentioned  Tshi,  Ewe, 
Gu^ea'pTOpies  ^"'^  Yoruba  groups".  They  constitute  three 
branches  of  one  linguistic,  and  probably  also  of 
one  ethnical  family,  of  which,  owing  to  their  historic  and 
ethnical  importance,  the  reader  may  be  glad  to  have  here 
subjoined  a  somewhat  complete  tabulated  scheme. 

The  Ga  of  the  Volta  delta  are  here  bracketed  with  the 
Tshi  because  A.  B.  Ellis,  our  great  authority  on  the  Guinea 
peoples^  considers  the  two  languages  to  be  distantly  con- 
nected. He  also  thinks  there  is  a  foundation  of  fact  in  the 
native  traditions,  which  bring  the  dominant  tribes — Ashanti, 
Fanti,  Dahomi,  Yoruba,  Bini — from  the  interior  to  the  coast 
districts  at  no  very  remote  period.     Thus  it  is  recorded  of 


^  Sierra  Leone  after  a  Hundred  Years,  p.  280. 

^  Mary  H.  Kingsley,  Travels  in  West  Africa,  1899,  pp.  54-5. 

^  Since  the  establishment  of  British  authority  in  Nigeria  (1900  to  1907)  much 
light  has  been  thrown  on  ethnological  problems.  See  among  other  works 
C.  Partridge,  The  Cross  River  Natives,  1905  ;  A.  G.  Leonard,  The  Lower  Niger 
and  its  Tribes,  1906  ;  A.  J.  N.  Tremearne,  The  Niger  and  the  Western  Sudan, 
1910,  The  Tailed  Head-Hunters  of  Nigeria,  i<)\i ;  R.  E.  Dennett,  Nigerian 
Studies,  1910;  E.  D.  Morel,  Nigeria,  its  People  and  its  Problems,  191 1,  besides 
the  Anthropological  Reports  of  N.  W.  Thomas,  1910,  1913,  and  papers  by 
J.  Parkinson  \a.Journ.  Roy.  Anthr.  Inst,  xxxvi.  1906,  xxxvil.  1907. 

*  The  services  rendered  to  African  anthropology  by  this  distinguished  officer 
call  for  the  fullest  recognition,  all  the  more  that  somewhat  free  and  unacknow- 
ledged use  has  been  made  of  the  rich  materials  brought  together  in  his  classical 
works  on  The  Tshi-speaking  Peoples  (1887),  The  Ewe-speaking  Peoples  (1890),  and 
The  Yoruba-speaking  Peoples  (1894). 


Ill] 


The  African  Negro :   I.  Sudanese 


59 


the  Ashanti  and  Fanti,  now  hereditary  foes,  that  ages  ago 
they  formed  one  people  who  were  reduced  to  the  utmost 
distress  during  a  long  war  with  some  inland  power,  perhaps 
the  conquering  Muhammadans  of  the  Ghana  or  Mali  empire. 
They  were  saved,  however,  some  by  eating  of  the  shan, 
others  of  the  fan  plant,  and  of  these  words, 
with  the  verb  di,  "  to  eat,"  were  made  the  tribal 
names  Shan-di,  Fan-di,  now  Ashanti,  Fanti. 
The  seppiriba  plant,  said  to  have  been  eaten  by  the  Fanti,  is 
still  called  fan  when  cooked. 


,  Ashanti 
Folklore. 


Tribes  of  Tshi 

Tribes  of  Ewe 

Tribes  of  Yoruba 

AND  Ga  Speech 

Speech 

Speech 

Gold  Coast 

Slave  Coast   West 

Slave  Coast  East 
and  Niger  Delta 

Ashanti 

Dahomi 

Yorubai 

Safwhi 

Eweawo 

Ibadan 

Denkera 

Agotine 

Ketu 

Bekwai 

Anfueh 

Egba 

Nkoranza 

Krepe 

Jebu 

Adansi 

Avenor 

Remo 

Assin 

Awuna 

Ode 

Wassaw 

Agbosomi 

Ilorin 

Ahanta 

Aflao 

Ijesa 

Fanti 

Ataklu 

Ondo 

Agona 

Krikor 

Mahin 

Akwapim 

Geng 

Benin  (Bini) 

Akim 

Attakpami 

Kakanda 

Akwamu 

Aja 

Wari 

Kwaa 

Ewemi 

Iboi 

Ga 

Appa, 

Efiki 

Other  traditions  refer  to  a  time  when  all  were  of  one 
speech,  and  lived  in  a  far  country  beyond  Salagha,  open,  flat, 
with  little  bush,  and  plenty  of  cattle  and  sheep,  a  tolerably 
accurate  description  of  the  inland  Sudanese  plateaux.  But 
then  came  a  red  people,  said  to  be  the  Fulahs,  Muhammadans, 
who  oppressed  the  blacks  and  drove  them  to  take  refuge  in 
the  forests.  Here  they  thrived  and  multiplied,  and  after 
many  vicissitudes  they  came  down,  down,  until  at  last  they 
reached  the  coast,  with  the  waves  rolling  in,  the  white  foam 
hissing  and  frothing  on  the  beach,  and  thought  it  was  all 
boiling  water  until  some  one  touched  it  and  found  it  was  not 
hot,  and  so  to  this  day  they  call  the  sea  Eh-huru  den  o  nni 

1  N  W.  Thomas  classifies  Yoruba,  Edo,  Ibo  and  Efik  as  four  main  stocks  in 
the  Western  Sudanic  language  group.  "  In  the  Edo  and  Ibo  stocks  people  only 
a  few  miles  apart  may  not  be  able  to  communicate  owmg  to  diversity  of  language  " 
(p.  141).     Anthropological  Report  of  the  Ibo-speaktng  Peoples  of  Nigeria,  Part  I. 

1913- 


6o  Man  :   Past  and  Present  [ch. 

shew,  "  Boiling  water  not  hot,"  but  far  inland  the  sea  is  still 
"  Boiling  water\" 

To  A.  B.  Ellis  we  are  indebted  especially  for  the  true 
explanation  of  the  much  used  and  abused  term  fetish,  as 
applied  to  the  native  beliefs.  It  was  of  course 
SeSirrdnlss.  already  known  to  be  not  an  African  but  a  Portu- 
'"  guese  word^  meaning  a  charm,  amulet,  or  even 
witchcraft.  But  Ellis  shows  how  it  came  to  be  wrongly 
applied  to  all  forms  of  animal  and'  nature  worship,  and  how 
the  confusion  was  increased  by  De  Brosses'  theory  of  a 
primordial  fetishism,  and  by  his  statement  that  it  was  im- 
possible to  conceive  a  lower  form  of  religion  than  fetishism, 
which  might  therefore  be  assumed  to  be  the  beginning  of  all 
religion'. 

On  the  contrary  it  represents  rather  an  advanced  stage,  as 
Ellis  discovered  after  four  or  five  years  of  careful  observation 
on  the  spot.  A  fetish,  he  tells  us,  is  something  tangible  and 
inanimate,  which  is  believed  to  possess  power  in  itself,  and  is 
worshipped  for  itself  alone.  Nor  can  such  an  object  be 
picked  up  anywhere  at  random,  as  is  commonly  asserted,  and 
he  adds  that  the  belief  "is  arrived  at  only  after  considerable 
progress  has  been  made  in  religious  ideas,  when  the  older 
form  of  religion  becomes  secondary  and  owes  its  existence  to 
the  confusion  of  the  tangible  with  the  intangible,  .of  the 
material  with  the  immaterial ;  to  the  belief  in  the  indwelling 
god  being  gradually  lost  sight  of  until  the  power  originally 
believed  to  belong  to  the  god,  is  finally  attributed  to  the 
tangible  and  inanimate  object  itself." 

But  now  comes  a  statement  that  may  seem  paradoxical  to, 
most  students  of  the  evolution  of  religious  ideas.  We  are 
assured  that  fetishism  thus  understood  is  not  specially  or  at 
all  characteristic  of  the  religion  of  the  Gold  Coast  natives, 
who  are  in  fact  "  remarkably  free  from  it "  and  believe  in 
invisible  intangible  deities.  Some  of  them  may  dwell  in  a 
tangible  inanimate  object,  popularly  called  a  "fetish";  but 
the  idea  of  the  indwelling  god  is  never  lost  sight  of,  nor  is 

^  The  Tshi-speaJdng  Peoples,  p.  332  sq. 

^  Feitigo,  whence  a\so  feiHeeira,  a  vi'Ach.,feiiiceria,  sorcery,  .etc.,  all  boia/eitigo, 
artificial,  handmade,  from  l.zX.fado  a.nAfacHtius. 

*  Du  Culte  des  Dieux  FiUches^  1760.  It  is  generally  supposed  that  the  word 
was  invented,  or  at  least  first  introduced,  by  De  Brosses  ;  but  Ellis  shows  that  this 
also  is  a  mistake,  as  it  had  already  been  used  by  Sosman  in  his  DescHption  of 
Guinea,  London,  1705. 


in]  The  African  Negro:  I.  Sudanese  6i 

the  object  ever  worshipped  for  its  own  sake.  True  fetishism, 
the  worship  of  such  material  objects  and  images,  prevails,  on 
the  contrary,  far  more  "amongst  the  Negroes  of  the  West 
Indies,  who  have  been  christianised  for  more  than  half-a- 
century,  than  amongst  those  of  West  Africa.  Hence  the 
belief  in  Obeah,  still  prevalent  in  the  West  Indies,  which 
formerly  was  a  belief  in  indwelling  spirits  which  inhabited 
certain  objects,  has  now  become  a  worship  paid  to  tangible 
and  inanimate  objects,  which  of  themselves  are  believed  to 
possess  the  power  to  injure.  In  Europe  itself  we  find 
evidence  amongst  the  Roman  Catholic  populations  of  the 
South,  that  fetishism  is  a  corruption  of  a  former  culte,  rather 
than  a  primordial  faith.  The  lower  classes  there  have  con- 
fused the  intangible  with  the  tangible,  and  believe  that  the 
images  of  the  saints  can  both  see,  hear  and  feel.  Thus  we 
find  the  Italian  peasants  and  fishermen  beat  and  ill-treat  their 
images  when  their  requests  have  not  been  complied  with.... 
These  appear  to  be  instances  of  true  fetishism  \" 

Another  phase  of  religious  belief  in  Upper  Guinea  is 
ancestry  worship,  which  has  here  been  developed  to  a  degree 
unknown  elsewhere.  As  the  departed  have  to  Ancestry 
be  maintained  in  the  same  social  position  beyond  Worship  and 
the  grave  that  they  enjoyed  in  this  world,  they  the  "Customs." 
must  be  supplied  with  slaves,  wives,  and  attendants,  each 
according  to  his  rank.  Hence  the  institution  of  the  so-called 
"  customs,"  or  anniversary  feasts  of  the  dead,  accompanied 
by  the  sacrifice  of  human  victims,  regulated  at  first  by  the 
status  and  afterwards  by  the  whim  and  caprice  of  chiefs  and 
kings.  In  the  capitals  of  the  more  powerful  states,  Ashanti, 
Dahomey,  Benin,  the  scenes  witnessed  at  these  sanguinary 
rites  rivalled  in  horror  those  held  in  honour  of  the  Aztec 
gods.  Details  may  here  be  dispensed  with  on  a  repulsive 
subject,  ample  accounts  of  which  are  accessible  from  many 
sources  to  the  general  reader.  In  any  case  these  atrocities 
teach  no  lesson,  except  that  most  religions  have  waded  through 
blood  to  better  things,  unless  arrested  in  mid-stream  by  the 
intervention  of  higher  powers,  as  happily  in  Upper  Guinea, 
where  the  human  shambles  of  Kumassi,  Abomeh,  Benin  and 
most  other  places  have  now  been  swept  away. 

1  The  Tshi-speaking  Peoples,  Ch.  XII.  p.  194  and  passim.     See  also  R.  H. 
Nassau,  Fetichism  in  West  Africa,  1904. 


62  Man  :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

On  the  capture  of  Benin  by  the  English  in  1897  a  rare 
and   unexpected   prize  fell  into  the   hands  of  ethnologists. 

Here  was  found  a  large  assortment  of  carved 
Bronze""  ivories,   woodwork,  and  especially  a   series    of 

about  300  bronze  and  brass  plates  or  panels 
with  figures  of  natives  and  Europeans^  armed  and  in  armour, 
in  full  relief,  all  cast  by  the  cire  perdue  process \  some  bar- 
baric, others,  and  especially  a  head  in  the  round  of  a  young 
negress,  showing  high  artistic  skill.  Many  of  these  remark- 
able objects  are  in  the  British  Museum,  where  they  have  been 
studied  by  C.  H.  Read  and  O.  M.  Dalton^  who  are  evidently 
right  in  assigning  the  better  class  to  the  sixteenth  century, 
and  to  the  aid,  if  not  the  hand,  of  some  Portuguese  artificers 
in  the  service  of  the  King  of  Benin.  They  add  that  "casting 
of  an  inferior  kind  continues  down  to  the  present  time,"  and  it 
may  here  be  mentioned  that  armour  has  long  been  and  is  still 
worn  by  the  cavalry,  and  even  their  horses,  in  the  Muham- 
madan  states  of  Central  Sudan.  "  The  chiefs  [Kaskelldwa) 
who  serve  as  officers  under  the  Sultan  [of  Bornu]  and  act  as 
his  bodyguard  wear  jackets  of  chain  armour  and  cuirasses  of 
coats  of  maiP."  It  is  clear  that  metal  casting  in  a  large  way 
has  long  been  practised  by  the  semi-civilised  peoples  of  Sudan. 
Within  the  great  bend  of  the  Niger  the  veil,  first  slightly 
raised  by  Barth  in  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
.  has  now  been  drawn  aside  by  L.   G.    Binger, 

F.  D.  Lugard  and  later  explorers.  Here  the 
Mossi,  Borgu  and  others  have  hitherto  more  or  less  success- 
fully resisted  the  Moslem  advance,  and  are  consequently  for 
the  most  pairt  little  removed  from  the  savage  state.  Ever^ 
the  "Faithful"  wear  the  cloak  of  Islam  somewhat  loosely, 
and  the  level  of  their  culture  may  be  judged  from  the  case  of 
the  Imdm  of  Diulasu,  who  pestered  Binger  for  nostrums 
and  charms  against  ailments,  war",  and  misfortunes.  What  he 
wanted  chiefly  to  know  was  the  names  of  Abraham's  two 

1  That  is,  from  a  wax  mould  destroyed  in  the  casting.  After  the  operation 
details  were  often  filled  in  by  chasing  or  executed  in  repoussd  work. 

2  "Works  of  Art  from  Benin  City,"  Journ.  Anthr.  Inst.  February,  1898, 
p.  362  sq.     See  H.  Ling  Roth,  Great  Benin,  its  Customs,  etc.,  1903. 

^  A.  Featherman,  Social  History  of  Mankind,  The  Nigritians,  p.  281.  See  also 
Reclus,  French  ed.,  Vol.  Xll.  p.  718  :  "  Les  cavaliers  portent  encore  la  cuirasse 
comme  au  moyen  ige....Les  chevaux  sont  recouverts  de  la  meme  mani6re."  In 
the  mythical  traditions  of  Buganda  also  there  is  reference  to  the  fierce  Wakedi 
warriors  clad  in  "iron  armour"  (Ch.  IV.).  Cf  L.  Frobenius,  The  Voice  of  Africa,  11. 
191 3,  pi.  p.  608. 


in]  The  African  Negro:  I.  Sudanese  63 

wives.  "  Tell  me  these,"  he  would  say,  "  and  my  fortune  is 
made  for  I  dreamt  it  the  other  night;  you  must  tell  me  ; 
1  really  must  have  those  names  or  I'm  lost\" 

In  some  districts  the  ethnical  confusion  is  considerable 
and  when  Bmger  arrived  at  the  Court  of  the  Mossi  King 
Baikary,  he  was  addressed  successively  in  Mossi,  Hausa 
bonghai,  and  Fulah,  until  at  last  it  was  discovered  that 
Mandmgan  was  the  only  native  language  he  understood. 
Waghadugu,  capital  of  the  chief  Mossi  state,  comprises 
several  distmct  quarters  occupied  respectively  by  Mandingans, 
Marengas  (Songhai),  Zang-weros  (Hausas),  Chilmigos 
(h  ulahs),  Mussulman  and  heathen  Mossis,  the  whole  population 
scarcely  exceedmg  5000.  However,  perfect  harmony  prevails, 
the  Mossi  themselves  being  extremely  tolerant  despite  the 
long  religious  wars  they  have  had  to  wage  against  the  fanatical 
Fulahs  and  other  Muhammadan  aggressors'. 

Religious  indifference  is  indeed  a  marked  characteristic  of 
this  people,  and  the  case  is  mentioned  of  a  nominal  Mussul- 
man prince  who  could  even  read  and  write,  and 
say   his   prayers,    but   whose  two  sons   "knew      African 
nothing   at    pll,"  or,    as    we    should    say,   were      *^"°^*'"- 
"Agnostics."     One  of  them,   however,  it  is  fair  to  add,  is 
claimed  by  both  sides,  the  Moslems  asserting  that  he  says 
his  prayers  in  secret,  the  heathens  that  he  drinks  dolo  (palm- 
wine),  which  of  course  no  true  believer  is  supposed  ever  to  do. 


Central  Sudanese. 

In  Central  Sudan,  that  is,  the  region  stretching  from  the 
Niger  to  Wadai,  a  tolerably  clean  sweep  has  been  made  of 
the  aborigines,  except  along  the  southern  fringe 
and  in  parts   of  the   Chad    basin.     For  many      EthriTaUnd 
centuries  Islam  has  here  been  firmly  established,       Social 
and  in  Negroland  Isli,m  is  synonymous  with  a      Relations, 
greater  or  less  degree  of  miscegenation.     The  native  tribes 
who  resisted  the  fiery  Arab  or  Tuareg  or  Tibu  proselytisers 
were  for  the  most  part  either  extirpated,  or  else  driven  to  the 

^  Du  Niger  au  Golfe  de  Guinde,  1892,  I.  p.  yji. 

2  Early  in  the  fourteenth  century  they  were  strong  enough  to  carry  the  war 
into  the  enemy's  camp  and  make  more  than  one  successful  expedition  against 
Timbuktu.  At  present  the  Mossi  power  is  declining,  and  their  territory  has  been 
parcelled  out  between  the  British  and  French  Sudanese  hinterlands. 


64  Man  :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

southern  uplands  about  the  Congo-Chad  water-parting.  All 
who  accepted  the  Koran  became  merged  with  the  conquerors 
in  a  common  negroid  population,  which  supplied  the  new 
material  for  the  development  of  large  social  communities  and 
powerful  political  states. 

Under  these  conditions  the  old  tribal  organisations  were 
in  great  measure  dissolved,  and  throughout  its  historic  period 
of  about  a  millennium  Central  Sudan  is  found  mainly  occupied 
by  peoples  gathered  together  in  a  small  number  of  political 
systems,  each  with  its  own  language  and  special  institutions, 
but  all  alike  accepting  I  slim  as  the  State  religion.  Such  are 
or  were  the  Songhai  empire,  the  Hausa  States,  and  the 
kingdoms  of  Bornu  with  Kanem  and  Baghirmi,  and  these 
jointly  cover  the  whole  of  Centlral  Sudan  as  above  defined. 

Songhais^.     How  completely  the  tribe''  has  merged  in  the 
people''   may   be   inferred    from   the    mere   statement   that, 
although  no  longer  an  independent  nation^  the 
Do^n!  negroid  Songhais  form  a  single  ethnical  group 

of  about  two  million  souls,  all  of  one  speech 
and  one  religion,  and  all  distinguished  by  somewhat  uniform 
physical  and  mental  characters.  This  territory  lies  mainly 
about  the  borderlands  between  'Sudan  and  the  Sahara,  stretch- 
ing from  Timbuktu  east  to  the  Asben  oasis  and  along  both 
banks  of  the  Niger  from  Lake  Debo  round  to  the  Sokoto 
confluence,  and  also  at  some  points  reaching  as  far  as  the 
Hombori  hills  within  the  great  bend  of  the  Niger. 

Here  they  are  found  in  the  closest  connection  with  the 
Ireghenaten  ("mixed")  Tuaregs,  and  elsewhere  with  other 
Tuaregs,  and  with  Arabs,  Fulahs  or  Hausas',  so  that  exclu- 
sively Songhai  communities  are  now  somewhat  rare.  But 
the  bulk  of  the  race  is  still  concentrated  in  Gurma  and  in  the 
district  between  Gobo  and  Timbuktu,  the  two  chief  cities  of 
the  old  Songhai  empire. 

.  They  are  a  distinctly  negroid  people,  presenting  various 

1  Also  Sonrhay,  gh  and  rh  being  Interchangeable  throughout  North  Africa ; 
Ghat  and  Rhat,  Ghadames  and  Rhadames,  etc.  In  the  mouth  of  an  Arab  the 
sound  is  that  of  the  guttural   c  ghain,  which  is  pronounced  by  the  Berbers  and 

Negroes  somewhat  like  the  Northumberland  burr,  hence  usually  transliterated  by 
rh  in  non-Semitic  words. 

2  It  should  be  noticed  that  these  terms  are  throughout  used  as  strictly  defined 
in  Eth.  Ch.  I. 

^  Earth's  account  of  Wulu  (iv.  p.  299),  "  inhabited  by  Tawdrek  slaves,  who  are 
trilingues,  speaking  Temdshight  as  well  as  Songhay  and  Fulfulde,"  is  at  present 
generally  applicable,  mutatis  mutandis,  to  most  of  the  Songhai  settlements. 


Ill]  The  African  Negro :  I.  Sudanese  65 

shades  of  intermixture  with  the  surrounding  Hamites  and 
Semites,  but  generally  of  a  very  deep  brown  or  songhai 
blackish  colour,  with  somewhat  regular  features  Type  and 
and  that  peculiar  long,  black,  and  ringletty  hair,  Temperament, 
which  is  so  characteristic  of  Negro  and  Caucasic  blends,  as 
seen  amongst  the  Trarsas  and  Braknas  of  the  Senegal,  the 
Bejas,  Danakils,  and  many  Abyssinians  of  the  region  between 
the  Nile  and  the  Red  Sea.  Barth,  to  whom  we  still  owe  the 
best  account  of  this  historical  people,  describes  them  as  of  a 
dull,  morose  temperament,  the  most  unfriendly  and  churlish 
of  all  the  peoples  visited  by  him  in  Negroland. 

This  writer's  suggestion  that  they  may  have  formerly  had 
relations  with  the  Egyptians'  has  been  revived  in  an  exag- 
gerated form  by  M.  F^lix  Dubois,  whose  views 
have    received    currency    in    England    through      ori^ns! 
uncritical   notices  of  his   Timbouctou  la  Mystd- 
rieuse    (Paris,    1897).      But    there    is   no    "mystery"   in    the 
matter.     The  Songhai  are  a  Sudanese  people, 
whose  exodus  from  Egypt  is  a  myth,  and  whose      ThJori^ 
Kissur  language,   as  it  is  called,    has    not  the 
remotest  connection  with  any  form  of  speech  known  to  have 
been  at  any  time  current  in  the  Nile  Valley'.     Nor  has  it  any 
evident  affinities  with  any  group  of  African  tongues.      H.  H. 
Johnston  regards  the  Songhai  as  the  result  of  the  mixing  of 
"  the  Libyan  section  of  the  Hamitic  peoples,  reinforced  by 
Berbers  (Iberians)  from  Spain,"  with  the  pre-existing  Fulah 
type  and  the  Negroids ;  as  also  from  the  far  earlier  intercourse 
between  the  Fulah  and  the  Negro'. 

The  Songhai  empire,  like  that  of  the  rival  Mandingans, 
claims    a   respectable   antiquity,    its    reputed  founder  Za-el- 
Yemeni  having  flourished  about  680  a.d.     Za      so„gi,ai 
Kasi,  fifteenth  in  succession  from  the  founder,      Records. 

1  As  so  much  has  been  made  of  Earth's  authority  in  this  connection,  it  may 
be  well  to  quote  his  exact  words :  "  It  would  seem  as  if  they  (the  Sonrhay)  had 
received  in  more  ancient  times,  several  institutions  from  the  Egyptians,  with 
whom  I'have  no  doubt,  they  maintained  an  intercourse  by  means  of  the  energetic 
inhabitants  of  Aujila  from  a  relatively  ancient  period"  (iv.  p.  426).  Barth,  there- 
fore does  not  bring  the  people  themselves,  or  their  language,  from  Eg:ypt,  but  only 
some  of  their  institutions,  and  that  indirectly  through  the  Aujila  Oasis  in  Cyrenaica, 
and  it  may  be  added  that  this  intercourse  with  Aujila  appears  to  date  only  from 

^^T  Hacquard  et  Dupuis,'  Manuel  de  la  langue  Sofigay,  parUe  de  Tombouctou 
^  Sav,  dans  la 'boucle  du  Niger,  i?^7, passim.  .   .,      r. 

3  ''A  Survey  of  the  Ethnographyof  Africa,"  >«''«•  ^^.J'-  Anthr.  Soc.ii.un.  1913, 
p.  386.  ^ 


K. 


66  Man :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

was  the  first  Muhammadan  ruler  (1009);  but  about  1326 
the  country  was  reduced  by  the  Mandingans,  and  remained 
throughout  the  fourteenth  and  a  great  part  of  the  fifteenth 
century  virtually  subject  to  the  Mali  empire,  although 
AH  Killun,  founder  of  the  new  Sonni  dynasty,  had  acquired 
a  measure  of  independence  about  1335-6.  But  the  political 
supremacy  of  the  Songhai  people  dates  only  from  about  1464, 
when  Sonni  Ali,  sixteenth  of  the  Sonni  dynasty,  known  in 
history  as  "the  great  tyrant  and  famous  miscreant,"  threw  off 
the  Mandingan  yoke,  "and  changed  the  whole  face  of  this 
part  of  Africa  by  prostrating  the  kingdom  of  Melle^"  Under 
his  successor,  Muhammad  Askia^  "perhaps  the  greatest 
sovereign  that  ever  ruled  over  Negroland',"  the  Songhai 
Empire  acquired  its  greatest  expansion,  extending  from  the 
heart  of  Hausaland  to  the  Atlantic  seaboard,  and  from  the 
Mossi  country  to  the  Tuat  oasis,  south  of  Morocco.  Although 
unfavourably  spoken  of  by  Leo  Africanus,  Askia  is  described 
by  Ahmed  Bdb4  as  governing  the  subject  peoples  "  with 
justice  and  equity,  causing  well-being  and  comfort  to  spring 
up  everywhere  within  the  borders  of  his  extensive  dominions, 
and  introducing  such  of  the  institutions  of  Muhanimadan 
civilisation  as  he  considered  might  be  useful  to  his  subjects*." 

Askia  also  made  the  Mecca  pilgrimage  with  a  great  show 
of  splendour.  But  after  his  reign  (1492-1529)  the  Songhai 
power  gradually  declined,  and  was  at  last  overthrown  by 
Mulay  Hamed,  Emperor  of  Morocco,  in  159 1-2.  Ahmed 
Baba,  the  native  chronicler,  was  involved  in  the  ruin  of  his 
people',  and  since  then  the  Songhai  nation  has  been  broken 
into  fragments,  subject  here  to  Hausas,  there  to  Fulahs,  else- 
where to  Tuaregs,  and,  since  the  French  occupation  of 
Timbuktu  (1894),.  to  the  hated  Giaur. 

Hausas.     In  everything  that  constitutes  the  real  greatness 


1  Barth,  iv.  pp.  593-4. 

2  The  Ischia  of  Leo  Africanus,  who  tells  us  that  in  his  time  the  "  linguaggio 
detto  Sungai"  was  current  even  in  the  provinces  of  Walata  and  Jinni  (vi.  ch.  2). 
This  statement,  however,  like  others  made  by  Leo  at  second  hand,  must  be 
received  with  caution.  In  these  districts  Songhai  may  have  been  spoken  by  the 
officials  and  some  of  the  upper  classes,  but  scarcely  by  the  people  generally,  who 
were  of  Mandingan  speech. 

3  Barth,  iv.  p.  414.  *  lb.  p.  415. 

^  Carried  captive  into  Marakesh,  although  later  restored  to  his  beloved 
Timbuktu  to  end  his  days  in  perpetuating  the  past  glories  of  the  Songhai  nation  ; 
the  one  Negroid  man  of  letters,  whose  name  holds  a  worthy  place  beside  those  of 
Leo  Africanus,  Ibn  Khaldiin,  El  Tunsi,  and  other  Hamitic  writers. 


in]  The  African  Negro :  I.  Sudanese  67 

of  a  nation,  the  Hausas  may  rightly  claim  preeminence 
amongst  all  the  peoples  of  Negroland.  No  The  Hausas- 
doubt  early  in  the  nineteenth  century  the  his-  their  dominant 
torical  Hausa  States,  occupying  the  whole  region  ^°'='*'  Position, 
between  the  Niger  and  Bornu,  were  overrun  and  reduced  by 
the  fanatical  Fulah  bands  under  Othman  Dan  Fodye.  But 
the  Hausas,  in  a  truer  sense  than  the  Greeks,  "have  captured 
their  rude  conquerors^"  for  they  have  even  largely  assimilated 
them  physically  to  their  own  type,  and  the  Hausa  nationality 
is  under  British  auspices  asserting  its  natural  social,  industrial 
and  commercial  predominance  throughout  Central  and  even 
parts  of  Western  Sudan. 

It  could  not  well  be  otherwise,  seeing  that  the  Hausas 
fornt  a  compact  body  of  some  five  million  peaceful  and  indus- 
trious Sudanese,  living  partly  in  numerous  farmsteads  amid 
their  well-tilled  cotton,  indigo,  pulse,  and  corn  fields,  partly 
in  large  walled  cities  and  great  trading  centres  such  as  Kano^ 
Katsena,  Yacoba,  whose  intelligent  and  law-abiding  inhabi- 
tants are  reckoned  by  many  tens  of  thousands.  Their 
melodious  tongue,  with  a  vocabulary  containing  Hausa  Speech 
perhaps  10,000  words',  has  long  been  the  great  and  Mental 
medium  of  intercourse  throughout  Sudan  from    Q"^**'^^- 


^  "Graecia  capta  ferum  victorem  cepit,  et  artes 

Intulit  agresti  Latio."     Hor.  Epist.  il.  i,  156-7. 

The  epithet  agrestis  is  peculiarly  applicable  to  the  rude  Fulah  shepherds,  who 
were  almost  barbarians  compared  with  the  settled,  industrious,  and  even  cultured 
Hausa  populations,  and  whose  oppressive  rule  has  at  last  been  relaxed  by  the 
intervention  of  England  in  the  Niger-Benue  lands. 

^  "  One  of  their  towns,  Kano,  has  probably  the  largest  rtiarket-place  in  the 
world,  with  a  daily  attendance  of  from  25,000  to  30,000  people.  This  same  town 
possesses,  what  in  central  Africa  is  still  more  surprising,  some  thirty  or  forty 
schools,  in  which  the  children  are  taught  to  read  and  write  "  (Rev.  C.  H.  Robinson, 
Specimens  of  Hausa  Literature,  University  Press,  Cambridge,  1896,  p.  x). 

^  See  C.  H.  Robinson,  Hausaland,  or  Fifteen  Hundred  Miles  through  the 
Central  Soudan,  l8g6 ;  Specitnens  of  Hausa  Literature,  1896  ;  Hausa  Grammar, 
1897  ;  Hausa  Dictionary,  1899.  Authorities  are  undecided  whether  to  class  Hausa 
with  the  Semitic  or  the  Hamitic  family,  or  in  an  independent  group  by  itself,  and 
it  must  be  admitted  that  some  of  its  features  are  extremely  puzzling.  While 
Sudanese  Negro  in  phonology  and  perhaps  in  most  of  its  word  roots,  it  is  Hamitic 
in  its  grammatical  features  and  pronouns.  But  the  Hamitic  element  is  thought 
by  experts  to  be  as  much  Kushite,  or  even  Koptic,  as  Libyan.  "  On  the  whole,  it 
seems  probable,"  says  H.  H.  Johnston,  "  that  the  Hausa  speech  was  shaped  by  a 
double  influence  :  from  Egypt,  and  Hamiticized  Nubia,  as  well  as  by  Libyan 
immigrants  from  across  the  Sahara."  "  A  Survey  of  the  Ethnography  of  Africa," 
Journ.  Roy.  Anthr.  Soc.  XLlll.  1913,  p.  385.  Cf.  also  Julius  Lippert,  "Ober  die 
Stellung  der  Hausasprache,"  Mitteilungen  des  Seminars fUr  Orientalische  Sprachen, 
1906.  It  is  noteworthy  that  Hausa  is  the  only  language  in  tropical  Africa  which 
has  been  reduced  to  writing  by  the  natives  themselves. 

5—2 


68  Man  :   Past  and  Present  [ch. 

Lake  Chad  to  and  beyond  the  Niger,  and  is  daily  acquiring 
even  greater  preponderance  amongst  all  the  settled  and  trading 
populations  of  these  regions. 

But  though  showing  a  marked  preference  for  peaceful 
pursuits,  the  Hausas  are  by  no  means  an  effeminate  people. 
Largely  enlisted  in  the  British  service^  they  have  at  all  times 
shown  fighting  qualities  of  a  high  order  under  their  English 
officers,  and  a  well-earned  tribute  has  been  paid  to  their 
military  prowess  amongst  others  by  Sir  George  Goldie  and 
Lieut.  Vandeleur^-  With  the  Hausas  on  her  side  England 
need  assuredly  fear  no  rivals  to  her  beneficent  sway  over  the 
teeming  populations  of  the  fertile  plains  and  plateaux  of' 
Central  Sudan,  which  is  on  the  whole  perhaps  the  most 
favoured  land  in  Africa  north  of  the  equator. 

According  to  the  national  traditions,  which  go  back  to  no 

very  remote  period^  the  seven  historical  Hausa  States  known 

„.  .        as  the  "Hausa  bokoy"  ("the  seven  Hausas") 

Hausa  Origins.  i  i     •  r  i  i 

take  their  name  trom  the  eponymous  heroes 
Biram,  Daura,  Gober,  Kano,  Rano,  Katsena  and  Zegzeg,  all 
said  to  be  sprung  from  the  Deggaras,  a  Berber  tribe  settled 
to  the  north  of  Munyo.  From  Biram,  the  original  seat,  the 
race  and  its  language  spread  to  seven  other  provinces — 
Zanfara,  Kebbi,  Nupe  {Nyffi),  Gwari,  Yauri,  Yariba  and 
Kororofa,  which  in  contempt  are  called  the  "  B^nza  bokoy '.' 
("the  seven  Upstarts").  All  form  collectively  the  Hausa 
domain  in  the  widest  sense. 

Authentic  history  is  quite  recent,  and  even  Komayo, 
reputed  founder  of  Katsena;  dates  only  from  about  the 
fourteenth  century.  Ibrahim  Maji,  who  was  the  first  Moslem 
ruler,  is  assigned  to  the  latter  part  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
and  since  then  the  chief  events  have  been  associated  with  the 
Fulah  wars,  ending  in  the  absorption  of  all  the  Hausa  States 
in  the  unstable  Fulah  empire  of  Sokoto  at  the  beginning  of 
the  nineteenth  century.     With  the  fall  of  Kano  and  Sokoto 


'  Campaigning  on  the  Upper  Nile  and  Niger,  by  Lt  Seymour  Vandeleur,  with 
an  Introduction  by  Sir  George  Goldie,  1898.  "In  camp,"  writes  Lt  Vandeleur, 
"  their  conduct  was  exemplary,  while  pillaging  and  ill-treatment  of  the  natives  were 
unknown.  As  to  their  fighting  qualities,  it  is  enough  to  say  that,  little  over  500 
strong  (on  the  Bida  expedition  of  1897),  they  withstood  for  two  days  25,000  or 
30,000  of  the  enemy ;  that,  former  slaves  of  the  Fulahs,  they  defeated  their 
dreaded  masters,"  etc. .  • 

2  The  Kano  Chronicle,  translated  by  H.  R.  Palmer,  Journ.  Roy.  Anthr.  Inst. 
XXXVIII.  1908,  gives  a  list  of  Hausa  kings  (Sarkis)  from  999  a.d. 


Ill]  The  African  Negro :  I.  Sudanese  69 

in  1903  British  supremacy  was  finally  established  throughout 
the  Hausa  States,  now  termed  Northern  Nigeria'. 

Kanembu;  Kanuri^  \  Baghirmi,  Mosgu.  Round  about 
the  shores  of  Lake  Chad  are  grouped  three  other  historical 
Muhammadan  nations,  the  Kanembu  ("  People    ^,,  .   ,     . 

c  fjr  jj\  1  1       1       Tjr  ■  ^  r  T^  Ethmcal  and 

.ot  Kanem   )  on  the  north,  the  Kanuri  of  Bornu   PoUticai  Reia- 
on  the  west,   and  the   Baghirmi  on  the  south   tionsinthe 
side.      The  last  named  was  conquered  by  the    ChadBasm. 
Sultan  of  Wadai  in    1871,  and  overrun  by  Rabah   Zobeir, 
half  Arab,   half   Negro  adventurer,    in   1890.     But  in  1897 
Emile  GentiP,  French  commissioner  for  the  district,  placed 
the  country  under  French  protection,  although   French  au- 
thority was  not  firmly  established  until  the  death  of  Rabah 
and  the  rout  of  his  sons  in  190 1.     At  the  same  time  Kanem 
was   brought  under   French   control,  and  shortly  afterwards 
Bornu    was    divided    between    Great    Britain,     France    and 
Germany. 

In  this  region  the  ethnical  relations  are  considerably  more 
complex  than  in  the  Hausa  States.  Here  I  slim  has  had 
greater  obstacles  to  contend  with  than  on  the  more  open 
western  plateaux,  and  many  of  the  pagan  aborigines  have 
been  able  to  hold  their  ground  either  in  the  archipelagos  of 
Lake  Chad  ( Yedinas,  Kuri,  Buduma*),  or  in  the  swampy 
tracts  and  uplands  of  the  Logon-Shari  basin  [Mosgu,  Mandara, 
Makari,  etc.). 

It  was  also  the  policy  of  the  Muhammadans,  whose  system 
is  based  on  slavery,  not  to  push  their  religious  zeal  too  far, 
for,   if  all  the  natives  were   converted,   where   ^    ^^   .  . 

1,1  1        r     1  The  Abongines. 

could  they  procure  a  constant  supply  01  slaves, 

those  who  accept  the  teachings  of  the   Prophet  being  ipso 

facto  entitled  to  their  freedom  ?     Hence  the  pagan  districts 

1  For  references  to  recent  literature  see  note  on  p.  58.  Also  R.  S.  Rattray, 
Hausa  Folk-lore,  1913  ;  A.  J.  N.  Tremearne,  Hausa  Superstitions  and  Customs, 
1913,  and  Hausa  Folk-Tales,  19 1 4. 

2  By  a  popular  etymology  these  are  Ka-N-Ari,  "  People  of  Light."  But,  as  they 
are  somewhat  lukewarm  Muhammadans,  the  zealous  Fulahs  say  it  should  be 
Ka-Nari,  "  People  of  Fire,"  i.e.  foredoomed  to  Gehenna  ! 

^  E.  Gentil,  La  Chute  deV Empire  de  Rabah,  1902. 

*  The  Buduma,  who  derive  their  legendary  origin  from  the  Fulahs  whom  they 
resemble  in  physique,  worship  the  Karraka  tree  (a  kind  of  acacia).  P.  A.  Talbot, 
"The  Buduma  of  Lake  Cha.A,"  Journ.  Roy.  Anthr.  Inst.  XLI.  19U.  The  anthro- 
pology of  the  region  has  lately  been  dealt  with  in  Documents  Scientifiques  de  la 
Mission  Tilho {iqob-q),  R^publique  Franqaise,  Ministire  des  Colonies,  Vol.  III.  1914 ; 
R.  Gaillard  and  L.  Poutrin,  itude  anthropologique  des  Populations  des  Rigions  du 
Tchad  et  du  Kanem,  1914. 


yo  Man  :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

were,  and  still  are,  regarded  as  convenient  preserves,  happy 
hunting-grounds  to  be  raided  from  time  to  time,  but  not 
utterly  wasted ;  to  rbe  visited  by  organised  razzias  just  often 
enough  to  keep  up  the  supply  in  the  home  and  foreign 
markets.  This  system,  controlled  by  the  local  governments 
themselves,  has  long  prevailed  about  the  border- 
isiimand  \axvAs  between   Islam  and  heathendom,  as  we 

neatnenaom,  ,  .  -r-.       ,       -^t      i     .      i  i 

know  from  Barth,  Nachtigal,  and  one  or  two 
other  travellers,  who  have  had  reluctantly  to  accompany  the 
periodical  slave-hunting  expeditions  from  Bornu  and  Baghirmi 
to  the  territories  of  the  pagan  Mosgu  people  with  their 
numerous  branches  {Margi,  Mandara,  Makari,  Logon, 
Gamergu,  Keribind)  and  the  other  aborigines  (Bede,  Ngisem, 
So,  Kerrikerri,  Babir)  on  the  northern  slopes  of  the  Congo- 
Chad  water-parting.  As  usual  on  such  occasions,  there  is  a 
.  great  waste  of  life,  many  perishing  in  defence 
un  ing.  ^^  their  homes  or  even  through  sheer  wanton- 
ness, besides  those  carried  away  captives.  "A  large. number 
of  slaves  had  been  caught  this  day,"  writes  Barth,  "and  in 
the  evening  a  great  many  more  were. brought  in  ;  altogether 
they  were  said  to  have  taken  one  thousand,  and  there  were 
certainly  not  less  than  five  hundred.  To  our  utmost  horror, 
not  less  than  1 70  full-grown  men  were  mercilessly  slaughtered 
in  cold  blood,  the  greater  part  of  them  being  flowed  to  bleed 
to  death,  a  leg  having  been  severed  from  the  body\"  There 
was  probably  just  then  a  glut  in  the  market. 

A  curious  result  of  these  relations  is  that  in  the  wooded 
districts  some  of  the  natives  have  reverted  to  arboreal  habits, 

taking  refuge  during  the  raids  in  the  branches 
Strongholds        °^  huge  bombax- trees  converted  into  temporary 

strongholds.  Round  the  vertical  stem  of  these 
forest  giants  is  erected  a  breast-high  look-out,  while  the 
higher  horizontal  branches,  less  exposed  to  the  fire  of  the 
enemy,  support  strongly-built  huts  and  store-houses,  where 
the  families  of  the  fugitives  take  refuge  with  their  effects, 
including,  as  Nachtigal  assures  us^  their  domestic  animals, 
such  as  goats,  dogs,  and  poultry.  During  the  siege  of  the 
aerial  fortress,  which  is  often  successfully  defended,  long 
light  ladders  of  withies  are  let  down  at  night,  when  no  attack 
need  be  feared,  and  the  supply  of  water  and  provisions  is 

'  III.  p.  194.  ^  Sahara  and  Sudan,  II.  p.  628. 


Ill]  The  African  Negro :  I.  Sudanese  7 1 

thus  renewed  from  caches  or  hiding-places  round  about.  In 
1872  Nachtig^l  accompanied  a  predatory  excursion  to  the 
pagan  districts  south  of  Baghirmi,  when  an  attack  was  made 
on  one  of  these  tree-fortresses.  Such  citadels  can  be  stormed 
.only  at  a  heavy,  loss,  and  as  the  Gaberi  (Baghirmi)  warriors 
had  no  tools  capable  of  felling  the  great  bombax-tree,  they 
were  fain  to  rest  satisfied  with  picking  off  a  poor  wretch  now 
and  then,  and  barbarously  mutilating  the  bodies  as  they  fell 
from  the  overhanging  branches. 

Some  of  these  aborigines  disfigure  their  faces  by  the  disk- 
like lip-ornament,  which  is  also  fashionable  in  Nyassaland, 
and  even  amongst  the  South  American  Boto- 
cudos.  The  type  often  differs  greatly,  and  while  f^^dT^JStl 
some  of  the  widespread  Mosgu  tribes  are  of  a 
dirty  black  hue,  with  disagreeable  expression,  wide  open 
nostrils,  thick  lips,  high  cheek-bones,  coarse  bushy  hair,  and 
disproportionate  knock-kneed  legs,  other  members  of  the 
same  family  astonished  Barth  "  by  the  beauty  and  symmetry 
of  their  forms,  and  by  the  regularity  of  their  features,  which 
in  some  had  nothing  of  what  is  called  the  Negro  type.  But 
I  was  still  more  astonished  at  their  complexion,  which  was 
very  different  in  different  individuals,  being  in  some  of  a 
glossy  black,  and  in  others  of  a  light  copper,  or  rather  rhubarb 
colour,  the  intermediate  shades  being  almost  entirely  wanting. 
I  observed  in  one  house  a  really  beautiful  female  who,  with 
her  son,  about  eight  or  nine  years  of  age,  formed  a  most 
charming  group,  well  worthy  of  the  hand  of  an  accomplished 
artist.  The  boy's  form  did  not  yield  in  any  respect  to  the 
beautiful  symmetry  of  the  most  celebrated  Grecian  statues. 
His  hair,  indeed,  was  very  short  and  curled,  but  not  woolly. 
He,  as  well  as  his  mother  and  the  whole  family,  were  of  a 
pale  or  yellowish-red  complexion,  like  rhubarbs" 

There  is  no  suggestion  of  albinism,  and  the  explanation 
of  such  strange  contrasts  must  await  further  exploration  in 
the  whole  of  this  borderland  of  Negroes  and  Bantus  about 
the  divide  between  the  Chad  and  the  Congo  basins.  The 
country  has  until  lately  been  traversed  only  at  rare  intervals 
by  pioneers,  interested  more  in  political  than  in  anthropo- 
logical matters. 

Of  the  settled  and  more  or  less  cultured  peoples  in  the 

1  n.  pp.  382-3. 


72  Man  :   Past  and  Present  [ch. 

Chad  basin,  the  most  important  are  the  Kanembu^,  who 
The  Cultured  introduce  a  fresh  element  of  confusion  in  this 
Peoples  of  region,  being  more  allied  in  type  and  speech 

Central  Sudan.  ^^  jj^^  Hamitic  Tibus  than  to  the  Negro  stock, 
or  at  least  taking  a  transitional  position  between  the  two ;  the 
Kanuri,  the  ruling  people  in  Bornu,  of  somewhat  coarse 
Negroid  appearance';  and  the  southern  Baghirmi,  also 
decidedly  Negroid,  originally  supposed  to  have  come  from 
the  Upper  Shari  and  White  Nile  districts'.  Their  civilisation, 
such  as  it  is,  has  been  developed  exclusively  under  Moslem 
influences,  but  it  has  never  penetrated  much  below  the 
surface.  The  people  are  everywhere  extremely  rude,  and  for 
the  most  part  unlettered,  although  the  meagre  and  not  alto- 
gether trustworthy  Kanem-Bornu  records  date  from  the  time 
of  Sef,  reputed  founder  of  the  monarchy  about  800  a.d. 
Duku,  second  in  descent  from  Sef,  is  doubtfully 
rSs^ °'""  referred  to  about  850  a.d.  Ham^  founder  of  a 
new  dynasty,  flourished  towards  the  end  of  the 
eleventh  century  (1086-97),  and  Dunama,  one  of  his  suc- 
cessors, is  said  to  have  Extended  his  sway  over  a  great  part 
of  the  Sahara,  including  the  whole  of  Fezzan  (1221-59). 
Under  Omar  (1394-98)  a  divorce  took  place  between  Kanem 
and  Bornu,  and  henceforth  the  latter  country  has  remained 
the  chief  centre  of  political  power  in  the  Chad  basin. 

A  long  series  of  civil  wars  was  closed  by  AH  (1472-1504), 
who  founded  the  present  capital,  Birni,  and  whose  grandson, 
Muhammad,  brought  the  empire  of  Bornu  to  the  highest 
pitch    of  its   greatness    (1526-45).      Under    Ahmed    (1793- 

^  That  is  "  Kanem-men,"  the  postfix  bu,  be,  as  in  Ti-bu,  Ful-be,  answering  to 
the  Bantu  prefix  ba,  wa,  as  in  Ba-Suto,  Wa-Swahili,  etc.  Here  may  possibly  be 
discovered  a  link  between  the  Sudanese,  Teda-Daza,  and  Bantu  linguistic  groups. 
The  transposition  of  the  agglutinated  particles  would  present  no  difificulty ;  cf. 
Umbrian  and  Latin  {Eth.  p.  214).  The  Kanembu  are  described  by  Tilho,  who  ex- 
plored the  Chad  basin,  1906-9.  His  reports  were  published  in  19 14.  Ripublique 
Franqaise  Ministire  des  Colonies,  Documents  Scientifiques  de-  la  Mission  Tilho 
(1906-9),  Vol.  III.  1914. 

^  Barth  draws  a  vivid  picture  of  the  contrasts,  physical  and  mental,  between 
the  Kanuri  and  the  Hausa  peoples  ;  "  Here  we  took  leave  of  Hausa  with  its  fine 
and  beautiful  country,  and  its  cheerful  and  industrious  population.  It  is  remark- 
able what  a  difference  there  is  between  the  character  of  the  ba-Haushe  and  the 
Kanuri — the  former  lively,  spirited,  and  cheerful,  the  latter  melancholic,  dejected, 
and  brutal ;  and  the  same  difference  is  visible  in  their  physiognomies — the  former 
having  in  general  very  pleasant  and  regular  features,  and  more  graceful  forms, 
while  the  Kanuri,  with  his  broad  face,  his  wide  nostrils, and  his  large  bones,  makes 
a  far  less  agreeable  impression,  especially  the  women,  who  are  very  plain  and 
certainly  among  the  ugliest  in  all  Negroland"  (11.  pp.  163-4). 

^  See  Nachtigal,  II.  p.  690. 


Ill]  The  African  Negro :  I.  Sudanese  73 

1 8 10)  began  the  wars  with  the  Fulahs,  who,  after  bringing  the 
empire  to  the  verge  of  ruin,  were  at  last  overthrown  by  the 
aid  of  the  Kanem  people,  and  since  1819  Bornu  has  been 
ruled  by  the  present  Kanemfyin  dynasty,  which  though  tem- 
porarily conquered  by  Rabah  in  1893,  was  restored  under 
British  administration  in   1902'. 


Eastern  Sudanese. 

As  some  confusion  prevails  regarding  the  expression 
"  Eastern  Sudan,"  I  may  here  explain  that  it  bears  a  very 
different  meaning,  according  as  it  is  used  in  a  Range  of  the 
political  or  an  ethnical  sense.  Politically  it  is  Negro  in  East- 
practically  synonymous  with  Egyptian  Sudan,  ^^  Sudan, 
that  is  the  whole  region  from  Darfur  to  the  Red  Sea  which 
was  ruled  or  misruled  by  the  Khedivial  Government  before 
the  revolt  of  the  Mahdi  (1883-4),  and  was  restored  to  Egypt 
by  the  British  occupation  of  Khartum  in  1898.  Ethnically 
Eastern  Sudan  comprises  all  the  lands  east  of  the  Chad 
basin,  where  the  Negro  or  Negroid  populations  are  predomi- 
nant, that  is  to  say,  Wadai,  Darfur,  and  Kordofan  in  the 
West,  the  Nile  Valley  from  the  frontier  of  Egypt  proper 
south  to  Albert  Nyanza,  both  slopes  of  the  Nile-Cong'o 
divide  (the  western  tributaries  of  the  White  Nile  and  the 
Welle- Makua  affluent  of  the  Congo),  lastly  the  Sobat  Valley 
with  some  Negro  enclaves  east  of  the  White  Nile,  and  even 
south  of  the  equator  (Kavirondo,  Semliki  Valley). 

Throughout  this  region  the  fusion  of  the  aborigines  with 
Hamites   and    Arabs,    Tuareg,  or    Tibu    Moslem   intruders, 
wherever  they  have  penetrated,  has  been   far   .j..    j,  ^ 
less   complete   than    in   Central    and   Western 
Sudan.     Thus  in  Wadai  the  dominant  Maba  people,  whence 
the    country   is    often  called    Dar-Maba  ("  Mabaland"),   are 
rather  Negro  than  Negroid,  with  but  a  slight   Ethnical 
strain   of  foreign   blood.      In   the  northern  dis-   Relations  in 
tricts  the  Zoghdwa,  Gura'an,  Ba'ele  and  Bulala   Wadai. 
Tibus  keep  quite  aloof  from  the  blacks,  as  do  elsewhere  the 
Aramkas,  as  the  Arabs  are  collectively  called  in  Wadai.    Yet 
the  Mahamid  and  some  other  Bedouin  tribes  have  here  been 

1  For  recent  literature  see  Lady  Lugard's.<4  Tropical  Dependency,  1905,  and  the 
references,  note  3,  p.  58- 


74  Man  :  Past  ana  Present  [ch. 

settled  for  over  500  years,  and  it  was  through  their  assistance 
that  the  Mabas  acquired  the  political  supremacy  they  have 
enjoyed  since  the  seventeenth  century,  when  they  reduced  or 
expelled  the  Tynjurs^,  the  former  ruling  race,  said  to  be 
Nubians  originally  from  Dongola.  It  was  Abd-el-Kerim, 
founder  of  the  new  Moslem  Maba' state,  who  gave  the  country 
its  present  name  in  honour  of  his  grandfather,  Wadat.  His 
successor  Khariib  I  removed  the  seat  of  government  to 
Wara,  where  Vogel  was  murdered  in  1856.  Abeshr,  the 
present  capital,  dates  only  from  the  year  1850.  Except  for 
Nachtigal,  who  crossed  the  frontier  in  1873,  nothing  was 
known  of  the  land  or  its  people  until  the  French  occupation 
at  the  end  of  the  last  century  ( 1 899).  Since  that  date  it  has 
been  prominent  as  the  scene  of  the  attack  on  a  French 
column  and  the  death  of  its  leader,  Colonel  Moll,  in  19 10, 
and  the  tragic  murder  of  Lieutenant  Boyd  Alexander  earlier 
in  the  same  yearl 

Nubas.     As  in  Wadai,  the  intruding  and  native  popula- 
tions have  been  either  imperfectly  or  not  at  all  assimilated  in 

Darfur  and  Kordofan,  where  the  Muhammadan 
^o\tem'!'^         Semites  still  boast  of  their  pure  Arab  descent', 

and  form  powerful  confederacies.  Chief  among 
these  are  the  Baggara  (Baqqara,  "  cow-herds  "),  cattle-keepers 
and  agriculturalists,  of  whom  some  are  as  dark  as  the  blackest 
negroes,  though  many  are  fine-looking,  with  regular,  well- 
shaped  features.  Their  form  of  Arabic  is  notoriously  corrupt. 
Their  rivals,  the  Jaalan  (Jalin,  Jahalin),  are  mostly  riverain 

^  These  are  the  same  people  as  the  Tunjurs  {Turners)  of  Darfur,  regarding 
whose  ethnical  position  so  much  doubt  still  prevails.  Strange  to  say,  they  them- 
selves claim  to  be  Arabs,  and  the  claim  is  allowed  by  their  neighbours,  although 
they  are  not  Muhammadans.  Lejean  thinks  they  are  Tibus  from  the  north-west, 
while  Nachtigal,  who  met  some  as  far  west  as  Kanem,  concluded  from  their  appear- 
ance and  speech  that  they  were  really  Arabs  settled  for  hundreds  of  years  in  the 
country  {op.  cit.  ll.  p.  256). 

^  A.  H.  Keane,  "Wadai,"  Travel  and  Exploration,  July,  1910 ;  and 
H.  H.  Johnston,  on  Lieut.  Boyd  Alexander,  Geog.  Journ.  same  date. 

^  H.  A.  MacMichael  has  investigated  the  value  of  these  racial  claims  in  the 
case  of  the  Kababish  and  indicates. the  probable  admixture  of  Negro,  Mediter- 
ranean, Hamite  and  other  strains  in  the  Siidanese  Arabs.  He  says,  "  Among  the 
more  settled  tribes  any  important  sheikh  or  faki  can  produce  a  table  of  his 
ancestors  {i.e.  a  nisbd)  in  support  of  his  asseverations  ...I  asked  a  village  sheikh  if 
he  could  show  me  his  pedigree,  as  I  did  not  know  from  which  of  the  exalted 
sources  his  particular  tribe  claimed  descent.  He  replied  that  he  did  not  know 
yet,  but  that  his  village  had  subscribed  60  piastres  the  month  before  to  hire  a  faki 
to  compose  a  nisbaior  them,  and  that  he  would  show  me  the  result  when  it  was 
finished."  "  The  Kababish :  Some  Remarks  on  the  Ethnology  of  a  Sudan  Arab 
Trihe,"  Journ.  Roy.  Anthr.  Inst.  XL.  1910,  p.  216. 


Ill]  The  African  Negro :  I.  Sudanese  75 

"Arabs,"  a  learned  tribe,  containing  many  scribes,  and  their 
language  is  said  to  be  closer  to  classical  Arabic  than  the  form 
current  in  Egypt.  These  are  the  principal  slave-hunters  of 
the  Sudan,  and  the  famous  Zobeir  belonged  to  their  tribe. 
The  Yemaniek  are  largely  traders,  and  trace  their  origin 
from  South  Arabia.  The  Kababisk  are  the  wealthiest  camel- 
owning  tribe,  perhaps  less  contaminated  by  negro  blood  than 
any  other  Arab  tribe  in  the  Sudani  The  Nuba  and  the 
Nubians  have  been  a  source  of  much  confusion,  but  recent 
investigations  in  the  field  such  as  those  of  C.  G.  Seligman^ 
and  H.  A.  MacMichaeP,  and  the  publications  of  the  Archaeo- 
logical Survey  of  Nubia  conducted  by  G.  A.  Reisner,  help  to 
elucidate  the  problem.  We  have  first  of  all  to  get  rid  of  the 
"  Nuba-Fulah  "  family,  which  was  introduced  by  Fr.  Miiller 
and  accepted  by  some  English  writers,  but  has  absolutely 
no  existence.  The  two  languages,  although  both  of  the 
agglutinative  Sudanese  type,  are  radically  distinct  in  all  their 
structural,  lexical,  and  phonetic  elements,  and  the  two  peoples 
are  equally  distinct.  The  Fulahs  are  of  North  African  origin, 
although  many  have  in  recent  times  been  largely  a,ssimilated 
to  their  black  Sudanese  subjects.  ,The  Nuba  on  the  contrary 
belong  originally  to  the  Negro  stock,  with  hair  of  the  common 
negro  type,  and  are  among  the  darkest  skinned  tribes  in  the 
Sudan,  their  colour  varying  from  a  dark  chocolate  brown  to 
the  darkest  shade  of  brown  black. 

But  rightly  to  understand  the  question  we  have  carefully 
to  avoid  confusion  between  the  Nubians  of  the  Nile  Valley 
and  the  Negro  Nubas,  who  gave  their  name  to  the  Nuba 
Mountains,  Kordofan,  where  most  of  the  aborigines  {Kargo, 
Kulfan,  Kolaji,  Tumali,  Lafofa,  Eliri,  Talodi)  still  belong 
to  this  connection'.  Kordofan  is  probably  itself  a  Nuba 
word  meaning."  Land  of  the  Kordo"  (/^«  =  Arab,  ddr,  land, 
country).  There  is  a  certain  amount  of  anthropological 
evidence  to  connect  the  Nuba  with  the  Fur  and  the  Kara  of 
Darfur  to  the  west'.  But  it  is  a  different  anthropological 
type    that   is   represented   in  the  three  groups  of  Matokki 

1,  See  the  Kababish  types,  PL  xxxvil.  in  C.  G.  Seligman's  "  Some  Aspects  of  the 
Hamitic  Problem  in  the  Anglo-Egyptian  Sudan,"  Journ.  Roy.  Anthr.  Inst.  XLlll. 
1 913,  but  cf.  also  p.  626  and  n.  2. 

2  "The  Physical  Characters  of  the  Nuba  cSf  Kordofan,"  Journ.  Roy.  Anthr. 
Inst.  XL.  1910,  "Some  Aspects  of  the  Hamitic  Problem,"  etc.,  torn.  cit.  xuii.  1913. 

3  See  H.  A.  MacMichael,  The  Tribes  of  Northern  and  Central  Kordofdn,  1912. 
*  Cf.  A.  W.  Tucker  and  C.  S.  Myers,  "A  Contribution  to  the  Anthropology  of 

the  Sudan," yb«r«.  Roy.  Anthr.  Inst.  XL.  1910,  p.  149. 


76  Man :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

{Kenus)  between  the  First  Cataract  and  Wadi-el-Arab,  the 
Mahai  {Marisi)  between  Korosko  and  Wadi- Haifa,  at  the 
Second  Cataract,  and  the  Dongolawi,  of  the  province  of 
Dongola  between  Wadi-Halfa  and  Jebel  Deja  near  Meroe. 

These  three  groups,  all  now  Muhammadans,  but  formerly 
Christians,  constitute  collectively'  the  so-called  "  Nubians  "  of 
European  writers,  but  call  themselves  Barabra, 
^SStie^"^  plural  of  Berberi,  i.e.  people  of  Berber,  although 
they  do  not  at  present  extend  so  far  up  the 
Nile  as  that  town\  Possibly  these  are  Strabo's  "  Noubai, 
,  who  dwell  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Nile  in  Libya  [Africa],  a 
great  nation  etc.^ " ;  and  are  also  to  be  identified  with  the 
Nobatae,  who  in  Diocletian's  time  were  settled,  some  in  the 
Kharga  oasis,  others  in  the  Nile  Valley  about  Meroe,  to 
guard  the  frontiers  of  the  empire  against  the  incursions  of 
the  restless  Blemmues.  But  after  some  time  they  appear  to 
have  entered  into  peaceful  relations  with  these  Hamites,  the 
present  Bejas,  even  making  common  cause  with  them  against 
the  Romans ;  but  the  confederacy  was  crushed  by  Maximinus 
in  451,  though  perhaps  not  before  crossings  had  taken  place 
between  the  Nobatae  and  the  Caucasic  Bejas.  Then  these 
Bejas  withdrew  to  their  old  homes,  which  they  still  occupy, 
between  the  Nile  and  the  Red  Sea  above  Egypt,  while 
the  Nobatae,  embracing  Christianity,  as  is  said,  in  545, 
established  the  powerful  kingdom  of  Dongola  which  lasted 
over  800  year's,  and  was  finally  overthrown  by  the  Arabs  Jn 
the  fourteenth  century,  since  which  time  the  Nile  Nubians 
have  been  Muhammadans. 

There  still  remains  the  problem  of  language  which,  as 
shown  by  Lepsius^  differs  but  slightly  from  that  now  current 
amongst  the  Kordofan  Nubas.  But  this  similarity  only 
holds  in  the  north,  and  is  now  shown  to  be  dug  to  Berberine 

1  This  term,  however,  has  by  some  authorities  been  identified  with  the  Barabara, 
one  of  the  113  tribes  recorded  in  the  inscription  on  a  gateway  of  Thutmes,  by 
whom  they  were  reduced  about  1700  B.C.  In  a  later  inscription  of  Rameses  II 
at  Karnak  (1400  B.C.)  occurs  the  form  Beraberata,  name  of  Jt  southern  people 
conquered  by  him.  Hence  Brugsch  {Reisebericht  aus  jEgypten,  pp.  127  and  155)  is 
inclined  to  regard  the  modern  Barabra  as  a  true  ethnical  name  confused  in 
classical  times  with  the  Greek  and  Roman  Barbarus,  but  revived  in  its  proper 
sense  since  the  Moslem  conquest.  See  also  the  editorial  note  on  the  term  Berber, 
in  the  new  English  ed.  of  Leo  Africanus,  Vol.  I.  p.  199. 

^  'E|  dpi(TTfp&v  fie  pvaeas  tov  NffXovi  NoOjSai  KarotKova-tv  ev  rfj  Ai^vrj,  /iiya  edvos,  etc. 
(Book  XVII.  p.  Ill 7,  Oxford  ed.  1807).  Sayce,  therefore,  is  quite  wrong  in  stating 
that  Strabo  knew  only  of  " Ethiopians,"  and.not  Nubians,  "as  dwelling  northward 
along  the  banks  of  the  Nile  as  far  as  Elephantine  "  {Academy,  April  14,  1894). 

*  Nubische  Grammatik,  1S81,  passim. 


Ill]  The  African  Negro :  I.  Sudanese  77 

immigration  into  Kordofan'.  Recent  investigations  show 
that  the  Nuba  and  the  Barabra,  in  spite  of  this  linguistic 
similarity  which  has  misled  certain  authors",  are  not  to  be 
regarded  as  belonging  to  the  same  race^  "  The  Nuba  are  a 
tall,  stoutly  built  muscular  people,  with  a  dark,  almost  black 
skin.  They  are  predominantly  mesaticephalic,  for  although 
cephalic  indices  under  70  and  over  80  both  occur,  nearly 
60  per  cent,  of  the  individuals  measured  are  mesaticephals, 
the  remaining  being  dolichocephalic  and  brachycephalic  in 
about  equal  proportions."  The  hair  is  invariably  woolly. 
The  Barabra,  on  the  contrary,  is  of  slight,  or  more  commonly 
medium  build,  not  particularly  muscular  and  in  skin  colour 
varies  from  a  yellowish  to  a  chocolate  browii.  The  hair  is 
commonly  curly  or  wavy  and  may  be  almost  straight,  while 
the  features  are  not  uncommonly  absolutely  non-Negroid. 
"  Thus  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  two  peoples  are 
essentially  different  in  physical  characters  and  the  same  holds 
good  on  the  cultural  side  "  (p.  611).  Barabra  were  identified 
by  Lepsius  with  the  Wawat,  a  people  frequently  mentioned 
in  Egyptian  records,  and  recent  excavations  by  the  members 
of  the  Archaeological  Survey  of  Nubia  show  a  close  connec- 
tion with  the  predynastic  Egyptians,  a  connection  supported 
also  on  physical  grounds.  It  seems  strange,  therefore,  to 
meet  with  repeated  reference  on  Egyptian  monuments  to 
Negroes  in  Nubia  when,  as  proved  by  excavations,  the  in- 
habitants were  by  no  means  Negroes  or  even  frankly  Negroid. 
Seligman's  solution  of  the  difficulty  is  as  follows  (p.  619). 
It  seems  that  only  one  explanation  is  tenable,  namely  that  for 
a  period  subsequent  to  the  Middle  Kingdom  the  country  in 
the  neighbourhood  of  the  Second  Cataract  became  essentially 
a  Negro  country  and  may  have  remained  in  this  condition 
for  some  little  time.  Then  a  movement  in  the  opposite 
direction  set  in  ;  the  Negroes,  diminished  by  war,  were  in 
part  driven  back  by  the  great  conquerors  of  the  New  Empire ; 
those  that  were  left  mixed  with  the  Egyptian  garrisons  and 
traders  and  once  more  a  hybrid  race  arose  which,  however, 

1  B.  Z.  Seligman,  "Note  on  the  Languages  of  the  Nubas  of  S.  Kordofan," 
ZeiUchr.  f.  Kol.-spr.  I.  1910-11 ;  C.  G.  Seligman,  "Some  Aspects  of  the  Hamitic 
Problem,"  etc.,  Journ.  Roy.  Anthr.  Inst.  XLlll.  1913,  p.  621  ff. 

2  See  A.  H.  Keane,  Man,  Past  and  Present,  1900,  p.  74. 

'  C.  G.  Seligman,  "The  Physical  Characters  of  the  Nuba  of  Kordofan," /(!i«^«. 
Roy.  Anthr.  Inst.  XL.  1910,  p.  512,  and  "Some  Aspects  of  the  Hamitic  Problem," 
eic.,/ourn.  Roy.  Anthr.  Inst.  XLiii.  igi3, passim. 


78  Man  :   Past  and  Present  [ch. 

preserved  the  language  of  its  Negro  ancestors.  Although 
Seligman  regards  the  conclusion  that  this  race  gave  rise 
directly  to  the  present-day  inhabitants  of  Nubia  as  "pre- 
mature," and  suggests  further  mixture  with  the  Beja  of 
the  eastern  deserts,  Elliot  Smith  recognises  the  essential 
similarity  between,  the  homogeneous  blend  of  Egyptian 
and  Negro  traits  which  characterise  the  Middle  Nubian 
people  (contemporary  with  the  Middle  Empire,  XII-XVII 
dynasties),  a  type  which  "  seems  to  have  remained  dominant 
in  Nubia  ever  since  then,  for  the  span  of  almost  4000 
years  . 

Before  the  incursions  of  the  Nubian- Arab  traders  and 
raiders,  who  began  to  form  settlements  {zeribas,  fenced  sta-, 
tions)  in  the  Upper  Nile  regions  above  Khartum 
Peoples  of  the  about  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
Nile-Congo  most  of  the  Nile-Congo  divide  (White  Nile 
Watersheds.  tributaries  and  Welle- Makua  basin)  belonged  in 
the  strictest  sense  to  the  Negro  domain.  Sudanese  tribes, 
and  even  great  nations  reckoned  by  millions,  had  been  for 
ages  in  almost  undisturbed  possession,  not  only  of  the  main 
stream  from  the  equatorial  lakes  to  and  beyond  the  Sobat 
junction,  but  also  of  the  Sobat  Valley  itself,  and  of  the 
numerous  south-western  head-waters  of  the  White  Nile  con- 
verging about  Lake  No  above  the  Sobat  junction.  Nearly 
all  the  Nile  peoples — the  Shilluks  and  Dinkas  about  the 
Sobat  confliience,  the  Bari  and  Nuers  of  the  Bahr-el-Jebel, 
the  Bongos  [Dors),  Rols,  Golos,  Mittus,  Madis,  Makarakas, 
Abakas,  Mundus,  and  many  others  about  the  western  affluents, 
as  well  as  the  Funj  of  Senaar — had  been  brought  under  the 
Khedivial  rule  before  the  revolt  of  the  Mahdi. 

The  same  fate  had  already  overtaken  or  was  threatening 

the  formerly  powerful  Mombuttu  [Mangbattu)  and  Zandeh^ 

nations  of  the  Welle  lands,  as  well  as  the  Krej  and  others 

about  the  low  watersheds  of  the  Nile-Congo  and  Chad  basins. 

Since  then  the  Welle  groups    have  been  subjected  to  the 

jurisdiction  of  the  Congo  Free  State,  while  the 

Rel^^^ns  political    destinies    of   the    Nilotic    tribes    must 

henceforth  be  controlled  by  the  British  masters 

of  the  Nile  lands  from  the  Great  Lakes  to  the  Mediterranean. 

Although  grouped  as  Negroes  proper,  very  few  of  the 

1  Archaeological  Survey  of  India,  Bull.  in.  p.  25. 

2  See  note  i,  p.  44. 


Ill]  The  African  Negro :  I.  Sudanese  79 

Nilotic  peoples  present  the  almost  ideal  type  of  the  blacks, 
such  as  those  of  Upper  Guinea  and  the  Atlantic  coast  of 
W^st  Sudan.  The  complexion  is  in  general  less  black,  the 
nose  less  broad  at  the  base,  the  lips  less  everted  (Shilluks 
and  one  or  two  others  excepted),  the  hair  rather  less  frizzly, 
the  dolichocephaly  and  prognathism  less  marked. 

Apart  from  the  more  delicate  shades  of  transition,  due  to 
diverse  interminglings  with  Hamites  and  Semites,  two  dis- 
tinct types  may  be  plainly  distinguished — one 
black,  often  very  tall,  with  long  thin  legs,  and  ^^"s!'''^''*'*' 
long-headed  (Shilluks,  Dinkas,  Bari,  Nuers, 
Alur),  the  other  reddish  or  ruddy  brown,  more  thick-set, 
and  short-headed  {Bongos,  Golos,  Makarakas,  with  the 
kindred  Zandehs  of  the  Welle  region).  No  explanation  has 
been  offered  of  their  brachycephaly,  which  is  all  the  more 
difficult  to  account  for,  inasmuch  as  it  is  characteristic  neither 
.  of  the  aboriginal  Negro  nor  of  the  intruding  Hamitic  and 
Semitic  elements.  Have  we  here  an  indication  of  the  transi- 
tion suspected  by  many  between  the  true  long-headed  Negro 
and  the  round-headed  Negrillo,  who  is  also  brownish,  and 
formerly  ranged  as  far  north  as  the  Nile  head-streams,  as 
would  appear  from  the  early  Egyptian  records  (Chap.  IV.)  ? 
Schweinfurth  found  that  the  Bongos  were  "  hardly  removed 
from  the  lowest  grade  of  brachycephaly  \"  and  the  same  is 
largely  true  of  the  Zandehs  and  their  Makaraka  cousins,  as 
noticed  by  Junker  :  "  The  skull  also  in  many  of  these  peoples 
approaches  the  round  form,  whereas  the  typical  Negro  is 
assumed  to  be  long-headed  I"  But  so  great  is  the  diversity 
of  appearance  throughout  the  whole  of  this  region,  including 
even  "a  striking  Semitic  type,"  that  this  observer  was  driven 
to  the  conclusion  that  "woolly  hair,  common  to  all,  forms  in 
fact  the  only  sure  characteristic  of  the  Negro'." 

Dinka  is  the  name  given  to  a  congeries  of  independent 
tribes  spread  over  a  vast  area,  stretching  from  300  miles 
south  of  Khartum  to  within  100  miles  of  Gon- 

,    ,  ,  1  .  -1  1  The  Dinka. 

dokoro,  and  reachmg  many  miles  to  the  west  m 

the  Bahr-el-Ghazal  Province.     All  these  tribes  according  to 

C.  G.   Seligman*  call  themselves  Jieng  or  Jenge,  corrupted 

'  Op.  cit.  I.  p.  263. 

2  Travels  in  Africa,  Keane's  English  ed.,  Vol.  in.  p.  247. 

3  Ibid.  p.  246. 

*  C.   G.    Seligman,  Art.    "Dinka,"  Encyclopaedia   of  Religion   and  Ethics. 


8o  Man  :    Past  and  Present  [ch. 

by  the  Arabs  into  Dinka ;  but  no  Dinka  nation  has  arisen, 
for  the  tribes  have  never  recognised  a  supreme  chief,  as  do 
their  neighbours,  the  Shilluk,  nor  have  they  even  been  unitqd 
under  a  military  despot,  as  the  Zulu  were  united  under 
Chaka.  They  differ  in  manners  and  customs  and  even  in 
physique  and  are  often  at  war  with  one  another.  One  of  the 
most  obvious  distinctions  in  habits  is  between  the  relatively 
powerful  cattle-owning  Dinka  and  the  small  and  comparatively 
poor  tribes  who  have  no  cattle  and  scarcely  cultivate  the 
ground,  but  live  in  the  marshes  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the 
Sudd,  and  depend  largely  for  their  sustenance  on  fishing  and 
hippopotamus-hunting.  Their  villages,  which  are  generally 
dirty  and  evil-smelling,  are  built  on  ground  which  rises  but 
little  above  the  reed-covered  surface  of  the  country.  The 
Dinka  community  is  largely  autonomous  under  leadership  of 
a  chief  or  headman  {bain)  who  is  sometimes  merely  the  local 
magician,  but  in  one  community  in  each  tribe  he  is  the- 
hereditary  rain-maker  whose  wish  is  law.  "  Cattle  form  the 
economic  basis  of  Dinka  society ;... they  are  the  currency  in 
which  bride-price  and  blood-fines  are  paid ;  and  the  desire 
to  acquire  a  neighbour's  herds  is  the  common  cause  of  those 
inter-tribal  raids  which  constitute  Dinka  warfare." 

Some  uniformity  appears  to  prevail  amongst  the  languages 
of  the  Nile- Welle  lands,  and  from  the  rather  scanty  materials 

collected'  by   Junker,    Fr.    Miiller  was    able  to 
Groups^*^         construct  an   "Equatorial    Linguistic    Family," 

including  the  Mangbattu,  Zandeh,  Barmbo, 
Madi,  Bangba,  Krej,  Golo  and  others,  on  both  sides  of  the 
water-parting.  Leo  Reinisch,  however,  was  not  convinced, 
and  in  a  letter  addressed  to  the  author  declared  that  "  in  the 
absence  of  sentences  it  is  impossible  to  determine  the  gram- 
matical structure  of  Mangbattu  and  the  other  languages.  'At 
the  same  time  we  may  detect  certain  relations,  not  to  the 
Nilotic,  but  the  Bantu  tongues.  It  may  therefore  be  inferred 
that  Mangbattu  and  the  others  have  a  tolerably  close  relation- 
ship to  the  Baptu,  and   may  even  be  remotely  akin  to  it. 

See  also  the  same  author's  "  Cult  of  Nyakangano  the  Divine  Kings  of  the  Shilluk," 
Fourth  Report  Wellcome  Research  Lab.  Khartoum,  Vol.  B,  1911,  p.  ,216; 
S.  L.  Cummins,  Journ.  Anthr.  Inst,  xxxiv.  1904,  and  H.  O'SuUivan,  "  Dinka 
Laws  and  Customs,"  Journ.  Roy.  Anthr.  Inst.  XL.  1910.  Measurements  of  Dinka, 
Shilluk  etc.  are  given  by  A.  W.  Tucker  and  C.  S.  Myers,  "  A  Contribution  to  the 
Anthropology  of  the  Sudan," /owrw.  Roy.  Anthr.  Inst.  XL.  1910.  G.  A.  S.  Northcote, 
"The  Nilotic  Kavirondo," /^«r«.  Roy.  Anthr.  Inst,  xxxvi.  1907,  describes  an  allied 
people,  Xh&Jaluo. 


Ill]  The  African  Negro:  I.  Sudanese  8i 

judging  from  their  tendency  to  prefix  formations'."     Future 
research  will  show  how  far  this  conjecture  is  justified. 

Although  Islam  has  made  considerable  progress,  through- 
out  the  greater   part  of  the  Sudanese  region,   though    not 
among  the  Nilotic  tribes,  the  bulk  of  the  people 
are  still  practically  pagan.    Witchcraft  continues      Qu^i^gg, 
to    flourish    amongst    the    equatorial    peoples, 
and    important  events   are  almost  everywhere  attended    by 
sanguinary  rites.     These  are  absent  among  the  true  Nilotics. 
The  Dinka  are  totemic,  with  ancestor-worship.     The  Shilluk 
have  a  cult  of  divine  kings. 

Cannibalism  however,  in  some  of  its  most  repulsive  forms, 
prevails  amongst  the  Zandehs,  who  barter  in  human  fat  as 
a  universal  staple  of  trade,  and  amongst  the 
Mangbattu,  who  cure  for  future  use  the  bodies 
of  the  slain  in  battle  and  "  drive  their  prisoners  before  them, 
as  butchers  drive  sheep  to  the  shambles,  and  these  are  only 
reserved  to  fall  victims  on  a  later  day  to  their  horrible  and 
sickly  greedinessl" 

In  fact  here  we  enter  the  true  "  cannibal  zone,"  which,  as 
I  have  elsewhere  shown,  was  in  former  ages  diffused  all  over 
Central  and  South  Africa,  or,  it  would  be  more 
correct  to  say,  over  the  whole  continent  ^  but  2one^*"'"''*' 
has  in  recent  times  been  mainly  confined  to  "the 
region  stretching  west  and  east  from  the  Gulf  of  Guinea  to 
the  western  head-streams  of  the  White  Nile,  and  from  below 
the  equator  northwards  in  the  direction  of  Adamdwa,  Dar- 
Banda  and  Dar-Fertit.  Wherever  explorers  have  penetrated 
into  this  least-known  region  of  the  continent  they  have  found 
the  practice  fully  established,  not  merely  as  a  religious  rite  or 
a  privilege  reserved  for  priests,  but  as  a  recognised  social 
institution'," 

1  Travels  in  Africa,  Keane's  Eng.  ed.,  ill.  p.  279.  Thus  the  Bantu  Ba,  iVa, 
Ama,  etc.,  correspond  to  the  A  of  the  Welle  lands,  as  in  A-Zandeh,  A-Barmbo, 
A-Madi,  A-Bangba,  i.e.  Zandeh  people,  Barmbo  people,  etc.  Cf.  also  Kanem^«, 
T\bu,  Ful^^,  etc.,  where  the  personal  particle  {bu,  be)  is  postfixed.  It  would  almost 
seem  as  if  we  had  here  a  transition  between  the  northern  Sudanese  and  the  southern 
Bantu  groups  in  the  very  region  where  such  transitions  might  be  looked  for. 

2  Schweinfurth,  op.  cit.  11.  p.  93. 

^  G.  Elliot  Smith  denies  that  cannibalism  occurred  in  Ancient  Egypt,  The 
Ancient  Egyptians,  191 1,  p.  48. 

*  Africa,  1895,  Vol.  II.  p.  58.  In  a  carefully  prepared  monograph .  on 
"  Endocannibalismus,"  Vienna,  1896,  Dr  Rudolf  S.  Steinmetz  brings  together  a 
great  body  of  evidence  tending  to  show  "  dass  eine  hohe  Wahrscheinlichkeit  dafiir 
spricht   den  Endocannibalismus   (indigenous   anthropophagy)  als   standige   Sitte 


82  Man  :  Past  and  Present  [CH. 

Yet  many  of  these  cannibal  peoples,  especially  the  Mang- 

battus  and  Zandehs,  are  skilled  agriculturists,  and  cultivate 

some  of  the  useful  industries,  such  as  iron  and 

fnd^strtes.        copper  smelting  and  casting,  weaving,   pottery 

and    wogd-carving,    with    great    success.     The 

form  and  ornamental  designs  of  their  utensils  display  real 

artistic  taste,  while  the  temper  of  their  iron   implements  is 

often  superior  to  that  of  the  imported  European  hardware. 

Here  again  the  observation  has  been  made  that  the  tribes 

most  addicted  to  cannibalism  also  excel  in  mental  qualities 

and  physical  energy.     Nor  are  they  strangers  to  the  finer 

feelings   of  human    nature,   and   above   all  the  surrounding 

peoples  the  Zandeh  anthropophagists  are  distinguished   by 

their  regard  and  devotion  for  their  women  and  children. 

In  one  respect  all  these  peoples  show  a  higher  degree  of 
intelligence  even  than  the  Arabs  and  Hamites.  "My  later 
jjj  J,  experiences,"  writes  Junker,   "revealed  the  re- 

Appreciation  of  markable  fact  that  certain  negro  peoples,  such 
Pictorial  Art.  ^g  ^^  Niam-Niams,  the  Mangbattus  and  the 
Bantus  of  Uganda  and  Unyoro,  display  quite  a  surprising 
understanding  of  figured  illustrations  or  pictures  of  plastic 
objects,  which  is  not  as  a  rule  exhibited  by  the  Arabs  and 
Arabised  Hamites  of  North-east  Africa.  Thus  the  Unyoro 
chief,  Riongo,  placed  photographs  in  their  proper  position, 
and  was  able  to  identity  the  negro  portraits  as  belonging  to 
the  Shuli,  Lango,  or  other  tribes,  of  which  he  had  a  personal 
knowledge.  This  I  have  called  a  remarkable  fact,  because 
it  bespoke  in  the  lower  races  a  natural  faculty  for  observation, 
a  power  to  recognise  what  for  many  Arabs  or  Egyptians  of 
high  rank  was  a  hopeless  puzzle.  An  Egyptian  pasha  in 
Khartum  could  never  make  out  how  a  human  face  in  profile 
showed  only  one  eye  and  one  ear,  and  he  took  the  portrait  of 
a  fashionable  Parisian  lady  in  extremely  low  dress  for  that  of  the 
bearded  sun-burnt  American  naval  officer  who  had  shown  him 


der  Urmenschen,  sowie  der  niedrigen  Wilden  anzunehmen"  (pp.  59,  60).  It  is 
surprising  to  learn  from  the  ill-starred  B6tt6go-Grixoni  expedition  of  1892-3  that 
anthropophagy  is  still  rife  even  in  Gallaland,  and  amongst  the  white  ("flcffidi") 
Cormoso  Gallas.  Like  the  Fans,  these  prefer  the  meat  "high,"  and  it  would 
appear  that  all  the  dead  are  eaten.  Hence  in  their  country  B6ttego  found  no 
graves,  and  one  of  his  native  guides  explained  that  "  questa  gente  sepppUisce  i  suoi 
cari  nel  ventre,  invece  che  nella  terra,"  i.e.  these  people  bury  their  dear  ones  in 
their  stomach  instead  of  in  the  ground.  Vittorio  Bijttego,  Viaggi  di  Scoperta,  etc 
Home,  1895. 


Ill]  The  African  Negro:  I.  Sudanese  83 

the  photograph\"  From  this  one  is  ahnost  tempted  to  infer 
that,  amongst  Moslem  peoples,  all  sense  of  plastic,  figurative, 
or  pictorial  art  has  been  deadened  by  the  Koranic  precept 
forbidding  the  representation  of  the' human  form  in  any  way. 
The  Welle  peoples  show  then^selves  true  Negroes  in  the 
possession  of  another  and  more  precious  quality,  the  sense  of 
humour,  although  this  is  probably  a  quality 
which  comes  late  in  the  life  of  a  race.     Anyhow      E^°®^  "^ 

!•     •  TVT  1  .     .  t  •   1  Mumour. 

It  IS  a  distmct  Negro  characteristic,  which 
Junker  was  able  to  turn  to  good  account  during  the  building 
of  his  famous  Lacrima  station  in  Ndoruma's  country.  "In 
all  this  I  could  again  notice  how  like  children  the  Negroes 
are  in  many  respects.  Once  at  work  they  seemed  animated 
by  a  sort  of  childlike  sense  of  honour.  They  delighted  in 
praise,  though  even  a  frown  or  a  word  of  reproach  could  also 
excite  their  hilarity.  Thus  a  loud  burst  of  laughter  would, 
for  instance,  follow  the  contrast  between  a  piece  of  good  and 
bad  workmanship.  Like  children,  they  would  point  the 
finger  of  scorn  at  each  other  I" 

One  morning  Ndoruma,  hearing  that  they  had  again 
struck  work,  had  the  great  war-drum  beaten,  whereupon  they 
rushed  to  arms  and  mustered  in  great  force  from  all  quarters. 
But  on  finding  that  there  was  no  enemy  to  march  against, 
and  that  they  had  only  been  summoned  to  resume  operations 
at  the  station,  they  enjoyed  the  joke  hugely,  and  after  a 
general  explosion  of  laughter  at  the  way  they  had  been  taken 
in,  laid  aside  their  weapons  and  returned  cheerfully  to  work. 
Some  English  overseers  have  already  discovered  that  this 
characteristic  may  be  utilised  far  more  effectively  than  the 
cruel  kurbash.      Ethnology  has  many  such  lessons  to  teach. 

1  I.  p,  245.  2  ii_  p_  140. 


6—2 


CHAPTER   IV 


THE   AFRICAN    NEGRO  :    II.   BANTUS— NEGRILLOES— 
BUSHMEN— HOTTENTOTS 

The  Sudanese-Bantu  Divide — Frontier  Tribes — The  Bonjo  Cannibals — The  Baya 
Nation— h.  "Red  People" — The  North-East  Door  to  Bantuland— Semitic 
Elements  of  the  Bantu  Amalgam — Malay  Elements  in  Madagascar  only — 
Hamitic  Element  everywhere — The  Ba-Hima — Pastoral  and  Agricultural 
Clans — The  Bantus  mainly  a  Negro-Hamitic  Cross — Date  of  Bantu  Migration 
— The  Lacustrians — Their  Traditions— The  Kintu  Legend — The  Ba-Ganda, 
Past  and  Present — Political  and  Social  Institutions — Totemic  System — Bantu 
Peoples  between  Lake  Victoria  and  the  Coast — The  Wa-Giryama — Primitive 
Ancestry-Worship — Mulungu — The  Wa-Swahili — The  Zang  Empire — The 
Zulu-Xosas — Former  and  Present  Domain — Patriarchal  Institutions — Genea- 
logies— Physical  Type — Social  Organisation — "Common  Law" — Ma-Shonas 
and  Ma-Kalakas — The  mythical  Monomotapa  Empire — The  Zimbabwe  Ruins 
— The  Be-Chuanas — The  Ba-Roise  Empire — The  Ma-Kololo  Episode — Spread 
of  Christianity  amongst  the  Southern  Bantus — King  Khama —  The  Ova-Herero — 
Cattle  and  Hill  Damaras — The  Kongo  People — Old  Kongo  Empire — The 
Kongo  Language — The  Kongo  Aborigines — Perverted  Christian  Doctrines — 
The  Kabindas  and  '■'■Black  Jews" — The  Ba-Shilange  Bhang-smokers — The 
Ba-Lolo  "Men  of  Iron"— The  West  Equatorial  '^sxAyxs—Ba-Kalai—The 
Cannibal  Fans — Migrations,  Type,  Origin — The  Camerun  Bantus — Bantu- 
Sudanese  Borderland  —  Early  Bantu  Migrations  —  Eastern  Ancestry  and 
Western  Nature-worshippers  —  Conclusion  —  Vaalpens — Strandloopers — Ne' 
grilloes — Negrilloes  at  the  Courts  of  the  Pharaohs — Negrilloes  and  Pygmy 
'Folklore — The  Dume  and  Doko  reputed  Dwarfs — The  Wandorobbo  Hunters — 
The  Wochua  Mimics — The  Bushmen  and  Hottentots — Former  and  Present 
Range — The  Wa-Sandawi — Hottentot  Geographical  Names  in  Bantuland — 
Hottentots  disappearing — Bushman  Folklore  Literature — Bushman-Hottentot 
Language  and  Clicks — Bushman  Mental  Characters — Bushman  Race-Names.  , 

'   Conspectus. 

Present  Range.  Bantu  :  S.  Africa  from  the  Sudanese 
Distribution  in  frontier  to  the  Cape;  Negrillo  :  West  Equatorial 
Past  and  and  Congo  forest  zones;  Bush.- Hot. :  Namaqua- 

Present Tunes,  i^nds ;  Kalahari;  Lake  N garni  and  Orange 
basins. 

Hair,  Bantu  :  same  as  Sudanese,  but  often  rather  longer; 
Negrillo:  short,  frizzly  or  crisp,  rusty  brown;    Bush.-Hot. : 


CH.  iv]  The  African  Negro:  II.  85 

much  the  same  as  Sudanese,  but  tufty,  simulating  bald  partings. 
Colour.  Bantu :  all  shades  of  dark  brown, 
sometimes  almost  black-,  Negrillo  and  Bush.-  characters. 
Wot.:  yellowish  brown.  Skull.  ^anXn:  generally 
dolicho,  but  variable ;  Negrillo  :  almost  uniformly  mesati ; 
Bush.-Hot. :  dolicho.  Jaws.  Bantu  :  moderately  prognathous 
and  even  orthognathous ;  Negrillo  and  Bush.-Hot.:  highly 
prognathous.  Cheek-bones.  Bantu  :  moderately  or  not  at 
all  prominent;  Negrillo  and  Bush.-Hot.:  very  prominent, 
often  extremely  so,  forming  a  triangular  face  with  apex  at 
chin.  Nose.  Bantu:  variable,  ranging  from  platyrrhine  to 
leptorrhine ;  Negrillo  and  Bush.-Hot.:  short,  broad  at  base, 
depressed  at  root,  always  platyrrhine.  Eyes.  Ba.nt\i:  generally 
large,  black,  and prom,inent,  but  also  of  regular  Hamitic  type ; 
Negrillo  and  Bush.-Hot. :  rather  sm.all,  deep  brown  and  black. 
Stature.  Bantu:  tall,  from  172  m.  to  i'82  m.  {5ft.  8  in. 
to  (>ft.);  Negrillo:  always  much  under  i'52  m..  {5  ft.),  mean 
about  I '2  2  m.  (/\.ft.);  Bushman:  short,  with  rather  wide 
range,  from,  \'\2  m..  to  i'57  m.  {4  ft.  8  in.  to  sf-  2  in.); 
Hot.:  undersized,  m€an   1*65  m-.  {sf.   5  in.). 

Temperament.     Bantu :   mainly  like  the  Negroid  Su- 
danese, far  more    intelligent   than  the   true  Negro,  equally 
cruel,    but   less  fitful   and    m,ore   trustworthy; 
Negrillo :    bright,  active   and  quick-witted,   but      characters 
vindictive  and  treacherous,  apparently  not  cruel 
to  each  other,  but  rather  gentle  and  kindly ;  Bushman  :  in  all 
these  respects  very  like  the  Negrillo,  but  more  intelligent;  Hot. : 
rather  dull  and  sluggish,  but  the  full-blood  {Nama)  much  less 
so  than  the  half-caste  {Griqua)  tribes. 

Speech.  Bantu  :  as  absolutely,  uniform  as  the  physical 
type  is  variable,  one  stock  language  only,  of  the  agglutinating 
order,  with  both  class  prefixes,  alliteration  and  postfixes^; 
Negrillo:  unknown;  Hot.:  agglutinating  with  postfixes  only, 
with  gram^maticai  gender  and  other  rem-arkable  features ;  oj 
Hamitic  origin. 

Religion.  Bantu  :  ancestor-worship  mainly  in  the  east, 
spirit-worship  m.ainly  in  the  west,  interm-ingling  in  the  centre, 
with  witchcraft  and  gross  superstitions  everywhere ;  Negrillo  : 
little     known;    Bush.-Hot.:    animism,    nature-worship,    and 

1  C.  Meinhof  holds  that  Proto-Bantu  arose  through  the  mixture  of  a  Sudan 
language  with  one  akin  to  Fulah.  An  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  African 
Languages,  191 5,  p.  151  sqq. 


86  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

reverence  for  ancestors ;  among  Hottentots  belief  in  supreme 
powers  of  good  and  evil. 

Culture.  Bantu  :  much  lower  than  the  Negroid  Sudanese, 
but  higher  than  the  true  Negro;  piincipall^  cattle  rearers, 
practising  simple  agriculture;  Negrillo  and  Bush.  :  lowest 
grade,  hunters;  Hot.:  nomadic  herdsmen. 

Bantus':    Bonjo;  Baya;  Ba-Ganda;   Ba-Nyoro;   Wa- 

Pokomo;     Wa-Giryama;     Wa-Swahili;     Zulu-Xosa;     Ma' 

Shona;  Be-Chuana;  Ova-Herero;  Eshi-Kongo; 

SSiohs         Ba-Shilcbnge;  Ba-Lolo;  Ma-Nyema;  Ba-Kalai; 

Fan;  Mpongwe;  Dwala;  Ba-Tanga. 

Negrilloes:  Akka;  Wochua;  Dume{f);  Wandoro,bbo{?); 
Doko{?);  Obongo;  Wambutte  {Ba-Mbute);,Ba-Twa. 

Bushmen  :  Family  groups ;  no  known  tribal  names. 

Hottentots:  Wa-Sandawi  (f);  Nam^qua;  Griqua; 
Gonaqua;  Koraqua;  Hill  Ddmaras. 

In  ethnology  the  only  intelligible  definition  of  a  Bantu  is 
a  full-blood  or  a  half-blood  Negro  of  Bantu  speech';  and  from 
the  physical  standpoint  no  very  hard  and  fast  line  can  be 
drawn  between  the  northern  Sudanese  and  southern  Bantu 
groups,  considered  as  two  ethnical  units. 
>  Thanks  to  recent  political  developments  in  the  interior, 
the  linguistic  divide  may  now  be  traced  with  some  accuracy 

right  across  the  continent.  In  the  extreme 
5J^tu"Sr     '«^est,   Sir   H.   H.  Johnston  has  shown  that  it 

coincides  with  the  lower  course  of  the  Rio  del 
Rey,  while  farther  east  the  French  expedition  of  1891  under 
M.  Dybowski  found  that  it  ran  at  about  the  same  parallel 
(5°  N.)  along  the  elevated  plateau  which  here  forms  the 
water-parting  between  the  Congo  and  the  Chad  basin.  From 
this  point  the  line  takes  a  south-easterly  trend  along  the 
southern  borders  of  the  Zandeh  and  Mangbattu  territories  to 

1  Bantu,  properly  Aba-ntu,  "people."  Aba  is  one  of  the  numerous  personaJ 
prefixes,  each  with  its  corresponding  singular  form,  which  are  thc/cause  of  so  much 
confusion  in  Bantu  nomenclature.  To  aba,  ab,  ba  answers  a  sing,  umu,  um,  mu, 
so  that  sing,  umu-titu,  um-ntu  or  Mu-ntu,  al  man,  a  person  ;  plu.  aba-ntu,  ab-ntu,' 
ba-ntu.  But  in  some  groups  mu  is  also  plural,  the  chief  dialectic  variants  being, 
Ama,  Aba,  Ma,  Ba,  Wa.Ova,  Va,  Vua,  i/,  .<4,  O,  £jA«,  asin  Ama-Zulu,  Mu-SarongOy 
Ma-Yomba,  Wa-Swabili,  Ova-Herero,  Vua-Twa,  Ba-Suto,  Eshi-Kongo.  For  a 
tentative  classification  of  African  tribes  see  T.  A.  Joyce,  Art.  "  Africa :  Ethnology," 
En<y.  Brit  1910,  p.  329.  For  the  classification  of  Bantu  tongues  into  44  groups 
consult  H.  H.  Johriston,  Art.  "Bantu  Languages,"  loc.  at. 

2  Eth.  Ch.  XI. 


iv]  The  African  Negro:  II.  87 

the  Semliki  Valley  between  Lakes  Albert  Edward  and  Albert 
Nyanza,  near  the  equator.  Thence  it  pursues  a  somewhat 
irregular  course,  first  north  by  the  east  side  of  the  Albert 
Nyanza  to  the  mouth  of  the  Somerset  Nile,  then  up  that 
river  to  MruH  and  round  the  east  side  of  Usoga  and  the 
Victoria  Nyanza  to  Kavirondo  Bay,  where  it  turns  nearly  east 
to  the  sources  of  the  Tana,  and  down  that  river  to  its  mouth 
in  the  Indian  Ocean. 

At  some  points  the  line  traverses  debatable  territory,  as 
in  the  Semliki  Valley,  where  there  are  Sudanese  and  Negrillo 
overlappings,  and  again  beyond  Victoria  Nyanza,  where  the 
frontiers  are  broken  by  the  Hamitic  Masai  nomads  and  their 
Wandorobbo  allies.  But,  speaking  generally,  everything 
south  of  the  line  here  traced  is  Bantu,  everything  north  of  it 
Sudanese  Negro  in  the  western  and  central  regions,  and 
Hamitic  in  the  eastern  section  between  Victoria  Nyanza  and 
the  Indian  Ocean. 

In  some  districts  the  demarcation  is  not  quite  distinct,  as 
in  the  Tana  basin,  where  some  of  the  Galla  and  Somali 
Hamites  from  the  north  have  encroached  on  the  . 

territory  of  the  Wa-Pokomo  Bantus  on  the  Tribes- 
south  side  of  the  river.  But  on  the  central  The  Bonjo 
plateau  M.  Dybowski  passed  abruptly  from  the  Cannibals, 
territory  of  the  Bonjos,  northernmost  of  the  Bantu  tribes,  to 
that  of  the  Sudanese  Bandziri,  a  branch  of  the  widespread 
Zandeh  people.  In  this  region,  about  the  crest  of  the  Congo- 
Chad  water-parting,  the  contrasts  appear  to  be  all  in  favour 
of  the  Sudanese  and  against  the  Bantus,  probably  because 
here  the  former  are  Negroids,  the  latter  full-blood  Negroes. 
Thus  Dybowski'  found  the  Bonjos  to  be  a  distinctly  Negro 
tribe  with  pronounced  prognathism,  and  altogether  a  rude, 
savage  people,  trading  chiefly  in  slaves,  who  are  fattened  for 
the  meat  market,  and  when  in  good  condition  will  fetch  about 
twelve  shillings.  On  the  other  hand  the  Bandziri,  despite 
their  Niam-Niam  connection,  are  not  cannibals,  but  a  peace- 
ful, agricultural  people,  friendly  to  travellers,  and  of  a 
coppery-brown  complexion,  with  regular  features,  hence 
perhaps  akin  to  the  light-coloured  people  met  by  Barth  in 
the  Mosgu  country. 

Possibly  the  Bonjos  may  be  a  degraded  branch  of  the 

1  Le  Naturaliste,  Jan.  1894. 


88  Man :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

Bayas  or  Nderes,  a  large   nation,   with   many  subdivisions 

widely  diffused  throughout  the  Sangha   basin, 
NatiMi*^*         where  they  occupy  the  whole  space  between  the 

Kadei  and  the  Mambere  affluents  of  the  main 
stream  (3°  to  7°  30'  N.;  14°  to  17°  E.).  They  are  described 
by  M.  F.  J.  ClozeP  as  of  tall  stature,  muscular,  well-propor- 
tioned, with  flat  nose,  slightly  tumid  lips,  and  of  black  colour, 
but  with  a  dash  of  copper-red  in  the  upper  classes.  Although 
cannibals,  like  the  Bohjos,  they  are  in  other  respects  an 
intelligent,  friendly  people,  who,  under  the  influence  of  the 
Muhammadan  Fulahs,  have  developed  a  complete  political 
administration,  with  a  Royal  Court,  a  Chancellor,  Speaker, 
Interpreter,  and  other  officials,  bearing  sonorous  titles  taken 
chiefly  from  the  Hausa  language.  Their  own  Bantu  tongue 
is  widespread  and  spoken  with  slight  dialectic  differences  as 
far  as  the  Nana  affluents. 

M.  Clozel,  who  regards  them  as  mentally  and  morally 
superior  to  most  of  the  Middle  and  Lower  Congo  tribes,  tells 

us  that  the  Bayas,  that  is,  the  "  Red  People," 
People"  came   at    an   unknown    period    from    the   east, 

"  yielding  to  that  great  movement  of  migration 
by  which  the  African  populations  are  continually  impelled 
westwards."  The  Yangere  section  were  still  on  the  move 
some  twelve  y^ars  ago,  but  the  general  migration  has  since 
bfeen  arrested  by  the  Fulahs  of  Adamawa.  Human  flesh  is 
now  interdicted  to  the  women ;  they  have  domesticated  the 
sheep,  goat,  and  dog,  and  believe  in  a  supreme  being  called 
So,  whose  powers  are  manifested  in  the  dense  woodlands, 
while  minor  deities  preside  over  the  village  and  the  hut,  that 
is,  the  whole  community  and  each  separate  family  group. 
Thus  both  their  religious  and  political  systems  present  a 
certain  completeness,  which  recalls  those  prevalent  amongst 
the  semi-civilised  peoples  of  the  equatorial  lake  region,  and  is 
evidently  due  to  the  same  cause — long  contact  or  association 
with  a  race  of  higher  culture  and  intelligence. 

In  order  to  understand  all  these  relations,  as  well  as 
the  general  constitution  of  the  Bantu  populations,  we  have 
The  North-  ^°  Consider  that  the  already-described  Black 
East  Door  to  Zone,  running  from  the  Atlantic  seaboard  east- 
Bantuiand.  wards,  has  for  countless  generations  been  almost 

'  Tour  de  Monde,  1896,  I.  p.  I  sq.  ;  and  Les  Bayas;  Notes  Ethnographiques  et 
Linguistiques,  Paris,  1896. 


iv]  The  African  Negro:  II.  89 

everywhere  arrested  north  of  the  equator  by  the  White  Nile. 
Probably  since  the  close  of  the  Old  Stone  Age  the  whole  of 
the  region  between  the  main  stream  and  the  Red  Sea,  and 
from  the  equator  north  to  the  Mediterranean,  has  formed  an 
integi-al  part  of  the  Hamitic  domain,  encroached  upon  in 
prehistoric  times  by  Semites  and  others  in  Egypt  and 
Abyssinia,  and  in  historic  times  chiefly  by  Semites  (Arabs) 
in  Egypt,  Upper  Nubia,  Senaar,  and  Somaliland.  Between 
this  region  and  Africa  south  of  the  equator  there  are  no 
serious  physical  obstructions  of  any  kind,  whereas  farther 
west  the  Hamitic  Saharan  nomads  were  everywhere  barred 
access  to  the  south  by  the  broad,  thickly-peopled  plateaux  of 
the  Sudanese  Black  Zone.  All  encroachments  on  this  side 
necessarily  resulted  in  absorption  in  the  multitudinous  Negro 
populations  of  Central  Sudan,  with  the  modifications  of  the 
physical  and  mental  characters  which  are  now  presented  by 
the  Kanuri,  Hausas,  Songhai  and  other  Negroid  nations  of 
that  region,  and  are  at  present  actually  in  progress  amongst 
the  conquering  Fulah  Hamites  scattered  in  small  dominant 
groups  over  a  great  part  of  Sudan  from  Senegambia  to 
Wadai. 

It   follows    that   the    leavening   element,    by   which    the 
southern    Negro  populations    have  been   diversely  modified 
throughout  the  Bantu  lands,  could   have  been      Semitic  Ele- 
drawn    only    from    the    Hamitic    and    Semitic      mentsofthe 
peoples  of  the  north-east.     But  in  this  connec-      ^*°*"  Amai- 
tion  the  Semites  themselves  must  be  considered 
as  almost  une  quantity  n^gligeable,  partly  because  of  their 
relatively  later  arrival  from  Asia,  and  partly  because,  as  they 
arrived,  they  became  largely  assimilated  to  the  indigenous 
Hamitic  inhabitants  of  Egypt,   Abyssinia,  and   Somaliland. 
Belief  in  the  presence  of  a  Semitic  people  in  the  interior 
of  S.E.  Africa  in  early  historic  times  was.  supported  by  the 
groups  of  ruins  (especially  those  of  Zimbabwe),  found  mainly 
in  Southern  Rhodesia,  described  in  J.  T.  Bent's  Ruined  Cities 
of  Mashonaland.     Exploration  in  1905  dispelled  the  romance 
hitherto  connected  with  the  "temples"  and  produced  evidence 
to  show  that  they  were  not  earlier  in  date  than  the  fourteenth 
or  fifteenth  centuries  and  were  of  native  construction'.     They 

1  D.  Randall-Maclver,  Mediaeval  Rhodesia,  1906.    But  R.  N.  Hall,  Prehistoric 
Rhodesia,  1909,  strongly  opposes  this  view.    See  below,  p.  105. 


90  Man-:  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

probably  served  as  distributing  centres  for  the  gold  traffic 
Carried  on  with  the  Semitic  traders  of  the  coast.  For  cer- 
tainly in  Muhammadan  times  Semites  from  Arabia  formed 
permanent  settlements  along  the  eastern  seaboard  as  far 
south  as  Sofala,  and  these  intermingled  more  freely  with  the 
converted  coast  peoples  {Wa-Swakili,  from  sahel=  "coast"), 
but  not  with  the  Kafirs,  or  "Unbelievers,"  farther  south  and 
in  the  interior.  In  our  own  days  these  Swahili  half-breeds, 
with  a  limited  number  of  full-blood  Arabs',  have  penetrated 
beyond  the  Great  Lakes  to  the  Upper  and  Middle  Congo 
basin,  but  rather  as  slave-hunters  and  destroyers  than  as 
peaceful  settlers,  and  contracting  few  alliances,  except  perhaps 
amongst  the  Wa-Yao  and  Ma-Gwangara  tribes  of  Mozam- 
bique, and  the  cannibal  Ma-Nyemas  farther  inland. 

To  this  extent  Semitism  may  be  recognised  as  a  factor  in 
the  constituent  elements  of  the  Bantu  populations.     Malays 
Malay  have  also   been   mentioned,  and   some   ethno- 

Eiements  in  logists  have  even  brought  the  Fulahs  of  Western' 
Madagascar  Sudan  all  the  way  from  Malaysia.  Certainly  if 
°°^'  they  reached  and  formed  settlements  in  Mada- , 

gascar,  there  is  no  intrinsic  reason  why  they  should  not  have 
done  the  same  on  the  mainland.  But  I  have  faifed  to  find 
any  evidence  of  the  fact,  and  if  they  ever  at  any  time  estab- 
lished themselves  on  the  east  coast  they  have  long  disappeared, 
without  leaving  any  clear  trace  of  their  presence  either  in  the 
physical  appearance,  speech,  usages  or  industries  of  the 
aborigines,  such  as  are  everywhere  conspicuous  in  Mada- 
gascar. The  small  canoes  with  two  booms  and  double  out- 
riggers which  occur  at  least  from  Mombasa  to  Mozambique 
are  of  Indonesian  origin,  as  are  the  fish  traps  that  occur  at 
Mombasa. 

There  remain  the  north-easterrt  Hamites,  and  especially 

the  Galla  branch,  as  the  essential  extraneous  factor  in  this 

Hamitic  obscure  Bantu  problem.     To  the  stream  of  mi- 

Eiement  gration  described  by  M.  Clozel  as  setting  east 

everywhere,      ^^^   west,   corresponds   another   and   an    older 

stream,  which  ages  ago  took  a  southerly  direction  along  the 

eastern  seaboard  to  the  extremity  of  the  continent,  where 

are  now  settled  the  Zulu-Xosa  nations,  almost  more  Hamites 

than  Negroes. 

1  Even  Tipu  Tib,  their  chief  leader  and  "  Prince  of  Slavers^"  was  a  half-caste 
with  distinctly  Negroid  features. 


iv]  The  African  Negro:  II.  91 

The  impulse  to  two  sudi  divergent  movements  could  have 
come  only  from  the  north-east,  where  we  still  find  the  same 
tendencies  in  actual  operation.     During  his  exploration  of  the 
east  equatorial  lands,  Capt.  Speke  had  already  observed  that 
the   rulers   of   the    Bantu   nations   about   the   Great    Lakes 
(Karagwe,    Ba-Ganda,   Ba-Nyoro,  etc.)  all  be- 
longed  to  the  same  race,  known  by  the  name  of         Ba-Himas. 
Ba-Hima,  that   is,   "  Northmen,"  a  pastoral   people  of  fine 
appearance,  who  were   evidently  of  Galla   stock,   and   had 
come  originally  from  Gallaland.     Since  then  Schuver  found 
that  the  Negroes  of  the  Afilo  country  are  governed  by  a 
Galla  aristocracy',  and  we  now  know  that  several  Ba-hima 
communities  bearing  different  names  live  interspersed  amongst 
the  mixed  Bantu  nations  of  the  lacustrian  plateaux   as  far 
south  as  Lake  Tanganyika  and  Unyamwezilandl     Here  the 
Wa-Tusi,  Wa-Hha,  and  Wa-Ruanda  are  or  were  all  of  the 
same  Hamitic  type,  and  M.  Lionel  D^cle  "was  very  much 
struck  by  the  extraordinary  difference  that  is  to  be  found 
between    them    and   their    Bantu   neighbours'."     Then    this 
observer  adds :  "  Pure  types  are  not  common,  and  are  only 
to  be  found  amongst  the  aristocracy,  if  I  may  use  such  an 
expression  for  Africans.     The  mass  of  the  people  have  lost 
their  original  type  through  intermixture  with  neighbouring 
tribes." 

J.  Roscoe*  thus  describes  the  inhabitants  of  Ankole. 
"  The  pastoral  people  are  commonly  called  Bahima,  though 
they  prefer  to  be  called  Banyankole  ;  they  are  a  tall  fine  race 
though  physically  not  very  strong.  Many  of  them  are  over 
six  feet  in  height,  their  young  king  being  six  feet  six  inches 

and  broad  in  proportion  to  his  height It  is  not  only  the 

men  who  are  so  tall,  the  women  also  being  above  the  usual 
statute  of  their  sex  among  other  tribes,  though  they  do  in- 
justice to  their  height  by  a  fashionable  stoop  which  makes 
them  appear  much  shortgr  than  they  really  are.     The  features 

1  "Afilo  wurde  mir  vom  Lega-Konig  als  ein  Negerland  bezeichnet,  welches  von 
einer  Galla-Aristokratie  beherrscht  wird"  {PeterrHann's  Mitt.  1883,  v.  p.  194). 

2  The  Ba-Hima  are  herdsmen  in  Buganda,  a  sort  of  aristocracy  in  Unyoro,  a 
ruling  caste  in  Tore,  and  the  dominant  race  with  dynasties  in  Ankole.  The  name 
varies  in  different  areas. 

^  Journ.  Anthf.  Inst.  189S,  p-  424.     For  details  of  the  Ba-Hima  type  see  Eth. 

P-  389- 

*  J.  Roscoe,  The  Northern  Bantu,  I9i5,.p.  103.  Herein  are  also  described  the 
Bakene,  lake  dwellers,  the  Bagesu,  a  cannibal  tribe,  the  Bdsoga  and  the  Nilotic 
tribes  the  Bateso  z.ti'S.  Kavirondo. 


92  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

of  these  pastoral  people  are  good :  they  have  straight  noses 
with  a  bridge,  thin  lips,  finely  chiselled  faces,  heads  well  set 
on  fairly  developed  frames,  and  a  good  carriage ;  there  is  in 
fact  nothing  but  their  colour  and  their  short  woolly  hair  to 
make  you  think  of  them  as  negroids," 

The  contrast  and  the  relationship  between  the  pastoral 
conquerors  and  the  agricultural  tribes  is  clearly  seen  among 
Pastoral  and     ^^  Ba-Nyoro.     "The  pastoral  people  are  a  tall, 
Agricultural      well-built  race  of  men  and  women  with  finely 
Clans.  cut  features,   many  of  them  over   six   feet  in 

height.  The  men  are  athletic  with  little  spare  flesh,  but  the 
women  are  frequently  very  fat  and  corpulent :  indeed  their 
ideal  of  beauty  is  obesity,  and  their  milk  diet  together  with 
their  careful  avoidance  of  exercise  tends  to  increase  their 
size.  The  agricultural  clans,  on  the  other  hand,  are  short, 
ill-favoured  looking  men  and  women  with  broad  noses  of  the 
negro  type,  lean  and  unkempt.  Both  classes  are  dark,  varying 
in  shade  from  a  light  brown  to  deep  black,  with  short  woolly 
hair.  The  pastoral  people  refrain,  as  far  as  possible,  from  all 
manual  labour  and  expect  the  agricultural  clans  to  do  their 
menial  work  for  them,  such  as  building  their  houses,  carrying 
firewood  and  water,  and  supplying  them  with  grain  and  beer 
for  their  households."  "  Careful  observation  and  enquiry 
lead  to  the  opinion  that  the  agricultural  clans  were  the  original 
inhabitants  and  that  they  were  conquered  by  the  pastoral 
people  who  have  reduced  them  to  their  present  servile 
condition^" 

From  these  indications  and  many  others  that  might  easily 
be  adduced,  it  may  be  concluded  with  some  confidence  that 
The  Bantus  the  great  mass  of  the  Bantu  populations  are 
mainly  a  Negro-  essentially  Negroes,  leavened  in  diverse  pro- 
Hamitic  Cross,  portions  for  the  most  part  by  conquering  Galla 
or  Hamitic  elements  percolating  for  thousands  of  generations 
from  the  north-eastern  section  of  the  Hamitic  domain  into  the 
heart  of  Bantuland. 

The  date  of  the  Bantu  migrations  is  much  disputed.  "As 
far  as  linguistic  evidence  goes,"  says  H.  H.  Johnston*,  "the 
ancestors  of  the  Bantu  dwelt  in  some  region  like  th6  Bahr- 
al-Ghazal,  not  far  from  the  Mountain  Nile  on  the  east,  from 

'  J.  Roscoe,  loc.  cit.  pp.  4,  5.  * 

2  "A  Survey  of  the  Ethnography  of  Africa,"  Journ.  Roy.  Anthr.  Inst.  XLIII. 
1913,  P-  39°- 


iv]  The  African  Negro:  II.  93 

Kordofan  on  the  north,  or  the  Benue  and  Chad  basins  on  the 
west.     Their  first  great  movement  of  expansion   seems  to 
have  been  eastward,  and  to  have  established  them  (possibly 
with  a  guiding  aristocracy  of  Hamitic  origin)  in  the  region 
between    Mount    Elgon,    the    Northern    Victoria    Nyanza, 
Tanganyika,  and  the  Congo  Forest.     At  some  such  period 
as  about  300  b.c.  their  far-reaching  invasion  of  Central  and 
South  Africa  seems  to  have  begun."     The  date  is  fixed  by 
the  date  of  the  introduction  of  the  fowl  from  Nile-land,  since 
the  root  word  for  fowl  is  the  same  almost  throughout  Bantu 
Africa,   "  obviously  related  to  the  Persian  words  for  fowl,  yet 
quite  unrelated  to  the  Semitic  terms,  or  to  those  used  by  the 
'Kushites  of  Eastern  Africa."     F.  Stuhlmann,  on  the  contrary, 
places  the  migrations  practically  in  geological  times.     After 
bringing  the  Sudan  Negroes  from  South  Asia  at  the  end  of 
the  Tertiary  or  beginning  of  the  Pleistocene  {Pluvialperiod), 
and  the  Proto-Hamites   from  a  region    probably  somewhat 
further  to  the  north  and  west  of  the  former,  he  continues  : 
From  the  mingling  of-  the  Negroes  and  the  Proto-Hamites 
were  formed,  probably  in  East  Africa,  the  Bantu  languages 
and   the    Bantu  peoples,   who   wandered   thence   south    and 
west.     The  wanderings  began  in  the  latter  part  of  the  Pleis- 
tocene  period\      He   quotes    Th.   Arldt,   who  with   greater 
precision   places  the  occupation  of   Africa  by  the   Negroes 
in   the    Riss   period    (300,000    years  ago)  and    that    of  the 
Hamites  in  the  Mousterian  period  (30,000  to  50,000  years 
ago)'. 

All  these  peoples  resulting  from  the  crossings  of  Negroes 
with  Hamites  now  speak  various  forms  of  the  same  organic 
Bantu  mother-tongue.  But  this  linguistic  uniformity  is  strictly 
analogous  to  that  now  prevailing  amongst  the  multifarious 
peoples  of  Aryan  speech  in  Eurasia,  and  is  due  to  analogous 
causes— the  diffusion  in  extremely  remote  times  of  a  mixed 
Hamito-Negro  people  of  Bantu  speech  in  Africa  south  of  the 
equator.  It  might  perhaps  be  objected  that  the  present 
Ba-Hima  pastors  are  of  Hamitic  speech,  because  we  know 
from  Stanley  that  the  late  king  M'tesa  of  Buganda  was  proud 
of  his  Galla  ancestors,  whose  language  he  still  spoke  as  his 
mother-tongue.     But  he  also  spoke  Luganda,  and  every  echo 

1  Handwerk  und  Industrie  in  Ostafrika,  1910,  p.  147. 

2  "  Die  erste  Ausbreitung  des  Menschengeschlechts."    Pol.  Anthropol.  Revue, 
1909,  p.  72.     Cf.  chronology  on  p.  14  above. 


94  Man:  Past  and  Present  [cii. 

of  Galla  speech  has  already  died  out  amongst  most  of  the 
Ba-Hima  communities  in  the  equatorial  regions.  So  it  was 
with  what  I  may  call  the  "  Proto-Ba-Himas,"  the  first  con- 
quering Galla  tribes,  Schuver's  and  Deck's  "aristocracy," 
who  were  gradually  blended  with  the  aborigines  in  a  new  and 
superior  nationality  of  Bantu  speech,  because  "there  are 
many  mixed  races,... but  there  are  no  mixed  languages \" 

These  view%  are  confirmed  by  the  traditions  and  folklore 

still  current  amongst  the  "  Lacustrians,"  as  the  great  nations 

may  be  called,  who  are  now  grouped  round  about  the  shores 

of  Lakes  Victoria  and  Albert  Nyanza.     At  present,  or  rather 

before    the    recent    extension    of    the    British 

ti-ui^i!^''"^'      administration   to    East   Central   Africa,    these" 

peoples  were  constituted  in  a  number  of  separate 

kingdoms,    the    most    powerful    of    which    were    Buganda 

(Uganda)^    Bunyoro   (Unyoro),    and    Karagwe.     But   they 

remember  a  time  when   all  these  now  scattered  fragments 

formed  parts  of  a  mighty  monarchy,  the  vast  Kitwara  Empire, 

which  comprised  the  whole  of  the  lake-studded  plateau  between 

the  Ruwenzori  range  and  Kavirondoland. 

The  story  is  differently  told  in  the  different  states,  each 
nation  being  eager  to  twist  it  to  its  own  glorification  ;  but  all 
Their  Tradi-  ^^e  agreed  that  the  founder  of  the  empire  was 
(tions— The  Kintu,  "The  Blameless,"  at  once  priest,  patriarch 

Kintu  Legend.  ^^^  ruler  of  the  land,  who  came  from  the  north 
hundreds  of  years  ago,  with  one  wife,  one  cow,  one  goat,  one 
sheep,  one  chicken,  one  banana-root,  and .  one  sweet  potato. 
At  first  all  was  waste,  an  uninhabited  wilderness,  but  it  was 
soon  miraculously  peopled,  stocked,  and  planted  with  what  he 
had  brought  with  him,  the  potato  being  apportioned  to 
Bunyoro,  the  banana  to  Buganda,  and  these  form  the  staple 
food  of  those  lands  to  this  day. 

Then  the  people  waxed  wicked,  and  Kintu,  weary  of  their 
evil  ways  and  daily  bloodshed,  took  the  original  wife,  cow, 
and  other  things,  and  went  away  in  the  night  and  was  seen 
no  more.  But  nobody  believed  him  dead,  and  a  long  line  of 
his  mythical  successors  appear  to  have  spent  the  time  they 

^  Ethnology,  p.  199. 

''  Uganda  is  the  name  now  applied  to  the  whole  Protectorate,  Buganda  is  the 
small  kingdom,  Baganda,  the  people,  Muganda,  one  person,  Luganda,  the  language. 
H.  H.  Johnston,  The  Uganda  Protectorate,  1902,  and  J.  F.  Cunningham,  Uganda 
and  its  Peoples,  1905,  cover  much  of  the  elementary  anthropology  of  East  Central 
Africa. 


iv]  The  African  Negro :  II.  95 

could  spare  from  strife  and  war  and  evil  deeds  in  looking  for 
the  lost  Kintu.  Kimera,  one  of  these,  was  a  mighty  giant 
of  such  strength  and  weight  that  he  left  his  footprints  on  the 
rocks  where  hfe  trod,  as  may  still  be  seen  on  a  cliff  not  far 
from  Ulagalla,  the  old  capital  of  Buganda.  There  was  also 
a  magician,  Kibaga,  who  could  fly  aloft  and  kill  the  Ba-Nyoro 
people  (this  is  the  Buganda  version)  by  hurling  stones 
down  upon  them,  and  for  his  services  received  in  marriage  a 
beautiful  Ba-Nyoro  captive,  who,  another  Delilah,  found  out 
his  secret,  and  betrayed  him  to  her  people. 

At  last  came  King  Ma'anda,  who  pretended  to  be  a  great 
hunter,  "but  it  was  only  to  roam  the  woodlands  in  search  of 
Kintu,  and  thus  have  tidings  of  him.  One  day  a  peasant, 
obeying  the  directions  of  a  thrice-dreamt  dream,  came  to  a 
place  in  the  forest,  where  was  an  aged  man  on  a  throne 
between  two  rows  of  armed  warriors,  seated  on  mats,  his  long 
beard  white  with  age,  and  all  his  men  fair  as  white  people 
and  clothed  in  white  robes.  Then  Kintu,  for  it  was  he,  bid 
the  peasant  hasten  to  summon  Ma'anda  thither,  but  only  with 
his  mother  and  the  messenger.  At  the  Court  Ma'anda 
recognised  the  stranger  whom  he  had  that  very  night  seen  in 
a  dream,  and  so  believed  his  words  and  at  once  set  out  with 
his  mother  and  the  peasant.  But  the  Katikiro,  or  Prime 
Minister,  through  whom  the  message  had  been  delivered  to 
the  king,  fearing  treachery,  also  started  on  their  track,  keeping 
them  just  in  view  till  the  trysting-place  was  reached.  But 
Kintu,  who  knew  everything,  saw  him  all  the  time,  and  when 
he  came  forward  on  finding  himself  discovered  the  enraged 
Ma'anda  pierced  his  faithful  minister  to  the  heart  and  he  fell 
dead  with  a  shriek.  Thereupon  Kintu  and  his  seated  warriors 
instantly  vanished,  and  the  king  with  the  others  wept  and 
cried  upon  Kintu  till  the  deep  woods  echoed  Kintu,  Kintu-u, 
Kintu-u-u.  But  the  blood-hating  Kintu  was  gone,  and  to 
this  day  has  never  again  been  seen  or  heard  of  by  any  man 
in  Buganda.  The  references  to  the  north  and  to  Kintu  and 
his  ghostly  warriors  "  fair  as  white  people "  need  no  com- 
ment\     It  is   noteworthy  that  in  some  of  the   Nyassaland 

1  The  legend  is  given  with  much  detail  by  H.  M.  Stanley  in  Through  the  Dark 
Continent,  Vol.  I.  p.  344  sq.  Another  and  less  mythical  account  of  the  migrations 
of  "the  people  with  a  white  skin  from  the  far  north-east"  is  quoted  from  Emin 
Pasha  by  the  Rev.  R.  P.  Ashe  in  Two  Kings  of  Uganda,  p.  336.  Here  the 
immigrant  Ba-Hima  are  expressly  stated  to  have  "  adopted  the  language  of  the 
aborigines"  (p.  337)- 


96  Man :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

dialects  Kintu  (Caintu)  alternates  with  Mulungu  as  the 
name  of  the  Supreme  Being,  the  great  ancestor  of  the 
tribe'. 

Then  follows  more  traditional  or  legendary  matter,  in- 
cluding an  account  of  the  wars  with  the  fierce  Wakedi,  who 
The  Ba-Ganda,  wore  iron  armour,  until  authentic  history  is 
past  and  reached  with  the  atrocious  Suna  II  (1836-60), 

present.  father   of  the   scarcely    less    atrocious    M'tesa. 

After  his  death  in  1884  Buganda  and  the  neighbouring 
states  passed  rapidly  through  a  series  of  astonishing  political, 
religious,  and  social  vicissitudes,  resulting  in  the  present  pax 
Britannica,  and  the  conversion  of  large  numbers,  some  to 
I  slim,  others  to  one  form  or  another  of  Christianity.  At  times 
it  might  have  been  difficult  to  see  much  religion  in  the  ferocity 
of  the  contending  factions ;  but  since  the  establishment  of 
harmony  by  the  secular  arm,  real  progress  has  been  made,  and 
the  Ba-Ganda  especially  have  displayed  a  remarkable  capacity 
as  well  as  eagerness  to  acquire  a  knowledge  of  letters  and  of 
religious  principles,  both  in  the  Protestant  and  the  Roman 
Catholic  communities.  Printing-presses,  busily  worked  by 
native  hands,  are  needed  to  meet  the  steadily  increasing 
demand  for  a  vernacular  literature,  in  a  region  where  blood 
had  flowed  continually  from  the  disappearance  of  "  Kintu  " 
till  the  British  occupation. 

To  the  admixture  of  the  Hamitic  and  Negro  elements 
amongst  the  Lacustrians  may  perhaps  be  attributed  the 
Political  and  curious  blend  of  primitive  and  higher  institutions 
Social  in  these  communities.     At  the  head  of  the  State 

Institutions.  yfj^^  ^  Kabaka,  king  or  emperor,  although  the 
title  was  also  borne  by  the  queen-mother  and  the  queen-sister. 
This  autocrat  had  his  Lukiko,  or  Council,  of  which  the 
members  were  th.&  Katikiro,  Prime  Minister  and  Chief  Justice, 
the  Kimbugwe,  who  had  charge  of  the  King's  umbilical  cord, 
and  held  rank  next  to  the  Katikiro,  and  ten  District  chiefs, 
for  the  administration  of  the  ten  large  districts  into  which  the 
country  was  divided,  each  rendering  accounts  to  the  Katikiro 
and  through  him  to  the  King.  Each  District  chief  had  to 
maintain  in  good  order  a  road  some  four  yards  wide,  reaching 
from  the  capital  to  his  country  seat,  a  distance  possibly  of 
nearly  100  miles.     Each  District  chief  had  sub-chiefs  under 

^  Sir  H.  H.  Johnston,  op.  cit.  p.  514. 


iv]  The  African  Negro:  II.  97 

him,  independent  of  the  chief  in  managing  their  own  portion  of 
land.  These  were  responsible  for  keeping  in  repair  the  road 
between  their  own  residence  and  that  of  the  District  chief. 
In  each  district  was  a  supreme  court,  and  every  sub-chief, 
even  with  only  a  dozen  followers,  could  hold  a  court  and  try 
cases  among  his  own  people.  The  people,  however,  could 
take  their  cases  from  one  tourt  to  another  until  eventually 
they  came  before  the  Katikiro  or  the  King. 

Yet  together  with  this  highly  advanced  social  and  political 
development  a  totemic  exogamous  clan  system  was  in  force 
throughout  Uganda,  all  the  Ba-Ganda  belonging 
to    one  of   29  kika  or  clans,    each    possessing      syst^^ 
two  totems  held  sacred  by  the  clan.     Thus  the 
Lion  [Mpologoma)  clan  had  the  Eagle  {Mpungu)  for  its  second 
totem  ;  the  Mushroom  (Butiko)  clan  had  the  Snail  {Nsonko) ; 
the  Buffalo  {Mbogo)  clan  had  a  New  Cooking  Pot  {Ntamu). 
Each  clan  had  its  chief,  or  Father,  who  resided  on  the  clan 
estate   which  was  also  the  clan  burial-ground,  and  was  re- 
sponsible for  the  conduct  of  the  members  of  his  branch.     All 
the  clans  were  exogamous  \  and  a  man  was  expected  to  take 
a  second  wife  from  the  clan  of  his  paternal  grandmother''. 

No  direct  relations  appear  to  exist  between  the  Lacustrians 
and  the  Wa-Kikuyu,  Wa-Kamba,  Wa-Pokomo,  Wa-Gweno, 
Wa-Chaza,  Wa-Teita,  Wa-Taveita,  and  others',    „    ,  „     , 

,  *  1  •  r  -1 7-  ■      TVT  Bantu  Peoples 

who  occupy  the  region  east  01  Victoria  Nyanza,    between 
between  the  Tana,  north-east  frontier  of  Bantu-    L.  Victoria  and 
land,  and  the   southern  slopes  of  Kilimanjaro.         Coast. 
Their  affinities  seem  to  be  rather  with  the  Wa-Nyika,  Wa-Boni, 
Wa-Duruma,  Wa-Giryama,  and  the  other  coast  tribes  between 
the  Tana  and  Mombasa.     All  of  these  tribes  have  more  or 
less  adopted  the  habits  and  customs  of  the  Masai. 

We  learn  from  Sir  A.   Harding^  that  in  the  British  East 


'  Except  the  Lung-fish  clan. 

"  J.  Roscoe,  TheBaganda,  191 1. 

'  For  the  Wa-Kikuyu  see  W.  S.  and  K.  Routledge,  With  a  Prehistoric  People, 
1910,  and  C.  W.  Hobley's  papers  in  the  Joum.  Roy.  Anthr.  Inst.  XL.  1910,  and 
XLI,  191 1.  The  Atharaka  are  described  by  A.  M.  Champion, yoa;>-«.  Roy.  Anthr. 
Inst.  XLii.  1912,  p.  68.  Consult  for  this  region  C.  Eliot,  The  East  Africa  Pro- 
tectorate, 1905  ;  K.  Weule,  Native  Life  in  East  Africa,  1909  ;  C.  W.  Hobley, 
Ethnology  of  the  A-Kamba  and  other  East  African  Tribes,  1910;  M.- Weiss, 
Die  Vdlkerstdmme  im  Norden  Deutsch-Ostafiikas,  1910 ;  and  A.  Werner,  "The 
Bantu  Coast  Tribes  of  the  East  Africa  Protectorate,"  fourn.  Roy.  Anthr.  Inst. 
XLV.  191 5. 

*  Official  Report  on  the  East  African' Protectorate,  1897. 

K.  7 


98  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

African  Protectorate  there  are  altogether  as  many  as  twenty- 
five  distinct  tribes,  generally  at  a  low  stage  of  culture,  with  a 
loose  tribal  organisation,  a  fully-developed  totemic  system, 
and  a  universal  faith  in  magic ;  but  there  are  no  priests,  idols 
or  temples,  or  even  distinctly  recognised  hereditary  chiefs  or 
communal  councils.  The  Gallas,  who  have  crossed  the  Tana 
and  here  encroached  on  Bantu  territory,  have  reminiscences 
of  a  higher  civilisation  and  apparently  of  Christian  traditions 
and  observances,  derived  no  doubt  from  Abyssinia.  They 
tell  you  that  they  had  once  a  sacred  book,  the  observance  of 
whose  precepts  made  them  the  first  of  nations.  But  it  was 
left  lying  about,  and  so  got  eaten  by  a  cow,  and  since  then 
when  cows  are  killed  their  entrails  are  carefully  searched  for 
the  lost  volume. 

Exceptional  interest  attaches  to  the  Wa-Giryama,  who 
are  the  chief  people  between  Mombasa  and  Melindi, 
the  first  trustworthy  accounts  of  whom  were  contributed  by 
W.  E.  Taylor',  and  W.  W.  A.  Fitzgerald'.  Here  again 
Bantus  and  Gallas  are  found  in  close  contact,  and  we 
learn  that  the  Wa-Giryama,  who  came  originally  from  the 
Mount  Mangea  district  in  the  north-east,  occupied  their 
present  homes  only  about  a  century  ago  "upon  the  with- 
drawal of  the  Gallas."  The  language,  which  is  of  a  somewhat 
archaic  type,  appears  to  be  the  chief  member  of  a  widespread 
Bantu  group,  embracing  the  Ki-nyika,  and  Ki-pokomo  in  the 
extrerhe .  north,  the  Ki-swahili  of  the  Zanzibar 
Wa-Giryama.  Goast,  and  perhaps  the  Ki-kamba,  the  Ki-teita, 
and  others  of  the  interior  between  the  coastlarids 
and,  Victoria  Nyanza.  These  inland  tongues,  however,  haVe 
greatly  diverged  from  the  primitive  Ki-giryama',  which  stands 
in  somewhat  the  same  relation  to  them  and  to  the  still  more 
degraded  and  Arabised  Ki-swahili^  that  Latin  stands  to  the 
Romance  languages. 

But  the  chief  interest  presented  by  the  Wa-Giryama  is 


1   Vocabulary  ef  the  Giryama  Language^  S.V.G.K.  liqy. 

^  Trai/6ls  in  the  Coastlarids  df  BHtish  East  Afriea^  London,  1898,  p.  103  sq^ 

3  A.  Wemer,  "  Girtjama  Teits,"  Zeitsc/ir./^  Kol.-spn  Oct/  1914. 

*  Havihg  become  the  chief  mediufn  of  intercotirse  throughout  the  southern 
Bantu  regions,  Ki-swabiti  has  been  diligently  cultivated,  esfjecially  tJy  the  English 
missionaries,  \*htf  have  wisely  discarded  the  Arab  for  the  Ron»an  characters.  Thetfe 
is  already  an  extensive  literature,  irrcltiding  gramrtlars,  dictionaries,  translations 
of  the  Bible  and  other  virdrks,  and  even  A  History  0/ Rome  issued  by  the  S.P.G.K. 
in  1898. 


iv]  The  African  Negro:  II.  99 

centred  in  their  religious  ideas,  which  are  mainly  Gonnected 
with  ancestry-worship,  and  afford  art  unexpected      primitive 
insight  into  the  origin  and  nature  of  that  perhaps      Ancestry- 
most  primitive  of  all  forms  of  belief.     There  is,      Worship, 
of  course,  a  vague  entity  called  a  "  Supreme  Being, "  in  ethno- 
graphic writings,  who,  like  the  Algonquian  Manitu,  crops  up 
under  various  names  (here  Mulungu)  all  over  east  Bantuland, 
but  on  analysis  generally  resolves  itself  into  some  dim  notion 
growing  out  of  anceistry-worship,   a  great  or  aged  person, 
eponymous  hero  or  the  like,  later  deified  in   diverse    ways 
as  the  Preserver,  the    Disposer,  and  especially  the  Creator. 
These  Wa-Giryama  suppose  that  from  his  union 
with  the  Earth  all  things  haVe  sprung,  and  that   t^^ShfaLr*^ 
human  beings  are  Mulungu's  hens  and  chickens. 
But  there  is  also  an  idea  that  he  may  be  the  manes  of  their 
fathers,  and  thus  everything  becomes   merged  in  a  kind  of 
apotheosis  of  the  departed.     They  think  "the  disembodied 
spirit  is  powerful  for  good  and  evil.     Individuals  worship  the 
shades  of  their  immediate  ancestors  or  elder  relatives  ;    and 
the  k'omas  [souls?]  of  the  whole  nation  are  worshipped  on 
public  occasions." 

Although  the  European  ghost  or  "  revenant "  is  unknown, 
the  spirits  of  near  ancestors  may  appear  in  dreams,  and 
express  their  wishes  to  the  living.  They  ask  for  sacrifices  at 
their  graves  to  appease  their  hunger,  and  such  sacrifices  are 
often  made  with  a  little  flour  and  water  poured  into  a  coconut 
shell  let  into  the  ground,  the  fowls  and  other  victims  being  so 
killed  that  the  blood  shall  trickle  into  the  grave.  At  the 
offering  the  dead  are  called  on  by  name  to  come  and  partake, 
and  bring  their  friends  with  them,  who  are  also  mentioned  by 
name.  But  whereas  Christians  pray  to  be  remembered  of 
heaven  and  the  saints,  the  Wa-Giryama  pray  rather  that  the 
new-born  babe  be  forgotten  of  Mulungu,  and  so  live.  "  Well ! " 
they  will  say  on  the  news  of  a  birth,  "  may  Mulungu  forget 
him  that  he  may  become  strong  and  well."  This"  is  an 
instructive  trait,  a  reminiscence  of  the  time  when  Mulungu, 
now  almost  harmless  or  indifferent  to  mundane  things,  was  the 
embodiment  of  all  evil,  hence  to  be  feared  and  appeased  in 
accordance  with  the  old  dictum  Tintay  fecit  deos. 

At  present  no  distinction  is  drawn  between  good  and  bad 
spirits,  but  all  are  looked  upon  as,  of  course,  often,  though  not 
always,  more  powerful  than  the  living,  but  still  hymafl  beings 


loo  Man  :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

subject  to  the  same  feelings,  passions,  and  fancies  as  they  are. 
Some  are  even  poor  weaklings  on  whom  offerings  are  wasted. 
"  The  Shade  of  So-and-so's  father  is  of  no  use  at  all ;  it  has 
finished  up  his  property,  and  yet  he  is  no  better,"  was  a 
native's  comment  on  the  result  of  a  series  of  sacrifices  a  man 
had  vainly  made  to  his  father's  shade  to  regain  his  health. 
They  may  also  be  duped  and  tricked,  and  when  pombe  (beer) 
is  a-brewing,  some  is  poured  out  on  the  graves  of  the  dead, 
with  the  prayer  that  they  may  drink,  and  when  drunk  fall 
asleep,  and  so  not  disturb  the  living  with  their  brawls  and 
bickerings,  just  like  the  wrangling  fairies  in  A  Midsummer 
Night's  Dream}. 

Far  removed  from  such  crass  anthropomorphism,  but  not 
morally  much  improved,  are  the  kindred  Wa-Swahili,  who  by 
long  contact  and  interminglings  have  become 
Wa-Swahili  largely  Arabised  in  dress,  religion,  and  general 
culture.  They  are  graphically  described  by 
Taylor  as  "  a  seafaring,  barter-loving  race  of  slave-holders  and 
slave-traders,  strewn  in  a  thin  line  along  a  thousand  miles  of 
creeks  and  islands ;  inhabitants  of  a  coast  that  has  witnessed 
incessant  political  changes,  and  a  succession  of  monarchical 
dynasties  in  various  centres  ;  receiving  into  their  midst  for 
ages  past  a  continuous  stream  of  strange  blood,  consisting  not 
only  of  serviles  from  the  interior,  but  of  immigrants  from 
Persia,  Arabia,  and  Western  India;  men  that  have  come  to 
live,  and  often  to  die,  as  resident  aliens,  leaving  in  many  cases 
a  hybrid  progeny.  Of  one  section  of  these  immigrants — the 
Arabs — the  religion  has  become  the  master-religion  of  the 
land,  overspreading,  if  not  entirely  supplanting,  the  old  Bantu 
ancestor-worship,  and  profoundly  affecting  the  whole  family 
life." 

The  Wa-Swahili  are  in  a  sense  a  historical  people,   for 

they  formed  the  chief  constituent  elements  of  the  renowned 

Zang  (Zeng)   empireS   which   in    Edrisi's  time 

Empi>e°^  (twelfth  century)  stretched  along  the  seaboard 

from    Somaliland  to  and  beyond  the  Zambesi. 

1  W.  E.  H.  Barrett,  "  Notes  on  the  Customs  and  Beliefs  of  the  Wa-Giriama," 
etc.,  Journ.  Roy.  Anthr.  Inst.  XLI.  191 1,  gives  further  details.  For  a  full  review 
of  the  religious  beliefs  of  Bantu  tribes  see  E.  S.  Hartland,  Art.  "  Bantu  and  S. 
Africa,"  Ency.  of  Religion  and  Ethics,  1909. 

2  The  name  still  survives  in  Zangue-bar  ("Zang-land")  and  the  adjacent  island 
of  Zanzibar  (an  Indian  corruption).  Zang  is  "black,"  and  bar  is  the  same  Arabic 
word,  meaning  dry  land,  that  we  have  in  Mcila-bar  on  the  opposite  side  of  the 
Indian  Ocean.     Cf.  also  barran  wa  bahran,  "by  land  and  by  sea." 


iv]  The  African  Negro :   II.  loi 

When  the  Portuguese  burst  suddenly  into  the  Indian  Ocean  it 
was  a  great  and  powerful  state,  or  rather  a  vast  confederacy 
of  states,  with  many  flourishing  cities — Magdoshu,  Brava, 
Mombasa,  Melindi,  Kilwa,  Angosha,  Sofala— and  widespread 
commercial  relations  extending  across  the  eastern  waters  to 
India  and  China,  and  up  the  Red  Sea  to  Europe.  How  these 
great  centres  of  trade  and  eastern  culture  were  one  after  the 
other  ruthlessly  destroyed  by  the  Portuguese  corsairs  co  o 
ferro  e  fogo  ("with  sword  and  fire,"  Camoens)  is  told  by 
Duarte  Barbosa,  who  was  himself  a  Portuguese  and  an  eye- 
witness of  the  havoc  and  the  horrors  that  not  infrequently 
followed  in  the  trail  of  his  barbarous  fellow-countrymen\ 

Beyond  Sofala  we  enter  the  domain  of  the  Ama-Zulu,  the 
Ama-Xosa,  and  others  whom  I  have  collectively  called  Zulu- 
Xosas\  and  who  are  in  some  respects  the  most 
remarkable    ethnical    group    in    all    Bantuland.      xosaf"'"" 
Indeed  they  are  by  common  consent  regarded 
as  Bantus  in  a  preeminent  sense,  and  this  conventional  term 
Bantu  itself  is   taken   from    their  typical   Bantu  language*. 
There  is  clear  evidence  that  they  are  comparatively  recent 
arrivals,  necessarily  from  the  north,  in  their  present  territory, 
which  was  still  occupied  by  Bushman  and  Hottentot  tribes 
probably  within  the  last  thousand  years  or  so.      Before  the 
Kafir   wars    with    the    English   (1811-77)    this      Former  and 
territory  extended  much  farther  round  the  coast  1     Present 
than  at  present,  and  for  many  years  the  Great      Domain. 
Kei  River  has  formed  the  frontier  between  the  white  settle- 
ments and  the  Xosas. 

But  what  they  have  lost  in  this  direction  the  Zulu-Xosas, 

■  Viage  por  Malabar  y  Castas  de  Africa,  15 12,  translated  by  the  Hon. 
Henry  E.  J.  Stanley,  Hakluyt  Society,  1868. 

^  In  preference  to  the  more  popular  form  Zulu-Kafir,  where  Kafir  is  merely 
the  Arabic  "  Infidel "  applied  indiscriminately  to  any  people  rejecting  Isldm  ; 
hence  the  Siah  Posh  Kafirs  ("Black-clad  Infidels")  of  Afghanistan  ;  the  Kufra 
oasis  in  the  Sahara,  where  Kufra,  plural  of  Kafir,  refers  to  the  pagan  Tibus  of 
that  district ;  and  the  Kafirs  generally  of  the  East  African  seaboard.  But 
according  to  English  usage  Zulu  is  applied  to  the  northern  part  of  the  territory, 
mainly  Zululand  proper  and  Natal,  while  Kafirland  or  Kaffraria  is  restiricted  to  the 
southern  section  between  Natal  and  the  Great  Kei  River.  The  bulk  of  these 
southern  "  Kafirs "  belong  to  the  Xosa  connection  ;  hence  this  term  takes  the 
place  of  Kafir,  in  the  compound  expression  Zulu-Xosa.  Ama  is  explained  on 
p.  86,  and  the  X  of  Xosa  represents  an  unpronounceable  combination  of  a 
guttural  and  a  lateral  click,  this  with  two  other  clicks  (a  dental  and  a  palatal) 
having  infected  the  speech  of  these  Bantus  during  their  long  prehistoric  wars  with 
he  Hottentots  or  Bushmen.     See  p.  129. 

^  See  p.  86  above. 


I02  Man  :   Past  and  Present  [ch. 

or  at  least  the  Zulus,  have  recovered  a  hundredfold  by  their 
expansion  northwards  during  the  nineteenth  century.  After 
•the  establishment  of  the  Zulu  military  power  under  Dingiswayo 
and  his  successor  Chaka  (1793-1828),  half  the  continent  was 
overrun  by  organised  Zulu  hordes,  who  ranged  as  far  north  as 
Victoria  Nyanza,  and  in  many  places  founded  more  or  less 
unstable  kingdoms  or  chieftaincies  on  the  model  of  the  terrible 
despotism  set  up  in  Zuluiand.  Such  were,  beyond  the 
Limpopo,  the  states  of  Gazaland  and  Matabiliknd,  the  latter 
established  about  1838  by  Umsilikatzi,  father  of  Lobengula, 
who  perished  in  a  hopeless  struggle  with  the  English  in  1894. 
Gungunhana,  last  of  the  Swazi  (Zulu)  chiefs  in  Gazaland, 
where  the  A-Ngoni  had  overrun  the  Ba-Thonga(Ba-Ronga)\ 
was  similarly  dispossessed  by  the  Portuguese  in  1896. 

North  of  Zambesi  the  Zulu  bands — Ma-Situ,  Ma-Viti, 
Ma-Ngoni  (A-Ngoni),  and  others — nowhere  developed  large 
political  states  except  for  a  short  time  under  the  ubiquitous 
Mirambo  in  Unyamweziland.  But  some,  especially  the 
A-Ngoni^  were  long  troublesome  in  the  Nyasa  district,  and 
others  about  the  Lower  Zambesi,  where  they  are  known  to 
the  Portuguese  as  "  Landins."  The  A-Ngoni  power  was 
finally  broken  by  the  English  early  in  1898,  and  the  reflux 
movement  has  now  entirely  subsided,  and  cannot  be  revived, 
the  disturbing  elements  having  been  extinguished  at  the 
fountain-head  by  the  absorption  of  Zuluiand.  itself  in  the 
British  Colony  of  Natal  (1895). 

Nowhere  have  patriarchal  institutions  been  more  highly 
developed  than  among  the  Zulu-Xosas,  all  of  whom,  except 
perhaps  the  Ama-Fingus  and  some  other  broken 
Gene^ogfes         groups,  claim  direct  descent  from  some  epony- 
mous hero  or  mythical  founder  of  the  tribe.     Thus 

1  See  the  admirable  monograph  on  the  Ba-Thanga,  by  H.  A.  Junod,  The  Life 
of  a  South  Affican  Tribe,  1,912. 

^  Robert  Codirington  tells  us  that  these  A-Ngoni  (Aba-Ngoni)  spring  from 
a  Zulu  tribe  which  crossed  the  Zambesi  about  1825,  and  established  themselves 
south-east  <rf  L.  Tanganyika,  but  later  migrated  to  the  uplainds  west  of  L.  Nyasa, 
where  they  founded  three  petty  states.  Others  went  east  of  the  Livingstone  range, 
and  are  here  still  knowm  as  Magwangwara.  But  all  became  gradually  assimilated  . 
to  the  surrounding  papulations.  Intermarrying  with  the  women  of  the  country 
they  preserve  their  speedi,  dress,  and  usages  for  the  first  generation  in  a  slightly 
modified  form,  although  the  language  of  daily  intercourse  is  that  of  the  mothers. 
Then  this  dass  becomes  the  aristocracy  of  the  whole  nation,  w^ich  henceforth 
comiprises  a  great  part  of  the  aborigines  ruled  by  a  ipriyileged-casiteof  Zulu  origin, 
"perpetuated  almost  entirely  among  themselves"  ("CMitrjal  Angoniland,"  Geograph. 
Jour.  May,  1898,  p.  512).  See  A.  Werner,  The  Natives  of  British  Central  Africa, 
1906. 


IV] 


The  African  Negro :  II. 


103 


in  the  national  traditions  Chaka  was  seventh  in  descent  from 
a  legendary  chief  Zulu,  from  whom  they  take  the  name  of 
Abantu  ba-Kwa-Zulu,  that  is  "  People  of  Zulu's  Land," 
although  the  true  mother-tribe  appear  to  have  beeij  the  now 
extinct  Ama-Ntombela.  Once  the  supremacy  and  prestige 
of  Chaka's  tribe  were  established,  all  the  others,  as  they  were 
successively  reduced,  claimed  also  to  be  true  Zulus,  and  as 
the  same  process  went  on  in  the  far  north,  the  teriin  Zulu  has 
now  in  many  cases  come  to  imply  political  rather  than  blood 
relationship.  Here  we  have  an  object  lesson,  by  which  the 
ethnical  value  of  such  names  as  "  Aryan,"  "  Kelt,"  "  Briton," 
"  Slav,"  etc.  may  be  gauged  in  other  regions. 

So  also  most  of  the  southern  section  claim  as  their  founder 
and  ancestor  a  certain  Xosa,  sprung  from  Zuide,  who  may 
have  flourished  about  1 500,  and  whom  the  Ama-Tembus  and 
Ama-Mpondos  also  regard  as  their  progenitor.  Thus  the 
whole  section  is  connected,  but  not^  in  the  direct  line,  with  the 
Xosas,  who  trace  their  lineage  from  Galeka  and  Khakhabe, 
sons  of  Palo,  who  is  said  to  have  died  about  1 780,  and  wg.s " 
himself  tenth  in  direct  descent  from  Xosa.  \Ve  thus  get 
a  genealogical  table  as  under,  which  gives  his  proper  place  in 
the  Family  Tree  to  nearly  every  historical  "Kafir"  chief  in 
Cape  Colony,  where  ignorance  of  these  relations  caused  much 
bloodshed  during  the  early  Kafir  wars  : 


Zuide  (1500?) 

Tembu 

Ama-Tembus 
.(Tembookies) 

Xosa  (1530?) 

Palo  (1780?) 

1 

Mpondo 

Mpondumisi 

(Mpondps) 

Galeka 

1 
Klanta 

Hinza 

KreU 

Khakhabe 

Omlao 

Gika  (ob.  1828) 

1 
Macomo 

Sandili 

Mbalu 

r 

Gwali 

1 
Velelo 

1 
Baxa 

Ndhlambe 

, ' 

Ama-Ndblambe§ 
(Tsjatpbies) 

Ama-Galekas 

Y 

Ama-Gaikas 

Ama-Mbalus 

But  all,  both  northern  Zulus  and  southern  Xosas,  are 
essentially  one  people  in  speech,  physique,  us^iges  and  social 
institutions.     The  hair  is  uniformly  of  a  some^  .    ■ 

what  frizzly  texture,  the  colour  of  a  light  or  clear       ^^^^    ^^' 


I04  Man  :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

brown  amongst  the  Ama-Tembus,  but  elsewhere  very  dark, 

the  Swazis  being  almost  "blue-black";   the  head  decidedly 

long  (72-5)  and  high  (i95'8) ;  nose  variable,  both  Negroid  and 

perfectly  regular ;  height  above  the  mean  175  m.  to  i*8  m. 

(5  ft.  9  in.  to  5  ft.  1 1  in.) ;  figure  shapely  and  muscular,  though 

Fritsch's  measurements  show  that  it  is  sometimes  far  from 

the  almost  ideal  standard  of  beauty  with  which  some  early 

observers  have  credited  them. 

Mentally  the  Zulu-Xosas  stand  much  higher  than  the  true 

Negro,   as    shown   especially  in    their  political  organisation, 

which,  before  the  development  of  Dingiswayo's 

o?^ri;=,fj««        military  system  under  European  influences,  was 
Organisation.  ,  •     /    /  ■       ,     1  ^1  ^     11    j  V 

a  kmd  01  patriarchal  monarchy  controlled  by  a 
powerful  aristocracy.  The  nation  was  grouped  in  tribes 
connected  by  the  ties  of  blood  and  ruled  by  the  hereditary 
inkose,  or  feudal  chief,  who  was  supreme,  with  power  of  life 
and  death,  within  his  own  jyrisdiction.  Against  his  mandates, 
however,  the  nobles  could  protest  in  council,  and  it  was  in  fact 
their  decisions  that  established  precedents  and  the  traditional 

code  of  common  law.  "This  common  law  is 
L^'"'"°"  ^^   adapted   to   a  people   in  a  rude  state  of 

society.  It  holds  everyone  accused  of  crime 
guilty  unless  he  can  prove  himself  innocent ;  it  makes  the 
head  of  the  family  responsible  for  the  conduct  of  all  its 
branches,  the  village  collectively  for  all  resident  in  it,  and  the 
clan  for  each  of  its  villages.  For  the  administration  of  the 
law  there  are  courts  of  various  grades,  from  any  of  which  an 
appeal  may  be  taken  to  the  Supreme  Council,  presided  over 
by  the  paramount  chief,  who  is  not  only  the  ruler  but  also  the 
father  of  the  peopled" 

In  the  interior,  between  the  southern  coast  ranges  and  the 
Zambesi,   the   Hottentot   and    Bushman  aborigines  were  in 

prehistoric  ages  almost  everywhere  displaced  or 
Ma-Katakasr"**   reduced  to  servitude  by  other  Bantu  peoples 

such  as  the  Ma-Kalakas  and  Ma-Shonas,  the 
Be-Chuanas  and  the  kindred  Ba-Sutos.  Of  these  the  first 
arrivals  (from  the  north)  appear  to  have  been  the  Ma-Shonas 
and  Ma-Kalakas,  who  were  being  slowly  "eaten  up"  by  the 

'  Rev.  J.  Macdonald,  Light  in  Africa,  p.  194.  Among  recent  works  on  the 
Zulu-Xosa  tribes  may  be  mentioned  Dudley  Kidd,  The  Essential  Kafir,  1904, 
Savage  Childhood,  1905  ;  H.  A.  Junod,  The  Life  of  a  South  African  TfHbe  (Ba- 
Thonga),  1912-3 ;  G.  W.  Stow  and  G.  M.  Theal,  The  Native  Races  of  South 
Africa,  1905. 


iv]  The  African  Negro  :  II.  105 

Ma-Tabili   when   the   process   was   arrested   by   the   timely 
intervention  of  the  English  in  Rhodesia. 

Both  nations  are  industrious  tillers  of  the  soil,  skilled  in 
metal-work  and  in    mining   operations,   being'  probably  the 
direct  descendants  of  the  natives,  whose  great 
^\>:\d.  Monomotapa,  i.e.  "Lord  of  the  Mines,"  as   JJtaSyth 
I  mterpret  the  word\  ruled  over  the  Manica  and 
surrounding  auriferous    districts    when    the   Portuguese  first 
reached  Sofala  early  in  the  sixteenth  century.     Apparently 
for  political  reasons'  this  Monomotapa  was  later  transformed 
by  them  from  a  monarch  to  a  monarchy,  the  vast  empire  of 
Monomotapaland,  which  was  supposed  to  comprise  pretty  well 
everything  south  of  the  Zambesi,  but,  having  no  existence, 
has  for  the  last  two  hundred  years  eluded  the  diligent  search 
of  historical  geographers. 

But  some  centuries  before  the  arrival  of  the  Portuguese 
the  Ma-Kalakas  with  the  kindred  Ba-Nyai,  Ba-Senga  and 
others,  may  well  have  been  at  work  in  the  mines  of  this 
auriferous  region,  in  the  service  of  the  builders 
of  the  Zimbabwe  ruins  explored  and  described  Rj^f""''^''''* 
by  the  late  Theodore  Bent',  and  by  him  and 
many  others  attributed  to  some  ancient  cultured  people  of 
South  Arabia.  This  theory  of  prehistoric  Oriental  origin  was 
supported  by  a  calculation  of  the  orientation  of  the  Zimbabwe 
"  temple,"  by  reports  of  inscriptions  and  emblems  suggesting 
"  Phoenician  rites,"  and  by  the  discovery,  during  excavation, 
of  foreign  objects.  Later  investigation,  however,  showed  that 
the  orientation  was  based  on  inexact  measurements ;  no 
authentic  inscriptions  were  found  either  at  Zimbabwe  or 
elsewhere  in  connection  with  the  ruins  ;  none  of  the  objects 
discovered  in  the  course  of  the  excavations  could  be  recognised 
as  more  than  a  few  centuries  old,  while  those  that  were  not 
demonstrably  foreign  imports  were  of  African  type.  In  1905 
a  scientific  exploration  of  the  ruins  placed  these  facts  beyond 

'  From  Mwana,  lord,  master,  and  tapa,  to  dig,  both  common  Bantu  words. 

^  The  point  was  that  Portugal  had  made  treaties  with  this  mythical  State,  in 
virtue  of  which  she  claimed  in  the  "scramble  for  Africa"  all  the  hinterlands 
behind  her  possessions  on  the  east  and  west  coasts  (Mozambique  and  Angola),  in 
fact  all  South  Africa  between  the  Orange  and  Zambesi  rivers.  Further  details  on 
the  "  Monomotapa  Question"  will  be  found  in  my  monograph  on  "The  Portuguese 
in  South  Africa"  in  Murray's  South  Africa,  from  Arab  Domination  to  British 
Rule,  1891,  p.  II  sq.  Five  years  later  Mr  G.  McCall  Theal  also  discovered,  no 
doubt  independently,  the  mythical  character  of  Monomotapaland  in  his  book  on 
The  Portuguese  in  South  Africa,  1896. 

'  Proc.  R.  Geogr.  Soc.  May,  1892,  and  The  Ruined  Cities  of  Mashonaland,  1892. 


io6  Man :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

dispute.  The  medieval  objects  were  found  in  such  positions 
as  to  be  necessarily  contemporaneous  with  the  foundation  of 
the  buildings,  all  of  which  could  be  attributed  to  the  same 
period.  Finally  it  was  established  that  the  plan  and  con- 
struction of  Zimbabwe  instead  of  being  unique,  as  was 
formerly  supposed,  only  differed  from  other  Rhodesian  ruins 
in  dimensions  and  extent.  The  explorers  felt  confident  that 
the  buildings  were  not  earlier  than  the  fourteenth  or  fifteenth 
century  a.d.,  and  that  the  builders  were  the  Bantu  people, 
remains  of  whose  stone-faced  kraals  are  found  at  so  many 
places  between  the  Limpopo  and  the  Zambesi.  Their  con- 
clusions, however,  have  not  met  with  universal  acceptance'. 

With  the  Be-Chuanas,  whose  territory  extends  from  the 

Orange  river  to  Lake  Ngami  and  includes  Basutoland  with 

a  great  part  of  the  Transvaal,  we  again  meet  a  people  at  the 

Th  B  rh  totemic  stage  of  culture.      Here  the  eponymous 

uanas.   j^gj.Qgg    ^f    ^^    Zulu-Xosas    are    replaced    by 

baboons,  fishes,  elephants,  and  other  animals  from  which  the 
various  tribal  groups  claim  descent.  The  animal  in  question 
is  called  \}ci&  siboko  oi xh&  tribe  and  is  held  in  especial  reverence, 
members  (as  a  rule)  refraining  from  killing  or  eating  it. 
Many  tribes  take  their  name  from  -their  siboko,  thus  the 
Ba-Tlapin,  "they  of  the  fish,"  Ba-Kuena,  "they  of  the  croco- 
dile." The  siboko  of  the  Ba-Rolong,  who  as  a  tribe  are 
accomplished  smiths,  is  not  an  animal,  but  the  metal  iron^ 

With  a  section  of  the  great  Be-Chuana  family,  the  Ba-Suto, 
and  the  Ba-Rotse  is  connected  one  of  the  most  remarkable 

episodes  in  the  turbulent  history  of  the  South 
Empire!'  ''^^      African  peoples  during  the  nineteenth  century. 

Many  years  ago  an  offshoot  of  the   Ba-Rotse 

migrated  to  the  Middle  Zambesi  above  the  Victoria  Falls, 

where  they  founded  a  powerful  state,  the  "  Barotse  (Marotse) 

^  Empire,"    which    despite    a  temporary    eclipse 

TheMa-Kololo     ^^.-ii  -^  u   v-  u  .     .       i  -ru 

Episode.  ^^^    exists    as    a    British    protectorate.       1  he 

eclipse  was  caused  by  another  niigfation  north- 
wards of  a  great  body  of  Ma-Kololp,  a  branch  of  the  Ba-Suto, 

^  D.  RsLndall-MacIver,  M.etii(ieval  Rhodma,  I9P6-  But  R.  N..  Hall  strongly 
cojanbats  his  views,  Grm^  Zimbabwe,  1905,  Pr^ffistofic  RfwdeHa,  1909, 5^14  Soufh 
4-frican  Journal  of  Science,  May,  1912.  H.  H.  Johnstop  says,  "I  see  nothing 
Loheffently  improbable  in  tbje  finding  of  gold  by  prota-^rabs  i^i  tlje  south-eastern 
part  of  Zaijobezia  J  nor  in  the  pre-lslamic  Arab  origin  ,of  Zimb,9,bw.e,"  p.  396,  "A 
Survey  of  the  Ethnography  of  Ainca."  fourn-  Roy.  Anthr.  Inst,  xijjl.  1913. 

^  G.  W.  Stow,  Thf  Native  Raxes  of  South  Africa,  1905. 


w]  The  African  Negro :  //.  107 

who  under  the  renowned  chief  Sebituane  reached  the  Zam- 
besi about  1835  and  overthrew  the  Barotse  dynasty,  reducing 
the  natives  to  a  state  of  servitude. 

But  after  the  death  of  Sebituane's  successor,  Livingstone's 
Sekeletu,  the  Ba-Rotse,  taking  advantage  of  their  oppressors' 
dynastic  rivalries,  suddenly  revolted,  and  after  exterminating 
the  Ma-Kololo  almost  to  the  last  man,  reconstituted  the 
empire  on  a  stronger  footing  than  ever.  It  now  comprises  an 
area  of  some  250,000  square  miles  between  the  Chobe  and 
the  Kafukwe  affluents^  with  a  population  vaguely  estimated 
at  over  1,000,000,  including  the  savage  Ba-Shukulumbwe 
tribes  of  the  Kafukwe  basin  reduced  in  iSgi'. 

Yet,  short  as  was  the  Ma-Kololo  rule  (1835-70),  it  was 
long  enough  to  impose  their  language  on  the  vanquished 
Ba-Rotsel  Hence  the  curious  phenomenon  now  witnessed 
about  the  Middle  Zambesi,  where  the  Ma-Kololo  have 
disappeared,  while  their  Sesuto  speech  remains  the  common 
medium  of  intercourse  throughout  the  Barotse  empire.  How 
often  have  analogous  shiftings  and  dislocations  taken  place  in 
the  course  of  ages  in  other  paits  of  the  world !  And  in  the 
light  of  such  lessons  how  cautious  ethnographists  should  be  in 
arguing  from  speech  to  race,  and  drawing  conclusions  from 
these  or  similar  surface  relations  ! 

Referring  to  these  stirring  events,  Mackenzie  writes : 
"  Thus  perished  the  Makololo  from  among  the  number  of 
South  African  tribes.  No  one  can  put  his  finger  on  the  map 
of  Africa  and  say,  'Here  dwell  the  Makololo*.'"  This  will 
puzzle  many  who  since  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century 
have  repeatedly  heard  of,  and  even  been  in  unpleasantly  close 
contact  with,  Ma-Koldlo  so  called,  not  indeed  in  Barotseland, 
but  lower  down  the  Zambesi  about  its  Shir6  affluent. 

The  explanation  of  the  seeming  contradiction  is  given  by 
another  incident,  which  is  also  not  without  ethnical  signifi- 
cance. From  Livingstone's  Journals  we  learn  that  in  1859 
he  was  accompanied  to  the  east  coast  by  a  small  party  of 
Ma-Kololo  and  others,  sent  by  his  friend  Sekeletu  in  quest  of 
a  cure  for  leproay,   from  which   the  emperor  was  suffering. 

1  The  British  Protectorate  w^  limited  in  1905  to  about  182,000  square  miles. 

2  Cf.  A.  St  H.  Gibbons,  Africa  South  to  North  through  Marotseland,   1904, 
and  C.  W.  Mackintosh,  Coillard  of  the  Zambesi,  1907,  with  a  bibliography. 

.'  The  Ma-Kololo  gave  the  Ba-Rotse  their  present  name.    They  were  originally 
Aalui,  but  the  conquerors  called  them  Ma-Rotse,  pepple  of  the  plain. 
*  Ten  Years  North  of  the  Orange  River. 


io8  Man  :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

These  Ma-Kololo,  hearing  of  the  Ba-Rotse  revolt,  wisely 
stopped  on  their  return  journey  at  the  Shire  confluence,  and 
through  the  prestige  of  their  name  have  here  succeeded  in 
founding  several  so-called  "  Makololo  States,"  which  still  exist, 
and  have  from  time  to  time  given  considerable  trouble  to  the 
administrators  of  British  Central  Africa.  But  how  true  are 
Mackenzie's  words,  if  the  political  be  separated  from  the 
ethnical  relations,  may  be  judged  from  the  fact  that  of  the 
original  founders  of  these  petty  Shire  states  only  two  were 
full-blood  Ma-Kololo.  All  the  others  were,  I  believe, 
Ba-Rotse,  Ba-Toka,  or  Ba-Tonga,  these  akin  to  the  savage 
Ba-Shukulumbwe. 

Thus  the  Ma-Kololo  live  on,  in  their  speech  above  the 
Victoria  Falls,  in  their  name  below  the  Victoria  Falls,  and  it 

is  only  from  history  we  know  that  since  about 
Extinction""*      1870   the   whole   nation    has    been    completely 

wiped  out  everywhere  in  the  Zambesi  valley. 
But  even  amongst  cultured  peoples  history  goes  back  a  very 
little  way,  10,000  years  at  most  anywhere.  What  changes 
and  shiftings  may,  therefore,  have  elsewhere  also  taken  place 
during  prehistoric  ages,  all  knowledge  of  which  is  now  past 
recovery M 

Few  Bantu  peoples  have  lent  a  readier  ear  to  the  teachings 
of  Christian  propagandists  than  the  Xosa,  Ba-Suto,  and 
Be-Chuana  natives.  Several  stations  in  the  heart  of  Kafir- 
land — Blythswood,  Somerville,  Lovedale,  and  others — have 
for  some  time  been  self-supporting,  and  prejudice  alone  would 

deny  that  they  have  worked  for  good  amongst 
Chr^anity  ^^e  surrounding  Gaika,  Galeka,  and  Fingo  tribes, 
among  the  Sogo,  a  member  of  the  Blythswood  community. 

Southern  j^g^g   produced    a   translation   of   the    Pilzrinis 

Bantus.  „J^  ,  -iii  ttmti         ii* 

Frogress,  described  by  J.  Macdonald  as  "a 
marvel  of  accuracy  and  lucidity  of  expression^ " ;  numerous 
village  schools  are  eagerly  attended,  and  much  land  has  been 
brought  under  intelligent  cultivation. 

The  French  and  Swiss  Protestant  teachers  have  also 
achieved  great  things  in  Basutoland,  where  they  were 
welcomed  by  Moshesh,  the  fouflder  of  the  present  Basuto 
nation.     The  tribal  system   has  yielded  to  a  higher  social 

Cf.  G.  M.  Theal,  The  History  of  South  Africa  1908-9,  and  The  Beginning 
of  South  African  History,  1902. 
^  Op.  cit.  p.  47. 


iv]  The  African  Negro:  II.  109 

organisation,  and  the  Ba-Tau,  Ba-Puti,  and  several  other 
tribal  groups  have  been  merged  in  industrious  pastoral  and 
agricultural  communities  professing  a  somewhat  strict  form  of 
Protestant  Christianity,  and  entirely  forgetful  of  the  former 
heathen  practices  associated  with  witchcraft  and  ancestry- 
worship.  Moshesh  was  one  of  the  rare  instances  among  the 
Kafirs  of  a  leader  endowed  with  intellectual  gifts  which  placed 
him  on  a  level  with  Europeans.  He  governed  his  people 
wisely  and  well  for  nearly  fifty  years,  and  his  life-work  has  left 
a  permanent  mark  on  South  African  history  \ 

In  Bechuanaland  one  great  personality  dominates  the  social 
horizon.  Khama,  king  of  the  Ba-Mangwato  nation,  next  to 
the  Ba-Rotse  the  most  powerful  section  of  the 
Be-Chuana,  may  be  described  as  a  true  father 
of  his  people,  a  Christian  legislator  in  the  better  sense  of  the 
term,  and  an  enlightened  reformer  even  from  the  secular  point 
of  view. 

When  these  triumphs,  analogous  to  those  witnessed 
amongst  the  Lacustrians  and  in  other  parts  of  Bantuland, 
are  contrasted  with  the  dull  weight  of  resistance  everywhere 
opposed  by  the  full-blood  Negro  populations  to  any  progress 
beyond  their  present  low  level  of  culture,  we  are  the  better 
able  to  recognise  the  marked  intellectual  superiority  of  the 
negroid  Bantu  over  the  pure  black  element. 

West  of  Bechuanaland  the  continuity  of  the  Bantu  domain 
is  arrested  in  the  south  by  the  Hottentots,  who  still  hold  their 
ground  in  Namaqualand,  and  farther  north  by  the 
few  wandering  Bushman  groups  of  the  Kalahari    Ova-Herero 
desert.     Even  in  Damaraland,  which  is  mainly 
Bantu  territory,  there  are  interminglings  of  long  standing  that 
have  given  rise  to  much  ethnical  confusion.     The  Ova-Herero., 
who   were    here    dominant,    and    the    kindred    Ova-Mpo    of 
Ovampoland  bordering  on  the   Portuguese  possessions,  are 
undoubted   Bantus  of  somewhat  fine  physique, 
though  intellectually  not  specially  distinguished.    ^^^^  "'" 
Owing  to  the  character  of  the  country,  a  some- 
what arid,  level  steppe  between  the  hills  and  the  coast,  they 
are  often  collectively  called  "Cattle  Damaras,"  or  "  Damaras 
of  the  Plains,"  in  contradistinction  to  the  "  Hill  Damaras  "  of 
the  coast  ranges.     To  this  popular  nomenclature  is  due  the 
prevalent  confusion  regarding  these  aborigines.     The  term 

1  G.  Lagden,  The  Basutos,  1909. 


no  Man:   Past  and  Present  [ch. 

"Damara"  is  of  Hottentot  origin,  and  is  not  recognised  by 
the  local  tribes,  who  all  call  themselves  Ova-Herero,  that  is, 
"  Merry  People."  But  there  is  a  marked  difference  between 
the  lowlanders  and  the  highlanders,  the  latter,  that  is,  the 
"  Hill  Damaras,"  having  a  strong  strain  of  Hottentot  blood, 
and  being  now  of  Hottentot  speech. 

The  whole  region  is  a  land  of  transition  between  the  two 
races,  where  the  struggle  for  supremacy  was  scarcely  arrested 
by  the  temporary  intervention  of,  German  administrators. 
Though  annexed  by  Germany  in  1884,  fighting  continued  for 
ten  years  longer,  and,  breaking  out  again  in  1903,  was  not 
subdued  until  1908,  after  the  loss  to  Germany  of  5000  lives 
and  ;^i 5,000,000,  while  20,000  to  30,000  of  the  Herero  are 
'  estimated  to  have  perished.  Under  the  rule  of  the  Union  of 
South  Africa  this  maltreatment  of  the  natives  will  never  occur 
again.  Clearness  would  be  gained  by  substituting  for  Hill 
'Damaras  the  expression  Ova-Zorotu,  or  "  Hillmen,"  as  they 
are  called  by  their  neighbours  of  the  plains,  who  should  of 
course  be  called  Hereros  to  the  absolute  exclusion  of  the 
expression  "Cattle  Damaras."  These  Hereros  show  a 
singular  dislike  for  salt ;  the  peculiarity,  however,  can  scarcely 
be  racial,  as  it  is  shared  in  also  by  their  cattle,  and  may  be  due 
to  the  heavy  vapours,  perhaps  slightly  charged  with  saline 
particles,  which  hang  so  frequently  over  the  coastlarids. 

No  very  sharp  ethnical  line  can  be  drawn  between 
Portuguese  West  Africa  and  the  contiguous  portion  of  the 
Belgian  Congo  south  and  west  of  the  main  stream.  In  the 
coastlands  between  the  Cunene  and  the  Coftgo  estuary  a  few 
groups,  such  as  the  historical  Eshi-Kongo^  and  the  Kabindas, 
have  developed  some  marked  characteristics  under  European 
influencesy  just  as  have  the  cannibal  Ma-Nyema  of  the  Upper 
Congo  through  association  with  the  Nubian- Arab  slave- 
raiders.  But  with  the  exception  of  the  Ba-Shilange,  the 
Ba.-Lolo  and  one  or  two  others,  much  the  same  physical  and 
mental  traits  are  everywhere  presented  by  the  numerous 
Bantu  populations  within  the  great  bend  of  the  Congo. 

The  people  who  give  their  name  to  this  river  present 

some  points  of  special  interest.     Jt  is  commonly  supposed  that 

_,       .  ^  the  old   "Kongo  Empire"    was   a  creation  of 

fitaS         °    *h^.  Portuguese.     But    Mbanza,   afterwards  re- 

cbristened    "San    Salvador,"    was   already   the 

*  Variously  termed  Ba-Kongo,  Bashi-Kongo  or  Ba-Fiot. 


iv]  The  African  Negro:  II.  in 

capital  of  a  powerful  state  when  it  was  first  visited  by  the 
expedition  of  1491,  from  which  time  date  its  relations  with 
Portugal.  At  first  the  Catholic  missionaries  had  great  success, 
thousands  were  at  least  baptised,  and  for  a  moment  it  seemed 
as  if  all  the  Congo  lands  were  being  swept  into  the  fold. 
There  were  great  rejoicings  on  the  conversion  of  the  Mfumu 
("Emperor")  himself,  on  whom  were  lavished  honours  and 
Portuguese  titles  still  borne  by  his  present  degenerate 
descendant,  the  Portuguese  state  pensioner,  "Dom  Pedro' V, 
Catholic  King  of  Kongo  and  its  Dependencies."  But 
Christianity  never  Struck  very  deep  roots,  and,  except  in  the 
vicinity  of  the  Imperial  and  vassal  Courts,  heathenish  practices 
of  the  worst  description  were  continued  down  to  the  middle  of 
the  nineteenth  century.  About  1870  fresh  efforts  w6re  made 
both  by  Protestant  and  Catholic  missionaries  to  re-convert 
the  people,  who  had  little  to  remind  them  of  their  former  faith 
except  the  ruins  of  the  cathedral  of  San  Salvador,  crucifixes, 
banners,  and  other  religious  emblems  handed  down  as  heir- 
looms and  regarded  as  potent  fetishes  by  their  owners.  A  like 
fate,  it  may  be  incidentally  mentioned,  has  overtaken  the 
efforts  of  the  Portuguese  missionaries  to  evangelise  the  natives 
of  the  east  coast,  where  little  now  survives  of  their  teachings 
but  snatches  of  unintelligible  songs  to  the  Blessed  Virgin,  such 
as  that  still  chanted  by  the  Lower  Zambesi  boatmen  and 
recorded  by  Mrs  Pringle  : — 

Sinai  mattia,  sina  matnai, 

Sina  mama  Maria,  sina  mamai... 

Mary,  I'm  alone,  mother  I  have  nofte. 

Mother  I  have  none,  she  and  father  both  are  gone,  etc.' 

It  is  probable  that  at  some  remote  period  the  ruling  race 
reached  the  west  coast  from  the  north-east,  and  imposed  their 
Bantu  speech  on  the  rude  aborigines,  by  whom  ^ 

it  is  still  spoken  over  a  wide  tract  of  country  on  LanguagI" 
both  sides  of  the  Lower  Congo.  It  is  an 
extremely  pure  and  somewhat  archaic  member  of  the  Bantu 
family,  and  W.  Holman  Bentley,  our  best  authority  on  the 
subject,  is  enthusiastic  in  praise  of  its  "richness,  flexibility, 
exactness,  subtlety  of  idea,  and  nicety  of  expression/'  a 
language  superior  to  the  people  thettfselves,  *'  ilHtefatfe  folk 
with  an  elaborate  and  regular  grammatical  system  of  speech  of 

>  Towards  the  Mountains  of  the  Moon,  1884,  p.  12S. 


1 1 2  Man :  Past  and  Present  [ch, 

such  subtlety  and  exactness  of  idea  that  its  daily  use  is  in 
itself  an  education'."  Kishi-Kongo  has  the  distinction  of 
being  the  first  Bantu  tongue  ever  reduced  to  written  form, 
the  oldest  known  work  in  the  language  being  a  treatise  on 
Christian  Doctrine  published  in  Lisbon  in  1624.  Since  that 
time  the  speech  of  the  "  Mociconghi,"  as  Pigafetta  calls  them^ 
has  undergone  but  slight  phonetic  or  other  change,  which  is 
all  the  more  surprising  when  we  consider  the 
The  Kongo         rudeness   of   the    present    Mushi-Kongos    and 

Aborigines.  ^7      .  .„  .  °., 

Others  by  whom  it  is  still  spoken  with  con- 
siderable uniformity.  Some  of  these  believe  themselves 
sprung  from  trees,  as  if  they  had  still  reminiscences  of  the 
arboreal  habits  of  a  pithecoid  ancestry. 

Amongst  the  neighbouring  Ba-Mba,  whose  sobas  were 
formerly  ex  officio  Commanders-in-chief  of  the  Empire,  still 
dwells  a  potent  being,  who  is  invisible  to  everybody,  and 
although  mortal  never  dies,  or  at  least  after  each  dissolution 
springs  again  into  life  from  his  remains  gathered  up  by  the 
Perverted  priests.     All  the  young  men  of  the  tribe  undergo 

Christian  a  similar  transformation,   being  thrown  into  a 

Doctrines.  death-like    trance    by   the    magic    arts    of   the 

medicine-man,  and  then  resuscitated  after  three  days.  The 
power  of  causing  the  cataleptic  sleep  is  said  really  to  exist, 
and  these  strange  rites,  unknown  elsewhere,  are  probably  to 
be  connected  with  the  resurrection  of  Christ  after  three  days 
and  of  everybody  on  the  last  day  as  preached  by  the  early 
Portuguese  evangelists.  A  volume  might  be  written  on  the 
strange  distortions  of  Christian  doctrines  amongst  savage 
peoples  unable  to  grasp  their  true  inwardness. 

In  Angola  the  Portuguese  distinguish  between  the  Pretos, 
that  is,  the  "  civilised,"  and  the  Negros,  or  unreclaimed  natives. 
The  Kabindas  ^^^  t)Oth  terms  mean  the  same  thing,  as 
and  "Black  also  does  Ba-Fiot^,  "Black  People,"  which  is 
Jews."  applied  in  an  arbitrary  way  both  to  the   Eshi- 

Kongos  and  their  near  relations,  the  Kabindas  of  the  Portuguese 

1  Dictionary  and  Grammar  of  the  Kongo  Language,  1887,  p.  xxiii.  F.  Starr 
has  published  a  Bibliography  of  the  Congo  Languages,  Bull,  v.,  Dept.  of  Anthro- 
pology, University  of  Chicago,  igo8. 

2  "Li  Mociconghi  cosi  nomati  nel  suo  proprio  idioma  gli  abitanti  del  reame 
di  Congo"  {Relatione,  etc.,  Rome,  1591,  p.  68).  This  form  is  remarkable,  being 
singular  (Moci=Mushi)  instead  of  plural  {Eshi) ;  yet  it  is  still  currently  applied 
to  the  rude  "  Mushi-Kongos  "  on  the  south  side  of  the  estuary.  Their  real  name 
however  is  Bashi-Kongo.     See  Brit.  Mus.  Ethnog.  Handbook,  p.  219. 

'  Often  written  Ba-Fiort  with  an  intrusive  r. 


iv]  The  African  Negro :  II.  113 

enclave  north  of  the  Lower  Congo.  These  Kabindas,  so 
named  from  the  seaport  of  that  name  on  the  Loango  coast, 
are  an  extremely  Intelligent,  energetic,  and  enterprising  people, 
daring  seafarers,  and  active  traders.  But  they  complain  of 
the  keen  rivalry  of  another  dark  people,  the  Judeos  Pretos,  or 
"Black  Jews,"  who  call  themselves  Ma-Vambu,  and  whose 
hooked  nose  combined  with  other  peculiarities  has  earned  for 
them  their  Portuguese  name.  The  Kabindas  say  that  these 
"  Semitic  Negroes  "  were  specially  created  for  the  punishment 
of  other  unscrupulous  dealers  by  their  ruinous  competition 
in  trade. 

A  great  part  of  the  vast  region  within  the  bend  of  the 
Congo  is  occupied  by  the  Ba-Luba  people,  whose  numerous 
branches — Ba-Sange  and  Ba-Songe  about  the  sources  of  the 
Sankuru,  Ba-Shilange  {Tushilange)  about  the  Lulua-Kassai 
confluence,  and  many  others — extend  all  the  way  from  the 
Kwango  basin  to  Manyemaland.  Most  of  these  are  Bantus 
of  the  average  type,  fairly  intelligent,  industrious  and  specially 
noted  for  their  skill  in  iron  and  copper  work.  Iron  ores  are 
widely  diffused  and  the  copper  comes  from  the  famous 
mines  of  the  Katanga  district,  of  which  King  Mzidi  and  his 
Wa-Nyamwezi  followers  were  dispossessed  by  the  Congo 
Free  State  in  1892'. 

Special  attention  is  claimed  by  the  Ba-Shilange  nation, 
for  Qur  knowledge  of  whom  we  are  indebted  chiefly  to 
C.  S.  Latrobe  Bateman'.  These  are  the  people  -j-he  Tushiiange 
whom  Wissmann  had  already  referred  to  as  "  a  Bhang- 
nation  of  thinkers  with  the  interrogative  '  why '  S^o^^ers. 
constantly  on  their  lips."  Bateman  also  describes  them  as 
"  thoroughly  honest,  brave  to  foolhardiness,  and  faithful  to 
each  other.  They  are  prejudiced  in  favour  of  foreign  customs 
and  spontaneously  copy  the  usages  of  civilisation.  They  are 
the  only  African  tribe  among  whom  1  have  observed  anything 

1  Under  Belgian  administration  much  ethnological  work  has  been  undertaken, 
and  published  in  the  Annales  du  Musie  du  Congo,  notably  the  magnificent  mono- 
graph on  the  Bushongo  (Bakubd)  by  E.  Torday  and  T.  A.  Joyce,  191 1.  See  also 
H.  H.  Johnston,  George  Grenfell  and  the  Congo,  1908  ;  M.  W.  Hilton-Simpson, 
Land  and  Peoples  of  the  Kasai,  191 1  ;  E.  Torday,  Camp  and  Tramp  in  African 
Wilds,  1913 ;  J.  H.  Weeks,  Among  Congo  Cannibals,  1913,  and  Among  the 
Primitive  Bakongo,  1914  ;  and  Adolf  Friedrich,  Duke  of  Mecklenburg,  From  the 
Congo  to  the  Niger  and  the  Nile,  191 3. 

''■  The  First  Ascent  of  the  Kassai,  1889,  p.  20  sq.  See  also  my  communication 
to  the  Academy,  April  6,  1889,  and  Africa  (Stanford's  Compendium),  1895,  Vol.  n. 
p.  117  sq. 

K.  8 


114  Man:  Past  and  Present  [en. 

like  a  becoming  conjugal  affection  and  regard.  To  say  nothing 
of  such  recommendations  as  theii"  emancipation  from  fetishism, 
their  ancient  abandonment  of  cannibalism,  and  their  national 
unity  under  the  sway  of  a  really  princely  prince  (Kalemba), 
I  believe  them  to  be  the  most  open  to  the  best  influences  of 
civilisation  of  any  African  tribe  whatsoever'.  Their  territory 
about  the  Lulua,  affluent  of  the  Kassai,  is  the  so-calljsd  Lubuka, 
or  land  of  "  Friendship,"  the  theatre  of  a  remarkable  social 
revolution,  carried  out  independently  of  all  European  influences, 
in  fact  before  the  arrival  of  any  whites  on  the  scene.  It  was 
initiated  by  the  secret  brotherhood  of  the  Bena-Riamba,  or 
"Sons  of  Hemp,"  established  about   1870,  when  the  nation 

became  divided  into  two  parties  over  the  question 
-Progressives  "   ^^  throwing  the  country  open  to  foreign  trade. 

The  king  having  sided  with  the  "  Progressives," 
the  "Conservatives"  were  worsted  with  much  bloodshed, 
whereupon  the  barriers  of  seclusion  wet;e  swept  away.  Trading  , 
relations  being  at  once  established  with  the  outer  world,  the 
custom  of  riamba  (bhang)  smoking  was  unfortunately  intro- 
duced through  the  Swahili  traders  from  Zanzibar.  The 
practice  itself  soon  becarhe  associated  with  mystic  rites,  and 
was  followed  by  a  general  deterioration  of  morals. throughout 
Tushilangeland . 

North  of  the  Ba-Luba  follows  the  great  Ba-Lolo  nation, 
whose  domain  comprises  nearly  the  whole  of  the  region  between 

the  equator  and  the  left  bank  of  the  Congo,  and 
"Men^nron  "    whose  Kilolo  speech  is  still  more  widely  diffused, 

being  spoken  by  perhaps  10,000,000  within  the 
horseshoe  bend.  These  "Men  of  Iron"  in  the  sense  of 
Cromwell's  "  Ironsides,"  or  "Workers  in  Iron,"  as  the  name 
has  been  diversely  interpreted  (from  lolo,  iron),  may  not  be 
all  that  they  have  been  depicted  by  the  glowing  pen  of 
Mrs  H.  Grattan  Guinness'';  but  nobody  will  deny  their  claim 
to  be  regarded  as  physically,  if  not  mentally,  one  of  the  finest 
Bantu  races.  But  for  the  strain  of  Negro  blood  betrayed  by 
the  tumid  under  lip,  frizzly  hair,  and  wide  nostrils,  many  might 
pass  for  averi^e  Hamites  with-  high  forehead,  straight  or 
aquiline  nose,  bright  eye,  and  intelligent  expression.  They 
appear  to  have  migrated  about  a  hundred  years  ago  from  the 
east  to  their  present  homes,  where  they  have  cleared  the  land 

1  op.  cit.  p.  20. 

^  The  New  World  of  Central  Africa,  1890,  p.  466  sq. 


I v]  The  African  Negro :  II.  115 

both  of  its  forests  and  the  aborigines,  brought  extensive  tracts 
under  cultivation,  and  laid  out  towns  in  the  American  chess- 
board fashion,  but  with  the  houses  so  wide  apart  that  it  takes 
hours  to  traverse  them.  They  are  skilled  in  many  crafts, 
and  understand  the  division-of-labour  principle,  "  farmers, 
gardeners,  smiths,  boatbuilders,  weavers,  cabinet-makers, 
armourers,  warriors,  and  speakers  being  already  differentiated 
amongst  them'." 

From  the  east  or  north-east  a'  great  stream  of  migration 
has  also  for  many  years  been  setting  right  across  the  cannibal 
zone  to  the  west  coast  between  the  Ogowai  and      .j-j^^  ^^^^ 
Cameruns   estuary.       Some    of  these    cannibal      Equatorial 
bands,  collectively    known    as    Fans,   Pahuins,       Bantus. 
iMpangwes^,    Oshyebas   and    by    other    names,    have    already 
swarmed  into  the  Gabiin  and  Lower  Ogowai  districts,  where 
they  have  caused  a  considerable  dislocation  of  the  coast  tribes. 
They  are  at  present  the  dominant,  or  at  least  the  most  powerful 
and  dreaded,  people  in  West  Equatorial  Africa,  where  nothing 
but  the  intervention  of  the  French  administration   has  pre- 
vented    them     from     sweeping    the     Mpongwes,     Mbengas, 
Okandas,  Ashangos,  Ishogos,  Ba-Tekes\  and  the  other  mari- 
time populations  into  the  Atlantic.     Even  the  great  Ba-Kalai 
nation,  who  are  also  immigrants,  but  from  the      r   ^  1  ■ 
south-east,  and  who  arrived  some  time  before  the 
Fans,  have  been  hard  pressed  and  driven  forward  by  those 
fierce  anthropophagists.     They  are  still  numerous,  certainly 
over  100,000,   but  confined  mainly  to  the  left  bank  of  the 
Ogowai,  where  their  copper  and  iron  workers  have  given  up 
the  hopeless  struggle  to  compete  with  the  imported  European 
wares,  and  have  consequently  turned  to  trade.     The  Ba-Kalai 
are  now  the  chief  brokers  and    middlemen  throughout  the 
equatorial    coastlands,    and    their    pure    Bantu    language    is 
encroaching  on  the  Mpongwe  in  the  Ogowai  basin. 

When  first  heard  of  by  Bowdich  in  1819,  the  Paamways, 
as  he  calls  the  Fans,  were  an  inland  people  presenting  such 
marked    Hamitic  or  Caucasic   features  that  he    allied   them 

'  Op.  cit.  p.  471. 

*  Tltese  Mpangwe  savages  are  constantly  confused  with  the  Mpongwes  of  the 
Gabua,  a  settled  Bantu  people  who  have  been  long  in  close  contact,  and  on  friendly 
terms,  with  the  white  traders  and  missionaries  in  this  district. 

3  The  scanty  information  about  the  Ba-Teke  is  given,  with  references,  by 
E.  Torday  and  T.  A.  Joyce,  *'  Notes  on  the  Ethnography  of  the  Ba-Hnana," 
Journ.  Roy.  Anthr.  Inst,  xxxvi.  1906. 


ii6  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

with  the  West  Sudanese  Fulahs.  Since  then  there  have 
been    inevitable  interminglings,    by   which   the 

Fans^^*"''*^  type  has  no  doubt  been  modified,  though  still 
presenting    distinct    non- Bantu   or    non- Negro 

characters.     Burton,  Winwood  Reade,  Oscar  Lenz  and  most 

other  observers  separate  them  altogether  from  the  Negro 
connection,  describing  them  as  "well-built,  tall 

T'^ro°ri\  ^"^  ^^™'  "^^^  ^  ^^^^  brown  complexion,  often 
ype,  ngin.  j^f^iij^j^g  to  yellow,  well-developed  beard,  and 
very  prominent  frontal  bone  standing  out  in  a  semicircular 
protuberance  above  the  superciliary  arches.  Morally  also, 
they  differ  greatly  from  the  Negro,  being  remarkably  intelli- 
gent, truthful,  and  of  a  serious  temperament,  seldom  laughing 
or  indulging  in  the  wild  orgies  of  the  blacks\" 

M.  H.  Kingsley  adds  that  "the  average  height  in  mountain 
districts  is  five  feet  six  to  five  feet  eight  (i  '67  rh.  to  172  m.),  the 
difference  in  stature  between  men  and  women  not  being  great. 
Their  countenances  are  very  bright  and  expressive,  and  if  once 
you  have  been  among  them,  you  can  never  mistake  a  Fan. 
The  Fan  is  full  of  fire,  temper,  intelligence  and  go ;  very 
teachable,  rather  difficult  to  manage,  quick  to  take  offence 
and  utterly  indifferent  to  human  life."  The  cannibalism  of 
the  Fans,  though  a  prevalent  habit,  is  not,  according  to 
Miss  Kingsley,  due  to  sacrificial  motives.  "  He  does  it  in  his 
common  sense  way.  He  will  eat  his  next  door  neighbour's 
relations  and  sell  his  own  deceased  to  his  next  door  neighbour 
in  return  ;  but  he  does  not  buy  slaves  and  fatten  them  up  for 
his  table  as  some  of  the  Middle  Congo  tribes  do.... He  has  no 
slaves,  no  prisoners  of  war,  no  cemeteries,  so  you  must  draw 
your  own  conclusions^"  The. Fan  language  has  been  grouped 
by  Sir  H.  H.  Johnston  among  Bantu  tongues,  but  he  describes 
it  as  so  corrupt  as  to  be  only  just  recognisable  as  Bantu.  I  n 
linguistic,  physical  and  mental  features  they  thus  show  a 
remarkable  divergence  from  the  pure  Negro,  suggesting 
Hamitic  probably  Fulah  elements. 

In  the  Cameriin  region,  which  still  lies  within  Bantu 
territory.    Sir   H.    H.   Johnston'  divides  the  numerous  local 

'  My  Africa,  ll.  p.  58.  Oscar  Lenz,  who  perhaps  knew  them  best,  says  :  "  Gut 
gebaut,  schlank  und  kraftig  gewachsen,  Hautfarbe  viel  lichter,  manchmal  stark  ins 
Gelbe  spielend,  Haar  und  Bartwuchs  auffallend  stark,  sehr  grosse  Kinnbarte" 
(Skizzen  aus  West-Afrika,  1878,  p.  73). 

^  M.  H.  Kingsley,  Travels  in  West  Africa,  1897,  pp.  331-2. 

3  Official  Report,  1886. 


iv]  The  African  Negro :  II.  117 

tribes   into   two   groups,    the   aborigines,    such   as   the   Ba- 
Yong,   Ba-Long,  Ba-Sa,   Abo  and    Wuri\  and 
the     later     intruders— ^a-A'^^aTw,     Ba-Kwiri,    SntSJ'"^''"^" 
Dwala,    "  Great  Batanga "   and   Idea — chiefly 
from  the  east  and  south-east.     Best  known  are  the  Dwalas 
of  the  Camerun  estuary,  physically  typical  Bantus  with  almost 
European    features,   and  well-developed  calves,  a   character 
which  would  alone  suffice  to  separate   them  from  the  true 
Negro.     Nor  are  these  traits  due  to  contact  with  the  white 
settlers  on  the  coast,  because  the  Dwalas  keep  quite  aloof, 
and  are  so  proud  of  their  "  blue  blood,"  that  till  lately  all  half- 
breeds  were  "weeded-out,"  being  regarded  as  monsters  who 
reflected  discredit  on  the  tribe\ 

Socially  the  Camerun  natives  stand  at  nearly  the  same  low 
level  of  culture  as  the  neighbouring  full-blood  Negroes  of  the 
Calabar  and  Niger  delta.  Indeed  the  transition  Bantu- 
in  customs  and  institutions,  as  well  as  in  physical  Sudanese 
appearance,  is  scarcely  perceptible  between  the  Borderland, 
peoples  dwelling  north  and  south  of  the  Rio  del  Rey,  here 
the  dividing  line  between  the  Negro  and  Bantu  lands.  The 
Ba-Kish  of  the  Meme  river,  almost  last  of  the  Bantus,  differ 
little  except  in  speech  from  the  Negro  Efiks  of  Old  Calabar, 
while  witchcraft  and  other  gross  superstitions  were  till  lately 
as  rife  amongst  the  Ba-Kwiri  and  Ba-Kundu  tribes  of  the 
western  Camerun  as  anywhere  in  Negroland.  It  is  not  long 
since  one  of  the  Ba-Kwiri,  found  guilty  of  having  eaten  a 
chicken  at  a  missionary's  table,  was  himself  eaten  by  his 
fellow  clansmen.  The  law  of  blood  for  blood  was  pitilessly 
enforced,  and  charges  of  witchcraft  were  so  frequent  that 
whole  villages  were  depopulated,  or  abandoned  by  their 
terror-stricken  inhabitants.  The  island  of  Ambas  in  the  inlet 
of  like  name  remained  thus  for  a  time  absolutely  deserted, 
"  most  of  the  inhabitants  having  poisoned  each  other  off  with 
their  everlasting  ordeals,  and  the  few  survivors  ending  by 
dreading  the  very  air  they  breathed^" 

Having  thus  completed  our  survey  of  the  Bantu  popula- 
tions from  the  central  dividing  line  about  the  Congo-Chad 
water-parting  round  by  the  east,  south,  and  west  coastlands, 
and  so  back  to  the  Sudanese  zone,   we  may  pause  to  ask, 

1  H.    H.    Johnston,    George    Grenfell   and   the    Congo... and   Notes    on    the 
Cameroons,  1908.  ; 

2  Reclus,  English  ed.,  xii.  p.  376. 


ii8 


Man :  Past  and  Present 


[CH. 


What  routes  were  followed  by  the  Bantus  themselves  during 
_   .   „  the  lonof   ages  required  to   spread  themselves 

Early  Bantu  &       &  ^-        ^    j       ^      '^      i  •  Mi- 

Migrations—       over   an  area  estimated  at  nearly    six   million 

a  Clue  to  their  square  miles?  I  have  estatlished,  apparently 
Direction.  ^^   solid  grounds,  a  fij(,ed  point  of  initial  dis- 

persion in  the  extreme  north-east,  and  allusion  has  frequently 
been  made  to  migratory  movements,  some  even  now  going 
on,  generally  from  east  to  west,  and,  on  the  east  side  of  the 
continent,  from  north  to  south,  with  here  an  important  but 
still  quite  recent  reflux  from  Zululand  back  nearly  to  Victoria 
Nyanza.  If  a  parallel  current  be  postulated  as  setting  on 
the  Atlantic  side  in  prehistoric  times  from  south  to  north, 
from  Hereroland  to  the  Cameriins,  or  possibly  the  other 
way,  we  shall  have  nearly  all  the  factors  needed  to  explain 
the  general  dispersion  of  the  Bantu  peoples  over  their  vast 
domain. 

Support  is  given  to  this  view  by  the  curious  distribution 
of  the  two  chief  Bantu  names  of  the  "Supreme  Being,"  to 
which  incidental  reference  has  already  been  made.  As  first 
Eastern  pointed  out  I  think  by  Dr  Bleek,  [M)unkulun- 

Ancestry  and  kulu  with  its  numerous  variants  prevails  along 
Western  Nature   |.]^g  eastern  seaboard,  Nzambi  along:  the  western, 

Worshippers.  i    i       i     ■  r     ^        ■  <■  ,  ■^ 

and  both  in  many  parts  of  the  interior ;  while 
here  and  there  the  two  meet,  as  if  to  indicate  prehistoric 
interminglings  of  two  great  primeval  migratory  movements. 
From  the  subjoined  table  a  clear  idea  may  be  had  of  the 
general  distribution  : 


a, 

■a 

a 


o 


MUNKULUNKULU 

''Mpondo:  Ukulukillu 
Zulu:   Unkulunkulu 
Inhambane:  Mulungulu 
Sofala:  Murun'gu 
Be-Chuana:  Mulungulu 
Lake  Moero;  Mulungu 
Lake  Tanganyika :  Mulungu 
Makua:  Moloko 
Quillimane :   Mlugu 
Lake  Bangweolo :  Mungu 
Tete,  Zambesi :  Muungu 
Nyasaland  :  Murungu 
Swahili :  Muungu 
Giryama :  Mulungu 
Pokotno :  l^ungo 
Nyika :  Mulungu 
Kamba:  Mulungu 
Yanzi :  Molongo 
Herero :  Mukuru 


Nzambi 

Eshi-Kongo  :  Nzambi 
Kabinda :    Nzambi  Pongo 
Lunda  :  Zambi 
Ba-Teke:  Nzam 
Ba-Rotse :  Nyampe 
Bih^ :  Nzambi 
Loango  :   Zambi,  Nyambi 
Bunda:  Onzambi 
Ba-Ngala :  Nsambi 
Ba-Kele :  Nshambi 
Rungu  :  Anyambi 
Ashira:  Aniembie 
Mpongwe:  Njambi 
Benga  :  Anyambi 
Dwala  :  Nyambi 
Yanzi :  Nyambi 
Herero:  Ndyambi 


^   ^ 


rt 
p 
a- 
o 
f> 

Cl. 


iv]  The  African  Negro:  II.  1 19 

Of  Munkulunkulu  the  primitive  idea  is  clear  .enough  from 
its  best  preserved  form,  the  Zulu  Unkulunkulu,  which  is  a 
repetitive  of  the  root  inkulu,  great,  old,  hence  a  deification  of 
the  great  departed,  a  direct  outcome  of  the  ancestry-worship 
so  universal  amongst  Negro  and  Bantu  peoples'.  Thus  Un- 
kulunkulu becomes  the  direct  progenitor  of  the  Zulu-Xosas  : 
Unkulunkulu  ukobu  wetu.  But  the  fundamental  meaning  of 
Nzambi  is  unknown.  The  root  does  not  occur  in  Kishi- 
Kongo,  and  Bentley  rightly  rejects  Kolbe's  far-fetched 
explanation  from  the  Herero,  adding  that  "  the  knowledge  of 
God  is  most  vague,  scarcely  more  than  nominal.  There  is  no 
worship  paid  to  God^" 

More  probable  sqems  W.  H.  Tooke's  suggestion  that 
Nzambi  is  "a  Nature  spirit  like  Zeus  or  Indra,"  and  that, 
while  the  eastern  Bantus  are  ancestor- worshippers,  "  the 
western  adherents  of  Nzambi  are  more  or  less  Nature- 
worshippers.  In  this  respect  they  appear  to  approach  the 
Negroes  of  the  Gold,  Slave,  and  Oil  Coasts'."  No  doubt 
the  cult  of  the  dead  prevails  also  in  this  region,  but  here  it  is 
combined  with  naturalistic  forms  of  belief,  as  on  the  Gold 
Coast,  where  Bobowissi,  chief  god  of  all  the  southern  tribes, 
is  the  "  Blower  of  Clouds,"  the  "  Rain-maker,"  and  on  the 
Slave  Coast,  where  the  Dahoman  Mawu  and  the  Yoruba 
Olorun  are  the  Sky  or  Rain,  and  the  "Owner  of  the  Sky"' 
(the  deified  Firmament),  respectively*. 

It  would  therefore  seem  probable  that  the  Munkulunkulu 
peoples  from  the  north-east  gradually  spread  by  the  indicated 
routes  over  the  whole  of  Bantuland,  everywhere  imposing 
their  speech,  general  culture,  and  ancestor-w.orship  on  the 
pre-Bantu  aborigines,  except  along  the  Atlantic  coastlands 
and  in  parts  of  the  interior.  Here  the  primitive  Nature- 
worship,  embodied  in  Nzambi,  held  and  still  holds  its  ground, 
both  meeting  on  equal  terms — as  shown  in  the  above  table^ 

'  So  also  in  Minahassa,  Celebes,  Empung,  "  Grandfather,"  is  the  generic  name 
of  the  gods.  "  The  fundamental  ideas  of  primitive  man  are  the  same  all  <he  world 
over.  Just  as  the  little  black  baby  of  the  Negro,  the  brown  baby  of  the  Malay,  the 
yellow  baby  of  the  Chinaman  are  in  face  and  form,  in  gestures  and  habits,  as  well 
as  in  the  first  articulate  sounds  they  mutter,  very  much  alike,  'so  the  mind  of  man, 
whether  he  be  Aryan  or  Malay,  Mongolian  or  Negrito,  has  in  the  course  of  its 
evolution  passed  through  stages  which  are  practically  identical"  (Sydney  J.  Hick- 
son,  A  Naturalist  in  North  Celebes,  1889,  p.  240). 

2  Op.  cit.  p.  96. 

3  "The  God  of  the  Ethiopians,"  in  Nature,  May  26,  1892. 
^  A.  B.  Ellis,  Tshi,  p.  23 ;  Ewe,  p.  31  ;   Yoruba,  p.  36. 


I20  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

amongst  the  Ba-Yanzi,  the  Ova,-Herero,  and  the  Be-Chuanas 

{Mulungulu  generally,  but  Nyampe  in  Barotseland),  and  no 

doubt  in  other  inland  regions.      But  the  absolute  supremacy 

of  one  on  the  east,  and  of  the  other  on  the  west, 

Cone  usion.       ^. ^^  ^^  ^^^  continent,  seems  conclusive  as  to  the 

general  streams  of  migration,  while  the  amazing  uniformity 
of  nomenclature  is  but  another  illustration  of  the  almost 
incredible  persistence  of  Bantu  speech  amongst  these  multi- 
tudinous illiterate  populations  for  an  incalculable  period  of 
time\ 


The  Vaalpens  and  the  Strandloopers. 

Among  the  ethnological  problems  of  Africa  may  be 
reckoned  the  Vaalpens  and  the  Strandloopers.  Along  the 
banks  of  the  Limpopo  between  the  Transvaal 
v^^ns^  ""^  ^"'^  Southern  Rhodesia  there  are  scattered  a 
few  small  groups  of  an  extremely  primitive 
people  who  are  generally  confounded  with  the  Bushrnen,  but 
differ  in  some  important  respects  from  that  race.  They  are 
the  "Earthmen"  of  some  writers,  but  their  real  name  is 
Kattea,  though  called  by  their  neighbours  either  Ma  Sarwa 
("Bad  People")  or  Vaalpens  {"Grey  Paunches")  from  the 
'khaki  colour  acquired  by  their  bodies  from  creeping  on  all 
fours  into  their  underground  hovels.  But  the  true  colour  is 
almost  a  pitch  black,  and  as  they  are  only  about  four  feet  high 
they  are  quite  distinct  both  from  the  tall  Bantus  and  the 
yellowish  Hottentot-Bushmen.  For  the  Zulus  they  are  mere 
"dogs"  or  "vultures,"  and  are  certainly  the  most  degraded 
of  all  the  aborigines,  being  undoubtedly  cannibals,  eating  their 
own  aged  and  infirm  like  some  of  the  Amazonian  tribes. 
Their  habitations  are  holes  in  the  ground,  rock-shelters,  or 
caves,  or  lately  a  few  hovels  of  mud  and  foliage  at  the  foot 
of  the  hills.  Of  their  speech  nothing  is  known  except  that 
it  is  absolutely  distinct  both  from  the  Bantu  and  the  Bushman. 
There  are  no  arts  or  industries  of  any  kind,  not  even  any 
weapons  beyond  those  procured  in  exchange  for  ostrich 
feathers,  skins  or  ivory.^  But  they  can  make  fire,  and  are 
thus  able  to  cook  the  offal  thrown  to  them  by  the  Boers  in 

1  Cf.   E.  S.  Hartland,  Art.   "  Bantu  and  S.  Africa,"   £ncy.  of  Religion  and 
Ethics,  1909. 


iv]  The  African  Negro:  II.  121 

return  for  their  help  in  skinning  the  captured  game.  Whether 
they  have  any  rehgious  ideas  it  is  impossible  to  say,  all  inter 
course  with  the  surrounding  peoples  being  restricted  to  barter 
carried  on  with  gesture  language  for  nobody  has  ever  yet 
mastered  their  tongue.  A  "chief"  is  spoken  of,  but  he  is 
merely  a  headman  who  presides  over  the  little  family  groups 
of  from  thirty  to  fifty  (there  are  no  tribes  properly  so  called), 
and  whose  purely  domestic  functions  are  acquired,  not  by 
heredity,  but  by  personal  worth,  that  is,  physical  strength. 
Altogether  the  Kattea  is  perhaps  the  most  perfect  embodi- 
ment of  the  pure  savage  still  anywhere  surviving'. 

When  the  Hottentots  of  South  Africa  were  questioned 
by  scientific  men  a  hundred  years  ago  and  niore  regarding 
their  traditions,  they  were  wont  to  refer  to  their 
predecessors  on  the  coast  of  South  Africa  as  a  j^opers'^^'*' 
savage  race  living  on  the  seashore  and  subsisting 
on  shellfish  and  the  bodies  of  stranded  whales.  From  their 
habits  these  were  styled  in  Dutch  the  Strandloopers  or  "Shore- 
runners^"  According  to  F.  C.  Shrubsall  the  Strandlooper  of 
the  Cape  Colony  caves  preceded  the  Bushman  in  South 
Africa.  They  were  a  race  of  short  but  not  dwarfish  men 
with  a  much  higher  skull  capacity  than  that  of  the  average 
Bush  race.  The  extreme  of  cranial  capacity  in  the  Strand- 
loopers was  a  maximum  of  over  1600  c.c,  while  the  extreme 
minimum  among  the  Bush  people  descends  as  low  as  955  c.c. 
The  frontal  region  of  the  skull  is  much  better  developed  than 
in  the  Bush  race,  and  in  that  respect  is  more  like  the  Negro. 
There  is  little  or  no  brow  prominence  and  one  at  least  of  the 
skulls  is  as  orthognathous  in  facial  angle  as  that  of  a  European. 
L.  Peringuey  remarks  also  that  the  type  was  less  dolicho- 
cephalic than  the  Bushmen  and  Hottentots,  under  80  in 
cephalic  index.  "He  was  artistically  gifted,  Hke  the  race 
which  occupied  and  decorated  the  Altamira...and  other  caves 
of  Spain  and  France.  He  painted ;  he  possibly  carved  on 
rocks  ;  he  used  bone  tools ;  he  made  pottery ;  he  perforated 
stones  for  either  heading  clubs  or  to  be  used  as  make-weights 
for  digging  tools  ;  his  ornaments  consisted  of  sea-shells  ;  and 
the  ostrich  egg-shell  discs  which  he  made  may  be  said  to  be 

'  This  account  of  the  Vaalpens  is  taken  from  A.  H.  Keane,  The  World's 
Peoples,  1908,  p.  149. 

2  This  sumnlary  of  our  information  about  the  Strandloopers,  with  quotations 
from  F.  C.  Shrubsall  and  L.  Peringuey,  is  taken  from  H.  H.  Johnston,  "  A  Survey 
of  the  Ethnography  of  Ainca." /ourn.  Roy.  Anthr.  Inst,  xliii.  1913,  p.  377. 


122 


Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch. 


a  typical  product  of  his  industry.  And  this  culture  is  retained 
in  South  Africa  by  a  kindred  race,  but  more  dolichocephalic — 
the  Bushmen- Hottentots.  Analogous  are  most  of  his  tools 
and  his  expressions  of  culture  to  'those  of  Aurignacia.n 
man." 

The  Negrilloes. 

The  proper  domain  of  the  African  Negrilloes  is  the  inter- 
tropical forest-land,  although  they  appear  to  be  at  present 
Th  N  rill  confined  to  somewhat  narrow  limits,  between 
eg  oes.  ^^^^  gjj^  degrees  of  latitude  north  and  south  of 
the  equator,  unless  the  Bushmen  be  included.  But  formerly 
they  probably  ranged  much  farther  north,  and  in  historic 
times  were  certainly  known  in  Egypt  some  4000  or  5000  years 
ago.  This  is  evident  from  the  frequent  references  to  them 
in  the  "  Book  of  the  Dead"  as  far  back  as  the  6th  Dynasty. 
Like  the"  dwarfs  in  medieval  times,  they  were  in  high  request 
NegriUoesat  ^^  the  courts  of  the  Pharaohs,  who  sent  expedi- 
the  Courts  of  tions  to  fetch  these  Danga  {Tank)  from  the 
the  Pharaohs.  „  Island  of  the  Double,"  that  is,  the  fabulous 
region  of  Shade  Land  beyond  Punt,  where  they  dwelt.  The 
first  of  whom  there  is  authentic  record  was  brought  from  this 
region,  apparently  the  White  Nile,  to  King  Assa  (3300  B.C.) 
by  his  officer,  Baurtet.  Some  70  years  later  Heru-Khuf, 
another  officer,  was  sent  by  Pepi  II  "to  bring  back  a  pygmy 
alive  and  in  good  health,"  from  the  land  of  great  trees  away 
to  the  south\  That  the  Danga  came  from  the  south  we  know 
from  a  later  inscription  at  Karnak,  and  that  the  word  meant 
dwarf  is  clear  from  the  accompanying  determinative  of  a 
short  person  of  stunted  growth. 

It  is  curious  to  note  in  this  connection  that  the  limestone 
statue  of  the  dwarf  Nem-hotep,  found  in  his  tomb  at  Sakkara 
and,  figured  by  Ernest  Grosse,  has  a  thick  elongated  head 
suggesting  artificial  deformation,  unshapely  mouth,  dull  ex- 
pression, strong  full  chest,  and  small  deformed  feet,  on  which 
he  seems  badly  balanced.  It  will  be  remembered  that 
Schweinfurth's  Akkas  from  Mangbattuland  were  also  repre- 
sented as  top-heavy,  although  the  best  observers,  Junker  and 
others,  describe  those  of  the  Welle  and  Congo  forests  ^s 
shapely  and  by  no  means  ill-proportioned. 

'  Schiaparelli,  Una  Totnba  Egiziana,  Rome,  1893. 


iv]  The  African  Negro:  II.  123 

KoUmann  also,  who  has  examined  the  remains  of  the 
Neolithic  pygmies  from  the  Schweizersbild  Station,  Switzer- 
land, "  is  quite  certain  that  the  dwarf-like  pro-  Negriiloes 
portions  of  the  latter  have  nothing  in  common  and  Pygmy 
with  diseased  conditions.  This,  from  many  Folklore, 
points  of  view,  is  a  highly  interesting  discovery.  It  is 
possible,  as  Niiesch  suggests,  that  the  widely-spread  legend 
as  to  the  former  existence  of  little  men,  dwarfs  and  gnomes, 
who  were  supposed  to  haunt  caves  and  retired  places  in  the 
mountains,  may  be  a  reminiscence  of  these  Neolithic  pygmies^" 
■  This  is  what  may  be  called-  the  picturesque  aspect  of  the 
Negrillo  question,  which  it  seems  almost  a  pity  to  spoil  by 
too  severe  a  criticism.  But  "  ethnologic  truth  "  obliges  us  to 
say  that  the  identification  of  the  African  Negrillo  with 
Kollmann's  European  dwarfs  still  lacks  scientific  proof. 
Even  craniology  fails  us  here,  and  although  the  Negriiloes 
are  in  great  majority  round-headed,  R.  Verneau  has  shown 
that  there  may  be  exceptions^  while  the  theory  of  the  general 
uniformity  of  the  physical  type  has  broken  down  at  some 
other  points.  Thus  the  Dume,  south  of  Galla-  The  Dume  and 
land,  discovered  by  Donaldson  Smith'  in  the  Doko,  reputed 
district  where  the  Doko  Negriiloes  had  long  been  '^'^^''^^• 
heard  of,  and  even  seen  by  Antoine  d'Abbadie  in  1843,  were 
found  to  average  five  feet,  or  more  than  one  foot  over  the 
mean  of  the  true  Negrillo.  D'Abbadie  in  fact  declared  that 
his  "Dokos"  were  not  pygmies  at  all\  while  Donaldson 
Smith  now  tells  us  that  "  doko  "  is  only  a  term  of  contempt 
applied  by  the  local  tribes  to  their  "poor  relations."  "Their 
chief  characteristics  were  a  black  skin,  round  features,  woolly 
hair,  small  oval-shaped  eyes,  rather  thick  lips,  high  cheek- 
bones,   a   broad    forehead,    and    very    well    formed    bodies " 

(P-   273)-  .  .  •    •, 

,  The  expression  of  the  eye  was  canine,  "sometimes  timid 

and  suspicious-looking,  sometimes  very  amiable  and  merry, 

and  then  again  changing  suddenly  to  a  look  of  intense  anger." 

»  James  Geikie,  Scottish  Geogr.  Mag.  Sept.  1897. 

=*  Thus  he  finds  {L'AnthropoloPie,  1896,  p.  153)  a  presumably  Negrillo  skull 
from  the  Babinga  district,  Middle  Sangha  river,  to  be  distinctly  long-headed  (73-2) 
with,  for  this  race,  the  enormous  cranial  capacity  of  about  1440  c.c.  Cf.  the  Akka 
measured  by  Sir  W.  Flower  (1372  c.c),  and  his  Andamanese  (1128),  the  highest 
hitherto  known  being  1200  (Virchow). 

3  Through  Unknown  African  Countries,  etc.,  1897. 

*  Bui.  Soc.  Gdogr.  xix.  p.  440. 


124  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

Pygmies,  he  adds,  "  inhabited  the  whole  of  the  countf y  north 
of  Lakes  Stephanie  and  Rudolf  long  before  any  of  the  tribes 
now  to  be  found  in  the  neighbourhood ;  but  they  have  been 
gradually  killed  off  in  war,  and  have  lost  their  characteristics 
by  inter-marriage  with  people  of  large  stature,  so  that  only 
this  one  little  remnant,  the  Dume,  remains  to  prove  the 
existence  of  a  pygmy  race.  Formerly  they  lived  principally 
by  hunting,  and  they  still  kill  a  great  many  elephants  with 
their  poisoned  arrows"  (pp.  274-5). 

Some  of  these  remarks  apply  also  to  the  Wandorobbo, 
another  small  people  who  range  nearly  as  far  north  as  the 
Dume,  but  are  found  chiefly  farther  south  all 
So^^unters.  ^^^^^  Masailand,  and  belong,  I  have  little  doubt, 
to  the  same  connection.  They  are  the  hench- 
men of  the  Masai,  whom  they  provide  with  big  game  in 
return  for  divers  services. 

Those  met -by  W.  Astor  Chanler  were  also  "  armed  with 
bows  and  arrows,  and  each  carried  an  elephant-spear,  which 
they  called  bonati.  This  spear  is  six  feet  in  length,  thick  at 
either  end,  and  narrowed  where  grasped  by  the  hand.  In 
one  end  is  bored  a  hole,  into  which  is  fitted  an  arrow  two  feet 
long,  as  thick  as  one's  thumb,  and  with  a  head  two  inches 
broad.  Their  method  of  killing  elephants  is  to  creep 
cautiously  up  to  the  beast,  and  drive  a  spear  into  its  loin. 
A  quick  twist  separates  the  spear  froni  the  arrow,  and  they 
make  off  as  fast  and  silently  as  possible.  In  all  cases  the 
arrows  are  poisoned  ;  and  if  they  are  well  introduced  into  the 
animal's  body,  the  elephant  does  not  go  far'." 

From  some  of  the  peculiarities  of  the  Achua  (Wochua) 
Negrilloes  met  by  Junker  south  of  the  Welle  one  can  under- 
stand why  these  little  people  were  such  favourites 
M^mi^""*""*  with  the  old  Egyptian  kings.  These  were 
"  distinguished  by  .sharp  powers  of  observation, 
amazing  talent  for  mimicry,  and  a  good  memory.  A  striking 
proof  of  this  was  afforded  by  an  Achua  whom  I  had  seen  and 
measured  four  years  previously  in  Rumbek,  and  now  again 
met  at  Gambari's.  His  comic  ways  and  quick  nimble  move- 
ments made  this  little  fellow  the  clown  of  our  society.  He 
imitated  with  marvellous  fidelity  the  peculiarities  of  persons 
whom  he  had  once  seen ;  for  instance,  the  gestures  and  facial 

^  Through  Jungle  and  Desert,  1896,  pp.  358-9. 


iv]  The  African  Negro:  II.  125 

expressions  of  Jussuf  Pasha  esh-Shelahis  and  of  Haj  Halil 
at  their  devotions,  as  well  as  the  address  and  movements  of 
Emin  Pasha,  'with  the  four  eyes'  (spectacles).  His  imitation 
of  Hawash  Effendi  in  a  towering  rage,  storming  and  abusing 
everybody,  was  a  great  success ;  and  now  he  took  me  off  to 
the  life,  rehearsing  after  four  years,  down  to  the  minutest 
details,  and  with  surprising  accuracy,  my  anthropometric  per- 
formance when  measuring  his  body  at  Rumbek\" 

A  somewhat  similar  account  is  given  by  Ludwig  Wolf  of 
the  Ba-Twa  pygmies  visited  by  him  and  Wissmann  in  the 
Kassai  region.  Here  are  whole  villages  in  the  forest-glades 
inhabited  by  little  people  with  an  average  height  of  about 
4  feet  3  inches.  They  are  nomads,  occupied  exclusively  with 
hunting  and  the  preparation  of  palm-wine,  and  are  regarded 
by  their  Ba-Kubu  neighbours  as  benevolent  little  people, 
whose  special  mission  is  to  provide  the  surrounding  tribes 
with  game  and  palm-wine  in  exchange  for  manioc,  maize,  and 
bananas'. 

Despite  the  above-mentioned  deviations,  occurring  chiefly 
about  the  borderlands,  considerable  uniformity  both  of  physical 
and  mental  characters  is  found  to  prevail  amongst  the  typical 
Negrillo  groups  scattered  in  small  hunting  communities  all 
over  the  Welle,  Semliki,  Congo,  and  Ogowai  woodlands. 
Their  main  characters  are  thus  described.  Their  skin  is  of 
a  reddish  or  yellowish  brown  in  colour,  sometimes  very  dark. 
Their  height  varies  from  i"37  m.  to  r45  m.  (4  ft.  4:^  in.  to 
4  ft.  9:1^ in.').  Their  hair  is  very  short  and  woolly,  usually  of 
a  dark  rusty  brown  colour ;  the  face  hair  is  variable,  but  the 
body  is  usually  covered  with  a  light  downy  hair.  The  cephalic 
index  is  79.  The  nose  is  very  broad  and  exceptionally 
flattened  at  the  root ;  the  lips  are  usually  thin,  and  the  upper 
one  long ;  the  eyes  are  protuberant ;  the  face  is  sometimes 
prognathic.  Steatopygia  occurs.  They  are  a  markedly  in- 
telligent people,  innately  musical,  cunning,  revengeful  and 
suspicious  in  disposition,  but  they  never  steal. 

They  are  nomadic  hunters  and  collectors,  never  resorting 
to  agriculture.  They  have  no  domestic  animals.  Only  meat 
is  cooked.     They  wear  no  clothing.     They  use  bows  and 

1  Travels,  ni.  p.  86. 

2  Jm  Innern  Afrikds,  p.  259  sq.    As  stated  in  Eth.  Ch.  XI.  Dr  Wolf  connects 
all  these  Negrillo  peoples  with  the  Bushmen  south  of  the  Zambesi. 

3  One  of  the  Mambute  brought  to  England  by  Col.  Harrison  m  1906  measured 
just  over  3^  feet. 


126  Man:    Pasi  and  Present  [ch. 

poisoned  arrows.  Their  language  is  unknown.  They  live 
in  small  communities  which  centre  round  a  cunning  fighter 
or  able  hunter.  Their  dead  are  buried  in  the  ground.  They 
differ-  from  surrounding  Negroes  in  having  no  veneration  for 
the  departed,  no  amulets,  no  magicians  or  professional  priests. 
They  have  charms  for  ensuring  luck  in  hunting,  but  it  is 
uncertain  whether  these  charms  derive  their  potency  from  the 
supreme  being,  though  evidence  of  belief  in  a  high-god  is 
reported  from  various  pygmy  peoples  \ 

The  Bushmen  and  Hottentots. 

Towards  the  south  the  Negrillo  domain  was  formerly 
conterminous  with  that  of  the  Bushmen,  of  whom  traces  were 
Bushmen  discovered  by  Sir  H.  H.  Johnston'  as  far  north 

and  Hottentots,  as  Lakes  Nyasa  and  Tanganyika,  and  who,  it 
Former  and  }^a.s  been  conjectured,,  belong  to  the  same,  primi- 
ange.  ^.^^  stock.  The  differences  mental  and  physical 
now  separating  the  two  sections  of  the  family  may  perhaps 
be  explained  by  the  different,  environments — hot,  moist  and 
densely  wooded  in  the  north,  and  open  steppes  in  the  south — 
but  until  more  is  known  of  the  African  pygmies  their  affinities 
must  remain  undecided. 

The  relationship  between  the  Bushmen  and  the  Hottentots 
is  another  disputed  question.  Early  authorities  regarded  the 
Hottentots  as  the  parent  family,  and  the  Bushmen  as  the 
offspring,  but  the  researches  of  Gustav  Fritsch,  E.  T.  Hamy, 
F.  ShrubsalP  and  others  show  that  the  Hottentots  are  a  cross 
between  the  Bushmen — the  primitive  race: — and  the  Bantu, 
the  Bushman  element  being  seen  in  the  leathery  colour, 
prominent  cheek-bones,  pointed  chin,  steatopygia  and  other 
special  characters. 

1  See  A.  C.  Haddon,  Art.  "Negrillos  and  Negritos,"  Ency.  of  Religio*  <a.»d 
Ethics,  1 91 7. 

^  "  It  would  seem  as  if  the  earliest  known  race  of  man  inhabiting  what  is 
now  British  Central  Africa  was  akin  to  the  Bushman-Hottentot  type  of  Negro. 
Rounded  stones  with  a  hole  through  the  centre,  similar  to  those  which  are  used 
by  the  Bushmen  in  the  south  for  weighting  their  digging-sticks,  have  been  found 
at  the  south  end  of  Lake  Tanganyika.  I  have  heard  that  other  examples  of  these 
'  Bushman '  stones  hav^  been  found  nearer  to  Lake  Nyasa,  etc."  {British  Cefttral 
Africa,  p.  52). 

'  G.  Fritsch,  Die  Ein-geborenen  Siid-Afrikas,  1872,'  "  Schilderungen '  der 
Hottentotten,"  Globus,  1875,  p.  374  ff.  ;  E.  T.  Hamy,  « Les  Races  n^gres," 
D Anthropologie,  1S97,  p.  257  if.  ;  F.  ShrwbsaW,  "Crania  of  African  Bush  RaiceSif 
Journ.  Anthr.  Inst.  1897.  See  also  G.  McCall  Theal,  The  Yellow  and  Dark- 
skinned  People  South  of  the  Zambesi,  1910.         _  ,j 


iv]  The  African  Negro:  II.  lo.'-j 

In  prehistoric  times  the   Hottentots  ranged  over,  a  vast 
area.     Evidence  has  now  been  produced  of  the  presence  of 
a  belated  Hottentot  or  Hottentot- Bushman  group 
as  far  north  as  the  Kwa-Kokue  district,  between      sm<S' 
Kilimanjaro  and  Victoria   Nyanza.     The   Wa- 
Sandawz  people  here  visited  by  Oskar  Neumann  are  not  Bantus, 
and  speak    a    language    radically   distinct    from  that  of  the 
neighbouring  Bantus,  but  full  of  clicks  like  that  of  the  Bush- 
men'.    Two  Sandawi  skulls  examined  by  Virchow"  showed 
distinct  Hottentot  characters,  with  a  cranial  capacity  of  1250 
and  1265  c.c,  projecting  upper  jaw  and  orthodolicho  head^ 
The  geographical  prefix  J^wa,  common  in  the  district  (Kwa- 
Kokue,  Kwa-Mtoro,  Kwa-Hindi),  is  pure  Hottentot,  meaning 
"people,"  like  the  post^x  g'ua  [Kwa)  of  Korsi-qua,  Nama-^«fl, 
etc.  in  the  present  Hottentot  domain.     The  transposition  of 
prefixes  and  postfixes  is  a  common  linguistic  phenomenon, 
as  seen  in  the  Sumero -Akkadian  of  Babylonia,  in  the  NeO- 
Sanskritic  tongues  of  India,  and  the  Latin,  Oscan,  and  other 
members  of  the  Old  Italic  group. 

Farther  south  a  widely-diffused  Hottentot- Bushman  geo- 
graphical terminology  attests  the  former  range  of  this  primitive 
race  all  over  South  Africa,  as  far  north  as  the 
Zambesi.      Lichtenstein  had  already  discovered    Geographical 
such    traces    in    the    Zulu  country*,   and    Vater   Names  in 
points  out  that  "for  some  districts  the  fact  has    ^^^^^^^ 
been  fully  established  ;  mountains  and  rivers  now  occupied  by 
the  Koossa  [Ama-Xosa]  preserve  in  their  Hottentot  names 
the  certain  proof  that  they  at  one  time  formed  a  permanent 
possession  of  this  peopled" 

Thanks  to  the  custom  of  raising  heaps  of  stones  or  cairns 
over  the  graves  of  renowned  chiefs,   the  migrations  of  the 

'  "  I  have  not  been  able  to  trace  much  affinity  in  word  roots  between  this 
language  and  either  Bushman  or  Hottentot,  though  it  is  noteworthy  that  the  word 
for  four.. .is  almost  identical  with  the  word  for  four  in  all  the  Hottentot,  dialects, 
while  the  phonology  of  the  language  is  reminiscent  of  Bushmen  in  its  nasals  and 
gutturals"  {H.  H.  Johnston,  "Survey  of  the  Ethnography  of  Africa,"  Joum.  Roy. 
Anthr.  Inst.  XLIH.  19 13,  p.  380). 

2   Verhandl.  Berliner  Gesellsch.  f.  Anthrop.  1895,  p.  59. 

^  Of  another  stull  undoubtedly  Hottentot,  from  a  cave  on  the  Transvaal  and 
Orange  Free  State  frontier,  Dr  Mies  remarks  that  "seine  Form  ist  orthodolicho- 
cephai  wie  bei  den  Wassandaui,"  although  differing  in  some  other  characters  {Cen- 
tralU.  f.  Anthr.  1896,  p.  50). 

*  From  which  he  adds  that  the  Hottentots  "sohon  lange  vor  der  Portu- 
giesischen  UmschiflSang  Afrika's  von  Kaffer-Stammen  wieder  zuriickgedrangt 
wurden  "  {Reisen,  I.  p.  400). 

*  Adelung  und  Vater,  Berlin,  1812,  in.  p.  390. 


128  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

Hottentots  may  be  followed  in  various  directions  to  the  very 
heart  of  South  Zambesia.  Here  the  memory  of  their  former 
presence  is  perpetuated  in  the  names  of  such  water-courses  as 
Nos-ob,  Up,  Mol-opo,  Hyg-ap,  Gar-ib,  in  which  the  syllables 
ob,  up,  ap,  ib  and  others  are  variants  of  the  Hottentot  word 
ib,  ip,  water,  river,  aS  in  Gar-ib,  the  "  Great  River,"  now 
better  known  as  the  Orange  River.  The  same  indications 
may  be  traced  right  across  the  continent  to  the  Atlantic,  where 
nearly  all  the  coast  streams — even  in  Hereroland,  where  the 
language  has  long  been  extinct— have  the  same  ending'. 

On  the  west  side  the  Bushmen  are  still  heard  of  as  far 
north  as  the  Cunene,  and  in  the  interior  beyond  Lake  Ngami 
nearly  to  the  right  bank  of  the  Zambesi.  But  the  Hottentots 
are  now  confined  mainly  to  Great  and  Little  Namaqualand. 
E^se^yhere  there  appear  to  be  no  full-blood  natives 
di»pp^iig.  °^ ^^^  '^'^^^'  ^^  Koraquas,  Gonaquas,  Griquas,  etc. 
being  all  Hottentot- Boer  or  Hottentot- Bantu 
half-castes  of  Dutch  speech.  In  Cape  Colony  the  tribal 
organisation  ceased  to  exist  in  x8io,  when  the  last  Hottentot 
chief  was  replaced  by  a  .  European  magistrate.  Still  the 
K'oraquas  keep  themselves  somewhat  distinct  about  the 
Upper  Orange  and  Vaal-  Rivers,  and  the  Griquas  in  Griqua- 
land  East,  while  the  Gonaquas,  that  is,  "  Borderers,"  are 
being  gradually  merged  in  the  Bantu  populations  of  the 
Eastern  Provinces.  There  are  at  present  scarcely  180,000 
south  of  the  Orange  River,  and  of  these  the  great  majority 
are  half-breedsl 

Despite  their  extremely  low  state  of  culture,  or,  one  might 
say,  the  almost  total  lack  of  culture,  the  Bushmen  are  dis- 
tinguished by  two  remarkable  qualities,  a  fine  sense  of  pictorial 
Bushman  P*"  graphic  art',  and  a  rich  imagination  displayed 

Folklore  in  a  copious  oral  folklore,  much  of  which,  collected 

Literature.  ^y  Bleek,  is  preserved  in  manuscript  form  in  Sir 
George  Grey's  library  at  Cape  Town^  The  materials  here 
stored  for  future  use,  perhaps  long  after  the  race  itself  has 
vanished  for  ever,  comprise  no  less  than  84  thick  volumes  of 

1  Such  are,  going  north  from  below  Walvisch  Bay,  Chuntop,  Kuisip,  Swakop, 
Ugab,  Huab,  Uniab,  Hoanib,  Kaurasib,  and  Khomeb. 

2  The  returns  for  1904  showed  a  "Hottentot"  population  of  85,892,  but  very 
few  were  pure  Hottentots.  The  official  estimate  of  those  in  which  Hottentot  blood 
was  strongly  marked  was  56,000. 

^  M.  H.  Tongue  and  E.  D.  Bleek,  Bushman  Paintings,  1909.  Cf.  W.  J.  SoUas 
Ancient  Hunters,  191 5,  p.  399,  with  bibUography.  ' 

*  W.  H.  I.  Bleek  and  L.  C.  Lloyd,  Bushman  Folklore,  191 1. 


iv]  The  African  Negro  :  II.  1 29 

3600  -double-column  pages,  besides  an  unfinished  Bushman 
dictionary  with  1 1,090  entries.  There  are  two  great  sections, 
(i)  Myths,  fables,  legends  and  poetry,  with  tales  about  the  sun 
and  moon,  the  stars,  the  Mantis  and  other  animals,  legends 
of  peoples  who  dwelt  in  the  land  before  the  Bushmen,  songs, 
charms,  and  even  prayers ;  (2)  Histories,  adventures  of  men 
and  animals,  customs,  superstitions,  genealogies,  and  so  on. 

In  the  tales  and  myths  the  sun,  moon,  and  animals  speak 
either  with  their  own  proper  clicks,  or  else  use  the  ordinary 
clicks    in    some    way    peculiar    to    themselves. 
Thus   Bleek  tells  us  that  the  tortoise  changes    Hottentot 
clicks  in  labials,  the  ichneumon  in  palatals,  the    Language  and 
jackal  substitutes  linguo-palatals  for  labials,  while   ^'"='"- 
the  moon,  hare,  and  ant-eater  use  "a  most  unpronounceable 
click  "  of  their  own.     How  many  there  may  be  altogether,  not 
one  of  which  can  be  properly  uttered  by  Europeans,  nobody 
seems  to   know.      But  grammarians  have  enumerated  nine, 
indicated  each  by  ^  a  graphic  sign  as  under : 

Cerebral !  Palatal j 

Dental    |  Lateral  (Faucal)      || 

Guttural i  Labial [] 

Spiro-dental  7  Linguo-palatal   . . .  □ 

Undefined  x 

From  Bushman — a  language  in  a  state  of  flux,  fragmentary 
as  the  small  tribal  or  rather  family  groups  that  speak  it* — 
these  strange  inarticulate  sounds  passed  to  the  number  of  four 
into  the  remotely  related  Hottentot,  and  thence  to  the  number 
of  three  into  the  wholly  unconnected  Zulu-Xosa.  But  they 
are  heard  nowhere  else  to  my  knowledge  except  amongst  the 
newly-discovered  Wa-Sandawi  people  of  South  Masailand. 
At  the  same  time  we  know  next  to  nothing  of  the  Negrillo 
tongues,  and  should  clicks  be  discovered  to  form  an  element 
in  their  phonetic  system  also",  it  would  support  the  assumption 
of  a  common  origin  of  all  these  dwarfish  races  now  somewhat 
discredited  on  anatomical  grounds. 

M.  G.  Bertin,  to  whom  we  are  indebted  for  an  excellent 

■  See  W.  Planert,  "  Uber  die  Sprache  der  Hottentotten  und  Buschmanner,'' 
Mitt.  d.  Seminars/.  Oriental.  Sprachen  z.  Berlin,  vill.  (1905),  Abt.  III.  104-176. 

2  "  In  the  Pygmies  of  the  north-eastern  corner  of  the  Congo  basin  and  amongst' 
the  Bantu  tribes  of  the  Equatorial  East  African  coast  there  is  a  tendency  to  faucal 
gasps  or  explosive  consonants  which  suggests  the  vanishing  influence  of  clicks." 
H.  H.  Johnston,  "  A  Survey  of  the  Ethnography  of  Africa,"  Journ.  Roy.  Anthr. 
Inst.  XLUI.  191 3, 

K.  9 


130  Man:  Past,  and  Present  [ch. 

monograph  on  the  Bushman",  rightly  remarks  that  he  is  not, 
Bushman  ^^  least  mentally,  so  debased  as  iie  has  been 

Mental  described   by   the   early  travellers  and  by  the 

Characters.  neighbouring  Bantus  and   Boers,   by  whom  he 

has  always  been  despised  and  harried.  "His  greatest  love 
is  for  freedom,  he  acknowledges  no  master,  and  possesses  no 
slaves.  It  is  this  love  of  independence  which  made  him  prefer 
the  wandering  life  of  a  hunter  to  that  of  a  peaceful  agriculturist 
or  shepherd,  as  the  Hottentot.  He  rarely  builds  a  hut,  but 
prefers  for  abode  the  natural  caves  he  finds  in  the  rocks.  In 
other  localities  he  forms  a  kind  of  nest  in  the  bush — hence  his 
name  of  Bushman — or  digs  with  his  nails  subterranean  caves, 
from  which  he  has  received  the  name  of  '  Earthman.'  His 
garments  consist  only  of  a  small  skin.  His  weapons  are  still 
the  spear,  arrow  and  bow  in  their  most  rudimentary  form. 
The  spear  is  a  mere  branch  of  a  tree,  to  which  is  tied  a  piece 
of  bone  or  flint ;  the  arrow  is  only  a  reed  treated  in  the  same 
way.  The  arrow  and  spear-heads  are  always  poisoned,  to 
render  mortal  the  slight  wounds  they  inflict.  He  gathers  no 
flocks,  which  would  impede  his  movements,  and  only  accepts 
the  help  of  dogs  as  wild  as  himself.  The  Bushmen  have, 
however,  one  implement,  a  rounded  stone  perforated  in  the 
middle,  in  which  is  inserted  a  piece  of  wood ;  with  this 
instrument,  which  carries  us  back  to  the  first  age  of  man,  they 
dig  up  a  few  edible  roots  growing  wild  in  the  desert.  To 
produce  fire,  he  still  retains  the  primitive  system  of  rubbing 
two  pieces  of  wood — another  prehistoric  survival."  , 

Toiiching  their  name,  it  is  obvious  that  these  scattered 
groups,  without  hereditary  chiefs  or  social  organisation  of  any 

kind,  could  have  no  collective  designation.  '  The 
Race^o^es.        '^"^"^  Khuai,  of  uncertain  meaning,  but  prqbably 

to  be  equated  with  the  Hottentot  Khoi,"  Men," 
is  the  name  only  of  a  single  group,  though  often  applied;  to  the 
whole  race.  Saan,  their  Hottentot  name,  is  the  plural/of  Sa, 
a  term  also  of  uncertain  origin  ;  Ba-roa,  current  amongst  the 
Be-Chuanas,  has  not  been  explained,  while  the  Zulu  Abatwa 
would  seem  to  connect  them  even  by  name  with  Wolf's  and 
Stanley's  Ba-  Twa  of  the  Congo  forest  region.  Other  so-called 
tribal  names  (there  are  no  "tribes"  in  the  strict  sense  of  the 
word)   are  either   nicknames   imposed   upon   them   by  their 

'  "  The  Bushmen  and  their  Language,"  in  Journ.  R.  Asiatic  Soc.  xviil.  Part  I. 


iv]  The  African  Negro:  II.  131 

neighbours,  or  else  terms  taken  from  the  localities,  as  amongst 
the  Fuegians. 

We  may  conclude  with  the  words  of  W.  J.  Sollas  :  "  The 
more  we  know  of  these  wonderful  little  people  the  more  we 
learn  to  admire  and  like  them.  To  many  solid  virtues — 
untiring  energy,  boundless  patience,  and  fertile  invention, 
steadfast  courage,  devoted  loyalty,  and  family  affection — they 
added  a  native  refinement  of  manners  and  a  rare  aesthetic 
sense.  We  may  learn  from  them, how  far  the  finer  excellences 
of  life  may  be  attained  in  the  hunting  stage.  In  their  golden 
age,  before  the  coming  of  civilised  man,  they  enjoyed  their  life 
to  the  full,  glad  with  the  gladness  of  primeval  creatures.  The 
story  of  their  later  days,  their  extermination  and  the  cruel 
manner  of  it,  is  a  tale  of  horror  on  which  we  do  not  care  to 
dwell.  They  haunt  no  more  the  sunlit  veldt,  their  hunting  is 
over,  their  nation  is  destroyed  ;  but  they  leave  behind  an 
imperishable  memory,  they  have  immortalised  themselves  in 
their  art'." 

'  Ancient  Hunters,  1915,  p.  425. 


9—2 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  OCEANIC   NEGROES:    PAPUASIANS    (PAPUANS  AND 
MELANESIANS)— NEGRITOES— TASMANIANS 

General  Ethnical  Relations  in  Oceania — The  terms  Papuan,  Melanesian  and 
Papuasian  defined — The  Papuasian  Domain,  Past  and  Present — Papuans 
and  Melanesians — Physical  Characters  :  Papuan,  Papuo-Melanesian,  Mela- 
nesian—  The  New  Caledonians — Physical  Characters — Food  Question — 
General  Survey  of  Melanesian  Ethnology — Cultural  Problems — Kava-drink- 
ing  and  Betel-chewing — Stone  Monuments — The  Dual  People — Summary  of  ' 
Culture  Strata — Melanesian  Culture — Dress — Houses — Weapons  —  Canoes, 
etc. — Social  Life — Secret  Societies — Clubs — Religion — Western  Papuasia- — 
Ethnical  Elements — Region  of  Transition  by  Displacements  and  Crossings 
— Papuan  and  Malay  Contrasts — Ethnical  and  Biological  Divides — The 
Negritoes — The  Andamanese — Stone  Age — Personal  Appearance — Social 
Life — Religion — Speech — Method  of  Counting — Grammatical  Structure — The 
Semangs — Physical  Appearance-;— Usages — Speech — Stone  Age — The  Aetas 
— Head-hunters — New  Guinea  Pygmies — Negrito  Culture — The  Tasmanians 
— Tasmanian  Culture — Fire  Making — Tools  and  Weapons — Diet — Dwellings 
— Extinction. 

Conspectus. 

Present  Range.  Papuasian :  East  Malaysia,  New 
Distribution  in  Guinea,  Melanesia;  Tasmanian:  extinct;  Ne- 
Past  and  grito :  Andamans,  Malay  Peninsula,  Philippines, 

Present  Times.      j^^^  Guinea. 

Hair.     Papuasian  :  black,  frizzly,  mop-like,  beard  scanty 

or  absent ;  Tasmanian  :    black,  shorter  and  less 

Ch^arters  mop-Uke  than  Papuasian;  Negrito :  short,  woolly 

or  frizzly,  black,  sometimes  tinged  with  brown 

or  red. 

Colour.  All :  very  deep  shades  of  chocolate  brown,  often 
verging  on  black,  a  very  constant  character,  lighter  shades 
showing  m.ixlure. 

Skull.  Papuasian :  extremely  dolichocephalic  (68-75) 
and  high,  but  very  variable  in  areas  of  m,ixture  (70-84) ; 
Tasmanian:  dolichocephalic  or  mesaticephalic  {j ^•,  Negrito: 
br achy  cephalic  (80-85), 

Jaws.  Papuasian  :  moderately  or  not  at  all  prognathous ; 
Tasmanian  a^^  Negrito:  generally  prognathous.      Cheek- 


CH.  v]  The  Oceanic  Negroes  133 

bones.  All :  slightly  prominent  or  even  retreating.  Nose. 
Papuasian  :  large,  straight,  generally  aquiline  in  true  Pa- 
puans; Tasmanian  and  Negrito:  short,  flat,  broad,  wide 
nostrils  {platyrrhine)  with  large  thick  cartilage.  Eyes.  All : 
moderately  large,  round  and  black  or  very  deep  brown,  with 
dirty  yellowish  cornea,  generally  deep-set  with  strong  over- 
hanging arches. 

Stature.  Papuasian  and  Tasmanian  :  above  the  average, 
but  variable,  with  rather  wide  range  from,  r62  m.  to  i"j'j  or 
1-82  m.  {s/t.  4  in.  to  s  ft.  10  in.  or  6/t.) ;  Negrito  :  under- 
sized, but  taller  than  African  Negrillo,  I'^^y  m.  to  1*52  w. 
(4.//.  6  in.  to  Sft.). 

Temperament.     Papuasian  :  very  excitable,  voluble  and 
laughter-loving,   fairly    intelligent    and    imaginative',    Tas- 
njianian  :  distinctly  less  excitable  and  intelligent, 
but  also  far  less  cruel,  captives  never  tortured:      ?!if "**'•. 

»f         .       •'  .  .,.',  .  •/•  Unaracters. 

N  egnto  :  active,  quick-witted  or  cunning  withm 
narrow  limits,  naturally  kind  and  gentle. 

Speech.  Papuasian  and  Tasmanian  :  agglutinating  with 
postfixes,  many  stock  languages  in  West  Papuasia,  apparently 
one  only  in  East  Papuasia  {Austronesian) ;  Negrito  :  scarcely 
known  except  in  Andamans,  where  agglutination  both  by  class 
prefixes  and  by  postfixes  has  acquired  a  phenomenal  development. 

Religion.  Papuasian  :  reverence  paid  to  ancestors,  who 
m-ay  become  beneficent  or  m^alevolent  ghosts ;  general  belief  in 
mana  or  supernatural  power ;  no  priests  or  idols;  Negrito: 
exceedingly  primitive;  belief  in  spirits,  sometimes  vague 
deities. 

Culture.  Papuasian  :  slightly  developed;  agriculture 
somewhat  advanced  {N.  Guinea,  N.  Caledonia);  considerable 
artistic  taste  and  fancy  shown  in  the  wood-carving  of  houses, 
canoes,  ceremonial  objects,  etc.  All  others :  at  the  lowest 
hunting  stage,  without  arts  or  industries,  save  the  manufacture 
of  weapons,  ornam.ents,  baskets,  and  rarely  [Andamanese) 
pottery. 

Papuasian:  i.  Western  Papuasians  {true  Papuans): 
nearly  all  the  New  Guinea  natives;  Aru  and  other  insular 
groups    thence    westwards    to    Flores;     Torres  ...    _,.  .  . 

^_      -^.  ,     _        ■    ■     1       T  1        1  T-  Main  Divisions. 

Straits   and  Louisiade  Islands.      2.      Eastern 
Papuasians  :    nearly  all  the  natives  of  Melanesia  from  Bis- 
marck Archipelago  to  New  Caledonia,  with  most  of  Fiji, 
and  part  of  New  Guinea.  ^ 


134  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

Negritoes:  i.  Andamanese  Islanders.  2.  Semangs, 
in  the  Malay  Peninsula.  3.  Aetas,  surviving  in  most  of  the 
Philippine  Islands.     4.     Pygmies  in  New  Guinea. 


Papuasians. 

From  the  data  supplied  in  Ethnology,  Chap,  XI.  a  recon- 
struction may  be  attempted  of  the  obscure  ethnical  relations 
in  Australasia  on  the  following  broad  lines'. 
Ethnical  I-     The  two  main  sections  of  the  Ulotrichous 

Relations  in      division  of  mankind,  now  separated  by  the  inter- 
ceania.  vening  waters  of  the  Indian  Ocean,  are  funda- 

mentally one. 

2.  To  the  Sudanese  and  Bantu  sub-sections  in  Africa 
correspond,  mutatis  mutandis,  the  Papuan  and  Melanesian 
sub-sections  in  Oceania,  the  former  being  distinguished  by 
great  linguistic  diversity,  the  latter  by  considerable  linguistic 
uniformity,  and  both  by  a  rather  wide  range  of  physical 
variety  within  certain  well-marked  limits. 

3.  In  Africa  the  physical  varieties  are  due  mainly  to 
Semitic  and  Hamitic  grafts  on  the  Negro  stock  ;  in  Oceania 
mainly  to  Mongoloid  (Malay)  and  Caucasian  (Indonesian) 
grafts  on  the  Papuan  stock. 

4.  The  Negrillo  element  in  Africa  has  its  counterpart  in 
an  analogous  Negrito  element  in  Oceania  (Andamanese, 
Semangs,  Aetas,  etc.). 

5.  In  both  regions  the  linguistic  diversity  apparently 
presents  similar  features — a  large  number  of  languages 
differing  profoundly  in  their  grammatical  structure  and 
vocabularies,  but  all  belonging  to  the  same  agglutinative 
order  of  speech,  and  also  more  or  less  to  the  same  phonetic 
system. 

6.  In  both  regions  the  linguistic  uniformity  is  generally 
confined  to  one  or  two  geographical  areas,  Bantuland  in 
Africa  and  Melanesia  in  Oceania. 

7.  In  Bantuland  the  linguistic  system  shows  but  faint 
if  any  resemblances  to  any  other  known  tongues,  whereas 
the  Melanesian  group  is  but  one  branch,  though  the  most 
archaic,  of  the  vast  Austronesian  Family,  diffused  over  the 
Indian  and  Pacific  Oceans.  The  Papuan  languages  are 
entirely  distinct  from  the  Melanesian.     They  are  in  some 


y]  The  Oceanic  Negroes:   Papuasians  135 

respects  similar  to  the  Australian,  but  their  exact  positions 
are  not  yet  proved  \ 

8.  Owing  to  their  linguistic,  geographical,  and  to  some 
extent  their  physical  and  social  differences,  it  is  desirable  to 
treat  the  Papuans  and  Melanesians  as  two  dis- 

tinct  though  closely  related  sub-groups,  and  to   Papua™* 
restrict   the   use    of    the    terms    Papuan    and   Melanesian 
Melanesian   accordingly,  while  both    may   be   definS^"^^'*" 
conveniently  comprised  under,  the   general   or 
collective  term  Papuasian". 

9.  Here,  therefore,  by  Papuans  will  be  understood  the 
true  aborigines  of  New  Guinea  with  its  eastern  Louisiade 
dependency^  and  in  the  west  many  of  the  Malaysian  islands 
as  far  as  Flores  inclusive,  where  the  black  element  and  non- 
Malay  speech  predominate ;  by  Melanesians,  the  natives  of 
Melanesia  as  commonly  understood,  that  is,  the  Admiralty 
Isles,  New  Britain,  New  Ireland  and  Duke  of  York;  the 
Solomon  Islands ;  Santa  Cruz ;  the  New  Hebrides,  New 
Caledonia,  Loyalty,  and  Fiji,  where  the  black  element  and 
Austronesian  speech  prevail  almost  exclusively.  Papuasia 
will  thus  comprise  the  insular  world  from  Flores  to  New 
Caledonia. 

Such  appear  to  be  the  present  limits  of  the  Papuasian 
domain,  which  formerly  may  have  included  Micronesia  also 
(the   Marianne,    Pelew,    and    Caroline    groups),    The  Papuasian 
and  some  writers  suggest  that  it  possibly  ex-    Domain,  Past 
tended  over  the  whole  of  Polynesia  as  far  as   ^""^  Present. 
Easter  Island. 

The  variation  in  the  inhabitants  of  New  Guinea  has  often 
been  recognised  and  is  well  described  by  C.   G.    Seligman 

1  Cf.  S.  H.  Ray,  Reports  Camb.  Anthrop.  Exp.  Torres  Sis.  Vol.  ill.  1907, 
pp.  287,  528.  For  Melanesian  linguistic  affinities  see  also  W.  Schmidt,  Die  Mon- 
Khmer  Vblker,  igo6. 

2  C.  G.  Seligman  limits  the  use  of  the  term  Papuasian  to  the  inhabitants 
of  New  Guinea  and  its  islands,  and  following  a  suggestion  of  A.  C.  Haddon's 
(fieograph.  Journ.  xvi.  1900,  pp.  265,  414),  recognises  therein  three  great  divisions, 
the  Papuans,  the  Western  Papuo- Melanesians,  and  the  Eastern  Papuo-Mela- 
nesians,  or  Massim.  Cf.  C.  G.  Seligman,  "A  Classification  of  the  Natives  of 
British  New  Guinea,"  Journ.  Roy.  Anthr.  Inst.  Vol.  xxxix.  igo2,  and  The 
Melanesians  of  British  New  Guinea,  1910. 

3  That  is,  the  indigenous  Papuans,  who  appear  to  form  the  great  bulk  of  the 
New  Guinea  populations,  in  contradistinction  to  the  immigrant  Melanesians 
(Motu  and  others),  who  are  numerous  especially  along  the  south-east  coast  of  the 
mainland  and  in  the  neighbouring  Louisiade  and  D'Entrecasteaux  Archipelagoes 
{Eth.  Ch.  XL). 


136  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

who  remarks^  that  the  contrast  between  the  relatively  tall, 
p  .       dark-skinned,  frizzly-haired  inhabitants  of  Torres 

Mdanesians,       Straits,    the   Fly   River   and   the  neighbouring 
Physical  parts  of  New  Guinea  on  the  one  hand,  and  the 

aracters.  smaller  lighter  coloured  peoples  to  the  east, 
is  so  striking  that  the  two  peoples  must  be  recognised  as 
racially  distinct.  He  restricts  the  name  Papuan  to  the  con- 
geries of  frizzly-haired  and  often  mop-headed  peoples  whose 
skin  colour  is  some  shade  of  brownish  black,  and  proposes 
the  term  Papuo-Melanesian  for  the  generally  smaller,  lighter 
coloured,  frizzly-haired  races  of  the  eastern  peninsula  and 
the  islands  beyond.  Besides  these  conspicuous  differences 
"  The    Papuan   is  generally  taller  and  is   more  consistently 

p  dolichocephalic  than  the  Papuo-Melanesian  :  he 

is  always  darker,  his  usual  colour  being  a  dark 
chocolate  or  sooty  brown  ;  his  head  is  high  and  his  face,  is, 
as  a  rule,  long  with  prominent  brow-ridges,  above  which  his 
rather  flat  forehead  commonly  slopes  backwards.  The  Papuo- 
Melanesian  head  is  usually  less  high  and  the  brow  ridges  less 
prominent,    while    the    forehead    is    commonly 

iSMMesian.  rounded  and  not  retreating.  The  skin  colour 
runs  through  the  whole  gamut  of  shades  of 
cafi-au-lait,  from  a  lightish  yellow  with  only  a  tinge  of 
brown,  to  a  tolerably  dark  bronze  colour.  The  lightest 
shades  are  everywhere  uncommon,  and  in  many  localities 
appear  to  be  limited  to  the  female  sex,.  The  Papuan  nose  is 
longer  and  stouter  and  is  often  so  arched  as  to  present  the 
outline  known  as  'Jewish.'  The  character  of  its  bridge 
varies,  typically  the  nostrils  are  broad  and  the  tip  of  the  nose 
is  often  hooked  downwards.  In  the  Papuo-Melanesian  the 
nose  is  generally  smaller :  both  races  have  frizzly  hair,  but 
while  this  is  universal  among  Papuans,  curly  and  even  wavy 
hair  is  common  among  both  [Eastern  and  Western]  divisions 
of  Papuo-Melanesians^" 

The  Melanesians  are  as  variable  as  the  natives  of  New 
Guinea ;    the   hair   may   be    curly,  or   even    wavy,    showiflg 

Melanesian.     evidence    of    racial    mixture,    and    the    skin    is 

chocolate  or  occasionally  copper-coloured.     The 

stature  of  the  men  ranges  from  i  -50  m.  to  1 78  m.  (4  ft.  1 1  in. 

'   The  Melanesians  of  British  New  Guinea^  1910,  pp.  2,  27. 
2  The    curly  or  wavy  hair  appears    more    commonly   among   women    than 
among  men. 


v]  The  Oceanic  Negroes:  Papuasians  137 

to  5  ft.  10  in.),  with  an  average  between  r56  m.  and  r6  m. 
(5  ft.  i^  in.  to  5  ft.  3  in.).  The  skull  is  usually  dolicho- 
cephalic, but  ranges  from  67  to  85  and  in  certain  parts 
brachycephaly  is  predominant ;  the  nose  shows  great  diversity. 
This  type  ranges  with  local  variations  from  the  Admiralty 
Islands  and  parts  of  New  Guinea  through  the  Bismarck 
Archipelago,  Solomon  Islands,  and  the  New  Hebrides  and 
other  island  groups  to  Fiji  and  New  Caledonia. 

The  "  Kanakas,"  as  the  natives  of  New  Caledonia  and 
the  Loyalty  group  are  wrongly'  called  by  their  present  rulers, 
have  been  described  by  various  French  investi- 
gators.    Among  the  best  accounts  of  them  is      SeSns. 
that  of    M.   Augustin    Bernard',   based  on  the 
observations  of  de    Rochas,    Bourgard,    Vieillard,    Bertillon, 
Meinicke,  and  others.     Apart  from  several  sporadic    Poly- 
nesian groups  in  the  Loyalties',  all  are  typical  Melanesians, 
long-headed  with  very  broad  face  at  least  in  the 
middle,  narrow  boat-shaped  skull  (ceph.  index      characters. 
70)*,  large,   massive  lower  jaw,  often  with  two 
supplementary  molars',  colour  a  dark  chocolate,  often  with  a 
highly  characteristic  purple  tinge ;  but  de  Rochas'  statement 
that  for  a  few  days  after  birth  infants  are  of  a  light  reddish 
yellow  hue    lacks  confirmation  ;   hair  less   woolly  but  much 
longer  than  the  Negro  ;  beard  also  longish  and  frizzly,  the 
peppercorn  tufts  with  simulated  bald  spaces  being  an  effect 

'  Kanaka  is  a  Polynesian  word  meaning  "man,"  and  should  therefore  be 
restricted  to  the  brown  Indonesian  group,  but  it  is  indiscriminately  applied  by 
French  writers  to  all  South  Sea  IslanderSj  whether  black  or  brown.  This  misuse 
of  the  term  has  found  its  way  into  some  English  books  of  travel  even  in  the 
corrupt  French  form  "  canaque." 

^  L' Archipel  de  la  Nouvelle  CaUdonie,  Paris,  1895. 

^  Lifu,  Mare,  Uvea,  and  Isle  of  Pines.  '  These  Polynesians  appear  to  have  all 
come  originally  from  Tonga,  first  to  Uvea  Island  (Wallis),  and  thence  in  the 
eighteenth  century  to  Uvea  in  the  Loyalties,  cradle  of  all  the  New  Caledonian 
Polynesian  settlements.  Cf.  C.  M.  Woodford,  "  On  some  Little-known  Polynesian 
Settlements  in  the  Neighbourhood  of  the  Solomon  Islands,"  Geog.  Journ.  XLVIII. 
1916. 

*  This  low  index  is  characteristic  of  most  Papuasians,  and  reaches  the  extreme 
of  dolichocephaly  in  the  extinct  Kai-Colos  of  Fiji  {65°),  and  amongst  some  coast 
Papuans  of  New  Guinea  measured  by  Miklukho-Maclay.  But  this  observer  found 
the  characters  so  variable  in  New  Guinea  that  he  was  unable  to  use  it  as  a  racial 
test.  In  the  New  Hebrides,  Louisiades,  and  Bismarck  group  also  he  found  maiiy 
of  the  natives  to  be  broad-headed,  with  indices  as  high  as  80  and  85  ;  and  even  in 
the  Solomon  Islands  Guppy  records  cephalic  indices  ranging  from  69  to  86,  but 
dolichocephaly  predominates  {The  Sqlomon  Islands,  1887,  pp.  112,  1 14).  Thus 
this  feature  is  no  more  constant  amongst  the  Oceanic  than  it  is  amongst  the 
African  Negroes.  (See  also  M.-Maclay's  paper  in  Proc.  Linn.  Soc.  New  South 
Wales,  1882,  p.  171  sq.)  *  Eth.  Ch.  VIII. 


138  Man  :   Past  and  Present  [ch. 

due  to  the  assiduous  use  of  the  comb ;  very  prominent  super- 
ciliary arches  and  thick  eyebrows,  whence  their  somewhat 
furtive  look  ;  mean  height  5  ft.  4  in. ;  speech  Melanesian  with 
three  marked  varieties,  that  of  the  south-eastern  districts 
being  considered  the  most  rudimentary  member  of  the  whole 
Melanesian  group'. 

From  the  state  of  their  industries,  in  some  respects  the 
rudest,  in  others  amongst  the  most  advanced  in  Melanesia,  it 
may  be  inferred  that  after  their  arrival  the  New  Caledonians, 
like  the  Tasmanians,  the  Andamanese,  and  some  other  insular 
groups,  remained  for  long  ages  almost  completely  secluded 

from   the   rest   of  the   world.     Owing    to   the 
QuMtion.^        poverty  of  the  soil  the  struggle  for  food  must 

always  have  been  severe.  Hence  the  most 
jealously  guarded  privileges  of  the  chiefs  were  associated  with 
questions  of  diet,  while  the  paradise  of  the  dead  was  a  region 
where  they  had  abundance  of  food  and  could  gorge  on  yams. 
The  ethnological  history  of  the  whole  of  the  Melanesian 
region  is  obscure,  but  as  the  result  of  recent  investigations 
General  Survey  certain  broad  features  may  be  recognised.  The 
of  Melanesian  earliest  inhabitants  were  probably  a  black. 
Ethnology.  woolly-haired    race,    now   represented    by   the 

pygmies  of  New  Guinea,  remnants  of  a  formerly  widely  ex- 
tended Negrito  population  also  surviving  in  the  Andaman 
Islands,  the  Malay  Peninsula  (Semang)  and  the  Philippines 
( Aeta).  A  taller  variety  advanced  into  Tasmania  and  formed 
the  Tasmanian  group,  now  extinct,  others  spread  over  New 
Guinea  and  the  western  Pacific  as  "  Papuans,"  and  formed 
the  basis  of  the  Melanesian  populations^  The  Proto-Poly- 
nesians  in  their  migrations  from  the  East  Indian  Archipelago 
to  Polynesia  passed  through  this  region  and  imposed  their 
speech  on  the  population  and  otherwise  modified  it.  In 
later  times  other  migrations  have  come  from  the  west,  and 
parts  of  Melanesia  have  also  been  directly  influenced  by 
movements  from  Polynesia.  The  result  of  these  supposed 
influences  has  been  to  form  the  Melanesian  peoples  as  they 
exist  to-day  I     G.  Friederici^  has  accumulated  a  vast  amount 

^  Bernard,  p.  262. 

^  A.  C.  Haddon,  The  Wanderings  of  Peoples,  191 1,  p.  33. 

^  A.  C.  Haddon,  The  Races  of  Man,  1909,  p.  21. 

*  Wissenschaftliche  Ergebnisse  einer  amtlichen  Forschuttgsreise  nach  dent 
Bismarck- Archipel  im  fahre  igo8;  Untersuchungen  uber  eine  Melanesische 
Wanderstrasse,  1913  ;  and  Mitt,  aiis  den  deutschen  Schutsgebieten,  Erganzungs- 


v]  The  Oceanic  Negroes:  Papuasians  139 

of  evidence  based  chiefly  on  linguistics  and  material  culture, 
to  support  the  theory  of  Melanesian  cultural  streams  from 
the  west.  He  regards  the  Melanesians  as  having  come  from 
that  part  of  Indonesia  which  extends  from  the  Southern 
Islands  of  the  Philippine  group,  through  the  Minahasa 
peninsula  of  Celebes,  to  the  Moluccas  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  Buru  and  Ceram.  From  the  Moluccan  region  they  passed 
north  of  New  Guinea  to  the  region  about  Vitiaz  and  Dampier 
Straits,  which  Friederici  regards  as  the  gateway  of  Melanesia. 
Here  they  colonised  the  northern  shores  of  New  Britain, 
and  part  of  the  swarm  settled  along  the  eastern  and  south- 
eastern shores  of  New  Guinea.  Another  stream  passed  to 
the  Northern  Louisiades,  Southern  Solomons,  and  Northern 
New  Hebrides.  The  Philippine  or  sub- Philippine  stream 
took  a  more  northerly  route,  going  by  the  Admiralty  group  to 
New  Hanover,  East  New  Ireland  and  the  Solomons. 

The  first  serious  attempt  to  disentangle  the  complex  cha- 
racter of  Melanesian  ethnography  was  made  by  F.  Graebner 
in  1905',  followed  by  G.  Friederici,  the  references 
to  whose  work  are  given  above.  More  recently  proWems 
W.  H.  R.  Rivers^  has  attacked  the  cultural 
problem  by  means  of  the  genealogical  method  and  the  results 
of  his  investigations  are  here  briefly  summarised.  He  has 
discovered  several  remarkable  forms  of  marriage  in  Melanesia 
and  has  deduced  others  which  have  existed  previously.  He 
argues  that  the  anomalous  forms  of  marriage  imply  a  former 
dual  organisation  {i.e.  a  division  of  the  community  into  two 
exogamous  groups)  with  matrilineal  descent,  and  he  is  driven 
to  assume  that  in  early  times  there  was  a  state  of  society  in 
which  the  elders  had  acquired  so  predominant  a  position  that 
they  were  able  to  monopolise  all  the  young  women.  Some 
of  the  relationship  systems  are  of  great  antiquity,  and  it  is 
evident  that  changes  have  taken  place  due  to  cultural  in- 
fluences coming  in  from  without. 

The  distribution  of  kava-drinking  and  betel-chewing  is  of 
great  interest.  '  The  former  occurs  all  over  Poly-   Kava-drinking 
nesia  (except  Easter  Island  and  New  Zealand)   and 
and  throughout   southern   Melanesia,   including    Betel-chewing. 

heft,  Nr  5,  1912,  Nr  7,  1913.  See  also  S.  H.  Ray,  Nature,  CLXXn.  1913,  and 
Man,  XI V.  34,  1 91 4. 

1  Zeitschr.  f.  Ethnol.  XXXVII.  p.  26,  1905.  His  later  writings  should  also  be 
consulted,  Anthropos,  iv.  1909,  pp.  726,  998;  Ethnologic,  1914,  p.  13. 

*  The  History  of  Melanesian  Society,  1914. 


140  Man:  Past  and  Present  [cH. 

certain  Santa  Cruz  Islands,  where  it  is  limited  to  religious 
ceremonial.  Betel-chewing  begins  at  these  islands  and  extends 
northwards  through  New  Guinea  and  Indonesia  to  India. 
Kava  and  betel  were  introduced  into  Melanesia  by  different 
cultural  migrations. 

The  introduction  of  beteUchewing  was  relatively  late  and 
restricted  and  may  have  taken  place  from  Indonesia  after  the 
invasion  by  the  Hindus.  With  it  were  associated  strongly 
established  patrilineal  institutions,  marriage  with  a  wife  of 
a  father's  brother,  the  special  sanctity  of  the  skull  and  the 
plank-built  canoe.  The  use  of  pile  dwellings  is  a  more 
constant  element  of  the  betel-culture  than  of  the  kava- 
culture.  The  religious  ritual  centres  round  the  skulls  of 
ancestors  and  relatives,  and  the  cult  of  the  skull  has  taken 
a  direction  which  gives  the  heads  of  enemies  an  importance 
equal  to  that  of  relatives,  hence  head-hunting  has  become  the 
chief  object  of  warfare.  The  skull  of  a  relative  is  the  symbol — 
if  not  the  actual  abiding  place — of  the  dead,  to  be  honoured 
and  propitiated,  while  the  skulls  of  enemies  act  as  the  -means 
whereby  this  honour  and  propitiation  are  effected. 

The  influence  of  the  kava-using  peoples  was  more  extensive 
in  time  and  space  than  that  of  the  betel-chewing  people. 
Rivers  supposes  that  they  had  neither  clan  organisation  nor 
exogamy.  Some  of  them  preserved  the  body  after  death  and 
respect  was  paid  to  the  head  or  skull.  It  is  possible  that  the 
custom  of  payment  for  a  wife  came  into  existence  in  Melanesia 
as  the  result  of  the  need  of  the  immigrant  men  for  women  of 
the  indigenous  people  owing  to  their  bringing  few  women  with 
them,  and  the  great  development  of  shell  money  may  be  due 
in  part  to  those  payments.  Contact  with  the  earlier  popu- 
lations also  resulted  in  the  development  of  secret  societies. 
The  immigrants  introduced  the  cult  of  the  dead  and  the 
institutions  of  taboo,  totemism  and  chieftainship.  They 
brought  with  them  the  form  of  outrigger  canoe  and  the 
knowledge  of  plank-building  for  canoes  (which  however  was 
only  partially  adopted),  the  rectangular  house,  and  may  have 
known  the  art  of  making  pile  dwellings.  They  introduced 
various  forms  of  currency  made  of  shells,  teeth,  feathers,  mats, 
etc.,  the  drill,  the  slit  drum,  or  gong,  the  conch  trumpet,  the 
fowl,  pig,,  dog,  and  megalithic  monuments. 

There  may  have  been  two  immigrations  of  peoples  who 
made  monuments  of  stone  :    1.    Those  who  erected  the  more 


v]  The  Oceanic  Negroes:  Papuasians         141 

dolmen-like   structures,    probably   had   aquatic    totems,    and 

interred  their  dead  in   the   extended   position. 

2.    A    later  movement   of  people  whose  stone   Monuments 

structures  tended  to  take  the  form  of  pyramids, 

who    had    bird    totems,    practised    a    cult    of   the    sun    and 

cremated  their  dead. 

When  the  kava-using  people  came  into  Melanesia  they 
found  it  alrekdy  inhabited.  The  earliest  fprm  of  social  organi- 
sation of  which  we  have  evidence  was  on  the 
dual  basis,  associated  with  matrilineal  descent,  ^60^°"*'" 
the  dominance  of  the  old  men  (gerontocracy)  and 
certain  peculiar  forms  of  marriage.  These  people  interred 
their  dead  in  the  contracted  or  sitting  position,  which  also  was 
employed  in  most  parts  of  Polynesia.  Evidently  they  feared 
the  ghosts  and  removed  their  dead  as  completely  as  possible 
from  the  living.  These  people — whom  we  may  speak  of  as  the 
"  dual-people  " — were  communistic  in  property  and  probably 
practised  sexual  communism  ;  the  change  towards  the  insti- 
tution ■  of  individual  property  and  individual  marriage  were 
assisted  by,  if  not  entirely  due  to,  the  ihfluence  of  the  kava- 
people.  They  practised  circumcision.  Magic  was  an  indi- 
genous institution.  Characteristic  is  the  cult  of  vui,  unnamed 
local  spirits  with  definite  haunts  or  abiding  places  whose 
rites  are  performed  in  definite  localities.  In  the  Northern 
New  Hebrides  the  offerings  connected  with  vui  are  not 
made  to  the  vui  themselves  but  to  the  man  who  owns  the 
place  connected  with  the  vui.  It  would  seem  as  if  ownership 
of  a  locality  carried  with  it  ownership  of  the  z^z^z'  connected 
with  the  locality.  Thus  vui  are  local  spirits  belonging  to  the 
indigenous  owners  of  the  soil,  and  there  seems  no  reason  to 
believe  that  they  were  ever  ghosts  of  dead  men.  As  totemism 
occurs  among  the  dual-people  of  the  Bismarck  Archipelago 
(who  live  in  parts  of  New  Britain  and  New  Ireland  and 
Duke  of  York  Island)  it  is  possible  that  the  kava-people  were 
not  the  sole  introducers  of  totemism  into  Melanesia.  The 
dual-people  were  probably  acquainted  with  the  bow,  which 
they  may  have  called  busur,  and  the  dug-out  canoe  which 
was  used  either  lashed  together  in  pairs  or  singly  with  an 
outrigger. 

The  origin  of  a  dual  organisation  is  generally  believed  to 
be  due  to  fission,  but  it  is  more  reasonable  to  regard  it  as  due 
to  fusion,  as  hostility  is  so  frequently  manifest  between  the 


142  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

two  groups  despite  the  fact  that  spouses  are  always  obtained 
from  the  other  moiety,      In   New   Ireland   (and  elsewhere) 
each  moiety  is  associated  with  a  hero ;    one  acts  wisely  but 
unscrupulously,  the  other  is^a  fool  who  is  always  falling  an 
easy  victim  to  the  first.     Each  moiety  has  a  totem  bird :  one 
is  a  fisher,  clever  and  capable,  while  the  second  obtains  its 
food  by  stealing  froih  the  other  and  does  not  go  to  sea.     One 
represents  the  immigrants  of  superior  culture  who  came  by  sea, 
the  other  the  first  people,  aborigines,  of  lowly  culture  who 
were  quite  unable  to  cope  with  the  wiles  and  stratagems  of 
the  people  who  had  settled  among  them.     In  the  Gazelle 
Peninsula  of   New  Britain,  the  dual  groups  are  associated 
with  light  and  dark  coconuts ;  affiliated  with  the  former  are 
male  objects  and  the  clever  bird,  which  is  universally  called 
taragau,  or  a  variant  of  that  term.     The  bird  of  the  other 
moiety  is  named  malaba  or  manigulai,  and  is  associated  with 
female    objects.     The   dark   coconuts,   the  dark  colour   and 
flattened  noses  of  the  women  who  were  produced   by  their 
transformation,  and  the  projecting  eyebrows  oixhe.malaba  bird 
and  its  human  adherents  seem  to  be  records  in  the  mythology 
of  the    Bismarck    Archipelago   of  the    negroid    (or,    Rivers 
suggests,  an  Australoid)  character  of  the  aboriginal  population. 
The  light  coconut  which  was  changed  into  a  light-coloured 
woman  seems  to  have  preserved  a  tradition  of  the  light  colour 
of  the  immigrants. 

The  autochthones  of  Melanesia  were  a  dark-skinned  and 
ulotrichous  people,  who  had  neither  a  fear  of  the  ghosts  of 
their  dead  nor  a  manes  cult,  but  had  a  cult  of 
CutewTstxIta.  ^^^  spirits.  The  Baining  of  the  Gazelle  Penin- 
sula of  New  Britain  may  be  representatives  of 
a  stage  of  Melanesian  history  earlier  than  the  dual  system  ;  if 
so,  they  probably  represent  in  a  modified  form,  the  aboriginal 
element.  They  are  said  to  be  completely  devoid  of  any  fear 
of  the  dead. 

The  immigrants  whose  arrival  caused  the  institution  of  the 
dual  system  were  a  relatively  fair  people  of  superior  culture 
who  interred  their  dead  in  a  sitting  position  and  feared  their 
ghosts.     They  first  introduced  the  Austronesian  language. 

All  subsequent  migrations  Were  of  Austronesian-speaking 
peoples  from  Indonesia.  First  came  the  kava-peoples  in 
various  swarms,  and  more  recently  the  betel-people. 

Possibly   New   Caledonia   shows   the   effects   of  relative 


v]  The  Oceanic  Negroes:   Papuasians         143 

isolation  more  than  other  parts  of  Melanesia,  but,  except  for 
Polynesian  influence  (most  directly  recognisable  in  Fiji  and 
southern  Melanesia),  Melanesia  may  be  regarded 
as  possessing  a  general  culture  with  certain  cuSf^" 
characteristic  features  which  may  be  thus  sum- 
marised'. The  Melanesians  are  a  noisy,  excitable,  demon- 
strative, affectionate,  cheery,  passionate  people.  They  could 
not  be  hunters  everywhere,  as  in  most  of  the  islands  there  is 
no  game,  nor  could  they  be  pastors  anywhere,  as  there  are  no 
cattle  ;  the  only  resources  are  fishing  and  agriculture.  In  the 
larger  islands  there  is  usually  a  sharp  distinction  between  the 
coast  people,  who  are  mainly  fishers,  and  the  inlanders  who 
are  agriculturalists  ;  the  latter  are  always  by  far  the  more 
primitive,  and  in  many  cases  are  subservient  to  the  former. 
Both  sexes  work  in  the  plantations.  In  parts  of  New  Guinea 
and  the  Western  Solomons  the  sago  palm  is  of  great  im- 
portance ;  coconut  palms  grow  on  the  shores  of  most  islands, 
and  bananas,  yams,  bread-fruit,  taro  and  sweet  potatoes  supply 
abundant  food.  As  for  dress,  the  men  occasionally  wear 
none,  but  usually  have  belts  or  bands,  of  bark-cloth,  plaits,  or 
strings,  and  the  women  almost  everywhere ,  have 
petticoats  of  finely  shredded  leaves.  The  skin 
is  decorated  with  scars  in  various  patterns,  and  tattooing  is 
occasionally  seen,  the  former  being  naturally  characteristic  of 
the  darker  skinned  people,  and  the  latter  of  the  lighter. 
Every  portion  of  the  body  is  decorated  in  innumerable  ways 
with  shells,  teeth,  feathers,  leaves,  flowers,  and  other  objects, 
and  plaited  bands  encircle  the  neck,  body,  and  limbs.  Shell 
necklaces,  which  constitute  a  kind  of  currency,  and  artificially 
deformed  boars'  tusks  are  especially  characteristic,  though  each 
group  usually  has  its  peculiar  ornaments,  distinguishing  it  from 
any  other  group.  There  is  a  great  variety  of  houses.  The 
typical  Melanesian  house  has  a  gable  roof,  the 
ridge  pole  is  supported  by  two  main  posts,  side 
walls  are  very  low,  and  the  ends  are  filled  in  with  bamboo 
screens.  Pile  dwellings  are  found  in  the  Bismarck  Archipelago, 
the  Solomon  Islands  and  New  Guinea,  and  some  New  Guinea 
villages  extend  out  into  the  sea. 

The  weapons  typical  of  Melanesia  are  the  club  and  the 
spear  (though  the  latter  is  not  found  in  the  Banks  Islands), 

'  A.  C.  Haddon,  The  Races  of  Man,  1909,  pp.  24-8,  and  Handbook  to  the 
Ethnographical  Collections  British  Museum,  1910,  pp.  11 9- 139. 


144  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

each  group  and   often   each   island   possessing  its  own  dis- 
tinctive  pattern.     Stone  headed  clubs  are  found 

eapons.  .^  New  Guinea,  New  Britain  and  the  New 
Hebrides.  The  spears  of  the  Solomon  Islands  are  finely 
decorated  and  have  bone  barbs ;  those  of  New  Caledonia 
are  pointed  with  a  sting-ray  spine ;  those  of  the  Admiralty 
Islands  have  obsidian  heads  ;  and  those  of  New  Britain  have 
a  human  armbone  at  the  butt  end.  The  bow,  the  chief 
weapon  of  the  Papuans,  occurs  over  the  greater  part  of 
Melanesia,  though  it  is  absent  in  S.E.  New  Guinea,  and  is 
only  used  for  hunting  in  the  Admiralty  Islands. 

The  hollowed  out  tree  trunk    with    or   without   a   plank 
gunwale  is  general,  usually  with  a  single  outrigger,  though 
^  ^         plank-built     canoes     occur    in     the    Solomons, 

characieristically  ornamented  with  shell  inlay. 
Pottery  is  an  important  industry  in  parts  of  New  Guinea  and 
in  Fiji ;  it  occurs  also  in  New  Caledonia,  Espiritu  Santo 
(New  Hebrides)  and  the  Admiralty  Islands.  Bark-cloth  is 
made  in  most  islands,  but  a  loom  for  weaving  leaf  strips  is 
now  found  only   in  Santa  Cruz. 

A  division  of  the  community  into  two  exogamous  groups 
is  very  widely  spread,  no  intermarriage  being  permitted  within 
S  ■  1  L"f  ^^  g^^P-  Mother-right  is  prevalent,  descent 
and  inheritance  being  counted  on  the  mother's 
side,  while  a  man's  property  descends  to  his  sister's  children. 
At  the  same  time  the  mother  is  in  no  sense  the  head  of  the  family ; 
the  house  is  the  father's,  the  garden  may  be  his,  the  rule  and 
government  are  his,  though  the  maternal  uncle  sometimes  has 
more  authority  than  the  father.  The  transition  to  father-right 
has  definitely  occurred  in  various  places,  and  is  taking  place 
elsewhere  ;  thus,  in  some  of  the  New  Hebrides,  the  father  has 
to  buy  off  the  rights  of  his  wife's  relations  or  his  sister's 
children. 

Chiefs  exist  everywhere,  being  endowed  with  religious 
sanctity  in  Fiji,  where  they  are  regarded  as  the  direct 
descendants  of  the  tribal  ancestors.  More  often,  a  chief 
holds  his  position  solely  owing  to  the  fact  that  he  has  inherited 
the  cult  of  some  powerful  spirit,  and  his  influence  is  not  very 
extensive.  Probably  everywhere  public  affairs  are  regulated 
by  discussion  among  the  old  or  important  men,  and  the  more 
primitive  the  society,  the  more  power  they  possess.  But  the 
most  powerful   institutions   of  all   are   the   secret   societies, 


v]  The  Oceanic  Negroes:    Papuasians         145 

occurring   with    certain    exceptions    throughout    Melanesia. 
These  are  accessible  to  men  only,  and  the  can-    ^      ,~    .  ,. 

J.J    ^  ....        ,  ,     '.  Secret  Societies. 

aidates  on  initiation  have  to  submit  to  treatment 
which  is  often  rough  in  the  extreme.  The  members  of  the 
societies  are  believed  to  be  in  close  association  with  ghosts  and 
spirits,  and  exhibit  themselves  in  masks  and  elaborate  dresses 
in  which  disguise  they  are  believed  by  the  uninitiated  to  be 
supernatural  beings.  These  societies  do  not  practise*  any 
secret  cult,  in  fact  all  that  the  initiate  appears  to  learn  is  that 
the  "ghosts"  are  merely  his  fellows  in  disguise,  and  that  the 
mysterious  noises  which  herald  their  approach  are  produced 
by  the  bull-roarer  and  other  artificial  means.  These  organisa- 
tions are  most  powerful  agents  for  the  maintenance  of  social 
order  and  inflict  punishment  for  breaches  of-  customary  law, 
but  they  are  often  terrorising  and  blackmailing  institutions. 
Women  are  rigorously  excluded. 

Other  social  factors  of  importance  are  the  clubs,  especially 
in  the  New  Hebrides  and  Banks  Islands.  These  are  a  means 
of  attaining  social  rank.  They  are  divided  into 
different  grades,  the  members  of  which  eat 
together  at  their  particular  fire-place  in  the  club-house.  Each 
rank  has  its  insignia,  sometimes  human  effigies,  usually,  but 
wrongly,  called  "idols."  Promotion  from  one  grade  to  another 
is  chiefly  a  matter  of  payment,  and  few  reach  the  highest. 
Those  who  do  so  become  personages  of  very  great  influence, 
since  no  candidate  can  obtain  promotion  without  their 
permission. 

Totemism  occurs  in  parts  of  New  Guinea  and  elsewhere 
and  has  marked  socialising  effects,  as  totemic  solidarity  takes 
precedence  of  all  other  considerations,  but  it  is 
becoming  obsolete.  The  most  important  religious 
factor  throughout  Melanesia  is  the  belief  in  a  supernatural 
power  or  influence,  generally  called  mana.  This  is  what 
works  to  effect  everything  which  is  beyond  the  ordinary  power 
of  man  or  outside  the  common  processes  of  nature ;  but  this 
power,  though  in  itself  impersonal,  is  always  connected  with 
some  person  who  directs  it ;  all  spirits  have  it,  ghosts  generally, 
and  some  men.  A  more  or  less  developed  ancestor  cult  is 
also  universally  distributed.  Human  beings  may  become 
beneficent  or  malevolent  ghosts,  but  not  every  ghost  becomes 
an  object  of  regard.  The  ghost  who  is  worshipped '  is  the 
spirit  of  a  man  who  in  his  lifetime  had  mana.     Good  and- 

K.  10 


146  Man:    Past  and  Present  [ch. 

evil  spirits  independent  of  ancestors  are  also  abundant  every- 
where. There  is  no  established  priesthood,  except  in  Fiji, 
but  as  a  rule,  any  man  who  knows  the  particular  ritual  suitable 
to  a  definite  spirit,  acts  as  intermediary,  and  a  man  in  com- 
munication with  a  powerful  spirit  becomes  a  person. of  great 
importance.  Life  after  death  is  universally  believed  in,  and 
the  soul  is  commonly  pictured  as  undertaking  a  journey,  beset 
with  various  perils,  to  the  abode  of  departed  spirits,  which  is 
usually  represented  as  lying  towards  the  west.  As  a  rule 
only  the  souls  of  brave  men,  or  initiates,  or  men  who  have 
died  in  fight,  win  through  to  the  most  desirable  abode. 
Magical  practices  occur  everywhere  for  the  gaining  of  benefits,. 
plenteous  crops,  good  fishing,  fine  weather,  rain,  children  or 
success  in  love.  Harmful  magic  for  producing  sickness  or 
death  is  equally  universal- 
Returning  to  the  Papuan  lands  proper,  in  the  insular 
groups   west   of   New   Guinea  we   enter   one   of   the   most 

entangled  ethnical  regions  in  the  world.     Here 
Papu^ia.      ^'"^'  ^'^  doubt,  a  few  islands  such  as  the  Aru 

group,  mainly  inhabited  by  full-blood  Papuans, 
men  who  furnished  Wallace  with  the  models  on  which  he 
built  up  his  true  Papuan  type,  which  has  since  been  vainly 
assailed  by  so  many  later  observers.  But  in  others— Ceram, 
Buru,  Timor,  and  so  on  to  Flores — diverse  ethnical  and 
linguistic  elements  are  intermingled  in  almost  hopeless  con- 
fusion.    Discarding  the  term  "  Alfuro  "  as  of  no  ethnical  value", 

we  find  the  whole  area  west  to  about  120°  E. 
Elem^ts       longitude'  occupied  in  varying  proportions  by 

pure  and  mixed  representatives  of  three  distinct 
stocks:  Negro  (Papuans),  Mongoloid  (Malayans),  and  Cau- 
casic  (Indonesians).     From  the  data  supplied  by  Crawfurd, 

1  Besides  the  earlier  works  of  H.  H.  Roniilly,  Tke  Western  Pacific  and  New 
Quinea,  1886,  From  My  Verandah  in  New  Guinea,  1889;  J.  Chalmers,  Work 
and  Adventure  in  New  Guinea,  1885;  O.  Finsch,  Samoafahrten :  Reisen  in 
Kaiser  Wilhelms-Land  und  Englisch  Neu-Guinea,  1888  ;  C.  M.  Woodford,  A 
Naturalist  Among  tke  Head-hunters,  1890  ;  J.  P.  Thompson,  British  New  Guinea, 
1892  ;  and  R.  H.  Codrington,  The  Melanesians,  1 891,  the  following  more  recent 
works  may  be  consulted  : — A.  C.  H  addon,  Head-l}unters,  Black,  White,  and 
Brown,  1901,  and  Reports  of  the  Cambridge  Anthropological  Expedition  to 
Torres  Straits,  1901-  ;  R.  Parkinson,  Dreissig  Jahre  in  der  Siidsee,  1907 ; 
G.  A.  J.  van  der  Sande,  Nova  Guinea,  1907  ;  B.  Thompson,  The  Fijians,  1908  ; 
G.  Brown,  Melanesians  and  Polynesians,  1910 ;  F.  Speiser,  Siidsee  UrwOld 
Kannibalen,  1913. 

2  Eth.  Ch.  XII. 

2  But  excluding  Celebes,  where  no  trace  of  Papuan  elements  has  been  dis- 
covered. 


y]  The  Oceanic  Negroes :  Papuasians         147 

Wallace,  Forbes,  Ten  Kate  and  other  trustworthy  observers, 
I  have  constructed  the  subjoined  table,  in  which  the  east 
Malaysian  islands  are  disposed  according  to  the  constituent 
elements  of  their  inhabitants^: 

Aru  Group  —  True  Papuans  dominant;  Indonesians 
(Korongoei)  in  the  interior. 

Kei  Group — Malayans ;  Indonesians ;  Papuan  strain 
everywhere. 

Timor;  Wetta;  Timor  Laut — Mixed  Papuans,  Malayans 
and  Indonesians  ;  no  pure  type  anywhere. 

Serwatti  Group — Malayans  with  slight  trace  of  black 
blood  (Papuan  or  Negrito), 

Roti  and  Sumba — Malayans. 

Savu — Indonesians. 

Flares;  Solor;  Adonera;  Lomblen;  Pantar;  Allor — 
Papuans  pure  or  mixed  dominant ;  Malayans  in  the  coast 
towns. 

Bum — Malayans  on  coast ;  reputed  Papuans,  but  more 
probably  Indonesians  in  interior. 

Ceram — Malayans  on  coast ;  mixed  Malayo- Papuans 
inland. 

Aniboina;  Banda — Malayans;  Dutch, Malay  half-breeds 
("  Perkeniers")..; 

Goram — Malayans  with  slight  Papuan  strain. 
■    Matabello;   Tior;NuSoTelo;Ti(>nfoloka—V?i^\xa.nsvr\th, 
Malayan  admixture. 

Misol — Malayq- Papuans  on  coast ;  Papuans  inland. 

Tidor;   Ternate;  Sulla;  Ma^ian~~M.a.la.Ya.ns. 

Baijan~~Ma\a.Ya.T\s ;  Indonesians^   , 

Gilolo — Mixed  Papuans;  Indonesians  in  the  north. 

Waigiu;  Salwatii;  Batanta — Malayans  on  the  coast; 
Papuans  inland. 

From  this  apparently  chaotic  picture,  which  in  some  places, 
such  as  Timor,  presents  every  gradation  from  the  full-blood 
Papuan  to  the  typical  Malay,  Crawfurd,  concluded  that  the 
eastern  section  of  Malaysia  constituted  a  region   ^j^^  .^^^^ 
of  transition  between  the  yellowish-brown  lank-   Tran5tion°by 
haired  and  the  dark-brown  or  black  mop-headed    Displacements 
stocks.      In  a  sense  this  is  true,  but  not  in  the    ^"^  Crossings, 
sense  intended  by  Crawfurd,  who  by  "  transition  "  meant  the 

1  For  details  see   F.   H.  H.  Guillemard,  Australasia,  Vol.  ii.  and   Reclus, 
Vol.  XIV. 


148  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

actual  passage  by  some  process  of  development  from  type 
to  type  independently  of  interminglings.  But  such  extreme 
transitions  have  nowhere  taken  place  spontaneously,  so  to  say, 
and  in  any  case  could  never  have  been  brought  about  in  a 
small  zoological  area  presenting  everywhere  the  same  climatic 
conditions.  Biological  types  may  be,  and  have  been,  modified 
in  different  environments,  arctic,  temperate,  or  tropical  zones, 
but  not  in  the  same  zone,  and  if  two  such  marked  types  as 
the  Mongol  and  the  Negro  are  now  found  juxtaposed  in 
the  Malaysian  tropical  zone,  the  fact  must  be  explained  by 
migrations  and  displacements,  while  the  intermediate  forms 
are  to  be  attributed  to  secular  intermingling  of  the  extremes. 
Why  should  a  man,  passing  from  one  side  to  another  of  an 
island  10  or  20  miles  long,  be  transformed  from  a  sleek-haired 
brown  to  a  frizzly-haired  black,  or  from  a  mercurial  laughter- 
loving  Papuan  to  a  Malayan  "slow  in  movement  and  thoroughly 
phlegmatic  in  disposition,  rarely  seen  to  laugh  or  become 
animated  in  conversation,  with  expression  generally  of  vague 
wonder  or  weary  sadness  "'  ?  ' 

Wallace's  classical  description  of  these  western  Papuans, 
who  are  here  in  the  very  cradleland  of  the  race,  can  never 
Papuan  and  ^°^^  ^^^  charm,  and  its  accuracy  has  been  fully 
Malay  confirmed  by  all  later  observers.     "  The  typical 

Contrasts.  Papuan  race,"  he  writes,  "is  in  many  respects 

the  very- opposite  of  the  Malay.  The  colour  of  the  body  is 
a  deep  sooty-brown  or  black,  sometimes  approaching,  but 
never  quite  equalling,  the  jet-black  of  some  negro  races. 
The  hair  is  very  peculiar,  being  harsh,  dry,  and  frizzly,  growing 
in  little  tufts  or  curls,  which  in  youth  are  very  short  and 
compact,  but  afterwards  grow  out  to  a  considerable  length, 
forming  the  compact,  frizzled  mop  which  is  the  Papuan's  pride 
and  glory.... The  moral  characteristics  of  the  Papuan  appear 
to  me  to  separate  him  as  distincdy  from  the  Malay  as  do  his 
form  and  features.  He  is  impulsive  and  demonstrative  in 
speech  and  action.  His  emotions  and  passions  express 
themselves  in  shouts  and  laughter,  in  yells  and  frantic 
leapings....The  Papuan  has  a  greater  feeling  for  art  than 
the  Malay.  He  decorates  his  canoe,  his  house,  and  almost 
every  domestic  utensil  with  elaborate  carving,  a  habit  which 
is  rarely  found   among  tribes  of  the   Malay  race.      In  the 

1  S.  J.  Hicksqn,  A  Naturalist  in  North  Celebes,  1889,  P-  203. 


y]  The  Oceanic  Negroes:    Papuasimis  149 

afifections  and  moral  sentiments,  on  the  other  han4,  the 
Papuans  seem  very,  deficient.  In  the  treatment  of  their 
children  they  are  often  violent  and  cruel,  whereas  the  Malays 
are  almost  invariably  kind  and  gentle." 

The  ethnological  parting-line  between  the  Malayan  and 
Papuasian  races,, as  first  laid  down  by  Wallace,  nearly  co- 
incides  with    his    division   between   the   Indo-   Ethnical  and 
Malayan  and  Austro-Malayan  floras  and  faunas,    Biological 
the  chief  differences  being  the  positions  of  Sum-   divides, 
bawa  and  Celebes.     Both  of  these  islands  are  excluded  from 
the   Papuasian  realm,  but  included  in  the  Austro-Malayan 
zoological  and  botanical  regions. 

The  Oceanic  Negritoes. 

Recent  discoveries  and  investigations  of  the  pygniy  popu- 
lations on  the  eastern  border  of  the  Indian  Ocean  tend  to 
show  that  the  problem  is  by  no  means  simple.  .—  j,  -^ 
Already  two  main  stocks  are  recognised,  differ- 
entiated by  wavy  and  curly  hair  and  dolichocephaly  in  the 
Sakai,  and  so-called  woolly  hair  in  the  Andamanese  Islanders, 
Semang  (Malay  Peninsula)  and  Aeta  (Philippines),  combined 
with  mesaticephaly  or  low  brachycephaly.  In  East  Sumatra 
and  Celebes  a  short,  curly-haired  dark-skinned  people  occur, 
racially  akin  to  the  Sakai,  and  Moszkowski  suggests  that  the 
same  element  occupied  Geelvink  Bay  (Netherlands  New 
Guinea).  These  with  the  Vedda  of  Ceylon,  and  some  jungle 
tribes  of  the  Deccan,  represent  remnants  of  a  once  widely 
distributed  pre- Dra vidian  race,  which  is  also  supposed  to  form 
the  chief  elemfent  in  the  Australians  \ 

The  "  Mincopies,"  as  the  Andamanese  used  to  be*  called, 
nobody  seems  to  know  why,  were  visited  in  1893  by  Louis 
Lapicque,  -who  examined  a  large  kitchen-midden 
near   Port   Blair,   but  some  distance  from  the      manese.  ^' 
present  coast,  hence  of  great  age".     N  evertheless 
he  failed  to  find  any  worked  stone  implements,  although  flint 
occurs  in  the  island.     Indeed,  chipped  or  flaked  flints,  now 
replaced  by  broken  glass,  were  formerly  used  for  shaving  and 
scarification.     But,  as  the  present  natives  use  only  fishbones, 

1  A.  C.  Haddon,  "The  Pygmy  Question,"  Appendix  B  to  A.  F.  R.  Wollaston's 
Pygmies  and  Papuans,  1912,  p.  304. 

2  "  A  la  Recherche  des  Negritos,"  etc.,  in  Tour  du  Monde,  New  Series,  Livr. 
35-8.     The  midden  was  150  ft.  round,  and  over  12  ft.  high. 


156  Man:   Past  and  Present  [ch. 

shells,  and  wood,  Lapicque  somewhat  hastily  concluded  that 
■  thfese  islanders,  like  some  other  primitive  groups, 

ge.  ^^^^  never  passed  through  a  Stone  Age  at  all. 
The  shell-mounds  have,  certainly  yielded  an  arrow-head  and 
polished  adze  "  indistinguishable  from  any  of  the  European  or 
Indian  celts  of  the  so-called  Neolithic  period\"  But  there  is  no 
reason  to  think  that  the  archipelago  was  ever  occupied  by  a 
people  different  from  its  present  inhabitants.  Hence  we  may 
suppose  that  their  ancestors  arrived  in  their  Stone  Age,  but 
afterwards  ceased  to  make  stone  implements,  as  less  handy 
for  their  purposes  and  more  difficult  to  make  than  the  shell 
or  bone-tipped  weapons  and  the  nets  with  which  they  capture 
game  and  fish  more  readily  "than  the  most  skilful  fisherman 
with  hook  and  line"."  Similarly  they  would  seem  to  have 
long  lost  the  art  of  making  fire,  having  once  obtained  it  from 
a  still  active  volcano  in  the  neighbouring  Barren  Island'. 

The  inhabitants  of  the  Andaman  Islands  range  in  colour 
from  bronze  to  sooty  black.     Their  hair  is  extremely  frizzly, 

seeming  to  grow  in  spiral  tufts  and  is, seldom 
Ap^aLce.        more  than  5  inches  long  when  untwisted.     The 

women  usually  shave  their  heads.  Their  height 
is  about  1*48  m.  (4  ft.  10^  in.),  with  well-proportioned  body 
and  small  hands.  The  cephalic  index  averages  82.  The 
face  is  broad  at  the  cheek-bones,  the  eyes  are  prominent,  the 
nose  is  much  sunken  at  the  root  but  straight  and  small ;  the 
lips  are  full  but  not  thick,  the  chin  is  small  but  not  retreating, 
nor  do  the  jaws  project.  The  natives  are  characterised  by 
honesty,  frankness,  politeness,  modesty,  conjugal  fidelity, 
respect  for  elders  and  real  affection  between  relatives  and 
friends.  The  women  are  on  an  equal  footing  with  the  men 
and  do  their  full  share  of  work.  The  food  is  mainly  fish 
(obtained  by  netting,  spearing  or  shooting  with  bow  and 
arrow),  wild  yams,  turtle,  pig  and  honey.  They  "do  not  till 
the  soil  or  keep  domestic  animals.  Instead  of  clothing  both 
sexes  wear  belts,  necklaces,  leg-bands,  arm-bands  etc.  made 
of  bones,  wood  and  shell,  the  women  wearing  in  addition 


^  E.  H.  yia.n,/ourn.  Anthr.  Inst.  Vol.  XI.  1881,  p.  271,  and  xii.  1883,  p.  71. 

^  /^.  p.  272. 

'  Close  to  Barren  is  the  extinct  crater  of  Narcondam,  i.e.  Narak-andatn 
(^anj^=Hell),-  from  which  the  Andaman  ^roup  may  have  taken  its  name 
(Sir  H.  Yule,  Marco  Polo).  Man  notes,  however,  that  the  Andamanese  were  not 
aware  of  the  existence  of  Barren  Island  until  taken  past  in  the  settlement  steamer 
(p.  368). 


v]  The  Oceanic  Negroes:  Negritoes  151 

a  rudimentary  leaf  apron.     When  fully  dressed  the  men  wear 

bunches  of  shredded  Pandanus  leaf  at  wrists  and  knees,  and 

a  circlet  of  the  same  leaf  folded  on  the  head.     They  make 

canoes,  some  of  which  have  an  outrigger,  but  never  venture 

far  from  the  shore.     They  usually  live  in  small  encampments 

round  an  oval  dancing  ground,  their  simple  huts   „    .  , , ., 

c       ^        J  ^    1        •  1  •   ^    1  Social  Life, 

are  open  m  front  and  at  the  sides,  or  m  a  large 

communal  hut  in  which  each  family  has  its  own  particular 
space,  the  bachelors  and  spinsters  having  theirs.  A  family 
consists  of  a  man  and  his  wife  and  such  of  their  children,  own 
and  adopted,  as  have  not  passed  the  period  of  the  ceremonies 
of  adolescence.  Between  that  period  and  marriage  the  boys 
and  girls  reside  in  the  bachelors'  and  spinsters'  quarters 
respectively.  A  man  is  not  regarded  as  an  independent 
member  of  the  community  till  he  is  married  and  has  a  child. 
There  is  no  organised  polity.  Generally  one  man  excels  the 
rest  in  hunting,  warfare,  wisdom  and  kindliness,  and  he  is 
deferred  to,  and  becomes,  in  a  sense,  chief  A  regular  feature 
of  Andamanese  social  life  is  the  meeting  at  intervals  between  ' 
two  or  more  communities.  A  visit  of  a  few  days  is  paid  and 
presents  are  exchanged  between  hosts  and  guests,  the  time 
being  spent  in  hunting,  feasting-  and  dancing. 

No  forms  of  worship  have  been  noticed,  but  there  is  a  belief 
in  various  kinds  of  spirits,  the  most  important  of  whom  is  Biliku, 
usually  regarded  as  female,  who  is  identified  with  Relieion 
the  north-east  monsoon  and  is  paired  with  Tarai 
the  south-west  monsoon.  Biliku  and  Tarai  are  the  producers  of 
rain, storms,  thunder  and  lightning.  Fire  was  stolen  from  Biliku. 
There  is  always  great  fluidity  in  native  beliefs,  so  some  tribes 
regard  Puluga  (Biliku)  as  a  male.  Three  things  make  Biliku 
angry  and  cause  her  to  send  storms ;  melting  or  burning  of  bees- 
wax, interfering  in  any  way  with  a  certain  number  of  plants,  and 
killing  a  cicada  or  making  a  noise  during  the  time  the  cicadae 
are  singing.  A.  R.  Brown'  gives  an  interesting  explanation 
of  this  curious  belief  Biliku  is  supposed  to  have  a  human 
form  but  nobody  ever  sees  her.  Her  origin  is  unknown. 
The  idea  of  her  being  a  creator  is  local  and  is  probably 
secondary,  she  does  not  concern  herself  with  human  actions 
other  than  those  noted  above. 

1  Folk-Lore,  1909,  p.  257.  See  also  the  criticisms  ofW.  Schmidt,  "Puluga, 
the  Supreme  Being  of  the  Andamanese,"  Man,  2,  1910,  and  A.  Lang,  "Puluga,' 
Man,  30,  1910 ;  A.  R.  Brown,  The  Andaman  Islands  (in  the  Press). 


152  Man:   Past  and  Present  [ch. 

E.  H.  Man  has  carefully  studied  and  reduced  to  writing  the 
Andamanese  language,  of  which  there  are  at  least  nine  distinct 
g      .  varieties,  corresponding  to  as  many  tribal  groups. 

It  has  no  clear  affinities  to  any  other  tongue^ 
the  supposed  resemblances  to  Dravidian  and  Australian  being 
extremely  slight,  if  not  visionary.  Its  phonetic  system  is 
astonishingly  rich  (no  less  than  24  vowels  and  17  consonants, 
but  ho  sibilants),  while  the  arithmetic  stops  at  two.  Nobody 
ever  attempts  to  count  in  any  way  beyond  ten,  which  is  reached 
by  a  singular  process.  First  the  nose  is  tapped  with  the 
finger-tips  of  either  hand,  beginning  with  the 
Counting  little  fiiigcr,  and  saying  Matiil  (one),  then  ikpdr 

(two)  with  the  next,  after  which  each  successive 
tap  makes  dnkd,  "and  this."  When  the  thumb  of  the  second 
hand  is  reached,  making  ten,  both  hands  are  brought  together 
to' indicate  5  +  5,  and  the  sum  is  clenched  with  the  word  hrdllru 
=  "all."  But  this  feat  is  exceptional,  and  usually  after  two 
you  get  only  words  answering  to  several,  many,  numerous, 
*  countless,  which  flight  of  imagination  is  reached  at  about  6  or  7. 
,  Yet  with  their  infantile  arithmetic  these  paradoxical 
islanders  have  contrived  to  develop  an  astonishingly  intri- 
cate form  of  speech  characterised  by  an  absolutely  bewildering 
superfluity  of  pronominal  and  other  elements.  Thus  the  pos- 
sessive pronouns  have  as  many  as  sixteen  possible  variants 
according  to  the  class  of  noun  (human  objects,  parts  of  the 
body,  degrees  of  kinship,  etc.)  with  which  they  are  in  agree- 
ment. For  instance,  my  is  cl{a,  d6t,  ddng,  dig, 
Sbra^^^*^*'  fl^a<5,  dar,  ddka,  ddto,  dai,  ddr,  ad,  ad-en,  deb, 
with  man,  head,  wrist,  mouth,  father,  son,  step- 
son, wife,  etc.  etc.;  and  so  with  thy,  his,  our,  your,  their.! 
This  grouping. of  nouns  in  classes  is  analogous  to  the  Bantu 
system,  and  it  is  curious  to  note  that  the  number  of  classes  is 
rabout  the  same.  On  the  other  hand  there  is  a  wealth  of 
postfixes  attached  as  in  normal  agglutinating  forrns  of  speech, 
so  that  "in  adding  their  affixes  they  follow  the  principles  of 
the  ordinary  agglutinative  tongues ;  in  adding  their  prefixes 
they  follow  the  well-defined  principles  of  the  South  African 
tongues.  Hitherto,  as  far  as  I  know,  the  two  principles  in  full 
play  have  never  been  found  together  in  any  other  language... 

'  1  "The  Andaman  languages  are  oiie  group  ;  they  have  no  affinities  by  which 
Ve  inight  infer  their  connection  with  any  other  known  group"  (R.  C.  Temple, 
quoted  by  Man,  Anifiropi /our.  18S2,  p.  123), 


v]  The  Oceanic  Negroes :  Negritoes  1 53 

In  Andamanese  both  are  fully  developed,  so  much  so  as  to  inter- 
fere with  each  other's  grammatical  functions^"  The  result 
often  is  certain  sesquipedalia  verba  comparable  in  length  to 
those  of  the  American  polysynthetic  languages.  A  savage 
people,  who  can  hardly  count  beyond  two,  possessed  of  about 
the  most  intricate  language  spoken  by  man,  is  a  psychological 
puzzle  which  I  cannot  profess  to  fathom. 

In  the  Malay  Peninsula  the  indigenous  element  is  certainly 
the  Negrito,   who,  known  by  many  names — Semang,  Udai, 

Pangan,  Hami,  Menik  or  Mandi — forms  a  single   _.    „ 
1     V     ,  .  ..."        The  aemangs. 

ethnical  group  presentmg  some  strikmg  ana- 
logies with  the  Andamanese.  But;  surrounded  from  time  out 
of  mind  by  Malay  peoples,  some  semi-civilised,  some  nearly 
as  wild  as  themselves,  but  all  alike  slowly  crowding  them  out 
of  the  land,  these  aborigines  have  developed  defensive  quali- 
ties unneeded  by  the  more  favoured  insular  Negritoes,  while 
their  natural  development  has  been  arrested  at  perhaps  a 
somewhat  lower  plane  of  culture.  In  fact,  doomed  to  ex- 
tinction'before  their  time  came,  they  never  have  had  a  chance 
in  the  race,  as  Hugh  Clifford  sings  in  The  Song  of  the  Last 
Semangs : 

The  paths  are  rough,  the  trails  are  blind 

The  Jungle  People  tread ; 
The  yams  are  scarce  and  hard  to  find 

With  which  our  folk  are  fed. 

We  suffer  yet  a  little  space 

Until  we  pass  away. 
The  relics  of  an  ancient  race 

That  ne'er  has  had  its  day. 

In  physical  features  they  in  many  respects  resemble  the 
Andamanese.     Their  hair  is    short,   universally 
woolly  and  black,  the  skin  colour  dark  chocolate.  Appearance, 
brown  approximating   to  glossy    blacky    some- 
times with  a  reddish  tinge  I     There  is  very  little  evidence 
for  the  stature  but  the  17  males  measured  by  Annandale  and 
Robinson'    averaged    1-52   m.    (5  ft.    o^  in.).     The    average' 
cephalic  index  is  about  78  to  79,  extremes  ranging  from  74 
to  84.     The  face  is  round,  the  forehead  rounded,  narrow  and 
projecting,  or  as  it  were  "swollen."     The  nose  is  short  and 

1  R.  C.  Temple,  quoted  by  Man,  Anthrop.  Jour.  1882,  p.  123. 

2  W.  W.  Skeat  and  C.  D.  Blagden,  Pagan  Races  of  the  Malay  Peninsula,  1906. 

3  R.  Martin,  Die  Inlandstmnme  der  Malayischen  Halbinsel,  1905. 

*  N.  Annandale  and  H.  C.  Robinson,  "Fascicuh  yi.^z.yexi%\^^'  Anthropology,  1903. 


154  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

flattened,  with  remarkable  breadth  and  distended  nostrils. 
The  nasal  index  of  five  adult  males  was  ior2\  The  cheek- 
bones are  broad  and  the  jaws  often  protrude  slightly;  the 
lips  are  as  a  rule  thick.  Martin  remarks  that  characteristic 
both  of  Semang  and  Sakai"  is  the  great  thickening  of  the 
integumental  part,  of  the  upper  lip,  the  whole  mouth  region 
projecting  from  the  lower  edge  of  the  nose.  This  convexity 
occurs  in  79  per  cent.,  and  is  well  shown  in  his  photo- 
graphs'. 

Hugh  Clifford,  who  has"  been  intimately  associated  with 
the  "Orang-utan"  (Wild-men)  as  the  Malays  often  call  them, 
describes  those  of. the  Plus  River  valley  as  "like  Africap 
Negroes  seen  through  the  reverse  end  of  a  field-glass.  They 
are  sooty-black  in  colour;  thejr  hair  is  short  and  woolly,  cling- 
ing to  the  scalp  in  little  crisp  curls  ;  their  noses  are  flat,  their 
lips  protrude,  and  their  features  are  those  of  the  pure  negroid 
type.  They  are  sturdily  built  and  well  set  upon  their  legs, 
but  in  stature  little  better  than  dwarfs.  They  live  by  hunting, 
and  have  no  permanent  dwellings,  camping  in  little  family 
groups  wherever,  for  the  moment,  game  is  most  plentiful." 
Their  shelters — huts  they  cannot  be  called — are  exactly 
like  the  frailest  of  the  Andamanese,  mere  lean-to's  of  matted 
palm-leaves  crazily  propped  on  rough  uprights ; 
clothes  they  have  n6xt  to  none,  and  their 
food  is  chiefly  yams  and  other  jungle  roots,  fish  from' the 
stream,  and  sun-dried  monkey,  venison  and  other  game,  this 
term  having  an  elastic  meaning.  Salt,  being  rarely  obtain- 
able, is  a  great  luxury,  as  amongst  almost  all  wild  tribes. 
They  are  a  nomadic. people  living  by  collecting  and  hunting; 
the  wilder  ones  will  often  not  remain  longer  than  three  days 
in  one  place.  Very  few  have  taken  to  agriculture.  They 
make  use  of  bamboo  rafts  for  drifting  down  stream  but  have 
no  canoes.  All  men  are  on  an  equal  footing,  but  each  tribe 
has  a  head,  who  exercises  authority.  Division  of  labour  is 
fairly  even  between  men  and  women.  The  men  hunt,  and 
the  women  build  the  shelters  and  cook  the  food.  They  are 
strictly  monogamous  and  faithful, 

1  W.  W.  Skeat  and  C.  D.  Blagden,  loc.  dt. 

^  The  Sakai  have  often  been  classed  among  Negritoes,  but,  although  un- 
doubtedly a  mixed  people,  their  affinities  appear  to  be  pre-Dravidian. 

3  Cf.  A,  C.  Haddon,  "The  Pygmy  Question,"  Appendix  B  to  A.  F.  R.  WoUas- 
ton's  Pygmies  and  Papuans,  1 91 2,  p.  306. 

*  In  Court  and  Kampong,  1897,  p.  172. 


v]  The  Oceanic  Negroes:   Negritoes  155 

All  the  faculties  are  sharpened  mainly  in  the  quest  of 
food  and  of  means  to  elude  the  enemy  now  closing  round 
their  farthest  retreats  in  the  upland  forests.  When  ,  hard 
pressed  and  escape  seems  impossible,  they  will  climb  trees 
and  stretch  rattan  ropes  from  branch  to  branch  where  these 
are  too  wide  apart  to  be  reached  at  a  bound,  and  along  such 
frail  aerial  bridges  women  and  all  will  pass  with  their  cooking- 
pots  and  other  effects,  with  their  babies  also  at  the  breast, 
and  the  little  ones  clinging  to  their  mother's  heels.  For  like 
the  Andamanese  they  love  their  women-folk  and  children,  and 
in  this  way  rescue  them  from  the  Malay  raiders  and  slavers. 
But  unless  the  British  raj  soon  intervenes  their  fate  is  sealed. 
They  may  slip  from  the  Malays,  but  not  from  their  own 
traitorous  kinsmen,  who  often  lead  the  hunt,  and  squat  all 
night  long  on  the  tree  tops,  calling  one  to  another  and  signal- 
ling from  these  look-outs  when  the  leaves  rustle  and  the 
rattans  are  heaved  across,  so  that  nothing  can  be  done,  and 
another  family  group  is  swept  away  into  bondage. 

From   their   physical   resemblance,    undoubted    common 
descent,  and  geographical  proximity,   one  might  also  expect 
to  find  some  affinity  in  the  speech  of  the  Anda- 
man and   Malay  Negritoes.     But   H.   Clifford,         "^^^ 
who  made  a  special  study  of  the  dialects  on  the  mainland, 
discovered  no  points  of  contact  between  them  and  any  other 
linguistic   group  \     This,  however,  need   cause  no  surprise, 
being  in  no  discordance  with  recognised  principles.     As  in 
the   Andamans,    stone    implements   have   been      ^       . 
found  in  the  Peninsula,  and  specimens  are  now 
in  the   Pitt- Rivers  collection  at    Oxford^     But  the   present 
aborigines  do  not  make  or  use  such  tools,  and  there  is  good 
reason  for  thinking  that  they  were  the  work  of  their  ancestors, 
arriving,  as  in  the  Andamans,  in  the  remote  past.     Hence  the 
two  groups  have  been  separated  for  many  thousands  of  years, 
and  their  speech  has  diverged  too  widely  to  be  now  traced 
back  to  a  common  source. 

1  Senoi  grammar  and  glossary  in  Jour.  Straits  Branch  R.  Asiat.  Soc.  1892, 

No.  24. 

2  See  L.  Wray's  paper  "On  the  Cave  Dwellers  of  Perak,"  m  Jour.  Anthrop. 
Inst.  1897,  p.  36  sq.  This  observer  thinks  "the  earliest  cave  dwellers  were  most 
likely  the  Negritoes  "  (p.  47),  and  the  great  age  of  the  deposits  is  shown  by  the 
fact  that  "in  some  of  the  caves  at  least  12  feet  of  a  mixture  of  shells,  bones,  and 
earth  has  been  accumulated  and  subsequently  removed  again  in  the  floors  of  the 
caves.  In  places  two  or  three  layers  of  solid  stalagmite  have  been  formed  and 
removed,  some  of  these  layers  having  been  five  feet  in  thickness"  (p,  45). 


1 56  Man  :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

With  the  Negritoes  of  the  Philippines  we  enter  a  region 
of  almost  hopeless  ethnical  complications^  amid  which,  however, 
the  dark  dwarfish  Aeta  peoples  crop  out  almost 
everywhere  as  the  indigenous  element.  The 
Aeta  live  in  the  mountainous  districts  of  the  larger  islands, 
and  in  some  of  the  smaller  islands  of  the  Philippines,  and 
the  name  is  conveniently  extended  to  the  various  groups  of 
Philippine  Negritoes,  many  of  whom'  show  the  results  of 
mixture  with  other  peoples.  Their  hair  is  universally  woolly, 
usually  of  a  dirty  black  colour,  often  sun-burnt  on  the  top 
.to  a  reddish  brown.  The  skin  is  dark  chocolate  brown  rather 
than  black,  sometimes  with  a  yellowish  tinge.  The  average 
stature  of  48  men  was  i'46m.  (4  ft.  9  in,),  but  showed  con- 
siderable range.  The  typical'  nose  is  broad,  flat,  and  bridgeless, 
with  prominent  ^rched  nostrils,  the  average  nasal  index  for 
males  being  102,  and  for  females  105 1  The  lips  are  thick, 
but  not  protruding,  sometimes  showing  a  pronounced  con- 
vexity betw:een  the  upper  lip  and  the  nose. 

John  Foreman'  noted  the  curious  fact  that  the  Aeta  were 
recognised  as  the  owners  of  the  soil  long  after  the  arrival  of 
the  Malayan  intruders. 

"For  a  long  time  they  were  the  sole  masters  of  Luzon 
Island,  where  they  exercised  seignorial  rights  over  the  Taga- 
logs  and  other  immigrants,  until  these  arrived  in  such  numbers, 
that  the  Negritoes  were  forced  to  the  highlands. 

"The  taxes  imposed  upon  th6  primitive  Malay  settlers  by 
the  Negritoes  were  levied  in  kind,  and,  when  payment  was 
refused,  they  swooped  down  in  a  posse,  and  carried  off  the 
head  of  the  -defaulter.  Since  the  arrival  of  the  Spaniards 
terror  of  the  white  man  has  made  them  take  definitely  to  the 
mountains,  where  they  appear  to  be  very  gradually  decreasing*." 

At  first  sight  it  rnay  seem  unaccountable  that  a  race  of 
such  extremely  low  intellect  should  be  able  to  assert  their 

1  See  on  this  point  Prof.  Blumentritt's  paper  on  the  Manguians  of  Mindoro  in 
Globus,  LX.  No.  14. 

2  One  Aeta  womai;  of  Zambales  had  a  nasal  index  of  1407.  W.  Allen  Reed, 
"Negritoes  of  Zambales,"  Department  of  the  Interior:  Ethnological ' Survey 
Publications,  II.  1904,  p.  35.     For  details  of  physical  features  see  the  following  :— 

,D,  Folkmar,  Album  of  Phili^ppine  Typesi  1904  ;  Dean  C.  Worcester,  "The  Non- 
Christian  Tribes  of  Northern  Luzon,"  The  Philippine  Journal  of  Science,  I.  1906  ; 
and  A.  C.  Haddon,  "  The  Pygmy  Question,"  Appendix  B  to  A.  F.  R.  WoUaston's 

■jJPygmies  and  Papuans,  1912. 

,      ,3  The  Philippine  Islands,  etc.,  London  and  Hongkong,  1890. 
*  Op.£it.  p.  210. 


v]  The  Oceanic  Negroes  :  Negritoes  1 57 

supremacy  in  this  way  over  the  intruding  Malayans,  assumed 
to  be  so  much  their  superiors  in  physical  and  mental  qualities. 
But  it  has  to  be  considered  that  the  invasions  took  place  in  very 
remote  times,  ages  before  the  appearance  on  the  scene  of  the 
semi-civilised  Muhammadan  Malays  of  history.  Whether  of 
Indonesian  or  of  what  is  called  "Malay"  stock,  the  intruders 
were  rude  Oceanic  peoples,  who  in  the  prehistoric  period, 
prior  to  the  spread  of  civilising  Hindu  or  Moslem  influences 
in  Malaysia,  had  scarcely  advanced  in  general  culture  much 
beyond  the  indigenous  Papuan  and  Negrito  populations  of 
that  region.  Even  at  present  the  Gaddanes,.  Itaves,  Igorrotes, 
and  others  of  Luzon  are  mere  savages,  at  the 
head-hunting  stage,  quite  as  wild  as,  and  per-  "unters 
haps  even  more  ferocious  than  any  of  the  Aetas. 
Indeed  we  are  told  that  in  some  districts  the  Negrito  and 
Igorrote  tribes  keep  a  regular  Debtor  and  Creditor  account 
of  heads.  Wherever  the  vendetta  still  prevails,  all  alike  live 
in  a  chronic  state  of  tribal  warfare ;  periodical  head-hunting 
expeditions  are  organised  by  the  young  men,  to  present  the 
bride's  father  with  as  many  grim  trophies  as  possible  in  proof 
of  their  prowess,  the  victims  being  usually  taken  by  surprise 
and  stricken  down  with  barbarous  weapons,  such  as  a  long 
spear  with  tridented  tips,  or  darts  and  arrows  carrying  at  the 
point  two  rows  of  teeth  made  of  flint  or  sea-shells.  To  avoid 
these  attacks  some,  like  the  Central  Sudanese  Negroes,  live 
in  cabins  on  high  posts  or  trees  60  to  70  feet  from  the 
ground,  and  defend  themselves  by  showering  stones  on  the 
marauders. 

A  physical  peculiarity  of  the  full-blood  Negritoes,  noticed 
by  J.  Montano\  is  the  large,  clumsy  foot,  turned  slightly 
inwards,  a  trait  characteristic  also  of  the  African  Negrilloes; 
but  in  the  Aeta  the  effect  is  exaggerated  by  the  abnormal 
divergence  of  the  great  toe,  as  amongst  the  Annamese. 

The  presence  of  a  pygmy  element  in  the  population  of 
New   Guinea  had  long  been   suspected,  but  the  actual  ex- 
istence of  a  pygmy  people  was  first  discovered 
by  the  British  Ornithologists'  Union  Expedition,    ^^^^^"^ 
1 9 10,  at  the  source  of  the  Mimika  river  in  the 
Nassau  range ^ 

1  Voyage  aux  Philippines,  etc.,  Paris,  1886. 

2  A.  F.  R.  WoUaston,  Pygmies  and  Papuans,  1912 ;  C,  G.  Rawling,  The  Land 
of  the  New  Guinea  Pygmies,  191 3. 


158  Man:   Past  and  Present  [ch. 

The  description  of  these  people,  the  Tapiro,  is  as  follows. 
Their  stature  averages  i-449m.  (4  ft.  9  in.)  ranging  from 
i-326m.  (4  ft.  4iin.)  to  1-529  (5  ft.  o^in,).  The  skull  is  very 
variable  giving  indices  from  66'9  to  Ss'i.  The  skin  colour 
is  lighter  than  that  of  the  neighbouring  Papuans,  some  indi- 
viduals being  almost  yellow.  The  nose  is  straight,  and  though 
described  as  "  very  wide  at  the  nostrils,"  the  mean  of  the 
indices  is  only  83,  the  extremes  being  65*5  and  94.  The  eyes 
are  noticeably  larger  and  rounder  than  those  of  Papuans,  and 
the  upper  lip  of  many  of  the  men  is  long  and  curiously  con- 
vex. A  Negrito  element  has  also  been  recognised  in  the 
Mafulu  people  investigated  by  R.  W.  Williamson  in  the 
Mekeo  District\  here  mixed  with  Papuan  and  Papuo-Mela- 
nesian.  Their  stature  ranges  from  i"47m.  (4  ft.  10  in.)  to 
1*63  in.  (5  ft.  4  in.).  The  average  cephalic  index  is  80  ranging 
from  747  to  86"8.  The  skin  colour  is  dark  sooty  brown  and 
the  hair,  though  usually  brown  or  black,  is  often  very  ij:iuch 
lighter,  "  not  what  we  in  Europe  should  call  dark.  The 
average  nasal  index  is  84  with  extremes  of  71 '4  and  100. 
Also  partly  of  Negrito  origin  are  the  Pesegem  of  the  upper 
waters  of  the  Lorentz  rive^^ 

All  these  Negrito  peoples,  as  has  been  pointed  out,  show 

considerable   diversity   in   physical ,  characters,    none  of  the 

existing    groups,    with    the    exception    of   the 

Cutoe  Andapianese,  appearing  to  be  homogeneous 
as  regards  cephalic  or  nasal  index,  while  the 
stature,  though  always  low,  shows  considerable  range.  They 
have  certain  cultural  features  in  common^  and  these  as  a  rule 
differentiate  them  from  their  neighbours.  They  seldom 
practise  any  deformation  of  the  person,  such  as  tattooing  or 
scarification,  though  the '  Tapiro  and  Mafulu  wear  a  nose- 
stick.  They  are  invariably  collectors  and  hunters,  never, 
unless  modified  by  contact  with :  other  peoples,  undertaking 
any  cultivation  of  the  soil.  Their  huts  are  simple,  the  pile 
dwellings  of  the  Tapiro  being  evidently  copied  from  their 
neighbours.  All  possess  the  bow  and  arrow,  though  only 
the  Semang  and  Aeta  use  poison.  The  An.damanese  appear 
to  be  orve  of  the  very  few  peoples  who  possess  fire  but  do 

1  The  Mafulu  Mountain  People  of  British  New  Guinea,  191 2. 
^  Nova  Guinea,  vii.  1913,  191 5. 

3  A.  C.  Haddon,  «  The  Pygmy  Question,"  Appendix  B  to  A.  F.  R.  WoUaston's 
Pygmies  and  Papuans,  1912,  pp.  314-9. 


v]  The  Oceanic  Negroes:  Negritoes  159 

not  know  how  to  make  it  afresh.  There  seems  a  certain 
amount  of  evidence  that  the  Negrito  method  of  making  fire 
was  that  of  splitting  a  dry  stick,  keeping  the  ends  open  by 
a  piece  of  wood  or  stone  placed  in  the  cleft,  stuffing  some 
tinder  into  the  narrow  part  of  the  slit  and  then  drawing  a 
strip  of  rattan  to  and  fro  across  the  spot  until  a  spark  sets 
fire  to  the  tinder^  The  social  structure  is  everywhere  very 
simple.  The  social  unit  appears  to  be  the  family  and  the 
power  of  the  headman  is  very  limited.  Strict  monogamy 
seems  to  prevail  even  where,  as  among  the  Aeta,  polygyny 
is  not  prohibited.  The  dead  are  buried,  but  the  bodies  of 
those  whom  it  is  wished  to  honour  are  placed  on  platforms 
or  on  trees. 

Related  in  certain  physical  characters  to  the  pygmy 
Negritoes,  although  not  of  pygmy  proportions'',  were  the 
aborigines  of  Tasmania,  but  their  racial  af- 
finities are  much  disputed.  Huxlev  thought  manian^' 
they  showed  some  resemblance  to,  the  in- 
habitants of  New  Caledonia  and  the  Andaman  Islands,  but 
Flower  was  disposed  to  bring  them  into  closer  connection 
with  the  Papuans  or  Melanesians.  The  leading  anthropo- 
logists in  France  do  not  accept  either  of  these  views.  Topinard 
states  that  there  is  no  close  alliance  between  the  New  Cale- 
donians and  the  Tasmanians,  while  Quatrefages  and  Hamy 
remark  that  "  from  whatever  point  of  view  we  look  at  it,  the 
Tasmanian  race  presents  special  characters,  so  that  it  is  quite 
impossible  to  discover  any  well-defined  affinities  with  any 
other  existing  race."  Sollas,  reviewing  these  conflicting 
opinions,  concludes  that  "this  probably  represents  the  pre- 
vailing opinion  of  the  present  day'." 

The  Tasmanians  were  of  medium  height,  the  average  for 
the  men  being  i-66im.  (5  ft.  S^in.)  with  a  range  from  r548m. 
to  1732  m.  (5  ft.  I  in.  to  5  ft.  8  in.);  the  average  height  for 
women  being  1-503  m.  (4  ft.  n  in.)  with  a  range  from  1-295  m. 
to  I  •630  m.  (4  ft.  3  in.  to  5  ft.  4iin.).  The  skin  colour  was 
almost  black  with  a  brown  tinge.     The  eyes  were  small  and 

1  It  is  not  certain  however  that  this  method  is  known  to  the  Semang,  and  it 
occurs  among  peoples  who  are  not  Negrito,  such  as  the  Kayan  of  Sarawak,  and  in 
other  places  where  a  Negrito  element  has  not  yet  been  recorded. 

2  The  term  pygmy  is  usually  applied  to  a  people  whose  stature  does  not  exceed 

'  ^™W?  i.  SoUas',  Ancient  Hunters,  1915,  and  ^.  Turnbr,  "The  Aborigines  of 
Australia,"  Trans.  R.  Soc.  Edin.  1908,  XLVi.  2,  and  1910,  XLVii.  3. 


i6o  Man  :   Past  and  Present  [ch. 

deep  set  beneath  prominent  overhanging  brow-ridges.  The 
nose  was  short  and  broad,  with  a  deep  notch  at  the  root  and 
widely  distended  nostrils.  The  skull  was  dolichocephalic  or 
low  mesaticephalic,  with  an  average  index  of  75,  of  peculiar 
outline  when  viewed  from  above.  Other  peculiarities  were 
the  possession  of  the  largest  teeth,  especially  noticeable  in 
comparison  with  the  small  jaw,  and  the  smallest  known 
cranial  capacity  (averaging  1199C.C.  for  both  sexes,  falling  in 
the  women  to  1093  c.c). 

The  aboriginal  Tasmanians  stood  even  at  a  lower  level 
of  culture   than   the   Australians.      At   the   occupation    the 

scattered  bands,  with  no  hereditary  chiefs  or 
Cuhure"^  social  organisg^tion,  numbered  altogether  2000 

souls  at  most,  i  speaking  several  distinct  dialects, 
whether  of  one  or  more  stopk  languages  is  uncertain.  In  the 
absence  of  sibilants  and  some  other  features  they  resembled 
the  Australian,  but  were  of  ruder  or  less  developed  structure, 
and  so  imperfect  that  according  to  Joseph  Milligan,  our  best 
authority  on  the  subject,  "  they  observed  no  settled  order  or 

arrangement  of  words  in  the  construction  of  their 
Speech*  "^^         sentences,    but   conveyed    in    a    supplementary 

fashion  by  tone,  manner,  and  gesture  those 
modifications  of  meaning  which  we  express  by  mood,  tense, 
number,  etc.^"  Abstract  terms  were  rare,  and  for  every  variety 
of  gum-tree  or  wattle-tree  there  was  a  name,  but  no  word  for 
"  tree  "  in  general,  or  for  qualities,  such  as  hard,  soft,  warm, 
cold,  long,  short,  round,  etc.  Anything  hard  was  "  like  a 
stone,"  round  "  like  the  moon,"  and  so  on,  "  usually  suiting 
the  action  to  the  word,  and  confirping  by  some  sign  the 
meaning  to  be  understood."  ~\ 

They  made  fire  by  the  stick  and  groove  method,  but  their; 
acquaintance   with   the   fire-drill   is   uncertain^      The   stone) 
Fire-making.       implements  are  the  subject  of  much  discussion. 
Tools  and  A  great  number  are  so  rude  arid  uncouth  that. 

Weapons.  taken  alone,  we  should    have   little    reason    to 

suspect  that  they  had  been  chipped  by  man :  some,  on  the  other 
hand,  show  signs  of  skilful  working.      They  were  formerly^ 
classed  as    "  eoliths "    and  compared  to  the  plateau    imple-f 
ments  of  Kent  and  Sussex,  but  the  comparison  cannot  be 

1  Paper  in  Brough  Smyth's  work,  ll.  p.  413. 

2  H.    Ling   Roth,    The  Aborigines  of  Australia   (2nd   ed.),    1899,   Appendix 
Lxxxviii.,  and  "Tasmanian  Firesticks,"  Nature,  Lix.  1899,  p.  606. 


v]  The  Oceanic  Negroes:  Negritoes  i6i 

sustained\  Sollas  illustrates  an  implement  "  delusively  similar 
to  the  head  of  an  axe"  and  notes  its  resemblance  to  a 
Levallois  flake  (Acheulean).  J.  P.  Johnson'  points  out  the 
general  likeness  to  pre-Aurignacian  forms  and  there  is  a 
remarkable  similarity  of  certain  examples  to  Mousterian 
types.  Weapons  were  of  wood,  and  consisted  of  spears 
pointed  and  hardened  in  the  fire,  and  a  club  or  waddy,  about 
two  feet  long,  sometimes  knobbed  at  one  end  ;  the  range  is 
said  to  have  been  about  40  yards. 

In  the  native  diet  were  included  "snakes,  lizards,  grubs 
and  worms,"  besides  the  opossum,  wombat,  kangaroo,  birds 
and  fishes,  roots,  seeds  and  fruits,  but  not  human  flesh,  at 
least  normally.     Like  the  Bushmen,  they  were 
gross    feeders,   consuming  enormous  quantities 
of  food  when  they  could  get  it,  and  the  case  is  mentioned  of 
a  woman  who  was  seen  to  eat  from  50  to  60  eggs  of  the 
soojty  petrel  (larger  than  a  duck's),  besides  a  double  allowance 
of  bread,  at  the  station  on  Flinders  Island.     They  had  frail 
bundles  of  bark  made  fast  with  thongs  or  rushes,  half  float, 
half  boat,  to  serve  as  canoes,  but  no  permanent 
abodes  or  huts,  beyond  branches  of  trees  lashed         "^  "'^^" 
together,  supported  by  stakes,  and   disposed  crescent-shape 
with  the  convex  side  to  windward.     On  the   uplands    and 
along  the  sea-shore  they  took  refuge  in  caves,  rock-shelters 
and  natural  hollows.     Usually  the  men  went  naked,  the  women 
wore  a  loose  covering  of  skins,  and  personal  ornamentation 
was  limited  to  cosmetics  of  red  ochre,  plumbago,  and  powdered 
charcoal,  with  occasionally  a  necklace  of  shells  strung  on  a 
fibrous  twine. 

Being  merely  hunters  and  collectors,  with  the  arrival  of 
English  colonists  their  doom  was  sealed.  "  Only  in  rare 
instances  can  a  race  of  hunters  contrive  to  ^  .  . 
co-exist  With  an  agricultural  people.  When  the 
hunting  ground  of  a  tribe  is  restricted  owing  to  its  partial 
occupation  by  the  new  arrivals,  the  tribe  affected  is  compelled 
to  infringe  on  the  boundaries  of  its  neighbours  :  this  is  to 
break  the  most  sacred  'law  of  the  Jungle,'  and  inevitably 
leads  to  war :  the  pressure  on  one  boundary!  is  propagated 
to  the  next,  the  ancient  state  of  equilibrium  is  profoundly 
disturbed,  and  inter-tribal  feuds  become  increasingly  frequent. 

1  W.  J.  Sollas,  Ancient  Hunters,  1915,  pp.  $0,  106  fif. 

2  Nature,  xcii.  1913,  p.  320. 

K.  II 


i62  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch.  v 

A  bittef  feeling  is  naturally  aroused  against  the  original 
offenders,  the  alien  colonists ;  misunderstandings  of  all  kinds 
inevitably  arise,  leading  too  often  to  bloodshed,  and  ending 
in  a  general  conflict  between  natives  and  colonists,  in  which 
the  former,  already  weakened  by  disagreements  amoftg  them-' 
selves,  must  soon  succumb.  So  it  was  in  Tasmania."  After 
the  war  of  1825  to  1831  the  few  wretched  survivors,  numbering 
about  200,  were  gathered  together  into  a  settlement,  and 
from  1834  onwards  every  effort  was  made  for  their  welfare, 
"  but  '  the  white  man's  civilisation  proved  scarcely  less  fatal 
than  the  white  man's  bullet,'  and  in  1877,  with  the  death  of 
Truganini,  the  last  survivor,  the  race  became  extinct^" 

'  W.  J.  SoUas,  Ancient  Hunters,  1915,  pp.  104-5. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE   SOUTHERN   MONGOLS 

South  Mongol  Domain— Tibet,  the  Mongol  Cradle-land— Stone  Age  in  Tibet— The 
Primitive  Moitgol  Type— The  Balti  and  Ladakhi— Balti  Type  and  Origins— 
The  Tibetans  Proper— Type— The  Bhotiyas— Prehistoric  Expansion  of  the 
Tibetan  Race— Sub-Him4layan  Groups  :  the  Gurkhas— Mental  Qualities  of 
the  Tibetans  —  Lamaism — The  Horsoks  — The  Tanguts  — Polyandry — The 
Bonbo  Religion — Buddhist  and  Christian  Ritualism— The  Prayer-Wheel — 
Language  and  Letters — Diverse  Linguistic  Types — Lepcha — Angami-Naga 
and  Kuki-Lushai  Speech — Naga  Tribes — General  Ethnic  Relations  in  Indo- 
China — Aboriginal  and  Cultured  Peoples — The  Talaings — The  Manipuri — 
Religion— The  Game  of  Polo— The  Khel  System— The  Chins— Mental  and 
Physical  Qualities — Gods,  Nats,  and  the  After-Life — The  Kakhyens — Cau- 
casfc  Elements — The  Karens — Type— Temperament — Christian  Missions — 
The  Burmese — Type — Character — Buddhism — Position  of  Woman — Tattooing 
— The  Tai-Shan  Peoples — The  Ahom,  Khamti  and  Chinese  Shans — Shan 
Cradle-land  and  Origins — Caucasic  Contacts — Tai-Shan  Toned  Speech — 
Shan,  Lolo,  and  Mosso  Writing  Systems — Mosso  Origins— Aborigines  of 
South  China  and  Annam — Man-tse  Origins  and  Affinities — Caucasic  Abori- 
gines in  South-East  Asia — The  Siamese  Shans — Origins  and  Early  Records 
— Social  System — Buddhism — The  Annamese — Origins — Physical  and  Mental 
Characters — Language  and  Letters — Social  Institutions — Religious  Systems — 
The  Chinese — Origins — The  Babylonian  Theory — Persistence  of  Chinese 
Culture  and  Social  System — Letters  and  Early  Records — Traditions  of  the 
Stone  and  Metal  Ages — Chinese  Cradle  and  Early  Migrations — Absorption 
of  the  Aborigine^^^Survivals :  Hok-lo,  Hakka,  Pun-ti-^Coiifucianism,  Taoism, 
Buddhism — Fung-shui  and  Ancestry  Worship — Islam  and  Christianity — The 
Mandarin  Class. 

Conspectus. 


Present    Range.      Tibet;    S.   Himalayan     Distribution  in 

Past  and 
Present  Times. 


slopes;    Indo-Ckina   to   the   Isthmus    of   Kra ; 
China  ;  Formosa  ;  Parts  of  Malaysia. 

H^if ,  uniformly  black,  lank,  round  in  transverse  section  ; 
sparse  or  no  beard,  moustache  common.  Colour,  generally  a 
dirty  yellowish  brown,  shading  off  to  olive  and  . ; 

coppery  brown   in  the  south,   and  to   lemon  or      charactei-s. 
whitish  in  N.  China.     Skull,  normally  brachy 
(So  to  84),  but  in  parts  of  China  sub-dolicho  (77)  and  high. 
Jaws,  slightly  prognathous.     Cheek-bones,  very  high  and 
prominent  laterally.     Nose,  very  small,   and  concave,   with 

II — 2 


164  Man :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

widish  nostrils  {mesorrkine),  but  often  large  and  straight 
amongst  the  upper  classes.  Eyes,  small,  black,  and  oblique 
{outer  angle  slightly  elevated'),  vertical  fold  of  skin  over  inner 
canthus.  Stature,  below  the  average,  1-62  m.  {5  ft.  4  in.), 
but  in  N.  China  often  tall,  i-yj  m.  to  i"82  m.  {5  ft.  10  in: 
to  6  ft.).  Lips,  rather  thin,  sometimes  slightly  protruding. 
Arms,  legs,  and  feet,  of  normal  proportions,  \calves  rather 
small. 

Temperament.    Somewhat  sluggish,  with  little  initiative, 

but  great  endurance ;  cunning  rather  than  intelligent;  generally 

thrifty  and  industrious.,  but  mostly  indolent  m 

Characters        Siam   and  Burma;   moral  standard  low,  with 

slight  sense  of  right  and  wrong. 

Speech.  Mainly  isolating  and  monosyllabic,  due  to 
phonetic  decay ;  loss  of  formative  elements  compensated  by 
tone ;  some  {south  Chinese,  Annamese)  highly  tonic,  but  others 
{in  Him,alayas  and  North  Burma)  highly  agglutinating  and 
consequently  toneless. 

Religion.  Ancestry  and  spirit-worship,  underlying  various 
kinds  of  Buddhism;  religious  sentiment  weak  in  Annam,  strong 
in  Tibet ;  thinly  diffused  in  China. 

Culture.  Ranges  from,  sheer  savagery  {Indo-Chinese 
aborigines)  to  a  low  phase  of  civilisation;  some  mechanical 
arts  {ceram.ics,  m-etallurgy,  weaving),  and  agriculture  well 
developed;  painting,  sculpture,  and  architecture  mostly  in  the 
barbaric  stage;  letters  widespread,  but  true  literature  and 
science  slightly  developed;  stagnation  very  general. 

Bod-pa.      Tibetan;    Tangut;    Horsok;    Si-fan;    Balti; 

„  .    ^.  Ladakhi;   Gurkha;   Bhotiya;   Miri;   Mishmi; 

Mam  Divisions,      a  1,  ' 

Burmese.      Naga;    Kuki-Lushai;     Chin;     Kakhyen; 
Manipuri ;  Karen;   Talaing;  Arakanese;  Burmese  proper. 
Tai-Shan.     Ahom';  Khamti;  Ngiou;  Lao;  Siamese. 
Giao-Shi.     Annamese;  Cochin-Chinese. 
Chinese.     Chinese  proper;  Hakka;  Hok-l6;  Pun-ti. 

The  Mongolian  stock  may  be  divided,  into  two  main 
branches':  the.  Mongo/o-Tatar,  of  the  western  area,  and  the 
Tibeto- Indo-Chinese  of  the  eastern  area,  the  latter  extending 
into  a  secondary  branch,  Oceanic  Mongols.  These  two,  that 
is,   the    main    and  secondary   branch,    which  jointly  occupy 

'  Ethnology,  p.  300. 


vi]  The  Southern  Mongols  165 

the  greater  part  of  south-east  Asia  with  most  of  Malaysia 
Madagascar,  the  PhiHppines  and  Formosa,  will 
form  the  subject  of  the  present  and  following  |°"^ia°"^°' 
chapters.  Allowing  for  encroachments  and  over- 
lappings,  especially  in  Manchuria  and  North  Tibet,  the 
northern  "divide"  towards  the  Mongolo-Tatar  domain  is 
roughly  indicated  by  the  Great  Wall  and  the  Kuen-lun  range 
westwards  to  the  Hindu- Kush,  and  towards  the  south-west 
by  the  Himalayas  from  the  Hindu-Kush  eastwards  to  Assam. 
The  Continental  section  thus  comprises  the  whole  of  China 
proper  and  Indo-China,  together  with  a  great  part  of  Tibet 
with  Little  Tibet  (Baltistan  and  Ladakh),  and  the  Himalayan 
uplands  including  their  southern  slopes.  This  section  is 
again  separated  from  the  Oceanic  section  by  the  Isthmus  of 
Kra — the  Malay  Peninsula  belonging  ethnically  to  the  insular 
Malay  world.  "  I  believe,"  writes  Warington  Smyth,  "  that 
the  Malay  never  really  extended  further  south  than  the  Kra 
isthmus'." 

From  the  considerations  advanced  in  Ethnology,  Chap. 
XII.,  it  seems  a  reasonable  assumption  that  the  lacustrine 
Tibetan  tableland  with  its  Himalayan  escarpments,  all  standing 
in  pleistocene  times  at  a  considerably  lower  level  -^-^^  the 
than  at  present,  was  the  cradle  of  the  Mongol  Mongol 
division  of  mankind.  Here  were  found  all  the  Cradle-land, 
natural  conditions  favourable  to  the  development  of  a  new 
variety  of  the  species  moving  from  the  tropics  northwards — 
ample  space  such  as  all  areas  of  marked  specialisation  seem 
to  require  ;  a  different  and  cooler  climate  than  that  of  the 
equatorial  region,  though,  thanks  to  its  then  lower  elevation, 
warmer  than  that  of  the  bleak  and  now  barely  inhabitable 
Tibetan  plateau ;  extensive  plains,  nowhere  perhaps  too 
densely  wooded,  intersected  by  ridges  of  moderate  height, 
and  diversified  by  a  lacustrine  system  far  more  extensive  than 
that  revealed  by  the  exploration  of  modern  travellers^ 

Under  these  circumstances,  which  are  not  matter  of  mere 
speculation,  but  to  be  directly  inferred  from  the  observations 
of  intelligent  explorers  and  of  trained  Anglo-Indian  surveyors, 
it   would   seem   not   only  probable   but   inevitable  that  the 

1  Geogr.  Joum.,  May,  1898,  p.  491.  This  statement  must  of  course  be  taken 
as  having  reference  only  to  the  historical  Malays  and  their  comparatively  late 
migrations. 

2  For  the  desiccation  of  Asia  see  P.  Kropotkin,  Geogr.  Joum.  xxiii.  1904 ; 
E.  Huntington,  The  Pulse  of  Asia,  19071 


1 66  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch, 

pleistocene  Indo-Malayan  should  become  modified  and 
improved  in  his  new  and  more  favourable  Central  Asiatic 
environment. 

Later,  with  the  gradual  upheaval  of  the  land  to  a  mean 
altitude  of  some  14,000  feet  above  sea-lie,vel,  the  climate 
deteriorated,  and  the  present  somewhat  rude  and  rugged 
inhabitants  of  Tibet  are  to  be  regarded  as  the  outcome  of 
slow  adaptation  to  their  slowly  changing  surroundings  since  the 
occupation  of  the  country  by  the  Indor-Makyan  pleistocene 
precursor.     To   this  precursor   Tibet   was   accessible  either 

from  India  or  from  Indo-China,  and  although 
TOet."^^^*"       few  of  his  implements  have  yet  been  reported 

from  the  plateau,  it  is  certain  that  Tibet  h^s 
passed  through  the  Stone  as  well  as  the  Metal  Ages.  In 
Bogle's  time  "thunder-stones"  were  still  used  for  tonsuring 
the  lamas,  and  even  now  stone  cooking-pots  are  found 
amongst  the  shepherds  of  the  uplands,  although  they  arei 
acquainted  both  with  copper  and  iron.  In  India  also  and 
Indo-China  palaeoliths  of  rude  type  occur  at  various  points — 
Arcot,  the  Narbada  gravels,  Mirzapi3r\  the  Jrawadi  valley 
and  the  Shan  territory — as  if  to  indicate  the  routes  followed 
by  early  man  in  his  migrations  from  Indg-Malaysia  north- 
wards. 

Thus,  where  man  is  silent  the  stones  speak,  and  so  old  are 
these  links  of  past  and  present  that  amongst  the  Shans,  as  in 
ancient  Greece,  their  origin  being  entirely  forgotten,  they  are 
often  mounted  as  jewellery  and  worn  as  charms  against  mishaps. 
Usually  the  Mongols  proper,  that  is,  the  steppe  nomads 
who  have  more  than  once  overrun  half  the  eastern  hemisphere, 
are  taken  as  the  typical  and  original  stem  of  the  Mongolian 
stock.     But  if  Ch.  de  Ujfalvy's  view's  can  be  accepted  this 

honour  will  now  have  to  be  -transferred  to  the 
MongoiType.      Tibetans,  who  still  occupy  the  supposed  cradle 

of  the  race.  This  .veteran  student  of  the  Central 
Asiatic  peoples  describes  two  Mongol  types,  a  northern  round- 
headed  and  a  southern  long-headed,  and  thinks  that  the  latter, 
which  includes  "the  Ladakhi,  the  Champas  g,nd  Tibetans 
proper,"  was  "  the  primitive  Mongol  type^" 

1  See  J,   Cockbum's    paper  "  Qn  Pglaeplithic    Iinplemgnts,"  etc.,  in  Journ. 
Anthr.  Inst.  1887,  p.  57  sq. 

2  "Le  type,  pfifpitif  des  Mongols  est  pour  nous,  dolichoeephale"  {Les  Aryens 
au  Nord  et  au  Sud  de  V Hindou-Kouchf  1396,  p.  50). 


vi]  l^he  Southern  Mongols  167 

Owing  to  the  political  seclusion  of  Tibet,  the.  race  has 
hitherto  been  studied  chiefly  in  outlying  provinces  beyond  the 
frontiers,  such  as  Ladakh,  Baltistan,  and  Sikkim\ 
that  is,  in  districts  where  mixture  with  other   Ladakhi!'^"^ 
races  may  be  suspected.     Indeed   de   Ujfalvy, 
who  has  made  a  careful  survey  of  Baltistan  and  Ladakh, 
assures  us  that,  while  the  Ladakhi  represent  two  varieties  of 
Asiatic  man  with  ceph.  index  'j'j,  the  Balti  are  not  Tibetans 
or  Mongols  at  all,  but  descendants  of  the  historical  Sacae, 
although  now  of  Tibetan  speech  and  Moslem  faithl     They 
are  of  the  mean  height  or  slightly  above  it,  with  rather  low 
brow,  very  prominertt  superciliary  arches,  deep 
depression  at  nasal  root,  thick  curved  eyebrows,    origii^^''^  *°^ 
long,  straight  or  arched   nose,   thick  lips,  oval 
chin,  small  cheek-bones,  small  flat  ears,  straight  eyes,  very 
black  and  abundant  ringletty  {boucli)  hair,  full  beard,  •  usually 
black  and  silky,  robust  hairy  body,  small  hands  and  feet,  and 
long  head  (index  72).     In  such  characters  it  is  impossible  to 
recognise  the  Mongol,  and  the  contrast  is  most  striking  with 
the  neighbouring  Ladakhi,  true  Mongols,  as  shown  by  their 
slightly  raised  superciliary  arches,  Square  and  scarcely  curved 
eyebrows,  slant  eyes,  large  prominent  cheek-bones,  lank  and 
coarse  hair,  yellowish  and  nearly  hairless  body. 

Doubtless  there  has  been  a  considerable  interniingling  of 
Balti  and  Ladakhi,  and  in  recent  times  still  more  of  Balti 
and  Dards  (Hindu-Kush  "Aryans"),  whence  Leitner's  view 
that  the  Balti  are  Dards  at  a  remote  period  conquered  by  the 
Bh6ts  (Tibetans),  losing  their  speech  with  their  independence- 
But  of  all  these  peoples  the  Balti  were  in  former  times  the 
most  civilised,  as  shown  by  the  remarkable  rock-carvings  still 
found  in  ,the  country,  and  attributed  by  the  present  inhabitants 
to  a  long  vanished  race.  Some  of  these  carvings  represent 
warriors  mounted  and  on  foot,  the  resemblance  being  often 
very  striking  between  them  and  the  persons  figured  on  the 
coins  of  the  Sacae  kings  both  in  their  physical  appearance, 
attitudes,  arms,  and  accoutrements.  The  •  Balti  are  still 
famous  horsemen,  and  with  them  is  said  to  have  originated 

1  Thus  Risley's  Tibetan  measurements  were  all  of  subjects  from  Sikkim  and 
Nepal  {Tribes  and  Castes  of  Bengal,  Calcutta,  i&g6,  passtm)-  In  the  East,  how- 
ever, Desgodins  and  other  French  missionaries  have  had  better  opportunities  of 
studying  true  Tibetans  amongst  the  Si-fan  ('*  Western  Strangers"),  as  the  frontier 
populations  are  called  by  the  Chinese. 

2  Op.  cit.  p.  319. 


1 68  Man  :   Past  and  Present  [ch. 

the  game  -of  polo,  which  has  thence  spread  to  the  surrounding 
peoples  as  far  as  Chitral  and  Irania. 

From  all  these  considerations  it  is  inferred  that  the  Balti 
are  the  direct  descendants  of  the  Sacae,  who  invaded  India 
about  90  B.C.,  not  from  the  west  (the  Kabul  valley)  as  generally 
stated,  but  from  the  north  over  the  Karakorum  Passes  leading 
directly  to  Baltistan^  Thus  lives  again  a  name  renowned  in 
antiquity,  and  another  of  those  links  is  established  between 
the  past  and  the  present,  which  it  is.  the  province  of  the 
historical  ethnologist  to  rescue  from  oblivion. 

In  Tibet  proper  the  ethnical  relations  have  been  confused 
by  the  loose  way  tribal  and  even  national  names  are  referred 

to  by  Prjevalsky  and  some  other  modern  ex- 
PropX''*^-**'*^       plorers.     It  should  therefore  be  explained  that 

three  somewhat  distinct  branches  of  the  race 
have  to  be  carefully  distinguished:  i.  The  Bod-pa",  "Bod- 
men,"  the  settled  and  more  or  less  civilised  section,  who 
occupy  most  of  the  southern  and  more  fertile  provinces  of 

which  Lhasa  is  the  capital,  who  till  the  land, 
TMguts^™''*'    li^^  i"  towns,  and  have  passed  from  the  tribal 

to  the  civic  state.  2.  The  Dru-pa^,  peaceful 
though  semi-nomadic  pastoral  tribes,  who  live  in  tents  on  the 
northern  plateaux,  over  15,000  feet  above  sea-level.  3.  The 
Tanguts^,  restless,  predatory  tribes,  who  hover  about  the 
north-eastern  borderland  between  Koko-nor  and  Kansu. 

1  Op.  cit.  p.  327.  Here  we  are  reminded  that,  though  the  Sacae  are  called 
"  Scythians  "  by  Herodotus  and  other  ancient  writers,  under  this  vague  expression 
were  comprised  a  multitude  of  heterogeneous  peoples,  amongst  whom  were  types 
corresponding  to  all  the  main  varieties  of  Mongolian,  western  Asiatic,  and  eastein 
European  peoples.  "  Aujourd'hui  I'ancien  type  sace,  adouci  parmi  les  melanges, 
reparait  et  constitue  le  type  si  caractdristique,  si  complexe  et  si  different  de  ses 
voisins  que  nous  appelons  le  type  balti"  (p.  328). 

^  W.  W.  Rockhill,  our  best  living  authority,  accepts  none  of  the  current  ex- 
planations of  the  widely  diffused  term  bod  {bkdt,  bhof),  which  appears  to  form  the 
second  element  in  the  word  Tibet  {Stod-Bod,  pronounced  Teu-Beu,  "  Upper  Bod," 
i.e.  the  central  and  western  parts  in  contradistinction  to  Mdn-Bod,  "  Lower  Bod," 
the  eastern  provinces).  Notes  on  the  Ethnology  of  Tibet,  Washington,  1895,  p.  669. 
This  writer  finds  the  first  mention  of  Tibet  in  the  form  Tobbat  (there  are  many 
variants)  in  the  Arab  Istakhri's  works,  about  590  A.H.,  while  T.  de  Lacouperie 
would  connect  it  with  the  Tatar  kingdom  of  Tu-bat  (397-475  A.D.).  This  name 
might  easily  have  been  extended  by  the  Chinese  from  the  Tatars  of  Kansu  to  the 
neighbouring  Tanguts,  and  thus  to  all  Tibetans. 

^  Hbrog-pa,  Drok-pa,  pronounced  Dru-pa. 

*  The  Mongols  apply  the  name  Tangut  to  Tibet  and  call  all  Tibetans  Tan- 
giftu,  "  which,  should  be  discarded  as  useless  and  misleading,  as  the  people 
inhabiting  this  section  of  the  country  are  pure  Tibetans"  (Rockhill,  p.  670).,  It 
is  curious  to  note  that  the  Mongol  Tangutu  is  balanced  by  the  Tibetan  Sok-pa, 
often  apphed  to  all  MongoUans. 


■^i]  The  Southern  Mongols  '  169 

All  these  are  true  Tibetans,  speak  the  Tibetan  language, 
and  profess  one  or  other  of  the  two  national  religions, 
Bondo  and  Lamaism  (the  Tibetan  form  of  Buddhism).  But 
the  original  type  is  best  preserved,  not  amongst  the  cultured 
Bod-pa,  who  in  many  places  betray  a  considerable  admixture 
both  of  Chinese  and  Hindu  elements,  but  amongst  the 
Dru-pa,  who  on  their  bleak  upland  steppes  have  for  ages  had 
little  contact  with  the  surrounding  Mongolo-Turki  populations. 
They  are  described  by  W.  W.  Rockhill  from  personal 
observation  as  about  five  feet  five  inches  high,  and  round- 
headed,  with  wavy  hair,  clear-bro'^n  and  even  hazel  eye, 
cheek-bone  less  high  than  the  Mongol,  thick  nose,  depressed 
at  the  root,  but  also  prominent  and  even  aquiline  and  narrow 
but  with  broad  nostrils,  large-lobed  ears  standing  out  to  a  less 
degree  than  the  Mongol,  broad  mouth,  long  black  hair,  thin 
beard,  generally  hairless  body,  broad  shoulders,  very  small 
calves,  large  foot,  coarse  hand,  skin  coarse  and  greasy  and  of 
light  brown  colour,  though  "  frequently  nearly  white,  but  when 
exposed  to  the  weather  a  dark  brown,  nearly  the  colour  of  our 
American  Indians.  Rosy  cheeks  are  quite  common  amongst 
the  younger  women\" 

Some  of  these  characters — wavy  hair,  aquiline  nose, 
hazel  eye,  rosy  cheeks — are  not  Mongolic,  and  despite 
W.  W.  Rockhill's  certificate  of  racial  purity,  one  is  led  to 
suspect  a  Caucasic  strain,  perhaps  through  the  neighbouring 
Salars.  These  are  no  doubt  sometimes  called  Kara- 
Tangutans,  "  Black  Tangutans,"  from  the  colour  of  their  tents, 
but  we  learn  from  Potanin,  who  visited  them  in  1885 ',  that  they 
are  Muhammadans  of  Turki  stock  and  speech,  and  we  already 
know'  that  from  a  remote  period  the  Turki  people  were  in  close 
contact  with  Caucasians.  The  Salars  pitch  their  tents  on  the 
banks  of  the  Khitai  and  other  Yang-tse-Kiang  headstreams. 

That  the  national  name  Bod-pa  must  be  of  considerable 
antiquity  is  evident  from   the   Sanskrit  expression  Bhotiya, 
derived    from    it,    and    long    applied    by    the   ^^e  Bhotiyas ' 
Hindus   collectively    to  all    southern   Tibetans, 

1  Notes  on  the  Ethnology  of  Tibet,  1895,  p.  675  ;  see  also  S.  Chandra  Das, 
Journey  to  Lhasa  and  Central  Tibet,  1904  ;  F.  Grenard,  Tibet:  the  Country  and 
its  Inhabitants,  1904 ;  G.  Sandberg,  Tibet  and  the  Tibetans,  1906 ;  and 
L.  A.  Waddell,  Lhasa  and  its  Mysteries,  with  a  record  of  the  Expedition  of 
1903-1904,  1905. 

2  Isvestia,  XXI.  3. 

3  Ethnology,  p.  305. 


1 70  -Man  :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

but  especially  to,  those  of  the  Himalayan  slopes,  such  as  the 
Rongs  (Lepchas)  of  Sikkim  and  the  Lho-pa,  dominant  in 
Bhutan,  properly  Bhdt^dnt,  that  is,  "Land's  End"^the 
extremity  of  Tibet.  Eastwards  also  the  Tibetan  race  stretches 
far  beyond  the  political  frontiers  into  the  Koko-nor  region 
(Tanguts),  and  the  Chinese  province  of  Se-chuan,  where  they 
are  grouped  with  all  the  other  Si-fan  aborigines.  Towards 
the  south-east  are  the  kindred  Tawattgs,  Mishmi,  Miri,  Abor^, 
Daflas,  and  many  others  about  the  Assam  borderlands,  all  of 
whom  may  be  regarded  as  true  Bhotiyas  in  the  wild  state. 

Through  these  the  primitive  Tibetan  race  extends  into 
Burma,  where,  however  it  has  become  greatly  modified  and 
Prehistoric  &gain  civilised  Under  different  climatic  and 
Expansion  of  cultural  influences.  Thus  we  see  how,  in  the 
theTibetg,n  course  of  ages,  the  Bod-pa  have  widened  their 
domain,  radiating,  in  all  directions  from  the 
central  cradle-land  about  the  Upper  Brahmaputra  (San-po) 
valley  westwards  into  Kashmir>  eastwards  into  China,  south- 
wards down  the  Himalayan  slopes  to  the  Gangetic  plains, 
south-eastwards  to  Indo-China.  In  some  places  they  have 
come  into  contact  with  other  races  and  disappeared  either  by 
total  extinction  or  by  absorption  (India,  Hindu-Kush),  or  else 
preserved  their  type  while  accepting  the  speech,  religion,  and 
culture  of  later  intruders.  Such  are  the  GarhwaM,  and  many 
groups  in  Nepal,  especially  the  dominant  Gwkhas  {Khas^),  of 
whom  there  are  twelve  branches,  all  Aryanised  and  since  the 
twelfth  century  speaking  the  Parbatiia,  Bkasha,  a  Prakrit  or 
vulgar  Sanskrit  tongue  current  amongst  an  extremely  mixed 
population  of  about  2,oqo,ooo. 

In  other  directions  the  migrations  took  place  in  remote 
prehistoric  times,  the  primitive  proto-Tibetan  groups  becoming 

'  Abor,  i.e.  "independent,"  is  the  name  applied  by  the  Assamese  to  the  East 
Hinialayan  hill  tribes,  the  Minyong,  Padam  and  Hrasso,  who  are  the  Slo  of  the 
Tibetans.  These  are  all  affiliated  by  Desgodins  to  the  Lho-pa  of  Bhutan  {BuL 
Soc.  Giogr.,  October,  1877,  p.  431),  and  are  to  be  distinguished  from  the  Bori 
{i.e.  "dependent")  tribes  of  the  plains,  all  more  or  less  Hinduized  Bhotiyas 
(Dalton,  Ethnology  of  Bengal,  p.  22  sq.).  See  A.  Hamilton,  In  Abor  Jungles, 
19.12. 

*  Not  to  be  confused  with  the  Khas,  as  the  wild  tribes  of  the  Lao  country 
(Siam)  are  collectively  called.  Capt.  Eden  Vansittart  thinks  in  Nepal  the  term\ 
is  an  abbreviation  of  Kshatriya,  or  else  means  "fallen."  This  authority  tells  us 
that,  although  the  Khas  are  true  Gurkhas,  it  is  not  the  Kbas  who  enlist  in  our 
Gurkha  regiments,  but  chiefly  the  Magars  and  Gurungs,  who  are  of  p'urer  Bhotiya 
race  and  less  completely  Hinduized  ("The  Tribes,  Clans,  an^  Castes  of  Nepal," 
in  Journ.  As.  Soc.  Bengal,  LXIII.  I,  No.  4). 


vi]  The  Southern  Mongols  171 

more  and  more  specialised  as  they  receded  farther  and  farther 
from  the  cradle-land  into  Mongolia,  Siberia,  China,  Farther 
India,  and  Malaysia.  This  is  at  least  how  I  understand  the 
peopling  of  a  great  part  of  the  eastern  hemisphere  by  an 
original  nucleus  of  Mongolic  type  first  differentiated  from 
a  pleistocene  precursor  on  the  Tibetan  tableland. 

Strangely  contradictory  'estimates  have  been  formed  of  the 
temperament  and  mental  characters  of  the  Bod-pa,  some,  such 
as  that  of  Turner',  no  doubt  too  favourable! 
while  others  err  perhaps  in  the  opposite  direction,  '^^'"p*"'"*"*- 
Thus  Desgodins,  who  nevertheless  knew  them  well,  describes 
the  cultured  Tibetan  of  the  south  as  "  a  slave  towards  the 
great,  a  despot  towards  the  weak,  knavish  or  treacherous 
according  to  circumstances,  always  on  the  look-out  to  defraud, 
and  lying  impudently  to  attain  his  end,"  and  much  more  to  the 
same  effect ^ 

W.  W.  Rockhill,  who  is  less  severe,  thinks  that  "the 
Tibetan's  character  is  not  as  black  as  Horace  della  Penna  and 
Desgodins  have  painted  it.  Intercourse  with  these  people 
extending  over  six  years  leads  me  to  believe  that  the  Tibetan 
is  kindhearted,  affectionate,  and  law-abiding^"  He  concludes, 
however,  with  a  not  very  flattering  native  estimate  deduced 
from  the  curious  national  legend  that  "  the  earliest  inhabitants 
of  Tibet  descended  from  a  king  of  monkeys  and  a  female 
hobgoblin,  and  the  character  of  the  race  perhaps  from  those  of 
its  first  parents.  From  the  king  of  monkeys  [he  .was  an 
incarnate  god]  they  have  religious  faith  and  kindheartedness, 
intelligence  and  application,  devotion  to  religion  and  to 
religious  debate ;  from  the  hobgoblin  they  get  cruelty,  fond- 
ness for  trade  and  money^making,  great  bodily  strength, 
lustfulness,  fondness  for  gossip,  and  carnivorous  instinct"." 

While  they  are  cheerful  under  a  depressing  priestly  regime, 
all  allow  that  they  are  vindictive,  superstitious,  and  cringing  in 
the  presence  of  the  lamas,  who  are  at  heart  more   -ca  ^^  e 
dreaded    than    revered.       In    fact    the    whole   Lamaism  on  the 
religious  world  is   one   vast  organised   system   Tibetan 
of  hypocrisy,  and  above  the  old  pagan  beliefs   ^  ^^acter. 

1  Embassy  to  the  Court  of  the  Tesheo  Lama,  p.  350  sq. 

2  *'VoilJi,  je  crois,  le  vrai  Til}etg.in  des  p3,ys  cultives  du  sud,  qui  se  regarde 
comme  bien  plus  civilis^  que  les  pasteurs  ou  bergers  du  nord"  {Le  Thibet,  p.  253). 

3  Notes  on  the  Ethnology,  etc.,  p.  677.  It  may  here  be  remarked  that  the 
unfriendliness  of  which  travellers  often  complain  appears  mainly  inspired  by  the 
Buddhist  theocracy,  who  rule  the  land  and  are  jealous  of  all  "  interlopers." 

*  Ibid.  p.  678. 


172  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

common  to  all  primitive  peoples  there  is  merely  a  veneer  of 
Buddhism,  above  which  follows  another  and  most  pernicious 
veneer  of  lamaism  (priestcraft),  under  the  yoke  of  which  the 
natural  development  of  the  people  has  been  almost  completely 
arrested  for  several  centuries.  The  burden  is  borne  with 
surprising  endurance,  and  would  be  intolerable  but  for  the 
relief  found  in  secret  and  occasionally  even  open  revolt  against 
the  more  oppressive  ordinances  of  the  ecclesiastical  rule. 
Thus,  despite  the  prescriptions  regarding  a  strict  vegetarian 
diet  expressed  in  the  formula  '"  eat  animal  flesh  eat  thy 
brother,"  not  only  laymen  but  most  of  the  lamas  themselves 
supplement  their  frugal  diet  of  milk,  butter,  barley-meal,  and 
fruits  with  game,  yak,  and  mutton — this  last  pronounced  by 
Turner  the  best  in  the  world.  The  public  conscience,  how- 
ever, is  saved  by  a  few  extra  turns  of  the  prayer-wheel  at  such 
repasts,  and  by  the  general  contempt  in  which  is  held  the 
hereditary  caste  of  butchers,  who  like  the  Jews  in  medieval 
times  are  still  confined  to  a  "ghetto"  of  their  own  in  all  the 
large  towns. 

These   remarks   apply    more   particularly    to    the    settled 
southern  communities  living  in  districts  where  a  little  agri- 

_.    „      ,         culture  is  possible.    Elsewhere  tRe  religious  cloak 

The  Horsoks.        .  ^      ,  ,  ,     ,  ,  o  _         ,        . 

IS  worn  very  loosely,  and  the  nomad  Horsoks  01 

the  northern  steppes,  although  all  nominal  Buddhists,  pay  but 

scant  respect  to  the  decrees  supposed  to  emanate  from   the 

Dalai  Lama  enshrined  in  Lhasa.     Horsok  is  an  almost  unique 

ethnical  term^  being  a  curious  compound  of  the  two  names 

applied  by  the  Tibetans  to  the  Hor-pa  and  the  Sok-pa  who 

divide  the  steppe  between  them.     The  Hor-pa,  who  occupy  the 

western  parts,  are  of  Turki  stock,  and  are  the  only  group  of  that 

race  known  to  me  who  profess  Buddhism^  all  the  rest  being 

Muhammadans  with  some  Shamanists  (Yakuts)  in  the  Lena 

basin.     The  Sok-pa,  who  roam  the  eastern  plains  and  valleys, 

although   commonly  called  Mongols,   are   true    Tibetans    or 

more  strictly  speaking  Tanguts,  of  whom  there  are  here  two 

branches,  the  Goliki  and  the   Yegrai,  all,  like  the  Hor-pa,  of 

Tibetan  speech.     The   Yegrai,  as  described  by  Prjevalsky, 

closely  resemble  the  other  North  Tibetan  tribes, 

with   their  long,  matted  locks  falling   on  their 

'  with  it  may  be  compared  the  Chinese  province  of  Kan-su,  so  named  from 
its  two  chief  towns  ^a«-chau  and  5a-chau  (Yule's  Marco  Polo,  I.  p.  222). 
2  "Buddhist  Turks,"  says  Sir  H.  H.  Howorth  {Geogr.  Joum.  1887,  p.  230). 


vi]  The  Southern  Mongols  173 

shoulders,  their   scanty  whiskers   and   beard,   angular  head, 
dark  complexion  and  dirty  garb\ 

Besides  stock-breeding  and  predatory  warfare,  all  these 
groups  follow  the  hunt,  armed  with  darts,  bows,  and  match- 
lock guns;  the  musk-deer  is  ensnared,  and  the  only  animal 
spared  is  the  stag,  "Buddha's  horse."  The  taste  of  these, 
rude  nomads  for  liquid  blood  is  insatiable,  and  the  surveyor, 
Nain  Singh,  often  saw  them  fall  prone  on  the  ground  to  lick 
up  the  blood  flowing  from  a  wounded  beast.  As  soon  as 
weaned,  the  very  children  and  even  the  horses  are  fed  on 
a  diet  of  cheese,  butter,  and  blood,  kneaded  together  in  a 
horrible  mess,  which  is  greedily  devoured  when  the  taste  is 
acquired.  On  the  other  hand  alcoholic  drinks  are  little 
consumed,  the  national  beverage  being  coarse  Chinese  tea 
imported  in  the  form  of  bricks  and  prepared  with  tsampa 
(barley-meal)  and  butter,  and  thus  becoming  a  food  as  well  as 
a  drink.  The  lamas  have  a  monopoly  of  this  tea-trade,  which 
could  not  stand  the  competition  of  the  Indian  growers;  hence 
arises  the  chief  objection  to  removing  the  barriers  of  seclusion. 

Tibet  is  one  of  the  few  regions  where  polyandrous  customs, 
intimately  associated  with  the  matriarchal  state,  still  persist 
almost  in  their  pristine  vigour.  The  husbands 
are  usually  but  not  necessarily  all  brothers,  poiy^ry 
and  the  bride  is  always  obtained  by  purchase. 
Unless  otherwise  arranged,  the  oldest  husband  is  the  putative 
"father,"  all  the  others  being  considered  as  "uncles."  An 
inevitable  result  of  the  institution  is  to  give  woman  a  domi- 
nant position  in  society;  hence  the  "queens"  of  certain  tribes, 
referred  to  with  so  much  astonishment  by  the  early  Chinese 
chroniclers.  Survivors  of  this  "petticoat  government"  have 
been  noticed  by  travellers  amongst  the  Lolos,  Mossos,  and 
other  indigenous  communities  about  the  Indo-Chinese  frontiers. 
But  it  does  not  follow  that  polyandry  and  a  matriarchal  state 
always  and  necessarily  preceded  polygyny  and  a  patriarchal 
state.  On  the  contrary,  it  would  appear  that  polyandry  never 
could  have  been  universal ;  possibly  it  arose  from  special 
conditions  in  particular  regions,  where  the  struggle  for  exist- 
ence is  severe,  and  the  necessity  of  imposing  limits  to  the 
increase  of  population  more  urgent  than  elsewhere'.     Hence 

1  E.  Delmar  Morgan,  Geogr.  Journ.  1887,  p.  226. 

2  "Whatever  may  have  been  the  origin  of  polyandry,  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  poverty,  a  desire  to  keep  down  population,  and  to  keep  property  undivided 
in  families,  supply  sufficient  reason  to  justify  its  continuance.     The  same  motives 


174  Man:  Past  and  Present  [cH. 

to  me  it  seems  as  great  a  mistake  to  assume  a  matriafchate  as 
it  is  to  assume  promiscuity  as  the  urtiversal  antecedent  of  all 
latef  family  relations.  In  Tibet  itself  polygyny  exists  side 
by  side  with  polyafldry  amongst  the  Wealthy  classes,  while 
monogamy  is  the  fule  amongst  the  poof  pastoral  nomads  of 
the  northern  steppe. 

Great   ethnical   importaftce  has   been   attached  by  some 
distinguished  anthropologists  to  the  treatment  of  the  dead. 
But,  as  in  the  New  Stone  and  Metal  Ages  in 
Customs  Europe  cremation  and  burial  were  practised  side 

by  side\  so  in  Tibet  the  dead  are  now  simul- 
taneously disposed  of  in  diverse  ways.  It  is  a  question  not 
so  much  of  race  as  of  caste  or  social  classes,  of  of  the  lama's 
pleasure,  whoj  when  the_  head  has  been  shaved  to  facilitate 
the  tfansmigration  of  the  soul,  may  ordei^  the  body  to  be 
burnt;  buried,  cast  ifito  the  river,  Or  even  thrown  to  carrion 
birds  or  beasts  of  prey.  Strange,  to  say,  the  last  method, 
carried  out  with  certain  formalities,  is  one  of  the  most  honour- 
able, although  the  lamas  are  generally  buried  in  a  seated 
posture,  and  high  officials  burnt,  and  (in  Ladakh)  the  ashes, 
mixed  with  a  little  clay,  kneaded  into  much  venerated  effigies — 
doubtless  a  survival  of  ancestry  Worship. 

Reference  was  above  made  to  the  primitive  Shamanistic 
ideas  which  still  survive  beneath  the  Buddhist  and  the  later 
lamaistic  systems.  In  the  central  and  eastern  provinces  of 
Ui  and  Tsang  this  pre-Buddhist  religion  has 
ReUrion ''"  again  stf  uggled  to  the  surface,  or  rather  persisted 
under  the  name  of  Bonbo  [Boa-ko)  side  by  side 
with  the  national  creed,  from  which  it  has  even  borrowed 
many  of  its  present  rites.  From  the  colouf  of  the  robes 
usually  worn  by  its  priests,  it  is  known  as  the  sect  of  the 
"Blacks,"  in  contradistinction  to  the  ofthodox  "Yellow"  and 
dissenting  "Red"  lamaists,  and  as  now  constituted,  its  origin 
is  attributed  to  Shen-rab  (Gsen-rabs),  who  flourished  about 
the  fifth  century  befofe  the  new  era,  and  is  venerated  as  the 
equal  of  Buddha  himself.  His  followers,  who  were  powefful 
enough  to  drive  Buddhism  from  Tibet  in  the  tenth  century, 
worship  1 8  chief  deities,  the  best  known  being  the  red  and 

explain  its  existence  among  the  lower  castes  of  Malabar,  among  the  Jat  (Sikhs) 
of  the  Panjab,  among  the  Todas,  and  probably  in  most  other  countries  ih  which 
this  custom  prevails  "  (Rockhill,  p.  726). 

'  T.  Rice  Holmes,  Ancient  Britain,  1907,  pp.  no  and  465-6. 


vi]  The  Southefn  Mongols  175 

black  demons,  the  snake  devil,  and  especially  the  fiery 
tiger-god,  father  of  all  the  secondary  members  of  this  truly 
"diabolical  pantheon."  It  is  curious  to  note  that  the  sacfed 
symbol  of  the  Bonbo  sect  is  the  ubiquitous  svastika,  only 
with  the  hooks  of  the  cross  reversed,  F=bd  instead  of  tf-i  . 
This  change,  which  appears  to  have  escaped  the  diligent 
research  of  Thomas  Wilson',  was  caused  by  the  practice  of 
turning  the  prayer-wheel  from  right  to  left  as  the  red  lamas 
do,  instead  of  from  left  to  right  as  is  the  orthodox  way.  The 
common  Buddhist  formula  of  six  &f^2LiA^s-—om^ina-ni-pad-.ine- 
hum — is  also  replaced  by  one  of  seven  syllables^»?fl-/rz^«o«- 
tre-sa-ta-dzun ", 

Buddhism  itself,  introduced  by  Hindu  missionaries,  is  more 
recent  than  is  commonly  supposed.     Few  conversions  were 
made   before  the  fifth  century  of  our  era,   and 
the  first  temple  dates  only  from  the  year  698.    ^^^  La^stn 
Reference  is  often  made  to  the  points  of  contact 
or  "coincidences"  which   have  been   observed  between  this 
system  and  that  of  the  Oriental  and  Latin  Christian  Churches. 
There  is  no  question  of  a  common  dogma,  and  the  numerous 
resemblances  are  concerned  only  with  ritualistic  details,  such 
as  the  cross,  the  mitr6,  dalmatica,  and  other  distinctive  Vest- 
ments,   choir    singing,    exorcisms,  the   thurible,    Buddhist 
benedictions   with  outstretched  .  hand,    celibacy,    and  Christian 
the   rosary,  fasts,  processions,  litanies,  spiritual    K'*"*'is'"- 
retreats-,    holy    water,     scapulars    or    other    charms,    prayer 
addressed  to  the  saints,  relics,  pilgrimages,  music  and  bells 
at  the  service,   monasticism ;    this  last   being   developed    to 
a  far  greater  extent  in  Tibet  than  at  any  time  in  any  Christian 
land,    Egypt    not    excepted.     The   lamas,    representing   the 
regular  clergy  of  the  Roman  Church,  hold  a  monopoly  of  all 
"science,"  letters,  and  arts.     The  block  printing-presses  are 
all  kept  in  the  huge  monasteries  which  cover  the  land,  and 
from  them  are  consequently  issued  only  orthodox  works  and 
treatises    on    magic.     Religion    itself  is    little    better  than- a 
system  of  magk,  and  the  sole  aim  of  all  worship,  reduced  to 
a  mere  mechanical  system  of  routine,  is  to  baffle  the  machi- 
nations of  the  demons  who  at  every  turn  beset  the  path  of 
the  wayfarer  through  this  "vale  of  tears." 

1  At  least  no  reference  is  liiade  to  the  Bonbo  practice  in  his  almost  exhaustive 
monograph  on  The  Swastika,  Washington,  1896.  The  reversed  form,  however, 
mentioned  by  Max  MUlier  and  Burnouf,  is  figured  at  p.  767  and  elsewliere. 

2  Sarat  Chandra  T)?i.s,Journ.  As.  Soc.  Bengal,  1881-2. 


1 76  Man  :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

For  this  purpose  the  prayer-wheels — an  ingenious  con- 
trivance by  which  innumerable  supplications,  not 
v^ed'^*^*'^'  ^^^^  efficacious  because  vicarious,  may  be  offered 
up  night  and  day  to  the  powers  of  darkness — 
are  incessantly  kept  going  all  over  the  land,  some  being  so 
cleverly  arranged  that  the  sacred  formula  may  be  repeated  as 
many  as  40,000  times  at  each  revolution  of  the  cylinder. 
These  machines,  which  have  also  been  introduced  into  Korea 
and  Japan,  have  been  at  work  for  several  centuries  without 
any.  appreciable  results,  although  fitted  up  in  all  the  houses, 
by  the  river  banks  or  on  the  hill-side,  and  kept  in  motion  by 
the  hand,  wind,  and  water;  while  others  of  huge  size,  30 -to 
40  feet  high  and  1 5  to  20  in  diameter,  stand  in  the  temples, 
and  at  each  turn  repeat  the  contents  of  whole  volumes  of 
liturgical  essays  stowed  away  in  their  capacious  receptacles. 
But  despite  all  these  everlasting  revolutions,  stagnation  reigns 
supreme  throughout  the  most  priest-ridden  land  under  the  sun. 
With  its  religion  Tibet  imported  also  its  letters  from  India 
by  the  route  of  Nepal  or  Kashmir  in  the  seventh 
Lettere*^^  *°**  century.  Since  then  the  language  has  under- 
gone great  changes,  always,  like  other  members 
of  the  Indo-Chinese  family,  in  the  direction  from  aggluti- 
nation towards  monosyllabism\  But  the  orthography,  apart 
from  a  few  feeble  efforts  at  reform,  has  remained  stationary, 
so  that  words  are  still  written  as  they  were  pronounced 
1 200  years  ago.  The  result  is  a  far  greater  discrepancy 
between  the  spoken  and  written  tongue  than  in  any  other 
language,  English  not  excepted.  Thus  the  province  of  Ui 
has  been  identified  by  Sir  A.  Cunningham  with  Ptolemy's 
Debasae  through  its  written  form  Dbus,  though  now  always 
pronounced  f/^  This  bears  out  de  Lacouperie's  view  that  all 
words  were  really  uttered  as  originally  spelt,  although  often 
beginning  with  as  many  as  three  consonants.  Thus  sprct 
(monkey)  is  now  pronounced  deu  in  the  Lhasa  dialect,  but 
still  streu-go  in  that  of  the  province  of  Kham.  The  phonetic 
disintegration  is  still  going  on,  so  that,  barring  reform,  the 
time  must  come  when  there  .will  be  no  correspondence  at, all 
between  sound  and  its  graphic  expression, 

1  This  point,  so  important  in  the  .history  of  linguistic  evolution,  has  I  think 
been  fairly  established  by  T.  de  Lacouperie  in  a  series  of  papers  in  the  Oriental 
and  Babylonian  Record,  i888-go.  See  G.  A.  Grierson's  Linguistic  Survey  of 
India,  lll.  Tibeto-Burman  Family,  1906,  by  Sten  Konovv. 

"  Laddk,  London,  1854. 


vi]  The  Southern  Mongols  177 

On    the   other   hand  it  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  all 
languages  in  the  Indo-Chinese  linguistic  zone  have  undergone 
this  enormous  extent  of  phonetic  decay.     The 
indefatigable  B.  H.  Hodgson  has  made  us  ac-   ^IstifTyJes. 
quainted  with  several,  especially  in  Nepal,  which 
are  qf  a   highly  conservative   character.     Farther   east   the 
Lepcha  (properly  Rong)  of  Sikkim  presents  the      ^     . 
remarkable  peculiarity  of  distinct  agglutination        ^^^ 
of  the  Mongolo-Turki,  or  perhaps  I  should  say  of  the  Kuki- 
Lushai  type,   combined  with  numerous  homophones    and    a 
total  absence  of  tone.     Thus  pano-sa,  of  a  king,  pano-sang, 
kings,  and  pano-sang-sa,  of  kings,  shows  pure  agglutination, 
while  mdt  yields  no  less  than  twenty-three  distinct  meanings', 
which  should  necessitate  a  series  of  discriminating  tones,  as 
in  Chinese  or  Siamese.     Their  absence,  however,  is  readily 
explained  by  the  persistence  of  the  agglutinative  principle, 
which  renders  them  unnecessary. 

A  somewhat  similar  feature  is  presented  by  the  Angami 
Naga,    the    chief  language   of   the    Naga    Hills,    of    which 
R.  B.  McCabe  writes  that  it  is  "still  in  a  very 
primitive  stage  of  the  agglutinating  class,"  and   ^|a"speech. 
"peculiarly  rich    in    intonation,"  although    "for 
one  Naga  who  clearly  marks  these  tonal  distinctions  twenty 
fail  to  do  so^"     It  follows  that  it  is  mainly  spoken  without 
tones,   and  although  said  to   be  "distinctly  monosyllabic"  it 
really  abounds  in  polysyllables,  such  as  merenama,   orphan, 
keMztisaporimo,  nowhere,  dukriwdchd,  to  kill,  etc.     There  are 
also  numerous  verbal  formative  elements  given  by  McCabe 
himself,   so  that  Angami    must   clearly    be   included    in    the 
agglutinating  order.     To  this  order  also  belongs  beyond  all 
doubt   the   Kuki-Lushai  of    the    neighbouring 
North  Kachar  Hills  and  parts  of  Nagaland  itself,    j^i^t^' 
the  common  speech  in  fact  of  the  Rangkhols, 

^  G.  B.  Mainwaring,  A  Grammar  of  the  Rong  [Lepcha)  Language,  etc., 
Calcutta,  1876,  pp.  128-9. 

^  Outline  Grammar  of  the  Angdmi-Naga  Language,  Calcutta,  1887,  pp.  4,  5. 
For  an  indication  of  the  astonishing  number  of  distinct  languages  in  the  whole  of 
this  region  see  Gertrude  M.  Godden's  paper  "  On  the  Naga  and  other  Frontier 
Tribes  of  North-East  India,"  in  Journ.  Anthr.  Inst.  1897,  p.  165.  Under  the 
heading  Tibeto-Burman  Languages  Sten  Konow  recognises  Tibetan,  Himalayan, 
North  Assam,  Bodo,  Naga,  Kuki-Chin,  Meitei  and  Kachin.  The  Naga  group 
comprises  dialects  of  very  different  kinds  ;  some  approach  Tibetan  and  the  North 
Assam  group,  others  lead  over  to  the  Bodo,  others  connect  with  Tibeto-Burman. 
Meitei  lies  midway  between  Kuki-Chin  and  Kachin,  and  these  merge  finally  in 
Burmese.     Grierson's  Linguistic  Survey  of  India,  Vol.  in.  1903-6. 

K.  12 


178  Man:    Past  and  Present  [ch. 

Jansens,  Lushai,  Roeys  and  other  hill  peoples,  collectively 
called  Kuki  by  the  lowlanders,  and  Dzo  by  themselves  \ 
The  highly  agglutinating  character  of  this  language  is  evident 
from  the  numerous  conjugations  given  by  Soppitt^  for  some 
of  which  he  has  no  names,  but  which  may  be  called  Accelera- 
tives,  Retar datives,  Complementatives,  and  so  on.  Thus  with 
the  root,  ahong,  come,  and  infix  jdm,  slow,  is  formed  the 
retardative  ndng  ahongjdmrangmoh,  "will-you-come-slowly?" 
(rang,  future,  moh,  interrogative  particle)  ^ 

The  Kuki,  the  Naga  and  the  Manipuri,  none  of  which 
claim  to  be  the  original  occupants  of  the  country,  have  a 
^       _  ..  tradition  of  a  common  ancestor,  who  had  three 

sons  who  became  the  progenitors  of  the  tribes. 
The  Kuki  are  found  almost  everywhere  throughout  Manipur. 
"We  are  like  the  birds  of  the  air,"  said  a  Kuki  to  T.  C.  Hodson, 
"  we  make  our  nests  here  this  year,  and  who  knows  where  we 
shall  build  next  year*  ? "  The  following  description  is  given  of 
the  Naga  tribes,  Tangkhuls,  Mao  and  Maram  Nagas  {Angami 
Nagas),  Kolya,  or  Mayang  Khong  group,  Kabuis,  Quoirengs, 
Chirus  and  Marring^.  "  Differences  of  stature,  dress, 
coiffure  and  weapons  make  it  easy  to  distinguish  between  the 
members  of  these  tribes.  In  colour  they  are  all  brown  with 
but  little  variety,  though  some  of  the  Tangkhuls  who  earn 
their  living  by  salt  making  seem  to  be  darker.  Among  them 
all,  as  among  the  Manipuris,  there  are  persons  who  have  a 
tinge  of  colour  in  their  cheeks  when  still  young.  The  nose 
also  varies,  for  there  are  cases  where  it  is  almost  straight, 
while  in  the  majority  of  individuals  it  is  flattened  at  the  nostril. 
Here  and  there  one  may  see  noses  which  in  profile  are  almost 
Roman.  The  eyes  are  usually  brown,  though  black  eyes  are 
sometimes  found  to  occur.     The  jaw  is  generally  clean,  not 

1  Almost  hopeless  confusion  continues  to  prevail  in  the  tribal  nomenclature  of 
these  multitudinous  hill  peoples.  The  official  sanction  given  to  the  terms  Kuki 
and  Lushai  as  collective  names  may  be  regretted,  but  seems  now  past  remedy. 
Kuki  is  unknown  to  the  people  themselves,  while  Lushai  is  only  the  name  of  a 
single  group  proud  of  their  head-hunting  proclivities,  hence  they  call  themselves, 
or  perhaps  are  called  Lu-Shai,  "  Head-Cutters,"  from  lu  head,  sha  to  cut  (G.  H. 
Damant).  Other  explanations  suggested  by  C.  A.  Soppitt  {Kuki-Lushai  Tribes, 
with  an  Outline  Grammar  of  the  Rangkhol- Lushai  Language,  Shillong,  1887) 
cannot  be  accepted.  ^  Op.  cit. 

^  See  G.  A.  Grierson  and  Sten  Konow  in  Gn&rson's  Linguistic  Survey  of  India, 
Vol.  III.  Part  II.  Bodo,  Naga  and  Kachin,  1903,  Part  ill.  Kuki-Chin  and  Burma, 
1904. 

*  The  Naga  Tribes  of  Manipur,  1911,  p.  2.  Cf.  J.  Shakespear,  "The  Kuki- 
Lushai  Clzxis,"  Journ.  Roy.  Anthr.  Inst.  XXXix.  1909. 


vi]  The  Southern  Mongols  179 

heavy,  and  the  hair  is  of  some  variety,  as  there  are  many 
persons  whose  hair  is  decidedly  curly,  and  in  most  there  is  a 
wave.  Beards  are  very  uncommon,  and  hair  on  the  face  is 
very  rare,  so  much  so  that  the  few  who  possess  a  moustache 
are  known  as  khoi-hao-bas-(}l\.€\X}a.€\  words,  meaning  moustache 
grower).  I  am  informed  that  the  ladies  do  not  like  hirsute 
men,  and  that  the  men  therefore  pull  out  any  stray  hairs. 
The  cheekbones  are  often  prominent  and  the  slope  of  the  eye 
is  not  very  marked'."  The  stature  is  moderate  varying  from 
the  slender  lightly  built  Marrings  to  the  tall  sturdy  finely 
proportioned  Maos.  The  women  are  all  much  shorter  than 
the  men,  but  strongly  built  with  a  muscular  development  of 
which  the  men  would  not  be  ashamed.  The  land  is  thickly 
peopled  with  local  deities  and  at  Maram  the  case  is  recorded 
of  a  Rain  Deity  who  was  once  a  man  of  the  village  specially 
cunning  in  rain  making.  Among  the  points  of  special  interest 
in  this  region  are  the  stone  monuments  still  erected  in  honour 
of  the  dead,  and  the  custom  of  head-hunting,  connected  with 
simple  blood  feud,  with  agrarian  rites,  with  funerary  rites  and 
eschatological  belief,  and  in  some  cases  no  more  than  a  social 
duty'. 

Through  these  Naga  and  Kuki  aborigines  we  pass  without 
any  break  of  continuity  from  the  Bhotiya  populations  of  the 
Himalayan  slopes  to  those  of  I ndo-China.     Here    .^.j^      ^^     . 
also,  as  indeed  in  nearly  all  semi-civilised  lands.    Ethnical  Rela- 
peoples  at  various  grades  of  culture  are  found    tionsinlndo- 
dwelling  for  ages  side  by  side — rude  and  savage       *"*■ 
groups  on  the  uplands  or  in  the  more  dense  wooded  tracts, 
settled  communities  with  a  large  measure  of  political  unity  (in 
fact  nations  and  peoples  in  the  strict  sense  of  those  terms)  on 
the  lowlands,  and  especially  along  the  rich  alluvial  riverine 
plains  of  this  well  watered  region.     The  common  theory  is 
that  the  wild  tribes  represent  the  true  aborigines  driven  to  the 
hills  and  woodlands  by  civilised  invaders  from  India  and  other 
lands,  who  are  now  represented  by  the  settled  communities. 

Whether  such  movements  and  dislocations  have  elsewhere 
taken  place  we  need  not  here  stop  to  inquire  ;  indeed  their 
probability,  and  in  some  instances  their  certainty  may  be  frankly 

>  Op.  cit.  p.  5. 

2  Op.  cit.  p.  122.  A  custom  of  human  sacrifice  among  the  Naga  is.  described 
in  the  Journal  of  the  Burma  Research  Society,  191 1,  "  Human  Sacrifices  near  the 
Upper  Chindwin." 


i8o  Man :  Pust  and  Present  [ch. 

admitted.  But  I  cannot  think  that  the  theory  expresses  the 
true  relations  in  most  parts  of  Farther  India.  Here  the 
^.    .  .  civiHsed  peoples,  and  ex  hypothesi  the  intruders, 

and  Cultured        are  the  Manipuri,  Burmese,  Arakanese,  and  the 
Peoples  of  one      nearly  extinct  or  absorbed  Talaings  or  Mons  in 
*"^  ■  the   west ;    the   Siamese,    Shans   or  Laos,    and 

Khamti  in  the  centre  ;  the  Annamese  (Tonkinese  and  Cochin- 
Chinese),  Cambojans,  and  the  almost  extinct  Champas  in  the 
east.  Nearly  all  of  these  I  hold  to  be  quite  as  indigenous  as 
the  hillmen,  the  only  difference  being  that,  thanks  to  their 
more  favourable  environment,  they  emerged  at  an  early  date 
from  the  savage  state  and  thus  became  more  receptive  to 
foreign  civilising  influences,  mostly  Hindu,  but  also  Chinese 
(in  Annam).  All  are  either  partly  or  mainly  of  Mongolic  or 
Indonesian  type,  and  all  speak  toned  Indo-Chinese  languages, 
except  the  Cambojans  and  Champas,  whose  linguistic  relations 
are  with  the  Oceanic  peoples,  who  are  not  here  in  question. 
The  cultivated  languages  are  no  doubt  full  of  Sanskrit  or 
Prakrit  terms  in  the  west  and  centre,  and  of  Chinese  in  the 
east,  and  all,  except  Annamese,  which  lises  a  Chinese  ideo- 
graphic system,  are  written  with  alphabets  derived  through 
the  square  Pali  characters  from  the  Devanagari.  It  is  also 
true  that  the  vast  monuments  of  Burma,  Siam,  and  Camboja 
all  betray  Hindu  influences,  many  of  the  temples  being  covered 
with  Brahmanical  or  Buddhist  sculptures  and  inscriptions.  But 
precisely  analogous  phenomena  are  reproduced  in  Java, 
Sumatra,  and  other  Malaysian  lands,  as  well  as  in  Japan  and 
partly  in  China  itself.  Are  we  then  to  conclude  that  there 
have  been  Hindu  invasions  and  settlements  in  all  these  regions, 
the  most  populous  on  the  globe  ?    ' 

During  the  historic  period  a  few  Hinduized  Dravidians^ 
especially  Tehngas  (Telugus)  of  the  Coromandel  coast,  have 

from    time   to    time    emigrated   to    Indo-:China 
TaTaings.        (Peg^)'  where  the  name  survives  amongst  the 

"  Takings,"  that  is,  the  Mons,  by  whom  they 
were  absorbed,  just  as  the  Mons  themselves  are  now  being 
absorbed  by  the  Burmese.  Others  of  the  same  connection 
have  gained  a  footing  here  and  there  in  Malaysia,  especially 
the  Malacca  coastlands,  where  they  are  called  "  KlingsV' 
i.e.  Telings,  Telingas. 

^  It  is  a  curious  phonetic  phenomenon  that  the  combinations  kl  and  tl  are 
indistinguishable  in  utterance,  so  that  it  is  immaterial  whether  this  term  be  written 


vi]  The  Southern  Mongols  i8i 

But  beyond  these  partial  movements,  without  any  kind  of 
influence  on  the  general  ethnical  relations,  I  know  of  no  Hindu 
(some  have  even  used  the  term  "  AryaCn,"  and  have  brought 
Aryans  to  Camboja)  invasions  except  those  of  a  moral  order — 
the  invasions  of  the  zealous  Hindu  missionaries,  both  Brahman 
and  Buddhist,  which,  however,  amply  suffice  to  account  for  all 
the  above  indicated  points  of  contact  between  the  Indian,  the 
Indo-Chinese,  and  the  Malayan  populations. 

That  the  civilised  lowlanders  and  rude  highlanders  are 
generally  of  the  same  aboriginal  stocks  is  well  seen  in  the 
Manipur  district  with  its  fertile  alluvial  plains  and  —  „  .  . 
encircling  Naga  and  Lushai  Hills  on  the  north  ^  m«"P""- 
and  south.  The  Hinduized  M'anipuri  of  the  plains,  that  is, 
the  politically  dominant  Meithis,  as  they  call  themselves,  are 
considered  by  George  Watt  to  be  "a  mixed  race  between  the 
Kukies  and  the  Nagas*."  The  Meithis  are  described  as 
possessing  in  general  the  facial  characteristics  of  Mongolian 
type,  but  with  great  diversity  of  feature.  "  It  is  not  uncommon 
to  meet  with  girls  with  brownish-black  hair,  brown  eyes,  fair 
complexions,  straight  noses  and  rosy  cheeksl"  In  spite  of 
the  veneer  of  civilisation  acquired  by  the  Meithis,  the  old  order 
of  things  has  by  no  means  passed  away.  "The  maiba,  the 
doctor  and  priest  of  the  animistic  system,  still  finds  a  livelihood 
despite  the  competition  on  the  one  hand  of  the  Brahmin,  and 
on  the.  other  of  the  hospital  Assistant.  Nevertheless  the 
maibas  frequently  adapt  their  methods  to  the  altered  circum- 
stances in  which  they  now  find  themselves,  and  realize  that 
the  combination  of  croton  oil  and  a  charm  is  more  efficacious 
than  the  charm  alonel" 

"  It  is  possible  to  discover  at  least  four  definite  orders  of 
spiritual  beings  who  have  crystallized  out  from  the  amorphous 
mass  of  animistic  Deities.     There  are  the  Lam  . 

Lai,  gods  of  the  country-side  who  shade  off  into 
Nature  Gods  controlling  the  rain,  the  primal  necessity  of  an 
agricultural  community ;  the  Umang  Lai  or  Deities  of  the 
Forest  Jungle  ;  t)\&  Imung  Lai,  the  Household  Deities,  Lords 
of  the  lives,  the  births  and  the  deaths  of  individuals,  and  there 
are  Tribal  Ancestors,  the  ritual  of  whose  worship  is  a  strange 

Kling  or  Tling,  though  the  latter  form  would  be  preferable,  as  showing  its  origin 
from  Telinga. 

>  "The  Aboriginal  Tribes  oiM-Zxiv^yxr,"  Joum.  Anthr.  Inst.  1887,  p.  350. 

2  R.  Brown,  Statistical  Account  oj Manipur,  1874. 

3  T.  C.  Hodson,  The  Meitheis,  1908,  p.  96. 


1 82  Man:   Past  and  Present  [ch. 

compound  of  magic  and  Nature-worship.  Beyond  these 
Divine  beings,  who  possess  in  some  sort  a  majesty  of  orderly 
decent  behaviour,  th6re  are  spirits  of  the  mountain  passes,, 
spirits  of  the  lakes  and  rivers,  vampires  and  all  the  horrid 
legion  of  witchcraft.... It  is  difficult  to  estimate  the  precise 
effect  of  Hinduisrn  on  the  civilisation  of  the  people,  for  to  the 
outward  observer  they  seem  to  have  adopted  only  the  festivals, 
the  outward  ritual,  the  caste  marks  and  the  exclusiveness 
of  Hinduism,  while  all  unmindful  of  its  spirit  and  inward 
essentials.  Colonel  McCulloch  remarked  nearly  fifty  years 
ago  that  '  In  fact  their  observances  are  only  for  appearance 
sake,  not  the  promptings  of  the  heart\'" 

It  is  noteworthy  that  the  Manipuri  are  also  devoted  to  the 
game  of  polo,  which  R.  C.  Temple  tells  us  they  play  much  in 
the  same  way  as  do  the  Balti  and  Ladakhi  at  the  opposite 
extremity  of  the  Himalayas.     Another  remarkable  link  with 

the  "  Far  West "  is  the  term  Khel,  which  has 
System^'         travelled  all   the    way  from    Persia  or    Parthia 

through  Afghanistan  to  Nagaland,  where  it 
retains  the  same  meaning  of  clan  or  section  of  a  village,  and 
produces  the  same  disintegrating  effects  as  amongst  the 
Afghans.  In  Angamiland  each  village  is  split  into  two  or 
more  Khels,  and  "  it  is  no  unusual  state  of  affairs  to  find 
Khel  A  of  one  village  at  war  with  Khel  B  of  another,  while 
not  at  war  with  Khel  B  of  its  own  village.  The  Khels  are 
often  completely  separated  by  great  walls,  the  people  on  either 
side  living  within  a  few  yards  of  each  other,  yet  having  no 
dealings  whatever.  Each  Khel  has  its  own  headman,  but 
little  respect  is  paid  to  the  chief:  each  Khel  maybe  described 
as  a  small  republic ''."  There  appears  to  be  no  trace  even  of 
■A.jirga,  or  council  of  elders,  by  which  some  measure  of  cohesion 
is  imparted  to  the  Afghan  Khel  system. 

From  the  Kuki-Nagas  the  transition  is  unbroken  to  the 
large  group  of  Chins  of  the  Chindwin  valley,  named  from  them, 

and  thence  northwards  to  the  rude  Kakhyens 

{Kachins)  about  the  Irawadi  headstreams  and 
southwards  to  the  numerous  Karen  tribes,  who  occupy  the 
ethnical  parting-line  between  Burma  and  Siam  all  the  way 
down  to  Tenasserim. 

For  the  first  detailed  account  of  the  Chins  we  are  indebted 

'  T.  C.  Hodson,  The  Meitheis,  1908,  pp.  96-7. 
^  G.  Watt,  loc.  cit.  p.  362. 


vi]  The  Southern  Mongols  183 

to  S.  Carey  and  H.  N.  Tuck\  who  accept  B.  Houghton's 
theory  that  these  tribes,  as  well  as  the  Kuki-Lushai,  "originally 
lived  in  what  we  now  know  as  Tibet,  and  are  of  one  and  the 
same  stock  ;  their  form  of  government,  method  of  cultivation, 
manners  and  customs,  beliefs  and  traditions,  all  point  to  one 
origin."  The  term  Chin,  said  to  be  a  Burmese  form  of  the 
Chinese /zV/,  "  men;"  is  unknown  to  these  aborigines,  who  call 
themselves  Yo  in  the  north  and  Lai  in  the  south,  while  in 
Lower  Burma  they  are  Shu. 

In  truth  there  is  no  recognised  collective  name,  and  Shendu 
{Sindhu)  often  so  applied  is  proper  only  to  the  once  formidable 
Chittagong  and  Arakan  frontier  tribes,  Klang- 
klangs  and  Hakas,  who  with  the  SokU,  Tashons,  SiendaSJ^' 
Siyirs,  and  others  are  now  reduced  and  ad- 
ministered from  Falam.  Each  little  group  has  its  own  tribal 
name,  and  often  one  or  two  others,  descriptive,  abusive  and  so 
on,  given  them  by  their  neighbours.  Thus  the  Nwengals 
{Nun,  river,  ngah,  across)  are  only  that  section  of  the  Sokt^s 
now  settled  on  the  farther  or  right  bank  of  the  Manipur,  while 
the  Sokt^s  themselves  {Sok,  to  go  down,  td,  men)  are  so  called 
because  they  migrated  from  Chin  Nwe  (9  miles  from  Tiddim), 
cradle  of  the  Chin  race,  down  to  Molbem,  their  earliest 
settlement,  which  is  the  Mobingyi  of  the  Burmese.  So  with 
Siyin,  the  Burmese  form  of  Sheyantd  [she,  alkali,  yan,  side,  td, 
men),  the  group  who  settled  by  the  alkali  springs  east  of  Chin 
Nwe,  who  are  the  Taut4  ("stout"  or  "sturdy"  people)  of  the 
Lushai  and  southern  Chins.  Let  these  few  specimens  suffice 
as  a  slight  object-lesson  in  the  involved  tribal  nomenclature 
which  prevails,  not  only  amongst  the  Chins,  but  everywhere 
in  the  Tibeto-Indo-Chinese  domain,  from  the  north-western 
Himalayas  to  Cape  St  James  at  the  south-eastern  extremity 
of  Farther  India.  I  have  myself  collected  nearly  a  thousand 
such  names  of  clans,  septs,  and  fragmentary  groups  within 
this  domain,  and  am  well  aware  that  the  list  neither  is,  nor 
ever  can  be,  complete,  the  groups  themselves  often  being 
unstable  quantities  in  a  constant  state  of  fluctuation. 

Most  of  the  Chin  groups  have  popular  legends  to  explain 
either  their  origin  or  their  present  reduced  state.  Thus  the 
Tawyans,  a  branch  of  the  Tashons,  claim  to  be  Torrs,  that 
is,  the  people   of  the  Rawvan   district,  who   were  formedy 

1  The  Chin  Hills,  etc.,  Vol.  I.,  Rangoon,  1896. 


184  Man  :  Past  and  Present '  [ch. 

very  powerful,  but  were   ruined   by  their  insane  efforts    to 

capture   the   sun.      Building    a   sort   of    Jacob  s 

Le^ds.       ladder,   they   mounted  higher   and    higher;    but 

growing  tired,  quarrelled  among  themselves,  and 

one  day,  while  half  of  them  were  clambering  up  the  pole,  the 

other  half  below  cut  it  down  just  as  they  were  about  to  seize 

the  sun.    So  the  Whenohs,  another  Tashon  gi"Oup,  said  to  be 

Lusbais  left  behind  in  a  district  now  forming  part  of  Chinland, 

tell  a  different  tale.     They  say  they  came  out  of  the  rocks  at 

Sepi,  which  they  think  was  their  original  home.    They  share, 

however,  this  legend  of  their  underground  origin  with  the 

Sokt^s  and  several  other  Chin  tribes. 

'  Amid  much  diversity  of  speech  and  physique  the  Chins 
present  some  common  mental  qualities,  such  as  "  slow  speech. 
Mental  and  serious  manner,  respect  for  birth  and  knowledge 
Physical  Quaii-  of  pedigrees,  the  duty  of  revenge,  the  taste  for 
^^-  a  treacherous  method  of  warfare,  the  curse  of 

drink,  the  virtue  of  hospitality,  the  clannish*  feeling,  the  vice 
of  avarice,  the  filthy  state  of  the  body,  mutual  distrust,  im- 
patience under  control,  the  want  of  power  of  combination  and  of 
continued  effort,  arrogance  in  victory,  speedy  discouragement 
and  panic  in  defeat^" 

Physically  they  are  a  fine  race,  taller  and  stouter  than  the 
surrounding  lowlanders,  men  5  feet  10  or  11  inches  being 
common  enough  among  the  independent  southerners.  There 
are  some  "perfectly  proportioned  giants  with  a  magnificent 
development  of  muscle."  Yet  dwarfs  are  met  with  in  some 
,  districts,  and  in  others  "the  inhabitants  are  a  wretched  lot, 
much  afflicted  with  goitre,  amongst  whom  may  be'  seen  cretins 
who  crawl  about  on  all  fours  with  the  pigs  in  the  gutter.  At 
Dimlo,  in  the  Sokte  tract,  leprosy  has  a  firm  hold  on  the 
inhabitants." 

Although  often  described  as  devil-worshippers,  the  Chins 
really  worship  neither  god  nor  devil.  The  northerners  believe 
there  is  no  Supreme  Being,  and  although  the 
S  AfKife*^  southerners  admit  a  "  Kozin  "  or  head  god,  to 
whom  they  sacrifice,  they  do  not  worship  him, 
and  never  look  to  him  for  any  grace  or  mercy,  except  that  of 
withholding  the  plagues  and  misfortunes  which  he  is  capable 
of  working  on  any  in  this  world  who  offend  him.      Besides 

'  Op.  at.  p.  165. 


vi]  The  Southern  Mongols  185 

Kozin,  there  are  nats  or  spirits  of  the  house,  family,  clan, 
fields ;  and  others  who  dwell  in  particular  places  in  the  air, 
the  streams,  the  jungle,  and  the  hills.  Kindly  nats  are 
ignored ;  all  others  can .  and  will  do  harm  unless  propi- 
tiated'. 

The  departed  go  to  Mithikwa,  "Dead  Man's  Village," 
which  is  divided  into  Pwethikwa,  the  pleasant  abode,  and 
Sathikiva,  the  wretched  abode  of  the  unavenged.  Good  or 
bad  deeds  do  not  affect  the  future  of  man,  who  must  go 
to  Pwethikwa  if  he  dies  a  natural  or  accidental  death, 
and  to  Sathikwa  if  killed,  and  there  bide  till  avenged 
by  blood.  Thus  the  vendetta  receives  a  sort  of  religious 
sanction,  strengthened  by  the  belief  that  the  slain  becomes 
the  slave  of  the  slayer  in  the  next  world.  "  Should  the 
slayer  himself  be  slain,  then  the  first  slain  is  the  slave  of  the 
second  slain,  who  in  turn  is  the  slave  of  the  man  who  killed 
him." 

Whether  a  man  has  been  honest  or  dishonest  in  this 
world  is  of  no  consequence  in  the  next  existence  ;  but,  if  he 
has  killed  many  people  in  this  world,  he  has  many  slaves  to 
serve  him  in  his  future  existence  ;  if  he  has  killed  many  wild 
animals,  then  he  will  start  well-supplied  with  food,  for  all  that 
he  kills  on  earth  are  his  in  the  future  existence.  In  the  next 
existence  hunting  and  drinking  will  certainly  be  practised, 
but  whether  fighting  and  raiding  will  be  indulged  in  is 
unknown. 

Cholera  and  small-pox  are  spirits,  and  when  cholera  broke 
out  among  the  Chins  who  visited  Rangoon  in  1895  they 
carried  their  dahs  (knives)  drawn  to  scare  off  the  nat,  and 
spent  the  day  hiding  under  bushes,  so  that  the  spirit  should 
not  find  them.  Some  even  wanted  to  sacrifice  a  slave  boy, 
but  were  talked  over  to  substitute  some  pariah  dogs.  They 
firmly  believe  in  the  evil  eye,  and  the  Hakas  think  the  Sujins 
and  others  are  all  wizards,  whose  single  glance  can  bewitch 
them,  and  may  cause  Hzards  to  enter  the  body  and  devour 
the  entrails.  A  Chin  once  complained  to  Surgeon-Major 
Newland  that  a  nat  had  entered  his  stomach  at  the  glance  of 
a  Yahow,  and  he  went  to  hospital  quite  prepared  to  die.  But 
an  emetic  brought  him  round,  and  he  went  off  happy  in  the 
belief  that  he  had  vomited  the  nat. 

1  R.  C.  Temple,  Art.  "Burma,"  Hastings,  Ency.  Religion  and Ethies,  1910. 


1 86  Man  :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

Ethnically  connected  with  the  Kuki-Naga  groups  are  the 
Kakhyens  of  the  Irawadi  headstreams,  and  the  Karens,  who 

form   numerous  village  communities  about  the 

yens.     gui-ma-Siamese    borderland.      The    Kakhyens, 

so  called  abusively  by  the  Burmese,  are  the  Cacobees  of  the 

early  writers',  whose  proper  name  is  Singpho  {Chingpaw),  i.e. 

'■'  MenV'  and  whose  curious  semi-agglutinating  speech,  spoken 

in  an  ascending  tone,  each  sentence  ending  in  a  long-drawn  t 

in  a  higher  key  (Bigandet),  shows  affinities  rather  with  the 

Mishmi  and  other  North  Assamese  tongues  than  with  the 

cultured   Burmese.      They  form  a    very  widespread  family, 

stretching  from  the  Eastern  Himalayas  right  into  Yunnan, 

and  presenting  two  somewhat  marked  physical  types  :  (i)  the 

.  true  Chingpaws,   with    short  round   head,  low 

Eiemente.         forehead,    prominent    cheek-bones,    slant    eye, 

broad  nose,  thick  protruding  lips,  very  dark 
brown  hair  and  eyes,  dirty  buff  colour,  mean  height  (about 
5  ft.  5  or  6  in.)  with  disproportionately  short  legs  ;,  {2)  a  much 
finer  race,  with  regular  Caucasic  features,  long  oval  face, 
pointed  chin,  aquiline  nose.  One  Kakhyen  belle  met  with  at 
Bhamo,  "with  large  lustrous  eyes  and  fair  skin,  might  almost 
have  passed  for  a  European ^" 

It  is  important  to  note  this  Caucasic  element,  which  we 
first  meet  here  going  eastwards  from  the  Himalayas,  but 
which  is  found  either  separate  or  interspersed  amongst  the 
Mongoloid  populations  all  over  the  south-east  Asiatic  up- 
lands from  Tibet  to  Cochin-China,  and  passing  thence  into 
Oceanica*. 

The  kinship  of  the  Kakhyens  with  the  still  more 
numerous  Karens  is  now  generally  accepted,  and  it  is  no 
^^  jj  longer  found   necessary  to  bring  the  latter  all 

the  way  from  Turkestan.  They  form  a  large 
section,  perhaps  one-sixth,  of  the  whole  population  of  Burma, 

^  Dalton,  Ethnology  of  Bengal,  p.  9. 

2  Prince  Henri  d'Oridans  writes  "que  les  Singphos  et  les  Katchins  [Kakhyens] 
ne  font  qu'un,  que  le  premier  mot  est  thai  et  le  second  birman."  Du  Tonkin  aux 
Indes,  1898,  p.  311.  This  is  how  the  ethnical  confusion  in  these  borderlands  gets 
perpetuated.  Singpho  is  not  Thai,  i.e.  Shan  or  Siamese,  but  a  native  word  as 
here  explained. 

'  John  Anderson,  Mandalay  to  Momein,  1B76,  p.  131. 

*  Three  skulls  discovered  by  M!  Mansuy  in  a  cave  at  Pho-Binh-Gia  (Indo- 
China)  associated  with  Neolithic  culture  were  markedly  dolichocephalic,  resembling 
in  some  respects  the  Cro-Magnon  race  of  the  Reindeer  period.  Cf.  R.  Verneau, 
LAnthropologie,  xx.  1909. 


^i]  The  Southern  Mongols  187 

and  overflow'  into  the  west  Siamese  borderlands.  Their  sub- 
divisions are  endless,  though  all  may  be  reduced  to  three 
mam  branches,  Sgaws,  Pwos  and  Bwais,  these  last  including 
the  somewhat  distinct  group  of  Karenni,  or  "  Red  Karens." 
Although  D.  M.  Smeaton  calls  the  language  "monosyllabic," 
it  IS  evidently  agglutinating,  of  the  normal  sub- Himalayan 
type'. 

The  Karens  are  a  short,  sturdy  race,  with  straight  black 
and  also  brownish  hair,  black,  and  even  hazel  eyes,  and  light 
or  yellowish   brown   comple-xion,   so  that    here 
also  a  Caucasic  strain  may  be  suspected.  ^^' 

Despite  the  favourable  pictures,  of  the  missionaries,  whose 
propaganda    has    been    singularly  successful    amongst  these 
aborigines,  the  Karens  are  not  an   amiable  or   .j.  ^ 
particularly    friendly    people,    but    rather    shy,      «"»pe''^'"«"  • 
reticent  and  even  surly,  though  trustworthy  and  loyal  to  those 
chiefs  and  guides  who  have  once  gained  their  confidence.     In 
warfare  they  are  treacherous  rather  than  brave,  and  strangely 
cruel  even  to  little  children.     Their  belief  in  a  divine  Creator 
who  has  deserted  them  resembles  that  of  the  Kuki  people, 
and  to  the  nats  of  the  Kuki  correspond  the  la  of  the  Karens, 
who  are  even  more  numerous,  every  mountain,  stream,  rapid, 
crest,   peak  or  other  conspicuous  object  having  its  proper 
indwelling  la.     There  are  also  seven  specially  baneful  spirits, 
who  have  to  be  appeased  by  family  offerings.    Flourishing 
"  On  the  whole  their  belief  in  a  personal  god.    Christian  Mis- 
their  tradition  as  to  the  former  possession  of  a   ^'°"^- 
'law,'  and  their  expectation  of  a  prophet  have  made  them 
susceptible  to  Christianity  to  a  degree  that  is  almost  unique. 
Of  this  splendid  opportunity  the  American  mission  has  taken 
full   advantage,   educating,  civilising,  welding  together,  and 
making  a  people  out  of  the  downtrodden  Karen  tribes,  while 
Christianizing  theml" 

In  the  Burmese  division  proper  are  comprised  several 
groups,  presenting  all  grades  of  culture,  from  the  sheer 
savagery  of  the  Mros,  Kheongs,  and  others  of  _.    _ 

1         A       1  -vr  11  •      ii        1     The  Burmese. 

the  Arakan  Yoma  range,  and  the  agricultural 
Mugs    of    the    Arakan    plains,    to    the    dominant    historical 
Burmese  nation  of  the  Irawadi  valley.      Here  also  the  termi- 
nology is  perplexing,  and   it  may  be  well   to  explain   that 

'  The  Loyal  Karens  of  Burma,  \i&'] . 

2  R.  C.  Temple,  Academy,  Jan.  29,  1887,  p.  72. 


1 88  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

Yoma,  applied  by  Logan  collectively  to  all  the  Arakan  Hill 
Perplexing  tribes,  has  no  ethnic  value  at  all,  simply  meaning 

Tribal  Nomen-  a  mountain  range  in  Burmese\  Toung^gnM, 
dature.  Q^g  Qf  Mason  s  divisions  of  the  Burmese  family, 

was  merely  a  petty  state  founded  by  a  younger  branch  of  the 
Royal  House,  and  "has  no  more  claim  to  rank  as  a  separate 
tribe  than  any  other  Burman  town^"  Tavoyers  are  merely 
the  people  of  the  Tavoy  district,  Tenasserim,  originally  from 
Arakan,  and  now  speaking  a  Burmese  dialect  largely  affected 
by  Siamese  elements;  Ttmgfkas,  like  Yoma,  means  •'  High- 
lander," and  is  even  of  wider  application ;  the  Tipperahs, 
Mrungs,  Kumi,  Mros,  Khemis,  and  Khyengs  are  all  Tungthas 
of  Burmese  stock,  and  speak  rude  Burmese  dialects. 

The  correlative  of  Tungthas  is  KhyungthaSy  "  River 
People,"  that  is,  the  Arakan  Lowlanders  comprising  the 
more  civilised  peoples  about  the  middle  and  lower  course  of 
the  rivers,  who  are  improperly  called  Mugs  (MagAs)  by  the 
Bengali,  and  whose  real  name  is  Rakhaingtha,  i..e.  people  of 
Rakhaing  (Arakan).  They  are  undoubtedly  of  the  same 
stock  as  the  cultured  Burmese,  whose  traditions  point  to 
Arakan  as  the  cradle  of  the  race,  and  in  whose  chronicles  the 
Rakhaingtha  are  called  M' ranmdkrik,  "Great  M'ranmas,"  or 
"  Elder  Burmese."  Both  branches  call  themselves  M'ranma, 
M'rama  (the  correct  form  of  Barma,  Burma,  but  now  usually 
pronounced  Myamma),  probably  from  a  root  mro,  myo,  "man," 
though  connected  by  Burnouf  with  Brahma,  the  Brahmanical 
having  preceded  the  Buddhist  religion  in  this  region.  In  any 
case  the  M'rama  may  claim  a  respectable  antiquity,  being 
already  mentioned  in  the  national  records  so  early  as  the  first 
century  of  the  new  era,  when  the  land  "was  said  to  be  overrun 
with  fabulous  monsters  and  other  terrors,  which  are  called  to 
this  day  by  the  superstitious  natives,  the  five  enemies.  These 
were  a  fierce  tiger,  an  enormous  boar,  a  flying  dragon,  a 
prodigious  man-eating  bird,  and  a  huge  creeping  pumpkin, 
which  threatened  to  entangle  the  whole  co^ntry^" 

The  Burmese  type  has  been  not  incorrectly  described  as 
intermediate   between   the   Chinese   and    the    Malay,    more 
refined,  or  at  least  softer  than  either,  of  yellowish 
brown  or  olive  complexion,  often  showing  very 

'  Forbes,  Languages  of  Further  India,  p.  6l. 

^  Ibid.  p.  55- 

^  G.  W.  Bird,  Wanderings  in  Burma,  1897,  p.  335. 


Type. 


VI  ]  The  Southern  Mongols  189 

dark  shades,  full  black  and  lank  hair,  no  beard,  small  but 
straight  nose,  weak  extremities,  pliant  figure,  and  a  mean 
height  \ 

Most  Europeans  speak  well  of  the  Burmese  people,  whose 
bright  genial  temperament  and  extreme  friendliness  towards 
strangers  more  than  outweigh  a  natural  indolence 
which  hurts  nobody  but  themselves,  and  a  little 
arrogance  or  vanity  inspired  by  the  still  remembered  glories 
of  a  nation  that  once  ruled  over  a  great  part  of  Indo-China. 
Perhaps  the  most  remarkable  feature  of  Burmese  society  is 
the  almost  democratic  independence  and  equality  of  all  classes 
developed  under  an  exceptionally  severe  Asiatic  autocracy. 
"  They  are  perfectly  republican  in  the  freedom  with  which  all 
ranks  mingle  together  and  talk  with  one  another,  without  any 
marked  distinction  in  regard  to  difference  of  rank  or  wealth ^" 
Scott  attributes  this  trait,  I  think  rightly,  to  the 
great    leveller.    Buddhism,    the    true    spirit    of      Buddhfsm. 
which    has   perhaps  been   better   preserved    in 
Burma  than  in  any  other  land. 

The  priesthood  has  not  become  the  privileged  and 
oppressive  class  that  has  usurped  all  spiritual  and  temporal 
functions  in  Tibet,  for  in  Burma  everybody  is  or  has  been  a 
priest  for  some  period  of  his  life.  All  enter  the  monasteries — 
which  are  the  national  schools— not  only  for  general  instruc- 
tion, but  actually  as  members  of  the  sacerdotal  order.  They 
submit  to  the  tonsure,  take  "minor  orders,"  so  to  say,  and 
wear  the  yellow  robe,  if  only  for  a  few  months  or  weeks  or 
days.  But  for  the  time  being  they  must  renounce  "the  world, 
the  flesh  and  the  devil,"  and  must  play  the  mendicant,  make 
the  round  of  the  village  at  least  once  with  the  begging-bowl 
hung  round  their  neck  in  company  with  the  regular  members 
of  the  community.  They  thus  become  initiated,  and  it 
becomes  no  longer  possible  for  the  confraternity  to  impose 
either  on  the  rulers  or  on  the  ruled.  "  Teaching  is  all  that 
the  brethren  of  the  order  do  for  the  people.  They  have  no 
spiritual  powers  whatever.  They  simply  become  members  of 
a  holy  society  that  they  may  observe  the  precepts  of  the 

1  The  Burmese  is  the  most  mixed  race  in  the  province.  "Originally  Dravidians 
of  some  sort,  they  seem  to  have  received  blood  from  various  sources-Hindu, 
Musalman,  Chinese,  Shan,  Talaing,  European  and  others.'  W  Crooke,  "The 
Stability  of  Caste  and  Tribal  Groups  in  India,"  Journ.  Roy.  Anthr.  Soc.  XLiv. 
1914,  p.  279,  quoting  the  Ethnographic  Survey  of  India,  1906. 

2  J.  G.  Scott,  Burma,  etc.,  1886,  p.  115. 


190  Man  :   Past  and  Present  [ch. 

Master  more  perfectly,  and  all  they  do  for  the  alms  lavished 
on  them  by  the  pious  laity  is  to  instruct  the  children  in  reading, 
writing,  and  the  rudiments  of  religion'." 

R.  Grant  Brown  denies  the  common  report  which  "has 
appeared  in  almost  every  work  in  which  religion  in  Burma 
is  dealt  with  "  that  Burman  Buddhism  is  superficial.  "  The 
Burman  Buddhist  is  at  least  as  much  influenced  by  his 
religion  as  the  average  Christian.  The  monks  are  probably 
as  strict  in  their  religious  observances  as  any  large  religious 

body  in  the  world Most  laymen,  too,  obey  the  prohibitions 

against  alcohol  and  the  taking  of  life,  though  these  run 
counter  both  to  strong  human  instincts  and  to  animistic 
practice  ^" 

Nor  is  the  personal  freedom  here  spoken  of  confined  to 
the  men.  In  no  other  part  of  the  world  do  the  women  enjoy 
a  larger  measure  of  independent  action  than  in 
Woman  ^^  Burma,  with  the  result  that  they  are  acknow- 
ledged to  be  far  more  virtuous,  thrifty,  and 
intelligent  than  those  of  all  the  surrounding  lands.  Their 
capacity  for  business  and  petty  dealings  is  rivalled  only  by 
their  Gallic  sisters  ;  and  H.  S.  Hallett  tells  us  that  in  every 
town  and  village  "  you  will  see  damsels  squatted  on  the  floor 
of  the  verandah  with  diminutive,  or  sometimes  large,  stalls 
in  front  of  them,  covered  with  vegetables,  fruit,  betel-nut, 
cigars  and  other  articles.  However  numerous  they  may  be, 
the  price  of  everything  is  known  to  them  ;  and  such  is  their 
idea  of  probity,  that  pilfering  is  quite  unknown  amongst 
them.  They  are  entirely  trusted'  by  their  parents  from  their 
earliest  years  ;  even  when  they  blossom  into  young  women, 
chaperons  are  never  a  necessity ;  yet  immorality  is  far  less 
customary  amongst  them,  I  am  led  to  believe,  than  in  any 
country  in  Europe'." 

This  observer  quotes  Bishop  Bigandet,  a  forty  years' 
resident  amongst  the  natives,  to  the  effect  that  "  in  Burmah 
and  Siam  the  doctrines  of  Buddhism  have  produced  a  striking, 
and  to  the  lover  of  true  civilization  a  most  interesting  result 
— the  almost  complete  equality  of  the  condition  of  the  women 
with  that  of  the  men.     In  these  countries  women  are  seen 

1  op.  cit.  p.  118. 

2  "The  Taungby&n    Festival,   Bufma,"    Journ.  Roy.  Anthr.  Soc.  XLV.  1915, 
P-  355- 

3  Amongst  the  Shans,  etc.,  1885,  p.  233. 


vi]  The  Southern  Mongols  191 

circulating  freely  in  the  streets  ;  they  preside  at  the  comptoir, 
and  hold  an  almost  exclusive  possession  of  the  bazaars. 
Their  social  position  is  more  elevated,  in  every  respect,  than 
in  the  regions  where  Buddhism  is  not  the  predominating 
creed.  They  may  be  said  to  be  men's  companions,  and  not 
their  slaves." 

Burma  is  one  of  those  regions  where  tattooing  has 
acquired  the  rank  of  a  fine  art.  Indeed  the  intricate  designs 
and  general  pictorial  effect  produced  by  the 
Burmese  artists  on  the  living  body  are  rivalled  *  ooing. 
only  by  those  of  Japan,  New  Zealand,  and  some  other 
Polynesian  groups.  Hallett,  who  states  that  "the  Burmese, 
the  Shans,  and  certain  Burmanized  tribes  are  the  only 
peoples  in  the  south  of.  Asia  who  are  known  to  tattoo  their 
body,"  tells  us  that  the  elaborate  operation  is  performed  only 
on  the  male  sex,  the  whole  person  from  waist  to  knees,  and 
amongst  some  Shan  tribes  from  neck  to  foot,  being  covered 
with  heraldic  figures  of  animals,  with  intervening  traceries,  so 
that  at  a  little  distance  the  effect  is  that  of  a  pair  of  dark- 
blue  breeches'.  The  pigments  are  lamp-black  or  vermilion, 
and  the  pattern  is  usually  first  traced  with  a  fine  hair  pencil 
and  then  worked  in  by  a  series  of  punctures  made  by  a  long 
pointed  brass  styled 

East  of  Burma  we  enter  the  country  of  the  Shans,  one  of 
the  most  numerous  and  widespread  peoples  of  Asia,  who  call 
themselves  Tai  {Thai),  "Noble"  or  "Free." 
although  slavery  in  various  forms  has  from  time  peopils^'"^''^ 
immemorial  been  a  social  institution  amongst  all 
the  southern  groups.  Here  again  tribal  and  national  ter- 
minology is  somewhat  bewildering ;  but  it  will  help  to  notice 
that  Shan,  said  to  be  of  Chinese  originS  is  the  collective 
Burmese  name,  and  therefore  corresponds  to  Lao,  the  col- 
lective Siamese  name.     These  two  terms  are  therefore  rather 

1  Cf.  the  Shans  of  Yunnan,  who  are  nearly  all  "tatou^s,  depuis  la  ceinture 
jusqu'au  genou,  de  dessins  bleus  si  serr^s  qu'ils  paraissent  former  une  vraie 
culotte,"  Pr.  Henri  d'Orl^ans,  Du  Tonkin  aux  Indes,  1898,  p.  83. 

2  For  recent  literature  on  Burma  and  the  Burmese  consult  besides  the 
Ethnographic  Survey  of  India,  1906,  and  the  Census  Report  of  191 1,  J.  G. 
Scott,  The  Burman,  1896,  and  Burma,-  1906  ;  A.  Ireland,  The  Province  of 
Burma,  1907  ;   H.  Fielding  Hall,  The  Soul  of  a  People,  1898,  and  A  People  at 

School,   1906.  •    s     r., 

3  Probably  for  Shan-is^,  Shan-yen,  "  highlanders "  {Shan,  mountain),  Shan 
itself  being  the  same  word  as  Siam,  a  form  which  comes  to  us  through  the 
Portuguese-  Siao. 


192  Man  :   Past  and  Present  [ch.- 

political  than  ethnical,  Shan  denoting  all  the  Tai  peoples 
formerly  subject  to  Burma  and  now  mostly  British  subjects, 
Lao  all  the  Tai  peoples  formerly  subject  to  Siam,  and  now 
(since  1896)  mostly  French  subjects^  The  Siamese  group 
them  all  in  two  divisions,  the  Laurpang-dun,  "  Black-paunch 
Lao,"  so  called  because  they  clothe  themselves  as  it  were  in 
a  dark  skin-tight  garb  by  the  tattooing  process ;  and  the 
Lau-pang-kah,  "  White-paunch  Lao,"  who  do  not  tattoo. 
The  Burmese  groups  call  themselves  collectively  Ngiou\ 
while  the  most  general  Chinese  name  is  Pat  {Pa-y).  Prince 
Henri  d'Orl^ans,  who  is  careful  to  point  out  that  Pai  is  only 
another  name  for  Lao^  constantly  met  Pai  groups  all  along 
the  route  from  Tonking  to  Assam,  and  the  bulk  of  the 
lowland  population  in  Assam  itself  belongs  originally''  to  the 
same  family,  though  now  mostly,  assimilated  to  the  Hindus 
in  speech,  religion,  and  general  culture.  Assam  in  fact  takes 
Th   Ah  ^'^  name  from  the  A  horns,  the  "peerless,"  the 

Khamti,  and     title   first    adopted    by   the    Mau    Shan    chief, 
Chinese  Chukupha,  who  invaded  the  country  from  north- 

*^'  east  Burma,  and  in  1228  a.d.  founded  the  Ahom 

dynasty,  which  was  overthrown  in  18 10  by  the  Burmese,  who 
were  ejected  in   1827  by  the  English °. 

These  Ahoms  came  from  the  Khamti  !(Kampti)  district 

^  For  the  Laos  see  L.  de  Reinach,  Le  Laos,  1902,  with  bibliography. 

2  Carl  Bock,  MS.  note.  This  observer  notes  tliat  many  of  the  Ngiou  have 
been  largely  assimilated  in  type  to  the  Burmese  and  in  one  place  goes  so  far  as  to 
assert  that  "  the  Ngiou  are  decidedly  of  the  same  race  as  the  Burmese.  I  have 
had  opportunities  of  seeing  hundreds  of  both  countries,  and  of  closely  watching 
their  features  and  build.  The  Ngiou  wear  the  hair  in  a  topknot  in  the  same  way 
as  the  Burmese,  but  they  are  easily  distinguished  by  their  tattooing,  which  is 
much  more  elaborate"  {Temples  and  Elephants,  1884,  p.  297).  Of  course  all 
spring'  from  one  primeval  stock,  but  they  now  constitute  distinct  ethnical  groups, 
and,  except  about  the  borderlands,  where  blends  may  .be  suspected,  both  the 
physical  and  mental  characters  differ  considerably.  Bock's  Ngiou  is  no  doubt 
the  same  name  as  Ngnio,  which  H.  S.  Hallett  applies  in  one  place  to  the  Moss^ 
Shans  north  of  Zimme,  and  elsewhere  to  the  Burmese  Shans  collectively  {A 
Thousand  Miles  on  an  Elephant,  1890,  pp.  158  and  358). 

^  "  Les  Pai  ne  sent  autres  que  des  Laotiens  "  (Prince  Henri,  p.  42). 

*  One  Shan  group,  the  Deodhaings,  still  persist,  and'  occupy  a  few  villages 
near  Sibsagar  (S.  E.  Peal,  Nature,  June  19,  1884,  p.  169).  Dalton  also  mentions 
the  KamjangSj  a  Khamti  (Tai)  tribe  in  the  Sadiya  district,  Assam  {Ethnology  of 
Bengal,  p.  6).  ' 

^  Much  unexp)ected  light  has  been  thrown  upon  the  early  history  of  these 
Ahoms  by  E.  Gait,  who  has  discovered  and  described  in  the  Journ.  As.  Soc. 
Bengal,  1894,  a  large  number  oi  puthis,  or  MSS.  (28  in  the  Sibsagar  district 
alone),  in  the  now  almost  extinct  Ahom  language,  some  of  which  give  a  continuous 
history  of  the  Ahom  rajas  from  568  to  1795  A.D.  Most  of  the  others  appear  to  be 
treatises  on  religious  mysticism  or  divination,  such  as  "  a  book  on  the  calculation 
of  future  events  by  examining  the  leg  of  a  fowl "  {ib.). 


vi]  The  Southern  Mongols  193 

about  the  sources  of  the  Irawadi,  where  Prince  Henri  was 
surprised  to  find  a  civiHsed  and  lettered  Buddhist  people  of 
Pai  (Shan)  speech  still  enjoying  political  autonomy  in  the 
dangerous  proximity  of  le  Idopard  britannique.  They  call 
themselves  Padao,  and  it  is  curious  to  note  that  both  Padam 
and  Assami  are  also  tribal  names  amongst  the  neighbouring 
Abor  Hillmen.  The  French  traveller  was  told  that  the 
Padao,  who  claimed  to  be  T'hais  (Tai)  like  the  Laotians \ 
were  indigenous,  and  he  describes  the  type  as  also  Laotian — 
straight  eyes  rather  wide  apart,  nose  broad  at  base,  forehead 
arched,  superciliary  arches  prominent,  thick  lips,  pointed  chin, 
olive  colour,  sligfhtly  bronzed  and  darker  than  in  the  Lao 
country ;  the  men  ill-favoured,  the  young  women  with  pleasant 
features,  and  some  with  very  beautiful  eyes. 

Passing  into  China  we  are  still  in  the  midst  of  Shan 
peoples,  whose  range  appears  formerly  to  have  extended  up 
to  the  right  bank  of  the  Yang-tse-Kiang,  and  shan  Cradie- 
whose  cradle  has  been  traced  by  de  Lacouperie  land  and 
to  "the  Kiu-lung  mountains  north  of  Sechuen  Origins, 
and  south  of  Shensi  in  China  proper^"  This  authority  holds 
that  they  constitute  a  chief  element  in  the  Chinese  race  itself, 
which,  as  it  spread  southwards  beyond  the  Yang-tse-Kiang, 
amalgamated  with  the  Shan  aborigines,  and  thus  became 
profoundly  modified  both  in  type  and  speech,  the  present 
Chinese  language  comprising  over  thirty  per  cent,  of  Shan 
ingredients.  Colquhoun  also,  during  his  explorations  in  the 
southern  provinces,  found  that  "  most  of  the  aborigines, 
although  known  to  the  Chinese  by  various  nicknames,  were 
Shans  ;  and  that  their  propinquity  to  the  Chinese  was  slowly 
changing  their  habits,  manners,  and  dress,  and  gradually 
incorporating  them  with  that  people^" 

This  process  of  fusion  has  been  in  progress  for  ages,  not 
only  between  the  southern  Chinese  and  the  Shans,  but  also 
between  the  Shans  and  the  Caucasic  aborigines,      sjj^^  ^j 
whom  we  first  met  amongst  the  Kakhyens,  but      Caucasic 
who  are  found  scattered  mostly  in  small  groups      Contacu. 
over  all  the  uplands  between  Tibet  and  the  Cochin-Chinese 
coast  range.     The  result  is  that  the  Shans  are  generally  of 
finer  physique  than  either  the  kindred  Siamese  and  Malays 

1  Op.  cil.  p.  309. 

^  A.  R.  Colquhoun,  Amongst  the  Shans,  1885,  Introduction,  p.  Iv. 

3  Op.  cit.  p.  328. 

K.  IS 


194  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

in  the  south,  or  the  more  remotely  connected  Chinese  in  the 
north.  The  colour,  says  Bock,  "is  much  lighter  than  that 
of  the*  Siamese,"  and  "  in  facial  expression  the  Laotians  are 
better-looking  than  the  Malays,  having  good  high  foreheads, 
and  the  men  particularly  having  regular  well-shaped  noses, 
with  nostrils  not  so  wide  as  those  of  their  neighbours^"  Still 
more  emphatic  is  the  testimony  of  Kreitner  of  the  Szechenyi 
expedition,  who  tells  us  that  the  Burmese  Shans  have  "a 
nobler  head  than  the  Chinese  ;  the  dark  eyes  are  about 
horizontal,  the  nose  is  straight,  the  whole  expression  ap- 
proaches that  of  the  Caucasic  race  I" 

Notwithstanding  their  wide  diffusion,  interminglings  with 
other  races,  varied  grades  of  culture,  and  lack  of  political 
cohesion,  the  Tai-Shan  groups  acquire  a  certain 
Toned  Speech,  ethnical  and  even  national  unity  from  their 
generally  uniform  type,  social  usages,  Buddhist 
religion,  and  common  Indo-Chinese  speech.  Amidst  a  chaos 
of  radically  distinct  idioms  current  amongst  the  surrounding 
indigenous  populations,  they  have  everywhere  preserved  a 
remarkable  degree  of  linguistic  uniformity,  all  speaking 
various  more  or  less  divergent  dialects  of  the  same  mother- 
tongue.  Excluding  a  large  percentage  of  Sanskrit  terms  in- 
troduced into  the  literary  language  by  their  Hin'du  educators, 
this  radical  mother- tongue  comprises  about  i860  distinct 
words  or  rather  sounds,  which  have  been  reduced  by  phonetic 
decay  to  so  many  monosyllables,  each  uttered  with  five  tones, 
the  natural  tone,  two  higher  tones,  and  two  lower ^  Each 
term  thus  acquires  five  distinct  meanings,  and  in  fact 
represents  five  different  words,  which  were  phonetically 
distinct  dissyllables,  or  even  polysyllables  in  the  primitive 
language. 

The  same  process  of  disintegration  has  been  at  work 
throughout  the  whole  of  the  Indo-Chinese  linguistic  area, 
where  all  the  leading  tongues — Chinese,  Annamese,  Tai- 
Shan,  Burmese — belong  to  the  same  isolating  form  of  speech, 
which,  as  explained  in  Ethnology,  Chap.  IX,,  is  not  a  primitive 
condition,  but  a  later  development,  the  outcome  of  profound 
phonetic  corruption. 

'  Temples  and  Elephants,  p.  320. 

^  "Der  Gesichtsausdruck    uberhaupt    nahert  sich   der  kaukasischen   Race'' 
{Jm  fernen  Osten,  p.  959). 

'  Low's  Siamese  Grammar,  p.  14. 


vi]  The  Southern  Mongols  195 

The  remarkable  uniformity  of  the  Tai-Shan  member  of 
this  order  of  speech  may  be  in  part  due  to  the  conservative 
effects  of  the  literary  standard.     Probably  over    ^^^^  ^^  ^^^^ 
2000  years  ago  most  of  the  Shan  groups  were     Indo-Chinese 
brought  under  Hindu  influences  by  the  Brah-    Writing 
man,   and    later    by  the   Buddhist  missionaries,     ^3^*^""^- 
who  reduced  their  rude  speech  to  written  form,  while  intro- 
ducing a  large  number  of  Sanskrit  terms  inseparable  from 
the  new  religious  ideas.     The  writing  systems,  all  based  on 
the  square  Pali  form  of  the  Devanagari  syllabic  characters, 
were    adapted  to  the  phonetic  requirements  of  the  various 
dialects,  with  the  result  that  the  Tai-Shan  linguistic  family 
is  encumbered  with   four  different  scripts.      "  The  Western 
Shans  use  one  very  like   the  Burmese ;    the  Siamese    have 
a  character  of  their  own,  which  is  very  like  Pali ;  the  Shans 
called  Lii  have  another  character  of  their  own  ;  and  to  the 
north  of  Siam  the  Lao  Shans  have  another^" 

These  Shan  alphabets  of  Hindu  origin  are  supposed  by 
de  Lacouperie  to  be  connected  with  the  writing  systems  which 
have  been  credited  to  the  Mossos,  Lolos,  and  some  other  hill 
peoples  about  the  Chinese  and  Indo-Chinese  borderlands. 
At  Lan-Chu  in  the  Lolo  country  Prince  Henri  found  that 
MSS.  were  very  numerous,  and  he  was  shown  some  very  fine 
specimens  "enlumin^s."  Here,  he  tells  us,  the  script  is  still 
in  use,  being  employed  jointly  with  Chinese  in  drawing  up 
legal  documents  connected  with  property.  He  was  informed 
that  this  Lolo  script  comprised  300  characters,  read  from  top 
to  bottom  and  from  left  to  right^  although  other  authorities 
say  from  right  to  left. 

Of  the  Lolo  he  gives  no  specimens',  but  reproduces  two 

1  R.  G.  Woodthorpe,  "  The  Shans  and  Hill  Tribes  of  the  Mekong,"  in  Journ. 
Anthr.  Inst.  1897,  p.  16. 

2  Op.  cit.  p.  55. 

^  This  omission,  however,  is  partly  supplied  by  T.  de  Lacouperie,  who  gives 
us  an  account  of  a  wonderful  Lolo  MS.  on  satin,  red  on  one  side,  blue  on  the 
other,  containing  nearly  5750  words  written  in  black,  "  apparently  with  the 
Chinese  brush."  The  MS.  was  obtained  by  E.  Colborne  Baber  from  a  Lolo  chief, 
forwarded  to  Europe  in  1881,  and  described  by  de  Lsicoupene,  /oum.  R.  As.  Soc. 
Vol.  XIV.  Part  I.  "The  writing  runs  in  lines  from  top  to  bottom  and  from  left 
to  right,  as  in  Chinese"  (p.  i),  and  this  authority  regards  it  as  the  link  that  was 
wanting  to  connect  the  various  members  of  a  widely  diffused  family  radiating 
from  India  (Harapa  seal,  Indo-Pah,  Vatteluttu)  to  Malaysia  (Batta,  Rejang, 
Lampong,  Bugis,  Makassar,  Tagal),  to  Indo-China  (Lao,  Siamese,  Lolo),  Korea 
and  Japan,  and  also  including  the  Siao-chuen  Chinese  system  "in  use  a  few 
centuries  B.C."  (p.  5).  It  would  be  premature  to  say  that  all  these  connections 
are  established.  ' 

13—2 


196  Man :  Past  and  Present       '  [ch. 

or  three  pages  of  a  Mosso  book  with  traijsliteration  and 
translation.  Other  specimens,  but  without  explanation,  were 
already  known  through  Gill  and  Desgodins,  and  th'eir 
decipherment  had  exercised  the  ingenuity  of  several  Chinese 
scholars.  Their  failure  to  interpret  them  is  now  accounted 
for  by  Prince  Henri,  who  declares  that,  "strictly  speaking 
the  Mossos  have  no  writing  system.  The  magicians  keep 
and  still  make  copy-books  full  of  hieroglyphics  ;  each  page 
is  divided  into  little  sections  [cahiers)  following  horizontally 
from  left  to  right,  in  which  are  inscribed  one  or  more  some- 
what rough  figures,  heads  of  animals,  men,  houses,  conven- 
tional signs  representing  the  sky  or  lightning,  and  so  on." 
Some  of  the  magicians  expounded  two  of  the  books,  which 
contained  invocations,  beginning  with  the  creation  of  the 
world,  ajid  winding  up  with  a  catalogue  of  all  the  evils 
threatening  mortals,  but  to  be  averted  by  being  pious,  that 
is,  by  making  gifts  to  the  magicians.  The  same  ide^s  are 
always  expressed  by  the  same  signs ;  yet  the  magicians 
declared  that  there  was  no  alphabet,  the  hieroglyphs  being 
handed  down  bodily  from  one  expert  to  another.  Never- 
theless Prince  Henri  looks  on  this  as  one  of  the  first  steps 
in  the  history  of  writing;  "originally  many  of  the  Chinese 
characters  were  simply  pictorial,  and  if  the  Mossos,  instead 
of  being  hemmed  in,  had.  acquired  a  large  expansion,  their 
sacred  books  might  also  perhaps  have  given  birth  to  true 
characters'." 

Although  now  "  hemmed  in,"  the  Mossos  are  a  historical 
and  somewhat  cultured  people,  belonging  to  the  same  group 
.  as  the  lungs  (Njungs);  who  came  from  the 
regions  north-east  of  Tibet,  and  appeared  on 
the  Chinese  frontiers  about  600  B.C.  They  are  referred  to 
in  the  Chinese  records  of  796  a.d.,  when  they  were  reduced 
by  the  king  of  Nanchao.  After  various  vicissitudes  they 
recognised  the  Chinese  suzerainty  in  the  fourteenth  century, 
and  were  finally  subdued  in  the  eighteenth.  De  Lacbuperie' 
thinks  they  are  probably  of  the  same  origin  as  the  Lolos,  the 
two  languages  having  much  in  common,  and  the  names  of 
both  being  Chinese,  while  the  Lolos  and  the  Mossos  call 
themselves  respectively  JVossu  (Nesu)  and  Nashi  [Ndshri). 

1  Of.  cit.  p.  193. 

2  Beginnings  of  Writing  in  Central  and  Eastern  Asia,  ^passim.  For  the  Lolos 
see  A.  F.  Legendre,  "Les  Lolos.  Etude  ethnologique  et  anthropologique," 
T'oung  Pao  II.  Vol.  x.  1909. 


vi]  The  Southern  Mongols  197 

Everywhere  amongst  these  border  tribes  are  met  groups 
of  aborigines,   who   present   more   or   less   regular   features 
which    are   described    by   various    travellers    as     Aborigines  of 
"Caucasic"  or  "European."     Thus  the  Kiu-tse,     South  China 
who  are  the  Khanungs  of  the  English  maps,     ^^  Annam. 
and  are  akin  to  the  large  Lu-tse  family  {Melam,  Anu,  Diasu, 
etc.),    reminded    Prince    Henri    of  some    Europeans   of   his 
acquaintance',   and    he  speaks    of  the  light  colour,   straight 
nose  and  eyes,  and  generally  fine  type  of  the  Yayo  (Yao), 
as  the  Chinese  call  them,  but  whose  real  name  is  Lin-tin-yii. 

The  same  Caucasic  element  reappears  in  a  pronounced 
form  amongst  the  indigenous  populations  of  Tonking,  to 
whom  A.  Billet  has  devoted  an  instructive  monograph".  This 
observer,  who  declares  that  these  aborigines  are  quite  distinct 
both  from  the  Chinese  and  the  Annamese,  groups  them  in 
three  main  divisions — Tho,  Nong,  and  Man^ — all  collectively 
called  Moi,  Muong,  and  Myong  by  the  Annamese.  The 
Thos,  who  are  the  most  numerous,  are  agriculturists,  holding 
all  the  upland  valleys  and  thinning  off  towards  the  wooded 
heights.  They  are  tall  compared  to  the  Mongols  (5  ft.  6 
or  7  in.),  lighter  than  the  Annamese,  round-headed,  with  oval 
face,  deep-set  straight  eyes,  low  cheek-bones,  straight  and 
even  slightly  aquiline  nose  not  depressed  at  root,  and  muscular 
frames.  They  are  a  patient,  industrious,  and  frugal  people, 
now  mainly  subject  to  Chinese  and  Annamese  influences  in 
their  social  usages  and  religion.  Very  peculiar  nevertheless 
are  some  of  their  surviving  customs,  such  as  the  feast  of 
youth,  the  pastime  of  swinging,  and  especially  chess  played 
with  living  pieces,  whose  movements  are  directed  by  two 
players.  The  language  appears  to  be  a  Shan  dialect,  and 
to  this  family    the    writer  affiliates  both  the  Thos  and  the 

1  "  Quelques-uns  de  ces  Kiou-tsds  me  rappellent  des  Europdens  que  je  connais.'' 
{Op.  cit.  p.  252). 

2  Deux  Ans  dans  le  Haui-Tonkin,  etc.,  Paris,  1896. 

8  With  regard  to  Man  {Man-tse)  it  should  be  explained  that  in  Chinese  it 
means  "untameable  worms,"  that  is,  wild  or  barbarous,  and  we  are  warned  by 
Desgodins  that  "  il  ne  faut  pas  prendre  ces  mots  comme  des  noms  propres  de 
tribus"  {Bui.  Soc.  Gdogr.  XII.  p.  410).  In  1877  Capt.  W.  Gill  visited  a  large 
nation  of  Man-tse  with  18  tribal  divisions,  reaching  from  West  Yunnan  to  the 
extreme  north  of  Sechuen,  a  sort  of  federacy  recognising  a  king,  with  Chinese 
habits  and  dress,  but  speaking  a  language  resembling  Sanskrit  (?).  These  were 
the  Sumu,  or  "White  Man-tse,"  apparently  the  same  as  those  visited  in  1896  by 
Mrs  Bishop,  and  by  her  described  as  semi-independent,  ruled  by  their  own  chiefs, 
and  in  appearance  "quite  Caucasian,  both  men  and  women  being  very  handsome," 
strict  Buddhists,  friendly  and  hospitable,  and  living  in  large  stone  houses  (Letter 
to  Times,  Aug.  18,  1896). 


198  Man  :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

Nongs.  The  latter  are  a  much  more  mixed  people,  now 
largely  assimilated,  to  the  Chinese,  although  the  primitive 
type  still  persists,  especially  amongst  the  women,  as  is  so 
often  the  case.  A.  Billet  tells  us  that  he  often  met  Nong 
women  "with  light  and  sometimes  even  red  hair\" 

It  is  extremely  interesting  to  learn  that  the  Mans  came 

traditionally  "from  a  far-off  western  land  where  their  fore- 

Man-tse  fathers  were  said  to  have  lived  in  contact  with 

Origins  and      peoples  of  white  blood  thousands  of  years  ago." 

Affinities.  This  tradition,  which  would  identify  them  with 

the  above-mentioned  Man-tse,  is  supported  by  their  physical 

appearance^ong    head,  oval    face,  small    cheek-bones,  eyes 

without   the    Mongol    fold,    skin    not    yellowish    but    rather 

"browned  by  the  sun,"  regular  features — in  nothing  recalling 

the  traits  of  the  yellow  races. 

Let  us  now  turn  to  M,   R.  Verneau's  comments  on  the 
„  rich   materials  brought   together   by   A.    Billet, 

Aborigines  in  in  whom,  "  being  not  only  a  medical  man, 
South-East  but  also  a  graduate  in  the  natural  sciences, 
absolute  confidence  may  be  placed  ^" 
"The  Mins-Tien,  the  Mins-Coc,  the  Mans-Meo  (Miao, 
Miao-tse,  or  Mieu)  present  a  pretty  complete  identity  with 
the  Pan-y  and  the  Pan-yao  of  South  Kwang-si ;  they  are  the 
debris  of  a  very  ancient  race,  which  with  T.  de  Lacouperie 
may  be  called  pre-Chinese.  This  early  race,  which  bore  the 
name  of  Pan-hu  or  Ngao,  occupied  Central  China  before  the 
arrival  of  the  Chinese.  According  to  M.  d'Hervey  de  Saint- 
Denys,  the  mountains  and  valleys  of  Kwei-chau  where  these 
Miao-tse  still  survive  were  the  cradle  of  the  Pan-hu.  In  any 
case  it  seems  certain  that  the  T'hai  and  the  Man  race  came 
from  Central  Asia,  and  that,  from  the  anthropological  stand- 
point, they  differ  altogether  from  the  Mongol  group  repre- 
sented by  the  Chinese  and  the  Annamese.  The  Man 
especially  presents  striking  affinities  with  the  Aryan  type." 

Thus  is  again  confirmed  by  the  latest  investigations,  and 
by  the  conclusions  of  some  of  the  leading  members  of  the 
French  school  of  anthropology,  the  view  first  advanced  by  me 
in  1879,  that  peoples  of  the  Caucasic  (here  called  "Aryan  ") 
division     had     already     spread     to     the     utmost     confines 

1  "Des  paysannes  n,6ngs  dont  les  cheveux  ^taient  blonds,  quelquefois  mgme 
roux.''     Op.  cit. 

2  V Anthropologic,  1896,  p.  602  sq. 


vi]  The  Southern  Mongols  199 

of  south-east  Asia  in  remote  prehistoric  times,  and  had 
in  this  region  even  preceded  the  first  waves  of  Mongolic 
migration  radiating  from  their  cradle-land  on  the  Tibetan 
plateau  \ 

Reference  was  above  made  to  the  singular  lack  of  political 
cohesion   at   all   times  betrayed   by   the    Tai-Shan   peoples. 
The  only  noteworthy  exception  is  the  Siamese 
branch,  which  forms  the  bulk  of  the  population     JJ^f^'"^'' 
>in  the  Menam  basin.      In  this  highly  favoured 
region  of  vast  hill-encircled  alluvial  plains  of  inexhaustible 
fertility,  traversed  by  numerous  streams  navigable  for  light 
craft,    and    giving   direct    access    to    the    inland    waters    of 
Malaysia,  the  Southern  Shans  were  able  at  an  early  date  to 
merge  the  primitive  tribal  groups  in  a  great  nationality,  and 
found  a  powerful  empire,  which  at  one  time  dominated  most 
of  Indo-China  and  the  Malay  Peninsula. 

Siam,  alone  of  all  the  Shan  states,  even  still  maintains 
a  precarious  independence,  although  now  again  reduced  by 
European  aggression  to  little  more  than  the  natural  limits  of 
the  fluvial  valley,  which  is  usually  regarded  by  the  Southern 
Shans  as  the  home  of  their  race.  Yet  they  appear  to  have 
been  here  preceded  by  the  Caucasic  Khmers  (Cambojans), 
whose  advent  is  referred  in  the  national  chronicles  to  the 
year  543  b.c.  and  who,  according  to  the  Hindu  records,  were 
expelled  about  443  a.d.  It  was  through  these  Khmers,  and 
not  directly  from  India,  that  the  "  Sayamas  "  received  their 
Hindu  culture,  and  the  Siamese  annals,  mingling  fact  with 
fiction,  refer  to  the  miraculous  birth  of  the  national  hero, 
Phra-Ruang,  who  threw  off  the  foreign  yoke,  declared  the 
people  henceforth  T'hai,  "  Freemen,"  invented  the  present 
Siamese  alphabet,  and  ordered  the  Khom  (Cambojan)  to  be 
reserved  in  future  for  copying  the  sacred  writings. 

The  introduction  of  Buddhism  is  assigned  to  the  year 
638  A.D.,  one  of  the  first  authentic  dates  in  the  native  records. 
The  ancient  city  of  Labong  had  already  been  founded  (575), 
and  other  settlements  now  followed  rapidly,  always  in  the 
direction  of  the  south,  according  as  the  Shan  race  steadily 
advanced  towards  the  seaboard,  driving  before  them  or 
mingling  with  Khmers,  Lawas,  Karens,  and  other  aborigines, 

1  "  On  the  Relations  of  the  Indo-Chinese  and  Inter-Oceanic  Races  and  Lan- 
guages." Paper  read  at  the  Meeting  of  the  Brit.  Association,  Sheffield,  1879,  and 
printed  in  th&Journ.  Anthr.  Inst.,  February,  1880. 


200  Man  :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

some  now  extinct,  some  still  surviving  on  the  wooded  uplands 
and  plateaux  encircling-  the  Menam  valley.  Ayuthia,  the 
great  centre  of  national  life  in  later  times,  dates  only  from  the 
year  1350,  when  the  empire  had  received  its  greatest  expan- 
sion, comprising  the  whole  of  Camboja,  Pegu,  Tenasserim, 
and  the  Malay  Peninsula,  and  extending  its  conquering  arms 
across  the  inland  waters  as  far  as  Java\  Then  followed  the 
disastrous  wars  with  Burma,  which  twice  captured  and  finally 
destroyed  Ayuthia  (1767),  now  a  picturesque  elephant-park 
visited  by  tourists  from  the  present  capital,  Bangkok,  founded 
in  1772  a  little  lower  down  the  Menam. 

But  the  elements  of  decay  existed  from  the  first  in  the 
institution  of  slavery  or  serfdom,  which  was  not  restricted  to 

a  particular  class,  as  in  other  lands,  but,  before 
STOtem^     "^      the   modern  reforms,   extended  in  principle  to 

all  the  kings'  subjects  in  mockery  declared 
"  Freemen  "  by  the  founders  of  the  monarchy.  This,  however, 
rnay  be  regarded  as  perhaps  little  more  than  a  legal  fiction, 
for  at  all  times  class  distinctions  were  really  recognised, 
comprising  the  members  of  the  royal  family — a  somewhat 
numerous  group — the  nobles  named  by  the  king,  the  leks  or 
vassals,  and  the  people,  these  latter  being  again  subdivided 
into  three  sections,  those  liable  to  taxation,  those  subject  to 
forced  labour,  and  the  slaves  proper.  But  so  little  developed 
was  the  sentiment  of  personal  dignity  and  freedom,  that 
anybody  from  the  highest  noble  to  the  humblest  citizen  might 
at  any  moment  lapse  into  th'e  lowest  category.  Like  most 
Mongoloid  peoples,  the  Siamese  are  incurable  gamblers,  and 
formerly  it  was  an  everyday  occurrence  for  a  freeman  to  stake 
all  his  goods  and  chattels,  wives,  children,  and  self,  on  the 
hazard  of  the  die. 

Yet  the  women,  like  their  Burmese  sisters,  have  always 
held   a  somewhat  honourable  social   position,   being  free  to 

walk  abroad,  go  shopping,  visit  their  friends, 
Wbman.^  see  the  sights,  and  take  part  in  the  frequent 

public  feastings  without  restriction.  Those, 
however,  who  brought  no  dower  and  had  to  be  purchased, 

'  In  the  Javanese .  annals  the  invaders  are  called  "Cambojans,"  but  at  this 
time  (about  1340)  Camboja  had  already  been  reduced,  and  the  Siamese  conquerors 
had  brought  back  from  its  renowned  capital,  Angkor  Wat,  over  90,000  captives. 
These  were  largely  employed  in  the  wars  of  the  period,  which  were  thus  attributed 
to  Camboja  instead  of  to  Siam  by  foreign  peoples  ignorant  of  the  changed  relatiotis 
in  Indo-China. 


^i]  The  Southern  Mongols  201 

might  again  be  sold  at  any  time,  and  many  thus  constantly 
fell  from  the  dignity  of  matrons  to  the  position  of  the  merest 
drudges  without  rights  or  privileges  of  any  kind.  These 
strange  relations  were  endurable,  thanks  to  the  genial  nature 
of  the  national  temperament,  by  which  the  hard  lot  of  the 
thralls  was  softened,  and  a  little  light  allowed  to  penetrate 
into  the  darkest  corners  ^  of  the  social  system.  The  open  slave- 
markets,  which  in  the  vassal  Lao  states  fostered  systematic 
raiding-expeditions  amongst  the  unreduced  aborigines,  were 
abolished  in  1873,  and  since  1890  all  born  in  slavery  are  free 
on  reaching  their  21st  year. 

Siamese  Buddhism  is  a  slightly  modified  form  of  that 
prevailing  in  Ceylon,  although  stricdy  practised  but  by  few. 
There  are  two  classes  or  "sects,"  the  reformers 
who  attach  more  importance  to  the  observance  "  '^'"' 
of  the  canon  law  than  to  meditation,  and  the  old  believers, 
some  devoted  to  a  contemplative  life,  others  to  the  study  of 
the  sunless  wilderness  of  Buddhist  writings.  But,  beneath  it 
all,  spirit  or  devil-worship  is  still  rife,  and  in  many  districts 
pure  animism  is  practically  the  only  religion.  Even  temples 
and  shrines  have  been  raised  to  the  countless  gods  of  land 
and  water,  woods,  mountains,  villages  and  households.  To 
these  gods  are  credited  all  sorts  of  calamities,  and  to  prevent 
them  from  getting  into  the  bodies  of  the  dead  the  latter  are 
brought  out,  not  through  door  or  window,  but  through 
a  breach  in  the  wall,  which  is  afterwards  carefully  built  up. 
Similar  ideas  prevail  amongst  many  other  peoples,  both  at 
higher  and  lower  levels  of  culture,  for  nothing  is  more 
ineradicable  than  such  popular  beliefs  associated  with  the 
relations  presumed  to  exist  between  the  present  and  the  after 
life. 

Incredible  sums  are   yearly  lavished  in  offerings  to  the 
spirits,  which  give   rise   to  an   endless   round  of  feasts  and 

'  How  very  dark  some  of  these  corners  can  be  may  be  seen  from  the  sad 
picture  of  maladministration,  vice,  and  corruption  still  prevalent  so  late  as  1890, 
given  by  Hallett  in  A  Thousand  Miles  on  an  Elephant,  Ch.  xxxv. ;  and  even  still 
later  by  H.  Warington  Smyth  in  Five  Years  in  Siam,  from  1891  to  i8g6  (1898). 
This  observer  credits  the  Siamese  with  an  undeveloped  sense  of  right  and  wrong, 
so  that  they  are  good  only  by  accident.  "  To  do  a  thing  because  it  is  right  is 
beyond  them;  to  abstain  from  a  thing  because  it  is  against  their  good  name,  or 
involves  serious  consequences,  is  possibly  within  the  power  of  a  few ;  the  question 
of  right  and  wrong  does  not  enter  the  calculation."  But  he  thinks  they  may 
possess  a  high  degree  of  intelligence,  and  mentions  the  case'  of  a  peasant,  who 
from  an  atlas  had  taught  himself  geography  and  politics.  P.  A.  Thompson,  Lotus 
Land,  1906,  gives  an  account  of  the  country  and  people  of  Southern  Siam. 


202  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

revels,  and  also  in  support  of  the  numerous  Buddhist  temples, 
convents,  and  their  inmates.  The  treasures  accumulated  in 
the  "royal  cloisters"  and  other  shrines  represent  a  great  part 
of  the  national  savings — investments  for  the  other  world, 
among  which  are  said  to  be  numerous  gold  statues  glittering 
with  rubies,  sapphires,  and  other  priceless  gems.  But  in 
these  matters  the  taste  of  the  talapoins^,  as  the  priests  were 
formerly  called,  is  somewhat  catholic,  including  pictures  of 
reviews  and  battle-scenes  from  the  European  illustrated 
papers,  and  sometimes  even  statues  of  Napoleon  set  up  by 
the  side  of  Buddha. 

So  numerous,  absurd,  and  exacting  are  the  rules  of  the 
monastic  communities  that,  but  for  the  aid  of  the  temple 
servants  and  novices,  existence  would  be  im- 
and"pessi'nUsm.  possible.  A  list  of  such  puerilities  occupies 
several  pages  in  A.  R.  Colquhoun's  work 
Amongst  the  Shans  (219-231),  and  from  these  we  learn  that 
the  monks  must  not  dig  the  ground,  so  that  they  can  neither 
plant  nor  sow  ;  must  not  boil  rice,  as  it  would  kill  the  germ  ; 
eat  corn  for  the  same  reason  ;  climb  trees  lest  a  branch  get 
broken ;  kindle  a  flame,  as  it  destroys  the  fuel  ;  put  out 
a  flame,  as  that  also  would  extinguish  life  ;  forge  iron,  as 
sparks  would  fly  out  and  perish  ;  swing  their  arms  in  walking  ; 
wink  in  speaking  ;  buy  or  sell ;  stretch  the  legs  when  sitting  ; 
breed  poultry,  pigs,  or  other  animals ;  mount  an  elephant  or 
palanquin  ;  wear  red,  black,  green,  or  white  garments  ;  mourn 
for  the  dead,  etc.,  etc.  In  a  word  all  might  be  summed  up 
by  a  general  injunction  neither  to  do  anything,  nor  not  to  do 
anything,  and  then  despair  of  attaining  Nirvana  ;  for  it  would 
be  impossible  to  conceive  of  any  more  pessimistic  system  in 
theoryl  Practically  it  is  otherwise,  and  in  point  of  fact  the 
utmost  religious  indifference  prevails  amongst  all  classes. 

Within  the  Mongolic  division  it  would  be  difficult  to 
imagine  any  more  striking  contrast  than  that  presented  by 
the  gentle,  kindly,  and  on  the  whole  not  ill-favoured  Siamese, 
and  their  hard-featured,  hard-hearted,  and  grasping  Annamese 

'  Probably  a  corruption  of  talapat,  the  name  of  the  palm-tree  which  yields  the 
fan-leaf  constantly  used  by  the  monks. 

^  "  In  conversation  with  the  monks  M'Gilvary  was  told  that  it  would  most 
likely  be  countless  ages  before  they  would  attain  the  much  wished  for  state  of 
Nirvana,  and  that  bne  transgression  at  any  time  might  relegate  them  to  the  lowest 
hell  to  begin  again  their  melancholy  pilgrimage  "  (Hallett,  A  Thousand  Miles  on 
an  Elephant,  p.  337). 


vi]  The  Southern  Mongols  203 

neighbours.  Let  anyone,  who  may  fancy  there  is  little  or 
nothing  in  blood,  pass  rapidly  from  the  bright,  ^^  Annamese. 
genial — if  somewhat  listless  and  corrupt — social 
life  of  Bangkok  to  the  dry,  uncongenial  moral  atmosphere  of 
Ha-noi  or  Saigon,  arid  he  will  be  apt  to  modify  his  views  on 
that  point.  Few  observers  have  a  good  word  to  say  for  the 
Tonkingese,  the  Cochin-Chinese,  or  any  other  branch  of  the 
Annamese  family,  and  some  even  of  the  least  prejudiced  are 
so  outspoken  that  we  must  needs  infer  there  is  good  ground  for 
their  severe  strictures  on  these  strange,  uncouth  materialists. 
Buddhists  of  course  they  are  nominally ;  but  of  the  moral 
sense  they  have  little,  unless  it  be  (amongst  the  lettered 
classes)  a  pale  reflection  of  the  pale  Chinese  ethical  code. 
The  whole  region  in  fact  is  a  sort  of  attenuated  China,  to 
which  it  owes  its  arts  and  industries,  its  letters,  moral  systems, 
general  culture,  and  even  a  large  part  of  its  inhabitants. 
Giao-shi  {Kiao-shi),  the  name  of  the  aborigines,  said  to  mean 
"  Bifurcated,"  or  "  Cross-toes  V  in  reference  to  ^  .  . 
the  wide  space  between  the  great  toe  and  the . 
next,  occurs  in  the  legendary  Chinese  records  so  far  back  as 
2285  B.C.,  since  which  period  the  two  countries  are  supposed 
to  have  maintained  almost  uninterrupted  relations,  whether 
friendly  or  hostile,  down  to  the  present  day.  At  first  the 
Giao-shi  were  confined  to  the  northern  parts  of  Lu-kiang,  the 
present  Tonking,  all  the  rest  of  the  coastlands  being  held  by 
the  powerful  Champa  (Tsiampa)  people,  whose  affinities  are 
with  the  Oceanic  populations.  But  in  218  B.C.,  Lu-kiang 
having  been  reduced  and  incorporated  with  China  proper, 
a  large  number  of  Chinese  emigrants  settled  in  the  country, 
and  gradually  merged  with  the  Giao-shi  in  a  single  nationality, 
whose  twofold  descent  is  still  reflected  in  the  Annamese 
physical  and  mental  characters. 

This  term  Annam'',  however,  did  not  come  into  use  till  the 
seventh  century,  -when  it  was  officially  applied  to  the  frontier 
river  between  China  and  Tonking,  and  afterwards  extended 
to  the  whole  of  Tonking  and  Cochin-China.  Tonking  itself, 
meaning  the  "  Eastern  Court',"  was  originally  the  name  only 

1  "  Le  gros  orteil  est  tr^s  d^velopp^  et  dearth  des  autres  doigts  du  pied.  A  ce 
caract^re  distinctif,  que  Ton  retrouve  encore  aujourd'hui  chez  les  indigenes  de 
race  pure,  on  pent  reconnaitre  facilement  qiie  les  Giao-chi  sont  les  anc^tres  des 
Annamites"  {La  Cochinchine  franqaise  en  1878,  p.  231).  See  also  a  note  on  the 
subject  by  C.  F.  Tremlett  mjourn.  Anthr.  Inst.  1879,  P-  460. 

2  Properly  An-nan,  a  modified  form  of  ngan-nan,  "  Southern  Peace." 

3  Cf.  Nan-king,  Pe-king,  "  Southern  "  and  "  Northern  "  Courts  (Capitals). 


204  Man  :   Past  and  Present  [ch. 

of  the  city  of  Ha-noi  when  it  was  a  royal  residence,  but  was 
later  extended  to  the  whole  of  the  northern  kingdom,  whose 
true  name  is  Yuek-nan.  To  this  corresponded  the  southern 
Kwe-Chen-Ching,  "  Kingdom  of  Chen-Ching,"  which  was  so 
named  in  the  ninth  century  from  its  capital  Chen-Ching,  and 
of  which  our  Cochin-China  appears  to  be  a  corrupt  form. 

But,  amid  all  this  troublesome-  political  nomenclature,  the 
dominant  Annamese  nation  has  faithfully  preserved  its  homo- 
geneous character,  spreading,  like  the  Siamese  Shans,  steadily 
southwards,  and  gradually  absorbing  the  whole  of  the  Champa 
domain  to  the  southern  extremity  of  the  peninsula,  as  well  as 
a  large  part  of  the  ancient  kingdom  of  Camboja  about  the 
Mekhong  delta.  They  thus  form  at  present  the  almost 
exclusive  ethnical  element  throughout  all  the  lowland  and 
cultivated  parts  of  Tonking,  upper  and  lower  Cochin-China 
and  south  Camboja,  with  a  total  population  in  1898  of  about 
twenty  millions. 

The  Annamese  are  described  in  a  serni-official  report'  as 
characterised  by  a,  high  broad  forehead,  high  cheek-bones, 
Physical  and  small  crushed  nose,  rather  thick  lips,  black  hair. 
Mental  scant  beard,  mean  height,  coppery  complexion, 

Characters.  deceitful  {rusde)  expression,  and  rude  or  insolent 

bearing.  The  head  is  round  (index  83  to  84)  and  the  features 
are  in  general  flat  and  coarse,  while  to  an  ungainly  exterior 
corresponds  a  harsh  unsympathetic  temperament.  The  Abb6 
Gagelin,  who  lived  years  in  their  midst,  frankly  declares  that 
they  are  at  once  arrogant  and  dishonest,  and  dead  to  all  the 
finer  feelings  of  human  nature,  so  that  after  years  of  absence 
the  nearest  akin  will  meet  without  any  outward  sign  of 
pleasure  or  affection.  Others  go  further,  and  J.  G.  Scott 
summed  it  all  up  by  declaring  that  "  the  fewer  Annamese 
there  are,  the  less  taint  there  is  on  the  human  race."  No 
doubt  Lord  Curzon  gives  a  more  favourable  picture,  but  this 
traveller  spent  only  a  short  time  in  the  country',  and  even  he 
allows  that  they  are  "  tricky  and  deceitful,  disposed  to  thieve 
when  they  get  the  chance,  mendacious,  and  incurable 
gamblers^" 

Yet  they  have  one  redeeming  quality,  an  intense  love  of 
personal  freedom,  strangely  contrasting  with  the  almost  abject 
slavish  spirit  of  the  Siamese.     The  feeling  extends  to  all 

'  La  Gazette  Gdographique,  March  12,  1885. 
2  Gedgr.  Journ.,  Sept.  1893,  p.  194. 


vi]  The  Southern  Mongols  205 

classes,  so  that  servitude  is  held  in  abhorrence,  and,  as  in 
Burma,  a  democratic  sense  of  equality  permeates  the  social 
system \  Hence,  although  the  State  has  always  been  an 
absolute  monarchy,  each  separate  commune  constitutes  a 
veritable  little  oligarchic  commonwealth.  This  has  come  as 
a  great  surprise  to  the  present  French  administrators  of  the 
country,  who  frankly  declare  that  they  cannot  hope  to  improve 
the  social  or  political  position  of  the  people  by  substituting 
European  for  native  laws  and  usages.  The  Annamese  have 
in  fact  little  to  learn  from  western  social  institutions. 

Their  language,  spoken  everywhere  with  remarkable 
uniformity,  is  of  the  normal  Indo-Chinese  isolating  type, 
possessing  six  tones,  three  high,  and  three  low, 
and  written  in  ideographic  characters  based  on  Lettfrs^^^*" 
the  Chinese,  but  with  numerous  modifications 
and  additions.  But,  although  these  are  ill-suited  for  the  pur- 
pose, the  attempt  made  by  the  early  Portuguese  missionaries 
to  substitute  the  so-called  quoc-ngu,  or  Roman  phonetic  system, 
has  been  defeated  by  the  conservative  spirit  of  the  people. 
Primary  instruction  has  long  been  widely  diffused,  and  almost 
everybody  can  read  and  write  as  many  of  the  numerous 
hieroglyphs  as  are  needed  for  the  ordinary  purpose  of  daily 
intercourse.  Every  village  has  its  free  school,  and  a  higher 
range  of  studies  is  encouraged  by  the  public  examinations  to 
which,  as  in  China,  all  candidates  for  government  appointments 
are  subjected.  Under  such  a  scheme  surprising  results  might 
be  achieved,  were  the  course  of  studies  not  based  exclusively 
on  the  empty  formulas  of  Chinese  classical  literature.  The 
subjects  taught  are  for  the  most  part  puerile,  and  true  science 
is  replaced  by  the  dry  moral  precepts  of  Confucius.  One 
result  amongst  the  educated  classes  is  a  scoffing,  sceptical 
spirit,  free  from  all  religious  prejudice,  and  unhampered  by 
theological  creeds  or  dogmas,  combined  with  a  lofty  moral 
tone,  not  always  however  in  harmony  with  daily  conduct. 

Even  more  than  in  China,  the  family  is  the  true  base  of 
the  social  system,  the  head  of  the  household  being  not  only 
the  high-priest  of  the  ancestral  cult,  but  also  . 

a  kind   of  patriarch  enjoying   almost  absolute      systerar 
control  over  his  children.     In  this  respect  the 

1  "Parmi  les  citoyens  r^gne  la  plus  parfaite  ^galit^.  Point  d'esclavage,  la 
servitude  est  en  horreur.  Aussi  tout  homme  peut-il  aspirer  aux  emplois,  se 
plaindre  aux  memes  tribunaux  que  son  adversaire "  {pp.  cit.  p.  6). 


2o6  Man  :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

relations  are  somewhat  one-sided,  the  father  having  no 
recognised  obligations  towards  his  ofifspring,  while  these  are 
expected  to  show  him  perfect  obedience  in  life  and  veneration 
after  .death.  Besides  this  worship  of  ancestry  and  the  Con- 
fucian ethical  philosophy,  a  national  form  of  Buddhism  is 
prevalent.  Some  even  profess  all  three  of  these  so-called 
"  religions,"  beneath  which  there  still  survive  many  of  the 
primitive  superstitions  associated  with  a  not  yet  extinct  belief 
in  spirits  and  the  supernatural  power  of  magicians.  While 
the  Buddhist  -temples  are  neglected  and  the  few  bonzes^ 
despised,  offerings  are  still  made  to  the  genii  of  agriculture, 
of  the  waters,  the  tiger,  the  dolphin,  peace,  war,  diseases,  and 
so  forth,  whose  rude  statues  in  the  form  of  dragons  or  other 
fabulous  monsters  are  even  set  up  in  the  pagodas.  Since  the 
early  part  of  the  seventeenth  century  Roman  Catholic 
missionaries  have  laboured  with  considerable  success  in  this 
unpromising  field,  where  the  congregations  were  estimated  in 
1898  at  about  900,000. 

From  Annam  the  ethnical  transition  is  easy  to  China^  and 
its  teeming  multitudes,  regarding  whose  origins,  racial  and 
cultural,  two  opposite  views  at  present  hold  the 
field.  What  may  be  called  the  old,  but  by  no 
means  the  obsolete  school,  regards  the  Chinese  populations 
as  the  direct  descendants  of  the  aborigines  who  during  the 
Stone  Ages  entered  the  Hoang-ho  valley  probably  from  the 
Tibetan  plateau,  there  developed  their  peculiar  culture  inde- 
pendently of  foreign  influences,  and  thence  spread  gradually 
southwards  to  the  whole  of  China  proper,  extirpating, 
absorbing,  or  driving  to  the  encircling  western  and  southern 
uplands  the  ruder  aborigines  of  the  Yang-tse-Kiang  and  Si^ 
Kiang  basins. 

1  From  bonzo,  a  Portuguese  corruption  of  the  Japanese  busso,  a  devout  person, 
applied  first  to  the  Buddhist  priests  of  Japan,  and  then  extended  to  those  of  China 
and  neighbouring  lands. 

2  This  name,  probably  the  Chinese_/V«,  men,  people,  already  occurs  in  Sanskrit 

writings  in  its  present  form :  "^TT,  China,  whence  the  Hindi  (>*»•,  CMn,  and 
the  Arabo-Persian  (J*^ ,  Sin,  which  gives  the  classical  Sinae.    The  most  common 

national  name  is  Chung-kue,  "  middle  kingdom "  (presumably  the  centre  of  the 
universe),  whence  Chung-kue-Jin,  the  Chinese  people.  Some  have  referred  China 
to  the  Chin  [Tsin)  dynasty  (909 B.C.),  while  Marco  Polo's  A'a/aza  (Russian  Kitai) 
is  the  Khata  (North  China)  of  the  Mongol  period,  from  the  Manchu  K'i-tan, 
founders  of  the  Liio  dynasty,  which  was  overthrown  1115A.D.  by  the  Nii-Chan 
Tatars.  Ptolemy's  Thinae  is  rightly  regarded  by  Edkins  as  the  same  word  as 
Sinae,  the  substitution  of  t  for  J  being  normal  in  Annam,  whence  this  form  may 
have  reached  the  west  through  the  southern  seaport  of  Kattigara. 


vi]  The  Southern  Mongols  207 

In  direct  opposition- to  this  view  the  new  school,  championed 
especially  by  T.  de  Lacouperie\  holds  that  the  present  in- 
habitants of  China  are  late  intruders  from  south- 
western Asia,  and  that  they  arrived  not  as  rude  Seo^^."^'""^^" 
aborigines,  but  as  a  cultured  people  with  a 
considerable  knowledge  of  letters,  science,  and  the  arts,  all 
of  which  they  acquired  either  directly  or  indirectly  from  the 
civilised  Akkado-Sumerian  inhabitants  of  Babylonia. 

Not  merely   analogies    and   resemblances,   but  what  are 
called    actual    identities,   are    pointed  out    between    the   two 
cultures,  and  even  between  the  two  languages,  sufficient  to 
establish  a  common  origin  of  both,   Mesopotamia  being  the 
fountain-head,   whence   the   stream  flowed  by   channels  not 
clearly  defined  to  the  Hoang-ho  valley.     Thus  the  Chin,  yu, 
originally  go,  is  equated  with  Akkad  gu,  to  speak  ;  ye  with  ge, 
night,   and  so   on.     Then    the    astronomic   and    chronologic 
systems  are  compared,    Berossus  and  the  cuneiform  tablets 
dividing    the  prehistoric    Akkad    epoch    into    10  periods    of 
10  kings,  lasting  120  Sari,  or  432,000  years,  while  the  corre- 
sponding Chinese  astronomic  myth  also  comprises  10  kings 
(or  dynasties)   covering  the  same  period  of  432,000  years. 
The  astronomic  system  credited  to  the  emperor  Yao  (2000  B.C.) 
similarly  corresponds  with  the   Akkadian,    both-  having  the 
same  five  planets  with  names  of  like  meaning,  and  a  year  of 
12  months  and  30  days,  with  the  same  cycle  of  intercalated 
days,  while  several  of  the  now  obsolete  names  of  the  Chinese 
months  answer  to  those  of  the  Babylonians.    "Even  the  name 
of    the    first    Chinese   emperor   who    built    an    observatory, 
Nai-Kwang-ti,  somewhat  resembles  that  of  the  Elamite  king, 
Kuder-na-hangti,  who  conquered  Chaldaea  about  2280  b.c. 

All  this  can  hardly  be  explained  away.as  a  mere  series  of 
coincidences ;  nevertheless  neither  Sinologues  nor  Akkadists 
are  quite  convinced,  and  it  is  obvious  that  many  of.  the 
resemblances  may  be  due  to  trade  or  intercourse  both  by  the 
old  overland  caravan  routes,  and  by  the  seaborne  traffic  from 
Eridu  at  the 'head  of  the -Persian  Gulf,  which  was  a  flourishing 
emporium  4000  or  5000  years  ago. 

But,  despite  some  verbal  analogies,  an  almost  insur- 
mountable difficulty  is  presented  by  the  Akkadian  and  Chinese 

m 

1  Western  Origin  of  the  Early  Chinese  Civilization,  from  2300  B.C.  to  200  A. D., 
or  Chapters  on  the  Elements  Derived  from  the  Old  Civilizations  of  West  Asia 
in  the  Formation  of  the  Ancient  Chinese  Culture,  London,  1894. 


2o8  Man  :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

languages,  which  no  philological  ingenuity  can  bring  into 
such  relation  as  is  required  by  the  hypothesis..  T.  G.  Pinches 
has  shown  that  at  a  very  early  period,  say  some  5000  years 
ago,  Akkadian  already  consisted,  '.'  for  the  greater  part,  of 
words  of  one  syllable,"  and  was  "  greatly  affected  by  phonetic 
decay,  the  result  being  that  an  enormous  number  of  homo- 
phones were  developed  out  of  roots  originally  quite  distinct'." 
This  Akkadian  scholar  sends  me  a  number  of  instances,  such 
as  tu  for  tura,  to  enter ;  ti  for  tila,  to  live  ;  du  for  dumu,  son  ; 
du  for  dugu,  good,  as  in  Eridu,  for  Gurudugu,  "  the  good 
city,"  addirig  that  "  the  list  could  be  extended  indefinitely ^" 
But  de  Lacouperie's  Bak  tribes,  that  is,  the  first  immigrants 
from  south-west  Asia,  are  not  supposed  to  have  reached 
North  China  till  about  2500  or  3000  B.C.,  at  which  time  the 
Chinese  language  was  still  in  the  untoned  agglutinating  state, 
with  but  few  monosyllabic  homophones,  and  consequently 
quite  distinct  from  the  Akkadian,  as  known  to  us  from  the 
Assyrian  syllabaries,  bilingual  lists,  and  earlier  tablets  from 
Nippur  or.Lagash. 

Hence  the  linguistic  argument  seems  to  fail  completely, 
while  the  Babylonian  origin  of  the  Chinese  writing  system,  or 
rather,  the  derivation  of  Chinese  and  Sumerian  from  some 
common  parent  in  Central  Asia,  awaits  further  evidence. 
Many  of  the  Chinese  and  Akkadian  "line  forms"  collated  by 
C.  J.  BalP  are  so  simple  and,  one  might  say,  obvious,  that 
they  seem  to  prove  nothing.  They  may  be  compared  with 
such  infantile  utterances  as  pa,  ma,  da,  ta,  occurring  in  half 
the  languages  of  the  world,  without  proving  a  connection  or 
affinity  between  any  of  them.  But  even  were  the  common 
origin  of  the  two  scripts  established,  it  would  prove  nothing 
as  to  the  common  origin  of  the  two  peoples,  but  only  show 
cultural  irifluences,  which  need  not  be  denied. 

But  if  Chinese  origins  cannot  be  clearly  traced  back  to 
Babylonia,  Chinese  culture  may  still,  in  a  sense,  claim  to  be 
Chinese  Culture  ^^^  oldest  in  the  world,  inasmuch  as  it  has. 
and  Social  "persisted  with  little  change  from  its  rise  some 

System.  4500   years  ago  down   to   present  times-     All 

other  early  civilisations — Mesopotamian,  Egyptian,  Assyrian,. 

'  "Observations  upon  the  Languages  of  the  Early  Inhabitants  of  Mesopo-    ■ 
tamia,"  in  Journ.  R.  As.  Soc.  xvi.  Part  2. 
2  MS.  note,  May  7,  1896. 
^  C.  J.  Ball,  Chinese  and  Sumerian,  1913. 


vi]  '     The  Southern  Mongols  209 

Persian,  Hellenic — have  perished,  or  live  only  in  their  monu- 
ments, traditions,  oral  or  written  records.  But  the  Chinese, 
despite  repeated  political  and  social  convulsions,  is  still  as 
deeply  rooted  in  the  past  as  ever,  showing  no  break  of 
continuity  from  the  dim  echoes  of  remote  prehistoric  ages 
down  to  the  last  revolution,  and  the  establishment  of  the 
Republic.  These  things  touch  the  surface  only  of  the  great 
ocean  of  Chinese  humanity,  which  is  held  together,  not 
by  any  general  spirit  of  national  sentiment  (all  sentiment,  is 
alien  from  the  Chinese  temperament),  nor  by  any  community 
of  speech,  for  many  of  the  provincial  dialects  differ  profoundly 
from  each  other,  but  by  a  prodigious  power  of  intertia,  which 
has  hitherto  resisted  all  attempts  at  change  either  by  pressure 
from  without,  or  by  spontaneous  impulse  from  within. 

What  they  were  thousands  of  years  ago,  the  Chinese  still 
are,  a  frugal,  peace-loving,  hard-working  people,  occupied 
mainly  with  tillage  and  trade,  cultivating  few  arts  beyond 
weaving,  porcelain  and  metal  work,  but  with  a  widely  diffused 
knowledge  of  letters,  and  a  writing  system  which 
still  remains  at  the  cumbrous  ideographic  stage,  Eariy^R^ords 
needing  as  many  different  symbols  as  there  are 
distinct  concepts  to  be  expressed.  Yet  the  system  has  one 
advantage,  enabling  those  who  speak  mutually  unintelligible 
idioms  to  converse  together,  using  the  pencil  instead  of  the 
tongue.  For  this  very  reason  the  attempts  made  centuries 
ago  by  the  government  to  substitute  a  phonetic  script  had  to 
be  abandoned.  It  was  found  that  imperial  edicts  and  other 
documents  so  written  could  not  be  understood  by  the  popu- 
lations speaking  dialects  different  from  the  literary  standard, 
whereas  the  hieroglyphs,  like  our  ciphers  i,  2,  3...,  could  be 
read  by  all  educated  persons  of  whatever  allied  forrn  of  speecL 

Originally  the  Chinese  system,  whether  developed  on  the 
spot  or  derived  from  Akkadian  or  any  other  foreign  source, 
was  of  course  pictographic  or  ideographic,  and  it  is  commonly 
supposed  to  have  remained  at  that  stage  ever  since,  the  only 
material  changes  being  of  a  graphic  nature.  The  pictographs 
were  conventionalised  and  reduced  to  their  present  form,  but 
still  remained  ideograms  supplemented  by  a  limited  number 
of  phonetic  determinants.  But  de  Lacouperie  has  shown  that 
this  view  is  a  mistake,  and  that  the  evolution  from  the 
pictograph  to  the  phonetic  symbol  had  been  practically  conl- 
pleted  in  China  many  centuries  before  the  new  era.     The 

K.  14 


210  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

Ku-wen  style  current  before  the  ninth  century  B.C.  "  was 
really  the  phonetic  expression  of  speech \"  But  for  the 
reason  stated  it  had  to  be  discontinued,  and  a  return  made  to 
the  earlier  ideographic  style.  The  change  was  effected 
about  820  B.C.  by  She  Chou,  minister  of  the  Emperor  Siien 
Wang,  who  introduced  the  Ta-chuen  style  in  which  "  he  tried 
to  speak  to  the  eye  and  no  longer  to  the  ear,"  that  is,  he 
reverted  to  the  earlier  ideographic  process,  which  has  since 
prevailed.  It  was  simplified  about  227  B.C.  (Siao  Chuen 
style),  and  after  some  other  modifications  the  present  cali- 
graphic  form  {Kiai  Shu)  was  introduced  by  Wang  Hi  in 
350  A.D.  Thus  one  consequence  of  the  "Expansion  of  China" 
was  a  reversion  to  barbarism,  in  respect  at  least  of  the  national 
graphic  system,  by  which  Chinese  thought  and  literature  have 
been  hampered  for  nearly  3000  years. 

Written  records,  though  at  first  mainly  of  a  mythical 
character,  date  from  about  3000  b.c.^  Reference  is  made  in 
the  early  documents  to  the  rude  and  savage  times,  which  in 
China  as  elsewhere  certainly  preceded  the  historic  period. 
Three  different  prehistoric  ages  are  even  discriminated,  and 
tradition  relates  how  Fu-hi  introduced  wooden,  Thin-ming 
stone,  and  Shi-yu  metal  implements'.  Later,  when  their 
origin  and  use  were  forgotten,  the  jade  axes,  like  those  from 
Yunnan,  were  looked  on  as  bolts  hurled  to  the  earth  by  the 
god  of  thunder,  while  the  arrow-heads,  supposed  to  be  also  of 

'  History  of  the  Archaic  Chinese  Writing  and  Texts,  1882,  p.  5. 

'  The  first  actual  date  given  is  that  of  Tai  Hao  (Fu-hi),  2953  B.C.,  but  this 
ruler  belongs  to  the  fabulous  period,  and  is  stated  to  have  reigned  115  years. 
The  first  certain  date  would  appear  to  be  that  of  Yau,  first  of  the  Chinese  sages 
and  reformer  of  the  calendar  (2357  B.C.).  The  date  2254  B.C.  for  Confucius's 
model  king  Shun  seems  also  established.  But  of  course  all  this  is  modern  history 
compared  with  the  now  determined  Babylonian  and  Egyptian  records. 

3  Amongst  the  metals  reference  is  made  to  iron  so  early  as  the  time  of  the 
Emperor  Ta  Yii  (2200  B.C.),  when  it  is  mentioned  as  an  article  of  tribute  in  the 
Shu-King.  F.  Hirth,  who  states  this  fact,  adds  that  during  the  same  period, 
if  not  even  earlier,  iron  was.  already  a  flourishing  industry  in  the  Liang  district 
(Paper  on  the  "  History  of  Chinese  Culture,"  Munich  Anthropological  Society, 
April,  1898).  At  the  discussion  which  followed  the  reading  of  this  paper  Monte- 
lius  argued  that  iron  was  unknown  in  Western  Asia  and  Egypt  betoie  ijoo  B.C., 
although  the  point  was  contested  by  Hommel,  who  quoted  a  word  for  iron  in 
the  earliest  Egyptian  texts.  Montelius,  however,  explained  that  terms  originally 
meaning  "  ore  "  or  "  metal "  were  afterwards  used  for  "  iron."  Such  was  certainly 
the  case  with  the  Gk.  x"^*o^i  at  first  "  copper,"  then  metal  in  general,  and  used 
still  later  for  a-idripos,  "iron";  hence  x"^'=™s=coppersmith,  blacksmith,  and  even 
goldsmith.  So  also  with  the  Lat.  aes  (Sanskrit  ayas,  akm  to  aurora,  with  simple 
idea  of  brightness),  used  first  especially  for  copper  {aes  cyprium,  cuprum),  and 
then  for  bronze  (Lewis  and  Short).  For  Hirth's  later  views  see  his  Ancient 
History  of  China,  1908  (from  the  fabulous  ages  to  221  B.C.). 


vi]  The  Southern  Mongols  211 

divine  origin,  were  endowed  in  the  popular  fancy  with  special 
virtues  and  even  regarded  as  emblems  of  sovereignty.  Thus 
may  perhaps  be  explained  the  curious  fact  that  in  early  times, 
before  the  twelfth  century  b.c.j  tribute  in  flint  weapons  was 
paid  to  the  imperial  government  by  some  of  the  reduced  wild 
tribes  of  the  western  uplands. 

These  men  of  the  Stone  and  Metal  Ages  are.  no  doubt 
still  largely  represented,  not  only  amongst  the  rude  hill  tribes 
of  the   southern  and  western  borderlands,   but 
also  amongst  the  settled  and  cultured  lowlanders      Migrations 
of  the  great    fluvial    valleys.     The    "  Hundred 
Families,"   as  the  first  immigrants  called  themselves,  came 
traditionally    from    the    north-western    regions    beyond    the 
Hoang-ho.     According  to  the  Yu-kung  their  original  home 
lay  in  the  south-western  part  of  Eastern  Turkestan,  whence 
they  first  migrated  east  to  the  oases  north  of  the  Nan-Shan 
range,  and  then,  in  the  fourth   millennium  before  the   new 
era,  to  the  fertile  valleys  of  the  Hoang-ho  and  its  Hoei-ho 
tributary.     Thence  they  spread  slowly  along  the  other  great 
river  valleys,  partly  expelling,  partly  intermingling  with  the 
aborigines,  but  so  late  as  the  seventh  century  B.C. 
were  still  mainly  confined  to  the  region  between    ^^^°^^^^, 
the  Pei-ho  and  the  lower  Yang-tse-Kiang.    Even 
here  several  indigenous  groups,  such  as  the  Hoei,  whose  name 
survives    in    that    of  the    Hoei    river,    and   the    Lai   of  the 
Shantong   Peninsula,  long  held  their  ground,    but  all  were 
ultimately  absorbed  or  assimilated  throughout  the  northern 
lands  as  far  south  as  the  left  bank  of  the  Yang-tse-Kiang. 
Beyond  this  river  many  were  also  merged  in  the  dominant 
people  continually  advancing  southwards ;  but  others,  collec- 
tively or  vaguely  known  as  Si-fans,  Mans,  Miao-    survivals— 
tse,  Pai,  Tho,  Y-jen',  Lolo,  etc.,  were  driven  to    Hok-io; 
the    south-western    highlands    which    they    still    ^^^^'^  Pun-ti. 
occupy.     Even  some  of  the  populations  in  the  settled  districts, 
such  as  the  Hok-los^,  and  Hakkas^,  of  Kwang-tung,  and  the 

1  This  term  Y-jen  ( Yi-jen\  meaning  much  the  same  as  Man,  Man-tse,  savage, 
rude,  untameable,  has  acquired  a  sort  of  diplomatic  distinction.  In  the  treaty  of 
Tien-tsin  (1858)  it  was  stipulated  that  it  should  no  longer,  as  heretofore,  be  applied 
in  official  documents  to  the  English  or  to  any  subjects  of  the  Queen. 

2  See  J.  Edkms,  Chinees  Place  in  Philology,  p.  117.  The  Hok-los  were 
originally  from  Fo-kien,  whence  their  alternative  name,  Fo-lo.  The  lo  appears 
to  be  the  same  word  as  in  the  reduplicated  Lo-lo,  meaning  something  like  the 
Greek  and  Latin  Bar-bar,  stammerers,  rude,  uncultured. 

^  The  Hakkas,  i.e.  "strangers,"  speak  a  well-marked  dialect  current  on  the 

14 — 2 


2 1 2  Man :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

Pun-ti^  of  the  Canton  district,  are  scarcely  yet  thoroughly 
assimilated.  They  differ  greatly  in  temperament,  usages, 
appearance,  and  speech  from  the  typical  Chinese  of  the 
Central  and  Northern  provinces,  whom  in  fact  they  look 
upon  as  "  foreigners,"  and  with  whom  they  hold  intercourse 
through  "  Pidgin  EnglishV'  the  lingua  franca  of  the  Chinese 
seaboard'. 

Nevertheless  a  general  homogeneoiis  character  is  imparted 
to  the  whole  people  by  their  common  political,  social,  and 
religious  institutions,  and  by  that  principle  of  convergence  in 
virtue  of  which  different  ethnical  groups,  thrown  together  in 
the  same  area  and  brought  under  a  single  administration,  tend 
to  merge  in  a  uniform  new  national  type.  This  general 
uniformity  is  conspicuous  especially  in  the  religious  ideas 
which,  except  in  the  sceptical  lettered  circles,  everywhere 
underlie  the  three  recognised  national  religions,  or  "  State 
Churches,"  as  they  might  almost  be  called :  ju-kiao,  Con- 
fucianism ;  tao-'kiao,  Taoism ;  and  fo-kiao.  Buddhism  (Fo 
=  Buddha).  The  first,  confined  mainly  to  the  educated  upper 
classes,  is  not  so  much  a  religion  as  a  philosophic  system, 
a  frigid  ethical  code  based  on  the  mora}  and  matter-of-fact 
_    ,   .    .  teaching's  of  Confucius*.     Confucius  was  essen- 

ConfiKianisra.  •    n  •   i  i         i-  •      i        r  i  i 

tiaJly  a  social  and  pohtical  reformer,  who  taught . 
by  example  and  precept ;  the  main  iiiducement  to  virtue  being, 
not  rewards  or  penalties  in  the  after-life,  but  well-  or  ill-being 
in  the  present.  His  system  is  summed  up  in  the  expression 
"worldly  wisdom,"  as  embodied  in  such  popular  sayings  as: 
A  friend  is  hardly  made  in  a  year,  but  unmade  in  a  moment ; 
When  safe  remember  danger,  in  peace  forget  not  war ;  Filial 
father,  filial  son,  unfilial  father,  unfilial  son  ;  In  washing  up, 
plates  and  dishes  may  get  broken  ;  Don't  do  what  you  would 

uplands  between  Kwamg-timg,  Kiang-si,  and  Fo-kieni  J.  Dyer  Ball,  Easy  Lessons 
in  the  Hakka  Dialect,  1884.  , 

^  Numerous  in  the  western  parts  of  Kwang-tung  and  in  the  Canton  district. 
J.  Dyer  Ball,  Cantonese  Made  Easy,  Hongkong,  1884. 

^  In  this  expression  "  Pidgin ''  appears  to  be  a  corruption  of  the  word  business 
taken  in  a  very  wide  sense,  as  in  such  terms  as  talkee-pidgin  =2.  conversation, 
discussion ;  singsong  pidgin  =  a  concert,  etc  'It  is  no  unusual  occurrence  for 
persons  from  widely  separated  Chinese  provinces  meeting  in  Eng'land  to  be 
obliged  to  use  this  common  jargon  in  conversation. 

3  For  the  aboriginal  peoples,  with  biblioKrajphy,  see  M.  KenheTly's  translation  of 
L.  Richard's  Compr^ehensive  Geography  of  the  Chinese  Emjiire  and  its  Dependencies, 
1908,  pp.  371-3. 

*  Kung-tse,  " Teacher  Kung,"  or  more  fully  Kung-fu-tse,  "the  eminent  teacher 
Kung,"  which  gives  the  Latinised  forcn  Confucius. 


vi]  Tke  Southern  Mongols  213 

not  have  known ;  Thateh  your  roof  before  the  rain,  dig  the 
well  before  you  thirst ;  The  gambler's  success  is  his  ruin  ; 
Money  goes  to  the  gambling  den  as  the  criminal  to  execution 
(never  returns) ;  Money  hides  many  faults ;  Stop  the  hand, 
stop  the  mouth  (stop  work  and  starve) ;  To  open  a  shop  is 
easy,  to  keep  it  open  hard ;  Win  your  lawsuit  and  lose  your 
money. 

Although  he  instituted  no  religious  system,  Confucius 
nevertheless  enjoined  the  observance  of  the  already  existing 
forms  of  worship,  and  after  death  became  himself  the  object 
of  a  widespread  cult,  which  still  persists.  "In  every  city 
there  is  a  temple,  built  at  the  public  expense,  containing  either 
a  statue  of  the  philosopher,  or  a  tablet  inscribed  with  his  titles. 
Every  spring  and  autumn  worship  is  paid  to  him  in  these 
temples' by  the  chief  official  personages  of  the  city.  In  the 
schools  also,  on  the  first  and  fifteenth  of  each  month,  his  title 
being  written  on  red  paper  and  affixed  to  a  tablet,  worship  is 
performed  in  a  special  room  by  burning  incense  and  candles, 
and  by  prostrations'." 

Taoism,  a  sort  of  pantheistic,  mysticism,  called  by  its 
founder,  Lao-tse  (600  B.C.),  the  Tao,  or  "way  of  salvation," 
was  embodied  in  the  formula  "matter  and  the  _  . 
visible  world  are  merely  manifestations  of  a 
sublime,  eternal,  incomprehensible  principle."  It  taught,  in 
anticipation  of  Sakya-Muni,  that  by  controlling  his  passions 
man  may  escape  or  cut  short  an  endless  series  of  trans- 
migrations, and  thus  arrive  by  the  Tao  at  everlasting  bliss — 
sleep  .''  unconscious  rest  or  absorption  in  the  eternal  essence  ? 
Nirvana .-'  It  is  impossible  to  tell  from  the  lofty  but 
absolutely  unintelligible  language  in  which  the  master's 
teachings  are  wrapped. 

But  it  matters  little,  because  his  disciples  have  long 
forgotten  the  principles  they  never  understood,  and  Taoism 
has  almost  everywhere  been  transformed  to  a  system  of 
magic  associated  with  the  never-dying  primeval  superstitions. 
Originally  there  was  no  hierarchy  of  priests,  the  only  specially 
religious  class  being   th5   Ascetics,    who  passed   their  lives 

1  Kwong  Ki  Chiu,  1881,  p.  875.  Confucius  was  born  in  550  and  died  in 
477  B.C.,  and  to  him  are  at  present  dedicated  as  many  as  1 560  temples,  in  which 
are  observed  real  sacrificial  rites.  For  these  sacrifices  the  State  yearly  supplies 
26,606  sheep,  pigs,  rabbits  and  other  animals,  besides  27,000  pieces  of  silk,  most 
of  which  things,  however,  become  the  "perquisites"  of  the  attendants  in,  the 
sanctuaries. 


214  Man:  Past  and  Present  [gh, 

absorbed  in  the  contemplation  of  the  eternal  verities.  But 
out  of  this  class,  drawn  together  by  their  common  interests,  was 
developed  a  kind  of  monasticism,  with  an  organised  brother- 
hood of  astrologers,  magicians,  Shamanists,  somnambulists, 
"mediums,"  ''thought-readers,"  charlatans  and  impostors  of 
all  sorts,  sheltered  under  a  threadbare  garb  of  religion. 

Buddhism  also,  although  of  foreign  origin,  has  completely 

conformed  to  the  national  spirit,  and  is  now  a  curious  blend 

„  jj^.  of  Hindu  metaphysics  with  the  primitive  Chinese 

Buddhism.  ,..-.  .   .    ^    ^  .        ,.^,        '^ .  . 

belief  m  spirits  and  a  deined  ancestry.  1  n  every 
district  are  practised  diverse  forms  of  worship  between  which 
no  clear  dividing  line  can  be  drawn,  and,  as  in  Annam,  the 
same  persons  may  be  at  once  followers  of  Confucius,  Lao-tse, 
and  Buddha.  In  fact  such  was  the  position  of  the  Emperor, 
who  belonged  ex  officio  to  all  three  of  these  State  religions, 
and  scrupulously  took  part  in  their  various  observances. 
There  is  even  some  truth  in  the  Chinese  view  that  "  all  three 
make  but  one  religion,"  the  first  appealing  to  man's  moral 
nature,  the  second  to  the  instinct  of  self-preservation,  the 
third  to  the, higher  sphere  of  thought  and  contemplation. 

But  behind,  one  might  say  above  it  all,  the  old  animism 
still  prevails,  manifested  in  a  multitude  of  superstitious  practices, 
Fung-shui  and  whose  purport  is  to  appease  the  evil  and  secure 
Ancestry  the  favour  of  the  good  spirits,  the  Feng-shui  or 

Worship.  .  Fung-shui,  "air  and  water"  genii,  who  have  to 
be  reckoned  with  in  all  the  weightiest  as  well  as  the  most 
trivial  occurrences  of  daily  life.  These  with  the  ghosts  of 
their  ancestors,  by  whom  the  whole  land  is  haunted,  are  the 
bane  of  the  Chinaman's  existence.  Everything  depends  on 
maintaining  a  perfect  balance  between  the  Fung-shui,  that  is, 
the  two  principles  represented  by  the  "White  Tiger"  and 
the  "Azure  Dragon,"  who  guard  the  approaches  of  every 
dwelling,  and  whose  opposing  influences  have  to  be  nicely 
adjusted  by  the  well-paid  professors  of  the  magic  arts.  At 
the  de-ath  of  the  emperor  Tung  Chih  (1875)  a  great  difficulty 
was  raised  by  the  State  astrologers,  who  found  that  the  realm 
would  be  endangered  if  he  were  bifried,  according  to  rule,  in 
the  imperial  cemetery  100  miles  west  of  Pekin,  as  his  father 
reposed  in  the  other  imperial  cemetery  situated  the  same 
distance  east  of  the  capital.  For  some  subtle  reason  the 
balance  would  have  been  disturbed  between  Tiger  and  Dragon, 
and  it  took  nine  months  to  settle  the  point,  during  which,  as 


VI  ]  The  Southern  Mongols  215 

reported  by  the  American  Legation,  the  whole  empire  was 
stirred,  councils  of  State  agitated,  and  ;^50,ooo  expended  to 
decide  where  the  remains  of  a  worthless  and  vicious  young 
man  should  be  interred. 

Owing  to  the  necessary  disturbance  of  the  ancestral  burial 
places,  much  trouble  has  been  anticipated  in  the  construction 
of  the  railways,  for  which  concessions  have  now  been  granted 
to  European  syndicates.  But  an  Englishman  long  resident 
in  the  country  has  declared  that  there  will  be  no  resistance  on 
the  part  of  the  people.  "  The  dead  can  be  removed  with  due 
regard  to  Fung  Shui ;  a  few  dollars  will  make  that  all  right." 
This  is  fully  in  accordance  with  the  thrifty  character  of  the 
Chinese,  which  overrides  all  other  considerations,  as  expressed 
in  the  popular  saying :  "  With  money  you  may  move  the 
gods  ;  without  it  you  cannot  move  men."  But  the  gods  may 
even  be  moved  without  money,  or  at  least  with  spurious 
paper  money,  for  ft  is  a  fixed  belief  of  their  votaries  that,  like 
mortals,  they  may  be  outwitted  by  such  devices.  When 
rallied  for  burning  flash  notes  at  a  popular  shrine,  since  no 
spirit-bank  would  cash  them,  a  Chinaman  retorted :  "  Why 
me  burn  good  note  ?  Joss  no  can  savvy."  In  a  similar 
spirit  the  god  of  war  is  hoodwinked  by  wooden  boards  hung 
on  the  ramparts  of  Pekin  and  pairtted  to  look  like  heavy 
ordnance. 

In  fact  appearance,  outward  show,  observance  of  the 
"  eleventh  commandment,"  in  a  word  "  face,"  as  it  is  called,  is 
everything  in  China.  "  To  understand,  however  imperfectly, 
what  is  meant  by  '  face,'  we  must  take  account  of  the  fact  that 
as  a  race  the  Chinese  have  a  strong  dramatic  instinct.  Upon 
very  slight  provocation  any  Chinese  regards  himself  in  the 
light  of  an  actor  in  a  drama.  A  Chinese  thinks  in  theatrical 
terms.  If  his  troubles  are  adjusted  he  speaks  of  himself  as 
having  '  got  off  the  stage '  with  credit,  and  if  they  are  not 
adjusted  he  finds  no  way  to  '  retire  from  the  stage.'  The 
question  is  never  of  facts,  but  always  of  form.  Once  rightly 
apprehended,  '  face '  will  be  found  to  be  in  itself  a  key  to  the 
combination-lock  of  many  of  the  most  important  characteristics 
of  the  Chinese^" 

*  Arthur  H.  Smith,  Chinese  Characteristics,  New  York,  1895.  The  good,  or 
at  least  the  useful,  qualities  of  the  Chinese  are  stated  by  this  shrewd  observer  to 
be  a  love  of  industry,  peace,  and  social  order,  a  matchless  patience  and  for- 
bearance under  wrongs  and  evils  beyond  cure,  a  happy  temperament,  no  nerves, 
and  "a  digestion  like  that  of  an  ostrich."    See  also  H.  A.  Giles,  China  and  the 


2i6  Man:   Past  and  Present  [Ch. 

Of  foreign  religions  Islam,  next  to  Buddhism,  has  made 
most  progress.  Introduced  by  the  early  Arab  and  Persian 
traders,  and  zealously  preached  throughout  the 
islamand  Jagratai  empire   in  the   twelfth   century,    it   has 

secured  a  firm  footmg  especially  m  Kan-su, 
Shen-si,  and  Yunnan,  and  is  of  course  dominant  in  Eastern 
(Chinese)  Turkestan.  Despite  the  wholesale  butcheries  that 
followed  the  repeated  insurrections  between  1855  and  1877, 
the  Hoet-Hoe't,  Pantkays,  or  Dungans,  as  the  Muhammadans 
are  variously  called,  were  still  estimated,  in  1898,  at  about 
22,000,000  in  the  whole  empire. 

Islam  was  preceded  by  Christianity,  which,  as  attested  by 
the  authentic  inscription  of  Si-ngan-fu,  penetrated  into  the 
western  provinces  under  the  form  of  Nestorianism  about  the 
seventh  century.  The  famous  Roman  Catholic  missions  with 
headquarters  at  Pekin  date  from  the  close  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  and  despite  internal  dissensions  have  had  a  fair 
measure  of  success,  the  congregations  comprising  altogether 
over  one  million  members.  Protestant  missions  date  from  1807 
(London  Missionary  Society)  and  in  19 10  claimed  over  200,000 
church  members  and  baptized  Christians,  the  total  having 
more  than  doubled  since  igoo'. 

The  above-mentioned  dissensions  arose  out  of  the  practices 
associated  with  ancestry  worship,  offerings  of  flowers,  fruits 
and  so  forth,  which  the  Jesuits  regarded  merely  as  proofs  of 
filial  devotion,  but  were  denounced  by  the  Dominicans  as  acts 
of  idolatry.  After  many  years  of  idle  controversy,  the  question 
was  at  last  decided  against  the  Jesuits  by  Clement  XI  in  the 
fa,mous  Bull,  Ex  ilia  die  (1715),  and  since  then,  neophytes 
having  to  renounce  the  national  cult  of  their  forefathers,  con- 
versions have  mainly  been  confined  to  the  lower  classes,  too 
humble  to  boast  of  any  family  tree,  or  too  poor  to  commemorate 
the  dead  by  ever-recurring  costly  sepulchral  rites. 

In  China  there  are  no  hereditary  nobles,  indeed  no  nobles 
at  all,  unless  it  be  the  rather  numerous  descendants  of  Confucius 
who  dwell  together  and  enjoy  certain  social  privileges,  in  this 
somewhat  resembling  the  Shorfa  (descendants  of  the  Prophet) 
in  Muhammadan  lands.     If  any  titles  have  to  be  awarded  for 

Chinese^  igo2 ;  E.  H.  Parker,  John  Chinaman  and  a  Few  Others^  igoi ;  J.  Dyer 
Ball,  Things  Chinese,  1903 ;  and  M.  Kennelly  in  Richard's  Comprehensive  Geography 
of  the  Chinese  Empire  and  its  Dependencies,  1908. 

1  See  Contemporary  Review,  Feb.  1908,  "  Report  on  Christian  Missions  in 
China,"  by  Mr  F.  W.  Fox,  Professor  Macsdister  and  Sir  Alekander  Simpson. 


vi]  The  Southern  Mongols  217 

great  deeds  they  fall,  not  on  the  hero,  but  on  his  forefathers, 
and  thus  at  a  stroke  of  the  vermilion  pencil  are  ennobled 
countless  past  generations,  while  the  last  of  the  line  remains 
unhonoured  until  he  goes  over  to  the  majority.  Between  the 
Emperor,  "  patriarch  of  his  people,"  and  the  people  themselves, 
however,  there  stood  an  aristocracy  of  talent,  or 
at  least  of  Chinese  scholarship,  the  governing  Jf^^sg^*"**"^ 
Mandarin^  class,  which  was  open  to  the  highest 
and  the  lowest  alike.  All  nominations  to  office  were  conferred 
exclusively  on  the  successful  competitors  at  the  public  examina- 
tions, so  that,  like  the  French  conscript  with  the  hypothetical 
Marshal's  baton  in  his  knapsack,  every  Chinese  citizen  carried 
the  buttoned  cap  of  official  rank  in  his  capacious  sleeve.  Of 
these  there  are  nine  grades,  indicated  respectively  in  descending 
order  by  the  ruby,  red  coral,  sapphire,  opaque  blue,  crystal, 
white  shell,  gold  (two),  and  silver  button,  or  rather  little 
globe,  on  the  cap  of  office,  with  which  correspond  the  nine 
birds — manchu  crane,  golden  pheasant,  peacock,  wild  goose, 
silver  pheasant,  egret,  mandarin  duck,  quail,  and  jay — em- 
broidered on  the  breast  and  back  of  the  State  robe. 

Theoretically  the  system  is  admirable,  and  at  all  events  is 
better  than  appointments  by  Court  favour.  But  in  practice  it 
was  vitiated,  first  by  the  narrow,  antiquated  course  of  studies  in 
the  dry  Chinese  classics,  calculated  to  produce  pedants  rather 
than  statesmen,  and  secondly  by  the  monopoly  of  preference 
which  it  conferred  on  a  lettered  caste  to  the  exclusion  of  men  of 
action,  vigour,  and  enterprise.  Moreover,  appointments  being 
made  for  life,  barring  crime  or  blunder,  the  Mandarins,  as 
long  as  they  approved  themselves  zealous  supporters  of  the 
reigning  dynasty,  enjoyed  a  free  hand  in  amassing  wealth  by 
plunder,  and  the  wealth  thus  acquired  was  used  to  purchase 
further  promotion  and  advancement,  rather  than  to  improve 
the  welfare  of  the  people. 

They  have  the  reputation  of  being  a  courteous  people, 
as  punctilious  as  the  Malays  themselves ;  and  they  are  so 
amongst  each  other.  But  their  attitude  towards  strangers  is 
the  embodiment  of  aggressive  self-righteousness,  a  complacent 
feeling  of  superiority  which  nothing  can  disturb.  Even  the 
upper  classes,  with  all  their  efforts  to  be  at  least  polite,  often 

1  A  happy  Portuguese  coinage  from  the  Malay  mantri,  a  state  minister,  which 
is  the  Sanskrit  mantrin,  a  counsellor,  from  mantra,  a  sacred  text,  a  counsel,  from 
Aryan  root  man,  to  think,  know,  whence  also  the  EngHsh  mind. 


2i8  Man:   Past  and  Present  [ch.  vi 

betray  the  feeling  in  a  subdued  arrogance  which  is  not  always 
to  be  distinguished  from  vulgar  insolence.  "After  the 
courteous,  kindly  Japanese,  the  Chinese  seem  indifferent,, 
rough,  and  disagreeable,  except  the  well-to-do  merchants  in 
the  shops,  who  are  bland,  complacent,  and  courteous.  Their 
rude  stare,  and  the-  way  they  hustle  you  in  the  streets  and 
shout  their  'pidjun'  English  at  you  is  not  attractive'."  But 
the  stare,  the  hustling  and  the  shouting  may  not  be  due  to 
incivility.  No  doubt  the  Chinaman  regards  the  foreigner  as 
a  "  devil "  but  he  has  reason,  and  he  never  ceases  to  be 
astonished  at  foreign  manners  and  customs  "extremely  fero- 
cious and  almost  entirely  uncivilised^" 

1  Miss  Bird  (Mrs  Bishop),  The  Golden  Chersonese,  1883,  p.  37. 

*  H.  A.  Giles,  The  Civilisation  of  China,  191 1,  p.  237.  See  especially  Chap.  XI., 
"  Chinese  and  Foreigners,"  for  the  etiquette  of  street  regulations  and  the  habit  of 
shouting  conversation. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE    OCEANIC    MONGOLS 

Range  of  the  Oceanic  Mongols— The  term  "Malay"— The  Historical  Malays- 
Malay  Cradle— Migrations  and  Present  Range— The  Malayans— The  Java- 
nese— Balinese  and  Sassaks — Hindu  Legends  in  Bali — The  Malayan  Sea- 
farers and  Rovers — Malaysia  and  Pelasgia  :  a  Historical  Parallel — Malayan 
Folklore — Borneo — Punan  —  Klemantan — Bahau-Kenyah-Kayan — Iban  (Sea 
Dayak) — Summary  —  Religion  —  Early  Man  and  his  Works  in  Sumatra — 
The  Mentawi  Islanders— Javanese  and  Hindu  Influences— The  Malajfsian 
Alphabets — The  Battas :  Cultured  Cannibals— Hindu  and  Primitive  Survivals 
— The  Achinese — Early  Records — Islam  and  Hindu  Reminiscences — Ethnical 
Relations  in  Madagascar — Prehistoric  Peoples — Oceanic  Immigrants — Negroid 
Element — Arab  Element — Uniformity  of  Language — Malagasy  Gothamites — 
Partial  Fusion  of  Races— Hova  Type — Black  Element  from  Africa— Mental 
Qualities  of  the  Malagasy — Spread  of  Christianity — Culture — Malagasy  Folk- 
lore— The  Philippine  Natives — Effects  of  a  Christian  Theocratic  Government 
on  the  National  Character — Social  Groups:  the  Iridios,  the  Infielos,  and  the 
Moros — Malayans  and  Indonesians  in  Formosa — The  Chinese  Settlers — 
Racial  and  Linguistic  Affinities — ^Formosa  a  Connecting  Link  between  the 
Continental  and  Oceanic  Populations — ^^The  Nicobarese. 

Conspectus. 
Present     Ranee.     Indonesia,   Philippines,      ^.  ^  „  ^. 

n-  \T-     1.        r       n/r^ *^ Distribution. 

Formosa,  Ntcooar  Is.,  Madagascar. 

riair,   same  as   Southern   Mongols,    scant   or  no   beard. 

Colour,  yellowish  or  olive  brown,  yellow  tint 

sometimes  very 'faint  or  absent,  Ught  leathery  hue      characters. 

com-mofi  in  Madagascar. 


true  Mongol.  Nose,  rather  snmll^ften  straight  with  ■widish 
nostrils  {mesorrtiine).  Eyes,  black,  medium,  size ^  horizontal 
or  slightly  oblique,  often  wWinWongoTJold.  Stature,  under- 
sized, from  1-52  m.  to  1-65  m.  (.S  ft.,  to  .q  /^  5  jWj^  Lips, 
'thickish^jHgJtt^_  ^rotruding,jinclke^  ajittle_  apart  in  repose. 
Arms  and  legs,  rather  small,  slender  and  deliccdejj^^^ 

^  ^WiCitlL 

TempemflaeiUL.    Normally  quiet,  reserved  and  taciturn. 


220  Man  :   Past  and  Present  [ch. 

but  under  excitement  subject  to  fits  of  blind  fi^ig> :  fairly  in- 

"lelligent,  polite  and  ceremonious,  but  unc'eridin, 

rw^!f»,=       "untfiistworthy,    and  even   treacherous;    daring, 

adventurous  and  ZMimi.;  MMUMi  MitJasimaU^ 

crml^though  indifferent  to  physical  snfferingin^MtJkexs. 

Speech,  varidujbranches_^of  a  single  stock  lan^uaze — 
the  Austronesian  (Oceanic  or  Malayo-Polynesian),  at 
different  stages  of  aggluttnatwn. 

~  Religion,  of  the  primitive  Malayans  somewhat  un- 
developed— a  vague  dread  of  ghosts  and  other  spirits,  but  rites 
and  ceremonies  mainly  absent,  although  human  sacrifices  to  the 
departed  occui'red  in  Borneo ;  the  cultured  Malayans  formerly 
Hindus  (^Brahman,  and  Buddhist),  now  mostly  Moslem,  but  in 
the  Philippines  and  Madagascar  Christian;  belief  in  witch- 
^craft,  charms,  and  spells  everywhere  prevalent. 

Culture,  of  the  primitive  Malayans  very  low — head-hunting, 
mutilation,  common  in  Borneo;  hunting,  fishing;  no  agri- 
culture; sim.ple  arts  and  industries;  the  Moslem  and  Christian 
Malayans  semi-civilised;  the  industrial  arts — weaving,  dyeing, 
pottery,  metal-work,  also  trade,  navigation,  house  and  boat- 
building— well  developed;  architecture  form-erly  flourishing  in 
Java  under  Hindu  influences;  letters  widespread  even  amongst 
I  som,e  of  the  rude  Malayans,  but  literature  and  science  rudi- 
\jnentary;   rich  oral  folklore. 

Malayans  (Proto-Malays):  Lampongs,  Rejangs,  Battas, 
Achinese,  and  Palembangs  in  Sumatra  ;  Sundanese,  Javanese 
Mdi  D"  ■  ■  proper,^nd  Madurese  in  Java;  Dayaks  in  Borneo; 
Balinese;  Sassaks  [Lombok);  Bugis  and  Mang- 
kassaras  in  Celebes;  Tagalogs,  Visayas,  Bicols,  Ilocanos  and 
Pangasinanes  in  Philippines;  Aborigines  of  Formosa;  Nic&bar 
Islanders;  Hovas,  Betsimisarakas,  and  Sakalavas  in  Mada- 
gascar. 

Malays  Proper  {Historzcal  Malays):  Menangkabau 
{SumatrcC);  Malay  Peninsula;  Pinang,  Singapore,  Lingga, 
Bangka;  Borneo  Coastlands;  Tidor,  Temate;  Amboina; 
Parts  of  the  Sulu  Archipelago. 

In  the  Oceanic  domain,  which  for  ethnical  purposes  begins 

at  the  neck  of  the  Malay  Peninsula,  the  Mongol  peoples  range 

Range  of  the     ffom   Madagascar   eastwards   to    Formosa   and 

Oceanic  Micronesia,   but  are    found  in  compact  masses 

Mongols.         chiefly  on  the  mainland,  in  the  Sunda  Islands 


vii]  The  Oceanic  Mongols  221 

(Sumatra,  Java,  Bali,  Lombok,  Borneo,  Celebes)  and  in  the 
Philippines.  Even  here  they  have  mingled  in  many  places 
with  other  populations,  forming  fresh  ethnical  groups,  in 
which  the  Mongol  element  is  not  always  conspicuous.  Such 
fusions  have  taken  place  with  the  Negrito  aborigines  in 
the  Malay  Peninsula  and  the  Philippines ;  with  Papuans  in 
Micronesia,  Flores,  and  other  islands  east  of  Lombok ;  with 
dolichocephalic  Indonesians  in  Sumatra,  Borneo,  Celebes, 
Halmahera  (Jilolo),  parts  of  the  Philippines',  and  perhaps  also 
Timor  and  Ceram ;  and  with  African  negroes  {Bantu)  in 
Madagascar.  To  unravel  some  of  these  racial  entanglements 
is  one  of  the  most  difficult  tasks  in  anthropology,  and  in  the 
absence  of  detailed  information  cannot  yet  be  everywhere 
attempted  with  any  prospect  of  success. 

The  problem  has  been  greatly,  though  perhaps  inevitably 
complicated    by    the    indiscriminate    extension    of  the    term 
"  Malay"  to  all  these  and  even  to  other  mixed 
Oceanic  populations  farther  east,  as,  for  instance,      "  Mau^- 
in  the  expression  "Malayo-Polynesian,"  applied 
by  many  writers  not  oinly  in  a  linguistic,  but  also  in  an  ethnical 
sense,  to  most  of  the  insular  peoples  from  Madagascar  to  Easter 
Island,  and  from    Hawaii  to   New   Zealand.     It  is   now  of 
course  too  late  to  hope  to  remedy  this  misuse  of  terms  by 
proposing  a  fresh  nomenclature.     But  much  of  the  consequent 
confusion  will  be  avoided  by  restricting  MaJayo-Pplynesian^ 
altogether  to  linp^uistic  piatter.s,  and  carelullv  di'strnguishing 
between  Indonesiian^  the  pre-Malay jdoIkhocepiialic,,elemeJi!t 
in  Oceania^  Malayan  or  Proto-Mal^-an.  co\\ect\w&  na.m&  oi 

1  Here  E.  T.  Hamy  finds  connectii^  links  between  the  true  Malays  and  the 
Indonesians  in  the  Bicoils  of  Albay  and  the  Bisayas  of  Panay  ("  Les  Races  Malai- 
ques  et  Am6ricaines,"  in  E Anthrapolegie,  1896,  p.  136).  Used  in  this  extended 
sense,  Hamy's  Malaique  corresponds  generally  to  our  Malayan  as  defined  presently. 

2  Ethnically  Malayo-Polynesian  is  an  impossible  expression,  because  it  links 
together  the  Malays,  who  belong  to  the  Mongol,  and  the  Polynesians,  who  belong 
to  the  Caucasic  division.  But  as  both  undoubtedly  speak  languages  of  -the  same 
linguistic  stock  the  expression  is  permitted  in  philology,  although,  as  P.  W.  Schmidt 
points  out,  "  Malay  "  and  "  Polynesian  "  are  not  of  equal  rank :  and  the  combination 
is  as  unbalanced  as  "  Indo-Bavarian  "  far  "  Indo-Germanic  " ;  it  is  best  therefore  to 
adopt  Schmidt's  term  Austronesian  for  this  family  of  languages  {Die  Mon-Khmer 
Volker,  1906,  p.  69). 

3  Indonesian  type :  uiiduilating'  black  hair,  often  tinged  with  red ;  tawny  skin,  ciften 
rather  light;  low  stature,  i"54m.— rS7  m.  (5  ft.  o|  in.— 5  ft.  if  in.);  mesaticephalic 
head  (76-78)  probably  originally  dolichoceiphalic  ;  cheek-bones  sometimes  pro- 
jecting; nose  often  flattened,  sometimes  concave.  It  is  difficult  to  isolate  this  ty.pe 
as  it  has  almost  everywhere  been  mixed  with  a  brachycephalic  Prcto-Malay  stock, 
but  the  Muruts  of  Borneo  (cranial  index  73)  are  iptiobahty  itypical  (A.  C.  iladdon, 
The  Races  of  Man,  1909,  p.  14). 


222  Man  :   Past  and  Present  [ch. 

all  the  Oceanic  Mongols,  who  are  brachycephals.  and  Malay 
a'particuiar  Sranch  of  the  W:S^ixi~^^^'^_^^^^^^a^ 
J  \n  JilM^gy,  pp.  326-3o\ 

^^      The  essential  point  to  remember  is  that  the  true  Malays-^ 
who  call  themselves  Orang-Maldyu,  speak  the  standard  but 
quite    modern    Malay    language,    and    are   all 
The  Historical    Muhammadans — are   a   historical    people    who 

Malays.  ,  .  .     .      .        ^      ^       . 

appear  on  the  scene  in  relatively  recent  times, 

ages  after  the  insular'  world  had  been  occupied  by  the  Mongol 

peoples  to  whom  their  name  has  been  extended,  but  who 

-  never  call  themselves  Malays.     The  Orany-Malavu.  who  have ' 

acquired  such  an  astonishing  predominance  in  the   Eastern 

Archipelago,   were  originally  an  obscure  tribe  who  rose..to 

power  in  the  Menangkabau  district,  Sumalra.  not  before  tne 

twelfth  centuryT'ana  whose  migrations  date, only  from  about 

tKe~"y^r~Tf66  "a-dT     At  this  time,   according  to  the  native 

'  "record^s"^",' was  founded  th^  first  foreign  settlerjient,  Singapore, 

a  pure  Sanskrit  name  meaning  the  "  Lion  City/'  from  which 

it  might  be  inferred  that  these  first  settlers  were  not  Muham- 

madans,  as  is  commonly  assumed,  but  Brahmans  or  Buddhists, 

both    these    forms    of    Hinduism    having   been    propagated 

.throughout  Sumatra  and  the  other  Sunda  Islands  centuries 

before  this  time.  It  is  also  noteworthy  that  the 
Prwen^rRLTge^    '^^''^y  settlers  On  the  mainland  are  stated  to  have 

been  pagans,  or  to  have  professed  some  corrupt 
form  of  Hindu  idolatry,  till  their  conversion  to  Islam  by  the 
renowned  Sultan  Mahmud  Shah  about  the  middle  of  the 
thirteenth  century.  It  is  therefore  probable  enough  that  the 
earlier  movements  were  carried  out  under  Hindu  influences, 
and  may  have  begun  long  before  the  historical  date  1160. 
Menangkabau,  however,  was  the  first  Mussulman  State  that 
acquired  political  supremacy  in  Sumatra,  and  this  district  thus 
became  the  chief  centre  for  the  later  diffusion  of  the  cultured 
Malays,  their  language,  usages,  and  religion,,  throughout  the 
Peninsula  and  the  Archipelago.  Here  they  are  now  found  in 
compact  masses  chiefly  in  south  Sumatra  (Menangkabau, 
Palembang,  the  Lampongs) ;  in  all  the  insblar  groups  between 
Sumatra  and  Borneo ;  in  the  Malay  Peninsula  as  far  north  as 

1  Recent  literature  on  this  area  includes  F.  A.  Swettenham,  The  Real  Malay, 
1900,  British  Malaya,  1906;  W.  W.  Skeat,  Malay  Magic,  1900;  N.  Annandale 
and  H.  C.  Robinson,  Fasciculi  Malayenses,  1903;  W.  W.  Skeat  and  C.  O.  Blagden, 
Pagan  Races  of  the  Malay  Peninsula,  1903. 

2  J.  Leyden,  Malay  Annals,  1821,  p.  44. 


vii]  The  Oceanic  Mongols  223 

the  Kra  Isthmus,  here  intermingling  with  the  Siamese  as  "Sam- 
Sams,"  partly  Buddhists,  partly  Muhammadans ;  round  the 
coast  of  Borneo  and  about  the  estuaries  of  that  island ;  in  Tidor, 
Ternate,  and  the  adjacent  coast  of  Jilolo  ;  in  the  Banda,  Sula, 
and  Sulu  groups;  in  Batavia,  Singapore,  and  all  the  other 
large  seaports  of  the  Archipelago.  In  all  these  lands  beyond 
Sumatra  the  Orang-Maldyu  are  thus  seen  to  be  comparatively 
recent  arrivalsS  and  in  fact  intruders  on  the  other  Malayan 
populations,  with  whom  they  collectively  constitute  the  Oceanic 
branch  of  the  Mongol  division.  Their  diffusion  was  every- 
where brought  about  much  in  the  same  way  as  in  Ternate, 
where  A.  R.  Wallace  tells  us  that  the  ruling  people  "are  an 
intrusive  Malay  race  somewhat  allied  to  the  Macassar  people, 
who  settled  in  the  country  at  a  very  early  epoch,  drove  out 
the  indigenes,  who  were  no  doubt  the  same  as  those  of  the 
adjacent  island  of  Gilolo,  and  established  a  monarchy.  They 
perhaps  obtained  many  of  their  wives  from  the  natives,  which 
will  account  for  the  extraordinary  language  they  speak — in  some 
respects  closely  allied  to  that  of  the  natives  of  Gilolo,  while  it 
contains  much  that  points  to  a  Malayan  [Malay]  origin.  To 
most  of  these  people  the  Malay  language  is  quite  unintelli- 
gible^" 

The  Malayan  populations,  as  distinguished  from  the  Malays 
proper,  form  socially  two  very  distinct  classes — the  Orang 
Benua,    "Men    of  the    Soil,"    rude    aborigines,    The  Malayans- 
numerous  especially  in  the  interior  of  the  Malay   two  Classes ; 
Peninsula,     Borneo,     Celebes,     Jilolo,     Timor,    Rude  and 
Ceram,   the    Philippines,    Formosa,   and   Mada- 
gascar ;  and  the  cultured  peoples,  formerly  Hindus  but  now 
mostly    Muhammadans,  who  have   long  been  constituted  in 
large  communities  and   nationalities  with  historical  records, 
and  flourishing  arts  and  industries.     They  speak  cultivated 
languages  of  the  Austronesian  family,  generally  much  better 
preserved    and    of    richer    grammatical    structure    than    the 
simplified  modern  speech  of  the  Orang-Maldyu.     Such  are 
the   Achinese,    Rejangs,    and   Passumahs   of  Sumatra ;    the 


1  In  some  places  quite  recent,  as  in  Rembau,  Malay  Peninsula,  whose  inhabitants 
are  mainly  immigrants  from  Sumatra  in  the  seventeenth  century;  and  in  the 
neighbouring  group  of  petty  Negri  Sembilan  States,  where  the  very  tribal  names, 
such  as  Anak  Acheh,  and  Sri  Lemak  Menangkabau,  betray  their  late  arrival  from 
the  Sumatran  districts  of  Achin  and  Menangkabau. 

2  The  Malay  Archipelago,  p.  310. 


224  Man  :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

Bugis,  Mangkassaras  and  some  Minahasans  of  Celebes' ;  the 
Tagalogs  and  Visayas  of  the  Philippines ;  the  Sassaks  and 
Balinese  of  Lombok  and  Bali  (most  of  these  still  Hindus) ; 
the  Madurese  and  Javanese  proper  of  Java  ;  and  the  Hovas  of 
Madagascar.  To  call  any  of  these  "  Malays^"  is  like  calling 
the  Italians  "  French,"  or  the  Germans  "  English,"  because  of 
their  respective  Romance  and  Teutonic  connections. 

Preeminent  in  many  respects  amongst  all  the  Malayan 
peoples  are  the  Javanese — Sundanese  in  the  west,  Javanese 
proper  in  the  centre,  Madurese  in  the  east— who 
e  Javanese.  Tj^gj-e  a  highly  civilised  nation  while  the  Sumatran 
Malays  were  still  savages,  perhaps  head-hunters  and  cannibals 
like  the  neighbouring  Battas.  Although  now  almost  exclu- 
sively Muhammadans,  they  had  already  adopted  some  form  of 
Hinduism  probably  over  2000  years  ago,  and  under  the 
guidance  of  their  Indian  teachers  had  rapidly  developed  a  very 
advanced  state  of  culture.  "  Under  a  completely  organised 
although  despotic  government,  the  arts  of  peace  and  war  were 
brought  to  considerable  perfection,  and  the  natives  of  Java 
became  famous  throughout  the  East  as  accomplished  musicians 
and  workers  in  gold,  iron  and  copper,  none  of  which  metals  were 
found  in  the  island  itself  They  possessed  a  regular  calendar 
with  astronomical  eras,  and  a  metrical  literature,  in  which, 
however,  history  was  inextricably  blended  with  romance. 
Bronze'  and  stone  inscriptions  in  the  Kavi,  or  old  Javanese 
language,  still  survive  from  the  eleventh  or  twelfth  century, 
and  to  the  same  dates  may  be  referred  the  vast  ruins  of 
Brambanam  and  the  stupendous  temple  of  Boro-budor  in  the 
centre  of  the  island.  There  are  few  statues  of  Hindu 
divinities  in  this  temple,  but  many  are  found  in  its  immediate 
vicinity,  and  from  the  various  archaeological  objects  collected  in 

1  For  Celebes  see  Von  Paul  und  Friu  Sarasin,  Reisen  in  Celebes  ausgefUhrt  in 
den  Jahren  i8gj-6  und  igoz-j,  1905,  and  Versuch  einer  Anthropplogie  der  Jnsel 
Celebes,  1905. 

2  In  1898  a  troop  of  Javanese  minstrels  visited  London,  and  one  of  them,  whom 
I  addressed  in  a  few  broken  Malay  sentences,  resented  in  his  sleepy  way  the 
imputation  that  he  was  an  Orang-Maldyu,  explaining  that  he  was  Orang  Java, 
a  Javanese,  and  (when  further  questioned)  Orang  Solo,  a  native  of  the  Solo 
district,  East  Java.  It  was  interesting  to  notice  the  very  marked  Mongolic  features 
of  these  natives,  vividly  recalling  the  remark  of  A.  R.  Wallace,  on  the  difficulty  of 
distinguishing  between  a  Javanese  and  a  Chinaman  when  both  are  dressed  alike. 
The  resemblance  may  to  a  small  extent  be  due  to  "mixture  with  Chinese  blood" 
(B.  Hagen,  Jour.  Anthrep.  Soc.  Vienna,  1889) ;  but  occurs  over  such  a  wide  area 
that  it  must  mainly  be  attributed  to  the  common  origin  of  the  Chinese  and  Javanese 
peoples. 


vii]  The  Oceanic  Mongols  225 

the  district  it  is  evident  that  both  the  Buddhist  and  Brahmanic^l 
forms  of  Hinduism  were  introduced  at  an  early  date. 

"But  all  came  to  an  end  by  the  overthrow  of  the  chief 
Hindu  power  in  1478,  after  which  event  Islam  spread  rapidly 
over  the  whole  of  Java  and  Madura.  Brahmanism,  however, 
still  holds  its  ground  in  Bali  and  Lombok,  the  last  strongholds 
of  Hinduism  in  the  Eastern  Archipelago'." 

On  the  obscure  religious   and   social   relations   in  these 
Lesser  Sundanese   Islands  much  light  has  been  thrown  by 
Capt.  W.  Cool,  an  English  translation  of  whose 
work  With  the  Dutch  in  the  East  was  issued  by      g^^ks  *"** 
E.  J.  Taylor  in  1897.     Here  it  is  shown  how 
Hinduism,   formerly    dominant   throughout  a   great   part   of 
Malaysia,  gradually  yielded  in  some  places  to  a  revival  of  the 
never  extinct  primitive  nature-worship,  in  others  to  the  spread 
of  Islam,  which  in  Bali  alone  failed  to  gain  a  footing.     In  this 
island  a  curious  mingling  of  Buddhist  and  Brahmanical  forms 
with  the  primordial  heathendom  not  only  persisted,  but  was 
strong  enough  to  acquire  the  political  ascendancy  over  the 
Mussulman  Sassaks  of  the  neighbouring  island     primitive  and 
of  Lombok.     Thus  while  Islam  reigns  exclusively     later  Religions 
in  Java — formerly  the  chief  domain  of  Hinduism     and  Cultures, 
in    the    Archipelagb  —  Bali,    Lombok,    and    even    Sumbawa, 
present  the  strange  spectacle  of  large  communities  professing 
every  form  of  belief,  from  the  grossest  heathendom  to  pure 
monotheism. 

As  I  have  elsewhere  pointed  out'',  it  is  the  same  with  the 
cultures  and  general  social  conditions,  which  show  an  almost 
unbroken  transition  from  the  savagery  of  Sumbawa  to  the 
relative  degrees  of  refinement  reached  by  the  natives  of 
Lombok  and  especially  of  Bali.  Here,  however,  owing  to  the 
unfavourable  political  relations,  a  retrograde  movement  is 
perceptible  in  the  crumbling  temples,  grass-grown  highways, 
and  neglected  homesteads.  But  it  is  everywhere  evident 
enough  that  "just  as  Hinduism  has  only  touched  the  outer 
surface  of  their  religion,  it  has  failed  to  penetrate  into  their 
social  institutions,  which,  like  their  gods,  originate  from  the 
time  when  Polynesian  heathendom  was  all  powerfuP." 

A  striking  illustration  of  the  vitality  of  the  early  beliefs  is 

'  A.  H.  Keane,  Eastern  Geography,  2nd  ed.  1892,  p.  121. 
2  Academy,  May  I,  1897,  p.  469. 
'  Cool,  p.  139. 

K.  .  IS 


226  Man :   Past  and  Present  [ch. 

presented  by  the  local  traditions,  which  relate  how  these  foreign 
gods  installed  themselves  in  the  Lesser  Sundanese 
S'Btu.^^^^"''^  Islands  after  their  expulsion  from  Java  by  the 
Muhammadans  in  the  fifteenth  century.  Being 
greatly  incensed  at  the  introduction  of  the  Koran,  and  also 
anxious  to  avoid  contact  with  the  "foreign  devils,"  the 
Hindu  deities  moved  eastwards  with  the  intention  of  setting 
up  their  throne  in  Bali.  But  Bali  already  possessed  its  own 
gods,  the  wicked  Rakshasas,  who  fiercely  resented-  the 
intrusion,  but  in  the  struggle  that  ensued  were  annihilated, 
all  but  the  still  reigning  Mraya  Dewana.  Then  the  new 
thrones  had  to  be  erected  on  heights,  as  in  Java;  but  at 
that  time  there  were  no  mountains  in  Bali,  which  was  a  very 
flat  country.  So  the  difificulty  was  overcome  by  bodily  trans- 
ferring the  four  hills  at  the  eastern  extremity  of  Java  to  the 
neighbouring  island.  Gunong  Agong,  highest  of  the  four, 
was  set  down  in  the  east,  and  became  the  Olympus  of  Bali, 
while  the  other  three  were  planted  in  the  west,  south,  and  north, 
and  assigned  to  the  different  gods  according  to  their  respective 
ranks.  Thus  were  at  once  explained  the  local  theogony  and 
the  present  physical  features  of  the  island. 

Despite  their  generally  quiet,  taciturn  demeanour,  all  these 
Sundanese  peoples  are  just  as  liable  as  the  Orang-Malayu 
R  Am  k    himself,  to  those  sudden  outbursts  of  demoniacal 

frenzy  and  homicidal  mania  called  by  them  meng- 
dmok,  and  by  us  "running  amok."  Indeed  A.  R.  Wallace 
tells  us  that  such  wild  outbreaks  occur  more  frequently  (about 
one  or  two  every  month)  amongst  the  civilised  Mangkassaras 
and  Bugis  of  south  Celebes  than  elsewhere  in  the  Archipelago. 
"It  is  the  national  and  therefore  the  honourable  mode  of 
committing  suicide  among  the  natives  of  Celebes,  and  is  the 
fashionable  way  of  escaping  from  their  difficulties.  A  Roman 
fell  upon  his  sword,  a  Japanese  rips  up  his  stomach,  and  an 
Englishman  blows  out  his  brains  with  a  pistol.  The  Bugis 
mode  has  many  advantages  to  one  suicidically  inclined. 
A  man  thinks  himself  wronged  by  society — he  is  in  debt  and 
cannot  pay — he  is  taken  for  a  slave  or  has  gambled  away  his 
wife  or  child  into  slavery — he  sees  no  way  of  recovering  what 
he  has  lost,  and  becomes  desperate.  He  will  not  put  up  with 
such  cruel  wrongs,  but  will  be  revenged  on  mankind  and  die 
like  a  hero.  He  grasps  his  kris-handle,  and  the  next  moment 
draws  out  the  weapon  and  stabs  a  man  to  the  heart.     He  runs 


VII ]  The  Oceanic  Mongols  227 

on,  with  .bloody  kris  in  his  hand,  stabbing  at  everyone  he 
meets.  '  Amok  !  Amok  ! '  then  resounds  through  the  streets. 
Spears,  krisses,  knives  and  guns  are  brought  out  against  him. 
He  rushes  madly  forward,  kills  all  he  can — men,  women,  and 
children — and  dies  overwhelmed  by  numbers  amid  all  the 
excitement  of  a  battle  \" 

Possibly  connected  with  this  blind  impulse  may  be  the 
strange  nervous  affection  called  Idtah,  which  is  also  prevalent 
amongst  the  Malayans,  and  which  was  first 
clearly  described  by  the  distinguished  Malay  Malady'*'' 
scholar,  Sir  Frank  Athelstane  Swettenham'.  No 
attempt  has  yet  been  made  thoroughly  to  diagnose  this  uncanny 
disorder*,  which  would  seem  so  much  more  characteristic  of 
the  high-strung  or  shattered  nervous  system  of  ultra-refined 
European  society,  than  of  that  artless  unsophisticated  child  of 
nature,  the  Orang-Maldyu.  Its  effects  on  the  mental  state 
are  such  as  to  disturb  all  normal  cerebration,  and  Swettenham 
mentions  two  Icitah-struck  Malays,  who  would  make  admirable 
"  subjects  "  at  a  stance  of  theosophic  psychists.  Any  simple 
device  served  to  attract  their  attention,  wben  by  merely 
looking  them  hard  in  the  face  they  fell  helplessly  in  the 
hands  of  the  operator,  instantly  lost  all  self-control,  and  went 
passively  through  any  performance  either  verbally  imposed  or 
even  merely  suggested  by  a  sign. 

A  peculiar  feminine  strain  has  often  been  imputed  to  the 
Malay  temperament,  yet  this  same  Oceanic  people  displays  in 
many  respects  a  curiously  kindred  spirit  with  the  ordinary 
'Englishman,  as,  for  instance,  in  his  love  of  gambling,  boxing, 
cock-fighting,  field  sports^-  and  adventure.     No  more  fearless 
explorers  of  the  high  seas,  formerly  rovers  and  corsairs,  at  all 
times  enterprising  traders,  are  anywhere  to  be  found  than  the 
Menangkabau  Malays,  and  their  near  kinsmen,    The  Malayan 
the  renowned  Bugis  "  Merchant  Adventurers "    Seaifarers  and 
of  south  Celebes.     Their  clumsy  but  seaworthy   ^"'^""s- 
praus  are  met  in  every  seaport  from  Sumatra  to  the  Aru  Islands, 
and  they  have  established  permanent  trading  stations  and  even 
settlements  in  Borneo,  the  Philippines,  Timor,  and  as  far  east 
as  New  Guinea.     On  one  occasion  Wallace  sailed  from  Dobbo 

1  The  Malay  Archipelago,  p.  175. 

2  In  Malay  Sketches,  1895. 

3  Cf.  M.  A.  Czaplicka  on  Arctic  Hysteria  in  Aboriginal  Siberia,  1914,  p.  307. 

*  0n  these  national  pastimes  see  Sir  Hugh  Clifford,  In  Court  and  Kampong, 
1897,  p.  46  sq. 

IS— 2 


228  Man :  Past  and  Present  [cH. 

in  company  with  fifteen  large  Makassar  praus,  each  with  a  cargo 
worth  about  ^looo,  and  as  many  of  the  Bugis  settle  amongst 
the  rude  aborigines  of  the  eastern  isles,  they  thus  cooperate 
with  the  Sumatran  Malays  in  extending  the  area  of  civilising 
influences  throughout  Papuasia. 

Formerly  they  combined  piracy  with  legitimate  trade,  and 
long  after  the  suppression  of  the  North  Bornean  corsairs  by 
Keppel  and  Brooke,  the  inland  waters  continued  to  be  infested 
especially  by  the  Bajau  rovers  of  Celebes,  and  by  the  Balagnini 
of  the  Sulu  Archipelago,  most  dreaded  of  all  the  Orang-Laut, 
"  Men  of  the  Sea,"  the  "  Sea  Gypsies  "  of  the  English.  These 
were  the  "  Cellates  "  [Orang-Selat,  "  Men  of  the  Straits  ")  of 
the  early  Portuguese  writers,  who  described  them  as  from 
time  immemorial  engaged  in  fishing  and  plundering  on  the 
high  seas'. 

In  those  days,  and  even  in  comparatively  late  times,  the 
relations  in  the  Eastern  Archipelago  greatly  resembled  those 
Malaysia  and  prevailing  in  the  Aegean  Sea  at  the  dawn  of 
Peiasgia—  Greek  history,  while  the  restless  seafaring  popu- 

a  Historical  lations  were  still  in  a  state  of  flux,  passing  from 
island  to  island  in  quest  of  booty  or  barter  before 
permanently  settling  down  in  favourable  sites  ^  With  the 
Greek  historian's  philosophic  disquisition  on  these  Pelasgian 
and  proto-Hellenic  relations  may  be  compared  A.  R.  Wallace's 
account  of  the  Batjan  coastlands  when  visited  by  him  in  the 
late  fifties.  "  Opposite  us,  and  all  along  this  coast  of  Batchian, 
stretches  a  row  of  fine  islands  completely  uninhabited.  When- 
ever I  asked  the  reason  why  no  one  goes  to  live  in  them,  the 
answer  always  was  'For  fear  of  the  Magindano  pirates'.' 
Every  year  these  scourges  of  the  Archipelago  wander  in  one 
direction  or  another,  making  their  rendezvous  on  some 
uninhabited  island,  and  carrying  devastation  to  all  the  small 
settlements  around ;    robbing,   destroying,  killing,   or  taking 

'  Cujo  officio  he  rubar  e pesCar,  "  whose  business  it  is  to  rob  and  fish  "  (Barros). 
Many  ot  the  Bajaus  lived  entirely  afloat,  passing  their  lives  in  boats  from  the  cradle 
to  the  grave,  and  praying  Allah  that  they  might  die  at  sea. 

*  Thucydides,  Pel.  War,  I.  1-16. 

'  These  are  the  noted  Illanuns,  who  occupy  the  south  side  of  the  large 
Philippine  island  of  Mindanao,  but  many  of  whom,  hke  the  Bajaus  of  Celebes  and 
the  Sulu  Islanders,  have  formed  settlements  .on  the  north-east  coast  of  Borneo. 
"Long  a«o  their  warfare  against  the  Spaniards  degenerated  into  general  piracy. 
Their  usual  practice  was  not  to  take  captives,  but  to  murder  all  on  board  any  boat 
they  took.  Those  with  us  [British  North  BorneoJ-have  all  settled  down  to  a.  more 
orderly  way  of  life"  (W.  B.  Vrytr,  Jourtt.  Anthr.  Inst.  1886,  p.  231). 


viij  Tke  Oceanic  Mongols  229 

captive  all  they  meet  with.  Their  long,  well-manned  praus 
escape  from  the  pursuit  of  any  sailing  vessel  by  pulling  away 
right  in  the  wind's  eye,  and  the  warning  smoke  of  a  steamer 
generally  enables  them  to  hide  in  some  shallow  bay,  or  narrow 
river,  or  forest-covered  inlet,  till  the  danger  is  passed'."  Thus, 
like  geographical  surroundings,  with  corresponding  social 
conditions,  produce  like  results  in  all  times  amongst  all 
peoples. 

This  fundamental  truth  receives  further  illustration  from 
the  ideas  prevalent  amongst  the  Malayans  regarding  witch- 
craft, the  magic  arts,  charms  and  spells,  and  Malayan 
especially  the  belief  in  the  power  of  certain  Folklore-The 
malevolent  human  beings  to  transform  them-  Were-tiger, 
selves  into  wild  beasts  and  prey  upon  their  fellow-creatures. 
Such  superstitions  girdle  the  globe,  taking  their  local  colouring 
from  the  fauna  of  the  different  regions,  so  that  the  were-wolf 
of  medieval  Europe  finds  its  counterpart  in  the  human  jaguar 
of  South  America,  the  human  lion  or  leppard  of  Africa',  and 
the  human  tiger  of  the  Malay  Peninsula.  Hugh  Clifford,  who 
relates  an  occurrence  known  to  himself  in  connection  with 
a  "  were-tiger  "  story  of  the  Perak  district,  aptly  remarks  that 
"the  white  man  and  the  brown,  the  yellow  and  the  black, 
independently,  and  without  receiving  the  idea  from  one 
another,  have  all  found  the  same  explanation  for  the  like 
phenomena,  all  apparently  recognising  the  truth  of  the  Malay 
proverb,  that  we  are  like  unto  the  tdman  fish  that  preys  upon 
its  own  kind'."  The  story  in  question  turns  upon  a  young 
bride,  whose  husband  comes  home  late  three  nights  following, 
and  the  third  time,  being  watched,  is  discovered  by  her  in  the 
form  of  a  full-grown  tiger  stretched  on  the  ladder,  which,  as  ia 
all  Malay  houses,  leads  from  the  ground  to  the  threshold  of 
the  door.  "  Patfmah  gazed  at  the  tiger  from  a  distance  of 
only  a  foot  or  two,  for  she  was  too  paralysed  with  fear  to 
move  or  cry  out,  and  as  she  looked  a  gradual  transformation 
■took  place  in  the  creature  at  her  feet.  Slowly,  as  one  sees 
a  ripple  of  wind  pass  over  the  surface  of  still  water,  the  tiger's 

'  The  Malay  Archipelago,  p.  341.     , 

2  In  Central  Africa  "  the  belief  in  '  were '  animals,  that  is  to  say  in  human 
beings  who  have  changed  themselves  into  lions  or  leopards  or  some  such  harmful 
beasts,  is  nearly  universal.-  Moreover  thftre  are  individuals  who  imagine  they 
possess  this  power  of  assuming  the  form  of  an  animal  and  killing  human  beings  in 
that  shape."     Sir  H.  H.  Johnston,  British  Central  Africa,  p.  439. 

^  In  Court  and  Kampong,  p.  63. 


230  Man  :   Past  and  Present  [ch. 

features  palpitated  and  were  changed,  until  the  horrified  girl 
saw  the  face  of  her  husband  come  up  through  that  of  the 
beast,  much  as  the  face  of  a  diver  comes  up  to  the  surface  of 
a  pool.  In  another  moment  Patimah  saw  that  it  was  Haji  All 
who  was  ascending  the  ladder  of  his  house,  and  the  spell  that 
had  hitherto  bound  her  was  snapped." 

These  same  Malays  of  Perak,  H.  H.  Rajah  Dris  tells  us, 
are  still  speciailly  noted  for  many  strange  customs  and  super- 
stitions "utterly  opposed  to  Muhammadan  teaching,  and 
savouring  strongly  of  devil-worship.  This  enormous  belief 
in  the  supernatural  is  possibly  a  relic  of  the  pre-Islam  State\" 

We  do  not  know  who  were  the  primitive  inhabitants  of 
Borneo.     One  would  expect  to  find  Negritoes  in  the  interior, 

„  but  despite  the  assertion  of  A.  de  Ouatrefages^ 

it  is  impossible  to  overlook  the  conclusions  of 
A.  B.  Meyer'  that  no  authoritative  evidence  of  their  occurrence 
is  forthcoming,  and  A.  C.  Haddon*  confidently  states  that 
there  are  none  in  Sarawak.  It  might  be  supposed  that  the 
Pre-Dravidian  element  found  in  Sumatra  and  Celebes  might 
occur  also  in  Borneo,  but  tlje  only  indication  of  such  influence 
is  the  "black  skin"  noticed  among  certain  Ulu  Ayar  of  the 
Upper  Kapuas  in  Western  Dutch  Borneo^  With  the  ex- 
ception of  certain  peoples  such  as  Europeans,  Indians,  Chinese, 
and  Orang-Malayu,  whose  foreign  origin  is  obvious,  the 
population  as  a  whole  may  be  regarded  as  being  composed  of 
two  main  races,  the  Indonesian  and  Proto-Malay.  Probably 
all  tribes  are  of  mixed  origin,  but  some,  such  as  the  Murut, 
Dusun,  Kalabit,  and  Land  Day ak  are  more  Indonesian  while 
the  Iban  [Sea  Dayak)  are  distinctly  Proto-Malay.  The 
Land  Day  ak  have  doubtless  been  crossed  with  Indo-Javans. 

Scattered  over  a  considerable  part  of  the  jungle  live  the 
nomad   Punan  and   Ukit.     They  are  a  slender  pale  people 

Punan  '^^^^  a  slightly  broad  head.     They  are  grouped 

in    small    communities    and    inhabit    the    dense 

jungle  at  the  head  waters  of  the  principal  rivers  of  Borneo. 

^  Journ.  Anthr.  Inst.  1886,  p.  227.  The  Rajah  gives  the  leading  features  of 
the  character  of  his  countrymen  as  "  pride  of  race  and  birth,  extraordinary  observance 
of  punctiho,  and  a  bigoted  adherence  to  ancient  custom  and  tradition." 

^  The  Pygmies  (Translation),  1895,  p.  26,  fig.  15. 

'  The  Distribution  of  the  Negritos, -lii^q,  p.  50. 

*  In  the  Appendix  to  C.  Hose  and  W.  McDougall,  The  Pagan  Tribes  of  Borneo, 
1912,  p.  311. 

'  J.  H.  Kohlbrugge,  U Anthropologie,  IX.  1898. 


^ii]  The  Oceanic  Mongols  231 

They  live  on  whatever  they  can  find  in  the  jungle,  and  do  not 
cultivate  the  soil,  nor  live  in  permanent  houses.  Their  few 
wants  are  supplied  by  barter  from  friendly  settled  peoples,  or 
in  return  for  iron  implements,  calico,  beads,  tobacco,  etc.,  they 
offer  jungle  produce,  mainly  gutta,  indiaru'bber,  camphor, 
dammar  and  ratans.  They  are  very  mild  savages,  not 
head-hunters,  they  are  generous  to  one  another,  moderately 
truthful,  kind  to  the  women  and  very  fond  of  their 
children. 

Hose  and  H addon  have  introduced  the  term  Klemantan 
{Kalamantan)  for  the  weak  agricultural  tribes  such  as  the 
Murui,  Kalabit,  Land  Dayak,  Sebop,  Barawan, 
Milanau,  etc.^  Brook  Low^  who  knew  the  ^'^'"^"*^°- 
Land  Dayak  well,  gives  a  very  favourable  account  of  the 
people  and  this  opinion  has  been  confirmed  by  other  travellers. 
They  are  described  as  amiable,  honest,  grateful,  moral  and 
hospitable.  Crimes  of  violence,  other  than  head-hunting,  are 
unknown.  The  circular  panga  is  a  "house  set  apart  for  the 
residence  of  young  unmarried  men,  in  which  the  trophy-heads 
are  kept,  and  here  also  all  ceremonial  receptions  take  place'." 
The  baloi  of  the  Ot  Danom  of  the  Kahajan  river  is  very 
similar*.  The  very  energetic  and  dominating 
Bahau-Kenyah-Kayan  group  are  rather  short  in  Klyan'^^"^*''" 
stature,  with  slightly  broad  heads.  They  occupy 
the  best  tracts  of  land  which  lie  in  the  undulating  hills  at  the 
upper  reaches  of  the  rivers,  between  the  swampy  low  country 
and  the  mountains.  The  Kayan  more  especially  have  almost 
exterminated  some  of  the  smaller  tribes.  The  Klemantan 
and  Kenyah-Kayan  tribes  are  agriculturalists.  They  clear 
the  jungle  off  the  low  hills  that  flank  the  tributaries  of  the 
larger  rivers,  but  always  leave  a  few  scattered  trees  standing ; 
irrigation  is  attempted  by  the  Kalabits  only,  as  padi  rice  is 
grown  like  any  other  cereals  on  dry  ground ;  swamp  padi  is 
also  grown  on  the  low  land.  In  their  gardens  they  grow 
yams,  pumpkins,  sugar  cane,  bananas,  and  sometimes  coconuts 
and  other  produce.  They  hunt  all  land  animals  that  serve  as 
food,  and  fish,  usually  with  nets,  in  the  rivers,  or  spear  those 

*  A.  C.  Haddon,  "  A  Sketch  of  the  Ethnography  of  Sarawak,"  Archivio  per 
r  Antropologia  e  P Etnologia,'X.yi'K.l.  igoi  ;  C.  Hose  and  W.  McDougall,  The  Pagan 
Tribes  of  Borneo,  1912,  Appendix,  p.  314. 

2  H.  Ling  Roth,  The  Natives  of  Sarawak  and  British  North  Borneo,  1896. 

3  O.  Beccari,  Wanderings  in  the  Great  Forests  of  Borneo,  1904,  p.  54. 

*  Schwaner,  in  H.  Ling  Roth,  The  Natives  of  Sarawak,  etc.,  i8g6. 


232  Man  :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

fish  that  have  been  stupefied  with  tuda ;  river  prawns  are  also 
a  favourite  article  of  diet. 

They  all  live  in  long  communal  houses  which  are  situated 
on  the  banks  of  the  rivers.  Among  the  Klemantan  tribes  the 
headman  has  not  much  influence,  unless  he  is  a  man  of 
exceptional  power  and  energy,  but  among  the  larger  tribes 
and  especially  among  the  Kayan  and  Kenyah  the  headmen 
are  the  real  chiefs  and  exercise  undisputed  sway.  The 
Kenyah  are  perhaps  the  rhost  advanced  in  social  evolution, 
holding  their  own  by  superior  solidarity  and  intelligence 
against  the  turbulent  Kayan. 

All  the  agricultural  tribes  are  artistic,  but  in  varying 
degrees ;  they  are  also  musical  and  sing  delightful  chorus 
songs.  In  some  tribes  the  ends  of  the  beams  of  the  houses 
are  carved  to  represent  various  animals,  in  some  the  verandah  ' 
is  decorated  with  boldly  carved  planks,  or  with  painted  boards 
and  doors.  The  bamboo  receptacles  carved  in  low  relief,  the 
bone  handles  of  their  swords  and  the  minor  articles  of  daily  life, 
are  decorated  in  a  way  that  reveals  the  true  artistic  spirit. 
Both  Kenyah  and  Kayan  smelt  iron  and  make  spear  heads 
and  sword  blades,  the  former  being  especially  noted  for  their 
good  steel.  The  forge  with  two  bellows  is  the  form  widely 
spread  in  Malaysia. 

The  truculent  Iban  {Sea  Dayak)  have  spread  from  a 
restricted  area  in  Sarawak\  They  are  short  and  have 
broader  heads  than  the  other  tribes  ;  the  colour 
(Sea  Dayak).  '?  ^"^  ^^  whole  darker  than  among  the  cinnamon 
coloured  inland  tribes.  They  have  the  same 
long,  slightly  wavy,  black  hair  showing  a  reddish  tinge  in 
certain  lights,  that  .is  characteristic  of  the  Borneans  generally. 
Most  of  the  Ibah  inhabit  low  lying  land  ;  they  prefer  to  live 
on  the  low  hills,  but  as  this  is  not  always  practicable  they 
plant  swamp  padi;  all  those  who  settle  at  the  heads  of 
rivers  plant  padi  on  the  hills  in  the  same  manner  as  the 
up-river  natives.  They  also  cultivate  maize,  sugar  cane, 
sweet  potatoes,  gourds,  pumpkins,  cucumbers,  melons,  mustard, 
ginger  and  other  vegetables.  Generally  groups  of  relations 
work  together  in  the  fields.  Although  essentially  agricultural, 
they  are  warlike  and  passionately  devoted  to  head-hunting. 
The  Iban  of  the  Batang  Lupar  and  Saribas  in  the  olden  days 
joined  the  Malays  in  their  large  war  praus  on  piratical  raids 

'  A.  C.  Haddon,  Head-Hunters,  Black,  White  and  Brown,  1901,  p.  324, 


V"]  The  Oceanic  Mongols  233 

along  the  coast  and  up  certain  rivers  and  they  owe  their  name 
of  Sea  Dayaks  to  this  practice.  The  raids  were  organised  by 
Malays  who  went  for  plunder  but  they  could  always  ensure 
the  aid  of  I  ban  by  the  bribe  of  the  heads  of  the  slain  as  their 
share.  The  I  ban  women  weave  beautiful  cotton  cloths  on 
a  very  simple  loom.  Intricate  patterns  are  made  by  tying 
several  warp  strands  with  leaves  at  varying  intervals,  then 
dipping  the  whole  into  the  dye  which  does  not  penetrate  the 
tied  portions.  This  process  is  repeated  if  a  three-colour 
design  is  desired.  The  pattern  is  produced  solely  in  the  warp, 
the  woof  threads  are  self-coloured  and  are  not  visible  in  the 
fabric,  which  is  therefore  a  cotton  rep.  Little  tattooing  is 
seen  among  the  I  ban  women  though  the  men  have  adopted 
the  custom  from  the  Kayan. 

It  is  probable  that  the  I  ban  belong  to  the  same  stock  as 
the  original  Malay  and  if  so,  their  migration  may  be  regarded 
as  the  first  wave  of  the  movement  that  culminated  in  the 
Malay  Empire.  The  Malays  must  have  come  to  Borneo  not 
later  than  the  early  part  of  the  fifteenth  century  as  Brunei  was 
a  large  and  wealthy  town  in  1521.  Probably  the  Malays 
came  directly  from  the  Malay  Peninsula,  but  they  must  have 
mixed  largely  with  the  Kadayan,  Milanau  and  other  coastal 
people.  The  Sarawak  and  Brunei  Malays  are  probably 
mainly  coastal  Borneans  with  some  Malay  blood,  but  they 
have  absorbed  the  Malay  culture,  spirit  and  religion. 

From  the  sociological  point  of  view  the  Punan,  living  by 
the  chase  and  on  exploitation  of  jungle  produce,  represent  the 
lowest  grade  of  culture  in  Borneo.  Without 
social  organisation  they  are  alike  incapable  of  real  ""^^ary. 
endemic  improvement  or  of  seriously  affecting  other  peoples. 
The  purely  agricultural  tribes  that  cultivate  padi  on  the  low 
hills  or  in  the  swamps  form  the  next  social  stratum.  These 
indigenous  tillers  of  the  soil  have  been  hard  pressed  by  various 
swarms  of  foreigners. 

The  Kenyah-Kayan  migration  was  that  of  a  people  of 
a  slightly  higher  grade  of  culture.  They  were  agriculturalists, 
but  the  social  organisation  was  firmer  and  they  were  probably 
•  superior  in  physique.  If  they  introduced  iron  weapons,  this 
would  give  them  an  enormous  advantage.  These  immigrant 
agricultural  artisans,  directed  by  powerful  chiefs,  had  no 
difficulty  in  taking  possession  of  the  most  desirable  land. 

From  an  opposite  point  of  the  compass  in  early  times 


234  Man :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

came  another  agricultural  people  who  strangely  enough  have 
strong  individualistic  tendencies,  the  usually  peaceable  habits 
of  tillers  of  the  soil  having  been  complicated  by  a  lust  for 
heads  and  other  warlike  propensities.  But  the  Iban  do  not 
appear  to  have  gained  much  against  the  Kenyah  and  Kayan. 
Conquest  implies  -a  strong  leader,  obedience  to  authority  and 
concerted  action.  The  Iban  appear  to  be  formidable  only 
when  led  and  organised  by  Europeans. 

The  Malay  was  of  a  yet  higher  social  type.  His  political 
organisation  was  well  established,  and  he.  had  the  advantage 
of  religious  enthusiasm,  for  Islam  has  no  small  share  in  the 
expansion  of  the  Malay.  He  is  a  trader,  and  still  more  an 
exploiter,  having  a  sporting  element  in  his  character  not 
altogether  compatible  with  steady  trade.  Then  appeared  on 
the  scene  the  Anglo-Saxon  overlord.  The  quality  of  firmness 
combined  with,  justice  made  itself  felt.  At  times  the  lower 
social  types  hurled  themselves,  but  in  vain,  agaihst  the 
instrument  that  had  been  forged  and  tempered  in  a  similar 
turmoil  of  Iberian,  Celt,  Angle  and  Viking  in  Northern 
Europe.  Now  they  acknowledge  that  safety  of  life  and 
property  and  almost  complete  liberty  are  fully  worth  the  very 
small  price  that  they  have  to  pay  for  them\ 

The    cult    of    omen    animals,    most   frequently   birds,    is 

indigenous  to  Borneo.     These  are  possessed  with  the  spirit 

„  ,.  .  of  certain  invisible  beings  above,  and  bear  their 

Religion.  1-11  1 

names,  and  are  mvoked  to  secure  good  crops, 
freedom  from  accident,  victory  in  war,  profit  in  exchange 
skill  in  discourse  and  cleverness  in  all  native  craft.  The 
Iban  have  a  belief  in  Ngardng  or  spirit-helpers,  somewhat 
resembling  that  of  the  Manitu  of  North  America.  The 
Ngarong  is  the  spirit  of  a  dead  relative  who  visits  a  dreamer, 
who  afterwards  searches  for  the  outward  and  visible  sign  of 
his  spiritual  protector,  and  finds  it  in  some  form,  perhaps 
a  natural  object,  or  some  one  animal,  henceforth  held  in 
special  respect  I 

In  Sumatra  there  occur  some  remains  of  Hindu  temples', 

'  A.  C.  Haddon,  Head-Hunters,  Black,  White  and  Brown,  1901,  pp.  327-8. 

^  For  further  literature  on  Borneo  see  W.  H.  Furness,  The  Home-life  of  the 
Borneo  Head-Hunters,  1902  ;  A.  W.  Nieuwenhuis,  Quer  durch  Borneo,  1904 ; 
E.  H.  Gomes,  Seventeen  Years  among  the  Sea-Dyaks  of  Borneo,  191 1 ;  C.  Hose  and 
W.  McDougall,  yo«^72.  Anthr.  Inst.,  xxxi.  1901,  and  The  Pagan  Tribes  of  Borneo^ 
1912. 

^  Not  only  in  the  southern  districts  for  centuries  subject  to  Javanese  influences, 
but  also  in  Battaland,  where  they  were  first  discovered  by  H.  von  Rosenberg  in 


vii]  The  Oceanic  Mongols  235 

as  well  as  other  mysterious  monuments  in  the  Passumah  lands 
inland  from  Benkulen,  relics  of  a  former  culture,  which  goes 
back  to  prehistoric  times.     They  take  the  form    g^^iy  y^^^  ^^^ 
of  huge  monoliths,  which  are  roughly  shaped  to   his  Works  in 
the    likeness    of    human    figures,    with    strange    Sumatra, 
features  very  different  from  the  Malay  or  Hindu  types.     The 
present  Sarawi  natives  of  the  district,  who  would   be  quite 
incapable   of  executing  such  works,  know  nothing  of  their 
origin,  and  attribute  them  to  certain  legendary  beings  who 
formerly  wandered  over  the  land,  turning  all  their  enemies 
into  stone.     Further   research   may  possibly  discover   some 
connection  between  these  relics  of  a  forgotten  past  and  the 
numerous  prehistoric  monuments  of  Easter  Island  and  other 
places  in  the  Pacific  Ocean.     Of  all  the  Indonesian  peoples 
still  surviving  in  Malaysia,  none  present  so  many 
points  of  contact  with  the  Eastern  Polynesians,    '^^^i^!^^'^ 
as  do  the  natives  of  the  Mentawi  Islands  which 
skirt  the  south-west  coast  of  Sumatra.     "  On  a  closer  inspection 
of  the  inhabitants  the  attentive  observer  at  once  perceives  that 
the  Mentawi  natives  have  but  little  in  common  with  the  peoples 
and  tribes  of  the  neighbouring  islands,  and  that  as  regards 
physical  appearance,  speech,  customs,  and  usages  they  stand 
almost  entirely  apart.     They  bear  6uch  a  decided  stamp  of 
a  Polynesian  tribe  that  one  feels  far  more  inclined  to  compare 
them  with  the  inhabitants  of  the  South  Sea  Islands\" 

The  survival  of  an  Indonesian  group  on  the  western 
verge  of  Malaysia  is  all  the  more  remarkable  since  the  Nias 
islanders,  a  little  farther  north,  are  of  Mongol  stock,  like  most 
if  not  all  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  Sumatran  mainland.  Here 
the  typical  Malays  of  the  central  districts  (Menangkabau, 
Korinchi,  and  Siak)  merge  southwards  in  the  Javanese  and 
mixed  Malayo- Javanese  peoples  of  the  Rejang,  Hijjdu 
Palembang,  and  Lampong  districts.     Although    influences. 

1853,  and  figured  and  described  in  Der  Malayische  Archipel,  Leipzig,  1878,  Vol.  i. 
p.  27  sq.  "  Nach  ihrer  Form  und  ihren  Bildwerken  zu  urtheilen,  waren  die 
Gebaude  Tempel,  worin  der  Buddha-Kultus  gefeiert  wurde"  (p.  28).  ■  These  are 
all  the  more  interesting  since  Hindu  ruins  are  otherwise  rare  in  Sumatra,  where 
there  is  nothing  comparable  to  the  stupendous  monuments  of  Central  and  East 
Java. 

^  Von  Rosenberg,  op.  dt.  Vol.  I.  p.  189.  Amongst  the  points  of  close  resemblance 
may  be  mentioned  the  outriggers,  for  which  Mentawi  has  the  same  word  {abak)  as 
the  Samoan  {va'r=  vaka) ;  the  funeral  rites ;  taboo  ;  the  facial  expression  ;  and  the 
language,  in  which  the  numerical  systems  are  identical ;  cf.  Ment.  limongapula 
with  Sam.  limagafulu,  the  Malay  being  limapulah  (fifty),  where  the  Sam.  infix  ga 
(absent  in  Malay)  is  pronounced  gna,  exactly  as  in  Ment. 


236  Man  :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

Muhammadans  probably  since  the  thirteenth  century,  all  these 
peoples  had  been  early  brought  under  Hindu  influences  by 
missionaries  and  even  settlers  from  Java,  and  these  influences 
are  still  apparent  in  many  of  the  customs,  popular  traditions, 
languages,  and  letters  of  the  South  Sumatran  settled  com- 
munities. Thus  the  Lampongs,  despite  their  profession  of 
Indian  Origin  of  Islam,  employ,  not  the  Arabic  characters,  like 
the  Malaysian  the  Malays  proper,  but  a  script  derived  from  the 
Alphabets.  peculiar  Javanese  writing  system.     This  system 

itself,  originally  introduced  from  India  probably  over  2000  years 
ago,  is  based  on  some  early  forms  of  the  Devanagari,  such  as 
those  occurring  in  the  rock  inscriptions  of  the  famous  Buddhist 
king  As'oka  (third  century  b.c.)\  From  Java,  which  is  now 
shown  beyond  doubt  to  be  the  true  centre  of  dispersion^  the 
parent  alphabet  was  under  Hindu  influences  diffused  in  pre- 
Muhammadan  times  throughout  Malaysia,  from  Sumatra  to 
the  Philippines. 

But  the  thinly-spread  Indo-Javanese  culture,  in  few  places 
penetrating  much  below  the  surface,  received  a  rude  shock 
from  the  Muhammadan  irruption,  its  natural  development 
being  almost  everywhere  arrested,  or  else  either  effaced  or 
displaced  by  Islam.  No  trace  can  any  longer  be  detected  of 
graphic  signs  in  Borneo,' where  the  aborigines  have  retained 
the  savage  state  even  in  those  southern  districts  where 
Buddhism  or  Brahmanism  had  certainly  been  propagated 
long  before  the  arrival  of  the  Muhammadan  Malays.  But 
elsewhere  the  Javanese  stock  alphabet  has  shown  extraordinary 
vitality,  persisting  under  diverse  forms  down  to  the  present 
day,  not  only  amongst  the  semi-civilised  Mussulman  peoples, 
such  as  the  Sumatran  Rejangs^,  Korinchi,  and  Lampongs,  the 
Bugis  and  Mangkassaras  of  Celebes,  and  the  (now  Christian) 

'  See  Fr.  Miiller,  Ueber  den  Ursprung  der  Schrift  der  Malaiischen  Volker, 
Vienna,  1865  ;  and  my  Appendix  to  Stanford's  Australasia,  First  Series,  1879, 
p.  624. 

2  Die  Mangianenschrift  von  Mindoro,  herausgegeben  von  A.  B.  Meyer  u. 
A.  Sckadenberg,  sipeciell  bearbeitet  von  W.  Foy,  Dresden,  1895;  see  also  my 
remarks  in  Journ.  Anthr.  Inst.  1896,  p.  277  sq. 

'  The  Rejang,  which  certainly  belongs  to  the  same  Indo-Javanese  system  as  all 
the  other  Malaysian  alphabets,  has  been  regarded  by  Sayce  and  Renan  as  "  pure 
Phoenician,"  while  Neubauer  has  compared  it  with  that  current  in  the  fourth  and 
fifth  centuries  B.C.  The  suggestion  that  it  may  have  been  introduced  by  the 
Phoenician  crews  of  Alexander's  admiral,  Nearchus  {Archaeol.  Oxon.  1895,  No.  6), 
could  hot  have  been  made  by  anyone  aware  of  its  close  connection  with  the 
Lampong  of  South,  and  the  Batta  of  North  Sumatra  (see  also  Prof.  Kern,  Globus, 
70,  p.  116). 


vii]  The  Oceanic  Mongols  237 

Tagalogs  and  Visayas  of  the  Philippines,  but  even  amongst 
the  somewhat  rude  and  pagan  Palawan  natives,  the  wild 
Manguianes  of  Mindoro,  and  the  cannibal  Battas'  of  North 
Sumatra, 

These  Battas,  however,  despite  their  undoubted  canni- 
balism ^  cannot  be  called  savages,  at  least  without  some 
reserve.  They  are  skilful  stock-breeders  and  -phe  Battas— 
agriculturists,  raising  fine  crops  of  maize  and  Cultured 
rice ;  they  dwell  together  in  large,  settled  Cannibals, 
communities  with  an  organised  government,  hereditary  chiefs, 
popular  assemblies,  and  a  written  civil  and  penal  code.  There 
is  even  an  effective  postal  system,  which  utilises  for  letter- 
boxes the  hollow  tree-trunks  at  all  the  cross-roads,  •  and  is 
largely  patronised  by  the  young  men  and  women,  all  of 
whom  read  and  write,  and  carry  on  an  animated  correspondence 
in  their  degraded  Devanagari  script,  which  is  written  on 
palm-leaves  in  vertical  lines  running  upwards  and  from  right 
to  left.  The  Battas  also  excel  in  several  industries,  such  as 
pottery,  weaving,  jewellery,  iron  work,  and  house-building, 
their  picturesque  dwellings,  which  resemble  Swiss  chalets, 
rising  to  two  stories  above  the  ground-floor  reserved  for  the 
live  stock.  For  these  arts  they  are  no  doubt  largely  indebted 
to  their  Hindu  teachers,  from  whom  also  they  have  inherited 
some  of  their  religious  ideas,  such  as  the  triune  deity — Creator, 
Preserver,  and  Destroyer — besides  other  inferior  divinities 
collectively  called  diebata,  a  modified  form  of  the  Indian 
devatP. 

1  Sing.  Batta,  pi.  Battak,  hence  the  current  form  Battaks  is  a  solecism,  and  we 
should  write  either  Battas  or  Battak.  Lassen  derives  the  word  from  the  Sanskrit 
ffMta,  "  savage." 

2  Again  confirmed  by  Volz  and  H.  veil  Autenrieth,  who  explored  Battaland 
early  in  1898,  and  penetrated  to  the  territory  of  the  "  Cannibal  Pakpaks"  {Geogr. 
Journ.,  June,  1898,  p.  672) ;  not  however  "for  the  first  time,"  as  here  stated.  The 
Pakpaks  had  already  been  visited  in  1853  by  Von  Rosenberg,  who  found  cannibalism 
so  prevalent  that  "Niemand  Anstand  nimmt  das  essen  von  Menschenfieisch 
einzugestehen "  (pp.  cit.  i.  p.  56). 

^  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  by  the  aid  of  the  Lampong  alphabet.  South 
Sumatra,  John  Mathew  reads  the  word  Daibattah  in  the  legend  on  the  head-dress 
of  a  gigantic  figure  seen  by  Sir  George  Grey  on  the  roof  of  a  cave  on  the  Glenelg 
river.  North-west  Australia  ("The  Cave  Paintings  of  Australia,"  etc.,  mjourn.  Anthr. 
Inst.  1894,  p.  44  sq.).  He  quotes  from  Coleman's  Mythology  of  the  Hindus  the 
statement  that  "the  Battas  of  Sumatra  believe  in  the  existence  of  one  supreme 
being,  whom  they  name  Debati  Hasi  Asi.  Since  completing  the  work  of  creation 
they  suppose  him  to  have  remained  perfectly  quiescent,  having  wholly  committed 
the  government  to  his  three  sons,  who  do  not  govern  in  person,  but  by  vakeels  or 
proxies."  Here  is  possibly  another  confirmation  of  the  view  that  early  Malayan 
migrations  or  expeditions,  some  even  to  Australia,  took  place  in  pre-Muhammadan 
times,  long  before  the  rise  and  diffusion  of  the  Orang-Maliyu  in  the  Archipelago. 


238  Man  :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

In  the  strangest  contrast  to  these  survivals  of  a  foreign 
culture  which  had  probably  never  struck  very  deep  roots, 
stand  the  savage  survivals  from  still  more  ancient  times. 
Conspicuous  amongst  these  are  the  cannibal  practices,  which 
if  not  now  univer-sal  still  take  some  peculiarly  revolting  forms. 
Thus  captives  and  criminals  are,  under  certain  circumstances, 

..  ..  condemned  to  be  eaten  alive,  and  the  same  fate 

Cannibalism.  •  1    r  1  ■  •  1    /- 

IS  or  was  reserved  for  those  mcapacitated  for 
work  by  age  or  infirmities.  When  the  time  came,  we  are 
told  by  the  early  European  observers  and  by  the  reports  of 
the  Arabs,  the  "grandfathers"  voluntarily  suspended  them- 
selves by  their  arms  from  an  overhanging  branch,  while  friends 
and  neighbours  danced  round  and  round,  shouting,  "  when  the 
fruit  is  ripe  it  falls."  And  when  it  did  fall,  that  is,  as  soon  as 
it  could  hold  on  no  longer,  the  company  fell  upon  it  with  their 
krisses,  hacking  it  to  pieces,  and  devouring  the  remains 
seasoned  with  lime-juice,  for  such  feasts  were  generally  held 
when  the  limes  were  ripe^ 

Grouped  chiefly  round  about  Lake  Toba,  the  Battas  occupy 
a  very  wide  domain,  stretching  south  to  about  the  parallel  of 
_  Mount  Ophir,  and  bordering  northwards  on  the 

territory  of  the  Achin  people. '  These  valiant 
natives,  who  have  till  recently  stoutly  maintained  their 
political  independence  against  the  Dutch,  were  also  at  one 
time  Hinduized,  as  is  evident  from  many  of  their  traditions, 
their  Malayan  language  largely  charged  with  Sanskrit  terms, 
and  even  their  physical  appearance,  suggesting  a  considerable 

admixture  of  Hindu  as  well  as  of  Arab  blood, 
ary  ecor  s.  ^^\^  jj^g  Arab  traders  and  settlers  came  the 
Koran,  and  the  Achinese  people  have  been  not  over-zealous 
followers  of  the  Prophet  since  the  close  of  the  twelfth  century. 
The  Muhammadan  State,  founded  in  1205,  acquired  a  ' 
dominant  position  in  the  Archipelago  early  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  when  it  ruled  over  about  half  of  Sumatra,  exacted 
tribute  from  many  vassal  princes,  maintained  powerful  arma- 
ments by  land  and  sea,  and  entered  into  political  and 
commercial  relations  with  Egypt,  Japan,  and  several  European 
States. 

There  are  two  somewhat  distinct  ethnical  groups,  the 
Orang-  Tunong  of  the  uplands,  a  comparatively  homogeneous 
Malayan  people,  and  the  mixed  Orang-Barith  of  the  lowlands, 

^  Memoir  of  the  Life  etc.  of  Sir  T.  S.  Raffles,  by  his  widow,  1830. 


vii]  The  Oceanic  Mongols  239 

who  are  described  by  A.  Lubbers'  as  taller  than  the  average 
Malay  (5  feet  5  or  6  in.),  also  less  round-headed  (index  80-5), 
with  prominent  nose,  rather  regular  features,  and  muscular 
frames ;  but  the  complexion  is  darker  than  that  of  the  Orang- 
Malayu,  a  trait  which  has  been  attributed  to  a  larger  infusion 
of  Dravidian  blood  (Klings  and  Tamuls)  from  southern  India. 
The  charge  of  cruelty  and  treachery  brought  against  them  by 
the  Dutch  may  be  received  with  some  reserve,  such  terms  as 
"  patriot "  and  "  rebel "  being  interchangeable  according  to 
the  standpoints  from  which  they  are  considered.  In  any  case 
no  one  denies  them  the  virtues  of  valour  and  love  of  freedom, 
with  which  are  associated  industrious  habits  and  a  remarkable 
aptitude  for  such  handicrafts  as  metal  work,  jewellery,  weaving, 
and  ship-building.  The  Achinese  do  not  appear  to  be  very 
strict  Muhammadans ;  polygamy  is  little  practised,  i^xsm  and 
their  women  are  free  to  go  abroad  unveiled,  nor  Hindu  Re- 
are  they  condemned  to  the  seclusion  of  the  harem,  mimscences. 
and  a  pleasing  survival  from  Buddhist  times  is  the  Kanduri, 
a  solemn  feast,  in  which  the  poor  are  permitted  to  share. 
Another  reminiscence  of  Hindu  philosophy  may  perhaps  have 
been  an  outburst  of  religious  fervour,  which  took  the  form  of 
a  pantheistic  creed,  and  was  so  zealously  preached,  that  it  had 
to  be  stamped  out  with  fire  and  sword  by  the  dominant 
Moslem  monotheists'"'. 

Since  the  French  occupation  of  Madagascar,  the  Malagasy 
problem  has  naturally  been  revived.     But  it  may    Ethnical 
be  regretted  that  so  much  time  and  talent  have    Relations  in 
been  spent  on  a  somewhat  thrashed-out  question    'Madagascar, 
by  a  number  of  writers,  who  did  not  first  take  the  trouble  to 
read  Up  the  literature  of  the  subject. 

By  what  race  Madagascar  was  first  peopled  it  is  no  longer 
possible  to  say.     The  local  reports  or  traditions  of  primitive 
peoples,  either  extinct  or  still  surviving  in  the 
interior,  belong  rather  to  the  sphere  of  Malagasy    peoples""*^ 
folklore  than  to  that  of  ethnological  research. 
In  these  reports  mention  is  frequently  made  of  the  Kimos, 
said  to  be  now  or  formerly  living  in  the  Bara  country,  and  of 
the  Vazimbas,  who  are  by  some  supposed  to  have  been  Gallas 
[Ba-Simba) — though  they  had  no  knowledge  of  iron — whose 
graves    are    supposed    to    be   certain   monolithic  monuments 

1  "Anthropologic  des  Atjehs,"  in  Rev.  Med.,  Batavia,  xxx.  6,  1890. 

2  See  C.  Snouck  Hurgronje,  The  Achenese^  1906. 


240  Man  :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

which  take  the  form  of  menhirs  disposed  in  circles,  and  are 
believed  by  the  present  inhabitants  of  the  land  to  be  still 
haunted  by  evil  spirits,  that  is,  the  ghosts  of  the  long  extinct 
Vazimbas. 

Much  of  the  confusion  prevalent  regarding  the  present 
ethnical   relations   may   be   avoided   if  certain   points   (ably 

summarised  by.  T.  A.  Joyce')  are  borne  in  mind. 
Pm^grants.      ^^e  greater  part  of  the  population  is  negroid ; 

the  language  spoken  over  the  whole  of  the 
island-  and  many  institutions  and  customs  are  Malayo- 
Polynesian.  A  small  section  (Antimerina  commonly  called 
Hovas) — forming  the  dominant  people  in  the  nineteenth 
century — is  of  fairly  pure  Malay  (or  Javanese)  blood,  but  is 
composed  of  sixteenth-century  immigrants,  whereas  the 
language  belongs  to  a  very  early  branch  of  the  Malayo- 
Polynesian   (Austronesian)   family.      It  would  be  natural    to 

suppose  that  the  negroid  element  was  African^ 
Element  ^^"^  '''^   later   times   large  numbers  of  Africans 

have  been  brought  over  by  Arabs  and  other 
slavers;  but  there  are  several  objections  to  this  view.  In 
the  first  place,  the  natives  of  the  neighbouring  coast  are  not 
seamen,  and  the  voyage  to  Madagascar  offers  peculiar 
difficulties  owing  to  the  strong  currents.  In  the  second  place, 
it  seems  impossible  that  the  first  inhabitants,  supposing  them 
to  be  African,  should  have  abandoned  their  own  language 
in  favour  of  one  introduced  by  a  small  minority  of  immigrants; 
the  few  Bantu  words  found  in  Madagascar  may  well  have 
been  adopted  from  the  slaves.  In  the  third  place,  the  culture 
exhibits  no  distinctively  African  features,  but  is  far  more  akin 
to  that  of  south-east  Asia.  There  is  ■  much  to  be  said,  there- 
fore, for  the  view  that  the  earliest  and  negroid  inhabitants  of 
Madagascar  were  Oceanic  negroids,  who  have  always  been 
known  as  expert  seamen. 

Since  the  coming  of  the  negroid  population,  which  probably 
arrived  in  very  early  days,  various  small  bands  of  immigrants 
or  castaways  have  landed  on  the  shores  of  Madagascar  and 
imposed  themselves  as  reigning  dynasties  on  the  surrounding 
villages,  each  thus  forming  the  nucleus  of  what  now  appears 
as  a  tribe.     Among  these  were  immigrants  from  Arabia,  and 

'  Handbook  to  the  Ethnograj>hical  Collections,  British  Museum,  1910,  p.  245. 
^  This  opinion  is  still  held  by  many  competent  authorities.    Cf.  J.  Deniker,  The 
Races  of  Man,  1900,  p.  469  ff. 


vii]  The  Oceanic  Mongols  241 

J.  T.  Last,  who  identifies  Madagascar  with  the  island  of 
Menuthias  described  by  Arrian  in  the  third 
century  a.d.\  suggests  the  "possibility  ^hat ^'*''"' ^'*""'"'' 
Madagascar  may  have  been  reached  by  Arabs  before  the 
Christian  fera."  This  "possibility"  is  converted  almost  into 
a  certainty  by  the  analysis  of  the  Arabo- Malagasy  terms 
made  by  Dahle,  who  clearly  shows  that  such  terms  "are 
comparatively  very  few,"  and  also  "very  ancient,"  in  fact  that, 
as  already  suggested  by  Fleischer  of  Leipzig,  many,  perhaps 
the  majority  of  them,  "may  be  traced  back  to  Himyaritic 
influence',"  that  is,  not  merely  to  pre-Muhammadan,  but  to 
pre-Christian  times,  just  like  the  Sanskritic  elements  in  the 
Oceanic  tongpjes. 

The  evidence  that  Malagasy  is  itself  one  of  these  Oceanic 
tongues,  and  not  an  offshoot  of  the  comparatively  recent 
standard  Malay  is  overwhelming,  and  need  hot 
here  detain  us'.  The  diffusion  of  this  Austro-  £e Sf  *a°l. 
nesian  language  over  the  whole  island — even 
amongst  distinctly  Negroid  Bantu  populations,  such  as  the 
Betsileos  and  Tanalas — to  the  absolute  exclusion  of  all  other 
forms  of  speech,  is  an  extraordinary  linguistic  phenomenon 
more  easily  proved  than  explained.  There  are,  of  course, 
provincialisms  and  even  what  may  be  called  local  dialects, 
such  as  that  of  the  Antankarana  people  at  the  northern 
extremity  of  the  island  who,  although  commonly  included  in 
the  large  division  of  the  western  Sakalavas,  really  form 
a  separate  ethnical  group,  speaking  a  somewhat  marked 
variety  of  Malagasy.  But  even  this  differs  much  less,  from 
the  normal  form  than  might  be  supposed  by  comparing,  for 
instance,  such  a  term  as  maso-mahamay,  sun,  with  the  Hova 
maso-andro,  where  maso  in  both  means  "  eye,"  makamay  in 

^  "  His  remarks  wpuld  scarcely  apply  to  any  other  island  off  the  East  African 
coast,  his  descriptions  of  the  rivers,  crocodiles,  land-tortoises,  canoes,  sea-turtles, 
and  wicker-work  weirs  for  catching  fish,  apply  exactly  to  Madagascar  of  the  present 
day,  but  to  none  of  the  other  islands"  (journ.  Anthr.  Inst.  1896,  p.  47). 

^  Loc.  cit.  p.  "JT.  Thus,  to  take  the  days  of  the  week,  we  have : — Malagasy 
alahady,  alatsinainy ;  old  Arab.  (Himyar.)  al-dhadu,  al-itsndni ;  modern  Arab. 
el-dhad,  el-etndn  (Sunday,  Monday),  where  the  Mai.  forms  are  obviously  derived 
not  from  the  present,  but  from  the  ancient  Arabic.  From  all  this  it  seems 
reasonable  to  infer  that  the  early  Semitic  influences  in  Madagascar  may  be  due  to 
the  same  Sabaean  or  Minaean  peoples  of  South  Arabia,  to  whom  the  Zimbabwe 
monuments  in  the  auriferous  region  south  of  the  Zambesi  were  accredited  by 
Theodore  Bent. 

*  Those  who  may  still  doubt  should  consult  M.  Aristide  Marre,  Les  Affinitis  de 
la  Langue  J^algache,  Leyden,  1884 ;  Last's  above  quoted  Paper  in  the  Jotlrn. 
Anthr.  Inst,  and  R.  H.  Codrington's  Melanesian  Languages,  Oxford,  1885. 

■  K.  16 


242  Man:   Past  and  Present  [ch. 

both  =;"  burning,"  and  andro  in  both  ="day."  Thus  the 
only  difference  is  that  one  calls  the  sun  "  burning  eye,"  while 
the  Hovas  call  it  the  "day's  eye,"  as  do  so  many  peoples  in 
Malaysia^ 

So  also  the  fish^eating  Anorohoro  people,  a  brfinch  of  the 
Sihgcnakas  in  the  Alaotra  valley,  are  said  to  have  "quite 
a  different  dialect  from  them^"  But  the  state- 
GothSnftes  ment  need  not  be  taken  too  seriously,  because 
these  rustic  fisherfolk,  who  may  be  called  the 
Gothamites  of  Madagascar,  are  supposed,  by  their  scornful 
neighbours,  to  do  everything  "  contrariwise."  Of  them  it  is 
told  that  once  when  cooking  eggs  they  boiled  them  for  hours 
to  make  them  soft,  and  then  finding  they  got  harder  and 
harder  threw  them  away  as  unfit  for  food.  Others  having 
only  one  slave,  who  could  not  paddle  the  canoe  properly,  cut 
him  in  two,  putting  one  half  at  the  prow,  the  other  at  the 
stern,  and"  were  surprised  at  the  result.  It  was  not  to  be.  ex- 
pected that  such  simpletons  should  speak  Malagasy  properly, 
which  nevertheless  is  spoken  with  surprising  uniformity  by  all 
the  Malayan  and  Negro  or  Negroid  peoples  alike. 

In  Madagascar,  however,  the  fusion  of  the  two  races  is 
far  less  complete  than  is  commonly  supposed.  Various  shades 
Partial  Fusion  *-*^  transition  between  the  two  extremes  are  no 
of  the  Malayan  doubt  presented  by  the  Sakalavas  of  the  westi 
and  Negro  ^nd  the  B^tsimisarakas,  Sitanakas,  and  others 

of  the  east  coast.  But,  strange  to  say,  on  the 
central  tableland  the  two  seem  to  stand  almost  completely 
apart,  so  that  here  the  politically  dominant  Hovas  still  present 
all  the  essential  characteristics  of  the  Oceanic  Mongol,  while 
their  southern  neighbours,  the  Betsileos,  as  well  as  the  Tanalas 
and  Idaras,  are  described  as  "African  pure  and  simple,  allied 
to  the  south-eastern  tribes  of  that  continent'." 

Specially  remarkable  is  the  account  given  by  a  careful 
observer,  G.  A,  Shaw,  of  the  Betsileos,  whose  "average 
height  is  not  less  than  six  feet  for  the  men,  and  a  few  inches 
less  for  the  women.  They  are  large-boned  and  muscular,  and 
their  colour  is  several  degrees  darker  than  that  of  the  Hovas, 
approaching  very  close  to  a  black.     The  forehead  is  low  and 

'  Malay  mata-ari;  Bajau  tnata-lon;  Menado  mata-rou;  Salayer  mafo-allo, 
all  meaning  literally  "da/s  eye"  {mata,  OTfl:if(?= Malagasy  maso=eye ;  ari,  alie, 
etc.  =  day,' with  normal  interchange  of  rand /).  '    ■ 

2  J.  Sibree,  Antananarivo  Annual,  1877,  p.  62. 

3  W.  p.  Cowan,  The  Bara  Land,  Antananarivo,  1881,  p.  67. 


vii]  The  Oceanic  Mongols  243 

broad,  the  nose  flatter,  and  the  lips  thickef.  than  those  of  their 
conquerors,  whilst  their  hair  is  invariably  crisp  and  woolly. 
No  pure  Betsileo  is  to  be  met  with  having  the  smooth  long 
hair  of  the  Hovas.  In  this,  as  in  other  points,  there  is  a  very 
clear  departure  from  the  Malayan  type,  and  a  close  approxi- 
mation to  the  Negro  races  of  the  adjacent  continent'." 

Now  compare  these  brawny  negroid  giants  with  the  wiry 
undersized  Malayan  Hovas.  As  described  by  A,  Vouchereau^ 
their  type  closely  resembles  that  of  the  Javanese      „      ^ 

1  11       •  1  1-11       1  HovaType. 

— short  stature,  yellowish  or  light  leather  com- 
plexion, long,  black,  smooth  and  rather  coarse  hair,  round 
head  (85 "2 5),  flat  and  straight  forehead,  flat  face,  prominent 
cheek-bones,  small  straight  nose,  tolerably  wide  nostrils,  small 
black  and  slightly  oblique  eyes,  rather  thick  lips,  slim  lithe- 
some figure,  small  extremities,  dull  restless  expression,  cranial 
capacity  15 16  c.c,  superior  to  both  Negro  and  Sakalava*. 

Except  in  respect  of  this  high  cranial  capacity,  the  measure- 
ments of  three  Malagasy  skulls  in  the  Cambridge  University 
Anatomical  Museum,  studied  by  W.  L.  H.  Duckworth V 
correspond  fairly  well  with  these  descriptions.  Thus  the 
cephalic  index  of  the  reputed  Betsimisaraka  (Negroid)  and 
that  of  the  Betsileo  (Negro)  are  respectively  71  and  72/4, 
while  that  of  the  Hova  is  82 "i  ;  the  first  two,  therefore,  are 
long-headed,  the  third  round-headed,  as  we  should  expect. 
But  the  cubic  capacity  of  the  Hova  (presumably  Mongoloid) 
is  only  I3r5  as  compared  with  1450  and  1480  The  Black 
of  two  others,  presumably  African  Negroes.  Element  from 
Duckworth  discusses  the  question  whether  the  ^^"'^• 
black  element  in  Madagascar  is  of  African  or  Oceanic  (Mela- 
nesian- Papuan)  origin,  about  which  much  diversity  of  opinion 
still  prevails,  and  on  the  evidence  of  the  few  cranial  specimens 
available  he  decides  in  favour  of  the  African. 

1  "The  Betsileo,  Country  and  People,"  in  Antananarivo  Annual,  1877,  p.  79. 

2  "Note  sur  I'Anthropologie  de  Madagascar,"  etc.,  in  V Anthropologie,  1897, 
p.  149  sq. 

3  The  contrast  between  the  two  elements  is  drawn  in  a  few  bold  strokes  by 
Mrs  Z.  Colvile,  who  found  that  in  the  east  coast  districts  the  natives  (Betsimisarakas 
chiefly)  were  black  "  with  short,  curly  hair  and  negro  type  of  feature,  and  showed 
every  sign  of  being  of  African  origin.  The  Hovas,  on  the  contrary,  bad  coniplexions 
little  darker  than  those  of  -the  peasantry  of  Southern  Europe,  straight  black  hair, 
rather  sharp  features,  slim  figures,  and  were  unmistakably  of  the  Asiatic  type" 
{Round  the  Black  Maris  Garden,  1893,  p.  143)-  But  even  amongst  the  Hovas  a 
strain  of  black  blood  is  betrayed  in  the  generally  rather  thick  lips,  and  among  the 
lower  classes  in  the  wavy  hair  and  dark  skin. 

*  Journ.  Anthr.  Inst,  1897,  p.  285  sq. 

16 — 2 


244  Man :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

Despite  the  low  cubic  capacity  of  Duckworth's  Hova, 
the  mental  powers  of  these,  and  indeed  of  the  Malagasy 
Mental  generally,  are  far  from  despicable.     Before  the 

QuaUtiesof         French    occupation     the     London    Missionary 
the  Malagasy.     Society  had  succeeded  in  disseminating  Christian  ^ 
principles  and  even  some  degree  of  culture  among  considerable 
numbers  both  in  the  Hova  capital  and  surrounding  districts. 

The  local  press  had  been  kept  going  by  native 
Chr^tianitr         cpmpositors,  who  had  issued  quite  an  extensive 

literature  both  in  Malagasy  and  English.  Agri- 
cultural and  industrial  methods  had  been  improved,  some 
engineering  works  attempted,  and  the  Hova  craftsmen  had 
learnt  to  build  but  not  to  complete  houses  in  the  European 
style,  because,  although  they  could  master  European  processes, 
they  could  not,  Christians  though  they  were,  get  the  better 
of  the  old  superstitions,  one  of  which  is  that  the  owner  of  a 
house  always  dies  within  a  year  of  its  completion.  Longevity 
is  therefore  ensured  by  not  completing  it,  with  the  curious 
result  that  the  whole  city  looks  unfinished  or  dilapidated.  In 
the  house  where  Mrs  Colvile  stayed,  "one  window  was 
framed  and  glazed,  the  other  nailed  up  with  rough  boards ; 
part  of  the  stair-banister  had  no  top-rail ;  outside  only  a  portion 
of  the  roof  had  been  tiled  ;  and  so  on  throughout\" 

The  culture  has  been  thus  summarised  by  T.  A.  Joyce^ 

Clothing  is  entirely  vegetable,  and  the  Malay  sarong  is  found 

„  .  throughout  the  east  •  bark-cloth  in  the  south-east 

and  west.  Hairdressing  varies  considerably,  and 
among  the  Bara  and  Sakalava  is  often  elaborate.  Silver 
ornaments  are  found  amongst  the  Antimerina  and  some  other 
eastern  tribes,  made  chiefly  from  European  coins  dating  from 
the  sixteenth  century.  Circumcision  is  universal.  In  the 
east  the  tribes  are  chiefly  agricultural ;  in  the  north,  west  and 
south,  pastoral.  Fishing  is  important  among  those  tribes 
situated  on  coast,  lake  or  river.  Houses  are  all  rectangular 
and  pile-dwellings  are  found  locally.  Rice  is  the  staple  crop 
and  the  cattle  are  of  the  humped  variety.  The  Antimerina 
excel  the  rest  in  all  crafts.  Weaving,  basket-work  (woven 
variety)  and  iron-working  are  all  good  ;  the  use  of  iron  is  said 
to  have  been  unknown  to  the  Bara  and  Vazimba  until  com- 
paratively recent  times.     Pottery  is  poor.     Carvings  in  the 

1  Journ.  Antkr.  Inst.  1897,  p.  153. 

2  Handbook  to  the  Ethnological  Collection,  British  Museum,  1910,  pp.  246-7. 


vii]  The  Oceanic  Mongols  245 

round  (men  and  animals)  are  found  amongst  the  Sakalava 
and  Bara,  in  relief  (arabesques,  etc.)  among  the  Betsileo  and 
others.  Before  the  introduction  of  firearms,  the  spear  was 
the  universal  weapon ;  bows  are  rare  and  possibly  of  late 
introduction  ;  slings  and  the  blowgun  are  also  found.  Shields 
are  circular,  made  of  wood  covered  with  hide.  The  early 
system  of  government  was  patriarchal,  and  villages  were 
independent ;  the  later  immigrants  introduced  a  system  of 
feudal  monarchy  with  themselves  as  a  ruling  caste.  Thus 
the  Antimerina  have  three  main  castes ;  Andriana  or  nobles 
{i.e.  pure-blooded  descendants  of  the  conquerors),  Hova,  or 
freemen  (descendants  of  the  incorporated  Vazimba  more  or 
less  mixed  with  the  conquerors),  and  Andevo  or  slaves.  The 
king  was  regarded  almost  as  a  god.  An  institution  thoroughly 
suggestive  of  Malayo- Polynesian  sociology  is  that  oi  fadi  or 
tabu,  which  enters  into  every  sphere  of  human  activity.  An 
indefinite  creator-god  was  recognized,  but  more  important 
were  a  number  of  spirits  and  fetishes,  the  latter  with  definite 
functions.  Signs  of  tree  worship  and  of  belief  in  transmigration 
are  sporadic.  At  the  present  time,  half  the  population  of  the 
island  is,  at  least  nominally,  Christian. 

A  good  deal  of  fancy  is  displayed  in  the  oral  literature, 
comprising  histories,  or  at  least  legends,  fables,  songs,  riddles, 
and  a  great  mass  of  folklore,  much  of  which  has 
already  been  rescued  from  oblivion  by  the  PiJUore^ 
"  Malagasy  Folklore  Society."  Some  of  the 
stories  present  the  usual  analogies  to  others  in  widely  separated 
lands,  stories  which  seem  to  be  perennial,  and  to  crop  up 
wherever  the  surface  is  a  little  disturbed  by  investigators. 
One  of  those  in  Dahle's  extensive  collection,  entitled  the 
"History  of  Andrianarisainaboniamasoboniamanoro"  might 
be  described  as  a  variant  of  our  "  Beauty  and  the  Beast." 
Besides  this  prince  with  the  long  name,  called  Bonia  "  for 
short,"  there  is  a  princess  "  Golden  Beauty,"  both  being  of 
miraculous  birth,  but  the  latter  a  cripple  and  deformed,  until 
found  and  wedded  by  Bonia.  Then  she  is  so  transfigured  that 
the  "Beast"  is  captivated  and  contrives  to  carry  her  off. 
Thereupon  follows  an  extraordinary  series  of  adventures, 
resulting  of  course  in  the  rescue  of  Golden  Beauty  by  Bonia, 
when  everything  ends  happily,  not  only  for  the  two  lovers, 
but  for  all  other  people  whose  wives  had  also  been  abducted. 
These  are  now  restored  to  their  husbands  by  the  hero,  who 


246  Man :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

vanquishes  atid  slays  the  monster  in  a  fierce  fight,  just  as  in 
our  nursery  tales  of  knights  and  dragons. 

In  the  Philippines,  where  the  ethnical  confusion  is  probably 
greater  than  in  any  other  part  of  Malaysia,  the  great  bulk  of 

the  inhabitants^ajggeaLto  be  of  Indonesian  anH^ 
NatiS'''^'''"^     protSalayan  stocks.  ""^Except  iiTthe  southern 
IslanSroO^  mdanao,  which  is  still  mainly  Muham- 
madan  or  heatli^Sir  most  of  tKe' settled  populations  have  long 
een  nommal   Koman  Catholics  under  a  curious  theocratic 
administration,   m  which   the   true   rulers   are   not  the  civil 
functionaries,  but  the  priests,  and  especially  the  regular  clergy\ 
Gne  result  has  been  over  three  centuries  of  unstable  political 
and  social  relations,  ending  in  the  occupation  of  the  archipelago 
by  the  United  States  (1898).     Another,  with  which  we  are 
here  more  concerned,  has  been  such  a  transformation  of  the 
subtle  Malayan  character  that  those  who  have  lived  longest 
amongst  the  natives  pronounce  their  temperament  unfathom- 
able.    Having    to    comply    outwardly    with    the    numerous 
Christian  observances,  they  seek  relief  in  two  ways,  first  by 
making  the  most  of  the  Catholic  ceremonial  and  turning  the 
many  feast-days  of  the  calendar  into  occasions  of  revelry  and 
dissipation,  connived  at  if  not  even  shared  in  by  the  padres' ; 
secondly  by  secretly  cherishing  the  old  beliefs  and  disguising 
their_  true   feelings,  ^ untiT~T^''^portunity~is'  presented   of 
throwing  offthe  mask^rid.declaring  theniselvesTn"  their  truE 
"coloursT"  A   Franciscan  friar,   who  haH*"spent   half  his  life* 
amongst  them,  left  on  record  that  "the  native  is  an  incom- 
prehensible phenomenon,    the  mainspring  of  whose  line  of 
thought  and  the  guiding  motive  of  whose  actions  have  never 
yet  been,  and  perhaps  never  will  be,  discovered.    ,A  native, 
-will  serve  a  master  satisfactorily  for  years,  and  then  su3denly 
abscond,  or  commit  some  such  hideous  crime  as  conniving 
with  a  brigand  band  to  murder  the  family  and  pillage  the 
house'." 

In  fact  nobody  can  ever  tell  what  a  Tagal,  and  especially 
a  Visaya,  will  do  at  any  moment.  His  character  is  a 
succession  of  surprises  ;  "  the  experience  of  each  year  brings 


■■  Augustinians,  Dominicans,  Recollects  (Friars  Minor  of  the  Strict  Observance), 
and  Jesuits. 

^  In  fact  there  is  no  great  parade  of  morality  on  either  side,  nor  is  it  any 
.reflection  on  a  woman  to  have  children  by  the  priest. 

^  J.  Foreman,  The  Philippine  Islands,  1899,  p.  181. 


vii]  The  Oceanic  Mongols  247 

one  to  form  fresh  conclusions,  and  the  most  exact  definition 
of  such  a  kaleidoscopic  creature  is,  after  all,  hypothetical." 

After  centuries  of  misfule,  it  was  perhaps  not  surprising" 
that  no  kind  of  sympathy  was  developed  between  the  natives 
and  the  whites.  Foreman  tells  us  that  everywhere  in  the 
archipelago  he  found  mothers  teaching  their  little  ones  to 
look  on  their  white  rulers  as  demoniacal  beings,  evil  spirits, 
or  at  least  something  to  be  dreaded.  "  If  a  child  cries,  it  is 
hushed  by  the  exclamation,  Castila !  (Spaniard)  ;  if  a  white 
man  approaches  a  native  dwelling,  the  watchword  always  is 
Castila !  and  the  children  hasten  to  retreat  from  the  dreadful 
object." 

For   administrative    purposes   the    natives   were    classed 
in  three  social  divisions — Indios,  Injieles,  and  Moras — which, 
as  aptly  remarked  by   F.    H.    H.    Guillemard, 
is    "an   ecclesiastical    rather    than    a    scientific      S'oms^""^' 
classification \"     The  Indios  were  the  Christian- 
ized and  more  or  less  cultured  populations  of  all  the  towns 
and  of  the  settled  agricultural  districts,  speaking  .. 

a  distinct  Malayo- Polynesian  language  of  much 
more  archaic  type  than  the  standard  Malay.  According  to 
the  census  of  1903  the  total  population  of  the  islands  was 
7,635,428,  of  whom  nearly  7,000,000  were  classed  as  civilised, 
and  the  rest  as  wild,  including  23,000  Negritoes  {Aeta,  see 
p.  156).  At  the  time  of  the  Spanish  occupation  in  the  six- 
teenth century  the  Visayas  of  the  central  islands  and  part  of 
Mindanao  were  the  most  advanced  among  the  native  tribes, 
but  this  distinction  is  now  claimed  for  the  Tagalogs,  who  form 
the  bulk  of  the  population  in  Manila  and  other  parts  of  Luzon, 
and  also  in  Mindanao,  and  whose  language  is  gradually 
displacing  other  dialects  throughout  the  archipelago.  Other 
civilised  tribes  are  the  Ilocano,  Bicol,  Pangasinan,  Pampangan 
and  Cagayan,  all  of  Luzon.  Less  civilised  tribes  are  the 
Manobo,  Mandaya,  Subano  and  Bagobo  of  Mindanao,  the 
Bukidnon  of  Mindanao  and  the  central  islands,  the  Tagbanua 
and  Batak  of  Palawan,  and  the  Igorots  of  Luzon,  ^some  of 
whom  are  industrious  farmers,  while  among  others,  J5ead- 
hunting  is  still  prevalent.  These  have  been  described  by 
A.    E.    Jenks   in    a   monographs     The  head   form   is   very 

>  Australasia,  1894, 11.  p.  49. 

2  The  Bontoc  Igorot,  Eth.   Survey  Pub.  Vol.  i.  1904.    Further  information 
concerning  the  Philippines  is  published  in  the  Census  Report  in  1903,   1905; 


248  Man :   Past  and  Present  [ch. 

variable.  Of  32  men  measured*  by  Jenks  the  extremes  of 
cephalic  index  were  91 '48  and  67"48.  The.staturg  is  always 
^QW., averaging  i'62  m.  (5  ft.  4  in.)  but  with  an  appearance  of 
greater  height.  The  hair  is*  black,  straight,  lank^  marsp_and 
abundant  but  "  I  doubt  whether  to-day  an  entire  tribe  of 
peHectTy"  straight-haired  primitive  Malayan  people  exists  in 
the  archipelago'." 

Under  MorosJ('  Moors  ")  are  comprised  the  Muhammadans 
exclusiveTy,  some  of  whbrii  are  Malayans  (cKieflyln  Mindanao, 
'~Zr~,.  Basilan,  and  Palawan),  some  true  Malays  (chiefly 

The  Moros.        .        i        o    i  i.-      i       "T"    iv/r "     r^i. 

m  the  Sulu  archipelago).  Many  of  these  are 
still  independent,  and  not  a  few,  if  not  actually  wild,  are 
certainly  but  little  removed  from  the  savage  state.  Yet,  like 
the  Sumatran  ,Pattas,  they  possess  a^lyipwledge  of  letters,  the 
Sulu  people  using  the  Arabic  script,  as  do  all  the  Orang- 
MalayuTwhile  the  Palawan  natives  employ  a  variant  of  the 
Devanagari  prototype  derived  directly  from  the  Javanese,  as 
above  explained.  They  number  nearly  280,000,  of  whom 
more  than  one  half  are  in  Mindanao,  and  they  form  the  bulk 
of  the  population  in  some  of  the  islands  of  the  Sulu  archipelago. 

Some  of  these  Sulu  people,  till  lately  fierce  sea-rovers,  get 
baptized  now  and  then  ;  but,  says  Foreman,  "  they  appeared 
to  be  as  much  Christian  as  I  was  Mussulman^"  They  keep 
their  harems  all  the  same,  and  when  asked  how  many  gods 
there  are,  answer  "four,"  presumably  Allah  plus  the  Athanasian 
Trinity.  So  the  Ba-Fiots  of  Angola  add  crucifying  to  their 
"penal  code,"  and  so  in  King  M'tesa's  time  the  Baganda 
scrupulously  kept  two  weekly  holidays,  the  Mussulman  Friday, 
and  the  Christian  Sunday.  Lofty  creeds  superimposed  too 
rapidly  on  primitive  beliefs  are  apt  to  get  "  mixed "  ;  they 
need  time  to  become  assimilated. 

That  in  the  aborigines  of  Formosa  are  represented  both 
Mongol  (proto-Malayan)  and  Indonesian  elements  may  now 
probably  be  accepted  as  an  established  fact.  The  long- 
Malayans  and  standing  reports  of  Negritoes  also,  like  the 
Indonesians  Philippine  Aeta,  have  never  been  confirmed, 
in  Formosa.  ^^^  j^^y.  j^g  dismissed  from  the  present  con- 
sideration.    Probably  five-sixths  of  the  whole  population  are 

Ethnological  Survey  Publications,  1904-  ;  C.  A.  Koeze,  Crania  Ethnicd  Philip- 
pinica,  ein  Beitrag  zur  Anthropologie  der  Philippinen,  igoi-  ;  Henry  Gannett, 
People  of  the  Philippines,  1904  ;  R.  B.  Bean,  The  Racial  Anatomy  of  the  Philippine 
Islanders,  1910  ;  Fay-Cooper  Cole,  Wild  Tribes  of  Davao  District,  Mindanao,  1913. 
'  A.  E.  Jenks,  The  Bontoc  Tsorot,  1904,  p.  41.  .  /*  Op.  cit.  p.  247. 


^ii]  The  Oceanic  Mongols  249 

Chinese  immigrants,  amongst  whom  are  a  large  number  of 
Hakkas  and  Hok-los  from  the  provinces  of  Fo- 
Kien  and  Kwang-tung\     They  occupy  all  the      Stie^s'""' 
cultivated   western,  lowlands,    which   from   the 
ethnological  standpoint  may  be  regarded  as  a  seaward  outpost 
of  the  Chinese  mainland.     The  rest  of  the  island,  that  is,  the 
central  highlands  and  precipitous  eastern  slopes,  may  similarly 
be  looked  on  as  a  north-eastern  outpost  of  Malaysia,  being 
almost  exclusively  held  by  Indonesian  and  Malayan  aborigines 
from  Malaysia  (especially  the  Philippines),  with  possibly  some 
early   intruders   both   from    Polynesia   and   from   the   north 
(Japan).     AH  are  classed  by  the  Chinese  settlers  after  their 
usual  fashion  in  three  social  divisions  : — 

1.  The  Pepohwans  of  the  plains,  who  although  called 
"Barbarians,"  are  sedentary  agriculturists  and  quite  as  civilised 
as  their  Chinese  neighbours  themselves,  with  whom  they  are 
gradually  merging  in  a  single  ethnical  group.  The  Pepohwans 
are  described  by  P.  Ibis  as  a  fine  race,  very  tall,  and  "fetish- 
ists," though  the  mysterious  rites  are  left  to  the  women.  Their 
national  feasts,  dances,  and  other  usages  forcibly  recall  those 
of  the  Micronesians  and  Polynesians.  They  may  therefore, 
perhaps,  be  regarded  as  early  immigrants  from  the  South  Sea 
Islands,  distinct  in  every  respect  from  the  true  aborigines. 

2.  The  Sekhwans,  "  Tame  Savages  V'  who  are  also  settled 
agriculturists,  subject  to  the  Chinese  (since  1895  to  the 
Japanese)  administration,  but  physically  distinct  from  all  the 
other  Formosans — light  complexion,  large  mouth,  thick  lips, 
remarkably  long  and  prominent  teeth,  weak  constitution. 
P.  Ibis  suspects  a  strain  of  Dutch  blood  dating  from  the 
seventeenth  century.  This  is  confirmed  by  the  old  books  and 
other  curious  documents  found  amongst  them,  which  have  given 
rise  to  so  much  speculation,  and,  it. may  be  added,  some 
mystification,  regarding  a  peculiar  writing  system  and  a 
literature  formerly  current  amongst  the  Formosan  aborigines'. 

'  Girard  de  Rialle,  Jiev.  d' Anthrop.,  Jan.  and  April,  1885.  These  studies  are 
based  largely  on  the  data  supplied  by  M.  Paul  Ibis  and  earlier  travellers  in  the 
island.  Nothing  better  has  since  appeared  except  G.  Taylor's  valuable  con- 
tributions to  the  China  Review  (see  below).  The  census  of  1904  gave  2,860,574 
Chinese,  51,770  Japanese  and  104,334  aborigines. 

2  Lit.  "ripe  barbarians"  {barbares  miirs.  Ibis). 

3  See  facsimiles  of  bilingual  and  other  MSS.  from  Formosa  in  T.  de  Lacouperie's 
Formosa  Notes  on  MSS.,  Laiiguages,  and  Races,  Hertford,  1887.  The  whole 
question  is  here  fully  discussed,  though  the  author  seems  unable  to  arrive  at  any 
definite  conclusion  even  as  to  the  bona  or  mala  fides  of  the  noted  impostor  George 
Psalmanazar. 


250  Man:   Past  and  Present  [ch. 

3.  The  Chinhwans,  "Green  Barbarians" — ^that  is,  utter 
savages — the  true  independent  aborigines,  of  whom  there  are 
an  unknown  number  of  tribes,  but  regarding  whom  the  Chinese 
possess  but  little  definite  information.  Not  so  their  Japanese 
successors,  one  of  whom,  Kisak  Tamai\  tells  us  that  the 
Chinhwans  show  a  close  resemblance  to  the  Malays  of  the 
Malay  Peninsula  and  also  to  those  of  the  Philippines,  and  in 
some  respects  to  the  Japanese  themselves.  When  dressed 
like  Japanese  and  mingling  with  Japanese  women,  they  can 
hardly  be  distinguished  from  them.  The  vendetta  is  still  rife 
amongst  many  of  the  ruder  tribes,  and  such  is  their  traditional 
hatred  of  the  Chinese  intruders  that  no  one  can  either  be 
tattooed  or  permitted  to  wear  a  bracelet  until  he  has  carried 
off  a  Celestial  head  or  two.  In  every  household  there  is  a 
frame  or  bracket  on  which  these  heads  are  mounted,  and 
some  of  their  warriors  can  proudly  point  to  over  seventy  of 
such  trophies.  It  is  a  relief  to  hear  that  with  their  new 
Japanese  masters  they  have  sworn  friendship,  these  new  rulers 
of  the  land  being  their  "brothers  and  sisters."  The  oath  of 
eternaj  alliance  is  taken  by  digging  a  hole  in  the  ground, 
putting  a  stone  in  it,  throwing  earth  at  each  other,  then 
covering  the  stone  with  the  earth,  all  of  which  means  that 
"  as  the  stone  in  the  ground  keeps  sound,  so  do  we  keep  our 
word  unbroken." 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  this  Japanese  ethnologists 
remarks  on  the  physical  resemblances  of  the  aborigines  are 

fully  in  accord  with  those  of  European  observers. 
Affinfties.  Thus  to  Hamy  "they  recalled  the  Igorrotes  of 

North  Luzon,  as  well  as  the  Malays  of  Singa- 
porel"  G.  Taylor  also,  who  has  visited  several  of  the  wildest 
groups  in  the  southern  and  eastern  districts'  ( Tipuns,  Paiwans, 
Diaramocks,  Nickas,  Amias  and  many  others),  traces  some 
"probably"  to  Japan  (Tipuns);  others  to  Malaysia  (the  cruel, 
predatory  Paiwan  head-hunters) ;  and  others  to  the  Liu-Kiu 
archipelago  (the  Pepohwans  now  of  Chinese  speech).  He 
describes  ,the    Diaramocks  as  the  most  dreaded  of  all  the 

'  Globus,  70,  p.  93  sq. 

2  "Les  Races  Malaiques,"  etc.,  in  DAnthropologie,  1896. 

*  "  The  Aborigines  of  Formosa,"  in  China  Review,  xiv.  p.  198  sq.,  also  xvi.  No.  3 
("A  Ramble  through  Southern  Formosa").  The  services  rendered  by  this  intelligent 
observer  to  Formosan  ethnology  deserve  more  g'eneral  recognition  than  they  have 
hitherto  received.  See  also  the  Report  on  the  control  of  the  Aborigines  of  Formosa, 
Bureau  of  Aboriginal  Affairs,  Formosa,  191 1.  • 


vii]  The  Oceanic  Mongols  251 

southern  groups,  but  doubts  whether  the  charge  of  canni- 
balism brought  against  them  by  their  neighbours  is  quite 
justified. 

Whether  the  historical  Malays  from  Singapore  or  else- 
where, as  above  suggested,  are  really  represented  in  Formosa 
may  be  doubted,  since  no  survivals  either  of  Hindu  or 
Muhammadan  rites  appear  to  have  been  detected  amongst 
the  aborigines.  It  is  of  course  possible  that  they  may  have 
reached  the  island  at  some  remote  time,  and  since  relapsed 
into  savagery,  from  which  the  Orang-laut  were  never  very 
far  removed.  But  in  the  absence  of  proof,  it  will  be  safer  to. 
regard  all  the  wild  tribes  as  partly  of  Indonesian,  parriy  of 
proto-Malayan  origin. 

This  view  is  also  in  conformity  with  the  character  of  the 
numerous  Formosan  dialects,  whose  afifinities  are  either  with 
the  Gyarung  and  others  of  the  Asiatic  Indonesian 
tongues,  or  else  with  the  Austronesian  organic      Affimties*^ 
speech    generally^    but    not   specially   with    any 
particular  member  of  that  family,  least  of  all  with  the  com- 
paratively recent  standard    Malay.     Thus  Arnold  Schetelig 
points   out  that  only  about  a  sixth    part   of  the  Formosan 
vocabulary  taken  generally  corresponds  with  modern  Malay \ 
The  analogies  of  all  the  rest  must  be  sought  in  the  various 
branches  of  the  Oceanic  stock  language,  and  in  the  Gyarung 
and  the  non-Chinese  tongues  of  Eastern  China^     Formosa 
thus  presents  a  curious  ethnical  and  linguistic  connecting  link 
between  the  Continental  and  Oceanic  populations. 

In  the  Nicobar  archipelago  are  distinguished  two  ethnical 
groups,  the  coast  people,  i.e.  the  Nicobarese^  proper,  and  the 
Shorn  Pen,  aborigines  of  the  less  accessible  inland 
districts  in  Great  Nicobar.     But  the  distinction      Nicobarese. 
appears  to  be  rather  social  than  racial,  and  we 
may  now  conclude  with  E.   H.   Man  that  all  the  islanders 
belong  essentially  to  the    Mongolic    division,  the    inlanders 
representing  the  pure  type,  the  others  being  "  descended  from 

'  "Sprachen  der  UreinwoHner  Formosa's,"  in  Zeitschr.f.  Volkerpsychologie,  etc., 
V.  p.  437  sq.  This  anthropologist  found  to  his  great  surprise  that,  the  Polynesian 
and  Maori  skulls  in  the  London  College  of  Surgeons  presented  striking  analogies 
with  those  collected  by  himself  in  Formosa.  Here  at  least  is  a  remarkable  harmony 
between  speech  and  physical  characters. 

*  De  Lacouperie,  op.  cit.  p.  73. 

3  The  natives  of  course  know  nothing  of  this  word,  and  speak  of  their  island 
homes  as  Mattai,  a  vague  term  applied  equaiUy  to  land,  country,  village,  and  even 
the  whole  world. 


252  Man  :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

a  mongrel  Malay  stock,  the  crosses  being  probably  in  the 
majority  of  cases  with  Burmese  and  occasionally  with  natives 
of  the  opposite  coast  of  Siam,  and  perchance  also  in  remote 
times  with  such  of  the  Shom  Pen  as  may  have  settled  in 
their  midst'." 

Among  the  numerous  usages  which  point  to  an  Indo- 
Chinese  and  Oceanic  connection  are  pile-dwellings ;  the 
chewing  of  betel,  which  appears  to  be  here  mixed  with  some 
earthy  substance  causing  a  dental  incrustation  so  thick  as  even 
to  prevent  the  closing  of  the  lips ;  distention  of  the  ear-lobe 
by  wooden  cylinders ;  aversion  from  the  use  of  milk  ;  and  the 
couvade,  as  amongst  some  Bornean  Dayaks.  The  language, 
which  has  an  extraordinarily  rich  phonetic  system  (as  many 
as  25  consonantal  and  35  vowel  sounds),  is  polysyllabic  and 
untoned,  like  the  Austronesian,  and  the  type  also  seems  to 
resemble,  the  Oceanic  more  than  the  Continental  Mongol' 
subdivision.  Mean  height  5  ft.  3  in.  (Shom  Pen  one  inch 
less) ;  nose  wide  and  flat ;  eyes  rather  obliquely  set ;  cheek- 
bones prominent  ;  features  flat,  though  less  so  than  in  the 
normal  Malayan ;  complexion  mostly  a  yellowish  or  reddish 
brown  (Shom  Pen  dull  brown) ;  hair  a  dark  rusty  brown, 
rarely  quite  black,  straight,  though  not  seldom  wavy  and  even 
ringletty,  but  Shom  Pen  generally  quite  straight. 

On  the  other  hand  they  approach  nearer  to  the  Burmese 
in  their  mental  characters;  in  their  frank,  independent  spirit, 
inquisitiveness,  and  kindness  towards  their  women,  who  enjoy 
complete  social  equality,  as  in  Burma ;  and  lastly  in  their 
universal  belief  in  spirits  called  iwi  or  siya,  who,  like  the  nats 
of  Indo-China,  cause  sickness  and  death  unless  scared  away 
or  appeased  by  offerings.  Like  the  Burmese,  also,  they  place 
a  piece  of  money  in  the  mouth  or  against  the  cheek  of  a 
corpse  before  burial,  to. help  in  the  other  world. 

One  of  the  few  industries  is  the  manufacture  of  a  peculiar 
kind  of  rough  painted  pottery,  which  is  absolutely  confined  to 
the  islet  of  Chowra,  5  miles  north  of  Teressa.  The  reason  of 
this  restriction  is  explained  by  a  popular  legend,  according  to 
which  in  remote  ages  the  Great  Unknown  decreed  that,  on 
pain  of  sudden  death,  an  earthquake,  or  some  such  calamity, 
the  making  of  earthenware  was  to  be  carried  on  only  in 
Chowra,  and  all  the  work  of  preparing  the  clay,  moulding 

^  "The  Nicobar  Islanders,"  in /<7ar«.  Anthr.  Inst.  1889,  p.  354sq.     Cf.  C.  B. 
Kloss,  In  the  Andamans  and Nicobars,  1903. 


vii]  The  Oceanic  Mongols  253 

and  firing  the  pots,  was  to  devolve  on  the  women.  Once,  a 
long  time  ago,  one  of  these  women,  when  on  a  visit  in  another 
island,  began,  heedless  of  the  divine  injunction,  to  make  a 
vessel,  and  fell  dead  on  the  spot.  Thus  was  confirmed  the 
tradition,  and  no  attempt  has  since  been  made  to  infringe  the 
"  Chowra  monopoly'." 

All  things  considered,  it  may  be  inferred  that  the  archi- 
pelago was  originally  occupied  by  primitive  peoples  of  Malayan 
stock  now  represented  by  the  Shom  Pen  of  Great  Nicobar, 
and  was  afterwards  re-settled  on  the  coastlands  by  Indo- 
Chinese  and  Malayan  intruders,  who  intermingled,  and  either 
extirpated  or  absorbed,  or  else  drove  to  the  interior  the  first 
occupants.  Nicobar  thus  resembles  Formosa  in  its  inter- 
mediate position  between  the  continental  and  Oceanic  Mongol 
populations.  Another  point  of  analogy  is  the  absence  of 
Negritoes  from  both  of  these  insular  areas,  where  anthropo- 
logists had  confidently  anticipated  the  presence  of  a  dark 
element  like  that  of  the  Andamanese  and  Philippine  Aeta. 

1  E.  H.  'b/i.a.n,  Jourtt.  Anthr.  Inst.  1894,  p.  2t. 


CHAPTER   VIII 


THE   NORTHERN   MONGOLS 

Domain  of  the  Mongolo-Turki  Section — Early  Contact  with  Caucasic  Peoples^ 
Primitive  Man  in  Siberia — and  Mongoha — Early  Man  in  Korea  and  Japan — ; 
in  Finland  and  East  Europe — Early  Man  in  Babylonia — The  Sumerians — The 
Akkadians — Babylonian  Chronology — Elamite  Origins — Historical  Records — 
Babylonian  Religion — Social  System — General  Culture — The  Mongols  Proper 
— Physical  Type- — Ethnical  and  Administrative  Divisions — Buddhism — The 
Tunguses— Cradle  and  Type — Mental  Characters — Shamanism — The  Man- 
chus — Origins  and  Early  Records — Type — The  Dauri — Mongolo-Turki  Speech 
— Language  and  Racial  Characters— Mongol  and  Manchu  Script — The  Yuka- 
ghirs — A  Primitive  Writing  System — Chukchis  and  Koryaks — Chukchi  and 
Eskimo  Relations — -Type  and  Social  State — Koryaks  and  Kamchadales— The 
Gilyaks — The  Koreans— Ethnical  Elements — Korean  Origins  and  Records — 
Religion — The  Korean  Script — The  Japanese — Origins — Constituent  Elements 
— The  Japanese  Type — ^Japanese  and  Liu-Kiu  Islanders — Their  Languages 
and  Religions — Cult  of  the  Dead — Shintoism  and  Buddhism. 

Conspectus. 

Present  Range.     The  Northern  Hemisphere  from  Japan 

to  Lapland,  and  from,  the  Arctic  Ocean  to  the  Great  Wall  and 

Tibet;  Aralo-Caspian  Basin;  Parts  of  Irania ; 

Asia  Minor;    Parts  of  East  Russia,  Balkan 

Peninsula,  and  Lower  Danube. 

Hair,  generally  the  same  as  South  Mongol,  but  in  Mongolo- 
Caucasic  transitional  groups  brown,  chestnut,  and  even  towy 
or  light  flaxen,  also  wavy  and  ringletty ;  beard 
Characters        'mostly  absent  except  amongst  the  Western  Turks 
and  some  Koreans. 
Colour,  light  or  dirty  yellowish  amongst  all  true  Mongols 
and  Siberians;  very  variable  (white,  sallow,  swarthy^  in  the 
transitional  groups  {Finns,  Lapps,  Magyars,  Bulgars,  Western, 
Turks),  and  many  Manchus  and  Koreans ;  in  Japan  the  un- 
exposed parts  of  the  body  also  white. 

Skull,  highly  brachycephalic  in  the  true  Mongol  {So  to  85); 
variable  {sub-brachy  and  sub-dolicho)  in  most  transitional  groups 
and  even  some  Siberians  {Ostyaks  and  Voguls  yj).  Jaws, 
cheek-bones,  nose,  and  eyes  much  the  same  as  in  South 


CH.  viii]  The  Northern  Mongols  255 

Mongols;  but  nose  often  large  and  straight,  and  eyes  straight, 
greyish,  or  even  blue  in  Finns,  Manchus,  Koreans,  and  some 
other  MongolO'Caucasians. 

Stature,  usually  short  {below  r68  m.,  ^ft.  6  in.),  but  many 
Manchus  and  Koreans  tall,  1 72S  w.  ^  1 778  w.  (5//.  %or\o  in). 
Lips,  arms,  legs,  and  feet,  usually  the  same  as  South 
Mongols ;  but  Japanese  legs  disproportionately  short. 

Temperament,  of  all  true  Mongols  and  many  Mongoloids, 
dull,   reserved,  somewhat  sullen  and  apathetic;    but  in  some 
groups  {Finns,  Japanese)  active  and  energetic; 
nearly  all  brave,  warlike,  even  fierce,  and  capable      characters 
of  great  atrocities,  though  not  normally  cruel; 
within  the  historic  period  the  character  has  almost  everywhere 
undergone  a  marked  change  from,  a  rude  and  ferocious  to  a 
milder  and  more  humane  disposition ;  ethical  tone  higher  than 
South  Mqfigol,  with  m,ore  developed  sense  of  right  and  wrong. 

Speech,  very  uniform ;  apparently  only  one  stock  language 
(Finno-Tatar  or  Ural-Altaic  Family),  a  highly  typical 
agglutinating  form  with  no  prefixes,  but  numerous  postfixes 
attached  loosely  to  an  unchangeable  root,  by  which  their  vowels 
are  modified  in  accordance  with  subtle  laws  of  vocalic  harmony ; 
the  chief  members  of  the  family  {Finnish,  Magyar,  Turkish, 
Mongol,  and  especially  Korean  and  Japanese)  diverge  greatly 
.from  the  com-mon prototype. 

Religion,  originally  spirit-zvorship  through  a  mediator 
(Shaman),  perhaps  everywhere,  and  still  exclusively  prevalent 
amongst  Siberian  and  all  other  uncivilised  groups ;  all  Mongols 
proper,  Manchus,  and  Koreans  nominal  Buddhists ;  all  Turki 
peoples  Moslem;  Japanese  Buddhists  and  Shintoists;  Finns, 
Lapps,  Bulgars,  Magyars,  and  some  Siberians  real  or  nominal 
Christians. 

Culture,  rude  and  barbaric  rather  than  savage  amongst 
the  Siberian  aborigines,  who  are  nearly  all  nomadic  hunters 
and  fishers  with  half  wild  reindeer  herds  but  scarcely  any  in- 
dustries; the  Mongols  proper,  Kirghiz,  Uzbegs  and  Turkomans 
semi-nomadic  pastors ;  the  Anatolian  and  Balkan  Turks,  Man- 
chus, and  Koreans  settled  agriculturists,  with  scarcely  any  arts 
or  letters  and  no  science;  Japanese,  Finns,  Bulgars  and  Magyars 
civilised  up  to,  and  in  some  respects  beyond  the  European  average 
{Magyar  and  Finnish  literature,  Japanese:  art). 

Mongol  Proper.     Sharra  {Eastern),  Kal-   _  .  .     ' 

mak  (  Western),  Buryat  {Siberian)  Mongol. 


256  Man  :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

Tungus.     Tungus  proper,  Manchu,  Gold,  Oroch,  Lamut. 

Korean;  Japanese  ««flfLiu-Kiu. 

Turki.  Yakut;  Kirghiz;  Uzbeg;  Tarancki;  Kara- 
Kalpak;  Nogai;   Turkoman;  Anatolian;  Osmanli. 

Finno-Ugrian.  Baltic  Finn;  Lapp;  Samoyed;  Chere- 
miss;   Votyak;   Vogul;  Ostyak;  Bulgar;  Magyar. 

Bast  Siberian.  Yukaghir;  Chukchi;  Koryak;  Kam- 
chadale;  Gilyak, 

By  "  Northern  Mongols "  are  here  to  be  understood  all 
those  branches  of  the  Mongol  Division  of  mankind  which 
are  usually  Comprised  under  the  collective  geographical  ex- 
pression Ural-Altaic,  to  which  corresponds  the  ethnical 
Domain  of  the  designation  Mongolo-Tatar,  or  more  properly 
Northern  Mongolo-  Turki^.    Their  domain  is  roughly  sepa- 

Mongois.  r^jg^j  fj.Qjj^  jhat  of  jhe  Southern  Mongols  (Chap. 

VI.)  by  the  Great  Wall  and  the  Kuen-lun  range,  beyond  which 
it  spreads  out  westwards  over  most  of  Western  Asia,  and  a 
considerable  part  of  North  Europe,  with  many  scattered  groups 
in  Central  and  South  Russia,  the  Balkan  Peninsula,  and  the 
Middle  Danube  basin.  In  the  extreme  north  their  territory 
stretches  from  the  shores  of  the  Pacific  with  Japan  and 
parts  of  Sakhalin  continually  westwards  across  Korea,  Siberia, 
Central  and  North  Russia  to  Finland  and  Lapland.  But  its 
southern  limit*  can  be  indicated  only  approximately  by  a  line 
drawn  from  the  Kuen-lun  range  westwards  along  the  northern 
escarpments  of  the  Iranian  plateau,  and  round  the  southern 
shores  of  the  Caspian  to  the  Mediterranean.  This  line,  how- 
ever, must  be  drawn  in  such  a  way  as  to  include  Afghan 
Turkestan,  much  of  the  North  Persian  and  Caucasian  steppes, 
and  nearly  the  whole  of  Asia  Minor,  while  excluding  Armenia, 
Kurdestan,  and  Syria. 

Nor  is  it  to  be  supposed  that  even  within  these  limits  the 
North  Mongol  territory  is  everywhere  continuous.  In  East 
Early  Contact  Europe  especially,  where  they  are  for  the  most 
with  Caucasic  part  comparatively  recent  intruders,  the  Mongols 
Peoples.  aj.g  found  only  in  isolated  and  vanishing  groups 

in  the  Lower  and  Middle  Volga  basin,  the  Crimea,  and  the 
North  Caucasian  steppe,  and  in  more  compact  bodies  in 
Rumelia,  Bulgaria,  and  Hungary.  Throughout  all  these 
districts,  however,  the  process  of  absorption  or  assimilation  to 

'  As  fully  explained  in  Eth.  p.  303. 


vni]  The  Northern  Mongols     .  257 

the  normal  European  physical  type  is  so  far  completed  that 
many  of  the  Nogai  and  other  Russian  "  Tartars,"  as.  they  are 
called,  the  Volga  and  Baltic  Finns,  the  Magyars,  and  Osmanli 
Turks,  would  scarcely  be  recognised  as  members  of  the  North 
Mongol  family  but  for  their  common  Finno-Turki  speech, 
and  the  historic  evidence  by  which  their  original  connection 
with  this  division  is  established  beyond  all  question. 

In  Central  Asia  also  (North  Irania,  the  Aralo-Caspian  and 
Tarim  basins)  the  Mongols  have  been  in  close  contact  with 
Caucasic  peoples  probably  since  the  New  Stone  Age,  and 
here  intermediate  types  have  been  developed,  by  which  an 
almost  unbroken  transition  has  been  brought  about  between 
the  yellow  and  the  white  races. 

During  recent  years  much  light  has  been  shed  on  the 
physiographical  conditions  of  Central  Asia  in  early  times. 
Stein's^  explorations  in  1 900-1  and  1906-8  in  primitive  Man 
Chinese  Turkestan,  the  Pumpelly  Expeditions*  in  in  Siberia  and 
1903  and  1904  in  Russian  Turkestan,  the  travels  Mongolia, 
of  Sven  Hedin"  in  1 899-1 902,  and  1906-8,  of  Carruthers'  in 
N.W.  Mongolia,  and  the  researches  of  Ellsworth  Huntington* 
(a  member  of  the  first  Pumpelly  Expedition)  in  1905-7  all 
bear  testimony  to  the  variation  in  climate  which  the  districts 
of  Central  Asia  have  undergone  since  glacial  times.  There 
has  been  a  general  trend  towards  arid  conditions,  alternating 
with  periods  of  greater  humidity,  when  tracts,  now  deserted, 
were  capable  of  maintaining  a  dense  population.  Abundant 
evidence  of  man's  occupation  has  been  fdund  in  delta  oases 
formed  by  snow-fed  mountain  streams,  or  on  the  banks  of 
vanished  rivers,  where  now-a-days  all  is  desolation,  though, 
as  T.  Peisker"  points  out,  climate  was  not  the  sole  or  even  the 
main  factor  in  many  areas.  In  some  places,  as  at  Merv,  the 
earliest  occupation  was  only  a  few  centuries  before  the  Christian 
era,  but  at  Anau  near  Askhabad  some  300  miles  east  of  the 
Caspian,  explored  by  the  Pumpelly  Expedition,  the  earliest 
strata  contained  remains  of  S.tone  Age  culture.     The  North 

^  Mark  Aural  Stein,  Sand-buried  Cities  of  Khotan,  1903,  and  Geog.Journ.,  July, 

Sept.  1909. 

2  ^.VarapAXf,  Explorations  in  Turkestan,i^i,a.nA  Explorations  tn  Turkestan; 

Expedition  of  igo4,  1908. 

3  Sven  Hedin,  Scientific  Results  ofafourney  m  Central  Asia,  i8gg-igo2,  1906, 
and  Geog.fourn.,  April,  1909. 

*  Douglas  Carruthers,  Unknown  Mongolia,  1913  (with  bibliography). 

«  Ellsworth  Huntington,  The  Pulse  of  Asia,  igio. 

«  "The  Asiatic  Background,"  Cambridge  Medieval  History,  Vol.  I.  191 1. 

K.  17 


258  ,    Man  :  '  Pa^t  and  Present  [CH. 

Kurgan  or  tumulus,  rising  some  40  or  50  feet  above  the  plain, 
showed  a  definite  stratification  of  structures  in  sun-dried  bricks, 
raised  by  successive  generations  of  occupants.  H.  Schmidt, 
who  was  in  charge  of  the  excavations,  was  able  to  collect  a 
valuable  series  of  potsherds,  showing  a  gradual  evolution  in 
form,  technique  and  ornamentation,  from  the  earliest  to  the 
latest  periods.  One  point  of  great  significance  for  establishing 
cultural  if  not  physical  relationships  in  this  obscure  region  is 
the  resemblance  between  the  geometrical  designs  on  pots  of 
the  early  period  and  similar  pottery  found  by  MM.  Gautier 
and  Lampre'  at  Mussian,  and  by  M.  J.  de  Morgan'  at  Susa, 
while  clay  figurines  from  the  South  Kurgan  (copper  culture) 
are  clearly  of  Babylonian  type,  the  influence  of  which  is  seen 
much  later  in  terra-cotta  figurines  discovered  by  Stein ^  at 
Yotkan, 

With  the  progress  of  archaeological  research,  it  becomes 
daily  more  evident  that  the  whole  of  the  North  Mongol 
domain,  from  Finland  to  Japan,  has  passed  through  the  Stone 
and  Metal  Ages,  like  most  other  habitable  parts  of  the  globe. 
During  his  wanderings  in  Siberia  and  Mongolia  in  the  early 
nineties,  Hans  Leder'*  came  upon  countless  prehistoric  stations, 
kurgans  (barrows),  stone  circles,  and  many  megalithic  monu- 
ments of  various  types.  In  West  Siberia  the  barrows,  which 
consist  solely  of  earth  without  any  stone-work,  are  by  the 
present  inhabitants  called  Chudskiye  Kurgani,  "  Chudish 
Graves,"  and,  as  in  North  Russia,  this  term  "Chude"  is 
ascribed  to  a  now  vanished  unknown  race  which  formerly 
inhabited  the  land.  To  them,  as  to  the  "Toltecs"  in  Central 
America,  all  ancient  monuments  are  credited,  and  while  some 
regard  them  as  prehistoric  Finns,  others  identify  them  with  the 
historic  Scythians,  the  Scythians  of  Herodotus. 

There  are  reasons,-  however,  for  thinking  that  the  Chudes 
may  represent  an  earlier  race,  the  men  of  the  Stone  Age,  who, 
migrating  from  north  Europe  eastwards,  had  reached  the  Tom 
valley  (which  drains  to  the  Obi)  before  the  extinction  of  the 
mammoth,  and  later  spread  over  the  whole  of  northern  Asia, 
leaving  everywhere  evidence  of  their  presence  in  the  megalithic 
monuments  now  being  daily  brought  to  light  in  East  Siberia, 

^  Memoires  de  la  Delegation  en  Perse;  Recherches  arcMologiques  (from  1899). 
^  Sand-but  led  Cities  of  Khotan,  1903. 

^  "  Ueber  Alte  Grabstatten  in  Sibirien  und  der  Mongolei,"  in  Mitt.  d.  Anthrop. 
Ges.,  Vienna,  1895,  xxv.  9. 


viii]  The  Northern  Mongols  259 

Mongolia,  Korea,  and  Japan.  This  view  receives  support  from 
the  characters  of  two  skulls  found  in  1895  by  A.  P.,  Mostitz  in 
one  of  the  five  prehistoric  stations  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Sava 
affluent  of  the  Selenga  river,  near  Ust-Kiakta  in  Trans- 
Baikalia.  They  differ  markedly  from  the  normal  Buryat 
(Siberian  Mongol)  type,  recalling  rather  the  long-shaped  skulls 
of  the  South  Russian  kurgans,  with  cephalic  indices  73*2  and 
73-5,  as  measured  by  M.  J.  D.  Talko-Hryncewicz\  Thus,  in 
the  very  heart  of  the  Mongol  domain,  the  characteristically 
round-headed  race  would  appear  to  have  been  preceded,  as  in 
Europe,  by  a  long-headed  type. 

In  East  Siberia,  and  especially  in  the  Lake  Baikal  region, 
Leder  found  extensive  tracts  strewn  with  kurgans,  many  of 
which  have  already  been  explored,  and  their  contents  deposited 
in  the  Irkutsk  museum.  Amongst  these  are  great  numbers 
of  stone  implements,  and  objects  made  of  bone  and  mam- 
moth tusks,  besides  carefully  worked  copper  ware,  betraying 
technical  skill  and  some  artistic  taste  in  the  designs.  In 
Trans- Baikalia,  still  farther  east,  with  the  kurgans  are  asso- 
ciated the  so-called  Kameni Babi,  "Stone  Women,"  monoliths 
rough-hewn  in  the  form  of  human  figures.  Many  of  these 
monoliths  bear  inscriptions,  which,  however,  appear  to  be  of 
recent  date  (mostly  Buddhist  prayers  and  formularies),  and 
are  not  to  be  confounded  with  the  much  older  rock  inscriptions 
deciphered  by  W.  Thomsen  through  the  Turki  language. 

Continuing  his  investigations  in  Mongolia  proper,  Leder 
here  also  discovered  earthen  kurgans,  which,  however, 
differed  from  those  of  Siberia  by  being  for  the  most  part 
surmounted  either  with  circular  or  rectangular  stone  structures, 
or  else  with  monoliths.  They  are  called  KiirUktslir  by  the 
present  inhabitants,  who  hold  them  in  great  awe,  and  never 
venture  to  touch  them.  Unfortunately  strangers  also  are 
unable  to  examine  their  contents,  all  disturbance  of  the  ground 
with  spade  or  shovel  being  forbidden  under  pain  of  death  by 
the  Chinese  officials,  for  fear  of  awakening  the  evil  spirits, 
now  slumbering  peacefully  below  the  surface.  The  Siberian 
burial  mounds  have  yielded  no  bronze,  a  fact  which  indicates 
considerable  antiquity,  although  no  date  can  be  set  for  its 
introduction  into  these  regions.  Better  evidence  of  antiquity 
is  found  in  the  climatic  changes  resulting  in  recent  desiccation, 

1  Th.  Volkov,  in  V Anthropologie,  1896,  p.  82. 

17 — 2 


26o  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

which  must  have  taken  place  here  as  dsewhere,  for  the  burials 
bear  "witness  to  the  existence  of  a  denser  population  than  could 
be  supported  at  the  present  time'. 

Such  an  antiquity  is  indeed  required  to  explain  the  spread 
of  neolithic  remains  -to  the  Pacific  seaboard,  and  especially 
Early  Man  in  *^°  Korea  and  Japian.  In  Korea  W.  Gowland 
Korea  and  examined  a  dolmen  30  miles  from  Seul,  which 

Japan.  \^^  describes  and  figures^,  and  which  is  remark- 

able especially  for  the  disproportionate  size  of  the  capstone, 
a  huge  undressed  megalith  14^  by  over  13  feet.  He  refers  to 
four  or  five  others,  all  in  the  northern,  part  of  the  peninsula, 
and  regards  them  as  "  intermediate  in  form  between  a  cist  and 
a  dolmen."  But  he  thinks  it  probable  that  they  were  never 
covered  by  mounds,  but  always  stood  as  monuments  above 
ground,  in  this  respect  differing  from  the  Japanese,  the  majority 
of  which  are  all  lauried  in  tumuli.  In  some  of  their  features 
these  present  a  curious  resemblance  to  the  Brittany  structures, 
but  no  stone  implements  appear  to  have  been  found  in  any 
of  the  burial  mounds,  and  the  Japanese  chambered  tombs, 
according  to  Hamada,  Professor  of  Archaeology  in  Kyoto 
University,  are  usually  attributed  to  the  Iron  Age  (fifth  to 
seventh  centuries  a.d.'). 

In  many  districts  Japan  contains  memorials  of  a  remote 
past — shell  mounds,  cave-dwellings,  and  in  Yezo  certain  pits, 
which  are  not  occupied  by  the  present  Ainu  population,  but 
are  by  them  attributed  to  the  Koro-pok-guru,  "People  of  the 
Hollows,"  who  occupied  the  land  before  their  arrival,  and 
lived  in  huts  built  over  these  pits.  Similar  remains  on  an  islet 
near  Nemuro  on  the  north-east  coast  of  Yezo  are  said  by  the 
Japanese  to  have  belonged  to  the  Kobito,  a  dwarfish  race  ex- 
terminated by  the  Ainu,  hence  apparently  identical  with  the 
Koro-pok-guru.  They  are  associated  by  John  Milne  with 
some  primitive  peoples  of  the  Kurile  Islands,  Sakhalin,  and 
Kamchatka,  -who,  like  the  Eskimo  of  the  American  coast,  had 
extended  formerly  much  farther  south  than  at  present. 

^  Too  much  stress  must  not,  however,  be  laid  upon  the  theory  of  gradual 
desiccation  as  a  factor  in  depopulation.  There  are  many  causes  such  as  earth- 
quake, water-spouts,  shifting  of  currents,  neglect  of  irrigation  and,  above  all,  the 
work  of  enemies  to  account  for  the  sand-buried  ruins  of  populous  cities  in  Central 
Asia.  See  T.  Peisker,  "  The  Asiatic  Background,"  Cambridge  Medieval  History, 
Vol.  I.  191 1,  p.  326. 

2  Journ.  Anthr.  Inst.  1895,  p.  318  sq. 

2  Cf  ArchcBologia  Cambrensis,  6th  Ser.  XIV.'  Part  i,  1914,  p.  131,  and  Zeitschr. 
f.  Ethnol.  1 910,  p.  601. 


viii]  The  Northern  Mongols.  261 

In  a  kitchen-midden,  330  by  200.  feet,  near  Shiidizuka  in 
thfi  province  of  Ibaraki,  the  Japanese  antiquaries  S.  Yagi  and 
M.  Shinomura'  have  found  numerous  objects  belonging  to  the 
Stone  Age  of  Japan.  Amongst  them,  were  flint  implements, 
worked  bones,  ashes,  pottery,  and  a  whole  series  of  clay  figures 
of  human  beings.  The  finders  suggest  that  these  remains  may 
have  belonged  to  a  homogenieous  race  of  the  Stone  Period, 
who,  however,  were  not  the  ancestors  of  the  Ainu— hitherto 
generally  regarded  as  the  first  inhabitants  of  Japan.  In  the 
national  records  vague  reference  is  made  to  other  abprigines, 
such  as  the  "  Long  Legs,"  and  the  "  Eight  Wild  Tribes," 
described  as  the  enemies  of  the  first  Japanese  settlers  in  Kiu- 
shiu,  and  reduced  by  Jimmu  Tenno,  the  semi-mythical  founder 
of  the  present  dynasty ;  the  Ebisu,  who  are  probably  to  be 
identified  with  the  Ainu  ;  and  the  Seki-Manzi,  "Stone-Men," 
.also  located  in  the  southern  island  of  Kiu-shiu.  The  last- 
mentioned,  of  whom,  however,  litde  further  is  known,  seem  to 
have  some  claim  to  be  associated  with  the  above  described 
remains  of  early  man  in  Japan ^ 

In  the  extreme  west  the  present  Mongol  peoples,  being 
quite  recent  intruders,  can  in  no  way  be  connected  with  the 
abundant  prehistoric  relics  daily  brought  to  light    -^^^y  Man  in 
in  that  region  (South  Russia,  the  Balkan  Penin-   Finland  and 
sula,  Hungary).     The  same  remark  applies  even    ^^*  Europe, 
to  Finland  itself,  which  was  at  one  time  supposed  to  be  the 
cradle  of  the  Finnish  people,  but  is  now  shown  to  have  been 
first  occupied  by  Germanic  tribes.     From  an  exhaustive  study 
of  the  bronze-yielding  tumuli  A.  Hackman'  concludes  that  the 
population  of  the  Bronze  Period  was  Teutonic,  and  in  this  he 
agrees  both  with   Montelius  and  with  W.  Thomsen.     The 
latter  holds  on  linguistic  grounds  that  at  the  beginning  of  the 
new  era  the  Finns  still  dwelt  east  of  the  Gulf  of  Finland, 
whence  they  moved  west  in  later  times. 

It  is  unfortunate  that,  owing  probably  to  the  character  of 
the  country,  remains  of  the  Stone  Age  in  Babylonia  are  wanting 
so  that  no  comparison  can  yet  be  made  with  the  neolithic 
cultures  of  Egypt  and  the  Aegean.  The  constant  floods  to 
which  Babylonia  was  ever  subject  swept  away  all  traces  of 
early  occupations  until  the  advent  of  the  Sumerians,  who  built 

1  "Zur  Prahistorik  Japans,"  Globus,  1896,  No.  10. 

2  The  best  account  of  the  archaeology  of  Japan  will  be  found  in  Prehistoric 
Japan,  by  N.  G.  Muaro,  igia. 

'  Die  Bronzezeit  Finnlands,  Helsimgfors,  1897. 


262  Man  :   Past  and  Present  [ch. 

their  cities  on  artificial  mounds.  The  question  of  Akkado- 
Sumerian'  origins  is  by  no  means  clear,  for  many  important 
cities  are  unexplored  and  even  unidentified,  but  the  general 
trend  of  recent  opinion  may  be  noted.  The 
Bab^laniT"*  linguistic  problem  is  peculiarly  complicated  by- 
the  fact  that  almost  all  the  Sumerian  texts  show 
evidence  of  Semitic  influence,  and  consist  to  a  great  extent  of 
religious  hymns  and  incantations  which  often  appear  to  be 
merely  translations  of  Semitic  ideas  turned  by  Semitic  priests 
into  the,  formal  religious  Sumerian  language.  J.  Hal^vy, 
indeed,  followed  by  others,  regarded  Sqmerian  as  no  true 
language,  but  merely  a  priestly  system  of  cryptography'',  based 
on  Semitic.  As  regards  linguistic  affinities,  K.  A.  Hermann'* 
endeavoured  to  establish  a  connection  between  the  early  texts 
and  Ural-Altaic,  more  especially  with  Ugro-Finnish.  A-more 
recent  suggestion  that  the  language  is  of  Indo-European  origin 
and  structure  rests  on  equally  slight  resemblances.  The  com- 
parison with  Chinese  has  already  been  noticed.  J.  D.  Prince* 
utters  a  word  of  caution  against  comparing  ancient  texts  with 
idioms  of  more  recent  peoples  of  Western  Asia,  in  spite  of 
many  tempting  resemblances,  and  claims  that  until  further 
light  has  been  shed  on  the  problem  Sumerian  should  be 
regarded  as  standing  quite  alone,  "a  prehistoric  philological 
remnant." 

E.  Meyer°  claims  for  the  Sumerians  not  only  linguistic 
but  also  physical  isolation.  The  Sumerian  type  as  repre- 
_,    „  sented  on  the  monuments  shows  a  narrow  pointed 

The  Sumerians.  .  ,  •    1       1     •  1  1  n  -i 

nose,  with  straight  bridge  and  small  nostrils, 
cheeks  and  lips  not  fleshy,  like  the  Semites,  with  prominent 
cheek-bones,  small  mouth,  narrow  lips  finely  curved,  the  lower 
jaw  very  short,  with  angular  sharply  projecting  chin,  oblique 
Mongolian  eyes,  low  forehead,  usually  sloping  away  directly 
from  the  root  of  the  nose.  In  fact  the  nose  has  almost  the 
appearance  of  a  bird's  beak,  projecting  far  in  advance  of  mouth 
and  chin,  while  the  forehead  almost  disappears.     The  hair 

1  "Akkadian,"  first  applied  by  Rawlinson  to  the  non-Semitic  texts  found  at 
Nineveh,  is  still  often  used  by  English  writers  in  place  of  the  more  correct  Sutnerian, 
the  Akkadians  being  now  shown  to  be  Semitic  immigrants  into  Northern  Babylonia 
(p.  264). 

^  Cf.  L.  W.  King,  History  of  Stimer  and  Akkad,  1910,  pp.  5,  6. 

5  Ueber  die  Summerische  Sprache,  Paper  read  at  the  Russian  Archaeological 
Congress,  Riga,  1896. 

*  "Sumer  and  Sumerian,"  Ency.  Brit.  191 1,  with  references. 

'  Geschichte  des  Altertums,  l.  2,  2nd  ed.  1909,  p.  404. 


viii]  The  Northern  Mongols  2.62) 

and  beard  are  closely,  shaven.  •  The  Sumerians  were  un- 
doubtedly a  warlike  people,  fighting  not  like  the  Semites  in 
loosely  extended  battle  array,  but  in  close  phalanx,  their  large 
shields  protecting  their  bodies  from  neck  to  feet,  forming 
a  rampart  beyond  which  projected  the  inclined  spears  of  the 
foremost  rank.  Battle  axe  and  javelin  were  also  used.  Helmets 
protected  head  and  neck.  Besides  lance  or  spear  the  royal 
leaders  carried  a  curved  throwing  weapon,  formed  of  three 
strands  bound  together  at  intervals  with  thongs  of  leather  or 
bands  of  metal  ;  this  seems  to  have  developed  later  into  a  sign 
of  authority  and  hence  into  a  sceptre.  The  bow,  the  typical 
weapon  of  the  Semites  and  the  mountainous  people  to  the  east, 
was  unrepresented.  The  gods  carried  clubs  with  stone  heads. 
It  is  important  to  notice  that,  in  direct  contrast  to  the 
Sumerians  themselves,  their  gods  had  abundant  hair  on  their 
heads,  carefully  curled  and  dressed,  and  a  long  curly  beard  on 
the  chin,  though  cheeks  and  lips  were  closely  shaven ;  these 
fashions  recall  those  of  the  Semites.  Thus,  althoqgh  the 
general  view  is  to  regard  the  Sumerians  as  the  autochthones 
and  the  Semites  as  the  later  intruders  in  Babylonia,  the 
Semitic  character  of  the  Sumerian  gods  points  to  an  opposite 
conclusion.  But  the  time  has  not  yet  come  for  any  definite 
conclusion  to  be  reached.  All  that  can  be  said  is  that  according 
to  our  present  knowledge  the  assumption  that  the  earliest 
population  was  Sumerian  and  that  the  Semites  were  the 
conquering  intruders  is  only  slightly  more  probable  than  the 
reversed 

Recent  archaeological  discoveries  make  Sumerian  origins 
a  little  clearer.  Explorations  in  Central  Asia  (as  mentioned 
above  p.  257)  show  that  districts  once  well  watered,  and 
capable  of  supporting  a  large  population,  have  been  subject  to 
periods  of  excessive  drought,  and  this  no  doubt  is  the  prime 
cause  of  the  racial  unrest  which  has  ever  been  characteristic 
of  the  dwellers  in  these  regions.  A  cycle  of  drought  may  well 
have  prompted  the  Sumerian  migration  of  the  fourth  millen- 
nium B.C.,  as  it  is  shown  to  have  prompted  the  later  invasions 
of  the  last  two  thousand  years'.  Although  there  is  no  evidence 
to  connect  the  original  home  of  the  Sumerians  with  any  of  the 

»  E.  Meyer,  Geschichte  des  Altertums,  I.  2,  2nd  ed.  1909,  p.  406.  L.  W.  King 
{History  of  Sumer  and  Akkad,  1910)  discusses  Meyer's  arguments  and  points  out 
that  the  earliest  Sumerian  gods  appear  to  be  free  from  Semitic  influence  (p.  51). 
He  is  inclined,  however,  to  regard  the  Sumerians  as  displacing  an  earlier  Semitic 
people  (Hutchinson's  History  of  the  Nations,  1914,  pp.  221  and  229). 

2  Ellsworth  Huntington,  The  Pulse  of  Asia,  1910,  p.  382. 


264  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

oases  yet  excavated  in  Central  Asia,  yet  signs  of  cultiirali 
contact  are  not  wanting,  and  it  may  safely  be  inferred  tbat 
their  civilisation  was  evolved  in  some  region  to  the  east  of 
the  Euphrates  valley  before  their  entrance  into  Babylonia'. 

Since   Semitic  influemce   was   first   felt   in   the   north  of 
Babylonia,  at  Akkad,  it  is  assumed  that  the  immigration  was 

from  the  north-west  from  Arabia  by  way  of  the 
lans.  gypj^jj  Goastlands,  amd  in  this  case  also  the 
impulse  may  have  been  the  occurrence  of  an  arid  period  in  the 
centre  of  the  Arabian  continent.  The  Semites  are  found  not 
as  barbarian  invaders,  but  as  a  highly  cultivated  people.  They 
absorbed  several  cultural  elements  of  the  Sumerians,  notably 
their  script,  and  were  profoundly  influenced  by  Sumerian 
religion.  The  Akkadians^  are  represented  with  elaborately 
curled  hair  and  beard,  and  hence,  in  contradistinction  to  the 
shaven  Sumerians,  are  referred  to  as  "the  black-headed  ones." 
Their  chief  weapon  was  the  bow,  but  they  had  also  lances  and 
battle  axes.  As  among  the  Sumerians  the  sign  of  kingship 
was  a  boomerang-like  sceptre  °.  Except  for  Babylon  and 
Sippar,  which  throw  little  light  on  the  early  periods,  no  system- 
atic excavation  has  been  undertaken  in  northern  Babylonia, 
and  the  site  of  Akkad  is  still  untidentified. 

The  chronology  of  this  early  age  of  Babylonia  is  much 
disputed.     The  very  high  dates  of  5000  or  6000  B.C.  formerly 

assigned  by  many  writers  to  the  earliest  remains 
Chrono"oCT      °^      ^  Sumerians  and  the  Babylonian  Semites, 

depended  to  a  great  extent  on  the  statement  of 
Nabonidus  (556  B.C.)  that  3200'  years  separated  his  own  age 
rom  that  of  Naram-Sin,  the  son  of  Sargon  of  Agade  ;  for  to 
Sargon,  on  this  statement  alone,  a  date  of  3800  has  usually 
been  assigned'.  This  date  presents  many  difficulties,  leaving 
many  centuries  unrepresented  by  any  royal  names  or  records. 
Even  the  suggested  emendation  of  the  text  reducing  the  esti- 
mate by  a  thousand  years  is  not  generally  acceptable.  Most 
authorities  hesitate  to  date  any  Babylonian  records  before 
3000  B.C*  and  agree  that  the  time  has  not  arrived  for  fixing 
any  definite  dates  for  the  early  period. 

'  L.  W.  King,  History  of  Sumer  and  Akkad,  rgio,  p.  357. 

^  E.  Meyer,  Gesehtchte  des  Altertums,  I.  2,  2nd  ed.  1909,  p.  463. 

'  L.  W.  King,  History  of  Sumer  and  Akkad,  1910,  p,  61,  and  the  article, 
"Chronology.  Babylonia  and  Assyria,"  Eney.  Brit.  191 1.  Cf.  also  E.  Meyer, 
Geschichte  des  Altertums,  I.  2,  2nd  ed.  1909,  §f  329  and  38 3. 

*  The  cylinder-seails  and  tablets  of  Faara,  excajvated  by  KoIde'VKey,  Andtae  and 
Noeldeke  in  1902-3  may  go  back  to  3400  B.c.    Cf.  L.  W.  King,  loc.  cit.  p.  65. 


vm]  The  Novtkem  Mongols  265 

Despite  thse  li^endary  matter  associated  with,  his  memocy, 
Shar-Gani-sharri,  commonly  called  Sargon  of  AJcfeadi,  about 
2500  B.C.  (Meyer),  2650  b.c.  (Ki'ng')^  was  beyond  question  a 
historical  person  though  it  seems  that  there  has  been  some 
confusion  with  Sharru-gi,  or  Sharrukin,,  also  called  Sargon, 
easrliest  king  of  Kish'.  Tradition  records  how  his  mother, 
a  royal  princess,  concealed  his  birth  by  placing  him  in  a  rush 
basket  closed  with  bitumen  and  sending  him  adrift  on  the 
stream,  from  which  he  was  rescued  by  Akki  the  water-carrier, 
who  brought  him  up  as  his  own  child.  The  incidemt,  about 
which  there  is  nothing  miraculous,  presents  a  curious  parallel  to> 
if  it  be  not  the  source  of,  similar  tales  related  of  Moses,  Cyrus, 
and  other  ancient  leaders  of  men.  Sargon  also  tells  us  that  he 
ruled  from  his  capital,  Agade,  for  45  years  over  Upper  and 
Lower  Mesopotamia,  governed  the  black-headed  ones,  as  the 
Akkads  are  constantly  called,  rode  in  bronze  chariots  over 
rugged  lands,  and  made  expeditions  thrice  to  the  sea-coast. 
The  expeditions  are  confirmed  by  inscriptions  from  Syria, 
though  the  cylinder  of  his  son,  Naram-Sin,  found  by  Cesnola 
in  Cyprus,  is  now  regarded  as  of  later  date^  As  they  also 
penetrated  to  Sinai  their  influence  appears  to  have  extended 
over  the  whole  of  Syria  and  North  Arabia.  They  erected 
great  structures  at  Nippur,  which  was  at  that  time  so  ancient 
that  Naram-Sin's  huge  brick  platform  stood  on  a  mass  30  feet 
thick  of  the  accumulated  debris  of  earlier  buildings.  Among 
the  most  interesting  of  recent  discoveries  at  Nippur  are  pre- 
Semitic  tablets  containing  accounts  similar  to  those  recorded 
in  the  book  of  Genesis,  from  which  in  some  cases  the  latter  have 
clearly  been  derived.  The  "  Deluge  Fragment "  published  in 
1 910  relates  the  warning  given  by  the  god  Ea  to  Utnapishtim, 
the  Babylonian  Noah,  and  the  directions  for  building  a  ship 
by  means  of  which  he  and  his  family  may  escape,  together 
with  the  beasts  of  the  field  and  the  birds  of  heaven*.  A  still 
later  discovery  agrees  more  closely  with  the  Bible  version, 
giving  the  name  of  the  one  pious  man  as  Tagtog,  Semitic 
Nuhu,  and  assigning  nine  months  as  the  period  of  the  duration 
of  the  flood.     The  same  tablet  also  contains  an  account  of  the 

-  1  C.  H.  W.  Johns,  Ancient  Babyloma,  1913,  regards  Sharrukin  as-  "-Sargon  of 
Akkad,"  p.  39. 

2  L.  W.  King,  History  of  Sumer  attd  Akkad^  1910,  pp.  234, 343,.  where  the  seal 
is  referred  to  a  period  not  much  earlier  than  the  First  Dynasty  of  Babylom 

3  H.  V.  Hilprecht,  The  Babylotdan  Expedition  of  the  UmversityofPennsyl'BcatioL, 
Series  D,  Vol.  v.  i.  1910. 


266  Man  :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

Fall  of  Man;  but  it  is  Noah,  not  Adam,  who  is  tempted  and 
falls,  and  the  forbidden  fruit  is  cassia\ 

Sennacherib's  grandson,  Ashurbanipal,  who  belongs  to  the 
late  Assyrian  empire  when  the  centre  of  power  had  been 

shifted  from  Babylonia  to  Nineveh,  has  left  re- 
OriSns  corded  on  his  brick  tablets  how  he  overran  Elam 

and  destroyed  its  capital,  Susa  (645  B.C.).  He 
states  that  from  this  place  he  brought  back  the  effigy  of  the 
goddess  Nana,  which  had  been  carried  away  from  her  temple 
at  Erech  by  an  Elamite  king  by  whom  Akkad  had  been  con- 
quered 1635  years  before,  i.e.  2280  B.C.  Over  Akkad  Elam 
ruled  300  years,  and  it  was  a  king  of  this  dynasty,  Khudur- 
Lagamar,  who  has  been  identified  by  T.  G.  Pinches  with  the 
"  Chedorlaomer,  king  of  Elam "  routed  by  Abraham  (Gen. 
xiv.  I4-I7)^  Thus  is  explained  the  presence  of  Elamites  at 
this  time  so  far  west  as  Syria,  their  own  seat  being  amid  the 
Kurdish  mountains  in  the  Upper  Tigris  basin. 

The  Elamites  do  not  appear  to  have  been  of  the  same 
stock  as  the  Sumerians.  They  are  described  as  peaceful,  in- 
dustrious, and  skilful  husbandmen,  with  a  surprising  knowledge 
of  irrigating  processes.  The  non-Semitic  language  shows 
possible  connections  with  Mitanni".  Yet  the  type  would 
appear  to  be  on  the  whole  rather  Semitic,  judging  at  least 

from  the  large  arched  nose  and  thick  beard  of  the 
Records^  Susian  god,  Ramman,  brought  by  Ashurbanipal 

out  of  Elam,  and  figured  in  Layard's  Monuments 
of  Nineveh,  ist  Series,  Plate  65.  This,  however,  may.be  ex- 
plained by  the  fact  that  the  Elamites  were  subdued  at  an  early 
date  by  intruding  Semites,  although  they  afterwards  shook  off 
the  yoke  and  became  strong  enough  to  conquer  Mesopo- 
tamia and  extend  their  expeditions  to  Syria  and  the  Jordan. 
The  capital  of  Elam  was  the  renowned  city  of  Susa 
(Shushan,  whence  Susiana,  the  modern  Khuzistan).      Recent 

'  See  The  Times,  June  24,  1914. 

^  "Babylonia  and  Elam  Four  Thousand  Years  Ago,"  in  Knowledge,  May  i,  1896, 
p.  ii6sq.  and  elsewhere. 

'  The  term  "  Elam  "  is  said  to  have  the  same  meaning  as  "  Akkad  "  {i.e.  High- 
land) in  contradistinction  to  "  Sumer"  (Lowland).  It  should  be  noted  that  neither 
Akkad  nor  Sumer  occurs  in  the  oldest  texts,  where  Akkad  is  called  Kish  from  the 
name  of  its  capital,  and  Sumer  Kiengi  (JCengi),  probably  a  general  name  meaning 
"  the  land."  Kish  has  been  identified  with  the  Kush  of  Gen.  x.,  one  of  the  best 
abused  words  in  Palethnology.  For  this  identificationj  however,  there  is. some 
ground,  seeing  that  Kush  is  mentioned  in  the  closest  connection. with  "Babel,  and 
Erech,  and  Accad,  and  Calneh,  in  the  land  of  Shinar"  (Mesopotamia)  v.  10. 


viii]  The  Northern  Mongols  267 

excavations  show  that  the  settlement  dates  from  neolithic 
times  \ 

Even  after  the  capture  of  Susa  by  Ashurbanipal,  Elam 
again  rose  to  great  power  under  Cyrus  the  Great,  who,  hg^w- 
ever,  was  no  Persian  adventurer,  as  stated  by  Herodotus,  but 
the  legitimate  Elamite  ruler,  as  inscribed  on  his  cylinder  and 
tablet  now  in  the  British  Museum  : — "Cyrus,  the  great  king, 
the  king  of  Babylon,  the  king  of  Sumir  and  Akkad,  the  king 
of  the  four  zones,  the  son  of  Kambyses,  the  great  king,  the 
king  of  Elam,  the  grandson  of  Cyrus  the  great  king,"  who  by 
the  favour  of  Merodach  has  overcome  the  black-headed  people 
{i.e.  the  Akkads)  and  at  last  entered  Babylon  in  peace.  On 
an  earlier  cylinder  Nabonidus,  last  king  of  Babylon,  tells  us 
how  this  same  Cyrus  subdued  the  Medes — here  called  Mandas, 
"  Barbarians  " — and  captured  their  king  Astyages  and  his 
capital  Ekbatana.  But  although  Cyrus,  hitherto  supposed  to 
be  a  Persian  and  a  Zoroastrian  monotheist,  here  appears  as  an 
Elamite  and  a  polytheist,  "it  is  pretty  certain  that  although 
descended  from  Elamite  kings,  these  were  [at  that  time] 
kings  of  Persian  race,  who,  after  the  destruction  of  the  old 
[Elamite]  monarchy  by  Ashurbanipal,  had  established  a  new 
dynasty  at  the  city  of  Susa.  Cyrus  always  traces  his  descent 
from  Achaemenes,  the  chief  of  the  leading  Persian  clan  of  Pasar- 
gadsel"  Hence  although  wrong  in  speaking  of  Cyrus  as  an 
adventurer,  Herodotus  rightly  calls  him  a  Persian,  and  at  this 
late  date  Elam  itself  may  well  have  been  already  Aryanised  in 
speech',  while  still  retaining  its  old  Sumerian  religion.     The 

>  J.  de  Morgan,  Memoires  de  la  DdUgaiion  en  Perse,  1899-1906. 

2  S.  Laing,  Human  Origins,  p.  74. 

^  And  it  has  remained  so  ever  since,  the  present  Lur  and  Bakhtiari  inhabitants 
of  Susiana  speaking,  not  the  standard  Neo-Persian,  but  dialects  of  the  ruder 
Kurdish  branch  of  the  Iranian  family,  as  if  they  had  been  Aryanised  from  Media, 
the  capital  of  which  was  Ekbatana.  We  have  here,  perhaps,  a  clue  to  the  origin 
of  the  Medes  themselves,  who  were  certainly  the  above-mentioned  Mandas  of 
Nabonidus,  their  capital  being  also  the  same  Ekbatana.  Now  Sayce  {Academy, 
Sept.  7,  1895,  p.  189)  identified  the  Kimmerians  with  these  Manda  nomads,  whose 
king  Tukdamme  (Tug^dammd)  was  the  Lygdanis  of  Strabo  (l.  3,  16),  who  led  a 
horde  of  Kimmerians  into  Lydia  and  captured  Sardis.  We  know  from  Esar- 
haddon's  inscriptions  that  by  the  Assyrians  these  Kimmerians  were  called  Manda, 
their  prince  Teupsa  (Teispe)  being  described  as  "  of  the  people  of  the  Manda." 
An  oracle  given  to  Esar-haddon  begins  :  "  The  Kimmerian  in  the  mountains  has 
set  fire  in  the  land  of  EUip,"  i.e.  the  land  where  Ekbatana  was  afterwards  founded, 
which  is  now  shown  to  have  already  been  occupied  by  the  Kimmerian  or  Manda 
hordes.  It  follows  that  Kimmerians,  Mandas,  Medes  with  their  modern  Kurd  and 
Bakhtiari  representatives,  were  all  one  people,  who  were  almost  certainly  of  Aryan 
speech,  if  not  actually  of  proto-Aryan  stock.  "  The  Kurds  are  the  descendants  of 
Aryan  invaders  and  have  maintained  their  type  and  their  language  for  more  than 


268  Man  :   Past  and  Present  [ch. 

Babylonian  pantheon  survived,  in  fact,  till  the  time  of  Daxius, 
Hystaspes,  who  introduced  Zoroastrianism  with  its  supremJie 
gods,  Ahura-Mazda,  creator  of  all  good,  and  Ahriman,  author 
of  all  evil. 

It  is  now  possible  to  gain  some  idea  of  the  gradual  growth 
of  the  city  states  of  Babylonia.  Beginning  with  a  mere  collec- 
tion of  rude  reed  huts,  these  were  succeeded;  by 
rSkIo^"  structures  of  sun-dried  bricks,  built  in  a  group  for 
mutual  protection,  probably  around  a  centre  of  a 
local  god,  and  surrounded  by  a  wall.  The  land  around  the 
settlement  was  irrigated  by  canals,  and  here  the  corn  and 
vegetables  were  grown  and  the  flocks  and  herds  were  tended 
for  the  maintenance  of  the  population.  The  central  figure  was 
always  the  god,  who  occasionally  gave  his  name  to  the  site, 
and  who  was  the  owner  of  all  the  land,  the  inhabitants  being 
merely  his  tenants  who  owed  him  rent  for  their  estates.  It 
was  the  god  who  waged  wars  with  the  neighbours,  and  with 
whom  treaties  were  made.  The  treaty  between  Lagash  and 
Umma  fixing  the  limitations  of  their  boundaries,  a  constant 
matter  of  dispute,  was  made  by  Ningirsu,  god  of  Lagash,  and 
the  city  god  of  Umma,  under  the  arbitration  of  Enlil,  the  chief 
of  the  gods,  whose  central  shrine  was  at  Nippur. 

With  the  growth  of  the  cities  disputes  of  territory  were 
sure  to  arise,  and  either  by  conquest  or  amalgamation,  cities 
became  absorbed  into  states.  The  problem  then  was  the 
adjustment  of  the  various  city  gods,  each  reigning  supreme 
in  his  own  city,  but  taking  a  higher  or  lower  place  in  the 
Babylonian  pantheon.  When  one  city  gained  a  supremacy 
over  all  its  neighbours,  its  governor  might  assume  the  title  of 
king.  But  the  king  was  merely  the  patesi,  the  steward  of  the 
city  god.  Even  when  the  supremacy  was  sufficiently  per- 
manent for  the  establishment  of  a  dynasty,  this  was  a  dynasty 
of  the  city  rather  than  of  a  family,  for  the  successive  kings 
were  not  necessarily  of  the  same  family \ 

Among  the  city  gods  who  developed  into  powerful  deities 
were  Anu  of  Uruk  (Erech),  Enlil  of  Nippur  and  Ea  of  Eridu 
(originally  a  sea-port).  These  became  the  supreme  triad,  Anu 
ruling  over  the  heavens,  enthroned  on  the  northern  pole,  as 

3300  years,"  F.  v.  Luschan,  "The  Early  Inhabitants  of  Westera  Pisia."  Jeurn.  Roy. 
Anthr.  Inst.  XLi.  191 1,  p.  23P.    For  a  classification  of  Kurds  see  Mark  Sykes,  "The 
Kurdish  Tribes  of  the  Ottoman  Empire," /(?«;f«.  Roy.  Anthr.  Inst,  xxxvm.  igoS, 
p.  451.     Cf.  also  D.  G.  Hogarth,  The  Nearer  East,  igo3. 
^  C.  H.  W.  Johns,  Ancient  Babylonia,  1913,  p.  27. 


viii]  The  Northern  Mongols  269 

king  and  father  of  the  gods ;  Enlil,  the  Semitic  Bel,  god  o:f 
earth,  lord  of  the  lands,  formerly  chief  of  all  the  gods  ;  and 
Ea,  god  of  the  water-depths,  "whose  son  was  ultimately  to 
eclipse  his  father  as  Marduk  of  Babylon.  A  second  triad  is 
composed  of  the  local  deities  who  developed  into  Sin,  the 
moon-god  of  Ur,  Shamash  the  sun-god  of  Larsa,  and  the 
famous  Ishtar,  the  great  mother,  goddess  of  love  and  queen  of 
heaven.  The  realm  of  the  dead  was  a  dark  place  under  the 
earth,  where  the  dead  lived  as  shadows,  eating  the  dust  of 
the  earth.  Their  lot  depended  partly  on  their  earlier  lives, 
and  partly  on  the  devotion  of  their  surviving  relatives.  Al- 
though their  dead  kings  were  deified  there  seems  to  be  no 
evidence  for  a  belief  in  a  general  resurrection  or  in  the  trans- 
migration of  souls.  The  hymns  and  prayers  -to  the  gods 
however  show  a  very  high  religious  level  in  spite  of  the 
important  part  played  by  soothsaying  and  exorcism,  relics 
of  earlier  culture.  The  permanence  of  these  may  be  partly 
ascribed  to  the  essentially  theocratic  character  of  Babylonian 
government.  The  king,  was  merely  the  agent  of  the  god, 
whose  desires  were  interpreted  by  the  priestly  soothsayers  and 
exorcists,  and  no  action  could  be  underj;aken  in  worldly  or  in 
religious  concerns  without  their  superintendence.  The  kings 
occasionally  attempted  to  free  themselves  from  the  power  of 
the  priests,  but  the  attempt  was  always  vain.  The  power  of 
the  priests  had  often  a  sound  economic  basis,  for  the  temples 
of  the  great  cities  were  centres  of  vast  wealth  and  of  far- 
reaching  trade,  as  is  proved  by  the  discovery  of  the  commercial 
contracts  stored  in  the  temple  archives'. 

How  the  family  expands  through  the  clan  and  tribe  into 
the  nation,  is  clearly  seen  in  the  Babylonian  social  system, 
in  which  the  inhabitants. of  each  city  were  still  «  ■  .g  . 
"  divided  into  clans,  all  of  whose  members  claimed 
to  be  descended  from  a  common  ancestor  who  had  flourished 
at  a  more  or  less  remote  period.  The  members  of  each  clan 
were  by  no  means  all  in  the  same  social  position,  some  having 
gone  down  in  the  world,  others  having  raised  themselves  ;  and 
amongst  them  we  find  many  different  callings — from  agricultural 
labourers  to  scribes,  and  from  merchants  to  artisans.  No 
natural  tie  existed  among  the  majority  of  these  members  ex- 
cept the  remembrance  of  their  common  origin,  perhaps  also 

1  Cf.  y.  Zimmern,  article  "  Babyloniams  and  Assyrians,"  Ency.  Religion  and 
Ethics,  1909. 


270  Man  :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

a  common  religion,  and  eventual  rights  of  succession  or  claims 
upon  what  belonged  to  each  one  individually  \"  The  god  or 
goddess,  it  is  suggested,  who  watched  over  each  man,  and  of 
whom  each  was  the  son,  was  originally  the  god  or  goddess  of 
the  clan  (its  totem).  So  also  in  Egypt,  the  members  of  the 
community  were  all  supposed  to  come  of  the  same  stock  {pdit), 
and  to  belong  to  the  same  family  {pditu),  whose  chiefs  (ropditu) 
were  the  guardians  of  the  family,  several  groups  of  such 
families  being  under  a  ropdiM-hd,  or  head  chief  ^ 

Amongst  the  local  institutions,  it  is  startling  to  find  a  fully 
developed  ground-landlord  system,  though  not  quite  so  bad 
as  that  still  patiently  endured  in  Engljind,  already  flourishing 
ages  ago  in  Babylonia.  "  The  cost  of  repairs  fell  usually  on 
the  lessee,  who  was  also  allowed  to  build  on  the  land  he  had 
leased,  in  which  case  it  was  declared  free  of  all  charges  for 
a  period  of  about  ten  years ;  but  the  house  and,  as  a  rule,  all 
he  had  built,  then  reverted  to  the  landlord  ^" 

In  many  other  respects  great  progress  had  been  made,  and 

it  is  the  belief  of  von  Ihring^  HommeP  and  others  that  from 

Babylonia  was    first   diffused    a    knowledge    of 

General  Culture.     ,     ,    ■^  ^  .      .  •      i-  u- 

letters,  astronomy,  agriculture,  navigation,  archi- 
tecture, and  other  arts,  to  the  Nile  valley,  and  mainly  through 
Egypt  to  the  Western  World,  and  through  Irania  to  China 
and  India.  In  this  generalisation  there  is  probably  a  large 
measure  of  truth,  although  it  will  be  seen  farther  on  that  the 
Asiatic  origin  of  Egyptian  culture  is  still  far  from  being  proved". 
One  element  the  two  peoples  certainly  had  in  common — 
a  highly  developed  agricultural  system,  which  formed  the 
foundation  of  their  greatness,  and  was  maintained  in  a  rainless 
climate  by  a  stupendous  system  of  irrigation  works.  Such 
works  were  carried  out  on  a  prodigious  scale  by  the  ancient 
Babylonians  six  or  eight  thousand  years  ago.  The  plains  of 
the  Lower  Euphrates  and  Tigris,  since  rendered  desolate 
under  Turkish  misrule,  are  intersected  by  the  remains  of  an 
intricate  network  of  canalisation  covering  all  the  space  between 
the  two  rivers,  and  are  strewn  with  the  ruins  of  many  great 
cities,  whose  inhabitants,  numbering  scores  of  thousands,  were 

'  G.  Maspero,  Dawn  of  Civilization,  p.  733. 
^  Ibid.  p.  71. 
2  Ibid.  p.  752. 

*  Vorgeschichte,  etc.,  Book  II.  passim. 

*  Geschichte  Babylonians  u.  Assytiens. 

*  G.  Maspero,  The  Struggle  of  the  Nations,  Egypt,  Syria  and  Assyria,  J910. 


viii]  The  Northern  Mongols  271 

supported  by  the  produce  of  a  highly  cultivated  region,  which 
is  now  an  arid  waste  varied  only  by  crumbling  mounds,  stag- 
nant waters,  and  the  camping-grounds,  of  a  few  Arab  tent- 
dwellers. 


Those  who  attach  weight  to  distinctive  racial  qualities 
have  always  found  a  difficulty  in  attributing  this  wonderful 
civilisation  to  the  same  Mongolic  people,  who  in 
their  own  homes  have  scarcely  anywhere  ad-  p"oper 
vanced  beyond  the  hunting,  fishing,  or  pastoral 
states.  But  it  has  always  to  be  remembered  that  man,  like  all 
other  zoological  forms,  necessarily  reflects  the  character  of  his 
environment.  The  Mongols  might  in-  time  become  agricul- 
turalists in  the  alluvial  Mesopotamian  lands,  though  the  kindred 
people  who  give  their  name  to  the  whole  ethnical  division  and 
present  its  physical  characters  in  an  exaggerated  form,  ever 
remain  tented  nomads  on  the  dry  Central  Asiatic  steppe,  which 
yields  little  but  herbage,  and  is  suitable  for  tillage  only  in  a  few 
more  favoured  districts.  Here  the  typical  Mongols,  cut  off 
from  the  arable  lands  of  South  Siberia  by  the  Tian-shan  and 
Altai  ranges,  and  to  some  extent  denied  access  to  the  rich 
fluvial  valleys  of  the  Middle  Kingdom  by  the  barrier  of  the 
Great  Wall,  have  for  ages  led  a  pastoral  life  in  the  inhabitable 
tracts  and  oases  of  the  Gobi  wilderness  and  the  Ordos  region 
within  the  great  bend  of  the  Hoang-ho.  During  the  historic 
period  these  natural  and  artificial  ramparts  have  been  several 
times  slirmounted  by  fierce  Mongol  hordes,  pouring  like  irre- 
sistible flood-waters  over  the  whole  of  China  and  many  parts 
of  Siberia,  and  extending  their  predatory  or  conquering  ex- 
peditions across  the  more  open  northern  plains  westwards 
nearly  to  the  shores  of  the  Atlantic.  But  such  devastating, 
torrents,  which  at  intervals  convulsed  and  caused  dislocations 
amongst  half  the  settled  populations  of  the  globe,  had  little 
effect  on  the  tribal  groups  that  remained  behind.  These  con- 
tinued and  continue  to  occupy  the  original  camping-grounds, 
as  changeless  and  uniform  in  their  physical  appearance,  mental 
characters,  and  social  usages  as  the  Arab  bedouins  and  all 
other  inhabitants  of  monotonous  undiversified  steppe  lands. 

De  Ujfalvy's  suggestion  that  the  typical  Mongols  of  the 
plains,  with  whom  we  are  now  dealing,  were  originally  a  long- 
headed race,  can  scarcely  be  taken  seriously.    At   p.    j^.^,  _ 
present  and,  in  fact,  throughout  historic  times,  all 


272  M-an  :  Past  und  Present  [ch. 

true  Mongol  peoples  are  and  have  been  distinguished  by  a 
high  degree  of  brachycephaly,  with  cephalic  index  generally 
from  87  upwards,  and  it  may  be  remembered  that  the  highest 
known  index  of  any  undeformed  skull  was  that  of  Huxley's 
Mongol  (98"  21).  But,  as  already  noticed,  those  recovered 
from  prehistoric,  or  neolilihic  kurgans,  are  found  to  be  doUcho- 
■cephalous  like  those  of  palaeolithic  and  early  neolithic  man  in 
Europe. 

Taken  in  connection  with  the  numerous  prehistoric  remains 
above  recorded  from  all  parts  of  Central  Asia  and  Siberia, 
this  fact  may  perhaps  help  to  bring  de  Ujfelvy's  view  into 
harmony  with  the  actual  conditions.  Everything  will  be  ex- 
plained by  assuming  that  the  proto-Mongolic  tribes,  spreading 
from  the  Tibetan  plateau  over  the  plains  now  bearing  their 
name,  found  that  region  already  occupied  by  the  long-headed 
Caucasic  peoples  of  the  Stone  Ages,  whom  they  either  exter- 
minated or  drove  north  to  the  Altai  uplands,  and  east  to 
Manchuria  and  'Korea,  where  a  strong  Caucasic  strain  still 
persists.  De  Ujfalvy's  long-Jieads  would  thus  be,  not  the 
proto-Mongols  who  were  always  round-headed,  but  the  long- 
headed neolithic  pre- Mongol  race  expelled  by  them  from 
Mongolia  who  may  provisionally  be  termed  proto-Nordics. 

That  this  region  has  been  their  true  home  since  the  first 
migrations  from  the  south  there  can  be  no  doubt.  Here  land 
Ethnical  and  ^^*^  people  Stand  in  the  closest  relation  one  to 
Administrative  the  Other ;  here  every  conspicuous  physical 
Dmsions.  feature   recalls    some   popular  memory ;    every 

rugged  crest  is  associated  with  the  name  of  some  national 
hero,  every  lake  or  stream  is  still  worshipped  or  held  in  awe 
as  a  local  deity,  or  else  the  abode  of  the  ancestral  shades. 
Here  also  the  Mongols  proper  form  two  main  divisions,  S/iarra 
in  the  east  and  Kalmiik  in  the  west,  while  a  third  group, 
the  somewhat  mhLe.d'  £uryats,  have  long  been  settled  in  the 
Siberian  provinces  of  Irkutsk  and  Trans- Baikalia.  Under  the 
Chinese  semi-military  administration  all  except  the  Buryats, 
who  are  Russian  subjects,  are  constituted  since  the  seventeenth 
century  in  41  Aimaks  (large  tribal  groups  or  iprincipalities 
with  ihereditary  khans)  and  226  Koshungs,  "  Banners,"  that  is, 
smaller  groups  whose  chiefs  are  dependent  on  the  khans  of 
their  respective  Aimaks,  who  are  themselves  directly  re- 
sponsible to  the  imperial  government.  Subjoined  is  a  table 
of  "these   administrative  .divisions,   which  present  a  curious 


viii]  The  Northern  Mongols  273 

but  efifective  combination  of  the  tribal  and  political  systems, 
analogous  to  the  arrangement  in  Pondoland  and  some  other 
districts  in  Cape  Colony,  where  the  hereditary  tribal  chief 
assumes  the  functions  of  a  responsible  British  magistrate. 


Tribal  or  Territorial 
Divisions 

(P. 

Aimaks 
rincipalities) 

Koshungs 
(Banners) 

Khalkas 

4 

86 

Inner  Mongolia  with  Ordos 
Chakars 

25 

1 

51 
8 

Ala-Shan 

I 

3 

Koko-nor  and  Tsaidam 

5 

29 

Sungaria 
Uriankhai 

4 

I 

32 
17 

41  226 

Since  their  organisation  in  Aimaks  and  Koshungs,  the 
Mongols  have  ceased  to  be  a  terror  to  the  surrounding  peoples. 
The  incessant  struggles  between  these  tented  warriors  and  the 
peaceful  Chinese  populations,  which  began  long  before  the 
dawn  of  history,  were  brought  to  a  close  with  the  overthrow  of 
the  Sungarian  power  in  the  eighteenth  century,  when  their 
political  cohesion  was  broken,  and  the  whole  nation  reduced 
to  a  state  of  abject  helplessness,  from  which  they  cannot  now 
hope  to  recover.  The  arm  of  Chinese  rule  could  be  replaced 
only  by  the  firmer  grip  of  the  northern  autocrat,  whose  shadow 
already  lies  athwart  the  Gobi  wilderness. 

Thus  the  only  escape  from  the  crushing  monotony  of  a 
purely  pastoral  life,  no  longer  relieved  by  intervals  of  warlike 
or  predatory  expeditions,  lies  in  a  survival  of  the  old  Shamanist 
superstitions,  or  a  further  development  of  the  degrading  Tibetan 
lamaism  represented  at  Urga  by  the  Kutukhtu, 
an  incarnation  of  the  Buddha  only  less  revered  "  ^' 
than  the  Dalai  Lama  himself.  Besides  this  High  Priest  at 
Urga,  there  are  over  a  hundred  smaller  incarnations — Gigens, 
as  they  are  called — and  these  saintly  beings  possess  unlimited 
means  of  plundering  their  votaries.  The  smallest  favour,  the 
touch  of  their  garments,  a  pious  ejaculation  or  blessing,  is 

1  It  is  noteworthy  that  Dalai,  "  Ocean,"  is  itself  a  Mongol  word,  though  Lama, 
"  Priest,"  is  Tibetan.  The  explanation  is  that  in  the  thirteenth  century  a  local  incar- 
nation of  Buddha  was  raised  by  the  then  dominant  Mongols  to  the  first  rank,  and 
this  title  of  Dalai  Lama,  the  "  Ocean  Priest,"  i.e.  the  Priest  of  fathomless  wisdom, 
was  bestowed  on  one  of  his  successors  in  the  sixteenth  century,  and  still  retained 
by  the  High  Pontiff  at  Lhasa. 


274  Man  :   Past  and  Present  [ch. 

regarded  as  a  priceless  spiritual  gift,  and  must  be  paid  for  with 
costly  offerings.  Even  the  dead  do  not  escape  these  exactions. 
However  disposed  of,  whether  buried  or  cremated,  like  the 
khans  and  lamas,  or  exposed  to  beasts  and  birds  of  prey,  as  is 
the  fate  of  the  common  folk,  "  masses,"  which  also  command 
a  high  price,  have  to  be  said  for  forty  days  to  relieve  their 
souls  from  the  torments  of  the  Buddhist  purgatory. 

It  is  a  singular  fact,  which,  however,  may  perhaps  admit 
of  explanation,  that  nearly  all  the  true  Mongol  peoples  have 
been  Buddhists  since  the  spread  of  Sakya-Muni's  teachings 
throughout  Central  Asia,  while  their  Turki  kinsmen  are  zealous 
followers  of  the  Prophet.  Thus  is  seen,  for  instance,  the  strange 
spectacle  of  two  Mongolic  groups,  the  Kirghiz  of  the  Turki 
branch  and  the.  Kalmuks  of  the  West  Mongol  branch,  en- 
camped side  byside  on  the  Lower  Volga  plains,  the  former 
all  under  the  banner  of  the  Crescent,  the  latter  devout  wor- 
shippers of  all  the  incarnations  of  Buddha.  But  analogous 
phenomena  occur  amongst  the  European  peoples,  the  Teutons 
being  mainly  Protestants,  those  of  neo- Latin  speech  mainly 
Roman  Catholics,  and  the  Easterns  Orthodox.  From  all  this, 
however,  nothing  more  can  be  inferred  than  that  the  religions 
are  partly  a  question  of  geography,  partly  determined  by  racial 
temperament  and  political  conditions ;  while  the  religious 
sentiment,  being  universal,  is  above  all  local  or  ethnical  con- 
siderations. 

Under  the-  first  term  of  the  expression  Mongolo-Turki 
(p.  256)  are  comprised,  besides  the  Mongols  proper,  nearly  all 
those  branches  of  the  division  which  lie  to  the  east  and  north- 
east of  Mongolia,  and  are  in  most  respects  more  closely  allied 
with  the  Mongol  than  with  the  Turki  section.  Such  are  the 
Tunguses,  with  the  kindred  Manckus,  Golds,  Orochons,  Lamuts, 
and  others  of  the  Amur  basin,  the  Upper  Lena  head-streams, 
the  eastern  affluents  of  the  Yenisei,  and  the  shores  of  the  Sea 
of  Okhotsk ;  the  Gilyaks  about  the  Amur  estuary  and  in  the 
northern  parts  of  Sakhalin  ;  the  Kamchadales  in  South  Kam- 
chatka ;  in  the  extreme  north-east  the  Koryaks,  Chukchis,  and 
Yukaghirs ;  lastly  the  Koreans,  Japanese,  and  Liu-Kiu  [Lu- 
Chu)  Islanders.  To  the  Mongol  section  thus  belong  nearly 
all  the  peoples  lying  between  the  Yenisei  and  the  Pacific 
(including  most  of  the  adjacent  archipelagos),  and  between 
the  Great  Wall  and  the  Arctic  Ocean.  The  only  two  ex- 
ceptions are  the  Yakuts  of  the  middle  and  Lower  Lena  and 


viii]  The  Northern  Mongols  275 

neighbouring  Arctic  rivers,  who  are  of  Turki  stock  ;  and  the 
Ainus  of  Yezo,  South  Sakhalin,  and  some  of  the  Kurile 
Islands,  who  belong  to  the  Caucasic  division. 

M.  A.  Czaplicka  proposes  a  useful  classification  of  the 
various  peoples  of  Siberia,  usually  grouped  on  account  of 
linguistic  affinities  as  Ural-Altaians,  and  as  "no  other  part  of 
the  world  presents  a  racial  problem  of  such  complexity  and  in 
regard  to  no  other  part  of  the  world's  inhabitants  have  ethno- 
logists of  the  last  hundred  years  put  forward  such  widely 
differing  hypotheses  of  their  origin  \"  her  tabulation  may  serve 
to  clear  the  way.  She  divides  the  whole  area"  into  Palaeo- 
Siberians,  representing  the  most  ancient  stock  of  dwellers  in 
Siberia,  and  Neo-Siberians,  comprising  the  various  tribes  of 
Central  Asiatic  origin  who  are  sufficiently  differentiated  from 
the  kindred  peoples  of  their  earlier  homes  as  to  deserve  a 
generic  name  of  their  own.  The  Palaeo-Siberians  thus  include 
the  Chukchi,  Koryak,  Kamchadale,  Ainu,  Gilyak,  Eskimo, 
Aleut,  Yukaghir,  Chuvanzy  and  Ostyak  of  Yenisei.  The 
Neo-Siberians  include  the  Finnic  Tribes  (Ugrian  Ostyak,  and 
Vogul\  Samoyedic  Tribes,  Turkic  Tribes  ( Yakut  and  Turko- 
Tatars  of  Tobolsk  and  Tomsk  Governments),  Mongolic  Tribes 
(Western  Mongols  or  Kalmuk,  Eastern  Mongols,  and  Buryat), 
and  Tungusic  Tribes  {Tungus,  Chapogir,  Gold,  Lamut,  Man- 
chti,  Manyarg,  Oroch,  Orochon  ("Reindeer  Tungus"),  Oroke). 

A  striking  illustration  of  the  general  statement  that  the 
various  cultural  states  are  a  question  not  of  race,  but  of  en- 
vironment, is  afforded  by  the  varying  social  con- 
ditions  of  the  widespread  Tungus  family,  who 
are  fishers  on  the  Arctic  coast,  hunters  in  the  East  Siberian 
woodlands,  and  for  the  most  part  sedentary  tillers  of  the  soil 
and  townspeople  in  the  rich  alluvial  valleys  of  the  Amur  and 
its  southern  affluents.  The  Russians,  from  whom  we  get  the 
term  Tungus^  recognise  these  various  pursuits,  and  speak  of 

1  Aboriginal  Siberia,  1914,  p.  13.  ^  Loc.  cit.  pp.  18-21. 

^  Either  from  the  Chinese  Tunghu,  "  Eastern  Barbarians,"  or  from  the  Turki 
Tinghiz,  as  in  Isaac  Massa:  per  interfiretes  se  Tingoesi  vocari dixerwit  {Descriptio, 
etc.,  Amsterdam,  1612).  But  there  is  no  collective  national  name,  and  at  present 
they  call  themselves  Don-ki,  Boia,  Boie,  etc.,  terms  all  meaning  "  Men,"  "  People." 
In  the  Chinese  records  they  are  referred  to  under  the  name  of  I-lu  so  early  as 
263  A.D.,  when  they  dwelt  in  the  forest  region  between  the  Upper  Tenien  and  Yalu 
rivers  on  the  one  hand  and  the  Pacific  Ocean  on  the  other,  and  paid  tribute  in 
kind — sable  furs,  bows,  and  stone  arrow-heads.  Arrows  and  stone  arrow-heads 
were  also  the  tribute  paid  to  the  emperors  of  the  Shang  dynasty  (1766-1154  B.C.) 
by  the  Su-shen,  who  dwelt  north  of  the  Liao-tung  peninsula,  so  that  we  have  here 
official  proof  of  a  Stone  Age  of  long  duration  in  iManchuria.     Later,  the  Chinese 

18 — 2 


276  Man :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

Horse,  Cattle,  Reindeer,  Dog,  Steppe,  and  Forest  Tunguses, 
besides  the  settled  farmers  and  stock-breeders  of  the  Amur. 
Their  original  home  appears  to  have  been  the 
?pt'*^"'^  Shan-alin  uplands,  where  they  dwelt  with  the 
kindred  Niu-chi  (Manchus)  till  the  thirteenth 
century,  when  the  disturbances  brought  about  by  the  wars  and 
conquests  of  Jenghiz-Khan  drove  them  to  their  present  seat  in 
East  Siberia.  The  type,  although  essentially  Morigolic  in  the 
somewhat  flat  features,  very  prominent  cheek-bones,  slant  eyes, 
long  lank  hair,  yellowish  brown  colour  and  low  stature,  seems 
to  show  admixture  with  a  higher  race  in  the  shapely  frame, 
the  nimble,  active  figure,  and  quick,  intelligent  expression, 
and  especially  in  the  variable  skull.  While  generally  round 
(indices  80°  to  84°),  the  head  is  sometimes  flat  on  the  top,  like 
that  of  the  true  Mongol,  sometimes  high  and  short,  which,  as 
Hamy  tells  us,  is  specially  characteristic  of  the  Turki  race\ 

All  observers  speak  in  enthusiastic  language  of  the  tem- 
perament and  moral  qualities  of  the  Tunguses,  and  particularly 
of  those  groups  that  roam  the  forests  about  the 
Characters        Tunguska  tributaries  of  the  Yenisei,  which  take 
their  name  from  these  daring  hunters  and  trappers. 
"  Full  of  animation  and  natural  impulse,  always  cheerful  even 
in  the  deepest  misery,  holding  themselves  and  others  in  like 
respect,  of  gentle  manners  and  poetic  speech,  obliging  without 
servility,  unaffectedly  proud,  scorning  falsehood,  and  indifferent 
to  suffering  and  death,  the  Tunguses  are  unquestionably  an 
heroic  peopled" 

A  few  have  been  brought  within  the  pale  of  the  Orthodox 

Church,  and  in  the  extreme  south  some  are  classed  as  Buddhists. 

But  the  great  bulk  of  the  Tunsfus  nation  are  still 

Shamanism.        01  .   •"  t    j      j    ^u  j     07 

bhamanists.  Indeed  the  very  word  Shaman  is 
of  Tungus  origin,  though  current  also  amongst  the  Buryats 
and- Yakuts.  It  is  often  taken  to  be  the  equivalent  of  priest ; 
but  in  point  of  fact  it  represents  a  stage  in  the  development  of 
natural  religion  which  has  scarcely  yet  reached  the  sacerdotal 

chronicles  mention  the  U-ki  or  Mo-ho,  a  warlike  people  of  the  Suhgari  valley  and  ~ 
surrounding  uplands,  who,  in  the  7th  century  founded  the  kingdom  of  Pu-hai, 
overthrown  in  925  by  the  Khitans  of  the  Lower  Sungari  below  its  Noni  confluence, 
who  were  themselves  Tunguses  and  according  to  some  Chinese  authorities  the 
direct  ancestors  of  the  Manchus. 

1  "  C'est  la  tendance  de  la  tSte  k  se  d^velopper  en  hauteur,  juste  en  sens  inverse 
de  I'aplatissement  vertical  du  Mongol.  La  tSte  du  Turc  est  done  Jl  la  fois  plus 
haute  et  plus  courte  "  {L' Anthropologic,  vi.  3,  p.  8). 

2  Reclus,  VI. ;  Eng.  ed.  p.  360. 


viii]  The  Northern  Mongols  277 

state.  "  Although  in  many  cases  the  shamans  act  as  priests, 
and  take  part  in  popular  and  family  festivals,  prayers,  and 
sacrifices,  their  chief  importance  is  based  on  the  performance 
of  duties  which  distinguish  them  sharply  from  ordinary  priests'." 
Their  functions  are  threefold,  those  of  the  medicine-man  (the 
leech,  or  healer  by  supernatural  means) ;  of  the  soothsayer 
(the  prophet  through  communion  with  the  invisible  world) ; 
and  of  the  priest,  especially  in  his  capacity  as  exorcist,  and  in 
his  general  power  to  influence,  control,  or  even  coerce  the 
good  and  evil  spirits  on  behalf  of  their  votaries.  But  as  all 
spirits  are,  or  were  originally,  identified  with  the  souls  of  the 
departed,  it  follows  that  in  its  ultimate  analysis  Shamanism 
resolves  itself  into  a  form  of  ancestry-worship. 

The  system,  of  which  there  are  many  phases  reflecting  the 
different  cultural  states  of  its  adherents,  still  prevails  amongst 
all  the  Siberian  aborigines',  and  generally  amongst  all  the  un- 
civilised Ural-Altaic  populations,  so  that  here  again  the  religions 
strictly  reflect  the  social  condition  of  the  peoples.  Thus  the 
somewhat  cultured  Finns,  Turks,  Mongols,  and  Manchus  are 
all  either  Christians,  Muhammadans,  or  Buddhists  ;  while  the 
uncultured  but  closely  related  Samoyeds,  Ostyaks,  Orochons, 
Tunguses,  Golds,  Gilyaks,  Koryaks,  and  Chukchi,  are  almost 
without  exception  Shamanists. 

The  shamans  do  not  appear  to  constitute  a  special  caste  or 
sacerdotal  order,  like  the  hierarchies  of  the  Christian  Churches. 
Some  are  hereditary,  some  elected  by  popular  vote,  so  to  say. 
They  may  be  either  men,  or  women  \shamankd),  married  or 
single  ;  and  if  "  rank  "  is  spoken  of,  it  simply  means  greater  or 
less  proficiency  in  the  performance  of  the  duties  imposed  on 
them.  Everything  thus  depends  on  their  personal  merits, 
which  naturally  gives  rise  to  much  jealousy  between  the 
members  of  the  craft.  Thus  amongst  the  "  whites  "  and  the 
"  blacks,"  that  is,  those  whose  dealings  are  with  the  good  and 
the  bad  spirits  respectively,  there  is  in  some  districts  a  standing 
feud,  often  resulting  in  fierce  encounters  and  bloodshed.  The 
Buryats  tell  how  the  two  factions  throw  axes  at  each  other  at 
great  distances,  the  struggle  usually  ending  in  the  death  of  one 
of  the  combatants.     The  blacks,  who  serve  the  evil  spirits, 

1  V.  M.  Mikhailovskii,  Shamanistn  in  Siberia  and  European  Russia,  translated 
by  Oliver  Wardrop,  yi?«r«.  Anthr.  Inst.  1895,  p.  91. 

2  M.  A.  Czaplicka,  Aboriginal  Siberia,  1914.     Part  ill.  discusses  Shamanism, 
pp.  166-255. 


278  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

bringing  only  disease,  death,  or  ill-luck,  and  even  killing' 
people  by  eating  up  their  souls,  are  of  course  the  least  popular, 
but  also  the  most  dreaded.  Many  are  credited  with  extra- 
ordinary and  even  miraculous  powers,  and  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  they  often  act  up  to  their  reputation  by  performing 
almost  incredible  conjuring  tricks  in  order  to  impose  on  the 
credulity  of  the  ignorant,  or  outbid  their  rivals  for  the  public 
favour.  Old  Richard  Johnson  of  Chancelour's  expedition  to 
Muscovy  records  how  he  saw  a  Samoyed  shaman  stab  himself 
with  a  sword,  then  make  the  sword  red  hot  and  thrust  it 
through  his  body,  so  that  the  point  protruded  at  the  back,  and 
Johnson  was  able  to  touch  it  with  his  finger.  They  then  bound 
the  wizard  tight  with  a  reindeer-rope,  and  went  through  some 
performances  curiously  like  those  of  the  Davenport  brothers 
and  other  modern  conjurers\ 

To  the  much-discussed  question  whether  the  shamans  are 
impostors,  the  best  answer  has  perhaps  been  given  by  Castren, 
who,  speaking  of  the  same  Samoyed  magicians,  remarks  that 
if  they  were  merely  chea,ts,  we  should  have  to  suppose  that 
they  did  not  share  the  religious  beliefs  of  their  fellow-tribesmen, 
but  were  a  sort  of  rationalists  far  in  advance,  of  the  times. 
Hence  it  would  seem  much  more  probable  that  they  deceived 
both  themselves  and  others^  while  no  doubt  many  bolster  up 
a  waning  reputation  by  playing  the  mountebank  where  there 
is  no  danger  of  detection. 

"Shamanisrh  amongst  the  Siberian  peoples,"  concludes 
our  Russian  authority,  ".is  at  the  present  time  in  a  moribund 
condition ;  it  must  die  out  with  those  beliefs  among  which 
alone  such  phenomena  can  arise  and  flourish.  Buddhism  on 
the  one  hand,  and  Muhammadanism  on  the  other,  not  to 
mention  Christianity,  are  rapidly  destroying  the  old  ideas  of 
the  tribes  among  whom  the  shamans  performed.  Especially 
has  the  more  ancient  Black  Faith  suffered  from  the  Yellow 
Faith  preached  by  the  lamas.  But  the  shamans,  with  their 
dark  mysterious  rites,  have  made  a  good  struggle  for  life,  and 
are  still  frequently  found  among  the  native  Christians  and 
Muhammadans.  The  mullahs  and  lamas  have  even  been 
obliged  to  become  shamans  to  a  great  extent,  and  many  Siberian 
tribes,  who  are  nominally  Christians,  believe  in  shamans,  and 
have  recourse  to  them." 

'  Hakluyt,  1809  ed.,  I.  p.  317  sq. 
^  Quoted  by  Mikhailovskii,  p.  144. 


viiij  The  Northern  Mongols  279 

Of  all  members  of  the  Tungusic  family  the  Manchus  alone 
can  be  called  a  historical  people.  If  they  were  really  de- 
scended from  the  Khitans  of  the  Sungari  valley, 
then  their  authentic  records  will  date  from  the  Manchus. 
tei^th  century  a.  d.  ,  when  these  renowned  warriors, 
after  overthrowing  the  Pu-hai  (925),  founded  the  Liao  dynasty 
and  reduced  a  great  part  of  North  China  and  surrounding  lands. 
The  Khitans,  from  whom  China  was  known  to  Marco  Polo  as 
Khitai  (Cathay),  as  it  still  is  to  the  Russians,  were  conquered 
in  1 125  by  the  Niu-chi  [Yu-cki,  Nu-chin)  of  the  Shan-alin 
uplands,  reputed  cradle  of  the  Manchu  race.  These  Niu-chi, 
direct  ancestors  of  the  Manchus,  founded  (i  1 15)  origins  and 
the  State  known  as  that  of  the  "Golden  Tartars,"  Early 
from  Kin,  "gold,"  the  title  adopted  by  their  Records, 
chief  Aguta,  "because  iron  (in  reference  to  the  Liao,  '  Iron ' 
dynasty)  may  rust,  but  gold  remains  ever  pure  and  bright." 
The  Kins,  however,  retained  their  brightness  only  a  little  over 
a  century,  having  been  eclipsed  by  Jenghiz-Khan  in  1 234.  But 
about  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth  century  the  Niu-chi  again 
rose  to  power  under  Aishiu-Gioro,  who,  although  of  miraculous 
birth  and  surrounded  by  other  legendary  matter,  appears  to 
have  been  a  historical  person.  He  may  be  regarded  as  the  true 
founder  of  the  Manchu  dynasty,  for  it  was  in  his  time  that  this 
name  came  into  general  use.  Sing-tsu,  one  of  his  descendants, 
constructed  the  palisade,  a  feeble  imitation  of  the  Great  Wall, 
sections  of  which  still  exist.  Thai-tsu,  a  still  more  famous 
member  of  the  family,  greatly  extended  the  Manchu  Kingdom 
(1580-1626),  and  it  was  his  son  Tai-dsung  who  first  assumed 
the  imperial  dignity  under  the  title  of  Tai-Tsing.  After  his 
death,  the  Ming  dynasty  having  been  overthrown  by  a  rebel 
chief,  the  Manchus  were  invited  by  the  imperialists  to  aid  in 
restoring  order,  entered  Peking  in  triumph,  and,  finding  that 
the  last  of  the  Mings  had  committed  suicide,  placed  Tai-dsung's 
nephew  on  the  throne,  thus  founding  the  Manchu  dynasty 
(1644)  which  lasted  down  to  191 2.    , 

Such  has  been  the  contribution  of  the  Manchu  people  to 
history ;  their  contributions  to  arts,  letters,  science,  in  a  word, 
to  the  general  progress  of  mankind,  have  been  nil.  They 
found  the  Middle  Kingdom,  after  ages  of  a  sluggish  growth,  in 
a  state  of  absolute  stagnation,  and  there  they  have  left  it.  On 
the  other  hand  their  assumption  of  the  imperial  administration 
brought  about  their  own  ruin,  their  effacement,  and  almost  their 


28o  Man :  Past  and  Present  [cH, 

very  extinction  as  a  separate  nationality'.  Manchuria,  like 
Mongolia,  is  organised  in  a  number  of  half  military,  half  civil 
divisions,  the  so-called  Paki,  or  "  Eight  Banners,"  and  the 
constant  demand  made  on  these  reserves,  to  support  the  dynasty 
and  supply  trustworthy  garrisons  for  all  the  strongholds  of  the 
empire,  has  drawn  off  the  best  blood  of  the  people,  in  fact  sapped 
its  vitality  at  the  fountain-head.  Then  the  rich  arable  tracts 
thus  depleted  were  gradually  occupied  by  agricultural  settlers 
from  the  south,  with  the  result  that  the  Manchu  race  has  nearly 
disappeared.  From  the  ethnical  standpoint  the  whole  region 
beyond  the  Great  Wall  as  far  north  as  the  Amur  has  practically 
become  an  integral  part  of  China,  and  from  the  political  stand- 
point since  1898  an  integral  part  of  the  Russian  empire.  To- 
wards the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  the  Eight  Banners 
numbered  scarcely  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  million,  and  about 
that  time  the  Abb6  Hue  declared  that  "the  Manchu  nationality 
is  destroyed  beyond  recovery.  At  present  we  shall  look  in  vain 
for  a  single  town  or  a  single  village  throughout  Manchuria 
which  is  not  exclusively  inhabited  by  Chinese.  The  local  colour 
has  been  completely  effaced,  and  except  a  few  nomad  groups 
nobody  speaks  Manchu^" 

Similar  testimony  is  afforded  by  later  observers,  and  Henry 
Lansdell,  amongst  others,  remarks  that  "  the  Manchu,  during 
the  two  centuries  they  have  reigned  in  China,  may  be  said  to 
have  been  working  out  their  own  annihilation.  Their  manners, 
language,  their  very  country  has  become  Chinese,  and  some 
maintain  that  the  Manchu  proper  are  now  extinct^" 

But  the  type,  so  far  from  being  extinct,  may  be  said  to  have 

received  a  considerable  expansion,  especially  amongst  the  popu- 

lations  of  north-east  China.     The  taller  stature 

and  greatly  superior  physical  appearance  of  the 

inhabitants  of  Tien-tsin  and  surrounding  districts'  over  those 

of  the  southern  provinces  (Fokien,  Kwang-tung),  who  are  the 

■  Cf.  H.  A.  Giles,  China  and  the  Manchus,  1912. 

^  Souvenirs  dhtn  voyage  dans  la  Tartaric^  1853,  I.  162. 

^  Through  Siberia,  1882,  Vol.  II.  p.  172. 

^  European  visitors  often  notice  with  surprise  the  fine  physique  of  these  natives, 
many  of  whom  average  nearly  six  feet  in  height.  But  there  is  an  extraordinary 
disparity  between  the  two  sexes,  perhaps  greater  than  in  any  other  country.  The 
much  smaller  stature  and  feebler  constitution  of  the  women  is  no  doubt  due  to  the 
detestable  custom  of  crippling  the  feet  in  childhood,  thereby  depriving  them  of 
natural  exercise  during  the  period  of  growth.  It  may  be  noted  that  the  anti-foot- 
bandaging  movement  is  making  progress  throughout  China,  the  object  being  to 
abolish  the  cruel  practice  by  making  the  kin  lien  ("  golden  lilies  ")  unfashionable, 
and  the  ti  mien,' the  "  heavenly  feet," — i.e.  the  natural — popular  in  their  stead. 


viii]  The  Northern  Mongols     '  281 

chief  representatives  of  the  Chinese  race  abroad,  seem  best 
explained  by  continual  crossings  with  the  neighbouring  Manchu 
people,  at  least  since  the  twelfth  century,  if  not  earlier. 

Closely  related  to  the  Manchus  (of  the  same  stock  says 
Sir  H.  H.  Howorth,  the  distinction  being  purely  political)  are 
the  Daurt,  who  give  their  name  to  the  extensive  .^.j^^  ^^^^.j 
Daur  plateau,  and  formerly  occupied  both  sides  of 
the  Upper  Amur.  Daur  is,  in  fact,  the  name  applied  by  the 
Buryats  to  all  the  Tungus  peoples  of  the  Amur  basin.  The 
Dauri  proper,  who  are  now  perhaps  the  best  representatives 
of  the  original  Manchu  type,  would  seem  to  have  intermingled 
at  a  remote  time  with  the  long-headed  pre-Mongol  populations 
of  Central  Asia.  They  are  "taller  and  stronger  than  the  Oron- 
chons  [Tungus  groups  lower  down  the  Amur];  the  countenance 
is  oval  and  more  intellectual,  and  the  cheeks  are  less  broad. 
The  nose  is  rather  prominent,  and  the  eyebrows  straight. 
The  skin  is  tawny,  and  the  hair  brown\"  Most  of  these 
characters  are  such  as  we  should  expect  to  find  in  a  people  of 
mixed  Mongolo-Caucasic  descent,  the  latter  element  being 
derived  from  the  long-headed  race  who  had  already  reached 
the  present  Mongolia,  Manchuria,  Korea,  and  the  adjacent 
islands  during  neolithic  times.  Thus  may  be  explained  the 
tall  stature,  somewhat  regular  features,  brown  hair,  light  eyes, 
and  even  florid  complexion  so  often  observed  amongst  the 
present  inhabitants  of  Manchuria,  Korea,  and  parts  of  North 
China. 

But  no  admixture,  except  of  Chinese  literary  terms,  is  seen  in 
the  Manchu  language,  which,  like  Mongolic,  is  a  typical  member 
of  the  agglutinating  Ural-Altaic  family.     Despite 
great    differences,    lexical,    phonetic,    and   even    gpeefh.**" 
structural,  all  the  members  of  this  widespread 
order  of  speech  have  in  common  a  number  of  fundamental 
features,  which  justify  the  assumption  that  all  spring  from  an 
original  stock  language,  which  has  long  been  extinct,  and  the 
germs  of  which  were  perhaps  first  developed  on  the  Tibetan 
plateau.     The  essential  characters  of  the  system  are: — (i)  a 
"root"  or  notional  term,  generally  a  closed  syllable,  nominal 
or  verbal,  with  a  vowel  or  diphthong,  strong  or  weak  (hard  or 
soft)  according  to  the  meaning  of  the  term,  hence  incapable  of 
change ;  (2)  a  number  of  particles  or  relational  terms  somewhat 
loosely  postfixed  to  the  root,  but  incorporated  with  it  by  the 

■1  H.  Lansdell,  Through  Siberia,  1882,  11.  p.  172. 


282  Man  :    Past  and  Present  [ch. 

principle  of  (3)  vowel  harmony,  a  kind  of  vocal  concordance, 
invirtue  of  which  the  vowels  of  all  the  postfixes  must  harmonise 
with  the  unchangeable  vowel  of  the  root.  If  this  is  strong  all 
the  following  vowels  of  the  combination,  no  matter  what  its 
length,  must  be  strong ;  if  weak  they  must  conform  in  the  same 
way.  With  nominal  roots  the  postfixes  are  necessarily  limited 
to  the  expression  of  a  few  simple  relations  ;  but  with  verbal 
roots  they  are  in  principle  unlimited,  so  that  the  multifarious 
relations  of  the  verb  to  its  subject  and  object  are  all  incorporated 
in  the  verbal  compound  itself,  which  may  thus  run  at  times  to 
inordinate  lengths. "  Hence  we  have  the  expression  "  incor- 
porating," commonly  applied  to  this  agglutinating  system, 
which  sometimes  goes  so  far  as  to  embody  the  notions  of 
causality,  possibility,  passivity,  negation,  intensity,  condition, 
and  so  on,  besides  the  direct  pronominal  objects,  in  one  in- 
terminable conglomerate,  which  is  then  treated  as  a  simple 
verb,  and  rurl  through  all  the  secondary  changes  of  number, 
person,  tense,  and  mood.  The  result  is  an  endless  number  of 
theoretically  possible  verbal  forms,  which,  although  in  practice 
naturally  limited  to  the  ordinary  requirements  of  speech,  are  far 
too  numerous  to  allow  of  a  complete  verbal  paradigm  being 
constructed  of  any  fully  developed  member  of  the  Ural-Altaic 
group,  such,  for  instance,  as  Yakut,  Tungus,  Turki,  Mord- 
vinian,  Finnish,  or  Magyar. 

In  this  system  the  vowels  are  classed  as  strong  or  hard 
{a,  0,  u),  weak  or  soft  (the  same  umlauted:  a,  0,  u),  and  neutral 
{generally  e,  i),  these  last  being  so  called  because  they  occur 
indifferently  with  the  two  other  classes.  Thus,  if  the  deterr 
mining  root  vowel  is  a  (strong),  that  of  the  postfixes  may  be 
either  a  (strong),  e  or  i  (neutral) ;  if  a  (weak),  that  of  the  post- 
fixes may  be  either  a  (weak),  or  e  or  i  as  before.  The  post- 
fixes themselves  no  doubt  were  originally  notional  terms  worn 
down  in  form  and  meaning,  so  as  to  express  mere  abstract 
relation,  as  in  the  Magyar  z/^/=with,  from  t^^/j' =  companion. 
Tacked  on  to  the  root^  =  tree,  this  will  give  the  ablative  case, 
first  unharmonised,  y«-y^/,  then  harmonised,  y«-z'a/=  tree-with, 
with  a  tree.  In  the  early  Magyar  texts  of  the  twelfth  century 
inharmonic  compounds,  such  as  kaldl-nek,  later  haldk-nak  =  at 
death,  are  numerous,  from  which  it  has  been  inferred  that  the 
principle  of  vowel  harmony  is  not  an  original  feature  of  the 
Ural-Altaic  languages,  but  a  later  development,  due  in  fact  to 
phonetic  decay,  and  still  scarcely  known  in  some  members  of 


viii]  The  Northern  Mongols  283 

the  group,  such  as  Votyak  and  Highland  Cheremissia:n  (Volga 
Finn).  But  M.  Lucien  Adam  holds  that  these  idioms  have 
lost  the  principle  through  foreign  (Russian)  influence,  and  that 
the  few  traces  still  perceptible  are  survivals  from  a  time  when 
all  the  Ural-Altaic  tongues  were  subject  to  progressive  vowel 
harmony'. 

But  however  this  be,  Dean  Byrne  is  disposed  to  regard  the 
alternating  energetic  utterance  of  the  hard,  and  indolent  utter- 
ance of  the  soft  vowel  series,  as  an  expression  of  Language 
the  alternating  active  and  lethargic  temperament  and  Racial 
of  the  race,  such  alternations  being  themselves  Characters: 
due  to  the  climatic  conditions  of  their  environment. '  "  Certainly 
the  life  of  the  great  nomadic  races  involves  a  twofold  experience 
of  this  kind,  as  they  must  during  their  abundant  summer  provide 
for  their  rigorous  winter,  when  little  can  be  done.  Their 
character,  too,  involves  a  striking  combination  of  intermittent 
indolence  and  energy  ;  and  it  is  very  remarkable  that  this  dis- 
tinction of  roots  is  peculiar  to  the  languages  spoken  originally 
where  this  great  distinction  of  seasons  exists.  The  fact  that 
the  distinction  [between  hard  and  soft]  is  imparted  to  all  the 
suffixes  of  a  root  proves  that  the  radical  characteristic  which  it 
expresses  is  thought  with  these  ;  and  consequently  that  the 
radical  idea  is  retained  in  the  consciousness  while  these  are 
added  to  it^" 

This  is  a  highly  characteristic  instance  of  the  methods 
followed  by  Dean  Byrne  in  his  ingenious  but  hopeless  attempt 
to  explain  the  subtle  structure  of  speech  by  the  still  more  subtle 
temperament  of  the  speaker,  taken  in  connection  with  the 
alternating  nature  of  the  climate.  The  feature  in  question 
cannot  be  due  to  such  alternation  of  mood  and  climate,  because 
it  is  persistent  throughout  all  seasons,  while  the  hard  and  soft 
elements  occur  simultaneously,  one  might  say,  promiscuously, 
in  conversation  under  all  mental  states  of  those  conversing. 

The  true  explanation  is  given  by  Schleicher,  who  points  out 
that  progressive  vocal  assimilation  is  the  necessary  result  of 
agglutination,  which  by  this  means  binds  together  the  idea  and 
its  relations  in  their  outward  expression,  just  as  they  are  already 

» 

1  De  P'Harmonie  des  Voyelles  dans  les  Langues  Uralo-Altaigues,  1874,  p.  67  sq. 

2  General  Principles  of  the  Structure  of  Language,  1885,  Vol.  I.  p.  357.  The 
evidence  here  chiefly  relied  upon  is  that  afforded  by  the  Yakutic,  a  pure  Turki 
idiom,  which  is  spoken  in  the  region  of  extremest  heat  and  cold  (Middle  and 
Lower  Lena  basin),  and  in  which  the  principle  of  progressive  assonance  attains  its 
greatest  development. 


284  Man  :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

inseparately  associated  in  the  mind  of  the  speaker.  Hence  it 
is  that  such  assonance  is  not  confined  to  the  Ural-Altaic 
group,  analogous  processes  occurring  at  certain  stages  of  their 
growth  in  all  forms  of  speech,  as  in  Wolof,  Zulu-Xosa,  Celtic 
(expressed  by  the  formula  of  Irish  grammarians:  "broad  to 
broad,  slender  to  slender"),  and  even  in  Latin,  as  in  such  vocalic 
concordance  as  :  annus,  perennis  ;  ars,  iners  ;  lego,  diligo.  In 
these  examples  the  root  vowel  is  influenced  by  that  of  the  prefix, 
while  in  the  Mongolo-Turki  family  the  root  vowel,  coming  first, 
is  unchangeable,  but,  as  explained,  influences  the  vowels  of  the 
postfixes,  the  phonetic  principle  being  the  same  in  both  systems. 

Both  Mongol  and  Manchu  are  cultivated  languages  employ- 
ing modified  forms  of  the  Uiguric  (Turki)  script,  which  is  based 
on  the  Syriac  introduced  by  the  Christian  (Nes- 
Manchu  Script,  dorian)  missionaries  .in  the  seventh  century.  It 
was  first  adopted  by  the  Mongols  about  1 280,  and 
perfected  by  the  scribe  Tsorji  Osir  under  Jenezek  Khan  (1307- 
1 3 1 1).  The  letters,  connected  together  by  continuous  strokes, 
and  slightly  modified,  as  in  Syriac,  according  to  their  position 
at  the  beginning,  middle,  or  end  of  the  word,  are  disposed  in 
vertical  columns  from  left  to  right,  an  arrangement  due  no 
doubt  to  Chinese  influence.  This  is  the  more  probable  since 
the  Manchus,  before  the  introduction  of  the  Mongol  system  in 
the  sixteenth  century,  employed  the  Chinese  characters  ever 
since  the  time  of  the  Kin  dynasty. 

None  of  the  other  Tungusic  or  north-east  Siberian  peoples 
possess  any  writing  system  except  the  Yukaghirs  of  the 
-T-u  -.r  1     u-       YasachnayaaffluentoftheKolymariver, whowere 

The  Yukaghirs.        ..,.-'_        ,         ,       t^         ■     ^  n         o    oi 

visited  in  1892  by  the  Russian  traveller,  b.  Shar- 
gorodsky.  From  his  report',  it  appears  that  this  symbolic 
writing  is  carved  with  a  sharp  knife  out  of  soft'  fresh  birch-bark, 
these  simple  materials  sufficing  to  describe  the  tracks  followed 
on  hunting  and  fishing  expeditions,  as  well  as  the  sentiments 
of  the  young  women  in  their  correspondence  with  their  sweet- 
hearts. Specimens  are  given  of  these  curious  documents,  some 
of  which  are  touching  and  even  pathetic.  "Thou  goest  hence, 
and  I  bide  alone,  for  thy  sake  still  to  weep  and  moan,"  writes 
one  disconsolate  maid  to  her  parting  lover.  Another  with  a 
touch  of  jealousy  :  "  Thou  goest  forth  thy  Russian  flame  to 
seek,  who  stands  'twixt  thee  and  me,  thy  heart  from  me  apart  to 
keep.     In  a  new  home  joy  wilt  thou  find,  while  I  must  ever 

'  Explained  and  illustrated  by  General  I<Irahmer  in  Globus,  1896,  p.  208  sq. 


viii]  The  Northern  Mongols  285 

grieve,  as  thee  I  bear  in  mind,  though  another  yet  there  be  who 
loveth  me."  Or  again  :  "  Each  youth  his  mate  doth  find  ;  my 
fate  alone  it  is  of  him  to  dream,  who  to  another  wedded  is,  and 
I  must  fain  contented  be,  if  only  he  forget  not  me."  And  with 
a  note  of  wail :  "  Thou  hast  gone  hence,  and  of  late  it  seems 
this  place  for  me  is  desolate ;  and  I  too  forth  must  fare,  that 
so  the  memories  old  I  may  forget,  and  from  the  pangs  thus  flee 
of  those  bright  days,  which  here  I  once  enjoyed  with  thee." 

Details  of  domestic  life  may  even  be  given,  and  one  accom- 
plished maiden  is  able  to  make  a  record  in  her  note-book  of  the 
combs,  shawls,  needles,  thimble,  cake  of  soap,  lollipops,  skeins 
of  wool,  and  other  sundries,  which  she  has  received  from  a 
Yakut  packman,  in  exchange  for  some  clothes  she  has  made 
him.  Without  illustrations  no  description  of  the  process  would 
be  intelligible.  Indeed  it  would  seem  these  primitive  docu- 
ments are  not  always  understood  by  the  young  folks  them- 
selves. They  gather  at  times  in  groups  to  watch  the  process 
of  composition  by  some  expert  damsel,  the  village  "  notary," 
and  much  merriment,  we  are  told,  is  caused  by  the  blunders  of 
those  who  fail  to  read  the  text  aright. 

It  is  not  stated  whether  the  system  is  current  amongst  the 
other  Yukaghir  tribes,  who  dwell  on  the  banks  of  the  Indigirka, 
Yana,  Kerkodona,  and  neighbouring  districts.  They  thus 
skirt  the  Frozen  Ocean  from  near  the  Lena  delta  to  and  beyond 
the  Kolyma,  and  are  conterminous  landwards  with  the  Yakuts 
on  the  south-west  and  the  Chukchi  on  the  north-east.  With 
the  Chukchi,  the  Koryaks,  the  Kamchadales,  and  the  Gilyaks 
they  form  a  separate  branch  of  the  Mongolic  division  some- 
times grouped  together  as  "  Hyperboreans,"  but  distinguished 
from  other  Ural-Altaic  peoples  perhaps  strictly  on  linguistic 
grounds.  Although  now  reduced  to  scarcely  1 500,  the  Yuka- 
ghirs  were  formerly  a  numerous  people,  and  the  popular  saying 
that  their  hearths  on  the  hanks  of  the  Kolyma  at  one  time 
outnumbered  the  stars  in  the  sky  seems  a  reminiscence  of  more 
prosperous  days.  IBut  great  inroads  have  been  made  by  epi- 
demics, tribal  wars,  the  excessive  use  of  coarse  Ukraine  tobacco 
and  of  bad  spirits,  indulged  in  even  by  the  women  and  children. 
"  A  Yukaghir,  it  is  said,  never  intoxicates  himself  alone,  but 
calls  upon  his  family  to  share  the  drink,  even  children  in 
arms  being  supplied  with  a  portion'."     Their  language,  which 

I  H.  Lansdell,  Through  Siberia,  1882,  i.  p.  299. 


286  Man  :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

A.  Schiefner  regards  as  radically  distinct  from  all  others',  is 
disappearing  even  more  rapidly  than  the  people  themselves, 
if  it  be  not  already  quite  extinct.  In  the  eighties  it  was  spoken 
only  by  about  a  dozen  old  persons,  its  place  being  taken  almost 
everywhere  by  the  Turki  dialect  of  the  Yakutsk 

There  appears  to  be  a  curious  interchange  of  tribal  names 
between  the  Chukchi  and  their  Koryak  neighbours,  the  term 
Koryak  being  the  Chukchi  Khorana,  "  Rein- 
Koryaks-*"'^  deer,"  while  the  Koryaks  are  said  to  call  them- 
selves Chauchau,  whence  some  derive  the  word 
Chukchi.  Hooper,  however,  tells  us  that  the  proper  form  of 
Chukchi  is  Tuski,  "  Brothers,"  or  "  Confederates',"  and  in  any 
case  the  point  is  of  little  consequence,  as  Dittmar  is  probably 
right  in  regarding  both  groups  as  closely  related,  and  sprung 
originally  from  one  stock^  Jointly  they  occupy  the  north-east 
extremity  of  the  continent  between  the  Kolyma  and  Bering 
Strait,  together  with  the  northern  parts  of  Kamchatka ;  the 
Chukchi  lying  to  the  north,  the  Koryaks  to  the  south,  mainly 
round  about  the  north-eastern  inlets  of  the  Sea  of  Okhotsk. 
Reasons  have  already  been  advanced  for  supposing  that  the 
Chukchi  were  a  Tungus  people  who  came  originally  from  the 
Amur  basin.  In  their  arctic  homes  they  appear  to  have  waged 
long  wars  with  the  Onkilon  (Ang-kali)  aborigines,  gradually 
merging  with  the  survivors  and  also  mingling  both  with  the 
Koryaks  and  Chuklukmiut  Eskimo  settled  on  the  Asiatic  side 
of  Bering  Strait. 

But  their  relations  to  all  these  peoples  are  involved  in  great 

obscurity,  and  while-  some  connect  them  with  the  Itelmes  of 

Chukchi  and      Kamchatka^  by  others  they  have  been  affiliated 

Eskimo  to  the  Eskimo,  owing  to  the  Eskimo  dialect  said 

Relations.         to  be  Spoken  by  them.     But  this  "dialect"  is  only 

a  trading  jargon,  a  sort  of  "  pidgin  Eskimo  "  current  all  round 

the  coast,  and  consisting  of  Chukchi,  Innuit,  Koryak,  English, 

1  "Ueber  die  Sprache  der  Jukagiren,"  in  Mdlanges:  Asiatiques,  1859,  in.  p. 

595  sq. 

'^  W.  I.  Jochelson  recently  discovered  two  independent  Yukaghir  dialects. 
"  Essay  on  the  Grammar  of  the  Yukaghir  Language,"  Annals  N.  Y.  Ac.  Sc.  1905  ; 
The  Yukaghir  and  the  Yukaghirized  Tungus.  Memoir  of  the  Jesup  North  Pacific 
Expedition,  Vol.  IX.  igio.  For  the  Koryak  see  his  monograph  in  the  same  series, 
Vol.  VI.  1905-8. 

5  Ten  Months  among  the  Tents  of  the  Tuski. 

■*  "Ueber  die  Koriaken  u.  ihnen  nahe  verwandten  Tchouktchen,"  in  Bui.  Acad. 
Sc,  St  Petersburg,  xil.  p.  99. 

?  Peschel,  liaces  of  Man,  p.  391,  who  says  the  Chukchi  are  "as  closely  related 
to  the  Itelmes  in  speech  as  are  Spaniards  to  Portuguese." 


viii]  The  Northern  Mongols  287 

and  even  Hawaii  elements,  mingled  together  in  varying  pro- 
portions. The  true  Chukchi  language,  of  which  Nordenskiold 
collected  1000  words,  is  quite  distinct  from  Eskimo,  and 
probably  akin  to  Koryak',  and  the  Swedish  explorer  aptly 
remarks  that  "  this  race,  settled  on  the  primeval  route  between 
the  Old  and  New  World,  bears  an  unmistakable  stamp  of  the 
Mongols  of  Asia  and  the  Eskimo  and  Indians  of  America." 
He  was  much  struck  by  the  great  resemblance  of  the  Chukchi 
weapons  and  household  utensils  to  those  of  the  Greenland 
Eskimo,  while  Signe  Rink  shows  that  even  popular  legends 
have  been  diffused  amongst  the  populations  on  both  sides  of 
Bering  Strait".  Such  common  elements,  however,  prove  little 
for  racial  affinity,  which  seems  excluded  by  the  extremely  round 
shape  of  the  Chukchi  sk.ull,  as  compared  with  the  long-headed 
Eskimo.  But  the  type  varies  considerably  both 
amongst  the  so-called  "  Fishing  Chukchi,"  who  J^a,*stLte. 
occupy  permanent  stations  along  the  seaboard, 
and  the  "  Reindeer  Chukchi,"  who  roam  the  inland  districts, 
shifting  their  camping-grounds  with  the  seasons.  There  are  no 
hereditary  chiefs,  and  little  deference  is  paid  to  the  authority 
even  of  the  owner  of  the  largest  reindeer  herds,  on  whom  the 
Russians  have  conferred  the  title  of  Jerema^  regarding  him  as 
the  head  of  the  Chukchi  nation,  and  holding  him  responsible 
for  the  good  conduct  of  his  rude  subjects.  Although  nominal 
Christians,  they  continue  to  sacrifice  animals  to  the  spirits  of 
the  rivers  and  mountains,  and  also  to  practise  Shamanist  rites. 
They  believe  in  an  after-life,  but  only  for  those  who  die  a 
violent  death.  Hence  the  resignation  and  even  alacrity  with 
which  the  hopelessly  infirm  and  the  aged  submit,  when  the  time 
comes,  to  be  dispatched  by  their  kinsfolk,  in  accordance  with 
the  tribal  custom  of  kamitok,  which  still  survives  in  full  vigour 
amongst  the  Chukchi,  as  amongst  the  Sumatran  Battas,  and 
may  be  traced  in  many  other  parts  of  the  world. 

"The  doomed  one,"  writes  Harry  de  Windt,  "takes  a  lively 
interest  in  the  proceedings,  and  often  assists  in  the  preparation 
for  his  own  death.  The  execution  is  always  preceded  by  a 
feast,  where  seal  and  walrus  meat  are  greedily  devoured,  and 
whisky  consumed  till  all  are  intoxicated.  A  spontaneous  burst 
of  singing  and  the  muffled  roll  of  walrus-hide  drums  then  herald 

1  Petermann's  Mitt.  Vol.  25,  1S79,  p.  138. 

2  "  The  Girl  and  the  Dogs,  an  Eskimo  Folk-tale,"  Amer.  Anthropologist.,  June 
1898,  p.  181  sq. 


288  Man  :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

the  fatal  moment.  At  a  given  signal  a  ring  is  formed  by  the 
relations  and  friends,  the  entire  settlement  looking  on  from  the 
background.  The  executioner  (usually  the  victim's  son  or 
brother)  then  steps  forward,  and  placing  his  right  foot  behind 
the  back  of  the  condemned,  slowly  strangles  him  to  death  with 
a  walrus-thong.  A  kamitok  took  place  during  the  latter  part 
of  our  stay\" 

This  custom  of  "voluntary  death"  is  sometimes  due  to 
sorrow  at  the  death  of  a  near  relative,  a  quarrel  at  home,  or 
merely  weariness  of  life,  and  Bogoras  thinks  that  the  custom 
of  killing  old  people  does  not  exist  as  such,  but  is  voluntarily 
chosen  in  preference  to  the  hard  life  of  an  invalid  ^ 

Most  recent  observers  have  come  to  look  upon  the  Chukchi 
and  Koryaks  as  essentially  one  and  the  same  people,  the  chief 
difference  being  that  the  latter  are  if  possible  even 
Kamc^daies.  rnof^  degraded  than  their  northern  neighbours'. 
Like  them  they  are  classed  as  sedentary  fisher- 
folk  or  nomad  reindeer-owners,  the  latter,  who  call  themselves 
Tumugulu,  "Wanderers,"  roaming  chiefly  between  Ghiyiginsk 
Bay  and  the  Anadyr  river.  Through  them  the  Chukchi  merge 
gradually  in  the  Itelmes,  who  are  better  known  as  Kamchadales, 
from  the  Kamchatka  river,  where  they  are  now  chiefly  concen- 
trated. Most  of  the  Itelmes  are  already  Russified  in  speech 
and — outwardly  at  least — in  religion  ;  but  they  still  secretly 
immolate  a  dog  now  and  then,  to  propitiate  the  malevolent 
beings  who  throw  obstacles  in  the  way  of  their  hunting  and 
fishing  expeditions.  Yet  their  very  existence  depends  on  their 
canine  associates,  who  are  of  a  stout,  almost  wolfish  breed, 
inured  to  hunger  and  hardships,  and  excellent  for  sledge 
work. 

Somewhat  distinct  both  from  all  these  Hyperboreans  and 

from  their  neighbours,  the   Orochons,  Golds,   Manegrs  and 

Th  Gil   ks       other  Tungus  peoples,  are  the  Gilyaks,  formerly 

^     ■      widespread,  but  now  confined  to  the  Amur  delta 

and  the  northern  parts  of  Sakhalin \     Some  observers  have 

1  Through  the  Gold  Fields  of  Alaska  to  Bering  Strait,  1898. 

^  Cf.  W.  Bogoras,  The  Chukchee,  Memoir  of  the  Jesup  North  Pacific  Expe-. 
dition.  Vol.  vn.  1904-10. 

^  This,  however,  applies  only  to  the  fishing  Koryaks,  for  G.  Kennan  speaks 
highly  of  the  domestic  virtues,  hospitality,  and  other  good  qualities  of  the  nomad 
groups  {Tent  Life  in  Siberia,  1871). 

*  See  L.  Sternberg,  The  Tribes  of  the  Amur  River,  Memoirs  of  the  Jesup 
North  Pacific  Expedition,  Vol.  iv.  1900. 


viii]  The  Northern  Mongols  289 

connected  them  with  the  Ainu  and  the  Korean  aborigines,  while 
A.  Anuchin  detects  two  types — a  Mongoloid  with  sparse  beard, 
high  cheek-bones,  and  flat  face,  and  a  Caucasic  with  bushy 
beard  and  more  regular  features\  The  latter  traits  have  been 
attributed  to  Russian  mixture,  but,  as  conjectured  by  H.  von 
Siebold,  are  more  probably  due  to  a  fundamental  connection 
with  their  Ainu  neighbours^ 

Mentally  the  Gilyaks  take  a  low  position^H.  Lansdell 
thought  the  lowest  of  any  people  he  had  met  in  Siberia*. 
Despite  the  zeal  of  the  Russian  missionaries,  and  the  induce- 
ments to  join  the  fold,  they  remain  obdurate  Shamanists,  and 
even  fatalists,  so  that  "if  one  falls  into  the  water  the  others 
will  not  help  him  out,  on  the  plea  that  they  would  thus  be 

opposing  a  higher  power,  who  wills  that  he  should  perish 

The  soul  of  the  Gilyak  is  supposed  to  pass  at  death  into  his 
favourite  dog,  which  is  accordingly  fed  with  choice  food  ;  and 
when  the  spirit  has  been  prayed  by  the  shamans  out  of  the  dog, 
the  animal  is  sacrificed  on  his  master's  grave.  The  soul  is  then 
represented  as  passing  underground,  lighted  and  guided  by  its 
own  sun  and  moon,  and  continuing  to  lead  there,  in  its  spiritual 
abode,  the  same  manner  of  life  and  pursuits  as  in  the  flesh\" 

A  speciality  of  the  Gilyaks,  as  well  as  of  their  Gold  neigh- 
bours, is  the  fish-skin  costume,  made  from  the  skins  of  two 
kinds  of  salmon,  and  from  this  all  these  aborigines  are  known 
to  the  Chinese  as  Yupitatse,  "Fish-skin-clad- People."  "They 
strip  it  off  with  great  dexterity,  and  by  beating  with  a  mallet 
remove  the  scales,  and  so  render  it  supple.  Clothes  thus  made 
are  waterproof.  I  saw  a  travelling-bag,  and  even  the  sail  of  a 
boat,  made  of  this  material'." 

Like  the  Ainu,  the  Gilyaks  may  be  called  bear-worshippers. 
At  least  this  animal  is  supposed  to  be  one  of  their  chief  gods, 
although  they  ensnare  him  in  winter,  keep  him  in  confinement, 
and  when  well  fattened  tear  him  to  pieces,  devouring  his 
mangled  remains  with  much  feasting  and  jubilation. 

Since  the  opening  up  of  Korea,  some  fresh  light  has  been 
thrown  upon  the  origins  and  ethnical  relations  of  its  present 
inhabitants.      In  his  monograph  on  the  Yellow  Races'  Hamy 

1  Mem.  Imp.  Soc.  Nat.  Sc.  xx.  Supplement,  Moscow,  1877. 

2  "Scheinen  grosse  Aenlichkeit  in  Sprache,  Gesichtsbildung  und  Sitten  mit 
den  Aino  zu  haben"  {Ueber  die  Aino,  Berlin,  1881,  p.  12). 

3  Through  Siberia,  1882,  11.  p.  227. 

*  Ibid.  p.  235.  '  Jbtd  p.  221. 

6  L Anthropologie,  vi.  No.  3. 

K.  ^9 


290  Mail :   Past  and  Present  [ch. 

had  included  them  in  the  Mongol  division,  but  not  without 

reserve,    adding   that   "  while   some   might  ,  be 

taken  for  Tibetans,  others  look  like  an  Oceanic 

cross  ;  hence  the  contradictory  reports  and  theories  of  modern 

travellers."     Since  then  the  study  of  some  skulls  forwarded  to 

Paris  has  enabled  him  to  clear  up  some  of  the  confusion,  which 

is  obviously  due  to  interminglings  of  different  elements  dating 

from  remote  (neolithic)  times.     On  the  data  supplied  by  these 

skulls  Hamy  classes  the  Koreans  in  three  groups: — i.  The 

natives  of  the  northern  provinces  (Ping-ngan-tao  and  Hien- 

king-tao),  strikingly  like  their  Mongol  [Tungus]  neighbours  ; 

2.    Those    of   the    southern    provinces    (Kling- 

Eleraents  chang-tao  and  Thsiusan-lo-tao),  descendants  of 

the  ancient  Chinhans  and   Pien-hans,   showing 

Japanese  affinities;  3.   Those  of  the  inner  provinces  (Hoang- 

hae-tao  and  Ching-tsing-tao),  who  present  a  transitional  form 

between  the  northerns  and  southerns,  both  in  their  physical 

type  and  geographical  position'. 

Caucasic  features — light  eyes,  large  nose,  hair  often  brown, 
full  beard,  fair  and  even  white  skin,  tall  stature — are  conspicuous, 
especially  amongst  the  upper  classes  and  many  of  the  southern 
Koreans^  They  are  thus  shown  to  be  a  mixed  race,  the 
Mongol  element  dominating  in  the  north,  as  might  be  expected, 
and  the  Caucasic  in  the  south. 

These  conclusions  seem  to  be  confirmed  by  what  is  known 
of  the  early  movements,  migrations,  and  displacements  of  the 
populations  in  north-east  Asia  about  the  dawn 
and  Records'"^  of  history.  In  these  vicissitudes  the  Koreans,  as 
they  are  now  called',  appear  to  have  first  taken 
part  in  the  twelfth  century  B.C.,  when  the  peninsula  was  already 
occupied,  as  it  still  is,  by  Mongols,  the  Sien-pi,  in  the  north, 

'  Bui.  du  Musium  d'Hist.  Nat.  1896,  No.  4.  All  the  skulls  were  brachy  or 
sub-brachy,  varying  from  81  to  83  "8  and  84'8.  The  author  remarks  generally  that 
"  photographes  et  cranes  different,  du  tout  au  tout,  des  choses  similaires  venues 
jusqu'k  present  de  Mongolie  et  de  Chine,  et  font  plut6t  penser  au  Japon,  k  For- 
mose,  et  d'une  manifere  plus  gdndrale  k  ce  vaste  ensemble  de  peuples  maritimes 
que  Lesson  ddsignait  jadis  sous  le  nora  de  'Mongols-pdlasgiens,'"  p.  3. 

2  On  this  juxtaposition  of  the  yellow  and  blond  types  in  Korea  V.  de  Saint- 
Martin's  language  is  highly  significative:  "Cette  duality  de  type,  un  type  tout  k 
fait  caucasique  k  c6td  du  type  mongol,  est  un  fait  commun  k  toute  la  ceinture  d'lles 
qui  couvre  les  c&tes  orientales  de  I'Asie,  depuis  les  Kouriles  jusqu'k  Formose,  et 
mSme  jusqu'k  la  zone  orientale  de  I'Indo-Chine"  {Art.  Corde,  p.  800). 

^  From  Korai,  in  Japanese  Kome  (Chinese  Kaolt),  name  of  a  petty  state,  which 
enjoyed  political  predominance  in  the  peninsula  'for  about  500  years  (tenth  to  four- 
teenth century  A.D.).  An  older  designation  still  in  official  use  is  Tsio-sien,  that  is,  the 
Chinese  Chao-sien,  "Bright  Dawn"  (Klaproth,  Asia  Polyglotta,  p.  334  sq.). 


viii]  The  Northern  Mo^igols  291 

and  in  the  south  by  several  branches  of  the  Hans  [San-San), 
of  whom  it  is  recorded  that  they  spoke  a  language  unintelligible 
to  the  Sien-pi,  and  resembled  the  Japanese  in  appearance, 
manners,  and  customs.  From  this  it  may  be  inferred  that  the 
Hans  were  the  true  aborigines,  probably  direct  descendants  of 
the  Caucasic  peoples  of  the  New  Stone  Age,  while  the  Sien- 
pi  were  Mongolic  (Tungusic)  intruders  from  the  present  Man- 
churia. For  some  time  these  Sien-pi  played  a  leading  part  in 
the  political  convulsions  prior  and  subsequent  to  the  erection 
of  the  Great  Wall  by  Shih  Hwang  Ti,  founder  of  the  Tsin 
dynasty  (221-209  b.c.)\  Soon  after  the  completion  of  this 
barrier,  the  Hiiing-nu,  no  longer  able  to  scour  the  fertile  plains 
of  the  Middle  Kingdom,  turned  their  arms  against  the  neigh- 
bouring Yud-chi,  whom  they  drove  westwards  to  the  Sungarian 
valleys.  Here  they  were  soon  displaced  by  the  Usuns  {Wu- 
sun),  a  fair,  blue-eyed  people  of  unknown  .origin,  who  have 
been  called  "Aryans,"  and  even  "Teutons,"  and  whom  Ch.  de 
Ujfalvy  identifies  with  the  tall  long-headed  western  blonds  (de 
Lapouge's  Homo  Europaeus),  mixed  with  brown  round-headed 
hordes  of  white  complexion  ^  Accepting  this  view,  we  may  go 
further,  and  identify  the  Usuns,  as  well  as  the  other  white 
peoples  of  the  early  Chinese  records,  with  the  already  described 
Central  Asiatic  Caucasians  of  the  Stone  Ages,  whose  osseous 
remains  we  now  possess,  and  who  come  to  the  surface  in  the 
very  first  Chinese  documents  dealing- with  the  turbulent  popu- 
lations beyond  the  Great  Wall.  The  white  element,  with  all 
the  correlated  characters,  existed  beyond  all  question,  for  it  is 
continuously  referred  to  in  those  documents.  How -is  its 
presence  in  East  Central  Asia,  including  Manchuria  and  Korea, 

'  This  stupendous  work,  on  which  about  1,000,000  hands  are  said  to  have  been 
engaged  for  five  years,  possesses  great  ethnical  as  well  as  political  importance. 
Running  for  over  1500  miles  across  hills,  valleys,  and  rivers  along  the  northern 
frontier  of  China  proper,  it  long  arrested  the  southern  movements  of  the  restless 
Mongolo-Turki  hordes,  and  thus  gave  a  westerly  direction  to  their  incursions 
many  centuries  before  the  great  invasions  of  Jenghiz-Khan  and  his  successors.  It 
is  strange  to  reflect  that  the  ethnological  relations  were  thus  profoundly  disturbed 
throughout  the  eastern  hemisphere  by  the  work  of  a  ruthless  despot  who  reigned 
only  twelve  years,  and  in  that  time  waged  war  against  all  the  best  traditions  of  the 
empire,  destroying  the  books  of  Confucius  and  the  other  sages,  and  burying  alive 
460  men  of  letters  for  their  efforts  to  rescue  those  writings  from  total  extinction. 

2  Les  Aryens  au  Nord  et  au  Sud  de  PHindou-Kouch,  1896,  p.  25.  This  writer 
does  not  think  that  the  Usuns  should  be  identified  with  the  tall  race  of  horse-like 
face,  large  nose,  and  deep-set  eyes  mentioned  in  the  early  Chinese  records,  be- 
cause no  reference  is  made  to  "blue  eyes,"  which  would  not  have  been  omitted 
had  they  existed.  But,  if  I  remember,  "  green  eyes  "  are  spoken  of,  and  we  know 
that  none  of  the  early  writers  use  colour  terms  with  strict  accuracy. 

19 — -2 


292  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

to  be  explained  ?     Only  on  two  assumptions— /ro^o-^w^rzlc 
migrations  from  the  Far  West,  barred  by  the  proto-historic 
migrations  from  the  Far  East,  as  largely  determined  by  the 
erection  of  the  Great  Wall ;  or  pre-historic  (neolithic)  migra- 
tions, also  from  the  Far  West,  but  barred  by  no  serious  obstacle, 
because  antecedent  to  the  arrival  of  the  proto-Mongolic  tribes 
from  the  Tibetan  plateau.     The  true  solution  of  the  endless 
ethnical  complications  in  the  extreme  East,  as  in  the  Oceanic 
world,  will  still  be  found  in  the  now-demonstrated  presence  of 
a  Caucasic  element  antecedent  to  the  Mongol  in  those  regions. 
When  the  Hiung-nu'  power  was  weakened  by  their  westerly 
migrations  to  Sungaria  and  south-west  Siberia  (Upper  Irtysh 
and  Lake  Balkash  depression),  and  broken  into  two  sections 
during  their  wars  with  the  two   Han   dynasties    (201    b.c- 
220  A.D.),  the  Korean  Sien-pi  became  the  dominant  nation  north 
of  the  Great  Wall.     After  destroying  the  last  vestiges  of  the 
unstable  Hiung-nu  empire,  and  driving  the  Mongolo-Turki 
hordes  still  westwards,  the  Yuan-yuans,  most  powerful  of  all 
the  Sien-pi  tribes,  remained  masters  of  East  Central  Asia  for 
about  400  years  and  then  disappeared  from  history  ^     At  least 
after  the  sixth  century  a.d.  no  further  mention  is  made  of  the 
Sien-pi  principalities  either  in  Manchuria  or  in  Korea.      Here, 
however,  they  appear  still  to  form  a  dominant  element  in  the 
northern     (Mongol)    provinces,     calling    themselves    Ghirin 
(Khirin),  from  the  Khirin  (Sungari)  valley  of  the  Amur,  where 
they  once  held  sway. 

'  I  have  not  thought  it  desirable  to  touch  on  the  interminable  controversy 
respecting  the  ethnical  relations  of  the  Hiung-nu,  regarding  them,  not  as  a  distinct 
ethnical  group,  but  like  the  Huns,  their  later  virestern  representatives,  as  a  hetero- 
geneous collection  of  Mongol,  Tungus,  Turki,  and  perhaps  even  Finnish  hordes 
under  a  Mongol  military  caste.  At  the  same  time  I  have  little  doubt  that  Mon- 
golo-Tungus  elements  greatly  predominated  in  the  eastern  regions  (Mongolia 
proper,'  Manchuria)  both  amongst  the  Hiung-nu  and  their  Yuan-yuan  (Sien-pi) 
successors,  and  that  all  the  founders  of  the  first  great  empires  prior  to  that  of  the 
Turki  Assena  in  the  Altai  region  (sixth  century  a.d.)  were  full-blood  Mongols,  as 
indeed  recognised  by  Jenghiz-Khan  himself  For  the  migrations  of  these  and 
neighbouring  peoples,  consult  A.  C.  Haddon,  The  Wanderings  of  Peoples,  191 1, 
pp.  16  and  28. 

2  On  the  authority  of  the  Wei-Shu  documents  contained  in  the  Wei-Chi, 
E.  H.  Parker  gives  (in  the  China  Review  and  A  Thousand  Years  of  the  Tartars, 
Shanghai,  1895)  the  dates  386-556  a.d.  as  the  period  covered  by  the  "Sien-pi 
Tartar  dynasty  of  Wei."  This  is  not  to  be  confused  with  the  Chinese  dynasty  of 
Wei  (224-264,  or  according  to  Kwong  Ki-Chiu  234-274  A.D.).  The  term  "Tartar" 
(Ta-Ta),  it  may  be  explained,  is  used  by  Parker,  as  well  as  by  the  Chinese 
historians  generally,  in  a  somewhat  wide  sense,  so  as  to  include  all  the  nomad 
populations  north  of  the  Great  Wall,  whether  of  Tungus  (Manchu),  Mongol,  or 
even  Turki  stock.  The  original  tribes  bearing  the  name  were  Mongols,  and 
Jenghiz-Khan  himself  was  a  Tata  on  his  mother's  side. 


viii]  The  Northern  Mongols  293 

Since  those  days  Korea  has  been  alternately  a  vassal  State 
and  a  province  of  the  Middle  Kingdom,  with  interludes  of 
Japanese  ascendancy,  interrupted  only  by  the  four  centuries  of 
Korai  ascendancy  (934-1368).  This  was  the  most  brilliant 
epoch  in  the  national  records,  when  Korea  was  rather  the  ally 
than  the  vassal  of  China,  and  when  trade,  industry,  and  the  arts, 
especially  porcelain  and  bronze  work,  flourished  in  the  land. 
But  by  centuries  of  subsequent  misrule,  a  people  endowed  with 
excellent  natural  qualities  have  been  reduced  to  the  lowest  state 
of  degradation.  Before  the  reforms  introduced  by  the  political 
events  of  1895-96,  "the  country  was  eaten  up  by  officialism. 
It  is  not  only  that  abuses  without  number  prevailed,  but  the 
whole  system  of  government  was  an  abuse,  a  sea  of  corruption, 
without  a  bottom  or  a  shore,  an  engine  of  robbery,  crushing 
the  life  out  of  all  industry^"  But  an  improvement  was  speedily 
remarked.  "The  air  of  the  men  has  undergone  a  subtle  and 
real  change,  and  the  women,  though  they  nominally  keep  up 
their  habits  by  seclusion,  have  lost  the  hang-dog  air  which  dis- 
tinguished them  at  home.  The  alacrity  of  movement  is  a 
change  also,  and  has  replaced  the  conceited  swing  of  the  yang- 
ban  [nobles]  and  the  heartless  lounge  of  the  peasant."  This 
improvement  was  merely  temporary.  The  last  years  of  the  cen- 
tury were  marked  by  the  waning  of  Japanese  influence,  due 
to  Russian  intrigues,  the  restoration  of  absolute  monarchy 
together  with  its  worst  abuses,  the  abandonment  of  reforms 
and  a  retrograde  movement  throughout  the  kingdom.  The 
successes  of  Japan  in  1904-5  resulted  in  the  restoration  of  her 
ascendancy,  culminating  in  19 10  in  the  cession  of  sovereignty 
by  the  emperor  of  Korea  to  the  emperor  of  Japan. 

The  religious  sentiment  is  perhaps  less  developed  than 
among  any  other  Asiatic  people.  Buddhism,  introduced  about 
380A.D.,  never  took  root,  and  while  the  literati  axe.  . 

satisfied  with  the  moral  precepts  of  Confucius,  the 
rest  have  not  progressed  beyond  the  nature-worship  which 
was  the  ancient  religion  of  the  land.  Every  mountain,  pass, 
ford  or  even  eddy  of  a  river  has  a  spirit  to  whom  offerings 
are  made.  Honour  is  also  paid  to  ancestors,  both  royal  and 
domestic,  at  their  temples  or  altars,  and  chapels  are  built  and 
dedicated  to  men  who  have  specially  distinguished  themselves 
in  loyalty,  virtue  or  lofty  teaching. 

Philologists  now  recognise  some  affinity  between  the  Korean 

'  Mrs  Bishop,  Korea  and  Her  Neighbours,  1898. 


294  Man:   Past  and  Present  [ch, 

and  Japanese  languages,  both  of  which  appear  to  be  remotely 
connected  with  the '  Ural-Altaic  family.  The 
Scrip^"'^^^  Koreans  possess  a  true  alphabet  of  28  letters, 
which,  however,  is  not  a  local  invention,  as  is 
sometimes  asserted.  It  appears  to  have  been  introduced  by 
the  Buddhist  monks  about  or  before  the  tenth,  century,  and  to 
be  based  oh  some  cursive  form  of  the  Indian  (Devanagari) 
system^  although  scarcely  any  resemblance  can  now  be  traced 
between  the  two  alphabets.  This  script  is  little  used  except 
by  the  lower  classes  and  the  women,  the  literati  preferring  to 
write  either  in  Chinese,  or  else  in  the  so-called  nido,  that  is,  an 
adaptation  of  the  Chinese  symbols  to  the  phonetic  expression 
of  the  Korean  syllables.  The  nido  is  exactly  analogous  to  the 
Japanese  Katakana  script,  in  which  modified  forms  of  Chinese 
ideographs  are  used  phonetically  to"  express  47  syllables  (the 
so-called  /-ro-_/a  syllabary),  raised  to  73  by  the  nigori2L.v^d.  maru 
diacritical  marks. 

The  present  population  of  Japan,  according  to  E.  Baelz, 
shows  the  following  types.  The  first  and  most  important  is  the 
Manchu-Korean  type,  characteristic  of  North 
China  and  Korea,  and  most  frequent  among  the 
upper  classes  in  Japan.  The  stature  is  conspicuously  tall,  the 
effect  being  heightened  by  slender  and  elegant  figure.  The 
face  is  long,  with  more  or  less  oblique  eyes  but  no  marked 
prominence  of  the  cheek-bones.  The  nose  is  aquiline,  the  chin 
slightly  receding.  With  this  type  is  associated  a  narrow  chest, 
giving  an  air  of  elegance  rather  than  of  muscularity,  an  effect 
which  is  enhanced  by  the  extremely  delicate  hands  with  long 
slender  fingers.  The  second  type  is  the  Mongol,  and  presents 
a  distinct  contrast,  with  strong  and  squarely  built  figure,  broad 
face,  prominent  cheek-bones,  oblique  eyes,  flat  nose  and  wide 
mouth.  This  type  is  not  common  in  the  Japanese  Islands. 
The  third  type,  more  conspicuous  than  either  of  the  preceding, 
is  the  "Malay.  The  stature  is  small,  with  well-knit  frame,  and 
broad,  well-developed  chest.  The  face  is  generally  round,  the 
nose  short,  jaws  and  chin  frequently  projecting.  None  of  these 
three  types  represents  the  aboriginal  race  of  Japan,  for  there 
seems  to  be  no  doubt  that  the  Ainu,  who  now  survive  in  parts 

^  T.  de  Lacouperie  says  on  "  a  Tibeto-Indian  base  "  {Beginnings  of  Writing 
in  Central  and  Eastern  Asia,  1894,  p.  148);  and  E.  H.  Parker:  "It. is  demon- 
strable that  the  Korean  letters  are  an  adaptation  from  the  Sanskrit,"  i.e.  the 
Devanagari  {Academy,  Dec.  21,  1895,  p.  550). 


viii]  The  Northern  Mongols  295 

of  the  northern  island  of  Yezo,  occupied  a  greater  area  in  earlier 
times  and  to  them  the  prehistoric  shell-mounds  and  other 
remains  are  usually  attributed'.  The  Ainu  are  thickly  and 
strongly  built,  but  differ  from  all  other  Oriental  types  in  the 
hairiness  of  face  and  body.  The  head  is  long,  with  a  cephalic 
index  of  77-8.  Face  and  nose  are  broad,  and  the  eyes  are  hori 
zontal,  not  oblique,  lacking  the  Mongolian  fold. 

It  is  generally  assumed  that  this  population  represents  the 
easterly  migration  of  that  long-headed  type  which  can  be  traced 
across  the  continents  of  Europe  and  Asia  in  the  origins- 
Stone  Age,  and  that  their '  entrance  into  the  Constituent 
islands  was  effected  at  a  time  when  the  channel  Elements, 
separating  them  from  the  mainland  was  neither  so  wide  nor  so 
deep  as  at  the  present  time.  Later  Manchu- Korean  invaders 
from  the  West,  Mongols  from  the  South,  and  Malays  from  the 
East  pressed  the  aborigines  further  and  further  north,  to  Yezo, 
Sakhalin  and  the  Kuriles.  But  it  is  possible  that  the  Ainu 
were  not  the  earliest  inhabitants  of  Japan,  for  they  themselves 
bear  witness  to  predecessors,  the  Koro-pok-guru,  mentioned 
above  (p.  260).  Neither  is  the  assumption  of  kinship  between 
the  Ainu  and  prehistoric  populations  of  Western  Europe 
accepted  without  demur.  Deniker,  while  acknowledging  the 
resemblance  to  certain  European  types,  classes  the  Ainu  as  a 
separate  race,  the  •Palaeasiatics.  For  while  in  head-length, 
prominent  superciliary  ridges,  hairiness  and  the  form  of  the  nose 
they  may  be  compared  to  Russians,  Todas,  and  Australians, 
their  skin  colour,  prominent  cheek-bones,  and  other  somatic 
features  make  any  close  affinity  impossible^   • 

In  spiteof  thesevarious  ingredients  the  Japanese  peoplemay 
be  regarded  as  fairly  homogeneous.  Apart  from  some  tall  and 
robust  persons  amongst  the  upper  classes,  and 
athletes,  acrobats,  and  wrestlers,  the  general  im- 
pression that  the  Japanese  are  a  short  finely  moulded  race  is  fully 
borne  out  by  the  now  regularly  recorded  military  measurements 
of  recruits,  showing  for  height  an  average  of  I  "5  8  5  m.  (5  ft.  2|^in.) 
to  I  "639  m.  (5  ft.  4^  in.),  for  chest  33  in.,  and  disproportionately 
short  legs.  Other  distinctive  characters,  all  tending  to  stamp 
a  certain  individuality  on  the  people,  taken  as  a  whole  and 

1  See  p.  261.     Also  Koganei,  "Ueber  die  Urbewohner  von  ]a.psin,"  Miii.  d. 
Deutsch.  Gesell.  f.  Natur-  u.  Volkerkunde  Ostasiens,  ix.  3,  1903,  containing  an  ' 
exhaustive  review  of  recent  literature,  and  N.  G.  Munro,  Prehistoric  Japan,  191 2. 

2  J.  Deniker,  Races  of  Man,  1900,  pp.  371-2.    See  also  J.  Batchelor,  The  Ainu 
0/ Japan,  1892,  and  the  article  "Ainus"  in  Ency.  0/ Religion  and  Ethics,  1908. 


296  Man:   Past  and  Present  [ch. 

irrespective  of  local  peculiarities,  are  a  flat  forehead,  great 
distance  between  the  eyebrows,  a  very  small  nose  with  raised 
nostrils,  no  glabella,  no  perceptible  nasal  root^ ;  an  active,  wiry 
figure;  the  exposed  skin  less  yellow  than  the  Chinese,  and  rather 
inclining  to  a  light  fawn,  but  the  covered  parts  very  light,  some 
say  even  white ;  the  eyes  also  less  oblique,  and  all  other  charac- 
teristically Mongol  features  generally  softened,  except  the  black 
lank  hair,  which  in  transverse  section  is  perhaps  even  rounder 
than  that  of  most  other  Mongol  peoples". 

With  this  it  will  be  instructive  to  compare  F.  H.  H.  Guille- 
mard's  graphic  account  of  the  Liu-Kiu  islanders,  whose  Koreo- 
Japanese  affinities  are  now  placed  beyond  all  doubt :  "  They 
are  a  short  race,  probably  even  shorter  than  the  Japanese,  but 
much  better  proportioned,  being  without  the  long  bodies  and 
short  legs  of  thfe  latter  people,  and  having  as  a  rule  extremely 
well-developed  chests.  The  colour  of  the  skin  varies  of  course 
with  the  social  position  of  the  individual.  Those  who  work  in 
the  fields,  clad  only  in  a  waist-cloth,  are  nearly  as  dark  as  a 
Malay,  but  the  upper  classes  are  much  fairer,  and  are  at  the 
same  time  devoid  of  any  of  the  yellow  tint  of  the  Chinaman. 
To  the  latter  race  indeed  they  cannot  be  said  to  bear  any  re- 
semblance, and  though  the  type  is  much  closer  to  the  Japanese, 

it  is  nevertheless  very  distinct In  Liu-Kiu  the  Japanese  and 

natives  were  easily  recognised  by  us  from  the  first,  and  must 
Japanese  and  therefore  be  possessed  of  very  considerable  dififer- 
Liu-Kiu  ences.    The  Liu-Kiuan  has  theface less  flattened, 

Islanders.  £]-,g  gygg  g^j-g  more  deeply  set,  and  the  nose  more 

prominent  at  its  origin.  The  forehead  is  high  and  the  cheek- 
bones somewhat  less  marked  than  in  the  Japanese ;  the  eye- 
brows are  arched  and  thick,  and  the  eyelashes  long.  The 
expression  Is  gentle  and  pleasing,  though  somewhat  sad,  and 
is  apparently  a  true  index  of  their  character'." 

This  description  is  not  accepted  without  some  reserve  by 
Chamberlain,  who  in  fact  holds  that  "the  physical  type  of  the 
Luchuans  resembles  that  of  the  Japanese  almost  to  identity*." 
In  explanation  however  of  the  singularly  mild,  inoffensive,  and 
"  even  timid  disposition "  of  the  Liu-Kiuans,  this  observer 
suggests  "the  probable  absence  of  any  admixture  of  Malay 

'  G.  Baudens,  Bui.  Soc.  Geogr.  X.  p.  419. 

2  See  especially  E.  Baelz,  "  Die  korperlichen  Eigenschaften  der  Japaner,"  in 
Mitt,  der  Deutsch.  Gesell.J.  Natur-  u.  Volkerkunde  Ostasiens,  28  and  32.  • 
^  Cruise  of  the  Marchesa,  1886,  I.  p.  36. 
'  Geogr.  Journ.  1895,  11.  p.  318. 


viii]  The  Northern  Mongols  297 

blood  in  the  race\"    But  everybody  admits  a  Malay  element 
in  Japan.     It  would  therefore  appear  that  Guillemard  must  be» 
right,  and  that,  as  even  shown  by  all  good  photographs,  dififer- 
ences  do  exist,  due  in  fact  to  the  presence  of  this  very  Malay 
^  straiif  in  the  Japanese  race. 

Elsewhere'  Chamberlain  has  given  us  a  scholarly  account 
of  the  Liu-Kiu  language,  which  is  not  merely  a  "  sister,"  as  he 
says,  but  obviously  an  elder  sister,  more  archaic 
in  structure  and  partly  in  its  phonetics,  than  the  Jn'^j  ReSf*^ 
oldest  known  form  of  Japanese.  In  the  verb,  for 
instance,  Japanese  retains  only  one  past  tense  of  the  indicative, 
with  but  one  grammatical  form,  whereas  Liu-Kiuan  preserves 
the  three  original  past  tenses,  each  of  which  possesses  a  five- 
fold inflection.  All  these  racial,  linguistic,  and  even  mental 
resemblances,  such  as  the  fundamental  similarity  of  many  of 
their  customs  and  ways  of  thought,  he  would  explain  with  much 
probability  by  the  routes  followed  by  the  first  emigrants  from 
the  mainland.  While  the  great  bulk  spread  east  and  north 
over  the  great  archipelago,  everywhere  "driving  the  aborigines 
before  them,"  a  smaller  stream  may  have  trended  southward 
to  the  little  southern  group,  whose  islets  stretch  like  stepping- 
stones  the  whole  way  from  Japan  to  Great  Liu-Kiul 

Amongst  the  common  mental  traits,  mention  is  made  of  the 
Shinto  religion,  "the  simplest  and  most  rustic  form"  of  which 
still  survives  in  Liu-Kiu.     Here,  as  in  Japan,  it 
was  originally  a  rude  system  of  nature-worship,       oead"^*^ 
the  normal  development  of  which  was  arrested 
by  Chinese  and  Buddhist  influences.    Later  it  became  associated 
with  spirit-worship,  the  spirits  being  at  first  the  souls  of  the 
■  dead,  and  although  there  is  at  present  no  cult  of  the  dead,  in  the 
strict  sense  of  the  expression,  the  Liu-Kiu  islanders  probably 
pay  more  respect  to  the  departed  than  any  other  people  in  the 
world. 

In  Japan,  Shintoism,  as  reformed  in  recent  times,  has  be- 
come much  more  a  political  institution  than  a  religious  system. 
The  Kami-no-michi,  that  is,  the  Japanese  form 
of  the  Chinese  Shin-to,  "way  of  the  Gods,"  or 
"  spirits,"  is  not  merely  the  national  faith,  but  is  inseparably 
bound  up  with  the  interests  of  the  reigning  dynasty,  holding 
the  Mikado  to  be  the  direct  descendant  of  the  Sun-goddess 

'  Geogr.  Journ.  1895,  11.  p.  460. 

2  Journ.  Anthrop.  Soc.  1897,  p.  47  sq.  '  Ibid.  p.  58. 


298  Man :   Past  and  Present  [ch. 

Hence  its  three  cardinal  precepts  now  are  : — i.  Honour  the 
iCami  (spirits),  of  whom  the  emperor  is  the  chief  representative 
on  earth  ;  2.  Revere  him  as  thy  sovereign  ;  3.  Obey  the  will 
of  his  Court,  and  that  is  the  whole,  duty  of  man.  There  is 
no  moral  code,  and  loyal  expositors  have  declared  that  the 
Mikado's  will  is  the  only  test  of  right  and  wrong. 

But  apart  from  this  political  exegesis,  Shintoism  in  its  higher 
form  may  be  called  a  cultured  deism,  in  its  lower  a  "  blind 
obedience  to  governmental  and  priestly  dictates  \"  There  are 
dim  notions  about  a  supreme  creator,  immortality,  and  even 
rewards  and  penalties  in  the  after-life.  Some  also  talk  vaguely, 
as  a  pantheist  might,  of  a  sublime  being  or  essence  pervading 
all  nature,  too  vast  and  ethereal  to  be  personified  or  addressed 
in  prayer,  identified  with  ih^tenka,  "heavens,"  from  which  all 
things  emanate,  to  which  all  return.  Yet,  although  a  personal 
deity  seems  thus  excluded,  there  are  Shinto  temples,  apparently 
for  the  worship  of  the  heavenly  bodies  and  powers  of  nature, 
conceived  as  self-existing  personalities — the  so-called  Kami, 
"spirits,"  "gods,"  of  which  there  are  "eight  millions,"  that  is, 
they  are  countless. 

One  cannot  but  suspect  that  some  of  these  notions  have 

been  grafted  on  the  old  national  faith  by  Buddhism,  which 

T,  j,j,^-  was  introduced  about  sSoa.d.  and  for  a  time  had 

Buddhism.  t  i  •   u      i_ 

great  vogue.  It  was  encouraged  especially  by 
the  Shoguns,  or  military  usurpers  of  the  Mikado's^  functions, 
obviously  as  a  set-off  against  the  Shinto  theocracy.  During 
their  tenure  of  power  (i  192-1868  a.d.)  the  land  was  covered^ 
with  Buddhist  shrines  and  temples,  some  of  vast  size  and  quaint 
design,  filled  with  hideous  idols,  huge  bells,  and  colossal  statues 
of  Buddha. 

But  with  the  fall  of  the  Shogun  the  little  prestige  still  en- 
joyed by  Buddhism  came  to  an  end,  and  the  temples,  spoiled 
of  their  treasures,  have  more  than  ever  become  the  resort  of 
pleasure-seekers  rather  than  of  pious  worshippers.  "To  all 
the  larger  temples  are  attached  regular  spectacles,  playhouses, 
panoramas,  besides  lotteries,  games  of  various  sorts,  including 
the  famous  'fan-throwing,'  and  shooting-galleries,  where  the 
bow  and  arrow  and  the  blow-pipe  take  the  place  of  the  rifle. 

'  Ripley  and  Dana,  Amer.  Cyc.  ix.  538. 

^  Shogun  from  5A£?=general,  and  ^«^>«  =  army,  hence  Commander-in-chief; 
Mikado  ham  »22  =  sublime,  and  kado—%z.\.e.,  with  which  cf.  the  "Sublime  Porte" 
(J.  J.  Rein,  Japan  nach  Reisen  u.  Studien,  1881, 1,  p.  245).  But  Mikado  has  become 
somewhat  antiquated,  being  now  generally  replaced  by  the  title  Kotei,  "  Emperor." 


vni]  The  Northern  Mongols  299 

The  accumulated  treasures  of  the  priests  have  been  confiscated, 
the  monks  driven  from  their  monasteries,  and  many  of  these 
buildings  converted  into  profane  uses.  Countless  temple  bells 
have  already  found  their  way  to  America,  or  have  been  sold 
for  old  metal  \" 

Besides  these  forms  of  belief,  there  is  a  third  religious, -or 
rather  philosophic  system,  the  so-called  Siza,  based  on  the 
ethical  teachings  of  Confucius,  a  sort  of  refined  materialism, 
such  as  underlies  the  whole  religious  thought  of  the  nation. 
Siza,  always  confined  to  the  literati,  has  in  recent  years  found 
a  formidable  rival  in  the  "  English  Philosophy,"  represented 
by  such  writers  as  Buckle,  Mill,  Herbert  Spencer,  Darwin,  and 
Huxley,  most  of  whose  works  have  already  been  translated 
into  Japanese. 

Thus  this  highly  gifted  people  are  being  assimilated  to  the 
western  world  in  their  social  and  religious,  as  well  as  their 
political  institutions.  Their  intellectual  powers,  already  tested 
in  the  fields  of  war,  science,  diplomacy,  and  self-government, 
are  certainly  superior  to  those  of  all  other  Asiatic  peoples,  and 
this  is  perhaps  the  best  guarantee  for  the  stability  of  the  stu- 
pendous transformation  that  a  single  generation  has  witnessed 
from  an  exaggerated  form  of  medieval  feudalism  to  a  political 
and  social  system  in  harmony  with  the  most  advanced  phases 
of  modern  thought.  The  system  has  doubtless  not  yet  pene- 
trated to  the  lower  strata,  especially  amongst  the  rural  popula- 
tions. But  their  natural  receptivity,  combined  with  a  singular 
freedom  from  "  insular  prejudice,"  must  ensure  the  ultimate 
acceptance  of  the  new  order  by  all  classes  of  the  community. 

^  Keane's  Asia,  I.  p.  487. 


CHAPTER   IX 

THE   NORTHERN    MONGOLS   (continued) 

The  Finno-Turki  Peoples — Assimilation  to  the  Caucasic  Type — Turki  Cradle — • 
Ural-Altaian  Invasions — The  Scythians-^Parthians  and  Turkomans — Massa- 
getae  and  Yue-chi — Indo-Scythians  and  Graeco-Baktrians — Dahae,  Jit,  and 
Rdjput  Origins — The  "  White'  Huns  " — The  Uigurs — Orkhon  Inscriptions — 
The  Assena  Turki  Dynasty — Toghuz-Uigur  Empire — Kashgarizin  and  Sun- 
garian  Populations — The  Oghuz  Turks  and  their  Migrations — Seljuks  and 
Osmanli — The  Yakuts — The  Kirghiz — Kazdk  and  Kossack — The  Kara- 
Kirghiz — The  Finnish  Peoples — Former  and  Present  Domain — Late  West- 
ward Spread  of  the  Finns — The  Bronze  and  Iron  Ages  in  the  Finnish  Lands — 
The  Baltic  Finns — Relations  to  Goths,  Letts,  and  Slavs — Finno-Russ  Origins 
— Tavastian  and  Karelian  Finns — The  Kwaens^The  Lapps— Samoyeds  and 
Permian  Finns — Lapp  Origins  and  Migrations — Temperament — Religion — 
The  Volga  Finns — The  Votyak  Pagans — Human  Sacrifices — The  Bulgars — 
Origins  and  Migrations — An  Ethnical  Transformation — Great  and.  Little 
Bulgaria — Avars  and  Magyars — Magyar  Origins  and  early  Records — Present 
Position  of  the  Magyars — Ethnical  and  Linguistic  Relations  in  Eastern 
Europe. 

In  a  very  broad  way  all  the  western  branches  of  the  North 
Mongol  division  may  be  comprised  under  the  collective  desig- 
nation of  Finno-Turki  Mongols.  Jointly  they 
Turki  Peoples  constitute  a  well-marked  section  of  the  family, 
being  distinguished  from  the  eastern  section  by 
several  features  which  they  have  in  common,  and  the  most 
important  of  which  is  unquestionably  a  much  larger  infusion 
of  Caucasic  blood  than  is  seen  in  any  of  the  Mongolo-Tungusic 
groups.  So  pronounced  is  this  feature  amongst  many  Finnish 
as  well  as  Turkish  peoples,  that  some  anthropologists  have  felt 
inclined  to  deny  any  direct  connection  between  the  eastern 
and  western  divisions  of  Mongolian  man  and  to  regard  the 
Baltic  Finns,  for  instance,  rather  as  "  Allophylian  White§ " 
than  as  original  members  of  the  yellow  race.  Prichard,  to 
Assimilation  to  whom  we  owe  this  now  nearly  obsolete  term 
the  Caucasic  "  Allophylian,"  held  this  view',  and  even  Sayce 
^yP^"  is  "more  than  doubtful  whether  we  can  class  the 

Mongols  physiologically  with  the  Turkish-Tatars  [the  Turki 
peoples],  or  the  Ugro-Finnsl" 

'  Natural  History  of  Man,  1865  ed.  pp.  185-6. 
2  Science  of  Language,  1879,  II.  p.  190. 


CH.  ix]  The  Northern  Mongols  301 

It  may,  Indeed,  be  allowed  that  at  present  the  great  majority 
of  the  Finno-Turki  populations  occupy  a  position  amongst  the 
varieties  of  mankind  which  is  extremely  perplexing  for  the 
strict  systematist.  When  the  whole  division  is  brought  under 
survey,  every  shade  of  transition  is  observed  between  the 
Siberian  Samoyeds  of  the  Finnic  branch  and  the  steppe  Kirghiz 
of  the  Turki  branch  on  the  one  hand,  both  of  whom  show 
Mongol  characters  in  an  exaggerated  form,  and  on  the  other 
the  Osmanli  Turks  and  Hungarian  Magyars,  most  of  whom 
may  be  regarded  as  typical  Caucasians.  Moreover,  the  diffi- 
culty is  increased  by  the  fact,  already  pointed  out,  that  these 
mixed  Mongolo-Caucasic  characters  occur  not  only  amongst 
the  late  historic  groups,  but  also  amongst  the  earliest  known 
groups — "  Chudes,"  Usuns,  Uigurs  and  others — who  may  be 
called  Proto- Finnish  and  Proto- Turki  peoples.  But  precisely 
herein  lies  the  solution  of  the  problem.  Most  of  the  region 
now  held  by  Turki  and  Finnish  nations  was  originally  occupied 
by  long-headed  Caucasic  men  of  the  late  Stone  Ages  (see 
above).  Then  followed  the  Proto- Mongol  intruders  from  the 
Tibetan  table-land,  who  partly  submerged,  partly  intermingled 
with  their  neolithic  neighbours,  many  thus  acquiring  those 
mixed  characters  by  which  they  have  been  distinguished  from 
the  earliest  historic  times.  Later,  further  interminglings  took 
place  according  as  the  Finno-Turki  hordes,  leaving  their  original 
seats  in  the  Altai  and  surrounding  regions,  advanced  westwards 
and  came  more  and  more  into  contact  with  the  European 
populations  of  Caucasic  type., 

We  may  therefore  conclude  that  the  majority  of  the  Finno- 
Turki  were  almost  from  the  first  a  somewhat  mixed  race,  and 
that  during  historic  times  the  original  Mongol  element  has 
gradually  yielded  to  the  Caucasic  in  the  direction  from  east  to 
west.  Such  is  the  picture  now  presented  by  these  heterogeneous 
populations,  who  in  their  primeval  eastern  seats  are  still  mostly 
typical  Mongols,  but  have  been  more  and  more  assimilated  to 
the  European  type  in  their  new  Anatolian,  Baltic,  Danubian, 
and  Balkan  homes. 

Observant  travellers  have  often  been  impressed  by  this 
progressive  conformity  of  the  Mongolo-Turki  to  Europeans. 
During  his  westward  journey  through  Central  Asia  Young- 
husband,  on  passing  from  Mongolia  to  Eastern  Turkestan, 
found  that  the  people,  though  tall  and  fine-looking,  had  at 
first  more  of  the  Mongol  cast  of  feature  than  he  had  expected. 


302  Man:   Past  and  Present  [ch. 

"  Their  faces,  however,  though  somewhat  round,  were  slightly 
more  elongated  than  the  Mongol,  and  there  was  considerably 
more  intelligence  about  them.  But  there  was  more  roundness, 
less  intelligence,  less  sharpness  in  the  outlines*  than  is  seen  in 
the  inhabitants  of  Kashgar  and  Yarkand."  Then  he  adds: 
"As  I  proceeded  westwards  I  noticed  a  gradual,  scarcely  per- 
ceptible, change  from  the  round  of  a  Mongolian  type  to  a 

sharper  and  yet  more  sharp  type  of  feature As  we  get  farther 

away  from  Mongolia,  we  notice  that  the  faces  become  gradually 
longer  and  narrower ;  and  farther  west  still,  among  -some  of 
the  inhabitants  of  Afghan  Turkestan,  we  see  that  the  Tartar 
or  Mongol  type  of  feature  is  almost  entirely  lost\"  To  com- 
plete the  picture  it  need  only  be  added  that  still  further  west, 
in  Asia  Minor,  the  Balkan  Peninsula,  Hungary,  and  Finland, 
the  Mongol  features  are  often  entirely  lost.  "  The  Turks  of 
the  west  have  so  much  Aryan  and  Semitic  blood  in  them, 
that  the  last  vestiges  of  their  original  physical  characters  have 
been  lost,  and  their  language  alone  indicates  their  previous 
desc6ntl" 

Before  they  were  broken  up  and  dispersed  over  half 
the  northern. hemisphere  by  Mongol  pressure  from  the  east, 
T  w  r  rfi  ^^^  primitive  Turki  tribes  dwelt,  according  to 
Howorth,  mainly  between  the  Ulugh-dagh  moun- 
tains and  the  Orkhon  river  in  Mongolia,  that  is,  along  the 
southern  slopes  and  spurs  of  the  Altai-Sayan  system  from  the 
head  waters  of  the  Irtysh  to  the  valleys  draining  north  to  Lake 
Baikal.  But  the  Turki  cradle  is. shifted  farther  east  by  Richt- 
hofen,  who  thinks  that  their  true  home  lay  between  the  Amur, 
the  Lena,  and  the  Selenga,  where  at  one  time  they  had  their 
camping-grounds  in  close  proximity  to  their  Mongol  and 
Tungus  kinsmen.  There  is  nothing  to  show  that  the  Yakuts, 
who  are  admittedly  of  Turki  stock,  ever  migrated  to  their 
present  northern  homes  in  the  Lena  basin,  which  has  more 
probably  always  been  their  native  land  I 

But  when  they  come  within  the  horizon  of  history  the  Turki 
are  already  a  numerous  nation,  with  a  north-western  and  south- 

'   The  Heart  of  a  Continent,  1896,  p.  118. 

-  O.  Peschel,  Races  of  Man,  1894,  p.  380. 

2  See  Ch.  de  Ujfalvy,  Les  Aryens,  etc.,  1896,  p.  25.  Reference  should  perhaps 
be  also  made  to  E.  H.  Parker's  theory  {Academy,  Dec.  21,  1895)  ^'^^  ^^  Turki 
cradle  lay,  not  in  the  Altai  or  Altun-dagh  ("  Golden  Mountains  ")  of  North-  Mon- 
golia, but  1000  miles  farther  south  in  the  "  Golden  Mountains  "  {Kin-shan)  of  the 
present  Chinese  province  of  Kansu.  But  the  evidence  relied  on  is  not  satis- 
factory, and  indeed  in  one  or  two  important  instances  is  not  evidence  at  all. 


ix]  The  Northern  Mongols  303 

eastern  division \  which  may  well  have  jointly  occupied  the 
whole  region  from  the  Irtysh  to  the  Lena,  and  both  views  may 
thus  be  reconciled.  In  any  case  the  Turki  domain  lay^west  of 
the  Mongol,  and  the  Altai  uplands,  taken  in  the  widest  sense, 
may  still  be  regarded  as  the  most  probable  zone  of  specialisation 
for  the  Turki  physical  type.  The  typical  characteristics  are  a 
yellowish  white  complexion,  a  high  brachycephalic  head,  often 
almost  cuboid,  due  to  parieto-occipital  flattening  (especially 
noticeable  among  the  Yakuts),  an  elongated  oval  face,  with 
straight,  somewhat  prominent  nose,  and  non- Mongolian  eyes. 
The  stature  is  moderate,  with  an  average  of  r675m.  (5  ft. 
6  in.),  and  a  tendency  to  stoutness. 

Intermediate  between  the  typical  Turki  and  the  Mongols 
Hamy  places  the  Uzbegs,  Kirghiz,  Bashkirs,  and  Nogais;  and 
between  the  Turks  and  Finns  those  extremely  mixed  groups 
of  East  Russia  commonly  but  wrongly  called  "  Tartars,"  as 
well  as  other  transitions  between  Turk,  Slav,  Greek,  Arab, 
Osmanli  of  Constantinople,  Kurugli  of  Algeria  and  others, 
whose  study  shows  the  extreme  difficulty  of  accurately  deter- 
mining the  limits  of  the  Yellow  and  the  White  races  ^ 

Analogous  difficulties  recur  in  the  study  of  the  Northern 
(Siberian)  groups — Samoyeds,  Ostyaks,  Voguls  and  other 
Ugrians — who  present  great  individual  variations,  leading 
almost  without  a  break  from  the  Mongol  to  the  Lapp,  from  the 
Lapp  to  the  Finn,  from  Finn  to  Slav  and  Teuton.  Thus  may 
be  shown  a  series  of  observations  continuous  between  the  most 
typical  Mongol,  and  those  aberrant  Mongolo-Caucasic  groups 
which  answer  to  Prichard's  "  Allophylian  races."  Thus  also  is 
confirmed  by  a  study  of  details  the  above  broad  generalisation 
in  which  I  have  endeavoured  to  determine  the  relation  of  the 
Finno-Turki  peoples  to  the  primary  Mongol  and  Caucasic 
divisions. 

Feisker's  description  of  the  Scythian  invasions  of  Irania* 
may  be  taken  as  typical  of  the  whole  area,  and  explains  the 
complexity  of  the  ethnological  problems.     The 
steppes  and  deserts  of  Central  Asia  are  an  im-      invasions.^ 
passable  barrier  for  the  South  Asiatics,  the  Aryans, 
but  not  for  the  North  Asiatic,  the  Altaian ;  for  him  they  are 
an  open  country,  providing  him  with  the  indispensable  winter 

^  ].'?,.  "Qmy,  English  Historical  Rev.,  ]\x\^,i%()T. 

2  L' Anthropologic,  vi.  No.  3. 

3  T.  Peisker,  "  The  Asiatic  Background,"  Cambridge  Medieval  History,  Vol.  i. 

i9iiiP-3S4- 


304  Man :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

pastures.     On  the  other  hand,  for  the  South  Asiatic  Aryan 
these  deserts  are  an  object  of  terror,  and  besides  he  is  not 
impelled  towards  them  as  he  has  winter  pastures  near  at  hand. 
It  is  this  difference  in  the  distance  of  summer  and  winter  pas- 
tures that  makes  the  North  Asiatic  Altaian  an  ever-wandering 
herdsman,  and  the  grazing  part  of  the  Indo-European  race 
cattle-rearers  settled  in  limited  districts.    Thus,  while  the  native 
Iranian  must  halt  before  the  trackless  region  of  steppes  and 
deserts  and  cannot  follow  the  well-mounted   robber-nomad 
thither,   Iran  itself  is  the  object  of  greatest  longing  to  the 
nomadic  Altaian.     Here  he  can  plunder  and  enslave  to  his 
heart's  delight,  and  if  he  succeeds  in  maintaining  himself  for  a 
considerable  time  among  the  Aryans,  he  learns  the  language 
of  the  subjugated  people  and,  by  mingling  with  them,  loses  his 
Mongol  characteristics  more  and  more.     If  the  Iranian  is  now 
fortunate  enough  to  shake  off  the  yoke,  the  dispossessed  iranised 
Altaian  intruder  inflicts  himself  upon  other  lands.    So  it  was 
with  the  Scythians.     Leaving  their  families  behind  in  the  South 
Russian  steppes,  the  Scythia"ns  invaded  Media  c.  B.C.  630,  and 
advanced   into   Mesopotamia  as  far  as   Egypt, 
cytnians.    j^  Media  they  took  Median  wives  and  learned  the 
Median  language.     After  being  driven  out  by  Cyaxares,  on 
their  return,  some  28  years  later,  they  met  with  a  new  genera- 
tion, the  offspring  of  the  wives  and  daughters  whom  they  had 
left  behind,  and  slaves  of  an  alien  race.     A  hundred  and  fifty 
years  later  Hippocrates  remarked  their  yellowish  red  com- 
plexion, corpulence,  smooth  skins,  and  their  consequent  eunuch- 
like appearance — all  typically  Mongol  characteristics.     Hippo- 
crates was  the  most  celebrated  physician  and  natural  philosopher 
of  the  ancient  world.     His  evidence  is  unshakeable  and  cannot 
be  invalidated  by  the  Aryan  speech  of  the  Scythians.     Their 
Mongol  type  was  innate  in  them,  whereas  their  Iranian  speech 
was  acquired  and  is  no  refutation  of  Hippocrates'  testimony. 
On  the  later  Greek  vases  from  South  Russian  excavations  they 
already  appear  strongly  demongolised  and  the  Altaian  is  only 
suggested  by  their  hair,  which  is '  as  stiff  as  a  horse's  mane — 
hence  Aristotle's  epithet  eu^urpixes — the  characteristic  that  sur- 
vives longest  among  all  Ural- Altaian  hybrid  peoples. 

E.  H.  Parker  unfortunately  lent  the  weight  of  his  authority 
to  the  statement  that  the  word  "Tiirko"  [Turki]  "goes  no  " 
farther  back  than  the  fifth  century  of  our  era,"  and  that  "so  far 
as  recorded  history  is  concerned  the  name  of  Turk  dates  from 


i-"^]  The  Northern  Mongols  305 

this  time\"  But  Turki  tribes  bearing  this  national  name  had 
penetrated  into  East  Europe  hundreds  of  years  before  that  time, 
and  were  already  seated  on  the  Tanais  (Don)  about  the  new 
era.  They  are  mentioned  by  name  both  by  Pomponius  Mela' 
and  by  Pliny",  and  to  the  same  connection  belonged,  beyond 
all  doubt,  the  warlike  Parthians,  who  300  years 
earlier  were  already  seated  on  the  confines  of  I  ran  J^^Jmans""* 
and  Turan,  routed  the  legions  of  Crassus  and 
Antony,  and  for  five  centuries  (250  B.C.-229  a.d.)  usurped 
the  throne  of  the  "  King  of  Kings/'  holding  sway  from  the 
Euphrates  to  the  Ganges,  and  from  the  Caspian  to  the  Indian 
Ocean.  Direct  descendants  of  the  Parthians  are  the  fierce 
Turkoman  nomads,  who  for  ages  terrorised  over  all  the  settled 
populations  encircling  the  Aralo-Caspian  depression.  Their 
power  has  at  last  been  broken  by  the  Russians,  but  they  are 
still  politically  dominant  in  Persia*.  They  have  thus  been  for 
many  ages  in  the  closest  contact  with  Caucasic  Iranians,  with 
the  result  that  the  present  Turkoman  type  is  shown  by 
J.  L.  Yavorsky's  observations  to  be  extremely  variable". 

Both  the  Parthians  and  the  Massagetae  have  been  identified 
with  the  Yud-chi,  who  figured  so  largely  in  the  annals  of  the 
Han  dynasties,  and  are  above  mentioned  as 
having  been  driven  west  to  Sungaria  by  the  YiSchF**^  *"** 
Hiung-nu  after  the  erection  of  the  Great  Wall. 
It  has  been  said  that,  could  we  follow  the  peregrinations  of  the 
Yu6-chi  bands  from  their  early  seats  at  the  foot  of  the  Kinghan 
mountains  to  their  disappearance  amid  the  snowsof  the  Western 
Himalayas,   we  should  hold   the  key  to  the  solution  of  the 

1  Academy,  Dec.  21,  1895,  p.  548. 

-  "Budini  Gelonion  urbem  ligneam  habitant;  juxta  Thyssagetae  Turcaeque 
vastas  silvas  occupant,  alunturque  venando"  (l.  19,  p.  27  of  Leipzig'  ed.  1880). 

^  "  Dein  Tanain  amnem  gemino  ore  influentem  incolunt  Sarmatae.-.Tindari, 
Thussagetae,  Tyrcae,  usque  ad  solitudines  saltuosis  convallibus  asperas,  etc."  (Bk. 
VIII.  7,  Vol.  I.  p.  234  of  Berlin  ed.  1886).  The  variants  Turcae  and  Tyrcae  are 
noteworthy,  as  indicating  the  same  vacillating  sound  of  the  root  vowel  {ti  and 
y=u)  tltat  still  persists. 

*  Not  only  was  the  usurper  Nadir  Shah  a  Turkoman  of  the  Afshir  tribe  but 
the  present  reigning  family  belongs  to  the  rival  clan  of  Qajar  Turkomans  long 
settled  in  Khorasan,  the  home  of  their  Parthian  forefathers. 

*  Of  59  Turkomans  the  hair  was  generally  a  dark  brown ;  the  eyes  brown  (45) 
and  light  grey  (14) ;  face  orthognatl^ous  (52)  and  prognathous  (7) ;  eyes  mostly  not 
obhque;  cephalic  index  68-69  to  8176,  mean  75'64;  dolicho  28,  sub-dolicho  18, 
9  mejati,  4  sub-brachy.  Five  skulls  from  an  old  graveyard  at  Samarkand  were 
also  very  heterogeneous,  cephalic  index  ranging  from  7772  to  94'93.  This  last, 
unless  deformed,  exceeds  in  brachycephaly  "le  c61^bre  crS.ne  d'iin  Slave  vende 
qu'on  cite  dans  les  manuels  d'anthropologie  "  (Th.  Volkov,  V Anthropologic,  1897, 
PP-  355-7)- 

K.  20 


3o6  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

obscure  problems  associated  with  the  migrations  of  the  Mon- 
golo-Turki  hordes  since  the  torrent  of  invasion  was  diverted 
westwards  by  Shih  Hwang  Ti's  mighty  barrier.  One  point, 
however,  seems  clear  enough,  that  the  Yu^-chi  were  a  different 
people  both  from  the  Parthians  who  had  already  occupied 
Hyrcania  (Khorasan)  at  least  in  the  third  century  B.C.,  if  not 
earlier,  and  from  the  Massagetac.  For  the  latter  were  seated 
on  the  Yaxartes  (Sir-darya)  in  the  time  of  Cyrus  (sixth  century 
B.C.),  whereas  the  Yu^-chi  still  dwelt  east  of  Lake  Lob  (Tarim 
basin)  in  the  third  century.  After  their  defeat  by  the  Hiung-nu 
and  the  Usuns  (201  and  165  b.c),  they  withdrew  to  Sogdiana 
(Transoxiana),  reduced  the  Ta-Hiaoi  Baktria,  and  in  126  B.C. 
Indo-Scythians  Overthrew  the  Graeco-Baktrian  kingdom,  which 
and  Graeco-  had  been  founded  after  the  death  of  Alexander  to- 
Baktnans.  wards  the  close  of  the  fourth  century.    But  in  the 

Kabul  valley,  south  of  the  Hindu-Kush,  the  Greeks  still  held 
their  ground  for  over  100  years,  until  Kadphises  L,  king  of  the 
Kushans — a  branch  of  the  Yu^-chi — after  uniting  the  whole 
nation  in  a  single  Indo-Scythian  sta,te,  extended  his  conquests 
to  Kabul  and  succeeded  Hermaeus,  last  of  the  Greek  dynasty 
(40-20  B.C..'').  Kadphises'  son  Kadaphes  (10  a.d.)  added  to 
his  empire  a  great  part  of  North  India,  where  his  successors 
of  the  Yu6-chi  dynasty  reigned  from  the  middle  of  the  first  to 
the  end  of  the  fourth  century  a.d.     Here  they^are  supposed  by 

some  authorities  to  be  still  represented  by  the 
SS  Origins!^  /^^-^  ^"^  R<^jputs,  and  even  Prichard  allows  that 

the  supposition  "does  not  appear  altogether  pre- 
posterous," although  "  the  physical  characters  of  the  Jats  are 
very  different  from  those  attributed  to  the  Yuetschi  [Yu^-chi] 
and  the  kindred  tribes  [Suns,  Kushans,  etc.]  by  the  writers 
cited  by  Klaproth  and  Abel  Remusat,  who  say  that  they  are 
of  sanguine  complexion  with  blue  eyes\" 

We  now  know  that  these  characters  present  little  difficulty 
when  the  composite  origin  of  the  Turki  people  is  borne  in  mind. 
On  the  other  hand  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  above- 
mentioned  Ta-Hia  have  by  some  been  identified  with  the  warlike 
Scythian  Dahae^  and  these  with  the  Dehiya  or  Dh^,  one  of 

'  Quoted  by  W.  Crooke,  who  points  out  that  "the  opinion  of  the  best  Indian 
authorities  seems  to  be  gradually  turning  to  the  belief  that  the  connection  between 
Jdts  and  Rijputs  is  more  intimate  than  was  formerly  supposed"  {The  Tribes  and 
Castes  of  the  North- Western  Provinces  and  Oudh,  Calcutta,  1896,  ill.  p.  27). 

2  Virgil's  "indomiti  Dahae"  {Aen.  Vlll.  728):  possibly  the  Dehavites  (Dievi)  of 
Ezra  iv.  9. 


ix]  The  Northern  Mongols  307 

the  great  divisions  of  the  Indian  Jats.  But  if  Rawlinson'  is  right, 
the  term  Dahae  was  not  racial  but  social,  meaning  rustici, — the 
peasantry  as  opposed  to  the  nomads  ;  hence  the  Dahae  are 
heard  of  everywhere  throughout  Irania,  just  as  Dehwar^  is  still 
the  common  designation  of  the  Tajik  (Persian)  peasantry  in 
Afghanistan  and  Baluchistan.  This  is  also  the  view  taken  by 
de  Ujfalvy,  who  identifies  the  Ta-Hia,  not  with  the  Scythian 
Dahae,  or  with  any  other  particular  tribe,  but  with  the  peaceful 
rural  population  of  Baktriana^  whose  reduction  by  the  Yud-chi, 
possibly  Strabo's  Tokhari,  was  followed  by  the  overthrow  of 
the  Graeco-Baktrians.  The  solution  of  the  puzzling  Yu^-chi- 
Jat  problem  would  therefore  seem  to  be  that  the  Dehiya  and 
other  Jdts,  always  an  agricultural  people,  are  descended  from 
the  old  Iranian  peasantry  of  Baktriana,  some  of  whom  followed 
the  fortunes  of  their  Greek  rulers  into  Kabul  valley,  while  others 
accompanied  the  conquering  Yue-chi  founders  of  the  Indo- 
Scythian  empire  into  northern  India. 

Then  followed  the  overthrow  of  the  Yue-chi  themselves  by 
the  Yd-tha  ( Ye-tha-i-li-to)  of  the  Chinese  records,  that  is,  the 
Ephthalites,  or  so-called  "White  Huns,"  of  the  Greek  and  Arab 
writers,  who  about  425  a.d.  overran  Transoxiana, 
and  soon  afterwards  penetrated  through  the  moun-  Huns'.'^'*^ 
tain  passes  into  the  Kabul  and  Indus  valleys. 
Although  confused  by  some  contemporary  writers  (Zosimus, 
Am.  Marcellinus)  with  Attila's  Huns,  M.  Drouin  has  made  it 
clear  that  the  Y^-tha  were  not  Huns  (Mongols)  at  all,  but,  like 
the  Yu^-chi,  a  Turki  people,  whoivere  driven  westwards  about 
the  same  time  as  the  Hiung-nu  by  the  Yuan-yuans  (see  above). 
Of  Hun  they  had  little  but  the  name,  and  the  more  accurate 
Procopius  was  aware  that  they  differed  entirely  from  "the 
Huns  known  to  us,  not  being  nomads,  but  settled  for  a  long 
time  in  a  fertile  region."  He  speaks  also  of  their  white  colour 
and  regular  features,  and  their  sedentary  life*  as  in  the  Chinese 
accounts,  where  they  are  described  as  warlike  conquerors  of 
twenty  kingdoms,  as  far  as  that  of  the  A-si  (Arsacides,  Par- 
thians),  and  in  their  customs  resembling  the  Tu-Kiu  (Turks), 
being  in  fact  "of  the  same  race."  On  the  ruins  of  the  Indo- 
Scythian  (Yud-chi)  empire,  the  White  Huns  ruled  in   India 

'  Herodotus,  Vol.  I.  p.  413. 

^  From  Pers.  »J,  dih,  dah,  village  (Parsi  dahi). 

^  Les  Aryens,  etc.,  p.  68  sq. 

*  De  Bello  Persico,  passim. 


3o8  Man  :   Past  and  Present  [ch. 

and  the  surrounding  lands  from  425  to  the  middle  of  the  sixth 
century.  A  little  later  came  the  Arabs,  who  in  706  captured 
Samarkand,  and  under  the  Abassides  were  supreme  in  Central 
Asia  till  scattered  to  the  winds  by  the  Oghuz  Turki  hordes. 

From  all  this  it  has  been  suggested  that — while  the  Baktrian 
peasants  entered  India  as  settlers,  and  are  now  represented  by 
the  agricultural  Jats — the  Yu^-chi  and  Yd-tha,  both  of  fair 
Turki  stock,  came  as  conquerors,  and  are  now  represented  by 
the  Rajputs,  "  Sons  of  Kings,"  the  warrior  and  land-owning 
race  of  northern  India.  It  is  significant  that  these  Thdkur, 
"feudal  lords,"  mostly  trace  their  genealogies  from  about  the  be- 
ginning of  the  seventh  century,  as  if  they  had  become  Hinduized 
soon  after  the  fall  of  the  foreign  Ye-tha  dynasty,  while  on  the 
other  hand  "  the  country  legends  abound  with  instances  of  the 
conflict  between  the  Rajput  and  the  Brihman  in  prehistoric 
times'."  This  supports  the  conjecture  that  the  Rdjputs  entered 
India,  not  as  "Aryans"  of  the  Kshatriya  or  military  caste,  as 
is  commonly  assumed,  but  as  aliens  (Turki),  the  avowed  foes 
of  the  true  Aryans,  that  is,  the  BrAhman  or  theocratic  (priestly) 
caste.  Thus  also  is  explained  the  intimate  association  of  the 
Rajputs  and  the  Jats  from  the  first — the  Rdjputs  being  the 
Turki  leaders  of  the  invasions  ;  and  the  Jdts  their  peaceful 
Baktrian  subjects  following  in  their  wake. 

The  theory  that  the  haughty  Rijputs  are  of  unsullied 
"  Aryan  blood  "  is  scarcely  any  longer  held  even  by  the  Rajputs 
themselves ;  they  are  undoubtedly  of  mixed  origin.  But  the 
definite  physical  type  which  4^-  H.  Risley^  describes  as  charac- 
teristic of  Rajputs  and  Jits  in  the  Kashmir  Valley,  Punjab 
and  Rajputana,  shows  them  to  be  wavy-haired  dark-skinned 
dolichocephals,  linked  rather  with  the  "  Caucasic  "  than  the 
"  Mongolian  "  division. 

Nearly  related  to  the  White  Huns  were  the  Uigurs,  the 
Kao-che  of  the  Chinese  annals,  who  may  claim  to  be  the  first 
_.    ,,.  Turki  nation  that  founded  a  relatively  civilised 

The  Uigurs.  „  •      /->  i    \    ■  n    r  i  ^        ■. 

btate  m  Central  Asia.  Before  the  general  com- 
motion caused  by  the  westward  pressure  of  the  Hiung-nu,  they 
appear  to  have  dwelt  in  eastern  Turkestan  (Kashgaria)  between 
the  Usuns  and  the  Sacae,  and  here  they  had  already  made 
considerable  progress  under  Buddhist  influences  about  the 
fourth  or  fifth  century  of  the  new  era.     Later,  the  Buddhist 

^  Crooke,  op.  cit.  IV.  p.  221. 

^  The  Tribes  and  Castes  of  Bengal,  1892;  The  People  of  India,  1908. 


ix]  The  Northern  Mongols  309 

missionaries  from  Tibet  were  replaced  by  Christian  (Nestorian) 
evangelists  from  western  Asia,  who  in  the  seventh  century 
reduced  the  Uigur  language  to  written  form,  adapting  for  the 
purpose  the  Syriac  alphabet,  which  was  afterwards  borrowed 
by  the  Mongols  and  the  Manchus. 

This  Syriac  script — which,  as  shown  by  the  authentic  in- 
scription of  Si-ngan-fu,  was  introduced  into  China  in  635  a.d. 
— is  not  to  be  confused  with  that  of  the  Orkhon  inscriptions' 
dating  from  732  a.d.,  and  bearing  a  certain  resemblance  to 
some  of.  the  Runic  characters,  as  also  to  the  Korean,  at  least  in 
form,  but  never  in  sound.    Yet  although  differing 
from  the  Uiguric,  Prof.  Thomsen,  who  has  sue-   Scr?ptions" 
cessfully  deciphered  the  Orkhon  text,  thinks  that 
this  script  may  also  be  derived,  at  least  indirectly  through  some 
of  the  Iranian  varieties,  from  the  same  Aramean  (Syriac)  form 
of  the  Semitic  alphabet  that  gave  birth  to  the  Uiguric^ 

It  is  more  important  to  note  that  all  the  non-Chinese  in- 
scriptions are  in  the  Turki  language,  while  the  Chinese  text 
refers  by  name  to  the  father,  the  grandfather,  and  the  great- 
grandfather of  the  reigning  Khan  Bilga,  which  takes  us  back 
nearly  to  the  time  when  Sinjibu  (Dizabul),  Great  Khan  of  the 
Altai  Turks,  was  visited  by  the  Byzantine  envoy,  Zimarchus, 
in  569  A.D.  In  the  still  extant  report  of  this  embassy^  the  Turks 
(TovpKoi)  are  mentioned  by  name,  and  are  described  as  nomads 
who  dwelt  in  tents  mounted  on  wagons,  burnt  the  dead,  and 
raised  to  their  memory  monuments;  statues,  and  cairns  with 
as  many  stones  as  the  foes  slain  by  the  deceased  in  battle.  1 1 
is  also  stated  that  they  had  a  peculiar  writing  system,  which 
must  have  been  that  of  these  Orkhon  inscriptions,  the  Uiguric 
having  apparently  been  introduced  somewhat  later. 

1  Discovered  in  1889  by  N.  M.  Yadrintseff  in  the  Orkhon  valley,  which  drains 
to  the  Selenga  affluent  of  Lake  Baikal.  The  inscriptions,  one  in  Chinese  and 
three  in  Turki,  cover  the  four  sides  of  a  monument  erected  by  a  Chinese  emperor 
to  the  memory  of  Kyul-teghin,  brother  of  the  then  reigning  Turki  Khan  Bilga 
(Mogilan).  In  the  same  historical  district,  where  stand  the  ruins  of  Karakoram — 
long  the  centre  of  Turki  and  later  of  Mongol  power^ — other  inscribed  monuments 
have  also  been  found,  all  apparently  in  the  same  Turki  language  and  sctipt,  but 
quite  distinct  from  the  glyptic  rock  carvings  of  the  Upper  Yenisei  river,  Siberia. 
The  chief  workers  in  this  field  were  the  Finnish  archaeologists,  J.  R.  Aspelin, 
A.  Snellman  and  Axel  O.  Heikel,  the  results  of  whose  labours  are  collected  in  the 
Inscriptions  de  I'Jdnissdi  recueillies  et publUes par  la  SocMi  Finlandaise  d'Archio- 
logie,  Helsingfors,  1889;  and  Inscriptions  de  lOrkhon,  etc.,  Helsingfors,  1892. 

'^  "  La  source  d'ou  est  tir6e  I'origine  de  I'alphabet  turc,  sinon  imm6diatement, 
du  moins  par  interm^diaire,  c'est  la  forme  de  I'alphabet  s^mitique  qu'on  appelle 
aramdenne"  {Inscriptions  de  V Orkhon  dichiffries,  Helsingfors,  1894). 

3  See  Klaproth,  Tableau  Historique  de  I'Asie,  p.  116  sq. 


3IO  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

Originally  the  Uigurs  comprised  nineteen  clans,  which  at 
a  remote  period  already  formed  two  great  sections : — the  On- 
Uigur  ("Ten  Uigurs")  in  the  south,  and  the  Toghuz-Uigur 
("Nine  Uigurs")  in  the  north.  The  former  had  penetrated 
westwards  to  the  Aral  Sea'  as  early  as  the  second  century  a.d., 
and  many  of  them  undoubtedly  took  part  in  Attila's  invasion 
of  Europe. 

Later,  all  these  Western  Uigurs,  mentioned  amongst  the 
hordes  that  harassed  the  Eastern  Empire  in  the  fifth  and  sixth 
centuries,  in  association  especially  with  the  Turki  Avars,  dis- 
appear from  history,  being  merged  in  the  Ugrian  and  other 
Finnish  peoples  of  the  Volga  basin.  The  Toghuz  section  also, 
after  throwing  off  the  yoke  of  the  Mongol  or  Tungus  Geugen 

(Jeu-Jen)  in  the  fifth  century,  were  for  a  time  sub- 
Turki  Dynasty     merged  in  the  vast  empire  of  the  Altai  Turks, 

founded  in  552  byTumenof  the  House  of  Assena 
(A-shi-na),  who  was  the  first  to  assume  the  title  of  Kha-Khan, 
"Great  Khan,"  and  whose  dynasty  ruled  over  the  united  Turki 
and  Mongol  peoples  from  the  Pacific  to  the  Caspian,  and  from 
the  Frozen  Ocean  to  the  confines  of  China  and  Tibet.  Both  the 
above-mentioned  Sinjibu,  who  received  the  Byzantine  envoy, 
and  the  Bilga  Khan  of  the  Orkhon  stele,  belonged  to  this 
dynasty,  which  was  replaced  in  774  by  Pei-lo  (Huei-hu),  chief 
of  the  Toghuz- Uigurs.  This  is  how  we  are  to  understand  the 
statement  that  all  the  Turki  peoples  who  during  the  somewhat 
unstable  rule  of  the  Assena  dynasty  from  552  to  ']YA  had 
undergone  many  vicissitudes,  and  about  580  were  even  broken 
into  two  great  sections  (Eastern  Turks  of  the  Karakoram  region 
and  Western  Turks  of  the  Tarim  basin),  were  again  united 

in  one  vast  political  system  under  the  Toghuz- 
Uifur'tempire.      Uigurs.     These  are  henceforth  known  in  history 

simply  as  Uigurs,  the  On  branch  having,  as  stated, 
long  disappeared  in  the  West.  The  centre  of  their  power  seems 
to  have  oscillated  between  Karakoram  and  Turfan  in  Eastern 
Turkestan,  the  extensive  ruins  of  which  have  been  explored  by 
D.  A?  Klements,  Sven  Hedin  and  M.  A.  Stein.  Their  vast 
dominions  were  gradually  dismembered,  first  by  the  Hakas^ 
or  Ki-li-Kiss4,  precursors  of  the  present  Kirghiz,  who  overran 
the  eastern  (Orkhon)  districts  about  840,  and  then  by  the 
Muhammadans  of  Mawar-en-Nahar  (Transoxiana),  who  over- 

'  They  are  the  Onoi,  the  "Tens,"  who  at  this  time  dwelt  beyond  the  Scythians 
of  the  Caspian  Sea  (Dionysius  Periegetes). 


ix]  The  Northern  Mongols  311 

threw  the  "  Lion  Kings,"  as  the  Uigur  Khans  of  Turfan  were 
called,  and  set  up  several  petty  Mussulman  states  in  Eastern 
Turkestan.  Later  they  fell  under  the  yoke  of  the  Kara^Khitais, 
and  were  amongst  the  first  to  join  the  devastating  hordes  of 
Jenghiz-Khan;  their  name,  which  henceforth  vanishes  from  his- 
tory', has  been  popularly  recognised  under  the  form  of  "Ogres," 
in  fable  and  nursery  tales,  but  the  derivation  lacks  historical 
foundation. 

At  present  the  heterogeneous  populations  of  the  Tarim 
basin  (Kashgaria,  Eastern  Turkestan),  where  the  various  ele- 
ments have  been  intermingled,  offer  a  striking  contrast  to  those 
of  the  Hi  valley  (Sungaria),  where  one  invading  horde  has 
succeeded  and  been  superimposed  on  another.  Hence  the  com- 
plexity of  the  Kashgarian  type,  in  which  the  original  "  horse- 
like face  "  everywhere  crops  out,  absorbing  the  later  Mongolo- 
Turki  arrivals.  But  in  Sungaria  the  Kalmuk,  Chinese,  Dungan, 
Taranchi,  and  Kirghiz  groups  are  all  still  sharply  distinguished 
and  perceptible  at  a  glance.  -'  Amongst  the  Kashgarians — a 
term  as  vague  ethnically  as  '  Aryan ' — -Richthofen  has  deter- 
mined the  successive  presence  of  the  Su,  Yu^-chi,  and  Usun 
hordes,  as  described  in  the  early  Chinese  chronicles^" 

The  recent  explorations  of  M.  A.  Stein  have  throw;n  some, 
light  on  the  ethnology  of  this  region,  and  a  preliminary  survey 
of  results  was  prepared  and  published  by  T.  A.  Joyce.  He 
concludes  that  the  original  inhabitants  were  of  Alpine  type, 
with,  in  the  west,  traces  of  the  I ndo- Afghan,  and  that  the 
Mongolian  has  had  very  little  influence  upon  the  popula- 
tion'. 

In  close  proximity  to  the  Toghuz-Uigurs  dwelt  the  Ogkuz 
{Ghuz,  Us),  for  whom  eponymous  heroes  have  been  provided 
in  the  legendary  records  of  the  Eastern  Turks,  although  all 
these  terms  would  appear  to  be  merely  shortened  forms  of 
Toghuz*.     But  whether  true  Uigurs,  or  a  distinct  branch  of 

1  It  still  persists,  however,  as  a  tribal  designation  both  amongst  the  Kirghiz 
and  Uzbegs,  and  in  1885  Potanin  visited  the  Yegurs  of  the  Edzin-gol  valley  in 
south-east  Mongolia,  said  to  be  the  last  surviving  representatives  of  the  Uigur 
nation  (H.  Schott,  "Zur  Uigurenfrage,"  in  Abhandl.  d.  k.  Akad.  d.  Wiss.,  Berlin, 
1873,  pp.  101-21). 

''■  Ch.  de  Ujfalvy,  Les  Aryens  au  Nord  et  au  Sud  de  PHindou-Kouch,  p.  28. 

3  "  Notes  on  the  Physical  Anthropology  of  Chinese  Turkestan  and  the  Pamirs,'' 
Journ.  Roy.  Anthr.  Inst.  XLll.  1912. 

*  '*  The  Uzi  of  the  Greeks  are  the  Gozz  [Ghuz]  of  the  Orientals.  Thej;  appear 
on  the  Danube  and  the  Volga,  in  Armenia,  Syria,  and  ChoraSan,  and  their  name 
seems  to  have  been  extended  to  the  whole  Turkoman  [Turki]  race  "  [by  the  Arab 
writers];  Gibbon,  Ch.  lvii.  .j 


312  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

the  Turki  people,  the  Ghuz,  as  they  are  commonly  called  by 
TheOghuz  ^^  Arab  writers,  began  their  westward  migra- 
Turks  and  their  tioHs  about  the  year  780.  After  occupying  Trans- 
Migrations,  oxiana,  where  they  are  now  represented  by  the 
Uzbegs^  of  Bokhara  and  surrounding  lands,  they  gradually 
spread  as  conquerors  over  all  the  northern  parts  of  Irania,  Asia 
Minor,  Syria,  the  Russian  and  Caucasian  steppes,  Ukrainia, 
Dacia,  and  the  Balkan  Peninsula.  In  most  of  these  lands  they 
formed  fresh  ethnical  combinations  both  with  the  Caucasic 
aborigines,  and  with  many  kindred  Turki  as  well  as  Mongol 
peoples,  some  of  whom  were  settled  in  these  regions  since 
neolithic  times,  while  others  had  either  accompanied  Attila's 
expeditions,  or  followed  in  his  wake  (Pechenegs,  Komans, 
Alans,  Kipchaks,  Kara-Kalpaks),  or  else  arrived  later  in  com- 
pany with  Jenghiz-Khan  and  his  successors  (Kazan  and  Nogai 
"  Tatars  "=). 

In  Russia,  Rumania  (Dacia),  and  most  of  the  Balkan  Penin- 
sula these  Mongolo-Turki  blends  have  been  again  submerged 
by  the  dominant  Slav  and  Rumanian  peoples  (Great  and  Little 
Russians,  Servo-Croatians,  Montenegrini,  Moldavians,  and 
Walachians).  But  in  south-western  Asia  they  still  constitute 
perhaps  the  majority  of  the  population  between  the  Indus  and 
Constantinople,  in  many  places  forming  numerous  compact 
communities,  in  which  the  Mongolo-Turki  physical  and  mental 
characters  are  conspicuous.  Such,  besides  the  already  mentioned 
Turkomans  of  Parthian  lineage,  are  all  the  nomad  and  many 
of  the  settled  inhabitants  of  Khiva,  Ferghana,  Karategin,  Bok- 
hara, generally  comprised  under  the  name  of  Uzbegs  and 
"  Sartes."  Such  also  are  the  Turki  peoples  of  Afghan  Tur- 
kestan, and  of  the  neighbouring  uplands  (Hazaras  and  Aimaks  ' 
who  claim  Mongol  descent,  though  now  of  Persian  speech);  the 
Aderbaijani  and  many  other  more  scattered  groups  in  Persia  ; 
the  Nogai  and  Kumuk  tribes  of  Caucasia,  and  especially  most 
of  the  nomad  and  settled  agricultural  populations  of  Asia  Minor. 
The  Anatolian  peasantry  form,  in  fact,  the  most  numerous  and 
compact  division  of  the  Turki  family  still  surviving  in  any  part 
of  their  vast  domain  between  the  Bosporus  and  the  Lena. 

'  Who  take  their  name  from  a  mythical  Uz-beg,  "  Prince  Uz"  {beg  in  Turki  =  a 
chief,  or  hereditary  ruler). 

2  Both  of  these  take  their  name,  not  from  mythical  but  from  historical  chiefs : — 
Kazan  Khan  of  the-  Volga,  "the  rival  of  Cyrus  and  Alexander,"  who  was  however 
of  the  house  of  Jenghiz,  consequently  not  a  Turk,  like  most  of  his  subjects,  but  a 
true  Mongol  {ob.  1304) ;  and  Noga,  the  ally  and  champion  of  Michael  Palaeologus 


ix]  The  Northern  Mongols  313 

Out  of  this  prolific  Oghuz  stock  arose  many  renowned  chiefs, 
founders  of  vast  but  somewhat  unstable  empires,  such  as  those 
of  the  Gasnevides,  who  ruled  from  Persia  to  the  Indus ;  the 
Seljuks,  who  first  wrested  the  Asiatic  provinces 
from  Byzantium ;  the  Osmanli,  so  named  from  I^JSr'' 
Othman,  the  Arabised  form  of  Athman,  who  pre- 
pared the  way  for  Orkhan  (1326-60),  true  builder  of  the 
Ottoman  power,  which  has  alone  survived  the  shipwreck  of 
all  the  historical  Turki  states.  The  vicissitudes  of  these 
monarchies,  looked  on  perhaps  with  too  kindly  an  eye  by 
Gibbon,  belong  to  the  domain  of  history,  and  it  will  suffice  here 
to  state  that  from  the  ethnical  standpoint  the  chief  interest 
centres  in  that  of  the  Seljukides,  covering  the  period  from  about 
the  middle  of  the  eleventh  to  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century. 
It  was  under  Togrul-beg  of  this  dynasty  (1038-63)  that  "  the 
whole  body  of  the  Turkish  nation  embraced  with  fervour  and 
sincerity  the  religion  of  Mahomet'."  A  little  later  began  the 
permanent  Turki  occupation  of  Asia  Minor,  where,  after  the 
conquest  of  Armenia  (1065-68)  and  the  overthrow  of  the  By- 
zantine emperor  Romanus  Diogenes  (1071),  numerous  military 
settlements,  followed  by  nomad  Turkoman  encampments,  were 
established  by  the  great  Seljuk  rulers.  Alp  Arslan  and  Malek 
Shah  (1063-92),  at  all  the  strategical  points.  These  first 
arrivals  were  joined  later  by  others  fleeing  before  the  Mongol 
hosts  led  by  Jenghiz-Khan's  successors  down  to  the  time  of 
Timur-beg.  But  the  Christians  (Greeks  and  earlier  aborigines) 
were  not  exterminated,  and  we  read  that,  while  great  numbers 
apostatised,  "  many  thousand  children  were  marked  by  the 
knife  of  circumcision  ;  and  many  thousand  captives  were 
devoted  to  the  service  or  the  pleasures  of  their  masters  "  {ib.). 
In  other  words,  the  already  mixed  Turki  intruders  were  yet 
more  modified  by  further  interminglings  with  the  earlier  in- 
habitants of  Asia  Minor.  Those  who,  following  the  fortunes 
of  the  Othman  dynasty,  crossed  the  Bosporus  and  settled  in 
Rumelia  and  some  other  parts  of  the  Balkan  Peninsula,  now 
prefer  to  call  themselves  Osmanli,  even  repudiating  the  national 
name  "  Turk  "  still  retained  with  pride  by  the  ruder  peasant 

against  the  Mongols  marching  under  the  terrible  Holagu  almost  to  the  shores  of 
the  Bosporus. 

1  Gibbon,  Chap.  LVii.  By  the  "Turkish  nation"  is  here  to  be  understood  the 
western  section  only.  The  Turks  of  Miwar-en-Nahar  and  Kashgaria  (Eastern 
Turkestan)  had  been  brought  under  the  influences  of  Islam  by  the  first  Arab 
invaders  from  Persia  two  centuries  earlier. 


314  Man:    Past  and  Present  [ch. 

classes  of  Asia  Minor.  The  latter  are  often  spoken  of  as 
".Seljuk  Turks,"  as  if  there  were  some  racial  difference  between 
them  and  the  European  Osmanli,  and  for  the  distinction  there 
is  some  foundation.  As  pointed  out  by  Arminius  Vambery', 
the  Osmanli  have  been  influenced  and  modified  by  their  closer 
association  with  the  Christian  populations  of  the  Balkan  lands, 
while  in  Anatolia  the  Seljuks  have  been  able  better  to  preserve 
the  national  type  and  temperament.  The  true  Turki  spirit 
("das  Ttirkentum ")  survives  especially  in  the  provinces  of 
Lykaonia  and  Kappadokia,  where  the  few  surviving  natives 
were  not  only  Islamised  but  ethnically  fused,  whereas  in  Europe 
most  of  them  (Bosnians,  Albanians)  were  only  Islamised,  and 
here  the  Turki  element  has  always  been  slight. 

At  present  the  original  Turki  type  and  temperament  are 
perhaps  best  preserved  amongst  the  remote  Yakuts  of  the  Lena, 
and  the  Kirghiz  groups  (^Kirghiz  Kazaks  and 
Kara  Kirghiz)  of  the  West  Siberian  steppe  and 
the  Pamir  uplands.  The  Turk!  connection  of  the  Yakut;s,  about 
which  some  unnecessary  doubts  had  been  raised,  has  been  set 
at  rest  by  V.  A.  Sierochevsky^  who,  however,  describes  them 
as  now  a  very  mixed  people,  owing  to  alliances  with  the  Tun- 
guses  and  Russians.  They  are  of  short  stature,  averaging 
scarcely  5  ft.  4  in.,  and  this  observer  thought  their  dark  but  not 
brilliant  black  eyes,  deeply  sunk  in  narrow  orbits,  gave  them 
more  of  a  Red  Indian  than  of  a  Mongol  cast.  Theiy  are  almost 
the  only  progressive  aboriginal  people  in  Siberia,  although 
numbering  not  more  than  200,000  souls,  concentrated  chiefly 
along  the  river  banks  on  the  plateau  between  the  Lena  and  the 
Aldan. 

In  the  Yakuts  we  have  an  extreme  instance  of  the  capacity 
of  man  to  adapt  himself  to  the  milieu.  They  not  merely  exist, 
but  thrive  and  display  a  considerable  degree  of  energy  and 
enterprise  in  the  coldest  region  on  the  globe.  Within  the 
isothermal  of  —72"  Fahr.,  Verkhoyansk,  in  the  heart  of  their 
territory,  is  alone  included,  for  the  period  from  November  to 
February,  and  in  this  temperature,  at  which  the  quicksilver 
freezes,  the  Yakut  children  may  be  seen  gambolling  naked  in 
the  snow.     In  midwinter  R.  Kennan  met  some  of  these  "  men 

'  "Die  Stellung  der  Tiirken  in  Europa,"  in  Geogr.  Zeitschrift,  Leipzig,  1897, 
Part  5,  p.  250  sq. 

^  "Ethnographic  Researches,"  edited  by  N.  E.  Vasilofsky  for  the  Imperial 
Geogr.  Soc.  1896,  quoted  in  Nature.,  Dec.  3,  1896,  p.  97. 


ix]  The  Northern  Mongols  315 

of  iron,"  as  Wrangel  calls  them,  airily  arrayed  in  nothing  but 
a  shirt  and  a  sheepskin,  lounging  about  as  if  in  the  enjoyment 
of  the  balmy  zephyrs  of  some  genial  sub-tropical  zone. 

Although  nearly  all  are  Orthodox  Christians,  or  at  least 
baptized  as  such,  they  are  mere  Shamanists  at  heart,  still  con- 
juring the  powers  of  nature,  but  offering  no  worship  to  a  supreme 
deity,  of  whom  they  have  a  vague  notion,  though  he  is  too  far 
off  to  hear,  or  too  good  to  need  their  supplications.  The  world 
of  good  and  evil  spirits,  however,  has  been  enriched  by  accessions 
from  the  Russian  calendar  and  pandemonium.  Thanks  to  their 
commercial  spirit,  the  Yakut  language,  a  very  pure  Turki  idiom, 
is  even  more  widespread  than  the  race,  having  become  a  general 
medium  of  intercourse  for  Tungus,  Russian,  Mongol  and  other 
traders  throughout  East  Siberia,  from  Irkutsk  to  the  Sea  of 
Okhotsk,  and  from  the  Chinese  frontier  to  the  Arctic  Ocean'. 

To  some  extent  W.  Radloff  is  right  in  describing  the  great 
Kirghiz  Turki  family  as  "of  all  Turks  most  nearly  allied  to  the 
Mongols  in  their  physical  characters,  and  by  their 
family  names  such  as  Kyptshak[Kipchak],Argyn,  ^  '""g  iz. 
Naiman,  giving  evidence  of  Mongolian  descent,  or  at  least  of 
intermixture  with  Mongols^"  But  we  have  already  been  warned 
against  the  danger  of  attaching  too  much  importance  to  these 
tribal  designations,  many  of  which  seem,  after  acquiring  renown 
on  the  battle-field,  to  have  passed  readily  from  one  ethnic  group 
to  another.  There  are  certain  Hindu- Kush  and  Afghan  tribes 
who  think  themselves  Greeks  or  Arabs,  because  of  the  supposed 
descent  of  their  chiefs  from  Alexander  the  Great  or  the  Prophet's 
family,  and  genealogical  trees  spring  up  like  the  conjurer's 
mango  plant  in  support  of  such  illustrious  lineage.  The  Cha- 
gatai  (Jagatai)  tribes,  of  Turki  stock  and  speech,  take  their 
name  from  a  full-blood  Mongol,  Chagatai,  second  son  of 
Jenghiz-Khan,  to  whom  fell  Eastern  Turkestan  in  the  partition 
of  the  empire. 

In  the  same  way  many  Uzbeg  and  Kirghiz  Turki  tribes 
are  named  from  famous  Mongol  chiefs,  although  no  one  will 
deny  a  strain  of  true  Mongol  blood  in  all  these  heterogeneous 
groups.  This  is  evident  enough  from  the  square  and  somewhat 
flat  Mongol  features,  prominent  cheek-bones,  oblique  eyes, 
large  mouth,  feet  and  hands,  yellowish  brown  complexion,  un- 
gainly obese  figures  and  short  stature,  all  of  which  are  charac- 

1  A.  Erman,  Reise  urn  die  Erde,  1835,  Vol.  ill.  p.  51. 
^  Quoted  by  Peschel,  Races  of  Man,  p.  383. 


3i6  Man:   Past  and  Present  [ch. 

teristic  of  both  sections,  the  Kara-Kirghiz  highlanders,  arid  the 
Kazaks  of  the  lowlands.  Some  ethnologists  regard  these 
Kirghiz  groups,  not  as  a  distinct  branch  of  the  Mongolo-Turki 
race,  but  rather  as  a  confederation  of  several  nomad  tribes 
stretching  from  the  Gobi  to  the  Lower  Volga,  and  mingled 
together  by  Jenghiz-Khan  and  his  successors'. 

The  true  national  name  is  Kazdk,  "  Riders,"  and  as  they 
were  originally  for  the  most  part  mounted  marauders,  or  free 

lances  ofthe  steppe,  the  term  came  to  be  gradually 
Kossac^         applied  to  all  nomad  and  other  horsemen  engaged 

in  predatory  warfare.  It  thus  at  an  early  date 
reached  the  South  Russian  steppe,  where  it  was  adopted  in 
the  form  of  Kossack  by  the  Russians  themselves.  It  should 
be  noted  that  the  compound  term  Kirghiz-Kazak,  introduced 
by  the  Russians  to  distinguish  these  nomads  from  their  own 

Cossacks,    is    really    a    misnomer.     The    word 
Kirghiz.  '        "  Kirghiz,"  whatever  its  origin,  is  never  used  by 

the  Kazaks  in  reference  to  themselves,  but  only 
to  their  near  relations,  the  Kirghiz,  or  Kara- Kirghiz',  of  the 
uplands.  > 

These  highlanders,  who  roam  "the  Tian-Shan  and  Pamir 
valleys,  form  two  sections : — On,  "  Right,"  or  East,  and  Sot, 
"  Left,"  or  West.  They  are  the  Dz'ko  Kamennyi,  that  is,  "Wild 
Rock  People,"  of  the  Russians,  whence  the  expression  "  Block 
Kirghiz"  still  found  in  some  English  books  of  travel.  But 
they  call  themselves  simply  Kirghiz,  claiming  descent  from  an 
original  tribe  of  that  name,  itself  sprung  from  a  legendary 
Kirghiz-beg,  from  whom  are  also  descended  the  Chiliks,  Kitars 
and  others,  all  now  reunited  with  the  Ons  and  the  Sols. 

The  Kazaks  also  are  grouped  in  long-established  and  still 
jealously  maintained  sections — the  Great,  Middle,  Little,  and 
Inner  Horde — whose  joint  domain  extends  from  Lake  Balk- 
ash  round  the  north  side  of  the  Caspian  down  to  the  Lower 
Volgal  All  accepted  the  teachings  of  Islam  many  centuries 
ago,  but  their  Muhanimadanism^  is  of  a  somewhat  negative" 

'  M.  Balkashin  in  Izvestia  Russ.  Geogr.  Soc,  April,  1883. 

^  Aara!  =  " Black,"  with  reference  to  the  colour  of  their  round  felt  tents. 

*  On  the  obscure  relations  of  these  Hordes  to  the  Kara- Kirghiz  and  prehistoric 
Usuns  some  light  has  been  thrown  by  the  investigations  of  N.  A.  Aristov,  a 
summary  of  whose  conclusions  is  given  by  A.  Ivanovski  in  Centralblatt  fiir  Anthro- 
pologie,  etc.,  1896,  p.  47. 

*  Althqugh  officially  returned  as  Muhammadans  of  the  Sunni  sect,  Levchine 
tells  as  that  it  is  hard  to  say  whether  they  are  Moslem,  Pagan  (Shamanists),  or 
Manichean,  this  last  because  they  believe  God  has  made  good  angels  called 


ix]  The  Northern  Mongols  317 

character,  without  mosques,  moUahs,  or  fanaticism,  and  in 
practice  not  greatly  to  be  distinguished  from  the  old  Siberian 
Shamanism.  Kumiss,  fermented  mare's  milk,  their  universal 
drink,  as  amongst  the  ancient  Scythians,  plays  a  large  part  in 
the  life  of  these  hospitable  steppe  nomads. 

One  of  the  lasting  results  of  Gastrin's  labours  has  been  to 
place  beyond  reasonable  doubt  the  Altai  origin  of  the  Finnish 
peoples'.  Their  cradle  may  now  be  localised  with 
some  confidence  about  the  head  waters  of  the 
Yenisei,  in  proximity  to  that  of  their  Turki  kinsmen.  Here 
is  the  seat  of  the  Soyotes  and  of  the  closely  allied  Koibals, 
Kamassintzi,  Matores,  Karagasses  and  others,  who  occupy  a 
considerable  territory  along  both  slopes  of  the  Sayan  range, 
and  may  be  regarded  as  the  primitive  stock  of  the  widely  dif- 
fused Finnish  race.  Some  of  these  groups  have  intermingled 
with  the  neighbouring  Turki  peoples,  and  even  speak  Turki 
dialects.  But  the  original  Finnish  type  and  speech  are  well 
represented  by  the  Soyotes,  who  are  here  indigenous,  and  "from 
these  their... kinsmen,  the  Samoyeds  have  spread  as  breeders 
of  reindeer  to  the  north  of  the  continent  from  the  White  Sea 
to  the  Bay  of  Chatanga^"  Others,  following  a  westerly  route 
along  the  foot  of  the  Altai  and  down  the  Irtysh  to  the  Urals, 
appear  to  have  long  occupied  both  slopes  of  that  range,  where 
they  acquired  some  degree  of  culture,  and  especially  that  know- 
ledge of,  and  skill  in  working,  the  precious  and  other  metals, 
for  which  the  "  White-eyed  Chudes  "  were  famous,  and  to  which 
repeated  reference  is  made  in  the  songs  of  the  Kalevala^.     As 

Mankir  and  bad  angels  called  Nankir.  Two  of  these  spirits  sit  invisibly  on  the 
shoulders  of  every  person  from  his  birtlj,  the  good  on  the  right,  the  bad  on  the 
left,  each  noting  his  actions  in  their  respective  books,  and  balancing  accounts  at 
his  death.  It  is  interesting  to  compare  these  ideas  with  those  of  the  Uzbeg  prince 
who  explained  to  Lansdell  that  at  the  resurrection,  the  earth  being  flat,  the  dead 
grow  out  of  it  like  _grass ;  then  God  divides  the  good  from  the  bad,  sending  these 
below  and  those  above.  In  heaven  nobody  dies,  and  every  wish  is  gratified;  even 
the  wicked  creditor  may  seek  out  his  debtor,  and  in  lieu  of  the  money  owing  may 
take  over  the  equivalent  in  his  good  deeds,  if  there  be  any,  and  thus  be  saved 
{Through  Central  Asia,  188/!,  p.  438). 

'  See  especially  his  Reiseberichte  u.  Briefe  aus  den  Jahren  i84j-4g,  p.  401  sq.; 
and  Versuch  einer  Koibalischen  Ji.  Karagassischen  Sprachlehre,  1858,  Vol.  i.  passim. 
But  cf.  J.  Szinnyei,  Finnisch-ugrische  Sprachwissenschaft,  1910,  pp.  ig-20. 

2  Peschel,  Races  of  Man,  ^.  386. 

3  In  a  suggestive  paper  on  this  collection  of  Finnish  songs  C.  U.  Clark  {Forum, 
April,  1898,  p.  238  sq.)  shows  from  the  primitive  character  of  the  mythology,  the 
frequent  allusions  to  copper  or  bronze,  and  the  almost  utter  absence  of  Christian 
ideas  and  other  indications,  that  these  songs  must  be  of  great  antiquity.  "  There 
seems  to  be  no  doubt  that  some  parts  date  back  to  at  least  3000  years  ago,  before 
the  Finns  and  the  Hungarians  had  become  distinct  peoples  ;  for  the  names  of  the 


3i8  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

there  are  no  mines  or  minerals  in  Finland  itself,  it  seems  obvious 
that  the  legendary  heroes  of  the  Finnish  national  epic  must 
have  dwelt  in  some  metalliferous  region,  which  could  only  be 
the  Altai  or  the  Urals,  possibly  both. 

In  any  case  the  Urals  became  a  second  home  and  point  of 
dispersion  for  the  Finnish  tribes  {Ugrian  Finns),  whose  migra- 
tions— some  prehistoric,  some  historic — can  be  followed  thence 
down  the  Pechora  and  Dvina  to  the  Frozen  Ocean',  and  down 
the  Kama  to  the  Volga.  From  this  artery,  where  permanent 
settlements  were  {oxva&dL.{Volga  Finns) ,  some  conquering  hordes 
went  south  and  west  {Danubian  Finns),  while  more  peaceful 
wanderers  ascended  the  great  river  to  Lakes  Ladoga  and 
Onega,  and  thence  to  the  shores  of  the  Baltic  and  Lapland 
{Baltic  and  Lake  Finns). 

Thus  were  constituted  the  main  branches  of  the  widespread 
Finnish   family,  whose  domain  formerly  extended  from  the 
Former  and       Katanga  beyond  the  Yenisei  to   Lapland,  and 
Present      *      from  the  Arctic  Ocean  to  the  Altai  range,  the 
Domain.  Caspian,  and  the  Volga,  w^ith  considerable  enclaves 

in  the  Danube  basin.  But  throughout  their  relatively  short 
historic  life  the  Finnish  peoples,  despite  a  characteristic  tenacity 
and  power  of  resistance,  have  in  many  places  been  encroached 
upon,  absorbed,  or  even  entirely  eliminated,  by  more  aggressive 
races,  such  as  the  Siberian  "  Tatars  "  in  their  Altai  cradleland, 
the  Turki  Kirghiz  and  Bashkirs  in  the  West  Siberian  steppes 
and  the  Urals,  the  Russians  in  the  Volga  and  Lake  districts, 
the  Germans  and  Lithuanians  in  the  Baltic  Provinces  (Kurland, 
Livonia,  Esthonia),  the  Rumanians,  Slavs,  and  others  in  the 
Danube  regions,  where  the  Ugrian  Bulgars  and  Magyars  have 
been  almost  entirely  assimilated  in  type  (and  the  former  also 
in  speech)  to  the  surrounding  European  populations. 

Few  anthropologists  now  attach  much  importance  to  the 
views  not  yet  quite  obsolete  regarding  a  former  extension  of 

divinities,  many  of  the  customs,  and  even  particular  incantations  and  bits  of  super- 
stitions mentioned  in  the  Kalevala  are  curiously  duplicated  in  ancient  Hungarian 
writings." 

1  When  Ohthere  made  his  famous  voyage  round  North  Cape  to  the  Cwen  Sea 
(White  Sea)  all  this  Arctic  seaboard  was  inhabited,  not  by  Samoyeds,  as  at  present, 
but  by  true  Finns,  whom  King, Alfred  calls  Beortnas,  i.e.  the  Biarmians  of  the 
Norsemen,  and  the  Permiaki  {Permians)  of  the  Russians  {Orosms,  I.  13).  In 
medieval  times  the  whole  region  between  the  White  Sea  and  the  Urals  was  often 
called  Permia ;  but  since  the  withdrawal  southwards  of  the  Zirynians  and  other 
Permian  Finns  this  Arctic  region  has  been  thinly  occupied  by  Samoyed  tribes 
spreading  slowly  westward  from  Siberia  to  the  Pechora  and  Lower  Dvina. 


IX j  The  Northern  Mongols  319 

the  Finnish  race  over  the  whole  of  Europe  and  the  British 
Isles.  Despite  the  fact  that  all  the  Finns  are  essentially 
round-headed,  they  were  identified  first  with  the  La^  ^est- 
long-headed  cavemen,  who  retreated  north  with  ward  Spread  of 
the  reindeer,  as  was  the  favourite  hypothesis,  and  *^  ^•""^• 
then  with  the  early  neolithic  races  who  were  also  long-headed. 
Elaborate  but  now  forgotten  essays  were  written  by  learned 
philologists  to  establish  a  common  origin  of  the  Basque  and 
the  Finnic  tongues,  which  have  nothing  in  common,  and  half  the 
myths,  folklore,  and  legendary  heroes  of  the  western  nations 
were  traced  to  FinnorUgrian  sources. 

Now  we  know  better,  and  both  archaeologists  and  philo- 
logists have  made  it  evident  that  the  Finnish  peoples  are  re- 
latively quite  recent  arrivals  in  Europe,  that  the  men  of  the 
Bronze  Age  in  Finland  itself  were  not  Finns  but  Teutons,  and 
that  at  the  beginning  of  the  new  era  all  the  Finnish  tribes  still 
dwelt  east  of  the  Gulf  of  Finland \ 

Not  only  so,  but  the  eastern  migrations  themselves,  as 
above  roughly  outlined,  appear  to  have  taken  place  at  a  re- 
latively late  epoch,  long  after  the  inhabitants  of  .^^^  j^^ 
West  Siberia  had  passed  from  the  New  Stone    Bronze  Ages  in 
to  the   Metal  Ages.      J.   R.  Aspelin,  "founder   the  Finnish 
of  Finno-Ugrian  archaeology,"  points  out  that      ^"  ^' 
the  Finno-Ugrian  peoples  originally  occupied  a  geographical 
position  between  the  Indo-Germanic  and  the  Mongolic  races, 
and  that  their  first  Iron  Age  was  most  probably  a  development, 
between  the  Yenisei  and  the  Kama,  of  the  so-called  Ural- Altai 
Bronze  Age,  the  last  echoes  of  which  may  be  traced  westwards 
to  Finland  and  North  Scandinavia.     In  the  Upper  Yenisei 
districts  iron  objects  had  still  the  forms  of  the  Bronze  Age, 
when  that  ancient  civilisation,  associated  with  the  name  of  the 
"Chudes,"  was  interrupted  by  an  invasion  which  introduced 
the  still  persisting  Turki  Iron  Age,  expelled  the  aboriginal 
inhabitants,  and  thus  gave  rise  to  the  great  migrations  first  of 
the  Finno-Ugrians,  and  then  of  the  Turki  peoples  (Bashkirs, 

'^  See  A.  Hackman,  Die  Bronzezeit  Finnlands,  Helsingfors,  1897 ;  also 
M.  Aspelin,  O.  Montelius,  V.  Thomsen  and  others,  who  have  all,  on  various 
grounds,  arrived  at  the  same  conclusion.  Even  D.  £.  D.  Europaeus,  who  has 
advanced  so  many  heterodox  views  on  the  Finnish  cradleland,  and  on  the  relations 
of  the  Finnic  to  the  Mongolp-Turki  languages,  agrees  that  "  vers  I'dpoque  de  la 
naissance  de  J.  C,  c'est-k-dire  bien  longtemps  avant  que  ces  tribus  immigrassent 
en  Finlande,  elles  [the  western  Finns]  Staient'dtablies  imm^diatement  au  sud  des 
lacs  d'Ondga  et  de  Ladoga."  {Travaux  Gdographiques  exicuth  en  Finlande  jus- 
qu'en  1895,  Helsingfors,  1895,  p.  141.) 


320  Man  :   Past  and  Present  [ch. 

Volga  "  Tatars  "  and  others)  to  and  across  the  Urals.  It  was 
here,  in  the  Permian  territory  between  the  Irtysh  and  the  Kama, 
that  the  West  Siberian  (Chudish)  Iron  Age  continued  its  normal 
and  unbroken  evolution.  The  objects  recovered  from  the  old 
graves  and  kurgans  in  the  present  governments  of  Tver  and 
laroslav,  and  especially  at  Ananyino  on  the  Kama,  centre  of 
this  culture,  show  that  here  took  place  the  transition  from  the 
Bronze  to  the  Iron  Age  some  300  years  before  the  new  era, 
and  here  was  developed  a  later  Iron  Age,  whose  forms  are. 
characteristic  of  the  northern  Finno-Ugrian  lands.  The  whole 
region  would  thus  appear  to  have  been  first  occupied  by  these 
immigrants  from  Asia  after  the  irruption  of  the  Turki  hordes 
into  Western  Siberia  during  the  first  Iron  Age,  at  most  sOme 
500  or  600  years  before  the  Christian  era.  The  Finno-Ugrian 
migrations  are  thus  limited  to  a  period  of  not  more  than  2600 
years  from  the  present  time,  and  this  conclusion,  based  on 
archaeological  grounds,  agrees  fairly  well  with  the  historical, 
linguistic,  and  ethnical  data. 

It  is  especially  in  this  obscure  field  of  research  that  the 
eminent  Danish  scholar,  Vilhelm  Thomsen,  has  rendered  in- 
estimable services  to  European  ethnology.     By  the  light  of  his 

linguistic  studies  A.  H.  Snellman'  has  elucidated 
F^nf  ^'^''^      the  origins  of  the  Baltic  Finns,  the  Proto-Estho- 

nians,  the  now  all  but  extinct  Livonians,  and  the 
quite  extinct  Kurlanders,  from  the  time  when  they  still  dwelt 
east  and  south-east  of  the  Baltic  lands,  under  the  influence  of 
the  surrounding  Lithuanian  and  Gothic  tribes,  till  the  German 
conquest  of  the  Baltic  provinces.  We  learn  from  Jordanes,  to 
whom  is  due  the  first  authentic  account  of  these  populations, 
that  the  various  Finnish  tribes  were  subject  to  the  Gothic  king 
Hermanarich,  and  Thomsen  now  shows  that  all  the  Western 
Finns  (Esthonians,  Livonians,  Votes,  Vepses,  Karelians, 
Tavastians,  and  others  of  Finland)  must  in  the  first  centuries 
of  the  new  era  have  lived  practically  as  one  people  in  the  , 
closest  social  union,  speaking  one  language,  and  following  the 
same  religious,  tribal,  and  political  institutions.  Earlier  than 
the  Gothic  was  the  Letto- Lithuanian  contact,  as  shown  by  the 
fact  that  its  traces  are  perceptible  in  the  language  of  the  Volga 
Finns,  in  which  German  loan-words  are  absent.  From  these 
investigations  it  becomes  clear  that  the  Finnish  domain  must 

1  Finska  Forminnesfdreningens  Tidskrift,  Journ.  Fin.  Antiq.  Soc.  1896,  p. 
137  sq. 


ix]  The  Northern  Mongols  321 

at  that  time  have  stretched  from  the  present  Esthonia,  Livonia, 
and  Lake  Ladoga  south  to  the  western  Dvina. 

The  westward  movement  was  connected  with  the  Slav 
migrations.  When  the  Slavs  south  of  the  Letts  moved  west, 
other  Slav  tribes  must  have  pushed  north,  thus  Relations  to 
driving  both  Letts  and  Finns  west  to  the  Baltic  Goths,  Letts, 
provinces,  which  had  previously  been  occupied  ^nd  Slavs, 
by  the  Germans  (Goths).  Some  of  the  Western  Finns  must 
have  found  their  way  about  500  a.d.,  scarcely  earlier,  into  parts 
of  this  region,  where  they  came  into  hostile  and  friendly  con- 
tact with  the  Norsemen.  These  relations  would  even  appear 
to  be  reflected  in  the  Norse  mythology,  which  may  be  regarded 
as  in  great  measure  an  echo  of  historic  events.  The  wars  of 
the  Swedish  and  Danish  kings  referred  to  in  these  oral  records 
may  be  interpreted  as  plundering  expeditions  rather  than  per- 
manent conquests,  while  the  undoubtedly  active  intercourse 
between  the  east  and  west  coasts  of  the  Baltic  may  be  explained 
on  the  assumption  that,  after  the  withdrawal  of  the  Goths,  a 
remnant  of  the  Germanic  populations  remained  behind  in  the 
Baltic  provinces. 

From  Nestor's  statement  that  all  three  of  the  Varangian 
princes  settled,  not  amongst   Slavish   but   amongst   Finnish 
peoples,  it  maybe  inferred  that  the  Finnish  ele- 
ment constituted  the  most  important  section  in    orieitis  "^^ 
the  newly  founded  Russian  State  ;  and  it  may 
here  be  mentioned  that  the  term  "  Russ"  itself  has  now  been 
traced  to  the  Finnish  word  Ruost  i^Ruosti),  a  "  Norseman."    But 
although  at  first  greatly  outnumbering  the  Slavs,  the  Finnish 
peoples  soon  lost  the  political  ascendancy,  and  their  subsequent 
history  may  be  summed  up  in  the  expression — ^gradual  absorp- 
tion in  the  surrounding  Slav  populations.    This  inevitable  pro- 
cess is  still  going  on  amongst  all  the  Volga,  Lake  and  Baltic 
Finns,  except  in  Finland  and  Lapland,  where  other  conditions 
obtain  \  • 

Most  Finnish  ethnologists  agree  that  however  much  they 
may  now  diffei*  in  their  physical  and  mental  characters  and 
usages,  Finns  and  Lapps  were  all  originally  one  people.    Some 

'  "Les  Finnois  et  leurs  congdn^res  ont  occupe  autrefois,  sur  d'immenses  espaces, 
les  vastes  regions  fcresti^res  de  la  Russie  septentrionale  et  centrale,  et  de  la  Sibdrie 
occidentale  ;  mais  plus  tard,  refoul^s  et  divisds  par  d'autres  peuples,  ils  furent 
rdduits  k  des  tribus  isol6es,  dont  il  ne  reste  maintenant  que  des  debris  6pars" 
{Travaux  Gdographiques,  p.  132). 

K.  21 


322  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

variant  oi  Suonta^  enters  into  the  national  name  of  all  the  Baltic 
groups — Suomalaiset,  the  Finns  of  Finland,  Somelmzed,  those 
of  Esthonia,  Samelats  (Sabmelad),  the  Lapps,  Samoyad,  the 
Samoyeds.     In  Ohthere's  time  the  Norsemen  called  all  the 
Lapps  "  Finnas  "  (as  the  Norwegians  still  do),  and  that  early 
Tavastian         navigator  already  noticed  that  these   "  Finns " 
and  Karelian     seemed    to    speak    the    same    language    as    the 
Finns.  Beormas,  who  were  true  Finnsl     Nor  do  the 

present  inhabitants  of  Finland,  taken  as  a  whole,  differ  more 
in  outward  appearance  and  temperament  from  their  Lapp 
neighbours  than  do  the  Tavastians  and  the  Karelians,  that 
is,  their  western  and  eastern  sections,  from  each  other.  The 
Tavastians,  who  call  themselves  H^melaiset,  "  Lake  People," 
have  rather  broad,  heavy  frames,  small  and  oblique  blue  or 
grey  eyes,  towy  hair  and  white  complexion,  without  the  clear 
Horid  colour  of  the  North  Germanic  and  English  peoples.  The 
temperament  is  somewhat  sluggish,  passive  and  enduring, 
morose  and  vindictive,  but  honest  and  trustworthy. 

Very  different  are  the  tall,  slim,  active  Karelians  (Karia- 
laiset,  "  Cowherds,"  from  Kari,  "  Cow  "),  with  more  regular 
features,  straight  grey  eyes,  brown  complexion,  and  chestnut 
hair,  like  that  of  the  hero  of  the  Kalevala,  hanging  in  ringlets 
down  the  shoulders.  Many  of  the  Karelians,  and  most  of  the 
neighbouring  Ingrians  about  the  head  of  the  Gulf  of  Finland, 
as  well  as  the  Votes  and  Vepses  of  the  great  lakes,  have  been 
assimilated  in  speech,  religion,  and  usages  to  the  surrounding 
Russian  populations.  But  the  more  conservative  Tavastians 
have  hitherto  tenaciously  preserved  the  national  sentiment, 
language,  and  traditions.  Despite  the  pressure  of  Sweden  on 
the  west,  and  of  Russia  on  the  east,  the  Finns  still  stand  out 
as  a  distinct  European  nationality,  and  continue  to  cultivate 
with  success  their  harmonious  and  highly  poetical  language. 
Since  the  twelfth  century  they  have  been  Christians,  converted 
to  the  Catholic  faith  By  "Saint"  Eric,  King  of  Sweden,  and 
later  to  Lutheranism,  again  by  the  Swedes".  The  national 
university,  removed  in  1827  from  Abo  to  Helsingfors,  is  a 
centre  of  much  scientific  and  literary  work,  and  here  E.  Lonnrot, 

1  A  word  of  doubtful  meaning,  commonly  but  wrongly  supposed  to  mean  swamp 
or  fen,  and  thus  to  be  the  original  of  the  Teutonic  Finnas,  "  Fen  People "  (see 
Thomsen,  Einfluss  d.  ger.  Spr.  auf  die  finnisch-lappischen,  p.  14). 

^  "  pa  Finnas,  him  >uhte,  and  >a  Beormas  sprsecon  neah  dn  ge'Seode " 
(Orosius,  I.  14). 

2  See  my  paper  on  the  Finns  in  Cassell's  Storehouse  of  Information,  p,  296. 


ix]  The  Northern  Mongols  323 

father  of  Finnish  literature,  brought  out  his  various  editions  of 
the  Kalevala,  that  of  1849  consisting  of  some  50,000  strophes'. 

A  kind  of  transition  from  these  settled  and  cultured  Finns 
to  the  Lapps  of  Scandinavia  and  Russia  is  formed  by  the  still 
almost  nomad,  or  at  least  restless  Kwcens,  who 
formerly  roamed  as  far  as  the  White  Sea,  which  ^  ''*"^' 
in  Alfred's  time  was  known  as  the  Cwen  See  (Kween  Sea). 
These  Kwsens,  who  still  number  nearly  300,000,  are  even  called 
nomads  by  J.  A.  Friis,  who  tells  us  that  there  is  a  continual 
movement  of  small  bands  between  Finland  and  Scandinavia. 
"The  wandering  Kwccns  pass  round  the  Gulf  of  Bothnia  and 
up  through  Lappmarken  to  Kittala,  where  they  separate,  some 
going  to  Varanger,  and  others  to  Alten.  They  follow  the 
same  route  as  that  which,  according  to  historians,  some  of  the 
Norsemen  followed  in  their  wanderings  from  Finland"."  The 
references  of  the  Sagas  are  mostly  to  these  primitive  Bothnian 
Finns,  with  whom  the  Norsemen  first  came  in  contact,  and  who 
in  the  sixth  and  following  centuries  were  still  in  a  rude  state 
not  greatly  removed  from  that  of  their  Ugrian  forefathers.  As 
shown  by  Almqvist's  researches,  they  lived  almost  exclusively 
by  hunting  and  fishing,  had  scarcely  a  rudimentary  knowledge 
of  agriculture,  and  could  prepare  neither  butter  nor  cheese  from 
the  milk  of  their  half-wild  reindeer  herds. 

Such  were  also,  and  in  some  measure  still  are,  the  kindred 
Lapps,  who  with  the  allied  Yurak  Samoyeds  of  Arctic  Russia 
are  the  only  true  nomads  still  surviving  in  Europe.    The  Lapps, 
A.   H.  Cocks,  who  travelled  amongst  all  these    Samoyeds  and 
rude  aborigines  in  1888,  describes  the  Kwsens    Permian  Finns, 
who  range  north  to  Lake  Enara,  as  "for  the  most  part  of  a 
very  rough  class,"  and  found  that  the  Russian  Lapps  of  the 
Kola  Peninsula,  "except  as  to  their  clothing  and  the  addition 
of  coffee  and  sugar  to  their  food  supply,  are  living  now  much 
the  same  life  as  their  ancestors  probably  lived  2000  or  more 
years  ago,  a  far  more  primitive  life,  in  fact,  than  the  Reindeer 
Lapps  [of  Scandinavia].     They  have  not  yet  begun  to  use 
tobacco,  and  reading  and  writing  are  entirely  unknown  among 
them.     Unlike  the  three  other  divisions  of  the  race  [the  Nor- 
wegian, Swedish,  and  Finnish  Lapps],  they  are  a  very  cheerful, 

1  The  fullest  information  concerning  Finland  and  its  inhabitants  is  found  in  the 
Atlas  de  Finlande,  with  Texte  (2  vols.)  published  by  the  Soc.  Gdog.  Finland  m.  1910. 

2  Laila,  Earl  of  Ducie's  English  ed.,  p.  58.  The  Swedish  Bothnia  is  stated  to 
be  a  translation  of  Kwan,  meaning  low-lying  coastlands  ;  hence  Kainulaiset,  as 
they  call  themselves,  would  mean  "  Coastlanders." 


324  Man  :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

light-hearted  people,  and  have  the  curious  habit  of  expressing 
their  thoughts  aloud  in  extempore  sing-song'." 

Similar  traits  have  been  noticed  in  the  Samoyeds,  whom 
F.  G.  Jackson  describes  as  an  extremely  sociable  and  hospitable 
people,  delighting  in  gossip,  and  much  given  to  laughter  and 
merriment^  He  gives  their  mean  height  as  nearly  5  ft.  2  in., 
which  is  about  the  same  as  that  of  the  Lapps  (Von  Diiben, 
5  ft.  2  in.,  others  rather  less),  while  that  of  the  Finns  averages 
5  ft.  5  in.  (Topinard).  Although  the  general  Mongol  appearance 
is  much  less  pronounced  in  the  Lapps  than  in  the  Samoyeds, 
in  some  respects — low  stature,  flat  face  with  peculiar  round 
outline — the  latter  reminded  Jackson  of  the  Ziryanians,  who  are 
a  branch  of  the  Beormas  (Permian  Finns),  though  like  them 
now  much  mixed  with  the  Russians.  The  so-called  prehistoric 
"  Lapp  Graves,"  occurring  throughout  the  southern  parts  of 
Scandinavia,  are  now  known  from  their  contents  to  have  be- 
longed to  the  Norse  race,  who  appear  to  have  occupied  this 
region  since  the  New  Stone  Age,  while  the  Lapp  domain  seems 
never  to  have  reached  very  much  farther  south  than  Trondhjem. 
All  these  facts,  taken  especially  in  connection  with  the  late 
arrival  of  the  Finns  themselves  in  Finland,  lend  support  to 

the  view  that  the  Lapps  are  a  branch,  not  of 
and  Migrations    ^^  Suomalaiset,  but  of  the  Permian  Finns,  and 

reached  their  present  homes,  not  from  Finland, 
but  from  North  Russia  through  the  Kanin  and  Kola  Peninsulas, 
if  not  round  the  shores  of  the  White  Sea,  at  some  remote  period 
prior  to  the  occupation  of  Finland  by  its  present  inhabitants. 
This  assumption  would  also  explain  Ohthere's  statement  that  • 
Lapps  and  Permians  seemed  to  speak  nearly  the  same  language. 
The  resemblance  is  still  close,  though  I  am  not  competent  to 
say  to  which  branch  of  the  Finno-Ugrian  family  Lapp  is  most 
nearly  allied. 

Of  the  Mongol  physical  characters  the  Lapp  still  retains 
the  round  low  skull  (index  83),  the  prominent  cheek-bones, 

somewhat  flat  features,  and  ungainly  figure.  The 
ReliSoT'"^"  ~~    temperament,  also,  is  still  perhaps  more  Asiatic 

than  European,  although  since  the  eighteenth 
century  they  have  been  Christians — Lutherans  in  Scandinavia, 
Orthodox  in  Russia.  In  pagan  times  Shamanism  had  nowhere 
acquired  a  greater  development  than  among  the  Lapps.   A  great 

^  A  Boat  Journey  to  Inari,  Viking  Club,  Feb.  i,  1895. 
^  The  Great  Frozen  Land,  1895,  p.  61. 


ix]  The  Northern  Mongols  325 

feature  of  the  system  were  the  "rune-trees,"  made  of  pine  or 
birch  bark,  inscribed  with  figures  of  gods,  men,  or  animals, 
which  ^were  consulted  on  all  important  occasions,  and  their 
mysterious  signs  interpreted  by  the  Shamans.  Even  foreign 
potentates  hearkened  to  the  voice  of  these  renowned  magicians, 
and  in  England  the  expression^  "  Lapland  witches "  became 
proverbial,  although  it  appears'  that  there  never  were  any 
witches,  but  only  wizards,  in  Lapland.  Such  rites  have  long 
ceased  to  be  practised,  although  some  of  the  crude  ideas  of  a 
material  after-life  still  linger  on.  Money  and  other  treasures 
are  often  buried  or  hid  away,  the  owners  dying  without  revealing 
the  secret,  either  through  forgetfulness,  or  more  probably  of 
set  purpose  in  the  hope  of  thus  making  provision  for  the  other 
world. 

Amongst  the  kindred  Samoyeds,  despite  their  Russian  or- 
thodoxy, the  old  pagan  beliefs  enjoy  a  still  more  vigorous  ex- 
istence. "  As  long  as  things  go  well  with  him,  he  is  a  Christian ; 
but  should  his  reindeer  die,  or  other  catastrophe  happen,  he 
immediately  returns  to  his  old  god  Nwm  or  Chaddi....\\.^  con- 
ducts his  heathen  services  by  night  and  in  secret,  and  carefully 
screens  from  sight  any  image  of  Chaddi\"  Jackson  noticed 
several  instances  of  this  compromise  between  the  old  and  the 
new,  such  as  the  wooden  cross  supplemented  on  the  Samoyed 
graves  by  an  overturned  sledge  to  convey  the  dead  safely  over 
the  snows  of  the  under-world,  and  the  rings  of  stones,  within 
which  the  human  sacrifices  were  perhaps  formerly  offered  to 
propitiate  Chaddi ;  and  although  these  things  have  ceased,  "  it 
is  only  a  few  years  ago  that  a  Samoyad  living  on  Novaia  Zemlia 
sacrificed  a  young  girP." 

Similar  beliefs  and  practices  still  prevail  not  only  amongst 
the  Siberian  Finns — Ostyaks  of  the  Yenisei  and  Obi  rivers, 
Voguls  of  the  Urals — but  even  amongst  the  Vbt- 
yaks,  Mordvinians,  Cheremisses  and  other  scat-      pj^^^g  °  ^* 
tered  groups  still  surviving  in  the  Volga  basin. 
So  recently  as  the  year  1896  a  number  of  Votyaks  were  tried 
and  convicted  fof  the  murder  of  a  passing  mendicant,  whom 
they  had  beheaded  to  appease  the  wrath  of  Kiremet,  Spirit  of 
Evil  and  author  of  the  famine  raging  at  that  time  in  Central 
Russia.     Besides  Kiremet,  the  Votyaks — who  appear  to  have 
migrated  from  the  Urals  to  their  present  homes  between  the 

'   The  Great  Frozen  Land,  p.  84. 

''  Cf.  M.  A.  Czaplicka,  Aboriginal  Siberia,  1914,  pp.  162,  289  n. 


326  Man  :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

Kama  and  the  Viatka  rivers  about  400  a.d.,  and  are  mostly 
heathens — also  worship  Inmar,  God  of  Heaven,  to  whom  they 
sacrifice  animals  as  well  as  human  beings  whenever  it  can  be 
safely  done.  We  are  assured  by  Baron  de  Baye  that  even  the 
few  who  are  baptized  take  part  secretly  in  these  unhallowed 
rites'. 

To  the  Ugrian  branch,  rudest  and  most  savage  of  all  the 
Finnish  peoples,  belong  these  now  moribund  Volga  groups,  as 
well  as  the  fierce  Bulgar  and  Magyar  hordes,  if  not  also  their 
precursors,  the  Jazyges  and  Rhoxolani,  who  in  the  second  cen- 
tury A.D.  swarmed  into  Pannonia  from  the  Russian  steppe,  and 
in  company  with  the  Germanic  Quadi  and  Marcomanni  twice 
(168  and  172)  advanced  to  the  walls  of  Aquileia,  and  were 
twice  arrested  by  the  legions  of  Marcus  Aurelius  and  Verus. 
Of  the  once  numerous  Jazyges,  whom  Pliny  calls  Sarmates, 
there  were  several  branches — Maeotae,  Metanastae,  Basilii 
("Royal") — who  were  first  reduced  by  the  Goths  spreading 
from  the  Baltic  to  the  Euxine  and  Lower  Danube,  and  then 
overwhelmed  with  the  Dacians,  Getae,  Basfarnae,  and  a  hun- 
dred other  ancient  peoples  in  the  great  deluge  of  the  Hunnish 
invasion. 

From  the  same  South  Russian  steppe — the  plains  watered 
by  the  Lower  Don  and  Dnieper — came  the  Bulgars,  first  in 
TheBuigars  association  with  the  Huns,  from  whom  they  are 
—Origins  and  scarcely  distinguished  by  the  early  Byzantine 
Migrations.  writers,. and  then  as  a  separate  people,  who,  after 
throwing  off  the  yoke  of  the  Avars  (635  a.d.),  withdrew  before 
the  pressure  of  the  Khazars  westwards  to  the  Lower  Danube 
(678).  But  their  records  go  much  farther  back  than  these  dates, 
and  while  philologists  and  archaeologists  are  able  to  trace  their 
wanderings  step  by  step  north  to  the  Middle  Volga  and  the 
Ural  Mountains,  authentic  Armenian  documents  carry  their 
history  back  to  the  second  century  b.c.  Under  the  Arsacides 
numerous  bands  of  Bulgars,  driven  from  their  homes  about 
the  Kama  confluence  by  civil  strife,  settled  on  the  banks  of 
the  Aras,  and  since  that  time  (150-1 14  B.C.)  the  Bulgars  were 
known  to  the  Armenians  as  a  great  nation  dwelling  away  to 
the  north  far  beyond  the  Caucasus. 

Originally  the  name,  which  afterwards  acquired  such  an 

^  Notes  sur  les  Voiiaks  payens  des  Gouvernements  de  Kazan,  et  Viatka,"? axis, 
1897.  They  are  still  numerous,  especially  in  Viatka,  where  they  numbered  240,000 
in  1897. 


ix]  The  Northern  Mongols  327 

odious  notoriety  amongst  the  European  peoples,  may  have 
been  more  geographical  than  ethnical,  implying  not  so  much 
a  particular  nation  as  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  Btdga  (Volga) 
between  the  Kama  and  the  Caspian.  But  at  that  time  this 
section  of  the  great  river  seems  to  have  been  mainly  held  by 
more  or  less  homogeneous  branches  of  the  Finno-Ugrian  family, 
and  palethnologists  have  now  shown  that  to  this  connection 
beyond  all  question  belonged  in  physical  appearance,  speech, 
and  usages  those  bands  known  as  Bulgars,  who  formed  per- 
manent settlements  in  Moesia  south  of  the  Lower  Danube  to- 
wards the  close  of  the  seventh  century'.  Here  "these  bold  and 
dexterous  archers,  who  drank  the  milk  and  feasted  on  the  flesh 
of  their  fleet  and  indefatigable  horses  ;  whose  flocks  and  herds 
followed,  or  rather  guided,  the  motions  of  their  roving  camps  ; 
to  whose  inroads  nO  country  was  remote  or  impervious,  and 
who  were  practised  in  flight,  though  incapable  of  fear'',"  estab- 
lished a  poweYful  state,  which  maintained  its  independence  for 
over  seven  hundred  years  (678-1392). 

Acting  at  first  in  association  with  the  Slavs,  and  then 
assuming  "  a  vague  dominion  "  over  their  restless  Sarmatian 
allies,  the  Bulgars  spread  the  terror  of  their  hated  name  through- 
out the  Balkan  lands,  and  were  prevented  only  by  the  skill  of 
Belisarius  from,  anticipating  their  Turki  kinsmen  in  the  over- 
throw of  the  Byzantine  Empire  itself.  Procopius  and  Jornandes 
have  left  terrible  pictures  of  the  ferocity,  debasement,  and  utter 
savagery,  both  of  the  Bulgars  and  of  their  Slav  confederates 
during  the  period  preceding  the  foundation  of  the  Bulgar 
dynasty  in  Moesia.  Wherever  the  Slavs  (Antes,  Slaviru) 
passed,  no  soul  was  left  alive  ;  Thrace  and  Illyria  were  strewn 
with  unburied  corpses  ;  captives  were  shut  up  with  horse  and 
cattle  in  stables,  and  all  consumed  together,  while  the  brutal 
hordes  danced  to  the  music  of  their  shrieks  and  groans.  In- 
describable was  the  horror  inspired  by  the  Bulgars,  who  killed 
for  killing's  sake,  wasted  for  sheer  love  of  destruction,  swept 
away  all  works  of  the  human  hand,  burnt,  razed  cities,  left  in 
their  wake  nought  but  a  picture  of  their  own  cheerless  native 
steppes.  Of  all  the  barbarians  that  harried  the  Empire,  the 
Bulgars  have  left  the  most  detested  name,  although  closely 
rivalled  by  the  Slavs. 

J  See  especially  Schafarik's  classical  work  Slavische  Alterthiimer,  W.  p.  isgsq. 
and  V.  de  Saint- Martin,  itudes  de  GSographie  Ancienne  et  d' Ethnographic asiatiqtte, 
ti.  p.  10  sq.,  also  the  still  indispensable  Gibbon,  Ch.  XLii.,  etc. 

2  Decline  and  Fall,  XLii. 


328  Man  :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

To  the  ethnologist  the  later  history  of  the  Bulgarians  is 
of  exceptional  interest.  They  entered  the  Danubian  lands  in 
the  seventh  century  as  typical  Ugro-Finns,  repulsive  alike  in 
physical  appearance  and  mental  characters.  Their  dreaded 
chief,  Krum,  celebrated  his  triumphs  with  sanguinary  rites, 
and  his  followers  yielded  in  no  respects  to  the  Huns  themselves 
in  coarseness  and  brutality.  Yet  an  almost  complete  moral  if 
not  physical  transformation  had  been  effected  by  the  middle 
of  the  ninth  century,  when  the  Bulgars  were  evangelised  by 
Byzantine  missionaries,  exchanged  their  rude  Ugrian  speech 
for  a  Slavonic  tongue,  the  so-called  "  Church  Slav,"  or  even 
"  Old  Bulgarian,"  and  became  henceforth  merged  in  the  sur- 
rounding Slav  populations.  The  national  name  "Bulgar" 
alone  survives,  as  that  of  a  somewhat  peaceful  southern  "Slav" 
people,  who  in  our  time  again  acquired  the  political  inde- 
pendence of  which  they  had  been  deprived  by  Bajazet  I.  in 
1392. 

Nor  did  this  name  disappear  from  the  Volga  lands  after  the 
great  migration  of  Bulgar  hordes  to  the  Don  basin  during  the 
third  and  fourth  centuries  a.d.  On  the  contrary, 
Bulgaria*^  ^'"'^  '^^'"^  arose  another  and  a  greater  Bulgar  empire, 
which  was  known  to  the  Byzantines  of  the  tenth 
century  as  "  Black  Bulgaria,"  and  later  to  the  Arabs  and 
Western  peoples  as  "  Great  Bulgaria,"  in  contradistinction  to 
the  "  Little  Bulgaria  "  south  of  the  Danube\  It  fell  to  pieces 
during  the  later  "  Tatar  "  wars,  and  nothing  now  remains  of 
the  Volga  Bulgars,  except  the  Volga  itself  from  which  they 
\yere  named. 

In  the  same  region,  but  farther  north",  lay  also  a  "Great 

Hungary,"  the  original  seat  of  those  other  Ugrian  Finns  known 

as  Hungarians  and  Magyars,  who  followed  later 

MaCT^^         in  the  track  of  the  Bulgars,  and  like  them  formed 

permanent  settlements  in  the  Danube  basin,  but 

higher  up  in  Pannonia,  the  present  kingdom  of  Hungary. 

Here,  however,  the  Magyars  had  been  preceded  by  the  kindred 

^  Rubruquis  (thirteenth  century) :  "We  came  to  the  Etil,  a  very  large  and  deep 
river  four  times  wider  than  the  Seine,  flowing  from  '  Great  Bulgaria,'  which  lies  to 
the  north."  Farther  on  he  adds  :  "  It  is  from  this  Great  Bulgaria  that  issued  those 
Bulgarians  who  are  beyond  the  Danube,  on  the  Constantinople  side  "  (quoted  by 
V.  de  Saint- Martin). 

^  Evidently  much  nearer  to  the  Ural  Mountains,  for  Jean  du  Plan  Carpin  says 
this  "  Great  Hungary  was  the  land  of  Bascart,"  that  is,  Bashkir,  a  large  Finno- 
Turki  people,  who  stijl  occupy  a  considerable  territory  in  the  Orenburg  Government 
about  the  southern  slopes  of  the  Urals. 


ix]  The  Northern  Mongols  329 

(or  at  least  distantly  connected)  Avars,  the  dominant  people 
in  the  Middle  Danube  lands  for  a  great  part  of  the  period 
between  the  departure  of  the  Huns  and  the  arrival  of  the 
Magyars^  Rolling  up  like  a  storm  cloud  from  the  depths  of 
Siberia  to  the  Volga  and  Euxine,  sweeping  everything  before 
them,  reducing  Kutigurs,  Utigurs,  Bulgars,  and  Slavs,  the 
Avars  presented  themselves  in  the  sixth  century  on  the  frontiers 
of  the  empire  as  the  unwelcome  allies  of  Justinian.  Arrested 
at  the  Elbe  by  the  Austrasian  Franks,  and  hard  pressed  by 
the  Gepidae,  they  withdrew  to  the  Lower  Danube  under  the 
ferocious  Khagan  Bayan,  who,  before  his  overthrow  by  the 
Emperor  Mauritius  and  death  in  602,  had  crossed  the  Danube, 
captured  Sirmium,  and  reduced  the  whole  region  bordering  on 
the  Byzantine  empire.  Later  the  still  powerful  Avars  with 
their  Slav  followers,  "the  Avar  viper  and  the  Slav  locust," 
overran  the  Balkan  lands,  and  in  625  nearly  captured  Con- 
stantinople. They  were  at  last  crushed  by  Pepin,  king  of  Italy, 
who  reoccupied  Sirmium  in  799,  and  brought  back  such  treasure 
that  the  value  of  gold  was  for  a  time  enormously  reduced. 

Then  came  the  opportunity  of  the  Hunagars  (Hungarians^ 
who,  after  advancing  from  the  Urals  to  the  Volga  (550  a.d.), 
had  reached  the  Danube  about  886.  Here  they  were  invited 
to  the  aid  of  the  Germanic  king  Arnulf,  threatened  by  a  for- 
midable coalition  of  the  western  Slavs  under  the  Magyar 
redoubtable  Zventibolg,  a  nominal  Christian  who  origins  and 
would  enter  the  church  on  horseback  followed  by  ^^"^  'Rscat  s. 
his  wild  retainers,  and  threaten  the  priest  at  the  altar  with  the 
lash.  In  the  upland  Transylvanian  valleys  the  Hunagars  had 
been  joined  by  eight  of  the  derelict  Khazar  tribes,  amongst 
whom  were  the  Megers  or  Mogers,  whose  name  under  the  form 
of  Magyar  was  eventually  extended  to  the  united  Hunagar- 
Khazar  nation.  Under  their  renowned  king  Arpad,  son  of 
Almuth,  they  first  overthrew  Zventibolg,  and  then  with  the 
help  of  the  surviving  Avars  reduced  the  surrounding  Slav 
populations.  Thus  towards  the  close  of  the  ninth  century  was 
founded  in  Pannonia  the  present  kingdom  of  Hungary,  in  which 

1  With  them  were  associated  many  of  the  surviving  fugitive  On-Uigurs  (Gibbon's 
"  Ogors  or  Varchonites  "),  whence  the  report  that  they  were  not  true  Avars.  But 
the  Turki  genealogies  would  appear  to  admit  their  claim  to  the  name,  and  in  any 
case  the  Uigurs  and  Avars  of  those  times  cannot  now  be  ethnically  distinguished. 
Kandish,  one  of  their  envoys  to  Justinian;  is  clearly  a  Turki  name,  and  Varchonites 
seems  to  point  to  the  Warkhon  (Orkhon),  seat  in  successive  ages  of  the  eastern 
Turks,  the  Uigurs,  and  the  true  Mongols. 


330  Man  :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

were  absorbed  all  the  kindred  Mongol  and  Finno-Turki  ele- 
ments that  still  survived  from  the  two  previous  Mongolo-Turki 
empires,  established  in  the  same  region  by  the  Huns  under 
Attila  (430-453),  and  by  the  Avars  under  Khagan  Bayan 
(562-602). 

After  reducing  the  whole  of  Pannonia  and  ravaging  Carin- 
thia  and  Friuli,  the  Hunagars  raided  Bavaria  and  Italy  (899- 
900),  imposed  a  tribute  on  the  feeble  successor  of  Arnulf  (910), 
and  pushed  their  plundering  expeditions  as  far  west  as  Alsace, 
Lorraine,  and  Burgundy,  everywhere  committing  atrocities 
that  recalled  the  memory  of  Attila's  savage  hordes.  Trained 
riders,  a^rchers  and  javelin-throwers  from  infancy,  they  advanced 
to  the  attack  in  numerous  companies  following  hard  upon  each 
other,  avoiding  close  quarters,  but  wearing  out  their  antagonists 
by  the  persistence  of  their  onslaughts.  They  were  the  scourge 
and  terror  of  Europe,  and  were  publicly  proclaimed  by  the 
Emperor  Otto  I.  (955)  the  enemies  of  God  and  humanity. 

This  period  of  lawlessness  and  savagery  was  closed  by  the 
conversion  of  Saint  Stephen  I.  (997-1038),  after  which  the 
Magyars  became  gradually  assimilated  in  type  and  general 
culture,  but  not  in  speech,  to  the  western  nations'.  Their  har- 
monious and  highly  cultivated  language  still  remains  a  typical 
member  of  the,  Ural-Altaic  family,  reflecting  in  its  somewhat 
composite  vocabulary  the  various  Finno-Ugric  and  Turki  ele- 
ments (Ugrians  and  Permians  from  the  Urals,  Volga  Finns, 
Turki  Avars  and  Khazars),  of  which  the  substratum  of  the 
Magyar  nation  is  constituted^ 

"The  modern  Magyars,"  says  Peisker,  "are  one  of  the 
most  varied  race-mixtures  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  and  one  of 
the  two  chief  Magyar  types  of  today — -traced  to  the  Arpad  era 
[end  of  ninth  century]  by  tomb-findings — is  dolichocephalic 
with  a  narrow  visage.  There  we  have  before  us  Altaian  origin, 
Ugrian  speech  and  Indo-European  type  combined'." 

Politically  the  Magyars  continue  to  occupy  a  position  of 
vital  importance  in  Eastern  Europe,  wedged  in  between  the 

'  Ethnology,  p.  309. 

2  Vambery,  perhaps  the  best  authority  on  this  point,  holds  that  in  its  structure 
Magyar  leans  more  to  the  Finno-Ugric,  and  in  its  vocabulary  to  the  Turki  branch 
of  the  Ural-Altaic  linguistic  family.  He  attributes  the  effacement  of  the  physical 
type  partjy  to  the  effects  of  the  environment,  partly  to  the  continuous  interminglings 
of  the  Ugric,  Turki,  Slav,  and  Germanic  peoples  in  Pannonia  ("  Ueber  den  Ursprung 
.der  Magyaren,"  in  Mitt.  d.  K.  K.  Geograph.  Ges..,  Vienna,  1897,  XL.  Nos.  3  and  4). 

^  T.  Peisker,  "  The  Asiatic  Background,"  Cambridge  Medieval  History,  Vol.  I. 
1911,  p.  356. 


ix]  The  Northern  Mongols  331 

northern  and  southern  Slav  peoples,  and  thus  presenting  an 
insurmountable  obstacle  to  the  aspirations  of  the  Panslavist 
dreamers.  The  fiery  and  vigorous  Magyar  nationality,  a  com- 
pact body  of  about  8,000,000  ( 1 898),  holds  the  boundless  plains 
watered  by  the  Middle  Danube  and  the  Theiss,  and  thus  per- 
manently separates  the  Chechs,  Moravians,  and  Slovaks  of 
Bohemia  and  the  northern  Carpathians  from  their  kinsmen, 
the  Yugo-Slavs  ("Southern  Slavs")  of  Servia  and  the  other 
now  Slavonised  Balkan  lands.  These  Yugo-Slavs  are  in  their 
turn  severed  by  the  Rumanians  of  Neo-Latin  speech  from  their 
northern  and  eastern  brethren,  the  Ruthenians,  Poles,  Greal 
and  Little  Russians.  Had  the  Magyars  and  Rumanians  adopted 
any  of  the  neighbouring  Slav  idioms,  it  is  safe  to  say  that,  like 
the  Ugrian  Bulgarians,  they  must  have  long  ago  been  absorbed 
in  the  surrounding  Panslav  world,  with  consequences  to  the 
central  European  nations  which  it  would  not  be  difficult  to  fore- 
cast. Here  we  have  a  striking  illustration  of  the  influence  of 
language  in  developing  and  preserving  the  national  sentiment, 
analogous  in  many-  respects  to  that  now  witnessed  on  a  larger 
scale  amongst  the  English-speaking  populations  on  both  sides 
of  the  Atlantic  and  in  the  Austral  lands.  From  this  point  of 
view  the  ethnologist  may  unreservedly  accept  Ehrenreich's 
trenchant  remark  that  "  the  nation  stands  and  falls  with  its 
speech^" 

1  "Das  Volk  steht  und  fallt  mit  der  Sprache"  {Urbewohner  Brasiliens,  1897, 
p.  14). 


CHAPTER   X 


THE  AMERICAN  ABORIGINES 

American  Origins — Fossil  Man  in  America — ^The  Lagoa-Santa  Race — Physical 
Type  in  North  America — Cranial  Deformation  —  The  Toltecs — Type  Oi 
N.W.  Coast  Indians — Date  of  Migrations— Evidence  from  Linguistics — Stock 
Languages — Culture — Classification — By  Linguistics — Ethnic  Movements — 
Archaeological  Classification  —  Cultural  Classification  —  Eskimo  Area' — 
Material  Culture — Origin  and  Affinities — Physical  Type — Social  Life— 
Mackenzie  Area — The  Dene — Material  Culture— Physical  Type — Social  Life 
— North  Pacific  Coast  Area — Material  Culture — Physical  Type — Social  Life — 
Plateau  Area  — Mattrial  Culture — Interior  Salish— Social  Organisation— 
Californian  Area  —  Material  Culture — Social  Life — Plains  At-ea — Material 
Culture—  Dakota — Religion — The  Sun  Dance — Pawnee — Blackfeet — Arapaho 
— Cheyenne — Eastern  Woodland  Area — Material  Culture — Central  Group — 
Eastern  Group — Iroquoian  Tribes:  Ojibway — Religion — Iroquois — South- 
eastern Area — Material  Culture — Creeks — Yuchi — Mound-Builders — South- 
western Area — -Material  Culture  —  Transitional  or  Intermediate  Tiibes — 
Pueblos — Cliff  Dwellings — Religion — Physical  Type — Social  Life. 

Conspectus. 

Present  Range.  N.  W.  Pacific  Coastlands :  the  shores 
of^he  Arctia  Ocean.  Labrador,  and  Greenland :  ,the  unsettled 
Distribution  f^Z^?  of  Alaska  and  the  Dominion  ;  Reservations 
in  Past  and  and  Agencies  in  the  Dominion  and  the  United 
Present  Times.  States;  Mrts  of  Florida,  Arizona,  and  New 
Mexico ;  most  0/  Central  ajid^Jluth  America  with  Fuegia 
ejlhex^  wild  and  ftdl^b^^^tofi^r  semi-civili^&dJui^^du^Mds. 

Hai^r,  black,  lank,  coarse,  often  very  long.,  nearly  round  in 
transverse  section;  very  scanty  on  face ^^^ractically  absent 

on  body]  Colour,  differs,  accordmf  to  locajities, 
Characters      fxSJ2L^^^^y  y^llowish  whiteito  jhat  of  solid  choco- 

IcUe,  but  the  prevailing,  colour  is  J)rown ;  Skull, 
generally  iftesaticephalous  (79),  but  with  wide  range  from  65 
(some  Eskimo)  to  89  or  90  {some  British  Colum,bians,  Peru- 
vians) ;  the  OS  Incae  more  frequently  present  tfian  amqn£fst 
other^  races,  but^ne~os  finguae  {hyoid  bone)  often  imperfectly 
aeveloped;  Jaws,  m-assive,  but  moderately  pi^ojectingj  Cheek- 
bone,  as  cT'nde  rather  pi'ominent  laterally,  ana  a  ho  higji ; 


CH.  x]  The  American  Aborigines  333 

Nose,  f^ierally  lci.rge,_st7'ai^ht  or  even  aquiline,  and  mesor- 
rhine ;  Kyes,  near^°'aTze>a;ys  ^ark_^j^Q3ijn,  with  a  yelloivish 
conjunctiva,  and  iEe  eye-slits"l7iow~'a prevailinz  tendency  to  a 
slis[ht  upward  slant ;  Stature,  usually  above  the  medium  i  728  m. 
if)  ft-  8  or  10  in.),  bufvariable — ttnder  i"677  m.  {s/t-  6  in.)  on 
fhe  western  plateaux  (Peruvians,  etc.),  also  in  Fuegia  and 
Alaska;  i  '8 29 ;;/.  (6  ft.)  and  upwards  in  Patagonia  ( Tehuelches), 
Central  Brazil(Bororos)and  Prairie  (Algonquians,  Iroquoians); 
the  relative  proportions  of  the  two  elements  of  the  arms  and  of 
the  legs  {radio-humeral  and  tibio-femoral  indices)  are  interm^e- 
diate  between  those  of  whites  and  negroes. 

Temperamept.  moody,  reserved,  and  wary;  outwardly 
impassive  and  capable  of'end.urvng  extreme  physical  pain ;  con- 
siderate towards~edch  other,  kind  and^gentle  to- 
wards their  women  and  children,  ~Sutnoi  in  a      characters 
demonstrative  m.anner;  keen  sense  of  justice,  hence^ 
easily  offended,  but  also  easily  pacified.     The  outward  show  of 
dignity  and  a  lofty  air  assumed  by  many  seems  due  more  to 
vanity  or  ostentation  than  to  a  feeling  of  true  pride.    Mental 
capacity  considerabf&^jmick  higkenJkan  the  Negro,  but  on  tM£.^ 
whole  inferior  to  the  Mongol. 

Speegli,  exclusively  polysynthetic,  a  type  unknown  elscj 
where;  is  notja_priptitivR .Lakditinn, JmLjxJllgMy.^ specialised 
form  of  ae'sfutination,  in  which  all  the  terms  of  the  sentence 
tend  to  coalesce  in  a  single  polysyllabic  word;  stock  languages 
very  numerous,  perhaps  m.ore  so  than  all  the  stock  languages 
of  all  the  other  orders  of  speech  in  the  rest  of  the  world. 

Religion,  various  grades  of  spirit  and  nature  worship, 
corresponding  to  the  various  cultural  grades  ;  a  crude  fornTof 
shamanism  prevafentjiimi'agsJL. mast  of  the_J\[ortk_^  A  merican 
oEorigines,  polytheism  with  mcrifice  and  priestcrqft  amongst 
the  cultured  feoples' {A^tecSjjMaycis,  etc.);  the^monotheisljc 
concept  nowhere~7lear7yjvoh)e^;  belief  in^  a  natural  after-life 
vejy  prevaJ^nJj^JMLMJWJ&t:^- 

~~  Culture,  highly  diversified,  ranging  from  the  lowest  stages 
of  savagery  through  various  degrees  of  barbarism  to  the  advanced 
social  state  of  the  more  or  less  civilised  Mayas,  Aztecs,  Chibchas, 
Yungas,  Quichuas,  andAymaras;  amongst  these poUery,  weaving, 
metal-work,  agriculture,  and  especially  architecture  fairly  well 
^e^^e3;  letters  less  so,  alMo^^jfieJMaya  script  seentLM 
a^^mreached  the  tru±_  phonetic  .Siat&.;  navigation  and  .sden££ 
ruStmentary  or  absent ;  savagery  generally  far  more  prevalent 


334  Man  :   Past  and  Present  [ch. 


I.  Eskimo. 

II.  Mackenzie  Area.     Dene  tribes. 

I  Yellow  Knives,  i  Dog  Rib,  3  Hares,  4  Slavey,  s  Chipewyan,  6  Beaver, 
7  Nahane,  8  Sekani,  9  Babine,  10  Carrier,  11  Loucheux,  12  Ahtena,  13  Khotana. 

III.  North  Pacific  Area. 

14  Tlingit,'  15  Haida,  16  Kwakiutl,  17  Bellacoola,  18  Coast  Salish,  19  Nootka, 

30  Chinook,   2  r  Kalapooian. 

IV.  Plateau  Area. 

22  Shahapts  or  Nez  Perces,  23  Shoshoni,  24  Interior  Salish,  Thompson, 
25  Lillooet,  26  Shushwap. 

V.  Californian  Area. 

27  Wintun,  28  Porno,   29  Miwok,   30  Yokut. 
VI.       Plains  Area. 

31  Assiniboin,  32  Arapaho,  33  Siksika  or  Blackfoot,  34  Blood,  35  Piegan, 
36  Crow,  37  Cheyenne,  38  Comanche,  39  Gros  Ventre,  40  Kiowa,  41  Sarsi, 
42  Teton-Dakota  (Sioux),  43  Arikara,  Hidatsa,  Mandan,  44  Iowa,  45  Mis- 
souri, 46  Omaha,  47  Osage,  48  Oto,  49  Pawnee,  50  Ponca,  51  Santee-Dakota 
(Sioux),  52  Yankton-Dakota  (Sioux),  53  Wichita,  54  Wind  River  Shoshoni, 
55  Plains-Ojibway,  56  Plains-Cree. 

VII.  Eastern  Woodland  Area. 

57  Ojibway,  58  Saulteaux,  59  Wood  Cree,  60  Montagnais,  61  Naskapi,  62  Huron, 
63  ^Vyandot,  64  Erie,  65  Susquehanna,  66  Iroquois,  67  Algonquin,  68  Ottawa, 
69  Menomini,  70  Sauk  and  Fox,  71  Potawatomi,  72  Peoria,  73  Illinois, 
74  Kickapoo,  75  Miami,  76  Abnaki,   77  Micmac. 

VIII.  South-eastern  Area. 

78  Shawnee,  79  Creek,  80  Chickasaw,  81  Choctaw,  82  Seminole,  83  Cherokee, 
84  Tuscarora,  85  Yuchi,  86  Powhatan,  87  Tunican,  88  Natchez. 
IX.       South-western  Area.     Pueblo  tribes. 

89  Hopi,  90  Zuni,  9r  Rio  Grande,  92  Navaho,  93  Pima,  94  Mohave,  95  Jica- 
rilla,  96  Mescalero. 


X] 


The  American  Aborigines 


335 


Map  of  Areas  of  Material  Culture  in  North  America  (after  C.  Wissler, 
Am.  Anth.  XVI.  1914). 


33^  Man  :   Past  and  Present  [ch. 

and  intense  in  South  than  in  North  America,  but  the  tribal 
state  almost  everywhere  persistent. 

North  America:  Eskimauan  (Innuit,  Aleut,  Karalit)  ; 
Athapascan  (Dene,  Pacific  division,  Apache,  Navaho) ;  Kolu- 
.  ...  schan;  Algonquian  (Delaware,  Abnaki,  Ojib- 
way,  Shawnee,  Arapaho,  Sauk  and  Fox,  Black- 
feet) ; /rtf^z<(?z««  (Huron,  Mohawk,  Tuscarora,  Senec^,  Cayuga, 
Onondaga) ;  Siouan  (Dakota,  Omaha,  Crow,  Iowa,  Osage, 
Assiniboin);  Shoshonian  {^ovcvaxvc^^,  Ute);  Salishan;  Shahap- 
tian;  Caddoan;  Muskhogean  (Creek,  Choctaw,  Chickasaw, 
Seminole);  Pueblo  (Zunian,  Keresan,  Tanoan). 

Central  America:  Nahuatlan  (Aztec,  Pipil,  Niquiran); 
Huaxtecan  {M.2ij2i,  Quiche);  Totonac ;  Miztecan;  Zapotecan; 
Chorotegan;  Tarascan;  Otomitlan;  Talamancan;  Choco. 

South  America :  Muyscan  (Chibcha) ;  Quichuan  (Inca, 
Aymara)  ;  Yungan  (Chimu) ;  Antisan ;  Jivaran;  Zaparan  ; 
Betoyan;  Maku;  Pana  {C3.sh.1ho,  Karipuna,  Setebo);  Ticunan; 
Chiquitan;  Arawakan  (Arua,  Maypure,  Vapisiana,  Ipurina, 
Mahinaku,  Layana,  Kustenau,  Moxo);  Cariban  (Bakairi,  Na- 
huqua,  Galibi,  Kalina,  Arecuna,  Macusi,  Ackawoi) ;  Tupi- 
Guaranian  (Omagua,  Mundurucu,  Kamayura,  Emerillon) ; 
Gesan  (Botocudo,  Kayapo,  Cherentes) ;  Charruan ;  Bororo ; 
Karayan;  Guaycuruan  (Abipones,  Mataco,  Toha);  A raucanian 
or  Moluchean ;  Patagonian  or  Tehuelchean  (Pilma,  Yacana, 
Ona) ;  Ennem-an  (Lengua,  Sanapana,  Angaites) ;  Fuegian 
(Yahgan,  Alakaluf). 

• 

1 1  is  impossible  to  dissociate  the  ethnological  history  of  the 
New  World  from  that  of  the  Old.     The  absence  from  America 
at  any  period  of  the  world's  history  not  only  of  anthropoid  apes 
but  also  of  the  Cercopithecidae,  in  other  words 
OriSnT'  of  the  Catarrhini,  entirely  precludes  the  possibility 

of  the  independentorigm  of  man  iri~tEe|  western 
hemisphere.  TEierefbre  the  population  o?*lKe  Americas  must 
have  come  from  the  Old  World.  In  prehistoric  times  there  were 
only  two  possible  routes  for  such  immigration  to~Tiave  taken 
place.  For  the  mid- Atlantic  land  corihectiotrwas  severed  long 
ages  before  the  appearance  of  man,  and  the  connection  of  South 
America  with  Antarctica  had  also  long  disappeared  \  We  are 
therefore  compelled  to  look  to  a  farther  extension  of  land  be- 
tween North  America  and  northern  Europe  on  the  one  hand, 

'  A.  C.  Haddon,  The  Wanderings  of  Peoples,  191 1,  p.  72. 


x]  The  American  Aborigines  337 

and  between  north-west  Americfi  and  north-east  Asia  on  the 
other.  We  know  that  inJateJTertiary  times  there  was  a  land- 
bridge  connecting  north-west  Europe  with  Greenland,  and 
Scharff'  beHeves  that  the  Barren-ground  reindeer  took  this 
route  to  Norway  and  western  Europe  during  early  glacial  times, 
but  that  "towards  the  latter  part  of  the  Glacial  period^the  land- 
connection broke  down."    Other  authorities  are  of  opinion 

that  the  continuous  land  between  the  two  continents  in  higher 
latitudes  remained  until  post-glacial  times.  Brinton°  considered 
that  it  was  impossible  for  man  to  have  reached  America  from 
Asia,  because^Siberia  was'covered  with  glaciers  and  not  peopled 
until  late  NeQlithic^unes.  whereas  man  was  living  in  both 
North  and  South  America  at  the  close  of  the  Glacial  Age. 
He  acknowledged  frequent  communication  in  later  times  be- 
tween Asia  and  America,  but  maintained  that  the  movement 
was  rather  from  America  to  Asia  than  otherwise.  He  was 
therefore  a  strong  advocate-_Q£-JLhe  European  origin  ofj:he 
American  race.  There  is  no  doubt  that  North  America  was 
connected  witn  Asia  in  Tertiary  times,  though  some  geologists 
assert  that  "  the  far  North-west  did  not  rise  from  the  waves 
of  the  Pacific  Ocean  (which  once  flowed  with  a  boundless  ex- 
panse to  the  North  Pole)  until  after  the  glacial  period."  In 
that  case  "the  first  inhabitants  of  America  certainly  did  not 
get  there  in  this  way,  for  by  that  time  the  bones  of  many 
generations  were  already  bleaching  on  the  soil  of  the  New 
World'."  The  "  Miocene  Bridge,"  as  the  land  connecting 
Asia  and  America  in  late  geological  times  has  been  called,  was 
probably  very  wide,  one  side  would  stretch  from  Kamchatka 
to  British  Columbia,  and  the  other  across  Behring  Strait.  If, 
as  seems  probable,  this  connection  persisted  till,  or  was  recon- 
stituted during,  the  human  period,  tribes  migrating  to  America 
by  the  more  northerly  route  would  enter  the  land  east  of  the 
great  barrier  of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  The  route  from  the 
Old  World  to  the  New  by  the  Pacific  margin  probably  remained 
nearly  always  open.  Thus,  while  not  denying  the  pgssibilitv 
of  a  very  early  migration  from  "NortK'^urope  to  North  AmencsP 
through  Greenland,  it  appears  more  probable  that  America 
received  its  population  from  North  Asia.  ^ 

We  have  next  to  determine  what  were  the  characteristics 

1  R.  F.  Scharff,  The  History  of  the  European  Fauna,  1899,  pp.  155,  186. 

2  D.  G.  Brinton,  The  American  Race,  1 891. 

3  K.  Haebler,  The  World's  History  (ed.  Helmolt),  I.  1901,  p.  181. 

K.  22 


338  Man  :   Past  and  Present  [ch. 

of  the  earliest  inhabitants  of  America,  and  the  approximate 
date  of  their  arrival.  There  have  been  many  sen- 
America  *°  *"  •  national  accounts  of  the  dispoveries  of  fossil  man 
in  America,  which  have  not  been  able  to  stand 
the  criticism  of  scientific  investigation.  It  must  always  be 
remembered  that  the  evidence  is  primarily  one  of  stratigraphy. 
Assuming,  of  course,  that  the  human  skeletal  remains  found  in 
a  given  deposit  are  contemporaneous  with  the  formation  of 
that  deposit  and  not  subsequently  interred  in  it,  it  is  for  the 
geologist  to  determine  the  age.  The  amount  of  petrifaction 
and  the  state  of  preservation  of  the  bones  are  quite  fallacious 
nor  can  much  reliance  be  placed  upon  the  anatorqical  character 
of  the  remains.  Primordial  human  remains  may  be  expected 
to  show  ancestral  characters'  to  a  marked  degree,  but  as  we 
have  insufficient  data  to  enable  us  to  determine  the  rate  of 
evolution,  anatomical  considerations  must  fit  into  the  time- 
scale  granted  by  the  geologist. 

Apart  from  pure  stratigraphy  associated  animal  remains 
may  serve  to  support  or  refute  the  claims  to  antiquity,  while 
the  presence  of  artifacts,  objects  made  or  used  by  man,  may 
afford  evidence  for  determining  the  relative  date  if  the  cultural 
stratigraphy  of  the  area  has  been  sufficiently  established. 

Fortunately  the  fossil  human  remains  of  America  have  been 
carefully  studied  by  a  competent  authority  who  says,  "  Irre- 
spective of  other  considerations,  in  every  instance  where  enough 
of  the  bones  is  preserved  for  comparison  the  somatological 
evidence  bears  witness  against  the  geological  antiquityof  the 
remains  and  for  their  close  affinity  to,  or  identity  with  those  of 
the  modern  Indian.  Under  these  circumstances  but  one  con- 
clusion is  justified,  which  is  that  thus  far  on  this  continent,  no 
human,  bones  of  undisputed  geological  antiquity  are  known'." 
Hrdlicka  subsequently  studied  the  remaihsof  South  America 
and  says,  "A  conscientious,  imbiased  study  of  all  the  available 
facts  has  shown  that  the  whole  structure  erected  in  support  of 
the  theory  of  geologically  ancient  man  on  that  continent  rests 
on  very  imperfectly  and  incorrectly  interpreted  data  and  in 
many  instances  on  false  premises,  and  as  a  consequence  of 
these  weaknesses  must  completely  collapse  when  subjected  to 
searching  criticism. — As  to  the  antiquity  of  the  various  archaeo- 
logical remains  from  Argentina  attributed  to  early  man,  all 

^  A.  Hrdlicka,  "Skeletal  Remains  suggesting  or  attributed  to  Early  Man  in 
North  America,"  Bureau  Am.  Eth.  Bull.  33,  1907,  p.  98. 


^1  The  American  Aborigines  339 

those  to  which,  particular  importance  has  been  attached  have 
been  found  without  tenable  claim  to  great  age,  while  others, 
mostly  single  objects,  without  exception  fall  into  the  category 
of  ;he  doubtfuP." 

The  conclusions  of  W.  H.  Holmes,  Bailey  Willis,  F.  E. 
Wright  and  C.  N.  Fenner,  who  collaborated  with  Hrdlicka, 
with  regard  to  the  evidence  thus  far  furnished,  are  that,  "  it 
fails  to  establish  the  claim  that  in  South  America  there  have 
been  brought  forth  thus  far  tangible  traces  of  either  geologically 
ancient  man'himself  or  of  any  precursors  of  the  human  race^" 
Hrdlicka  is  careful  to  add,  however,  "  This  should  not  be 
taken  as  a  categorical  denial  of  the  existence  of  early  man  in 
South  America,  however  improbable  such  a  presence  may  now 
appear." 

According  to  J.  W.  Gidley'  the  evidence  of  vertebrate 
paleontology  indicates  (i)  That  man  did  not  exist  in  North 
America  at  the  beginning  of  the  Pleistocene  although  there 
was  a  land  connection  between  Asia  and  North  America 
at  that  time  permitting  a  free  passage  for  large  mammals. 
(2)  That  a  similar  land  connection  was  again  in  existence  at 
the  close  of  the  last  glacial  epoch,  and  probably  continued  up 
to  comparatively  recent  times,  as  indicated  by  the  close  re- 
semblance of  related  living  mammalian  species  on  either  side 
of  the  present  Behring  Strait.  (3)  That  the  first  authentic 
records  of  prehistoric  man  in  America  have  been  found  in 
deposits  that  are  not  older  than  the  last  glacial  epoch,  and 
probably  of  even  later  date,  the  inference  being  that  man  first 
found  his  way  into  North  America  at  some  time  near  the  close 
of  the  existence  of  this  last  land  bridge.  (4)  That  this  land 
bridge  was  broad  and  vegetative,  and  the  climate  presumably 
mild,  at  least  along  its  southern  coast  border,  making  it  habit- 
able for  man. 

Rivef*  points  out  that  from  Brazil  to  Terra  del  Fuegia  on 
the  Atlantic  slope,  in  Bolivia  and  Peru,  on  the  high  plateaux 
of  the  Andes,  on  the  Pacific  coast  and  perhaps 
in  the  south  of  California,  traces  of  a  distinct  race      g^^^  ^°g" 
are  met  with,  sometimes  in  single  individuals, 
sometimes  in  whole  groups.    This  race  of  Lagoa  Santa  is  an 

1  A.  Hrdlicka,  "Early  Man  in  South  America,"  Bureau  Am.  Eth.  Bull.  52,  1912. 
^  Loc.  cit.  pp.  385-6. 

3  American  Anthropologist,  xiv.  1912,  p.  22. 

*  P.  Rivet,  "La  Race  de  Lagoa-Santa  chez  les  populations  prdcolombiennes 
de  r^quateur,"  Bull.  Soc.  itAnth.  v.  2,  1908,  p.  264. 


340  Man:   Past  and  Present  [ch. 

important  primordial  element  in  the  population  of  South 
America,  and  has  been  termed  by  Deniker  the  Palaeo- 
American  sub-race\ 

The  men  were  of  low  stature  but  considerable  strength,  ^the 
skull  was  long,  narrow  and  high,  of  moderate  size,  prognathous, 
with  strong  brow  ridges,  but  not  a  retreating  forehead.  There 
is  no  reliable  evidence  as  to  the  age  of  these  remains.  H  rdlicka, 
after  reviewing  all  the  evidence  says,  "Besides  agreeing  closely 
with  the  dolichocephalic  American  type,  which  had  an  extensive 
representation  throughout  Brazil,  including  the*  Province  of 
Minas  Geraes,  and  in  many  other  parts  of  South  America,  it  is 
the  same  type  which  is  met  with  farther  north  among  the  Aztec, 
Tarasco,  Otomi,  Tarahumare,  Pima,  Californians,  ancient  Utah 
cliff  dwellers,  ancient  north-eastern  Pueblos,  Shoshoni,  many 
of  the  Plains  Tribes,  Iroquois,  Eastern  Siouan,  and  Algonquian. 
But  it  is  apart  from  the  Eskimo,  who  form  a  distinct  subtype 
of  the  yellow-brown  strain  of  humanity"." 

Rivet^  adds  that  an  examination  of  the  present  distribution 
of  the  descendants  of  the  Lagoa-Santa  type  shows  that  they  are 
all  border  peoples,  in  East  Brazil,  and  the  south  of  Patagonia 
and  Terra  del  Fuegia,  where  the  climate  is  rigorous,  in  desert 
islands  of  west  and  southern  Chili,  on  the  coast  of  Ecuador,  and 
perhaps  in  California.  This  suggests  that  they  have  been 
driven  out  in  a  great  eccentric  movement  from  their  old  habitat, 
into  new  environment  producing  fresh  crossings. 

There  is  an  absence  of  this  high  narrow-headed  type 
throughout  the  northern  part  of  South  America,  and  a  pre- 
valence of  medium  or  sub-brachycephalic  heads  which  are 
always  low  in  the  crown.  These  are  now  represented  by  the 
Caribs  and  Arawaks,  but  there  was  more  than  one  migration 
of  br^chycephalic  peoples  from  the  north. 

To  return  to  North  America.  As  we  have  just  seen 
H rdlicka  recognises  a  dolichocephalic  element  in  North 
Physical  Type  America,  and  various  ethnic  groups  range  to  pro- 
in  North  nounced  brachycephaly.    Nevertheless  he  believes 

erica.  j^^  ^j^^  Original  unity  of  the  Indian  race  in  America, 

basing  his  conclusions  on  the  colour  of  the  skin,  which  ranges 
from  yellowish  white  to  dark  brown,  the  straight  black  hair, 
scanty  beard,  hairless  body,  brown  and  often  more  or  less  slanting 

'  J.  Deniker,  The  Races  of  Man,  igoo,  p.  512. 
2  Bur.  Am.  Eth.  Bull.  52,  1912,  pp.  183-4. 
^  Loc.  cit.  p.  267. 


x]  The  American  Aborigines  341 

eye,  mesorrhine  nose,  medium  prognathism,  skeletal  propor- 
tions and  other  essential  features.  In  all  these  characters  the 
American  Indians  resemble  the  yellowish  brown  peoples  of 
eastern  Asia  and  a  large  part  of  Polynesia\  He  also  believes 
that  there  were  many  successive  migrations  from  Asia. 

The  differences  of  opinion  between  Hrdlicka  and  other 
students  is  probably  more  a  question  of  nomenclature  than  of 
fact.  The  eastern  Asiatics  and  Polynesians  are  mixed  peoples, 
and  if  there  vyere  numerous  migrations  from  Asia,  spread  over 
a  very  long  period  of  time,  people  of  different  stocks  would 
have  found  their  way  into  America.  "  It  is  indeed  probable," 
Hrdlicka  adds,  "  that  the  western  coast  of  America,  within  the 
last  two  thousand  years,  was  on  more  than  one  occasion  reached 
by  small  parties  of  Polynesians,  and  that  the  eastern  coast  was 
similarly  reached  by  small  groups  of  whites  ;  but  these  ac- 
cretions have  not  modified  greatly,  if  at  all,  the  mass  of  the  native 
population^" 

The  inhabitants  of  the  plains  east  of  the  Rocky  Mountains 
and  the  eastern  wooded  area  are  characterised  by  a  head  which 
varies  about  the  lower  limit  of  brachycephaly,  and  by  tall 
stature.  This  stock  probably  arrived  by  the.  North  Pacific 
Bridge  before  the  end  of  the  last  Glacial  period,  and  extended 
over  the  continent  east  of  the  great  divide.  Finally  bands  from 
the  north,  east  and  south  migrated  into  the  prairie  area.  The 
markedly  brachycephalic  immigrants  from  Asia  appear  to  have 
proceeded  mainly  down  the  Pacific  slope  and  to  have  populated 
Central  and  South  America,  with  an  overflow  into  the  south 
of  North  America.  It  is  probable  that  there  were  several 
migrations  of  allied  but  not  similar  broad-headed  peoples  from 
Asia  in  early  days,  and  we  know  that  recently  there  have  been 
racial  and  cultural  drifts  between  the  neighbouring  portions  of 
America  and  Asia'.  Indeed  Bogoras*  suggests  that  ethno- 
graphically  the  line  separating  Asia  and  America  should  lie 
from  the  lower  Kolyma  River  to  Gishiga  Bay. 

Owing  to  these  various  immigrations  and  subsequent 
minglings  the  cranial  forms  show  much  variation,  and  are  not 
sufficiently  significant  to  serve  as  a  basis  of  classification.  In 
parts  of  North  America  the  round-headed  mound-builders  and 

1  A.  Hrdlicka,  Am.  Anth.  XIV.  1912,  p.  10. 

2  Ibid.  p.  12. 

3  A.  C.  Haddon,  The  Wanderings  of  Peoples,  1911,  pp.  78-9. 
*  W.  Bogoras,  Am.  Anth.  iv.  19132,  p.  577. 


342  Man:   Pc^st  and  Present  [ch. 

others  were  encroached  upon  by  populations  of  increasingly- 
dolichocephalic  type — Plains  Indians  and  Cherokees,  Chichi- 
mecs,  Tepanecs,  Acolhuas.  Even  still  dolichocephaly  is  charac- 
teristic of  Iroquois,  Coahuilas,  Sonorans,  while  the  intermediate 
indices  met  with  on  the  prairies  and  plateaux  undoubtedly 
indicate  the  mixture  between  the  long-headed  invaders  and  the 
round-heads  whom  they  swept  aside  as  they  advanced  south- 
wards. Thus  the  Minnetaris  are  highly  dolicho ;  the  Poncas 
and  Osages  sub-brachy ;  the  Algonquians  variable,  while  the 
Siouans  oscillate  widely  round  a  mesaticephalous  mean. 

The  Athapascans  alone  are  hornogeneous,  and  their  sub- 
brachycephaly  recurs  amongst  the  Apaches  and  their  other 

southern  kindred,  who  have  given  it  an  exagge- 
Deformation      rated  form  by  the  widespread  practice  of  artificial 

deformation,  which  dates  from  remote  times. 
The  most  typical  cases  both  of  brachy  and  dolicho  deformation 
are  from  the  Cerro  de  las  Palmas  graves  in  south-west  Mexico. 
Deformation  prevails  also  in  Peru  and  Bolivia,  as  well  as  in 
Ceara  and  the  Rio  Negro  on  the  Atlantic  side.  The  flat-head 
form,  so  common  from  the  Columbia  estuary  to  Peru,  occurs 
amongst  the  broad-faced  Huaxtecs,  their  near  relations  the 
Maya-Quiches,  and  the  Nahuatlans.  It  is  also  found  amongst 
.c-r  If      "    the  extinct  Cebunys  of  Cuba,  Hayti  and  Jamaica,  , 

and  the  so-called  "  Toltecs,"  that  is,  the  people 
of  Tollan  (Tula),  who  first  founded  a  civilised  state  on  the 
Mexican  table-land  (sixth  and  seventh  centuries  a.d.),  and  whose 
name  afterwards  became  associated  with  every  ancient  monu- 
ment throughout  Central  America.  On  this  "Toltec  question" 
the  most  contradictory  theories  are  current ;  some  hold  that 
the  Toltecs  were  a  great  and  powerful  nation,  who  after  the 
overthrow  of  their  empire  migrated  southwards,  spreading  their 
culture  throughout  Central  America ;  others  regard  them  as 
"  fabulous,"  or  at  all  events  "  nothing  more  than  a  sept  of  the 
Nahuas  themselves,  the  ancestors  of  those  Mexicans  who  built 
Tehochtitlan,"  i.e.  the  present  city  of  Mexico.  A  third  view, 
that  of  Valentini,  that  the  Toltecs  were  not  Nahuas  but  Mayas, 
is  now  supported  both  by  E.  P.  Dieseldorff^  and  by  F6rstemann^ 
T.  A.  Joyce'  suggests  that  the  vanguard  of  the  Nahuas  on 
reaching  the  Mexican  valley  adopted  and  improved  the  culture 

^  Bur.  Am.  Eth.  Bull.  28,  1904,  p.  535. 

^  Globus,  Lxx.  No.  3. 

■■^  Mexican  Archaeology,  1914,  p.  7  fif. 


'^]  The  American  Aborigines  343 

of  an  agricultural  people  of  Tarascan  affinities  whose  culture 
was  in  part  due  to  Mayan  inspiration,  whom  they  found  settled 
there.  Later  migrations  of  Nahua  were  greatly  impressed  with 
the  "Toltec"  culture  which  had  thus  arisen  through  the  impact 
of  a  virile  hunting  people  on  more  passive  agriculturalists. 

On  the  North-west  Pacific  Coast  similar  ethnical  inter- 
minglings  recur,  and  Franz  Boas'  here  distinguishes  as  many  as 
four  types,  the  Northern  (Tsimshian  and  others),  ^  eof 
the  Kwakiutl,  the  Lillooet  of  the  Harrison  Lake  N^h-west 
region  and  the  inland  Salishan  (Flat-heads,  Coast  Indians 
Shuswaps,  etc. ).  All  are  brachycephalic,  but  while  Variable, 
the  Tsimshians  are  of  medium  height  i'675  m.  (5  ft.  6  in.)  with 
low,  concave  nose,  very  large  head,  and  enormously  broad  face, 
exceeding  the  average  for  North  America  by  6  mm.,  the 
Kwakiutls  are  shorter  i  -645  m.  (5  ft.  4f  in.)  with  very  high  and 
relatively  narrow  hooked  nose,  and  quite  exceptionally  high 
face;  the  Harrison  Lake  very  short  i-6oom.  (5  ft  3  in.)  with 
exceedingly  short  and  broad  head  (c.  i.  nearly  89),  "surpassing 
in  this  respect  all  other  forms  known  to  exist  in  North  America" ; 
lastly,  the  inland  Salish  of  medium  height  i"679  m.  (5  ft.  6  in.) 
with  high  and  wide  nose  of  the  characteristic  Indian  form  and 
a  short  head. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  find  anywhere  a  greater  contrast 
than  that  which  is  presented  by  some  of  these  British  Columbian 
natives,  those,  for  instance,  of  Harrison  Lake  with  almost  cir- 
cular heads  (88"8),  and  some  of  the  Labrador  Eskimo  with  a 
degree  of  dolichocephaly  not  exceeded  even  by  the  Fijian  Kai- 
Colos  (65) ^     But  this  violent  contrast  is  som'ewhat  toned  by 
the  intermediate  forms,  such   as  those  of  the  Tlingits,  the 
Aleutian  islanders,  and  the  western  (Alaskan)  Eskimo,  by  which 
the  transition  is  effected  between  the  Arctic  and  the  more 
southern  populations.     It  is  not  possible  at  present  to  indicate 
even  in  outline  the  chronology  of  any  of  the  ethnic 
movements  outlined  above.     Warren  K.  Moore-   ^^^  °^    ^^^^' 
head^  agrees  with  the  great  majority  of  American 
archaeologists  in  holding  the  existence  of  palaeolithic  man  in 
North  America  as  not  proven',  the  so-called  palaeoliths  being 

1  "  The  Social  Organization,  etc.  of  the  Kwakiutl  Indians,"  Rep.  U.S.  Nat.  Mus. 
1895,  Washington  (1897),  p.  321  sq.  and  Ann.  Arch.  Rep.  1905,  Toronto,  1906, 

p.  84. 

2  W.  L.  H.  Duckworth, /(?«r«.  Anthr.  Inst.,  August,  1895. 
'  The  Stone  Age  in  North  America,  191 1. 

*  On  the  other  hand  there  are  a  few  American  archaeologists  who  believe  in 


344  Man  :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

either  rejects  or  rude  tools  for  rough  purposes.  When  man 
migrated  to  America  from  North  and  East^Asia  whenever  that 
period  may  have  been,  he  appears  to  have  beenTrTthat  stage 
of  culture — -or  ratHeFof  stone  techniqu^^^^^^^^uch  we  term  iSfeo- 
lithic,  and  the  drifting:  movement  ceased  EelweTieTaH  learnt 
the  use  oi  metals. 

"  Afurther^oof  of  the  antiquity  of  the  migrations  is  afforded 
by  linguistics.  A.  F.  Chamberlain  asserts^  that  "  it  may  be  said 
with  certainty,  sofaras  all  data'Hitherto  presented 
L^gufeticr™  ^""^  concerned,  that  no  satisfactory  proof  whate^gr 
has  been  put  forward  t^mduceAis  to  bplieyejthat 
any  single  American  IndianTtongue  or  group  of  tongues^has 
been  derived  from  any  Old  World  form  of  speech  now  existing 
o£known  to  have  existed  in  the  past.  Iji  whateKerlS^ItDe 
multiplicity _ of  American  Indian  languages  and  dialects  may 
have  arisen,  one  can  be  reasonably  sure  that  the  differentiation 
and  divergence  have  developed  here  in  A.merica  and  are  m 
nonsense  due  to  the  occasional  intrusion  of  Old  World  tongues 
individually  or  en  masse.... Q,&x\2sn  real  relationships  between 
the  American  Indians  and  the  peoples  of  north-eastern  Asia; 
known  as  '  Paleo- Asiatics,'  have,  however,  been  revealed  as  a 
result  of  the  extensive  investigations  of  the  Jesup  North  Pacific 

Expedition The  general  conclusion  to  be  drawn  from  the 

evidence  is  that  the  so-called  '  Paleo- Asiatic '  peoples  of  north- 
eastern Asia,  i.e.  tEe  Chukchee,  Koryak,  K amchad ale^Gilyak, 
VukagEir,"etc.  really  belong  pViyQtrally.anrI  ntkurally  with  the 

aborigines  of  north-western  America Like  the  modern  Asiatic 

EsMffio'they  represent  a  reflex  from  America  and  Asia,  and 

not  vice  versa It  is  the  opinion  of  good  authorities  also  that  the 

' Paleo- Asiatic ' jgeoplesbelong linguistically  witTiltHe^jm^ncari 
I  n"3ians  rather  than  with  the  other  tribes^and  stocks  of  northgrn 
or  southern  A.sia.  Here  we  have  then  the  orily  real  relationship 
of  a  linguistic  character  that  has  ever  been  convincingly  argued 
between  tongues  of  the  New  World  and  tongues  of  the  Old." 
p-  It  is  not  merely  that  the  American  languages  differ  from 
other  forms  of  speech  in  their  general  phonetic,  structural  and 
lexical  features ;  they  differ  from  them  in  their  very  morphology, 

^s  much,  for  instance,  as  in  the  zoological  world  class  differs 

i  _ 

the  occurrence  of  irtiplements  of  palaeolithic  type  in  the  United  States,  but  there 
is  no  corroborative  evidence  on  the  part  of  contemporaneous  fossils.     See  N.  H. 
Winchell,  "The  weathering  of  aboriginal  stone  artifacts,"  No.  i.     Collection  of  the 
Minnesota  Hist.  Soc.  Vol.  xvi.  191 3. 
^  Am.  Anth.  xiv.  1912,  p.  55. 


'^']  The  American  Aborigines  345 

from  class,  order  from  order^  They  have  all  of  them  developed 
on  the  same  polyjsyniEetir'llrips,  from  which  if  a  few  here  and 
there  now  appear  to  depart,  it  is  only  because  in  the  course  of 
their  further  evolution  they  have,  so  to  say,  broken  away  from 
that  prototype'.  Take  the  rudest  or  the  most  highly  cultivated 
anywhere  from  Alaska  to  Fuegia— Eskimauan,  Iroquoian, 
Algonquian,  Aztec,  Tarascan,  Ipurina,  Peruvian,  Yahgan — 
and  you  will  find  each  and  all  giving  abundant  evidence  of  this 
universal  polysynthetic  character^  not  one_true  instance  of  which 
can  be  tolIiiH"  anywhere  in jthe  eastern  hemTsphere.  Ihere  is 
incorporation  with  the  verb,  as  in  Basque,  many  of  the  Caucasus 
tongues,  and  the  Ural-Altaic  group;  but  it  is  everywhere  limited 
to  pronominal  and  purely  relational  elements. 

But  in  the  American  order  of  speech  there  is  no  such  limita- 
tion, and  not  merely  the  pronouns,  which  are  restricted  in 
number,  but  the  nouns  with  their  attributes,  which  are  practi- 
'  cally  numberless,  all  enter  necessarily, into  the  verbal  paradigm. 
Thus  in  Tarascan  (Mexico):  hopocuni=to  wash  the  hands T" 
hopodini=x.o  wash  the  ears,  from  hoponi=\.o  wash,  which  can- 
not be  used  alone^  So  in  Ipurina  (Amazonia):  nicufacatfau- 
rumatini{=  I  draw  the  cord  tight  round  your  waist,  from  ni,  I ; 
cugaca,  to  draw  tight;  tfa,  cord;  tHruma,  waist;  tini,  character- 
istic verbal  affix;  /,  thy,  referring  to  waist*. 

We  see  from  such  examples  that  polysynthesis  is  not  a^ 
primitive  condition  of  speech,  as  is  often  asserted,  but  on  the 
contrary  a  highly  developed  system,  in  which  the  original  ag- 
glutinative process  has  gone  so  far  as  to  attract  all  the  elements 
of  the  sentence  to  the  verb,  round  which  they  cluster  like 
swarming  bees  round  their  queen.  In  Eskimauan  the  tendency  ~ 
is  shown  in  the  construction  of  nouns  and  verbs,  by  which 
other  classes  of  words  are  made  almost  unnecessary,  and  one 

1  Such  disintegration  is  clearly  seen  in  the  Carib  still  surviving  in  Dominica, 
of  which  J.  Numa  Rat  contributed  a  somewhat  full  account  to  the  Journ.  Anthr. 
Inst,  for  Nov.  1897,  p.  293  sq.  Here  the  broken  form  arametakuahdtina  buka 
appears  to  represent  the  polysynthetic  arametakuanientibubuka  (root  arameta,  to 
hide),  as  in  P6re  Breton's  Grammaire  Caraibe,  p.  45,  where  we  have  also  the  form 
arametakualubatibubasubutuiruni=V.nQvi  that  he  will  conceal  thee  (p.  48).'  It 
may  at  the  same  time  be  allowed  that  great  inroads  have  been  made  on  the  prin- 
ciple of  polysynthesis  even  in  the  continental  (South  American)  Carib,  as  well  as 
in  the  Colombian  Chibcha,  the  Mexican  Otomi  and  Pima,  and  no  doubt  in  some 
other  linguistic  groups.  But  that  the  system  must  have  formerly  been  continuous 
over  the  whole  of  America  seems  proved  by  the  persistence  of  extremely  poly- 
synthetic tongues  in  such  widely  separated  regions  as  Greenland  (Eskimo), 
Mexico  (Aztec),  Peru  (Quichuan),  and  Chili  (Araucanian). 

'  R.  da  la  Grasserie  and  N.  Ldon,  Langue  Tarasgue,  Paris,  1896. 

3  J.  E.  R.  Polak,  Ipurina  Grammar,  etc.,  London,  1894. 


34^  Man :   Past  and  Present  [ch. 

word,  sometimes  of  interminable  length,  is  able  to  express 
a  whole  sentence  with  its  subordinate  clauses.  H.  Rink,  one 
of  the  first  Eskimo  scholars  of  modern  times,  gives  the  instance : 
' '  Su^rukame  -  autdlasassoq  -  tusaramiuk-tuningingmago-iluarin- 
gilit  =  they  did  not  approve  that  he  {a)  had  ofmitted  to  give 
him  [b)  something,  as  he  [a)  heard  that  he  (<J),was  going  to 
depart  on  account  of  being  destitute  of  everything\"  Such 
monstrosities  "are  so  complicated  that  in  daily  speech  they 
could  hardly  ever  occur ;  but  still  they  are  correct  and  can  be 
understood  by  intelligent  peopled" 

He  gives  another  and  much  longer  example,  which  the 
reader  may  be  spared,  adding  that  there  are  altogether  about 
200  particles,  as  many  as  ten  of  which  may  be  piled  up  on  any 
given  stem.  The  process  also  often  involves  great  phonetic 
changes,  by  which  the  original  form  of  the  elements  becomes 
disguised,  as,  for  instance,  in  the  English  ^(St^'o^^  =  half-penny- 
worth. The  attempt  to  determine  the  number  of  words  that  - 
might  be  formed  in  this  way  on  a  single  stem,  such  as  igdlo,  a 
house,  had  to  be  given  up  after  getting  as  far  as  the  compound 
igdlorssualiortugssarsiumavoq  =  he  wants  to  find  one  who  will 
build  a  large  house. 

It  is  clear  that  such  a  linguistic  evolution  implies  both  the 

postulated  isolation  from  other  influences,  which  must  have 

disturbed  and  broken  up  the  cumbrous  process,  and  also  the 

postulated  long  period  of  time  to  develop  and  consolidate  the 

system  throughout  the  New  World.  '  But  time  is  still  more 

imperiously  demanded  by  the  vast  number  of 

gua^es  ^"        stock  languages,  many  already  extinct,  many  still 

current  all  over  the  continent,  all  of  which  diffpr 

profoundly  in  their  vocabulary,  often  also  in  their  phonesis, 

and  in  fact  have  nothing  in  common  except  this  extraordinary 

polysynthetic  groove  in  which  they  are  cast.  There  are  probably 

about  75  stock  languages  in  North-America,  of  which  1^8  occur 

noHFoLMjexico. 

But  even  that  conveys  but  a  faint  idea  of  the  astonishing 
diversity  of  speech  prevailing  in  this  truly  linguistic  Babel. 

'  The  Eskimo  Tribes,  their  Distribution  and  Characteristics,  Copenhagen, 
1887,  I.  p.  62  sq. 

'^  In  fact  this  very  word  was  first  given  "as  an  ordinary  example"  by  Klein- 
schmidt,  Gram.  d.  Gronlandischen  Sprache,  Sect,  gg,  and  is  also  quoted  by  Byrne, 
who  translates :  "  They  disapproved  of  him,  because  he  did  not  give  to  him,  when 
he  heard  that  he  would  go  off,  because  he  had  nothing"  {Principles,  etc.,  I. 
p.  140). 


-"^J  The  American  Aborigines  347 

J.  W.  PowelP  points  out  that  the  practically  distinct  idioms  are 
far  more  numerous  than  might  be  inferred  even  from  such  a 
large  number  of  mother  tongues.  Thus,  in  the  Algonquian^ 
linguistic  family  he  tells  us  there  are  about  40,  no  one  of 
which  could  be  understood  by  a  people  speaking  another ;  in 
Athapascan  from  30  to  40 ;  in  Siouan  over  20 ;  and  in  Shosho- 
nian  a  still  greater  number  I  The  greatest  linguistic  diversity 
in  a  relatively  small  area  is  found  in  the  state  of  California, 
where,  according  to  Powell's  classification,  22  distinct  sto'cTTs 
of  languages  are  spoken.  R.  B.  Dixon  and  A.  ITTTroeBer'' 
show  however  that  these  fall  into  three  morphological  groups 
which  are  also  characterised  by  certain  cultural  features.  It  is 
the  same,  or  perhaps  even  worse,  in  Central  and  in  South 
Arnerica,  where  the  linguistic  confusion  is  so  great  that  no 
complete  classification  of  the  native  tongues  seems  possible. 
Clements  R.  Markham  in  the  third  edition  of  his  exhaustive 
list,  of  the  Amazonian  tribes'  has  no  less  than  1087  entries. 
He  concludes  that  these  may  be  referred  to  485  distinct  tribes 
in  all  the  periods,  since  the  days  of  Acuna  (1639).  Deducting 
some  1 1 1  as  extinct  or  nearly  so,  the  total  amounts  to  "323  at 
the  outside"  (p.  135).  But  for  such  linguistic  differences,  large 
numbers  of  these  groups  would  be  quite  indistinguishable  from 
each  other,  so  great  is  the  prevailing  similarity  in  physical  ap- 
pearance and  usages  in  many  districts.  Thus  Ehrenreich  tells 
us  that,  "  despite  their  ethnico-linguistic  differences,  the  tribes 
about  the  head-waters  of  the  Xingu  present  complete  uniformity 
in  their  daily  habits,  in  the  conditions  of  their  existence,  and 
their  general  culture^"  though  it  is  curious  to  note  that  the  art 
of  making  pottery  is  restricted  here  to  the  Arawak  tribes'. 

'  "  Indian  Linguistic  Families  of  America  north  of  Mexico,"  Seventh  Ann. 
Refit.  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  1885-6  (1891).  See  also  the  "  Handbook  of  American 
Indian  Languages,"  Part  I  by  Franz  Boas  and  others,  Bureau  of  American  Eth- 
nology, Bulletin  40,  191 1.  The  Introduction  by  F.  Boas  gives  a  good  general 
idea  of  the  characteristics  of  these  languages  and  deals  shortly  with  related 
problems. 

^  Following  this  ethnologist's  convenient  precedent,  I  use  both  in  Ethnology 
and  here  the  final  syllable  an  to  indicate  stock  races  and  languages  in  America. 
Thus  Algonquin— Xhs.  particular  tribe  and  language  of  that  name;  Algonquian 
=  the  whole  family;  Iroquois,  Iroquoian,  Carib,  Cariban,  etc. 

3  Forum,  Feb.  1898,  p.  683. 

*  Studies  of  these  languages  by  Kroeber  and  others  will  be  found  in  University 
of  California  Publications ;  American  Archaeology  and  Ethnology,  L.  1903  on- 
wards. Cf.  also  A.  L.  Kroeber,  "  The  Languages  of  the  American  Indians,"  Pop. 
Sci.  Monthly,  Lxxvni.  191 1. 

5  Journ.  Roy.  Anthr.  Inst.  XL.  1910,  p.  73. 

8  Urbewohner  Brasiliens,  1897,  p.  46. 

'  Karl  V.  d.  Steinen,  Uriter  den  Naturvolkern  Zentral-Brasiliens,  1894,  p.  215. 


348  Man  :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

Yet  amongst  them  are  represented  three  of  the  radically  distinct 
linguistic  groups  of  Brazil,  some  (Bakairi  and  Nahuqua)  be- 
longing to  the  Carib,  some  (Aueto  and  Kamayura)  to  the 
Tupi-Guarani,  and  some  (Mehinaku  and  Vaura)  to  the  Arawak 
family.  Obviously  these  could  not  be  so  discriminated  but  for 
their  linguistic  differences.  On  the  other  hand  the  opposite 
phenomenon  is  occasionally  presented  of  tribes  differing  con- 
siderably in  their  social  relations,  which  are  nevertheless  of  the 
same  origin,  or,  what  is  regarded  by  Ehrenreich  as  the  same 
thing,  belong  to  the  same  linguistic  group.  Such  are  the  Ipurina, 
the  Paumari  and  the  Yamamadi  of  the  Purus  valley,  all  grouped 
as  Arawaks  because  they  speak  dialects  of  the  Arawakan  stock 
language.  At  the  same  time  it  should  be  noted  that  the  social 
differences  observed  by  some  modern  travellers  are  often  due 
to  the  ever-increasing  contact  with  the  whites,  who  are  now 
encroaching  on .  the  Gran  Chaco  plains,  and  ascending  every 
Amazonian  tributary  in  quest  of  rubber  and  the  other  natural 
produce  abounding  in  these  regions.  The  consequent  displace- 
ment of  tribes  is  discussed  by  G.  E.  Church'. 

In  the  introduction  to  his  valuable  list  Clements  Markham 
observes  that  the  evidence  of  language  favours  the  theory  that 
the  Amazonian  tribes,  "now  like  the  sands  on  the  sea-shore  for 
number,  originally  sprang  from  two  or  at  most  three  parent 
stocks.  Dialects  of  the  Tupi  language  extend  from  the  roots 
of  the  Andes  to  the  Atlantic,  ahd  southward  into  Paraguay... 
and  it  is  established  that  the  differences  in  the  roots,  between 
the  numerous  Amazonian  languages,  are  not  so  great  as  was 
generally  supposed'."  This  no  doubt  is  true,  and  will  account 
for  much.  But  when  we  see  it  here  recorded  that  of  the 
Carabuyanas  (Japura  river)  there  are  or  were  i6  branches,  that 
the  Chiquito  group  (Bolivia)  comprises  40  tribes  speaking 
"seven  different  languages" ;  thatof  the  Juris  (Upper  Amazons) 
there  are  ten  divisions;  of  the  Moxos  (Beni  and  Mamor6  rivers) 
26  branches,  "speaking  nine  or,  according  to  Southey,  thirteen 
languages  " ;  of  the  Uaupes  (Rio  Negro)  30  divisions,  and  so 
on,  we  feel  how  much  there  is  still  left  to  be  accounted  for. 
Attempts  have  been  made  to  weaken  the  force  of  the  linguistic 
argument  by  the  assumption,  at  one  time  much  in  favour,  that 
the  American  tongues  are  of  a  somewhat  evanescent  nature, 
in  an  unstable  condition,  often  changing  their  form  and  structure 

'  Aborigines  of  South  America,  1912. 
2  Lac.  cit.  p.  75. 


x]  The  American  Aborigines  349 

within  a  few  generations.  But,  says  Powell,  "this  widely  spread 
opinion  does  not  find  warrant  in  the  facts  discovered  in  the 
course  of  this  research.  The  author  has  everywhere  been 
impressed  with  the  fact  that  savage  tongues  are  singularly  per- 
sistent, and  that  a  language  which  is  dependent  for  its  existence 
upon  oral  tradition  is  not  easily  modified^"  A  test  case  is  the 
Delaware  (Leni  Lenape),  an  Algonquian  tongue  which,  judging 
from  the  specimens  collected  by  Th.  Campanius  about  1645, 
has  undergone  but  slight  modification  during  the  last  250  years. 
In  this  connection  the  important  point  to  be  noticed  is  the 
fact  that  some  of  the  stock  languages  have  an  immense  range, 
while  others  are  crowded  together  in  indescribable  confusion 
in  rugged  upland  valleys,  or  about  river  estuaries,  or  in  the 
recesses  of  trackless  woodlands,  and  this  strangely  irregular 
distribution  prevails  in  all  the  main  divisions  of  the  continent. 
Thus  of  Powell's  58  linguistic  families  in  North  America  as 
many  as  40  are  restricted  to  the  relatively  narrow  strip  of 
coastland  laetween  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  the  Pacific,  ten 
are  dotted  round  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  from  Florida  to  the  Rio 
Grande,  and  two  disposed  round  the  Gulf  of  California,  while 
nearly  all  the  rest  of  the  land — some  six  million  square  miles- 
is  occupied  by  the  six  widely  diffused  Eskimauan,  Athapascan, 
Algonquian,  Iroquoian,  Siouan,  and  Shoshonian  families.  The 
same  phenomenon  is  presented  by  Central  and  South  America, 
where  less  than  a  dozen  stock  languages— Opatan,  Nahuatlan, 
Huastecan,  Chorotegan,  Quichuan,  Arawfkan,  Gesan  (Ta- 
puyan),  Tupi-Guaranian,  Cariban — are  spread  over  millions 
of  square  miles,  while  many  scores  of  others  are  restricted  to 
extremely  narrow  areas.  Here  the  crowding  is  largely  deter- 
mined, as  in  Caucasia,  by  the  altitude  (Andes  in  Colombia, 
Ecuador,  Peru,  and  Bolivia ;  Sierras  in  Mexico). 

— —   It  is  strongly  held  by  many  American  ethnologists  that  the 
various  cultures  of  America  are  autochthonous,  nothing  being 

borrowed  from  the  Old  World.  J-  W.  PowelP,  q^x<^^^_ 
who  rendered  such  mesfiniaBIe  services  to  Ameri- 
can anthropology,  affirmed  that  "the  aboriginal  peoples  of 
America  cannot  be  allied  preferentially  to  any  one  branch 
of  the  human  race  in  the  Old  World";  that  "there  is  no 
evidence  that  any  of  the  arts  of  the  American  IngTaHs"'werie 
borrowed  from  the  Orient"  ;_that  "the  industriaj  arts  of'^^ 

1  Indian  Linguistic  Families,  p.  141. 

2  "Whence  came  the  American  Indians?"  Forum,  Feb.  1898. 


350  Man  :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

were  born  in  America,  America  was  inhabited  by  tribes  at  the 

time  ot  the  begiTTningfoT  industrial  arts.    They  left  the  Old  W  orld 

j  BelBre"  rheyhad  learned  to  malce~lcnlves,  spear  and  arrowheads, 

Lor  at  least  when  they  knew  the  art  only  in  its  crudest  state. 

Thus  primitive  man  has  been  here  ever  since  the  invention  of 

the  stone  knife  and  the  stone  hammer."     He  further  contended 

-  that  "the  American  Indian  did  not  derive  his  forms  ot  govern- 

'  ment,  his  industrial  or  decorative  arts,  his  languages,  or  his 

mythological  opinions  from  the  Old  World,  but  developed  them 

in  the  New  "  ;  and  that  "  in  the  demotic  characteristics  of  the 

American  Indians,  all  that  is  common  to  tribes  of  the  Orient'  is 

universal,  all  that  distinguishes  one  group  of  tribes  from  another 

in  America  distinguishes  them  from  all  other  tribes  of  the 

world." 

This  view  has  been  emphasised  afresh  by  Fewkes\  though 
of  recent  years  it  has  met  with  vigorous  opposition.  At  the 
conclusion  of  his  article  "Die  melanesische  Bogenkultur  und 
ihre  Verwandten'^"  Graebner  attempts  to  trace  the  cultural 
connection  of  South  America  witEiSouth-east  Asia  rather  than 
witirtEre"SoutFi  Seas,"tEemain  liiiks  beinglFepresented  by  head- 
hunting, certain  types  of  skin-drum  and  of  basket,  and  in  par- 
ticular three  types  of  crutch-handled  paddle.  According  to  him 
the  spread  of  culture  has  taken  place  by  the  land  route  and  - 
Behring  Strait,  not  across  the  Pacific  by  way  of  the  South  Seas, 
a  view  to  which  he  adheres  in  his  later  work.  _An  ingenious 
and  detailed  attenfpt  has  also  been  madeby  Pater  ^cmnldt''  to 
tTace  the  variqua  cultures  determined  for  Oceania  and  Aficica 
in  South^,^Arneric,gu™^ Apart  froni  the  great  linguistic  groups 
UsuELHy  adopted  as  the  basis  of  classification,  Schmidt  would 
divide  the  South  American  Indians  according  to  their  stage  of 
economic  development  into  collectors,  cultivators,  and  civilised 
peoples  of  the  Andean  highlands.  Though, this  series  may  have 
the  appearance  of  evolution,  in  point  of  fact  "each  group  is 
composed  of  peoples  differing  absolutely  in  language  and  race, 
who  brought  with  them  to  South  America  in  historically  distinct 
migrations  at  all  events'  the  fundamentals  of  their  respective 
cultures As  we  pass  in  review  the  cultural  elements  of  the 

^  J.  Walter  Fewkes,  "Great  Stone  Monuments  in  History  and  Geography," 
Pres.  Add.  Anthrop.  Soc;  Washington,  1912. 

^  F.  Graebner,  Anthropos,  iv.  1909,  esp.  pp.  1013-24.     Cf.  also  his  Ethnologie, 
1914. 

^  W.  Schmidt,  "  Kulturkreise  und  Kulturschichten  in  SUdamerika,"  Zeitschrift 
fiir  Ethnologie,  Jg.  45,  1913,  p.  1014  ff. 


-^1  The  American  Aborigines  351 

separate  groups,  their  weapons,  implements,  dwellings,  their 
sociology,  mythology,  and  religion  we  discover  the  innate  simi- 
larity of  these  groups  to  the  culture-zones  of  the  Old  World  in 
^  essential  features'."  The  author  proceeds  to  work-out  his 
theory  in  great  detail ;  the  earlier  cultures  he  too  considers  have 
travelled  by  the  enormously  lengthy  land  route  by  way  of  North 
America,  only  the  "free  patrilineal  culture"  (Polynesia  and 
Indonesia)  having  reached  the  west  coast  directiy  by  seal 

W.  H.  Holmes*  draws  attention  to  analogies  between" 
American  and  'foreign  archaeological  remains,  for  example  the 
stone  gouge  of  New  England  and  Europe.  He  hints  at  in- 
fluences coming  from  the  Mediterranean  and  even  from  Africa. 
"  Even  more  remarkable  and  diversified  are  the  correspondences 
between  the  architectural  remains  of  Yucatan  and  those  of 
Cambodia  and  Java  in  the  far  East.  On  the  Pacific  side  of  the 
American  continent  strange  coincidences  occur  in  like  degree," 
seeming  to  indicate  that  the  broad  Pacific  has  not  proved 
a  complete  bar  to  intercourse  of  peoples  of  the  opposing  con- 
tinents... it  seems  highly  probable  considering  the  nature  of  the 
archeological  evidence,  that  the  Western  World  has  not  been 
always  and  wholly  beyond  the  reach  of  members  of  the  white, 
Polynesian,  and  perhaps  even  the  black  races." 

Walter  Hough*  gives  various  cultural  parallels  between 
America  and  the  other  side  of  the  Pacific  but  does  not  commit 
himself.  S.  Hagar'  brings  forward  some  interesting  corre- 
spondences between  the  astronomy  of  the  New  and  of  the  Old 
Worlds,,  but  adopts  a  cautious  attitude. 

More  recently  the  problem  has  been  attacked  with  great 
energy  by  G.  Elliot  Smith".  His  investigations  into  the  pro- 
cesses of  mummification  and  the  tombs  of  ancient  Egypt  led 
him  to  comparative  studies,  and  he  notes  that  certain  customs 
seem  to  be  found  in  association,  forming  what  is  known  as  a 
culture-complex.  For  example,  "  in  most  regions  the  people 
who  introduced  the  habit  of  megalithic  building  and  sun  worship 
also  brought  with  them  the  practice  of  mummification."  Also 
associated  with  these  are  : — stories  of  dwarfs  and  giants,  belief 
in  the  indwelling  of  gods  and  great  men  in  megalithic  monu- 

^  Loc.  cit.  pp.  1020,  1021. 

2  Ibid.  p.  1093 ;  cf.  also  p.  1098  where  the  Peruvian  sailing  balsa  is  traced  to 
Polynesia,  sailing  rafts  being  still  used  in  the  Eastern  Paumotu  islands. 

3  Am.  Anth.  xiv.  1912,  pp.  34-6. 

*  Loc.  cit.  p.  39.  ^  Loc.  cit.  p.  43. 

"  G.  Elliot  Smith,  The  Migrations  of  Early  Culture,  191 5. 


352  Man  :   Past  and  Present  [ch. 

ments,  the  use  of  these  structures  in  a  particular  manner  for 
special  council,  the  practice  of  hanging  rags  on  trees  in  asso- 
ciation with  such  monuments,  serpent  worship,  tattooing,  dis- 
tension of  the  lobe  of  the  ear,  the  use  of  pearls,  the  conch-shell 
trumpet,  etc.  In  a  map  showing  the  distribution  of  this  "helio- 
lithic  "  culture-complex  he  indicates  the  main  lines  of  migration 
to  America,  one  across  the  Aleutian  chain  and  down  the  west 
coast  to  California,  the  other  and  more  important  one,  across 
the  Pacific  to  Peru,  and  thence  to  various  parts  of  South 
America,  through  Central  America  to  the  southern  half  of  the 
United  States.  Contrary  to  Schmidt,  Elliot  Smith  postulates 
contact  of  cultures  rather  than  actual  migrations  of  people  ;  he 
considers  it  possible  that  a  small  number  of  aliens  arriving  by 
sea  in  Peru,  for  example,  might  introduce  customs  of  a  highly 
novel  and  subversive  character  which  would  take  root  and 
spread  far  and  wide.  The  Peruvian  custom  of  embalming  the 
dead  certainly  presents  analogiestothat  of  ancient  Egypt, 
and  EllioT'SmitR^s  cohvincedThn^^^'tB^^  archi- 

tecture  of  America  bears  obvious  evidence  of  the  same  in- 
spiration which  prompted  that  of  the  Old  World."    In  a  later 

rpaper  Elliot  Smith'  adduces  further  evidence  in  support  of  his 
thesis  "  that  the  essential  elements  of  the  ancient  civilization  of 
India,  Further  Asia,  the  Malay  Archipelago,  Oceania,  and 
America  were  brought  in  succession  to  each  of  these  places  by 
mariners,  whose  oriental  migrations  (on  an  extensive  scale) 
began  as  trading  intercourse  between  the  Eastern  Mediterranean 
and  India  some  time  after  800  B.C.  and  continued  for  many 

,  centuries."  This  dissemination  was  in  the  first  instance  due  to 
the  Phoenicians  and  there  are  "unmistakable  tokens  that  the 
same  Phoenician  methods  which  led  to  the  diffusion  of  this 
culture-complex  in  the  Old  World  also  were  responsible  for 

,  planting  it  in  the  New''  some  centuries  after  the  Phoenicians 
themselves  had  ceased  to  be"  (/.  c.  p.  27).  Further  evidence 
along  the  same  lines  is  offered  by  W.  J.  Perry'  who  has  noted 
the  geographical  distribution  of  terraced  cultivation  and  irri- 
gation and  finds  that  it  corresponds  to  a  remarkable  extent 
with  that  of  the  "heliolithic"  culture-complex,  and43y  J.  Wilfrid 

1  G.  Elliot  Smith,  "  The  Influence.of  Ancient  Egyptian  Civilization  in  the  East 
and  in  America,"  Bull,  of  the  John  Rylapds  Library,  Jany. — March,  1916,  pp.  3,  4. 

2  Cf.  W.  J.  Perry,  "The  Relationship  between  the  Geographical  Distribution 
of  Megalithic  Monuments  and  Ancient  Mines,"  reprinted  from  Manchester  Memoirs, 
Vol.  LX.  (1915),  pt.  I. 

^  W.  J.  Perry,  Mem.  and  Proc.  Manchester  Lit.  and  Phil.  Soc.  LX.  1916,  No.  6. 


x]  The  American  Aborigines  353 

Jackson^  who  has  investigated  the  Aztec  Moon-cult  and  its 
relation  to  the  Chank  cult  of  India,  the  money  cowry  as  a  sacred 
object  among  North  American  Indians^  shell  trumpets  and 
their  distribution  in  the  Old  and  New  World'  and  the  geo- 
graphical distribution  of  the  shell  purple  industry ^  He  points 
out  that  we  have  ample  evidence  of  the  practice  of  this  ancient 
industry  in  several  places  in  Central  America,  and  refers 
to  Zelia  Nuttall's  interesting  paper  on  the  subject".  ^  Elliot 
Smith  also  discusses  "  Pre-Columbian  Repre^ntadons  of  the 
jcllepliant  in  America^ "  'anH~remarKs  "  coincidences  of  so  re- 
markable  a  nature  cannot  be  due  to  chance.  They  not  only_ 
confirm  the  identification  of  the  elephant  in  designs  in  America,  ' 
but  also  incidentally  point  to  the  conclusion  that  the  Hindu  god 
Indra  was  adopted  in  Central  America  with  practically  all  the 
attributes  assigned  to  him  in  his  Asiatic  home."  Elliot  Smith  J 
believes  that  practically  every  element  of  the  early  civilisation 
of  America  was  derived  from  the  Old  World.  Small  groups , 
of  immigrants  from  time  to  time^irougHFcertain  of  the  beliefs,  ' 
customs,  and  inventions  of  the  Mediterranean  area,  Egypt, 
Ethiopia,  Arabia,  Babylonia,  Indonesia,  Eastern  Asia  and 
Oceania,  and  theconfused  jumble  of  practices  became  assimilated 
and  "Americanised"  in  the  new  home  across  the  Pacific  as  the 
result  of  the  domination  of  the  great  uncultured  aboriginal 
populations  by  small  bands  of  more  cultured  foreigners.  These 
highly  suggestive  studies  will  force  adherents  of  the  theory  of 
the  indigenous  origin  of  American  culture  to  reconsider  the 
grounds  for  their  opinions  and  will  lead  them  to  turn  once  more 
to  the  writings  of  Bancroft',  Tylor^  Nuttall',  Macmillan  Brown", 
Enoch"  and  others. 

There  is   no  satisfactory  scheme  of  classification  of  the 
American  peoples.    Although  there  is  a  good  deal  of  scattered 
information  about  the  physical  anthropology  of  the   /-.i     jfi    ^j 
natives  it  has  not  yet  been  systematised  and  no 

1  Loc.  cit.  No.  5.  ^  Loc.  cit.  No.  4. 

3  Loc.  cit.  No.  8.  ^  Loc.  cit.  No.  7- 

"  Putnam  Anniversary  Volume,  1909,  p.  365. 

*  Nature,  Nov.  25  and  Dec.  16,  191 5. 

'  H.  H.  Bancroft,  The  Native  Races  of  the  Pacific  States  of  North  America, 

1875. 

*  E.  B.  Tylor,   "  On  the  game  of  PatoUi  in  Ancient  Mexico  and  its  probably 
Asiatic  origm,"  foum.  Anthr.  Inst.  Vlll.  1878,  p.  116.    Rep.  Brit.  Ass.  1894,  p.  774. 

,  9  Zelia  Nuttair,  "  The  Fundamental  Principles  of  Old  and  New  World  Civili- 
sations," Arch,  and  Eth.  Papers,  Peabody  Mus.  Cambridge,  Mass.  n.  1901. 
"•  J.  Macmillan  Brown,  Maori  and  Polynesian,  1907. 
»  C.  R.  Enoch,  The  Secret  of  the  Pacific,  1912. 

K.  23 


354  Man:  Past  and  Present  [cH. 

classification  can  at  present  be  based  thereon.  A  linguistic 
classification  is  therefore  usually  adopted,  but  a  geographical 
or  cultural  grouping,  or  a  combination  of  the  two,  has  much 
practical  convenience.  As  Farrand'  points  out  "  It  must  never 
be  forgotten  that  the  limits  of  physical,  linguistic  and  cultural 
groups  do  not  correspond ;  and  the  overlapping  of  stocks  deter- 
mined by  those  criteria  is  an  unavoidable  complication." 

An  inspection  of  the  map  of  the  distribution  of  linguistic 
stocks  of  North  America  prepared  by  J.  W.  PowelP  which 
represents  the  probable  state  of  affairs  about 
Clarification.  ^5°°  ^•^-  shows  that  a  few  linguistic  stocks  have 
a  wide  distribution  while  tlfere  is  a  large  number 
of  restricted  stocks  crowded  along  the  Pacific  slope.  The 
following  are  the  better  known  tribes  of  the  more  important 
stocks  together  with  their  distribution. 

Eskimauani^^vvcio),  along  the  Arctic  coasts  from  60°  N.  lat. 
in  the  west,  to  50°  in  the  east.  Athapascan,  northern  group, 
D6n^  or  Tinneh  (including  many  tribes),  interior  of  Alaska, 
northern  British  Columbia  and  the  Mackenzie  basin,  and  the 
Sarsi  of  south-eastern  Alberta  and  northern  Montana;  southern 
group,  Navaho  and  Apache  in  Arizona,  New  Mexico  and 
northern  Mexico ;  the  Pacific  group,  a  small  band  in  southern 
British  Columbia,  others  in  Washington,  Oregon  and  northern 
California.  Algonquian,  south  and  west  of  Canada,  the  United 
States  east  of  the  Mississippi,  the  whole  valley  of  the  Ohio, 
and  the  states  of  the  Atlantic  coast.  Blackfoot  of  Montana, 
Alberta,  south  and  further  east,  Cheyenne  and  Arapaho  of 
Minnesota.  The  main  group  of  dialects  is  divided  into  the 
Massachusett,  Ojibway  (Ojibway,  Ottawa,  Illinois,  Miami,  etc.) 
and  Cree  types.  The  latter  include  the  Cree,  Montagnais, 
Sauk  and  Fox,  Menomini,  Shawnee,,  Abnaki,  etc.  Iroquoian, 
in  the  provinces  of  Ontario  and  Quebec ;  Hurons  in  the  valley 
of  the  St  Lawrence  and  lake  Simcoe.  Neutral  confederacy  in 
western  New  York  and  north  and  west  of  lake  Erie.  The 
great  confederacy  of  the  Iroquois  or  "Five  Nations"  (Seneca, 
Cayuga,  Oneida,  Onondaga  and  Mohawk,  to  which  the  Tusca- 
rora  were  added  in  17 12)  in  central  New  York  ;  the  Conestoga 
and  Susquehanna  to  the  south.  A  southern  group  was  located 
in  eastern  Virginia  and  north  Carolina,  and  the  Cherokee, 
centred  in  the  southern  Appalachians  from  parts  of  Virginia 

^  Livingston  Farrand,  Basis  of  American  History,  1904,  pp.  88-9. 
2  Tth  Ann.  Rep.  Bur.  Am.  Eth.  1885-6  (1891). 


x]  The  American  Aborigines  355 

and  Kentucky  to  northern  Alabama.  Muskhogeanoi  Georgia, 
Alabama  and  Mississippi,  including  the  Choctaw,  Chickasaw, 
Creek,  Seminole,  etc.  and  the  Natchez.  There  are  several 
small  groups  about  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi.  Caddoan. 
The  earliest  inhabitants  of  the  central  and  southern  plains 
beyond  the  Missouri  belonged  to  this  stock,  the  largest  group 
occupied  parts  of  Louisiana,  Arkansas,  Oklahoma  and  Texas, 
it  consists  of  the  Caddo,  Wichita,  etc.  and  the  Kichai,  the 
Pawnee  tribes  in  parts  of  Nebraska  and  Kansas  and  an  off- 
shoot, the  Arikara  in  North  Dakota.  Siouan,  a  small  group  in 
Virginia,  Carolina,  Catawba,  etc.  and  a  very  large  group,  practic- 
ally occupying  the  basins  of  the  Missouri  and  Arkansas,  with 
a  prolongation  through  Wisconsin,  where  were  the  Winnebago. 
The  main  tribes  are  the  Mandan,  Crow,  Dakota,  Assiniboin, 
Omaha  and  Osage.  Shoshonian  of  the  Great  Plateau  and 
southern  California.  The  two  outlying  tribes  were  the  Hopi 
of  north  Arizona  and  the  Comanche  who  ranged  over  the 
southern  plains.  Among  the  plateau  tribes  are  the  Ute,  Sho- 
shoni,  Mono  and  Luisefio.  Yuman,  from  Arizona  to  Lower 
California. 

From  the  data  available  J.  R.  S wanton  and  R.  B.  Dixon 
draw  the  following  conclusions'.  "It  appears  that  the  origin 
of  the  tribes  of  several  of  our  stocks  may  be  referred 
back  to  a  swarming  ground,  usually  of  rather  M^^ments. 
indefinite  size  but  none  the  less  roughly  indicated. 
That  for  the  Muskhogeans,  including  probably  some  of  the 
smaller  southern  stocks,  must  be  placed  in  Louisiana,  Arkansas 
and  perhaps  the  western  parts  of  Mississippi  and  Tennessee, 
although  a  few  tribes  seem  to  have  cdme  from  the  region  of 
the  Ohio.  That  for  the  Iroquoians  would  be  along  the  Ohio 
and  perhaps  farther  west,  and  that  of  the  Siouans  on  the  lower 
Ohio  and  the  country  to  the  north  including  part  at  least  of 
Wisconsin.  The  dispersion  area  for  the  Algonquians  was 
farjther  north  about  the  Great  Lakes  and  perhaps  also  the 
St  Lawrence,  and  that  for  the  Eskimo  about  Hudson  Bay  or 
between  it  and  the  Mackenzie  river.  The  Caddoan  peoples 
seem  to  have  been  on  the  southern  plains  from  earliest  times. 
On  the  north  Pacific  coast  we  have  indications  that  the  flow  of 
population  has  been  from  the  interior  to  the  coast.  This  seems 
certain  in  the  case  of  the  Indians  of  the  Chimmesayan  stock 
and  some  Tlinglit  subdivisions.    Some  Tlinglit  clans,  however, 

1  "Primitive  American  History,"  Am.  Anth.  xvi.  1914,  pp.  410-11. 

23—2 


356  Man :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

Have  moved  from  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Nass  northward. 
Looking  farther  south  we  find  evidence  that  the  coast  Salish 
have  moved  from  the  inner  side  of  the  coast  ranges,  while  a 
small  branch  has  subsequently  passed  northward  to  the  west 
of  it.  The  Athapascan  stock  in  all  probability  has  moved 
southward,  sending  one  arm  down  the  Pacific  coast,  and  a 
larger  body  presumably  through  the  Plains  which  reached  as 
far  as  northern  Mexico.  Most  of  the  stocks  of  the  Great 
Plateau  and  of  Oregon  and  California  show  little  evidence  of 
movement,  such  indications  as  are  present,  however,  pointing 
toward  the  south  as  a  rule.  The  Pueblo  Indians  appear  to 
have  had  a  mixed  origin,  part  of  them  coming  from  the  north, 
part  from  the  south.  In  general  there  is  to  be  noted  a  striking 
contrast  between  the  comparatively  settled  condition  of  those 
tribes  west  of  the  Rocky  mountains  and  the  numerous  move^^ 
ments,  particularly  in  later  times,  of  those  to  the  east." 

With  regard  to  the  Pacific  coast  Dixon'  notes  that  it  "has 
apparently  been  occupied  from  the  earliest  times  by  peoples 
differing  but  little  in  their  culture  from  the  tribes  found  in 
occupancy  in  the  sixteenth  century.  Cut  off  from  the  rest  of 
the  country  by  the  great  chain  of  the  Cordilleras  and  the  in- 
hospitable and  arid  interior  plateaus,  the  tribes  of  this  narrow 
coastal  strip  developed  in  comparative  seclusion  their  various 
cultures,  each  adopted  to  the  environment  in  which  it  was 
found.... 

"  In  several  of  the  ingenious  theories  relating  to  the  develop- 
ment and  origin  of  American  cultures  in  general,  it  has  been 
contended  that  considerable  migrations  both  of  peoples  and  of 
cultural  elements  passed  along  this  coastal  highway  from  north 
to  south.  If,  however,  the  archaeological  evidence  is  to  be 
depended  on,  such  great  sweeping  movements,  involving  many 
elements  of  foreign  culture,  could  hardly  have  taken  place,  for 

no  trace  of  their  passage  or  modifying  effect  is  apparent We 

can  feel  fairly  sure  that  the  prehistoric  peoples  of  each  area 
were  in  the  main  the  direct  ancestors  of  the  local  tribes  of 
today. ... 

"In  comparison  with  the  relative  simplicity  of  the  archaeo- 
logical record  on  the  Pacific  coast,  that  of  the  eastern  portion 
of  the  continent  is  complex,  and  might  indeed  be  best  described 
as  a  palimpsest.     This  complexity  leads  inevitably  to  the  con- 

1  Roland  B.  Dixon,  Am.  Antk.  XV.  1913,  pp,  538-9, 


x]  The  American  Aborigines  357 

elusion  that  here  there  have  been  numerous  and  far-reaching 
ethnic  movements,  resulting  in  a  stratification  of  cultures." 

W.  H.  Holmes  has  compiled  a  map  marking  the  limits  of 
eleven  areas  which  can  be  recognised  by  their  archaeological 
remains\     He  points  out  that  the  culture  units 
are,  as  a  matter  of  course,  not  usually  well-defined.    SsMcatfoa ' 
Cultures  are  bound  toiover-lap  and  blend  along  the 
borders  and  more  especially  along  lines  of  ready  communication. 
In  some  cases  evidence  has  been  reported  of  early  cultures 
radically  distinct  from  the  type  adopted  as  characteristic  of  the 
areas,  and  ancestral  forms  grading  into  the  later  and  into  the 
historic  forms  are  thought  to  have  been  recognised.     Holmes 
frankly  acknowledges  the  tentative  character  of  the  scheme, 
which  forms  part  of  a  synthesis  that  he  is  preparing  of  the 
antiquities  of  the  whole  American  continent. 

North  America  is  customarily  divided  into  nine  areas  of 
material  culture,  and  though  this  is  convenient,  a  more  correct 
method,  as  C.  Wissler  points  out",  is  to  locate 
the  respective  groups  of  typical  tribes  as  culture  classification 
centres,  classifying  the  other  tribes  as  intermediate 
or  transitional.  The  geograiphical  stability  of  the  material 
culture  centres  is  confirmed  by  archaeological  evidence  which 
suggests  that  the  striking  individuality  they  now  possess  resulted 
from  a  more  or  less  gradual  expansion  along  original  lines. 
The  material  cultures  of  these  centres  possess  great  vitality 
and  are  often  able  completely  to  dominate  intrusive  cultural 
unity.  Thus  tribes  have  passed  from  an  intermediate  state  to 
a  typical,  as  when  the  Cheyenne  were  forced  into  the  Plains 
centre,  and  the  Shoshonian  Hopi  adopted  the  typical  Pueblo 
culture.  Wissler  comes  to  the  conclusion  that  "the  location 
of  these  centres  is  largely  a  matter  of  ethnic  accident,  but  once 
located  and  the  adjustments  made,  the  stability  of  the  environ- 
ment doubtless  tends  to  hold  each  particular  type  of  material 
culture  to  its  initial  locality,  even  in  the  face  of  many  changes 
in  blood  and  language."  It  is  from  his  valuable  paper  that 
the  material  culture  traits  of  the  following  areas  have  been 
obtained. 

I,     Eskimo  Area.    The  fact  that  the  Eskimo  live  by  the! 
sea  and  chietly  upon  sea  food  does  not  differentiate  them  from 

1  "Areas  of  American  culture  characterization  tentatively  outlined  as  an  aid  in 
the  study  of  the  Antiquities,"  Am.  Anth.  xvi.  1914,  pp.  413-46. 

2  Clark  Wissler,  "  Material  Cultures  of  the  North  American  Indians,"  Am.  Anth. 
XVI.  1914,  pp.  447-505- 


r 


L 


358  Man  :  Past  and  Present'  [ch. 

Cthe  tribes  of  the  North  Pacific  coast,  but  they  are  distinguished 
from  the  latter  by  the  habit  of  camping  in  winter  upon  sea 
Eskimo  •       ^^^  ^^^  Hving  Upon  seal,  and  in  the  summer  upon 
Material        land  animals.    The  kayak  and  "woman's  boat,"  the 
Culture.        lamp,  harpoon,  float,  woman's  knife,  bowdrill,  snow 
goggles,  trussed-bow,  and  dog  traction  are  almost  universal. 
The  type  of  winter  shelter  varies  considerably,  but  the  skin 
tent  is  general  in  summer  and  the  snow  house,  as  a  more 
or   less    permanent   winter    house,    prevails    east    of    Point 
Barrow. 

[^  -^  The  mode  of  life  of  all  the  Eskimo,  as  F.  Boas^  has  pointed 
out,  is  fairly  uniform  and  depends  on  the  distribution  of  food 
at  the  different  seasons.  The  migrations  of  game  compel  the 
natives  to  move  their  habitations  frqm_tjme  to  time,  and  as 
fKe"  inhospitable  country  "does  not  produce _j/e'^f^ion  to~an 
extent  sufficient  to  support  human  life  they  areToreeajtooTepend 
entirely  upon  animal  food.  The  abundance  ofsealsi  n  Aretie 
'America  enables  man  to  v^ithstand  the  inclemency  of  the  climate 
and  the  sterility  of  the  soil.  The  skins  of  seals  furnish  the 
materials  for  summer  garments  and  for  the  tent,  their  flesh  is 
almost  their  only  food,  and  their  blubber  their  indispensable 
fuel  during  the  long  dark  winter  when  they  live  in  solid  snow 
.-houses.  When  the  ice  breaks  up  in  the  spring  the  Eskimo 
establish  their  settlements  at  the  head  of  the  fiords  where 
salmon  are  easily  caught.  When  the  snow  on  the  land  has 
melted  in  July  the  natives  take  hunting  trips  inland  in  order 
to  obtain  ihe  precious  skins  of  the  reindeer,  or  of  the  musk-ox, 
of  whose  heavy  pelts  the  winter  garments  are  made.  Walrus 
and  the  ground  seal  also  arrive  and  birds  are  found  in  abun- 
t  dance  and  eaten  raw. 

The  Eskimo^  occupy  more  than  5000  miles  of  sea-board 
from  north-east  Greenland  to  the  mouth  of  the  Copper  river 
in  western  Alaska.     Many  views  have  been  ad- 
Affinities"'^       vanced  as  to  the  position  of  their  centre  of  dis- 
persion ;    most  probably  it  lay  to  the  west  of 
E  Hudson  Bay.    Rink'  is  of  opinion  that  they  originated  as  a 
distinct  people  in  Alaska,  where  they  developed  an  Arctic 


1  "' 


'The  Central  Eskimo,"  bthAnn.  Rep.  Bur.  Am.  Eth.  1884-5  (1888),  p.  419. 

^  The  name  is  said  to  come  from  the  Abnaki  Esquiniantsic,  or  from  Ashkimeq^ 
the  Ojibway  equivalent;  meaning  "eaters  of  raw  flesh."  They  call  themselves 
Innuit,  meaning  "  people." 

2  H.  Rinl^  "  The  Eskimo  Tribes,  their  Distribution  and  Characteristics,"  Med- 
delelser  om  GrSnland,  II.  1887. 


x]  The  American  Aborigines  359 

culture  ;  but  Boas'  regards  them  "as,  comparatively  speaking^ 
new  arrivals  in  Alaska,  which  they  reached  from  the  east.^ 
A  westward  movement  is  supported  by  myths  and  customs,  1 
and  by  the  affinities  of  the  Eskimo  with  northern  Asiatics.  1' 
.There  was  always  hostility  between  the  Eskimo  and  the  North 
American  Indians,  which,  apart  from  their  very  specialised  I 
mode  of  life,  precluded  any  Eskimo  extension  southwards.  ' 
The  expansion  of  the  Eskimo  to  Greenland  is  explained  by 
Steensby^"  as  follows : — the  main  southern  movement  would 
have  followed  the  west  coast  from  Melville  Bay,  rounded  the 
southern  point  and  proceeded  some  distance  up  the  east  coast. 
From  the  Barren  Grounds  north-west  of  Hudson   Bay  the 
Polar  Eskimo  followed  the  musk-ox,  advanced  due  north  to 
Ellesmere  Land,  then  crossed  to  Greenland,  and,  still  hunting 
the  musk-ox,  advanced  along  the  north  coast  and  down  the 
east  coast  towards  Scoresby  Sound.    Another  line  of  migration 
apparently  started  from  the  vicinity  of  Southampton  Island 
and  pursued  the  reindeer  northwards  into  Baffin  Land ;  on 
reaching  Ponds  Inlet  these  reindeer-hunting  Eskimo  for  the 
most  part  turned  along  the  east  coast. 

Physically  the  Eskimo  constitute  a  distinct  type.     They 
are  of  medium  staturd,  but  possess  uncommon  si^ength  and 
endurance  ;.  their  skin  is~TigEF" brownish  yellow 
with  a  ruddy  tint  on  the  exposed  parts ;  hands      xvpe"^' 
^d  teet  are  small  and  well  formed  ;  their  heads 
are  high,  with  broad  faces,  and  narrow  high  noses,  and  eyes 
of  a  Mongolian" character.     But  great  varieties  are  founa  iriT 
^fferent  parts  of  the  vast  area  over  which  they  range™TKe~ 
Polar  Eskimoof  Greenland,  studied  by  Steensby,  were  more 
of  American  Indian  than  of  Asiaticjygg,'.    Of  their  psychology 
tKis  writer  says,  "  For  the  Polar  Eskimos  life  is  deadly  real 
and  sober,  a__constaniLstrjyjng  Xor  food^  Ts 

borne  with  good  humour,  and  all  dispensations  are  accepted  as 
natural  consequences,  about  which  it  is  of  no  use  to  reason  or 
complam."  '  The  hard  struggle  for  existence  has  not  per- 
mItf^3The  Polar  Eskimo  to  become  other  than  a  confirmed 
egoist,  who  knows  nothing  of  disinterestedness.  Towards  his 
enemies  he  is  crafty  and  deceitful — he  does  not  attack  them, 

1  F.  Boas,  "Ethnological  Problems  in  Canada,'' yo«rK.  Roy.  Anthr.  Inst.  XL. 
1910,  p.  529. 

2  H.  P.  Steensby,  "  Contributions  to  the  Ethnology  and  Anthropogeography  of 
the  Polar  Eskimos,"  Meddelelser  om  Gronland,  xxxiv.  1910. 

3  H.  P.  Steensby, /i7<r.  «V.  p.  384. 


360  Man  :  Past  and  Present  [cH. 

openly,  but  indulges  in  backbiting.... It  is  only  during;-  the  hunt 
ptnata  common  interest  and  a  common  danger  engender  a 
Ldeeper  feeling  of  comradeship^" 

Still  less  Mongolian  in  type  are  the  '_'_blorid  Eskimo  "  re- 
cently  encountered  by  Stefdnsson  in  south-west  Victoria  Island^ . 
who  are  regarded  by  him  as  very  possibly  the  mixed  descen- 
dants  of  Scandinavian  ancestors  who  had  drifted  there  from 
west  Greenland.  It  is  known  that  Eric  the  Red  discovered 
Greenland  in  the  year  982  and  that  3  years  later  settlers  went 
there  from  the  Norse  colony  in  Iceland. 

The  winter  snow  houses,  which  are  about  1 2  X  i  s  ft.  in 
diameter  arid  "12  ft.  high,  usually  with   annexes,  are  always 

"s"ci  1  Life  °£P.!ffi.i^^,. t*y  ^wo  families,  each,  wom.ari_hajiing 
her  own  lamp  and  sitting  on  the  ledge  in  front 
of  it.  If  more  families  join  in  making  a  snow  house,  they 
make  two  main  rooms.  Whenever  it  is  possible  the  men  spend 
the  short  ^days  in  hunting  and  each  woman  prepares  the  food 
for  her  husband.  The  long  nights  are  mainly  spent  in  various 
recreations.  The  social  life  in  the  summer  settlement  is  some- 
what different.  The  families  do  not  cook  their  own  meals, 
but  a  single  one  suffices  for'the  whole  settlement.  The  day 
before  it  is  her  turn  to  cook  the  womcin  goes  to  the  hills  to 
fetch  enough  shrubs  for  the  fire.  When  a  meal  is.  ready  the 
master  of  the  house  calls  out  aiud  everybody  comes  out  of  his 
tent  with  a  knife,  the  men  sit  in  one  <;ircle  and  the  women_in 
another.  These  dinner^wbich  are  always  held  in  the  evening, 
'are~almdSt  always  enlivened  by  a  mimic  performance.  The 
great  religious  feasts  take  place  just  before  the  beginning  of 
winter. 

There  are  three  forrns  of  social  gfouping :  the  Family, 
House-mates,  and  Place-mates.  ( iT  TheTamilv  consists  of 
a  man,  his  wife  or  wives,  their  children^d  adopted  children  ; 
wiHows'and  their  children  may  be  adopted,  but  the  "woman 
..  retains  her  own  fireplace.  Somejtimes  men  are  adopted,  such 
as  bachelors  without  any  relatives,  cripples,  or  iriipoverisKed 
jmen.  "Jointjownership  and  use  of  a  boat  and  house,  and  common 
labour  and  toil  in  obtaining  the  means  of  support  define  the 
real  community  of  the  family.  (2)  House-mates  are  families 
that  join  together  to  build  and  occupy  and  rnauaJalBlthe  same 
house.     This  form  of  establishment  is  especially  common  „in_, 

^  Loc.  cit.  pp.  366,  376. 

■''  V.  Stefdnsson,  My  life  with  the  Eskimo,.  1913,  p.  194  ff. 


x]  The  American  Aborigines  361 

Greenland,  but  each  family  l<;eeps  its  separate  establishment 
inside  the  common  house,     (3)    Place-fellows.     The  inhabi-- 
tants  of  the  same  Kanilet  or  winter  establishment  form  one 
community  although  no  chief  is  elected  or  authority  acknow-, 
ledged. 

Generally  children  are  betrothed  when  very  young.     The 
newly  married  pair  usually  live  at  first  with  the  wife's  family. 
Both  polygyny  and  polyandry  occur.    A  man   may  lend  or 
exchange  his  wife  for  a  whole  season  or  longer,  as  a  sign  of 
friendship.    On  certain  occasions  it^is^  even  ^commanded  by:^ 
religious  law.     There  is  no  government,  buFThere  is  a  kind  of ' 
chief  in  the  settlement,  though  his  authority  is  very  limited.  \ 
He  is  called  the  "  pimajn,"  i.e.  he  who  knows  everything  best  J 
He  decides  the  proper  time  to  shift  the  huts  from  one  place 
to  another,  he  may  ask  some  men  to  go  sealing,  others  to  go 
deer  hunting,  but  there  is  not  the  slightest  obligation  to  obey 
him.     The  men  in  a  community  may  form  themselves  into  an 
informal  council  for  the  regulation  of  affairs.    The  decorative 
art  of  the  Eskimo  is  not  remarkably  developed,  but  thepictoriaj 
art  consists  of  clever  sketches  of  everyday  scenes  and  there  is 
a  well  developed  plastic  art^    Many  of  the  carvings  are  toys 
and  are  made  for  the  pleasure  of  the  work.     "  The  religious 
views  and  practices  of  the  Eskimo  while,  on  the  whole,  alike 
in  their  fundamental  traits,  show  a  considerable  amount  of 
differentiation  in  the  extreme  east  and  in  the  extreme  west. 
It  would  seem  that  the  characteristicL-tr^its  of  shamanism. are., 
common  to  all  the  Eskimo~tri^s.     The  art  of  the  shaman 
(ahgakok)  is~acquired  by  tHeacquisition  of  guardian  spirits.... 
Besides  the  spirits  which  may  become  guardian  spirits  of  men," 
the  Eskimo  believes  in  a  great  many  others  which  are  hostile 
and  bring  disaster  and  death.... The  ritualistic  development  of_ 
Eskimo  religion  is  very  slight'." 

n.     Mackenzie  Area.     Skirting  the  Eskimo  area  is  a  belt 
of  semi-Arctic  lands  almost  cut  in  two  by  Hudson  Bay.     To 
the  west  are  the  D^nd  tribes,  who  are  believed      •okak: 
to  fall  into  three  culture  groups,  an  eastern  group.      Material 
Yellow  Knives,  Dog  Rib,  Hares,  Slavey,  Chi-      Culture, 
pewyan  and  Beaver;  a  south-western  group,  Nahane,  Sekani, 
Babine  and  Carrier ;  and  a  north-western  group,  comprising 
the  Kutchin,  Loucheux,  Ahtena  and  Khotana.    The  material 

1  F.  Boas,  "The  'E.s^a.mo,"  Annual  Archaeological  Report,  iqo^,  Toronto  (1906), 
p.  112  ff. 


362  Man :   Past  and  Present  [ch. 

culture  of  the  south-western  group  is  deduced  from  the  writings 
of  Father  Morice\  AU^the  tribes  are  hunters  of  large  or  small 
game,  caribou  are  often  driven  into  enclosures,  small  ga,me 
teKen  in  snares  or  tra^ ;  various  kinds  of  fish  are  largeTy  used, 
and  a  few  of  the  tribes  on"tEe  head,  wafers  oF'tlTe  Facmc  take 
salmon ;  large  use  of  berries  is  made,  they  are  mashed  and 
dried  by  a  special  process  ;  edible  roots  and  other  vegetable 
foods  are  used  to  some  extent ;  utensils  ar-e  of  wood  and  park ; 
there  is  no  pottery ;  bark  vessels  are  used  for  "Boilmg  witii'or 
without  stones  ;  travel  in  summer  is  largely  by  canoe,  in  winter 
by  snowshoe ;  dog  sleds  are  used  to  some  extent,  but  chiefly 
since  trade  days,  the  toboggan  form  prevailing ;  clothing  is_qf 
skins  ;  mittens  and  caps  are  y.Q,};j;i ;  there  is  no  weaving  except 
rabbit-skin  garments,  but  fine  network  occurs  on  sndwsh^s, 
bags,  and  fish  nets,  materials  being  of  bark  fibre,  smew  and 
babiche  ;  there  is  also  a  special  form  of  wovenouill  work  ;  the 
typical  habitation  seemstb  be  the  double  lean-to,  though  many 
intrusive  forms  occur  ;  other  material  culture  traits  include  the 
making  of  fish-hooks  and  spears  ;  a  limited  use  of  copper ;, 
and  poorly  developed. work  m  siiaije, 

—    The  physical  characteristics  vary  very  much  from  tribe  to 
tribe.    The  Sekani,  according  to  Morice,  are  slender  and  bony, 
in  stature  rather  below  the  average,  with  a  nar- 
Type.  "^^  forehead,  hollow  cheeks,  prominent  cheek- 

bones, small  eyes  deeply  sunk  in  their  orbit,  the 
upper  lip  very  thin  and  the  lower  somewhat  protruding,  the 
chin  very  small  and  the  nose  straight.  'The  Carriers,  on  the 
contrary,  are  tall  and  stout,  without  as  a  rule  being  too  cor- 
Wpulent.     The  men  average  i  '66  m.  in  height.     Their  forehead 
is  much  broader  than  that  of  the  Sekani,  and  less  receding 
than  is  usual  with  American  aborigines.     The  face  is  full,  and; 
the  nose  aquiline.    All  the  tribes  are  remarkably  unwarlike, 
timid,  and  even  cowardly.    Weapons  are  seldom  used  and  in 
j  personal  combat,  which  consists  in  a  species  of  Wrestling,, 
'knives  are  previously  laid  aside.     The  fear  of  enemies  is  a 
marked  feature,  due  in  part,  doubtless,  to  traditional  recollection 
of  the  raids  of  earlier  days.     Their  honesty  is  noted  by  all 
travellers.     Morice  records  th^t  among  the  Sekani  a  trader 
will  sometimes  go  on  a  trapping  expedition,  leaving  his  store 

^  A.  G.  Morice,  "Notes  on  the  Western  D^nds,"  Trans.  Canadian  Inst.  iv.  1895 ; 
"The  Western  Ddnds,"  Proc.  Canadian  Inst.  xxv.  (3rd  Series,  VII.)  1890;.  "The 
Canadian  D^n^s,"  Ann.  Arch.  Rep.  1905  (1906),  p.  187. 


x]  The  American  Aborigines  363 

unlocked,  without  fear  of  any  of  its  contents  going  amissTl 
Meantime  a  native  may  call  in  his  absence,  help  himself  to  as 
much  powder  and  shot  or  any  other  item  as  he  may  need,  but  1 
he  will  never  fail  to  leave  there  an  exact  equivalent  in  furs.  — i 

The  eastern  Den6  are  nomad  hunters  who  gather  berries 
and  roots,  while  the  western  are  semi-sedentary,  living  for 
most  of  the  year  in  villages  when  they  subsist  „  .  . , ., 
largely  on  salmon.  The  former  are  patrilineal 
and  the  latter  are  grouped  into  matrilineal  exogamic  totemic 
clans.  The  headmen  of  the  clans  formed  a  class  of  privileged 
nobles  who  alone  owned  the  hunting  grounds.  Morice  speaks 
of  clan,  honorific  and  personal  totems.  The  first  two  were 
adopted  from  coastal  tribes,  the  honorific  was  assumed  by  some 
individuals  in  order  to  attain  a  rank  to  which  they  were  not 
entitled  by  heredity.  The  "personal  totem"  is  the  guardian 
spirit  or  genius,  the  belief  in  which  is  common  to  nearly  all 
North  American  peoples.  Shamanism  prevails  throughout 
the  area.  The  mythology  almost  always  refers  to  a  "  Trans- 
former "  who  visited  the  world  when  incomplete  and  set  things 
in  order.  They  have  the  custom  of  the  potlatch\  If  a  man 
desires  another  man's  wife  he  can  challenge  the  husband  to  a 
wrestling  match,  the  winner  keeps  the  woman ^ 

1 1  J.  North  Pacific  Coast  Area.  This  culture  is  rather 
complex  with  tribal  variations,  but  it  can  be  treated  under 
three  subdivisions,  a  northern  group,  Tlingit,  jj  pacific 
Haida  and  Tsimshian ;  a  central  group,  the  Coast :  Material 
Kwakiutl  tribes  and  the  Bellacoola ;  and  a  south-  C""""^^- 
ern  group,  the  Coast  Salish,  Nootka,  Chinook,  Kalapooian, 
Waiilatpuan,  Chimakuan  and  some  Athapascan  tribes.  The 
first  of  these  seem  to  be  the  type  and  are  characterised  by : 
the  great  dependence  upon  sea  food,  some  hunting  upon  the 
mainland,  large  use  of  berries  (dried  fish,  clams  and  berries 
are  the  staple  food) ;  cooking  with  hot  stones  in  boxes  and 
baskets ;  large  rectangular  gabled  houses  of  upright  cedar 
planks  with  carved  posts  and  totem  poles ;  travel  chiefly  by 
water  in  large  seagoing  dug-out  canoes  some  of  which  had 

1  From  the  Nootka  viorA potlatsh,  "giving"  or  "a  gift,"  so  called  because  these 
great  winter  ceremonials  were  especially  marked  by  the  giving  away  of  quantities 
of  goods,  commonly  blankets.  CF.  J.  R.  Swanton  in  Handbook  of  American 
Indians  (F.  W.  Hodge,  editor),  1910.  .  .        ,   ,    , 

2  Besides  C.  Wissler,  loc.  at.  p.  457  and  A.  G.  Monce,  loc.  at.,  cf.  J.  Jette, 
Joum.  Roy.  Anthr.Insi.  xxxvii.  1907,  p.  1 57  ;  C.  Hill-Tout,  British  North  America, 

1907 ;  and  G.  T.  Emmons,  "  The  Tahltan  Indians,"  Anthr.  Pub.  University  of  Penn- 
sylvania, IV.  I,  191 1. 


L^ 


364  Man :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

sails ;  no  pottery  nor  stone  vessels,  except  mortars ;  baskets 
in  checker,  those  in  twine  reaching  a  high  state  of  excellence 
among  the  Tlingit ;  coil  basjketry  not  made ;  mats  of  cedar 
bark  and  soft  bags  in  abundance  ;  no  true  loom,  the  warp 
hanging  from  a  bar  and  weaving  with  the  fingers  downwards  ; 
clothing  rather  scanty,  chiefly  of  skin,  a  wide  basket  hat  (the 
only  one  of  the  kind  on  the  continent,  apparently  for  protection 
against  rain) ;  feet  usually  bare,  but  skin  moccasins  and  leggings 
occasionally  made ;  for  weapons  the  bow,  club  and  a  peculiar 
dagger,  no  lances ;  slat,  rod  and  skin  armour  ;  wooden  helmets, 
no  shields ;  practically  no  chipped  stone  tools,  but  nephrite 
or  green  stone  used  ;  wood  Work  highly  developed  ;  work  in 
copper  possibly  aboriginal  but,  if  so,  weakly  developed.  The 
central  group  differs  in  a  few  minor  points  ;  twisted  and  loosely 
woven  bark  or  wool  takes  the  place  of  skins  for  clothing  and 
baskets  are  all  in  checkerwork.  Among  the  southern  group 
appears  a  strong  tendency  to  use  stone  arrowheads,  and  a 
peculiar  flat  club  occurs,  vaguely  similar  to  the  New  Zealand 
type\ 

Physically  the  typical  North  Pacific  tribes  are  of  medium 

stature,  with  long  arms  and  short  bodies.    Among  the  northern 

branches  the  stature  averages  i  "675  m.  (5  ft.  6  in.), 

Type!*^*  the  head  is  very  large  with  an  average  index  ot 

82 "5.     The  face  is  very  broad,  the  nose  concave 

or  straight,  seldom  convex,  with  slight  elevation.    Among  the 

southern  tribes,  notably  the  Kwakiutl;  the  stature  averages 

1-645  m.  (5  ft.  4f  in.),  the  cephalic  index  is  84-5,  the  face  very 

broad  but  also  of  great  length,  the  nose  very  high,  rather 

narrow  and  frequently  convex. 

The  social  relations  of  these  peoples  vary  from  tribe  to 
tribe,  but  on  the  whole  they  fall  into  a  sequence  from  north  to 
Social  Life.  so^th.  In  the  northern  portion  descent  is  matri- 
lineal,  but  patrilineal  in  the  south.  J.  G.  Frazer 
does  not  accept  the  view  of  Boas  "  that  the  Northern  Kwa- 
kiutl have  borrowed  both  the  rule  of  maternal  descent  and  the 
division  into  totemic  clans  from  their  more  northerly  neighbours 
of  alien  stocks  ;  in  other  words,  that  totemism  and  mother-kin 
have  spread  southward  among  a  people  who  had  father-kin 
and  no  totemic  system^"  He  inclines  "to  the  other  view, 
formerly  favoured  by  Boas  himself,  namely,  that  the  Kwa- 

'  C.  Wissler,  /of.  cit.  p.  454. 
^  J.  G.  Frazer,  Totemism  and  Exogamy,  m.  1910,  p.  319. 


x]  The  American  Aborigines  365 

kiutl  are  in  a  stage  of  transition  from  mother-kin  to  father- 
kin\" 

Each  village  is  autonomous  and  originally  may  have  been 
restricted  to  a  single  totem  clan.  The  population  is  divided 
into  three  ranks,  nobles,  common  people  and  a  low  caste  con- 
sisting of  poor  people  and  serfs  who  cannot  participate  in  the 
secret  societies.  I  n  addition  there  is  a  totemic  grouping.  There 
may  be  several  totemic  clans  in  one  village  and  the  same  totem 
may  not  only  occur  in  every  village,  but  may  extend  from  one 
tribe  to  another.  This  suggests  that  there  were  originally  two, 
or  in  some  cases  more  than  two,  totemic  clans  which  in  process 
of  time  became  subdivided  into  sub-clans;  these,  while  retaining 
the  crest  of  the  original  clan,  acquired  fresh  ones,  and  the  families 
contained  in  each  sub-clan  may  have  their  special  crest  or  crests 
in  addition.  New  crests  and  names  are  constantly  being  in- 
troduced. Marriage  is  forbidden  between  people  of  the  same 
crest,  irrespective  of  the  tribe.  The  natives  according  to  Boas 
do  not  consider  themselves  descendants  from  their  totem.  A 
wife  brings  her  father's  position,  crest  and  privileges  as  a  dower 
to  her  husband,  who  is  not  allowed  to  use  them  himself,  but 
acquires  them  for  the  use  of  his  son,  in  other  words  this  in- 
heritance is  in  the  female  line. 

The  widely  spread  American  custom  of  a  youth  acquiring 
a  guardian  spirit  is  far  more  prevalent  among  tKe  southern 
section  than  the  northern,  but  among  the  Kwakiutl  he  can  only 
obtain  as  his  patron,  one  or  more  of  a  limited  number  of  spirits 
which  are  hereditary  in  his  clan.  In  the  northern  tribes  the 
secret  societies  are  coextensive  with  the  totemic  clans  ;  among 
the  Kwakiutl  they  are  connected  with  guardian  spirits  and  it 
is  significant  that  during  the  summer,  when  the  people  are 
scattered,  society  is  based  on  the  old  clan  system,  but  when 
the  people  live  together  in  villages  in  the  winter,  society  is 
reorganised  on  the  basis  of  the  secret  societies.  There  is  a 
highly  developed  system  of  barter  of  which  the  blanket  is  now 
the  unit  of  value,  formerly  the  units  were  elk-skins,  canoes  or 
slaves.  Certain  symbolic  objects  have  attained  fanciful  values. 
A  vast  credit  system  has  grown  up  based  on  the.  custom  of 
loaning  property  at  high  interest,  at  the  great  festivals  called 
"potlatch"  and  by  it  the  giver  gains  great  honour.  The  re- 
ligion is  closely  related  to  the  totemic  beliefs ;  supernatural  aid 

1  Loc.  cit.  p.  333. 


366  Man:   Past  and  Present  [ch. 

is  given  by  the  spirits  to  those  who  win  their  favour.  The 
raven  is  the  chief  figure  in  the  mythology ;  he  regulates  the 
phenomena  of  nature,  procures  fire,  daylight,  and  fresh  water, 
and  teaches  men  the  arts. 

To  the  south,  and  extending  inland  to  the  divide,  forming 
a  much  less  characteristic  group  are  the  Salish  or  Flat-heads 
who  are  allied  to  the  Athapascans.  The  coastal  Salish  assimilate 
the  culture  just  described,  but  the  plateau  Salish  are  more 
democratic,  less  settled  and  more  individualistic  in  religious 
matters^  The  Chinooks  or  Flat-heads  of  the  lower  reaches  of 
the  Columbia  river  are  nearly  extinct.  They  deformed  the 
heads  of  infants.  These  tribes  and  the  Shahapts  or  Nez  Percys 
are  differentiated  by  garments  of  raw  hides,  cranial  deformation, 
absence  of  tattooing  and  plain  bows,  but  they  still  have  com- 
munal houses  though  without  totem  posts.  They  cook  by  means 
of  heated  stones  and  have  zoomorphic  masks". 

IV.     Plateau  Area.     The  Plateau  area  lies  between  the 
North  Pacific  Coast  area  and  the  Plains.    It  is  far  less  uniform 
Plateau  Area:    ^'^'^  either  in  its  topography,  the  south  being  a 
Material  veritable  desert  while  the  north  is  moist  and 

Culture.  fertile.    The  traits  may  be  summarised  as  :  ex- 

tensive use  of  salmon,  deer,  roots  (especially  camas)  and  berries ; 
the  use  of  a  handled  digging  stick,  cooking  with  hot  stones  in 
holes  and  baskets  ;  the  pulverisation  of  dried  salmon  and  roots 
for  storage ;  winter  houses,  semi-subterranean,  a  circular  pit 
with  a  conical  roof  and  smoke  hole  entrance  ;  summer  houses, 
movable  or  transient,  mat  or  rush-covered  tents  and  the  lean- 
to,  double  and  single ;  the  dog  sometimes  used  a,s  a  pack 
animal ;  water  transportation  weakly  developed,  crude  dugrouts 
and  bark  canoes  being  used ;  pottery  not  known  ;  basketry 
highly  developed,  coil,  rectangular  shapes,  imbricated  technique ; 
twine  weaving  in  flexible  bags  and  mats  ;  some  simple  weaving 
of  bark  fibre  for  clothing  ;  clothing  for  the  entire  body  usually 
of  deerskins  ;  skin  caps  for  the  men,  and  in  some  cases  basket 
caps  for  women  ;  blankets  of  woven  rabbit-skin  ;  the  sinew- 
backed  bow  prevailed ;  clubs,  lances,  and  knives,  and  rod  and 
slat  armour  were  used  in  war,  also  heavy  leather  shirts ;  fish 
spears,  hooks,  traps  and  bag  nets  were  used  ;  dressing  of  deer- 
skins highly  developed  ;  upright  stretching  frames  and  straight 

^  See  p.  367. 

2  F.  Boas,  Brit.  Ass.  Reports,  1885-98;  Social  Organisation  of  the  Kwakiutl 
Indians,  1897;  A.  P.  Niblack,  "The  Coast  Indians,"  U.S.  Nat.  Mus.  Report,  \%()i. 


x]  The  AmericcCn  Aborigines  367 

long  handled  scrapers  ;  wood  work  more  advanced  than  among 
Plains  tribes,  but  insignificant  compared  to  North  Pacific  Coast 
area ;  stone  work  confined  to  the  making  of  tools  and  points, 
battering  and  flaking;  work  in  bone,  metal,  and  feathers  very 
weak\ 

Of  the  tribes  of  this  area,  the  interior  Salish,  the  Thompson, 
Shushwap  and  Lillooet,  appear  to  be  the  most  typical  of  those 
concerning  which  any  information  is  available. 
The  Shahapts  or  Nez  Percys,  and  the  Shoshoni  SU°*^"°' 
show  some  marked  Plains  traits.  "  The  interior 
Salish  are  landsmen  and  hunters,  and  from  time  immemorial 
have  been  accustomed  to  follow  their  game  over  mountainous 
country.  This  mode  of  life  has  engendered  among  them  an 
active,  slender,  athletic  type  of  men  ;  they  are  considerably 
taller  and  possess  a  much  finer  physique  than  their  congeners 
of  the  coastal  region,  who  are  fishermen,  passing  the  larger 
portion  of  their  time  on  the  water  squatting  in  their  canoes, 
never  walking  to  any  place  if  they  can  possibly  reach  it  by 
water.  The  typical  coast  Salish  are  a  squat  thick-set  people, 
with  disproportionate  legs  and  bodies,  slow  and  heavy  in  their 
movements,  and  as  unlike  their  brothers  of  the  interior  as  it 
is  possible  for  them  to  be"." 

The  Thompsons  represented  the  Salish  at  their  highest 
and  best,  both  morally  and  physically,  and  their  ethical  precepts 
and  teaching  set  a  very  high  standard  of  virtue  before  the 
advent  of  the  Europeans.  Hill-Tout  says  that  receptiveness 
and  a  wholesale  adoption  of  foreign  fashions  and  customs  are 
their  striking  qualities,  and  "if  they  have  fallen  away  from 
these  high  standards,  as  we  fear  they  have;  the  fault  is  not 

theirs  but  ours We  assumed  a  grave  responsibility  when  we 

undertook  to  civilise  these  races'." 

The  simplest  form  of  social  organisation  is  found  among 
the  interior  hunting  tribes,  where  a  state  of  pure  anarchy  may 

1  For  this  area  consult  J.  Teit,  "  The  Thompson  Indians  of  British  Columbia,'' 
"  The  Lillooet  Indians,"  and  "  The  Shushwap,"  in  Memoirs,  Am.  Mus.  Nat.  Hist. 
Vol.  II.  4,  1900;  Vol.  IV.  5,  1906 ;  and  Vol.  IV.  7,  1909 ;  F.  Boas,  "  The  Salish  Tribes 
of  the  Interior  of  British  Columbia,"  Ann.  Arch.  Rep.  1905  (Toronto,  1906); 
C.  Hill- Tout,  "The  Salish  Tribes  of  the  Coast  and  Lower  Fraser  Delta,"  Ann. 
Arch.  Rep.  1905  (Toronto,  1906);  H.  J.  Spinden,  "The  Nez  Percys  Indians," 
Memoirs,  Am.  Anth.  Ass.  11.  3,  1908;  R.  H.  Lowie,  "The  Northern  Shoshone," 
Anth.  Papers,  Am.  Mus.  Nat.  Hist.  II.  2,  1908;  A.  B.  Lewis,  "Tribes  of  the 
Cohambia  Valley,"  etc.,  Memoirs,  Am.  Anth.  Ass.  I.  2,  1906. 

2  C.  Hill-Tout,  British  North  America,  igoj,  p.  37. 

3  Loc.  cit.  p.  50. 


368  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

be  said  to  have  formerly  prevailed,  each  family  being  a  law 

unto  itself  and  acknowledging  no  authority  save 

Social  Or-        ^  <^     f  j^^g   ^^^   elderman.     Each   local   com- 

gamsation.  .  , 

munity  was  composed  01  a  greater  or  less  number 
of  these  self-ruling  families.  There  was  a  kind  of  headship  or 
nominal  authority  given  to  the  oldest  and  wisest  of  the  elder- 
men  in  some  of  the  larger  communities,  where  occasion  called 
for  it  or  where  circumstances  arose  in  which  it  became  necessary 
to  have  a  central  representative.  This  led  in  some  centres  to 
the  regular  appointing  of  local  chiefs  or  heads  whose  business 
it  was  to  look  after  the  material  interest  of  the  commune  over 
which  they  presided  ;  but  the  office  was  always  strictly  elective 
and  hedged  with  manifold  limitations  as  to  authority  and 
privilege.  For  example,  the  local  chief  was  not  necessarily 
the  head  of  all  undertakings.  He  would  not  lead  in  war  or 
the  chase  unless  he  happened  to  be  the  best  hunter  or  the 
bravest  and  most  skilful  warrior  among  them ;  and  he  was 
subject  to  deposition  at  a  moment's  notice  if  his  conduct  did 
not  meet  with  the  approval  of  the  elders  of  the  commune. 
His  office  or  leadership  was  therefore  purely  a  nominal  one. 
All  hunting,  fishing,  root,  and  berry  grounds  were  common 

property  and  shared  in  by  all  alike In  one  particular  tribe 

even  the  food  was  held  and  meals  were  taken  in  common,  the 
presiding  elder  or  headman  calling  upon  a  certain  family  each 
day  to  provide  and  prepare  the  meals  for  all  the  rest,  every  one, 
more  or  less,  taking  it  in  turn  to  discharge  this  social  duty'. 

V.    Californian  Area.    Of  the  four  sub-culture  areas  noted 

by  Kroeber"''  the  central  group  is  the  most  extensive  and  typical. 

CaUfornia:        ^^^  main  characteristics  are  :  acorns  as  the  chief 

Material  vegetable    food,   supplemented  ,  by    wild   seeds. 

Culture.  while  roots  and  berries  are  scarcely  used ;  the 

acorns  are  made  into  bread  by  a  roundabout  process  ;  hunting 

is  mostly  of  small  game,  fishing  wherever  possible  ;  the  houses 

are  of  many  forms,  all  simple  shelters  of  brush  or  tule,  or  more 

substantial  conical  lean-to  structures  of  poles  ;  the  dog  was  not 

used  for  packing  and  there  were  no  canoes,  but  rafts  of  tule 

were  used  for  ferrying;  no  pottery  but  high  development  of 

basketry  both  coil  and  twine  ;  bags  and  mats  scanty  ;  cloth  or 

'  Loc.  cit.  pp.  158-9. 

^  A.  L.  Kroeber,  "Types  of  Indian  Culture  in  California,"  University  of  Cali- 
fornia Publications  Am.  Arch.  andEth.  ll.  3, 1904;  cf.  also  the  special  anthropological 
publications  of  the  University  of  California. 


x}  The  American  Aborigines  369 

other  weaving  of  simple  elements  not  known  ;  clothing  simple 
and  scanty  ;  feet  usually  bare ;  the  bow  the  only  weapon,  usually 
sinew-backed  ;  work  in  skins,  wood,  bone  etc.,  weak,  in  metals 
absent,  in  stone  work  not  advanced.  In  the  south  modifications 
enter  with  large  groups  of  Yuman  and  Shoshonian  tribes  where 
pottery,  sandals  and  wooden  war  clubs  are  intrusive.  The 
extinct  Santa  Barbara  were  excellent  workers  in  stone,  bone 
and  shell,  and  made  plank  canoes. 

Topographical  variation  produces  consequent  changes  in 
mode  of  life  as  the  well  watered  and  wooded  country  of  Oregon 
and  Northern  California  gradually  merges  into  ■  1  r-f 

the  warm  dry  climate  of  South  California  with 
decreasing  moisture  towards  tbe  tropics.  As  Kroeber  says', 
"  From  the  time  of  the  first  settlement  of  California,  its  Indians 
have  been  described  as  both  more  primitive  and  more  peaceful 
than  the  majority  of  the  natives  of  North  America.-... The 
practical  arts  of  life,  the  social  institutions  and  the  ceremonies 
-of  the  Californian  Indians areunusuallysimpleandundeveloped. 
There  was  no  war  for  its  own  sake,  no  confederation  of  powerful 
tribes,  no  communal  stone  pueblos,  no  totems,  or  potlatches. 
The  picturesqueness  and  the  dignity  of  the  Indians  are  lacking. 
In  general  rudeness  of  culture  the  Californian  Indians  are 
scarcely  above  the  Eskimo.... If  the  degree  of  civilisation  at- 
tained by  people  depends  in  any  large  measure  on  their  habitat, 
as  does  not  seem  likely,  it  might  be  concluded  from  the  case 
of  the  Californian  Indians  that  natural  advantages  were  an 

impediment  rather  than  an  incentive  to  progress It  is  possible 

to  speak  of  typical  Californian  Indians  and  to  recognise  a  typical 
Californian  culture  area.  A  feature  that  should  not  be  lost 
sight  of  is  the  great  stability  of  population The  social  or- 
ganisation was  both  simple  and  loose Beyond  the  family  the 

only  bases  of  organisation  were  the  village  and  the  language." 
In  so  simple  a  condition  of  society  difference  of  rank  naturally 
found  but  little  scope.  The  influence  of  chiefs  was  compara- 
tively small,  and  distinct  classes,  as  of  nobility  or  slaves,  were 
unknown.  I  ndividual  property  rights  were  developed  and  what 
organisation  of  society  there  was,  was  largely  on  the  basis  of 
property.  The  ceremonies  are  characterised  by  a  very  slight 
development  of  the  extreme  ritualism  that  is  so  characteristic 
of  the  American  Indians,  and  by  an  almost  entire  absence  of 

*  Loc.  cit.  p.  81  ff. 
K.  24 


37©  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

symbolism  of  any  kind.  Fetishism  is  also  unusual.  One  set 
of  ceremonies  was  usually  connected  with  a  secret  religious 
society  ;  during  initiation  members  were  disguised  by  feathers 
and  paint,  but  masks  were  not  worn.  There  was  also  an  annual 
tribal  spectacular  ceremony  held  in  remembrance  of  the  dead. 
In  the  north-west  portion  of  the  state  a  somewhat  more  highly 
developed  and  specialised  culture  existed  which  has  some 
affinities  with  that  of  the  north-west  tribes,  as  is  indicated  by 
a  greater  advance  in  technology,  a  social  organisation  largely 
upon  a  property  basis  and  a  system  of  mythology  that  is  sug- 
gestive of  those  further  north.  The  now  extinct  tribes  of  the 
Santa  Barbara  islands  and  adjacent  mainland  were  more  ad- 
vanced. They  alone  employed  a  plank-built  canoe  instead  of 
the  balsas  or  canoe-shaped  bundles  of  rushes  of  the  greater 
part  of  California.  ,  They  made  stone  bowls  and  did  inlaid  work. 
Like  the  North  Galifornians  and  tribes  further  north  they 
buried  instead  of  burning  their  dead.  The  eastern  tribes  shade 
off  into  their  neighbours.  The  Luiseno,  the  southernmost  of 
the  Shoshonians,  had  puberty  rites  for  girls  and  boys\  The 
belief  in  a  succession  of  births  "  is  reminiscent  of  Oceanic  and 
Asiatic  ways  of  thought^"  [About]  1788  a  secret  cult  arose 
inculcating,  with  penalties,  obedience,  fasting,  and  self-sacrifice 
on  initiates  I 

VI.     Plains  Area.     The  chief  traits  of  this  culture  are  the 
dependence  upon  the  bison  ("  buffalo ")  and  the  very  limited 
Plains  Area:     use  of  roots  and  berries  ;  absence  of  fishing  ;  lack 
Material  of  agriculture  ;  the  tipi  or  tent  as  the  movable, 

Culture.  dwelling  and  transportation  by  land  only,  with 

the  dog  and  the  travois  (in  historic  times,  with  the  horse) ;  no 
baskets,  pottery,  or  true  weaving  ;  clothing  of  bison  and  deer- 
skins ;  there  is  high  development  of  work  in  skins  and  special 
bead  technique  and  raw-hide  work  (parfleche,  cylindrical  bag 
etc.),  and  weak  development  of  work  in  wood,  stone  and  bone. 
This  typical  culture  is  manifested  in  the  Assiniboin,  Arapaho, 
Blackfoot,  Crow,  Cheyenne,  Comanche,  Gros  Ventre,  Kiowa, 
Kiowa- Apache,  Sarsi  and  Teton- Dak ota^     Among  the  tribes 

*  P.  S.  Spartman,  University  of  California  Publications,  Am.  Arch,  and  Eth. 
VIII.  1908,  p.  221  ff. ;  A.  L.  Kroeber,,  "Types  of  Indian  Culture  in  California,"  ibid. 
11.  1904,  p.  81  fE 

^  A.  L.  Kroeber,  ibid.  VIII.  1908,  p.  72. 

'  C.  G.  DuBois,.  "  The  Religion  of  the  Luisenoi  Indians,"  torn,  cit  p.  73  ff. 

*  Dakota  is  the  name  of  the  largest  division  of  the  Siouan  linguistic  family, 
commonly  called  Sioux ;  Santee,  Yankton  and  Teton  constituting,  with  the  Assini- 
boin, the  four  main  dialects. 


x]  The  American  Aborigines  371 

of  the  eastern  border  a  limited  use  of  pottery  and  basketry 
may  be  added,  some  spinning  and  weaving  of  bags,  and  rather 
extensive  agriculture.  Here  the  tipi  alternates  with  larger  and 
more  permanent  houses  covered  with  grass,  bark  or  earth,  and 
there  was  some  attempt  at  water  transportation.  These  tribes 
are  the  Arikara,  Hidatsa,  Iowa,  Kansa,  Mandan,  Missouri, 
Omaha,  Osage,  Oto,  Pawnee,  Ponca,  Santee- Dakota',  Yankton- 
Dakota^  and  Wichita. 

On  the  western  border  other  tribes  (Wind  River  Shoshoni, 
Uinta  and  Uncompahgre  Ute)  lack  pottery  but  produce  a 
rather  high  type  of  basketry,  depending  far  less  on  the  bison 
but  more  on  deer  and  small  game,  making  large  use  of  wild 
grass  seeds. 

On  the  north-eastern  border  the  Plains- Ojib  way  and  Plains- 
Cree  combine  many  traits  of  the  forest  hunting  tribes  with 
those  found  in  the  Plains. 

The  Dakota  or  Sioux  are  universally  conceded  to  be  of 
the  highest  type,  physically,  mentally  and  probably  morally  of 
any  of  the  western  tribes.  Their  bravery  has 
never  been  questioned  by  white  or  Indian  and  (siouxf  ° 
they  conquered  or  drove  out  every  rival  except 
the  Ojibway.  Their  physical  characteristics  are  as  follows  : 
dark  skin  faintly  tinged  with  red,  facial  features  more  strongly 
marked  than  those  of  the  Pacific  Coast  Indians,  nose  and  lower 
jaw  particularly  prominent  and  heavy,  head  generally  meso- 
cephalic  and  not  artificially  deformed.  They  are  a  free  and 
dominant  race,  of  hunters  and  warriors,  necessarily  strong  and 
active.  Their  weapons  of  stone,  wood,  bone  and  horn  are  toma- 
hawk, club,  flint  knife,  and  bow  and  arrow.  All  their  habits 
centre  in  the  bison,  which  provided  the  staple  materials  of 
nutrition  and  industry.  Drawing  and  painting  were  done  on 
prepared  bison  skins  and  elaborately  carved  pipes  were  made 
for  ceremonial  use. 

They  are  divided  into  kinship  groups,  with  inheritance  as 
a  rule  in  the  male  line.  The  woman  is  autocrat  of  the  home. 
Exogamy  was  strictly  enforced  in  the  clan  but  marriage  within 
the  tribe  or  with  related  tribes  was  encouraged.  The  marriage 
was  arranged  by  the  parents  and  polygyny  was  common  where 
means  would  permit.  Government  consisted  in  chieftainship 
acquired  by  personal  merit,  and  the  old  men  exercised  con- 
siderable influence. 

>  See  note  4,  p.  370. 

24 — 2 


372  Man :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

Religious  conceptions  were  based  on  a  belief  in  Wakonda 

or  Manito^,  an  all-pervading  spirit  force,  whose  cult  involved 

various   shamanistic    ceremonials    consisting  of 

eigion.  dancing,  chanting,  feasting  and  fasting.    Most 

distinctive  of. these  is  the  Sun  dance,  practised  by  almost  all 
the  tribes  of  the  plains  except  the  Comanche.  It  is  an  annual 
festival  lasting  several  days,  in  honour  of  the  sun,  for  the 
purpose  of  obtaining  abundant  produce  throughout  the 
year. 

The  Sun  dance  was  not  only  the  greatest  ceremony  of  the 
Plains  tribes  but  was  a  condition  of  their  existence.    More  than 
any  other  ceremony  or  occasion,  it  furnished  the 
Dance  °  tribe  the  opportunity  for  the  expression  of  emotion 

in  rhythm,  and  was  the  occasion  of  the  tribe  be- 
coming more  closely  united.  It  gave  opportunity  for  the  making 
and  renewing  of  common  interests,  the  inauguration  of  tribal 
policies,  and  the  renewing  of  the  rank  of  the  chiefs ;  for  the 
exhibition,  by  means  of  mourning  feasts,  of  grief  over  the  loss 
of  members  of  families  ;  for  the  fulfilment  of  social  obligations 
by  means  of  feasts  ;  and,  finally,  for  the  exercise  and  gratifica- 
tion of  the  emotions  of  love  on  the  part  of  the  young  in  the 
various  social  dances  which  always  formed  an  interesting  feature 
of  the  ceremony  ^ 

Being  strongly  opposed  by  the  missionaries  because  it  was 
utterly  misunderstood^  and  finding  no  favour  in  official  circles, 
the  Sun  dance  has  been  for  many  years  an  object  of  persecution, 
and  in  consequence  is  extinct  among  the  Dakota,  Crows,  Man- 
dan,  Pawnee,  and  Kiowa,  but  it  is  still  performed  by  the  Cree, 
Siksika  (Blackfoot),  Arapaho,  Cheyenne,  Assiniboin,  Ponca, 
Shoshoni  and  Ute,  though  in  many  of  these  tribes  its  disap- 
pearance is  near  at  hand,  for  it  has  lost  part  of  its  .rites  and 

'  Wakonda  is  the  term  employed  "when  the  power  believed  to  animate  all  , 
natural  forms  is  spoken  to  or  spoken  of  in  supplications  or  rituals"  by  many  tribes 
of  the  Siouan  family.  Manito  is  the  Algonquian  name  for  "the  mysterious  and 
unknown  potencies  and  powers  of  life  and  of  the  universe."  "  Wakonda"  says 
Miss  Fletcher,  "  is  difficult  to  define,  for  exact  terms  change  it  from  its  native  un- 
crystallized  condition  to  something  foreign  to  aboriginal  thought.  Vg.gue  as  the 
concept  seems  to  be  to  one  of  another  race,  to  the  Indian  it  is  as  real  and  as 
mysterious  as  the  starry  night  or  the  flush  of  the  coming  day,"  "  Handbook  of 
American  Indians"  (ed.  F.  W.  Hodge),  Bur.  Am.  Eth.  Bull.  30,  1907. 

2  See  G.  A.  Dorsey,  "  Handbook  of  American  Indians "  (ed.  F.  W.  Hodge), 
Bur.  Am.  Eth.  Bull.  30,  1907. 

^  G.  B.  Grinnell  points  out  that  the  personal  torture  often  associated  with  the 
ceremonies  has  no  connection  with  them,  but  represents  the  fulfilment  of  individual 
vows.  "The  Cheyenne  Medicine  Lodge,"  Am.  Anth.  XVI.  1914,  p.  245. 


x]  The  American  Aborigines  373 

has  become  largely  a  spectacle  for  gain  rather  than  a  great 
religious  ceremony'. 

The  Pawnee  do  not  differ  at  all  widely  from  the  Dakota, 
but  have  a  somewhat  finer  cast  of  features.  They  are  more 
given  to  agriculture,  raising  crops  of  maize,  pump-  .  ^^^^ 
kins,  etc.  The  Pawnee  type  of  hut  is  characteristic, 
consisting  of  a  circular  framework  of  poles  or  logs,  covered 
with  brush,  bark  and  earth.  Their  religious  ceremonies  were 
connected  with  the  cosmic  forces  and  the  heavenly  bodies. 
The  dominating  power  was  Tirawa  generally  spoken  of  as 
"  Father."  The  winds,  thunder,  lightning  and  rain  were  his 
messengers.  Among  the  Skidi  the  morning  and  evening  stars 
represented  the  masculine  and  feminine  elements,  and  were 
connected  with  the  advent  and  perpetuation  on  earth  of  all 
living  forms.  A  series  of  ceremonies  relative  to  the  bringing 
of  life  and  its  increase  began  with  the  first  thunder  in  the 
spring  and  culminated  at  the  summer  solstice  in  human  sacrifice, 
but  the  series  did  not  close  until  the  maize,  called  "mother 
corn,"  was  harvested.  At  every  stage  of  the  series  certain 
shrines  or  "  bundles  "  became  the  centre  of  a  ceremony.  Each 
shrine  was  in  charge  of  an  hereditary  keeper,  but  its  rituals 
and  ceremonies  were  in  the  keeping  of  a  priesthood  open  to 
all  proper  aspirants.  Through  the  sacred  and  symbolic  articles 
of  the  shrines  and  their  rituals  and  ceremonies  a  medium  of 
communication  was  believed  to  be  opened  between  the  people 
and  the  supernatural  powers,  by  which  food,  long  life  and 
prosperity  were  obtained.  The  mythology  of  the  Pawnee  is 
remarkably  rich  in  symbolism  and  poetic  fancy  and  their  re- 
ligious system  is  elaborate  and  cogent.  The  secret  societies, 
of  which  there  were  several  in  each  tribe,  were  connected  with 
the  belief  in  supernatural  animals.  The  functions  of  these 
societies  were  to  call  the  game,  to  heal  diseases,  and  to  give 
occult  powers.  Their  rites  were  elaborate  and  their  ceremonies 
dramatic  I 

The  Blackfeet  or  Siksika^  an  Algonquian  confederacy  of 

1  See  G.  A.  Dorsey,  "  Arapaho  Sun  Dance,"  Pub.  Field  Gol.  Mus.  Anth.  IV.  4 
(Chicago),  1903;  "The  Cheyenne,"  torn.  cit.  IX.  1905. 

2  A.  C.  Fletcher,  in  "  Handbook  of  American> Indians  "  (ed.  F.  W.  Hodge),  Bur. 
Am.  Eth.,  Bull.  30, 1907 ;  Am.  Anth.  iv.  4,  1902  ;  "The  Hako,  a  Pawnee  Ceremony," 
■2.2nd  Ann.  Rep.  Bur.  Am.  Eth.  1900-1,  2  (1904);  G.  A.  Dorsey,  "Traditions  of 
the  Skidi  Pawnee,"  Mem.  Am.  Folklore  Soc.  vill.  1904. 

'  From  siksinam  "black,"  and  ka,  the  root  of  oqkatsh  "foot."  The  origin  of 
the  name  is  commonly  given  as  referring  to  the  blackening  of  their  moccasins  by 
the  ashes  of  the  prairie  fires. 


374  Man  :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

the  northern  plains,  agree  in  culture  with  the  Plains  tribes 
generally,  though  there  is  evidence  of  an  earlier 

The  Black-  culture,  approximately  that  of  the  eastern  wood- 
land tribes.  They  are  divided  into  the  Siksika 
proper,  or  Blackfeet,  the  Kainah  or  Bloods,  and  the  Piegan, 
the  whole  being  popularly  known  as  Blackfoot  or  Blackfeet. 
Formerly  bison  and  deer  were  their  chief  food  and  there  is  no 
evidence  that  they  ever  practised  agriculture,  though  tobacco 
was  grown  and  used  entirely  for  ceremonial  purposes.  The 
doors  of  their  tipis  always  faced  east.  They  have  a  great 
number  of  dances — religious,  war  and  social — besides  secret 
societies  for  various  purposes,  together  with  many  "  sacred 
bundles  "  around  every  one  of  which  centres  a  ritual.  Practi- 
cally every  adult  has  his  personal  "medicine."  The  principal 
deities  are  the  Sun,  and  a  supernatural  being  known  as  Napi 
"  Old  Man,"  who  may  be  an  incarnation  of  the  same  idea. 
The  religious  activity  of  a  Blackfoot  consists  in  putting  himself 
into  a  position  where  the  cosmic  power  will  take  pity  upon  him 
and  give  him  something  in  return.  There  was  no  conception 
of  a  single  personal  god'. 

The  Arapaho,  another  Algonquian  Plains  tribe,  were  once 
according  to  their  own  traditions  a  sedentary  agricultural  people 

Th  A  ah  ^^^  ^°  *'^^  north  of  their  present  range,  apparently 
in  North  Minnesota.  They  have  been  closely 
associated  with  the  Cheyenne  for  many  generations  I  The 
annual  Sun  Dance  is  their  greatest  tribal  ceremony,  and  they 
were  active  propagators  of  the  ghost-dance  religion  of  the  last 
century  which  centred  in  the  belief  in  the  coming  of  a  messiah 
and  the  restoration  of  the  country  to  the  Indians^ 

The  Cheyenne,  also  of  agricultural  origin,  have  been  for 
generations  a  typical  prairie  tribe,  living  in  skin  tipis,  following 

The  Che  enne     ^      bison  over  large  areas,  travelling  and  fighting 
on  horseback.    In  character  they  are  proud,  con- 
tentious, and  brave  to  desperation,  with  an  exceptionally  high 
standard  for  women.   Under  the  old  system  they  had  a  council 
of  44  elective  chiefs,  of  whom  four  constituted  a  higher  body, 

'  J.  Mooney,  "  Handbook  of  American  Indians "  (ed.  F.  W.  Hodge),  Bur. 
Am.  Eth;  Bull.  30,  1907;  C-  Wisslgr,  "Material  culture  of  the  Blackfoot  Indians," 
Anth.  Papers,  Am.  Mus.  Nat.  Hist.  v.  i,  1910;  J.  W,  Schultz,  My  Life  as  an 
Indian,  1907. 

2  A.  L.  Kroeber,  "The  Arapaho,"  Bull.  Am.  Mus.  Nat.  Hist,  xvill.  1900; 
G.  A.  Dorsey  and  A.  L.  Kroeber,  "  Traditions  of  the  Arapaho,"  Pub.  Field  Col. 
Mus.  Anth.  V.  1903 ;  G.  A.  Dorsey,  "Arapaho  Sun  Dance,"  ib.  IV.  1903. 

3  J.  Mooney,  "  The  Ghost  Dance  Religion,"  i^hAnn.  Rep.  Bur.  Am.  Eth.  1896, 


x]  The  American  Aborigines  375 

with  power  to  elect  one  of  their  number  as  head  chief  of  the 
tribe.  In  all  councils  that  concerned  the  relations  with  other 
tribes,  one  member  of  the  council  was  appointed  to  argue 
as  proxy  or  "devil's  advocate"  for  the  alien  people.  The 
council  of  44  is  still  symbolised  by  a  bundle  of  44  invitation 
sticks,  kept  with  the  sacred  medicine-arrows,  and  formerly  sent 
round  when  occasion  arose  to  convene  the  assembly.  The 
four  medicine-arrows  constitute  the  tribal  palladium  which  they 
claim  to  have  had  from  the  beginning  of  the  world.  It  was 
exposed  once  a  year  with  appropriate  rites,  and  is  still  religiously 
preserved.  No  woman,  white  man,  or  even  mixed  blood  of 
the  tribe  has  ever  been  allowed  to  come  near  the  sacred  arrows. 
In  priestly  dignity  the  keepers  of  the  medicine-arrows  and  the 
priests  of  the  Sun  dance  rites  stood  first  and  equaP. 

VI  I.  Eastern  Woodland  Areal  The  culture  north  of  the 
Great  Lakes  and  east  of  the  St  Lawrence  is  comparable  to 
that  of  the  D^n^  (see  p.  361),  the  main  traits  Eastern  Wood- 
being:  the  taking  of  caribou  in  pens  ;  the  snaring  lands:  Material 
of  game  ;  the  importance  of  small  game  and  fish,  Culture, 
also  of  berries  ;  the  weaving  of  rabbit-skins  ;  the  birch  canoe  ; 
the  toboggan  ;  the  conical  skin  or  bark-covered  shelter ;  the 
absence  of  basketry  and  pottery  and  the  use  of  bark  and 
wooden  utensils.  To  this  northern  group  belong  the  Ojibway 
north  of  the  lakes,  including  the  Saulteaux,  the  Wood  Cree, 
the  Montagnais  and  the  Naskapi.  Further  south  the  main 
body  falls  into  three  large  divisions  :  Iroquoian  tribes  (Huron, 
Wyandot,  Erie,  Susquehanna  and  Five  Nations);  Central 
Algonquian  to  the  west  of  the  Iroquois  (some  Ojibway,  Ottawa, 
Menomini,  Sauk  and  Fox°,  Potawatomi,  Peoria,  Illinois,  Kicka- 
poo,  Miami,  Piankashaw,  Shawnee  and  Siouan  Winnebago) ; 
Eastern  Algonquian  (Abnaki  group  and  Micmac). 

The  Central  group  west  of  the  Iroquois  appears  to  be  the 

1  G.  A.  Dorsey,  "The  Cheyenne,"  Pub.  Field  Col.  Mus.  Anth.  ix.  1905  ;  G.  B. 
.Grinnell,  "  Social  organisation  of  the  Cheyennes,"  Rep.  Int.  Cong.  Am,  Xlll.  1902. 

2  Consult  the  following :  A.  C.  Parker,  "  Iroquois  uses  of  Maize  and  other  Food 
Plants,"  Bull.  144,  University  of  California  Pub..,  Arch.  andEth.  vil.  4,  1909 ;  W.  J. 
Hoffman,  "The  Menomini  Indians,"  14M  Ann.  jiep.  Bur.  Am.  Eth.  1892-3,  i  (1896) ; 
A.  E.  Jenks,  ''The  Wild  Rice  Gatherers  of  the  Upper  Lakes,"  \()th  Ann.  Rep.  Bur. 
Am.  Eth.  1897-8,  II.  (1912);  A.  F.  Chamberlam,  "The  Kootenay  Indians  and 
Indians  of  the  Eastern  Provinces  of  Canada,"  Ann.  Arch.  Rep.  1905  (1906); 
A.  Skinner,  "  Notes  on  the  Eastern  Cree  and  Northern  Saulteaux,"  Anth.  Papers, 
Am.  Mus.  Nat.  Hist.  ix.  i,  191 1  ;  The  Indians  of  Greater  New  York.,  1914; 
J.  N.  B.  Hewitt,  "Iroquoian  Cosmology,''  2ij/  Ann.  Rep.  Bur.  Am.  Eth.  1899- 
1900  (1903),  etc. 

3  For  the  Foxes  (properly  Musquakie)  see  M.  A.  Owen,  Folklore  of  the  Mus, 
quakie  Indians,  1904. 


376  Man  :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

most  typical  and  the  best  known  and  the  following  are  the 
_       ,  „  main  culture  traits :  maize,  squashes  and  bean 

'°"^"  were  cultivated,  wild  rice  where  available  was  a 
great  staple,  and  maple  sugar  was  manufactured ;  deer,  bear 
and  even  bison  were  hunted  ;  also  wild  fowl ;  fishing  was  fairly 
developed,  especially  sturgeon  fishing  on  the  lakes ;  pottery 
poor,  but  formerly  used  for  cooking  vessels,  vessels  of  wood 
and  bark  common ;  some  splint  basketry  ;  two  types  of  shelter 
prevailed,  a  dome-shaped  bark  or  mat-covered  lodge  for  winter 
and  a  rectangular  bark  house  for  summer,  though  the  Ojibway 
used  the  conical  type  of  the  northern  border  group ;  dug-out 
and  bark  canoes. and  snowshoes  were  used,  occasionally  the 
toboggan  and  dog  traction  ;  weaving  was  of  bark  fibre  (down- 
ward with  fingers),  and  soft  bags,  pack  lines  and  fish  nets  were 
made;  clothing  was  of  skins;  soft-soled  moccasins  with  drooping 
flaps,  leggings,  breech-cloth  and  sleeved  shirts  for  men,  for 
women  a  skirt  and  jacket,  though  a  one-piece  dress  was  known ; 
robes  of  skin  or  woven  rabbit-skin  ;  no  armour  or  lances  ;  bows 
of  plain  wood  and  clubs  ;  in  trade  days,  the  tomahawk  :  work 
in  wood,  stone  and  bone  weakly  developed  ;  probably  consider- 
able use  of  copper  in  prehistoric  times  ;  feather-work  rare. 

In  the  eastern  group  agriculture  was  more  intensive  (ex- 
cept in  the  north)  and  pottery  was  more  highly  developed. 
_   ,      „  Woven  feather  cloaks  were  common,  there  was 

Eastern  Group.  •   i     i         i  c  i     •  •  i 

a  special  development  oi  work  m  steatite,  and 
more  use  was  made  of  edible  roots. 

The  Iroquoian  tribes  were  even  more  intensive  agricul- 
turalists and  potters.     They  made  some  use  of  the  blow-gun, 
developed  cornhusk  weaving,  carved  elaborate 
Tribes'^         masks  from  wood,  lived  in  rectangular  houses  of 
peculiar   pattern,    built  fortifications   and    were 
superior  in  bone  work\ 

In  physical  type  the  Ojibways^  who  may  be  taken  as  typical 
of  the  central  Algonquians,  were  1 73  m.  (5  ft.  8  in.)  in  height, 
TheOlb  a  ^'''^  brachycephalic  heads  (82  in  the  east,  80  in 
the  west,  but  variable),  heavy  strongly  developed 
cheek-bones  and  heavy  and  prominent  nose.  They  were  hard 
fighters  and  beat  back  the  raids  of  the  Iroquois  on  the  east  and 
of  the  Foxes  on  the  south,  and  drove  the  Sioux  before  them 

^  C.  Wissler,  loc.  cit.  p.  459. 

^  Ojibway,  meaning  "  to  roast  till  puckered  up,"  referred  to  the  puckered  seam 
on  the  moccasins.     Chippewa  is  the  popular  adaptation  of  the  word. 


x]  The  American  Aborigines  377 

out  upon  the  Plains.  According  to  Schoolcraft,  who  was  per- 
sonally acquainted  with  them  and  married  a  woman  of  the 
tribe,  the  warriors  equalled  in  physical  appearance  the  best 
formed  of  the  North- West  Indians,  with  the  possible  exception 
of  the  Foxes. 

They  were  organised  in  many  exogamous  clans  ;  descent 
was  patrilineal  although  it  was  matrilineal  in  most  Algonquian 
tribes.  The  clan  system  was  totemic.  There  was  a  clan  chief 
and  generally  a  tribal  chief  as  well,  chosen  from  one  clan  in 
which  the  office  was  hereditary.  His  authority  was  rather 
indefinite. 

As  regards  religion  W.  Jones'  notes  their  belief  in  a  cosmic 
mystery  present  throughout  all  Nature,  called  "  Manito."  It 
was  natural   to  identify  the  Manito  with  both  . 

animate  and  inanimate  objects  and  the  impulse  ^'S'""- 
was  strong  to  enter  into  personal  relations  with  the  mystic 
power.  There  was  one  personification  of  the  cosmic  mystery  ; 
and  this  was  an  animate  being  called  the  Great  Manito..  Al- 
though they  have  long  been  in  friendly  relations  with  the 
whites  Christianity  has  had  but  little  effect  on  them,  largely 
owing  to  the  conservatism  of  the  native  medicine-men.  The 
Medewiwin,  or  grand  medicine  society,  was  a  powerful  organi- 
sation, which  controlled  all  the  movements  of  the  tribe  I 

The  Iroquois' are  not  much  differentiated  in  general  culture 
from  the  stocks  around  them,  but  in  political  development 
they  stand  unique.  The  Five  Nations,  Mo- 
hawk,  Onondaga,  Oneida,  Cayuga  and  Seneca 
(subsequently  joined  by  the  Tuscarora),  formed  the  famous 
League  of  the  Iroquois  about  the  year  1570.  Each  tribe  re- 
mained independent  in  matters  of  local  concern,  but  supreme 
authority  was  delegated  to  a  council  of  elected  sachems.  They 
were  second  to  no  other  Indian  people  north  of  Mexico  in 
political  organisation,  statecraft  and  military  prowess,  and  their 
astute  diplomats  were  a  match  for  the  wily  French  and  English 
statesmen  with  whom  they  treated.  So  successful  was  this 
confederacy  that  for  centuries  it  enjoyed  complete  supremacy 
over  its  neighbours,  until  it  controlled  the  country  from  Hudson 
Bay  to  North  Carolina.    The  powerful  Ojibway  at  the  end  of 

1  W.  Jones,  Ann.  Arch.  Rep.  1905  (Toronto),  1906,  p.  144.    Cf.  note  on  p.  372. 
'^  W.  J.  Hoffman,  "The  Midewiwin  or  'grand  medicine  society'  of  the  Ojibwa," 
^th  Ann.  Rep.  Bur.  Am.  Eth.  1886  (1891). 

'  From  the  Algonkin  word  meaning  "real  adders''  with  French  suffix. 


378  Man  :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

Lake  Superior  checked  their  north-west  expansion,  and  their 
own  kindred  the  Cherokee  stopped  their  progress  southwards. 

The  social  organisation  was  as  a  rule  much  more  complex 
and  cohesive  than  that  of  any  other  Indians,  and  the  most 
notable  difference  was  in  regard  to  the  important  position 
accorded  to  the  women.  Among  the  Cherokee,  the  Iroquois 
and  the  Hurons  the  women  performed  important  and  essential 
functions  in  their  government.  Every  chief  was  chosen  and 
retained  his  position  and  every  important  measure  was  enacted 
by  the  consent  and  cooperation  of  the  child-bearing  women, 
and  the  candidate  for  a  chieftainship  was  nominated  by  the 
suff"rages  of  the  matrons  of  this  group.  His  selection  from 
among  their  sons  had  to  be  confirmed  by  the  tribal  and  the 
federal  councils  respectively,  and  finally  he  was  installed  into 
office  by  federal  officers.  Lands  and  the  "long  houses"  of 
related  families  belonged  solely  to  the  women. 

VIII.  South-eastern  Area.  This  area  is  conveniently 
divided  by  the  Mississippi,  the  typical  culture  occurring  in  the 
South-eastern  ^'3&'^-  The  Powhatan  group  and  the  Shawnee 
Area :  Material  are  intermediate,  and  the  chief  tribes  are  the 
Culture.  Muskhogean  (Creek,  Choctaw,  Chickasaw,  Semi- 

nole, etc.)  and  Iroquoian  tribes  {Cherokee  and  Tuscarora). 
with  the  Yuchi,  Eastern  Siouan,  Tunican  and  Quapaw.  The 
main  culture  traits  are :  great  use  of  vegetable  food  and  in- 
tensive agriculture ;  maize,  cane  (a  kind  of  millet),  pumpkins, 
watermelons  and  tobacco  being  raised.  Large  use  of  wild 
vegetables,  the  dog,  the  only  domestic  animal,  eaten ;  later 
chickens,  hogs,  horses  and  cattle  quickly  adopted ;  large 
game,  deer,  bear  and  bison,  in  the  west ;  turkeys  and  small 
game  also  hunted ;  some  fishing  (with  fish  poison) ;  of  manu- 
factured foods  bears'  oil,  hickory-nut  oil,  persimmon  bread  and 
hominy  are  noteworthy,  together  with  the  famous  black  drink' ; 
houses  generally  rectangular  with  curved  roofs,  covered  with 
thatch  or  bark,  often  with  plaster  walls,  reinforced  with  wicker 
work ;  towns  were  fortified  with  palisades ;  dug-out  canoes 
were  used  for  transport.  Clothing  chiefly  of  deerskins  and 
bison  robes,  shirt-like  garments  for  men,  skirts  and  toga-like 
upper  garments  for  women,   boot-like  moccasins  in  winter ; 

'  A  decoction  made  by  boiling  the  leaves  of  Ilex  cassine  in  water,  employed 
as  "medicine"  for  ceremonial  purification.  It  was  a  powerful  agent  for  the  pro- 
duction of  the  nervous  state  and  disordered  imagination  necessary  to  "  spiritual " 
power. 


x]  The  American  Aborigines  379 

there  were  woven  fabrics  of  bark  fibre,  fine  netted  feather 
cloaks,  and  some  bison  hair  weaving  in  the  west  (the  weaving 
being  downwards  with  the  fingers) ;  baskets  of  cane  and  spHnts, 
the  double  or  netted  basket  and  the  basket  meal  sieve  being 
special  forms  ;  knives  of  cane,  darts  of  cane  and  bone ;  blow- 
guns  in  general  use ;  pottery  good,  coil  process,  with  paddle 
decorations  ;  a  particular  method  of  skin  dressing  (macerated 
in  mortars),  good  work  in  stone,  but  little  in  metaP. 

The  Creek  women  were  short  though  well  formed,  while 
the  warrior  according  to  Pickett"  was  "  larger  than  the  ordinary 
race  of  Europeans,  often  above  6  ft.  in  height,  th  r  k 
but  was  invariably  well  formed,  erect  in  his  car- 
riage, and  graceful  in  every  movement.  They  were  proud, 
haughty  and  arrogant,  brave  and  valiant  in  war."  As  a  people 
they  were  more  than  usually  devoted  to  decoration  and  orna- 
ment ;  they  were  fond  of  music  and  ball  play  was  their  most 
important  game.  Each  Creek  town  had  its  independent 
government,  under  an  elected  chief  who  was  advised  by  the 
council  of  the  town  in  all  important  matters.  Certain  towns 
were  consecrated  to  peace  ceremonies  and  were  known  as 
"white  towns,"  while  others,  set  apart  for  war  ceremonials, 
were  known  as  "red  towns."  The  solemn  annual  festival  of 
the  Creeks  was  the  "busk"  or  puskita,  a  rejoicing  over  the 
first-fruits  of  the  year.  Each  town  celebrated  its  busk  whenever 
the  crops  had  come  to  maturity.  All  the  worn-out  clothes, 
household  furniture,  pots  and  pans  and  refuse,  grain  and  other 
provisions  were  gathered  together  into  a  heap  and  consumed. 
After  a  fast,  all  the  fires  in  the  town  were  extinguished  and 
a  priest  kindled  a  new  fire  from  which  were  made  all  the 
fires  in  the  town.  A  general  amnesty  was  proclaimed,  all 
malefactors  might  return  to  their  towns  and  their  offences 
were  forgiven.  Indeed  the  new  fire  meant  the  new  life,  physical 
and  moral,  which  had  to  begin  with  the  new  year^ 

The   Yuchi   houses  are  grouped  round  a  square  plot  of 
ground  which  is  held  as  sacred,  and  here  the  religious  cere- 
monies and  social  gatherings  take  place.    On  the      xh  Y   hi 
edges  stand  four  ceremonial  lodges,  in  conformity 
with  the  four  cardinal  points,  in  which  the  different  clan  groups 

1  C.  Wissler,  loc.  cit.  pp.  462-3. 

«  A.  J.  Pickett,  Hist,  of  Alabama,  1851  (ed.  1896),  p.  87. 

3  Cf.  A.  S.  Gatschet,  "A  migration  legend  of  the  Creek  Indians,"  Trans.  Acad. 
Set.  Si  Louis,  V.  1888. 


380  Man :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

have  assigned  places.  The  square  ground  symbolises  the  rain- 
bow, where  in  the  sky-world,  Sun,  the  mythical  culture-hero, 
underwent  the  ceremonial  ordeals  which  he  handed  down  to 
the  first  Yuchi.  The  Sun,  as  chief  of  the  sky-world,  author 
of  the  life,  the  ceremonies  and  the  culture  of  the  people,  is  by 
far  the  most  important  figure  in  their  religious  life.  Various 
animals  in  the  sky-world  and  vegetation  spirits  are  recognised, 
besides  the  totemic  ancestral  spirits,  who  play  an  important 
part. 

According  to  Speck'  "the  members  of  each  clan  believe 
that  they  are  relatives  and,  in  some  vague  way,  the  descendants 
of  certain  pre-existing  animals  whose  names  and  identity  they 
now  bear.  The  animal  ancestors  are  accordingly  totemic.  In 
regard  to  the  living  animals,  they,  too,  are  the  earthly  types 
and  descendants  of  the  pre-existing  ones,  hence,  since  they 
trace  their  descent  from  the  same  sources  as  the  human  clans, 
the  two  are  consanguinely  related."  Thus  the  members  of  a 
clan  feel  obliged  not  to  do  violence  to  the  wild  animals  having 
the  form  or  name  of  their  tutelaries,  though  the  flesh  and  fur 
may  be  obtained  from  the  members  of  other  clans  who  are 
under  no  such  obligations.  The  different  individuals  of  the 
clan  inherit  the  protection  of  the  clan  totems  at  the  initiatory 
rites,  and  thenceforth  retain  them  as  their  protectors  through 
life. 

Public  religious  worship  centres  in  the  complex  annual 
ceremony  connected  with  the  corn  harvest  and  includes  the 
making  of  new  fire,  clan  dances  impersonating  totemic  ances- 
tors, dances  to  propitiate  maleficent  spirits  and  acknowledge 
the  assistance  of  beneficent  ones  in  the  hope  of  a  continuance 
of  their  benefits,  scarification  of  the  males  for  sacrifice  and 
purification,  taking  an  emetic  as  a  purifier,  the  partaking  of 
the  first  green  corn  of  the  season,  and  the  performance  of  a 
characteristic  ball  game  with  two  sticks. 

The  middle  and  lower  portions  of  the  Mississippi  valley 
with  out-lying  territories  exhibit  archaeological  evidence  of  a 
remarkable  culture,  higher  than  that  of  any  other 
Builders.  ^""^^  north  of  Mexico.     This  culture  was  charac- 

terised by  "well  established  sedentary  life,  ex- 
tensive practice  of  agricultural  pursuits,  and  construction  of 

'  F.  G.  Speck,  "Some  outlines  of  Aboriginal  Culture  in  the  S.E.  States,"  Am. 
Anth.  N.S.  IX.  1907;  "Ethnology  of  the  Yuchi  Indians,"  Anth.  Pub.  Mus.  Univ. 
Pa.  I.  I,  1909. 


x]  The  American  Aborigines  381 

permanent  works — domiciliary,  religious,  civic,  defensive  and 
mortuary,  of  great  magnitude  and  much  diversity  of  form." 
The  people,  some,  if  not  all  of  whom  were  mound-builders, 
were  of  numerous  linguistic  stocks,  Siouan,  Algonquian,  Iro- 
quoian,  Muskhogean,  Tunican,  Chitimachan,  Caddoan  and 
others,  and  "these  historic  peoples,  remnants  of  which  are 
still  found  within  the  area,  were  doubtless  preceded  by  other 
groups  not  of  a  distinct  race  but  probably  of  the  same  or 
related  linguistic  families.  This  view,  in  recent  years,  has 
gradually  taken  the  place  of  the  early  assumption  that  the 
mound  culture  belonged  to  a  people  of  high  cultural  attain- 
ments who  had  been  succeeded  by  Indian  tribes.  That  mound 
building  continued  down  to  the  period  of  European  occupancy 
is  a  well  established  fact,  and  many  of  the  burial  mounds 
contain  as  original  inclusions  articles  of  European  make'." 

These  general  conclusions  are  in  no  way  opposed  to  De 
Nadaillac's  suggestion  that  the  mounds  were  certainly  the  work 
of  Indians,  but  of  more  civilised  tribes  than  the  present  Algon- 
quians,  by  whom  they  were  driven  south  to  Florida,  and  there 
found  with  their  towns,  council-houses,  and  other  structures 
by  the  first  white  settlers^  It  would  appear,  however,  from 
F.  H.  Cushing's  investigations,  that  these  tribal  council-houses 
of  the  Seminole  Indians  were  a  local  development,  growing 
up  on  the  spot  under  conditions  quite  different  from  those 
prevailing  in  the  north.  Many  of  the  vast  shell-mounds,  es- 
pecially between  Tampa  and  Cape  Sable,  are  clearly  of  artificial 
structure,  that  is,  made  with  definite  purpose,  and  carried  up 
symmetrically  into  large  mounds  comparable  in  dimensions 
with  the  I  ndian  mounds  of  the  interior.  They  originated  with 
pile  dwellings  in  shallow  water,  where  the  kitchen  refuse,  chiefly 
shells,  accumulates  and  rises  above  the  surface,  when  the 
building  appears  to  stand  on  posts  in  a  low  mound.  Then  this 
type  of  structure  comes  to  be  regarded  as  the  normal  for  house- 
building everywhere.  "  Through  this  natural  series  of  changes 
in  type  there  is  a  tendency  to  the  development  of  mounds  as 
sites  for  habitations  and  for  the  council-houSe  of  the  clan  or 
tribe,  the  sites  being  either  separate  mounds  or  single  large 
mounds,  according  to  circumstances.  Thus  the  study  of  the 
living  Seminole  Indians  and  of  the  shell-mounds  in  the  same 

1  W.  H.  Holmes,  "Areas  of  American  Culture,"  etc.,  Am.  Anth.  xvi.  1914, 
p.  424. 

2  L'Anthropologie,  1897,  p.  702  sq. 


382  Man :  Past  and  Present  [ch, 

vicinity... suggests  a  possible  origin  for  a  custom  of  mound- 
building  at  one  time  so  prevalent  among  the  North  American 
Indians\"  But  if  this  be  the  genesis  of  such  structures,  the 
custom  must  have  spread  from  the  shores  of  the  Gulf  inland, 
and  not  from  the  Ohio  valley  southwards  to  Florida. 

IX.    South-western  Area.     On  account  of  its  highly  de- 
veloped  state   and   its   prehistoric   antecedents,   the   Pueblo 
South-western    culture  appears  as  the  type,  though  this  is  by  no 
Area :  Material   means  uniform  in  the  different  villages.    Three 
Culture.  geographical    groups    may   be'  recognised,    the 

Hopi^  the  Zufiis  and  the  Rio  Grande^ 

The  culture  of  the  whole  may  be  characterised  by  :  main 
dependence  upon  maize  and  other  cultivated  foods  (men  doing 
the  cultivating  and  cloth-weaving  instead  of  women);  use  of 
a  grinding  stone  instead  of  a  mortar ;  the  art  of  masonry ; 
loom  or  upward  weaving ;  cultivated  cotton  as  a  textile  ma- 
terial ;  pottery  decorated  in  colour ;  unique  style  of  building 
and  the  domestication  of  the  turkey.  Though  the  main  de- 
pendence was  on  vegetable  food  there  was  some  hunting  ;  the 
eastern  villages  hunted  bison  and  deer,  especially  Taos.  Drives 
of  rabbits  and  antelopes  were  practised,  the  unique  hunting 
weapon  being  the  curved  rabbit  stick.  Woven  robes  were 
usual.  Men  wore  aprons  and  a  robe  when  needed.  Women 
wore  a  garment  reaching  from  shoulder  to  knee  fastened  on 
the  right  shoulder  only.  In  addition  to  cloth  robes  some  were 
woven  of  rabbit-skin  and  some  netted  with  turkey  feathers.. 
Hard-soled  moccasins  were  worn,  those  for  women  having 
long  strips  of  deerskin  wound  round  the  leg.  Pottery  was 
highly  developed,  not  only  for  practical  use.  Basketry  was 
known  but  not  so  highly  developed  as  among  the  non- Pueblo 
tribes.  The  dog  was  not  used  for  transportation  and  there 
were  no  boats.  Work  in  stone  and  wood  not  superior  to  that 
of  other  areas  ;  some  work  in  turquoise,  but  none  in  metal. 

Many  tribes  appear  to  be  transitional  to  the  Pueblo  type. 
Thus  the  Pima  once  lived  in  adobe  houses,  though  not  of 
Pueblo  type,  they  developed  irrigation  but  also  made  ex- 

^  \bth  Ann.  Rep.  Bur.  Am.  Eth.^  Washington,  1897,  p.  Ivi  sq. 

^  Walpi,  Sichumovi,  Hano  (Tewa),  Shipaulovi,  Mishongnovi,  Shunopovi  and 
Oraibi. 

'  Zuni  proper,  Pescado,  Nutria  and  Ojo  Caliente. 

*  Taos,  Picuris,.  San  Juan,  Santa  Clara,  San  Ildefonso,  Tesuque,  Pojoaque, 
Nambe,  Jemez,  Pecos,  Sandia,  Isleta,  all  of  Tanoan  stock  ;  San  Felipe,  Cochiti, 
Santo  Domingo,  Santa  Ana,  Sia  Laguna  and  Acoma,  of  Keresan  stock. 


x]  The  American  Aborigines  383 

tensive  use  of  wild  plants,  raised  cotton,  wove  cloth,  were 
indifferent  potters  but  experts  in  basketry.    The  Transitional  or 
Mohave,  Yuma,  Cocopa,  Maricopa  and  Yavapai   intermediate 
built  a  square  flat-roofed  house  of  wood,  had  no  Tribes, 
irrigation,  were  not  good  basket-makers  (except  the  Yavapai) 
but  otherwise  resembled  the  Pima.     The  Walapai  and  Hava- 
supai  were  somewhat  more  nomadic. 

The  Athapascan  tribes  to  the  east  show  intermediate 
cultures.  The  Jicarilla  and  Mescalero  used  the  Plains  tipi, 
gathered  wild  vegetable  food,  hunted  bison,  had  no  agriculture 
or  weaving,  but  dressed  in  skins,  and  had  the  glass-bead 
technique  of  the  Plains.  The  western  Apache  differed  little 
from  these,  but  rarely  used  tipis  and  gave  a  little  more  atten- 
tion to  agriculture.  In  general  the  Apache  have  certain 
undoubted  Pueblo  traits,  they  also  remind  one  of  the  Plains, 
the  Plateaus,  and,  in  a  lean-to  like  shelter,  of  the  Mackenzie 
area.  The  Navaho  seem  to  have  taken  their  most-  striking 
features  from  European  influence,  but  their  shelter  is  of  the 
northern  type,  while  costume,  pottery  and  feeble  attempts  at 
basketry  and  formerly  at  agriculture  suggest  Pueblo  influence'. 

Pueblo  culture  takes  its  name  from  the  towns  or  villages 
of  stone  or  adobe  houses  which  form  the  characteristic  feature 
of  the  area.  These  vary  according  to  the  locality,  -pjj  p  vj 
those  in  the  north  being  generally  of  sandstone, 
while  adobe  or  sun-dried  brick  was  employed  to  the  south. 
The  groups  of  dwellings  were  generally  compact  structures  of 
several  stories,  with  many  small  rooms,  built  in  terrace  fashion, 
the  roof  of  one  storey  forming  a  promenade  for  the  storey  next 
above.  Thus  from  the  front  the  structure  is  like  a  gigantic 
staircase,  from  the  back  a  perpendicular  wall.  The  upper 
houses  were  and  still  are  reached  by  means  of  movable  ladders 
and  a  hatchway  in  the  roof.  Mainly  in  the  north  but  scattered 
throughout  the  area  are  the  remains  of  dwellings  built  in 
natural  recesses  of  cliffs,  while  in  some  places  the  cliff  face  is 
honeycombed  with  masonry  to  provide  habitations. 

Although  doubtless  designed  for  purposes  of  hiding  and 

1  For  this  area  see  A.  F.  Bandelier,  "  Final  Report  of  Investigations  among  the 
Indians  of  the  S.W.  United  States,"  ^r<:/4.  Inst,  of  Am.  Papers,  1890-2;  P.  E. 
Goddard,  "Indians  of  the  Southwest,"  Handbook  Series,  Am.  Mus.  Nat.  Hist.  2, 
1913 ;  F.  Russell,  "The  Pima  Indians,"  ibth  Ann.  Rep.  Bur.  Am.  Eth.  1904-5  (1908) ; 
G.  Nordenskiold,  The  Cliff  Dwellers  of  Mesa  Verde,  S.  W.  Colorado,  1893  ;  C.  Min- 
deleff,  "Aboriginal  Remains  in  Verde  Valley, Arizona,"  13M  Ann.  Rep.  Bur.  Am.  Eth. 
1 89 1 -2  (1896).     For  chronology  cf.  L.  Spier,  Am.  Mus.  Nat.  Hist.  Anth.  xviii. 


384  Man  :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

defence,  many  of  the  cliff  houses  were  near  streams  and  fields 
and  were  occupied  because  they  afforded  shelter 
and  were  natural  dwelling  places ;  many  were 
storage  places  for  maize  and  other  property :  others  again 
were  places  for  outlook  from  which  the  fields  could  be  watched 
or  the  approach  of  strangers  observed.  In  some  districts 
evidence  of  post-Spanish  occupancy  exists.  From  intensive 
investigation  of  the  cliff  dwellings  it  is  evident  that  the  in- 
habitants had  the  same  material  culture  as  that  of  existing 
Pueblo  Indians,  and  from  the  ceremonial  objects  which  have 
been  discovered  and  the  symbolic  decoration  that  was  em- 
ployed it  is  equally  clear  that  their  religion  was  essentially 
similar.  Moreover  the  various  types  of  skulls  that  have  been 
recovered  are  similar  to  those  of  the  present  population  of  the 
district.  It  may  therefore  be  safely  said  that  there  is  no  evi- 
dence of  the  former  general  occupancy  of  the  region  by  peoples 
other  than  those  now  classed  as  Pueblo  Indians  or  their 
neighbours. 

J.  W.  Fewkes  points  out  that  the  district  is  one  of  arid 
plateaus,  separated  and  dissected  by  deep  cafions,  frequently 
composed  of  flat-lying  rock  strata  forming  ledge-marked  cliffs 
by  the  erosive  action  of  the  rare  storms.  "  Only  along  the  few 
streams  heading  in  the  mountains  does  permanent  water  exist, 
and  along  the  cliff  lines  slabs  of  rock  suitable  for  building 
abound  ;  and  the  primitive  ancients,  dependent  as  they  were 
on  environment,  naturally  produced  the  cliff  dwellings.  The 
tendency  toward  this  type  was  strengthened  by  intertribal 
relations ;  the  cliff  dwellers  were  probably  descended  from 
agricultural  or  semi-agricultural  villagers  who  sought  protection 
against  enemies,  and  the  control  of  land  and  water  through 

aggregation  in  communities Locally  the  ancient  villages  of 

Canyon  de  Chellyare  known  as  Aztec  ruins,  and  this  designation 
is  just  so  far  as  it  implies  relationship  with  the  aborigines  of 
moderately  advanced  culture  in  Mexico  and  Central  America, 
though  it  would  be  misleading  if  regarded  as  indicating  essential 
difference  between  the  ancient  villagers  and  their  modern  de- 
scendants and  neighbours  still  occupying  the  pueblos  \" 

Each  pueblo  contains  at  "least  one  kiva,  either  wholly  or 
partly  underground,  entered  by  means  of  a  ladder  and  hatch- 
way, forming  a  sacred  chamber  for  the  transaction  of  civil  or 

1  xbth  Ann.  Report,^,  xciv.     Cf.  E.  Huntington,  "Desiccation  in  Arizona,'^ 
Geog.  Journ.,  Sept.  and  Oct.  1912. 


x]  The  American  Aborigines  385 

religious  affairs,  and  also  a  club  for  the  men.  In  some  villages 
each  totemic  clan  has  its  own  kiva.  The  Indians  „  ..  . 
are  eminently  a  religious  people  and  much  time 
is  devoted  to  complicated  rites  to  ensure  a  supply  of  rain,  their 
main  concern,  and  the  growth  of  crops.  Among  the  Hopi 
from  four  to  sixteen  days  in  every  month  are  employed  by  one 
society  or  another  in  the  carrying  out  of  religious  rites.  The 
secret  portions  of  these  complicated  ceremonies  take  place  in 
the  kiva,  while  the  so-called  "  dances"  are  performed  in  the 
open. 

The  clan  ancestors  may  be  impersonated  by  masked  men, 
called  katcinas,  the  name  being  also  applied  to  the  religious 
dramas  in  which  they  appear'. 

In  reference  to  J.  Walter  Fewkes'  account  of  the  "Tusayan 
Snake  Ceremonies,"  it  is  pointed  out  that  "the  Pueblo  Indians 
adore  a  plurality  of  deities,  to  which  various  po-  o  t  n 
tencies  are  ascribed.  These  zoic  deities,  or  beast 
gods,  are  worshipped  by  means  of  ceremonies  which  are  some- 
times highly  elaborate ;  and,  so  far  as  practicable,  the  mystic 
zoic  potency  is  represented  in  the  ceremony  by  a  living  animal 
of  similar  species  or  by  an  artificial  symbol.  Prominent  among 
the  animate  representatives  of  the  zoic  pantheon  throughout 
the  arid  region  is  the  serpent,  especially  the  venomous  and 
hence  mysteriously  potent  rattlesnake.  To  the  primitive  mind 
there  is  intimate  association,  too,  between  the  swift-striking 
and  deadly  viper  and  the  lightning,  with  its  attendant  rain  and 
thunder ;  there  is  intimate  association,  too,  between  the  moisture- 
loving  reptile  of  the  subdeserts  and  the  life-giving  storms  and 
freshets ;  and  so  the  'native  rattlesnake  play's  an  important 
role  in  the  ceremonies,  especially  in  the  invocations  for  rain, 
which  characterize  the  entire  arid  region"." 

^  For  the  religion  consult  F.  H.  Gushing,  "  Zufii  Creation  Myths,"  l^th  Attn. 
Rep.  Bur.  Am.  Eth.  1891-2  (1896);  Zuni Folk  Tales,  1901 ;  Matilda  C.  Stevenson, 
"  The  Religious  Life  of  the  Zuiii  Child,"  ^th  Ann.  Rep.  Bur.  Am.  Eth.  1887 ;  "  The 
Zuiii  Indians,  their  mythology,  esoteric  fraternities,  and  ceremonies,"  lyd Rep.i<)Oi^ ; 
J.  VV.  Fewkes,  "Tusayan  Katcinas,"  i^th  Ann.  Rep.  Bur.  Am.  Eth.  1893-4(1897); 
"Tusayan  Snake  Ceremonies,"  ibth  Rep.  1894-5  (1897);  "Tusayan  Flute  and 
Snake  Ceremonies,"  igtk  Rep.  1897-8,11.(1900);  "Hopi  Katcinas,"  21  j/i?^/.  1899- 
igoo  (1903),  and  other  papers.  For  dances  see  W.  Hough,  Moki  Snake  dance, 
1898;  G.  A.  Dorsey  and  H.  R.  Voth,  "Mishongnovi  Ceremonies  of  the  Snake  and 
Antelope  Fraternities,"  Pub.  Field  Col.  Mus.  Anth.  ni.  3,  1902;  J.  W.  Fewkes, 
"Snake  Ceremonials  at  'Wa.\^\,"  Jour.  Am.  Eth.  and  Arch.  IV.  1894  and  "Tusayan 
Snake  Ceremonies,"  idth  Ann.  Rep.  Bur.  Am.  Eth.  1897 ;  H.  Hodge,  "  Pueblo  Snake 
Ceremonies,"  Am.  Anth.  ix.  1896. 

2  p.  xcvii. 

K.  25 


386  Man :   Past  and  Present  [ch. 

Fewkes  pursues  the  same  fruitful  line  of  thought  in  his 
monograph  on  The  Feather  Symbol  in  Ancient  Hopi  Designs^, 
showing  how  amongst  the  Tusayan  Pueblos,  although  they 
have  left  no  written  records,  there  survives  an  elaborate 
paleography,  the  feather  motif  in  the  pottery  found  in  the  old 
ruins,  which  is  in  fact  "a  picture  writing  often  highly  symbolic 
and  complicated,"  revealing  certain  phases  of  Hopi  thought 
in  remote  times.  "  Thus  we  come  back  to  a  belief,  taught  by 
other  reasoning,  that  ornamentation  of  ancient  pottery  was 
something  higher  than  simple  effort  to  beautify  ceramic  wares. 
The  ruling  motive  was  a  religious  one,  for  in  their  system 
everything  was  under  the  same  sway.  Esthetic  and  religious 
feelings  were  not  differentiated,, the  one  implied  the  other,  and 
to  elaborately  decorate  a  vessel  without  introducing  a  religious 
symbol  was  to  the  ancient  potter  an  impossibilityl" 

Physically  the  Pueblo  Indians  are  of  short  stature,  with 
long,  low  head,  delicate  face  and  dark  skin.  They  are  mus- 
Ph   ■  ai  T  cular  and  of  great  endurance,  able  to  carry  heavy 

burdens  up  steep  and  difficult  trails,  and  to  walk 
or  even  run  great  distances.  It  is  said  to  be  no  uncommon 
thing  for  a  Hopi  to  run  40  miles  over  a  burning  desert 
to  his  cornfield,  hoe  his  corn,  and  return  home  within 
24  hours.  Distances  of  140  miles  are  frequently  made 
within  36  hours^  In  disposition  they  are  mild  and  peaceable, 
industrious,  and  extraordinarily  conservative,  a  trait  shown  in 
the  fidelity  with  which  they  retain  and  perpetuate  their  ancient 
customs\  Labour  is  more  evenly  divided  than  among  most 
Indian  tribes.  The  men  help  the  women  with 
the  heavier  work  of  house-building,  they  collect 
the  fuel,  weave  blankets  and  make  moccasins,  occupations 
usually  regarded  as  women's  work.  The  women  carry  the 
water,  and  make  the  pottery  for  which  the  region  is  famous^ 

.  A.  L.  Kroeber  has  made  a  careful  study  of  Zuni  sociology" 
and  come  to  the  conclusion  that  the  family  is  fundamental 
and  the  clan  secondary,  though  kinship  terms  are  applied  to 
clan  mates  in  a  random  fashion,  and  even  the  true  kinship 

*  Amer.  Anthropologist,  Jan.  1898.  '     ^  p.  13. 

3  G.  W.  James,  Indians  of  the  Painted  Desert  Region,  1903,  p.  90. 

*  L.  Farrand,  Basis  of  American  History,  1904,  p.  184. 

^  W.  H.  Holmes,  "Pottery  ol  the  ancient  Pueblos,"  d,thAnn.  Rep.  Bur.  Am.  Eth. 
1882-3  ^i886) ;  F.  H.  Gushing,  "  A  study  of  Pueblo  Pottery,"  etc.,  ib. ;  J.  W.  Fewkes, 
"Archaeological  expedition  to  Arizona,"  iTth  Rep.  1895-6  (1898);  W.  Hough, 
"Archaeological  field  work  in  N.E.  Arizona"  (19Q1),  Rep.  U.S.  Ng.t.  Mus.  1903. 

*  "  Zufii  Kin  and  Glan,"  Anth.  Papers,  Am.  Mus.  Nat.  Hist,  xvill.  1917,  p.  39. 


x]  The  American  Aborigines  387 

terms  are  applied  loosely.  In  view  of  the  obvious  preeminence 
of  the  woman,  who  receives  the  husband  into  her  and  her 
mother's  house,  it  is  worthy  of  note  that  she  and  her  children 
recognise  her  husband's  relatives  as  their  kin  as  fully  as  he 
adopts  hers.  The  Zuni  are  not  a  woman-ruled  people.  As 
regards  government,  women  neither  claim  nor  have  any  voice 
whatever,  nor  are  there  women  priests,  nor  fraternity  officers. 
Even  within  the  house,  so  long  as  a  man  is  a  legitimate 
inmate  thereof,  he  is  master  of  it  and  of  its  affairs.  They 
are  a  monogamous  people.  Divorce  is  more  easy  than 
marriage,  and  most  men  and  women  of  middle  age  have  been 
married  to  several  partners.  Marriage  in  the  mother's  clan 
is  forbidden  ;  in  the  father's  clan,  disapproved.  The  phratries 
have  no  social  significance,  there  is  no  central  clan  house,  no 
recognised  head,  no  meeting,  council  or  any  organisation,  nor 
does  the  clan  as  such  ever  act  as  a  body.  The  clans  have 
little  connection  with  the  religious  societies  or  fraternities. 
There  are  no  totemic  tabus  nor  is  there  worship  of  the  clan 
totem.  People  are  reckoned  as  belonging  to  the  father's  clan 
almost  as  much  as~to  that  of  the  mother.  If  one  of  the  family 
of  a  person  who  belongs  to  a  fraternity  falls  sick  the  fraternity 
is  called  in  to  cure  the  patient,  who  is  subsequently  received 
into  its  ranks.  The  Zuni  fraternity  is  largely  a  body  of 
religious  physicians,  membership  is  voluntary  and  not  limited 
by  sex.  At  Hopi  we  hear  of  rain-making  more  than  of 
doctoring,  more  of  "priests"  than  of  " theurgists."  The 
religious  functions  of  the  Zuni  are  most  marked  in  the  cere- 
monies of  the  Ko-tikkyanne,  the  "god-society"  or  "masked- 
dancer  society,"  and  it  is  with  these  that  the  kivas  are 
associated.  They  are  almost  wholly  concerned  with  rain. 
Only  men  can  become  members  and  entrance  is  compulsory. 
Kroeber  believes  that  "  the  truest  understanding  of  Zuni  life, 
other  than  its  purely  practical  manifestation,  can  be  had  by 
setting  the  ettowe  ['  fetish ']  as  a  centre.  Around  these, 
priesthoods,  fraternities,  clan  organisation,  as  well  as  most 
esoteric  thinking  and  sacred  tradition,  group  themselves ; 
while,  in  turn,  kivas,  dances,  and  acts  of  public  worship  can 
be  construed  as  but  the  outward  means  of  expression  of  the 
inner  activities  that  radiate  around  the  nucleus  of  the  physical 
fetishes  and  the  ideas  attached  to  them\" 

'» 

1  p.  167. 

25—2 


CHAPTER   XI 


THE  AMERICAN  ABORIGINES  {continued) 

Mexican  and  Central  American  Cultures — Aztec  and  Maya  Scripts  and  Calendars — 
Nahua  and  Shoshoni — Chichimec  and  Aztec  Empires — Uncultured  Mexican 
Peoples :  Otomi;  Seri — Early  Man  in  Yucatan — The  Maya  to-day — Transitions 
from  North  to  South  America — Chontal  and  Choco — The  Catio — Cultures  of 
the  Andean  area — The  Colombian  Chibcha — Empire  of  the  Inca — Quichuan 
Race  and  Language  — Inca  Origins  and  History — The  Aymara — Chimu 
Culture — Peruvian  Politico-Social  System — The  Araucanians — The  Pampas 
Indians— Th.^  Gauchos — Patagonians  and  Fuegians — Linguistic  Relations — 
The  Yahgans — The  Cashibo — The  Pana  Family — The  Caribs — Arawakan 
Family — The  Ges  (Tapuyan)  Family — The  Botocudo — The  Tupi-Guaranian 
Family — The  Chiquito — Mataco  and  Toba  of  the  Gran  Chaco. 

In  Mexico  and  Central  America  interest  is  centred  chiefly 
in  two  great  ethnical  groups — the  Nahuatlan  and  Huaxtecan 
j^    .  — whose  cultural,  historical,  and  even  geogra- 

and  Central  phical  relations  are  so  intimately  interwoven  that 
American  they  Can  scarcely  be  treated  apart.  Thus,  although 

ures.  their  civilisations  are  concentrated  respectively 

in  the  Anahuac  (Mexican)  plateau  and  Yucatan  and  Guatemala, 
the  two  domains  overlap  completely  at  both  ends,  so  that  there 
are  isolated  branches  of  the  Huaxtecan  family  in  Mexico  (the 
Huaxtecs  (Totonacs)  of  Vera  Cruz,  from  whom  the  whole 
group  is  named,  and  of  the  Nahuatlan  in  Nicaragua  (Pipils, 
Niquirans,  and  others)  \ 

This  very  circumstance  has  no  doubt  tended  'to  increase 
the  difficulties  connected  with  the  questions  of  their  origins, 
migrations,  and  mutual  cultural  influences.  Some  of  these 
difficultiesdisappear  if  the  "Toltecs"  be  eliminated  (see  p.  342), 
who  had  hitherto  been  a  great  disturbing  element  in  this  con- 
nection, and  all  the  rest  have  in  my  opinion  been  satisfactorily 

'  Some  Nahuas,  whom  the  Spaniards  called' "Mexicans"  or  " Chichimecs," 
were  met  by  Vasquez  de  Coronado  even  as  far  south  as  the  Chiriqii  lagoon, 
Panama.  These  Seguas,  as  they  called  themselves,  have  since  disappeared,  and 
it  is  no  longer  possible  to  say  how  they  strayed  so  far  from  their  northern  homes. 


CH-,  xi]  The  Ame7'ican  Aborigines  389 

disposed  of  by  E.  Forstemann,  a  leading  authority  on  all 
Aztec-Maya  questions'.  This  eminent  archaeologist  refers  first 
to  the  views  of  Seler^  who  assumes  a  southern  movement  of 
Maya  tribes  from  Yucatan,  and  a  like  movement  of  Aztecs 
from  Tabasco  to  Nicaragua,  and  even  to  Yucatan.  On  the 
other  hand  Dieseldorff  holds  that  Maya  art  was  independently 
developed,  while  the  link  between  it  and  the  Aztec  shows  that 
an  interchange  took  place,  in  which  process  the  Maya  was  the 
giver,  the  Aztec  the  recipient.  He  further  attributes  the  over- 
throw of  the  Maya  power  100  or  200  years  before  the  conquest 
to  the  Aztecs,  and  thinks  the  Aztecs  or  Nahuas  took  their  god 
Quetzalcoatl  from  the  "  Toltecs,"  who  were  a  Maya  people. 
Ph.  J.  Valentini  also  infers  that  the  Maya  were  the  original 
people,  the  Aztecs  "mere  parasites ^" 

Now  Forstemann  lays  down  the  principle  that  any  theory, 
to  be  satisfactory,  should  fit  in  with  such  facts  as  : — ( i )  the 
agreement  and  diversity  of  both  cultures ;  (2)  the  antiquity 
and  disappearance  of  the  mysterious  Toltecs  ;  (3)  the  complete 
isolation  at  22°  N.  lat.  of  the  Huaxtecs  from  the  other  Maya 
tribes,  and  their  difference  from  them  ;  (4)  the  equally  complete 
isolation  of  the  Guatemalan  Pipils,  and  of  the  other  southern 
(Nicaraguan)  Aztec  groups  from  the  rest  of  the  Nahua  peoples; 
(5)  the  remarkable  absence  of  Aztec  local  names  in  Yucatan, 
while  they  occur  in  hundreds  in  Chiapas,  Guatemala,  Honduras 
and  Nicaragua,  where  scarcely  any  trace  is  left  of  Maya  names. 

To  account  for  these  facts  he  assumes  that  in  the  earliest 
known  times  Central  America  from  about  23°  to  10°  N.  was 
mainly  inhabited  by  Maya  tribes,  who  had  even  reached  Cuba. 
While  these  Mayas  were  still  at  quite  a  low  stage  of  culture, 
the  Aztecs  advanced  from  as  far  north  as  at  least  26°  N.  but 
only  on  the  Pacific  side,  thus  leaving  the  Huaxtecs  almost 
untouched  in  the  east.  The  Aztecs  called  the  Mayas  "Toltecs' 
because  they  first  came  in  contact  with  one  of  their  northern 
branches  living  in  the  region  about  Tula  (north  of  Mexico 
city)*.     But  when  all  the  relations  became  clearer,  the  Toltecs 

■  "  Recent  Maya  Investigations,"  Bur.  Am.  Eth.  Bull.  28,  J904,  p.  555. 

2  Alterthiimer  aus  Guatemala,  p.  24. 

3  Analysis  of  the  Pictorial  Text  inscribed  on  two  Palenque  Tablets,  N.  York, 
1896. 

^  H.  Beuchat  however  considers  that  "the  Toltec  question  remains  insoluble"; 
thougH  the  hypothesis  that  the  Toltecs  formed  part  of  the  north  to  south  movement 
is  attractive^  it  is  not  yet  proved,  Manuel  d' ArcMologie  amdricaine,  Paris,  1912, 
pp.  258-61. 


39°  Man  :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

fell  gradually  into  the  background,  and  at  last  entered  the 
domain  of  the  fabulous. 

Now  the  Aztecs  borrowed  much  from  the  Mayas,  especially 
gods,  whose  names  they  simply  translated.  A  typical  case  is 
thatof  Cuculcan,  which  becomes  Quetzalcoatl,  where^^/:  =  quezal 
=  the  bird  Trogon  resplendens,  and  can  =  coatl=  snaked  With 
the  higher  culture  developed  in  Guatemala  the  Aztecs  came 
first  in  contact  after  passing  through  Mixtec  and  Zapotec 
territory,  not  long  before  Columbian  times,  so  that  they  had 
no  time  here  to  consolidate  their  empire  and  assimilate  the 
Mayas.  On  the  contrary  the  Aztecs  were  themselves  merged 
in  these,  all  but  the  Pipils  and  the  settlements  on  Lake  Nica- 
ragua, which  retained  their  national  peculiarities. 

But  whence  came  the  hundreds  of  Aztec  names  in  the  lands 
between  Chiapas  and  Nicaragua?  Here  it  should  be  noted 
that  these  names  are  almost  exclusively  confined  to  the  more 
important  stations,  while  the  less  prominent  places  have  every- 
where names  taken  from  the  tongues  of  the  local  tribes.  But 
even  the  Aztec  names  themselves  occur  properly  only  in  ofificial 
use,  hence  also  on  the  charts,  and  are  not  current  to-day 
amongst  the  natives  who  have  kept  aloof  from  the  Spanish- 
speaking  populations.  Hence  the  inference  that  such  names 
were  mainly  introduced  by  the  Spaniards  and  their  Mexican 
troops  during  the  conquest  of  those  lands,  say,  up  to  about 
1535,  and  do  not  appear  in  Yucatan  which  was  not  conquered 
from  Mexico.  Forstemann  reluctantly  accepts  this  view,  ad- 
vanced by  Sapper'',  having  nothing  better  to  suggest. 

The  coastal  towns  of  Yucatan  visited  by  Spaniards  from 
Ctiba  in  1517  and  onwards  were  decidedly  inferior  architec- 
turally to  the  great  temple  structures  of  the  interior,  though 
doubtless  erected  by  the  same  people.  The  inland  cities  of 
Chichen-Itza  and  Uxmal  by  that  time  had  fallen  from  their 
ancient  glory  though  still  religious  centres". 

The  Maya  would  thus  appear  to  have  stood  on  a  higher 
plane  of  culture  than  their  Aztec  rivals,  and  the  same  conclusion 

1  Quetzalcoatl,  the  "Bright-feathered  .Snake,"  was  one  of  the  three  chief  ^ods 
of  the  Nahuan  pantheon.  He  was  the  god  of  wind  and  inventor  of  all  the  arts, 
round  whom  clusters  mucli  of  the  mythology,  and  of-  the  pictorial  and  plastic  art 
of  the  Mexicans. 

'^  Clobus,  LXVI.  pp.  95-^. 

3  Herbert  J.  Spinden,  "A  Study  of  Maya  Art,"  Mem.  Peabody  Mus.  vi.,  Cam- 
bridge, Mass.  1913,  p.  3ff.,  and  Proc.  Nineteenth  Int^rnat.  Congress  A-mericanists; 
1917,  p.  165. 


-^^i]  The  American  Aborigines  391 

may  be  drawn  from  their  respective  writing  systems.  Of  all 
the  aborigines  these  two  alone  had  developed  what  may  fairly 
be  called  a  script  in  the ,  strict  sense  of  the  term,  although 
neither  of  them  had  reached  the  same  level  of  efficiency  as 
the  Babylonian  cuneiforms,  or  the  Chinese  or  the  Egyptian 
hieroglyphs,  not  to  speak  of  the  syllabic  and  alphabetic  systems 
of  the  Old  World.  Some  even  of  the  barbaric  peoples,  such 
as  most  of  the  prairie  Indiains,  had  reached  the  stage  of  graphic 
symbolism,  and  were  thus  on  the  threshold  of  writing  at  the 
discovery.  "The  art  was  rudimentary  and  limited  to  crude 
pictography.  The  pictographs  were  painted  or  sculptured  on 
cliff-faces,  boulders,  the  walls  of  caverns,  and  even  on  trees, 
as  well  as  on  skins,  bark,  and  various  artificial  objects.  Among 
certain  Mexican  tribes,  also,  autographic  records  were  in  use, 
and  some  of  them  were  much  better  differentiated 
than  any  within  the  present  area  of  the  United  MayaScripts 
States.  The  records  were  not  only  painted  and 
sculptured  on  stone  and  moulded  in  stucco,  but  were  inscribed 
in  books  or  codices  of  native  parchment  and  paper ;  while  the 
characters  were  measurably  arbitrary,  i.e.  ideographic  rather 
than  pictographic\" 

The  Aztec  writing  may  be  best  described  as  pictographic, 
the  pictures  being  symbolical  or,  in  the  case  of  names,  combined 
into  a  rebus.  No  doubt  much  diversity  of  opinion  prevails  as 
to  whether  the  Maya  symbols  are  phonetic  or  ideographic, 
and  it  is  a  fact  that  no  single  text,  however  short,  has  yet 
been  satisfactorily  deciphered.  It  seems  that  many  of  the 
symbols  possessed  true  phonetic  value  and  were  used  to  ex- 
press sounds  and  syllables,  though  it  cannot  be  claimed  that 
the  Maya  scribes  had  reached  that  advanced  stage  where  they 
could  infiicate  each  letter  sound  by  a  glyph  or  symboP.  Acr 
cording  to  Cyrus  Thomas,  a  symbol  was  selected  because  the 
name  or  word  it  represented  had  as  its  chief  phonetic  element 
a  certain  consonant  sound  or  syllable.  If  this  were  b  the  symbol 
would  be  used  where  b  was  the  prominent  element  of  the  word 

1  J.  W.  Powell,  \bth  Ann.  Rep.  Bur.  Am.  Eth.  1894,  p.  xcv. 

2  Sylvanus  Griswold  Morley  ("An  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  the  Maya 
hieroglyphs^"  Bur.  Am.  Eth.  Bull.  S7,  1915)1  briefly  summarises  the  theories 
advanced  for  the  interpretation  of  Maya  writing  (pp.  26-30).  "The  theory  now 
most  generally  accepted  is,  that  while  chiefly  ideographic,  the  glyphs  are  some- 
times phonetic."  This  author  is  of  opinion  "that  as  the  deciplierment  of  Maya 
writing  progresses,  more  and  more  phonetic  elements  will  be  identified,  though 
the  idea  conveyed  by  a  glyph  will  always  be  found  to  overshadow  its  phonetic 
value"  (p.  30). 


392  Man  :   Past  and  Present  [ch. 

to  be  indicated,  no  reference,  however,  to  its  original  significa- 
tion being  necessarily  retained.  Thus  the  symbol  for  cab, 
'earth,'  might  be  used  in  writing  C«^a«,  a  day  name,  or  cabil, 
'honey,'  because  cab  is  their  chief  phonetic  element....  One 
reason  why  attempts  at  decipherment  have  failed  is  a  mis- 
conception of  the  peculiar  character  of  the  writing,  which  is 
in  a  transition  stage  from  the  purely  ideographic  to  the 
phonetic^  From  the  example  here  given,  the  Maya  script 
would  appear  to  have  in  part  reached  the  rebus  stage,  which 
also  plays  so  large  a  part  in  the  Egyptian  hieroglyphic  system. 
Cab  is  obviously  a  rebus,  and  the  transition  from  the  rebus  to 
true  syllabic  and  alphabetic  systems  has  already  been  explained  ^ 
The  German  Americanists  on  the  other  hand  have  always 
regarded  Maya  writing  as  more  ideographic,  and  H.  Beuchat 
adopts  this  view,  for  "no  symbol  has  ever  been  read  pho- 
netically with  a  different  meaning  from  that  which  it  possesses 
as  an  ideogram'." 

But  not  only  were  the  Maya  day  character's  phonetic  ;  the 
Maya  calendar  itself,  afterwards  borrowed  by  the  Aztecs,  has 
been  described  as  even  more  accurate  than  the 
Julian  itself.  "Among  the  Plains  Indians  the 
calendars  are  simple,  consisting  commonly  of  a  record  of 
winters  ('  winter  counts '),  and  of  notable  events  occurring 
either  during  the  winter  or, during  some  other  season;  while 
the  shorter  time  divisions  are  reckoned  by  '  nights '  (days), 
'  dead  moons '  (lunations),  and  seasons  of  leafing,  flowering, 
or  fruiting  of  plants,  migrating  of  animals,  etc.,  and  there  is 
no  definite  system  of  reducing  days  to  lunations  or  lunations 
to  years.  Among  the  Pueblo  Indians  calendric  records  are 
inconspicuous  or  absent,  though  there  is  a  much  more  definite 
calendric  system  which  is  fixed  and  perpetuated  by  .religious 
ceremonies ;  while  among  some  of  the  Mexican  tribes  there 
are  elaborate  calendric  systems  combined  with  complete 
calendric  records.  The  perfection  of  the  calendar  among 
the  Maya  and  Nahua  Indians  is  indicated  by  the  fact  that 
not  only  were  365  days  reckoned  as  a  year,  but  the  bissextile 
was  recognized*." 

1  "Day  Symbols  of  the  Maya  Year,"  \(sth  Ann.  Rep.  Bur.  Am.  Eth.  1894,  p.  205. 

^  p.  32  ff. 

'  Manuel  d' Archiologie  amdricaine,  p.  506. 

*  ibth  Ann.  Rep.  Bur.  Am.  Eth.  1894,  p.  xcvi.  In  "The  Maya  Year"  (1894)  Cyrus 
Thomas  shows  that  "the  year  recorded  in  the  Dresden  codex  consisted  of  18  months 
of  20  days  each,  with  5  supplemental  days,  or  of  365  days  "  (z*.).    S.  G.  Morley  points 


-"^i]  The  American  Aborigines  393 

In  another  Important  respect  the  superiority  of  the  Maya- 
Quiche  peoples  over  the  northern  Nahuans  is  incontestable. 
When  their  religious  systems  are  compared,  it  is 
at  once  seen  that  at  the  time  of  the  discovery     gSsW^ 
the  Mexican  Aztecs  were  little  better  than  ruth- 
less barbarians  newly  clothed   in  the  borrowed  robes  of  an 
advanced  culture,  to  which  they  had  not  had  time  to  adapt 
themselves  properly,  and  in  which  they  could  but  masquerade 
after  their  own  savage  fashion. 

It  has  to  be  remembered  that  the  Aztecs  were  but  one 
branch  of  the  Nahuatlan  family,  whose  affinities  Buschmann' 
has  traced  northwards  to  the  rude  Shoshonian  aborigines  who 
roamed  from  the  present  States  of  Montana,  Idaho,  and  Oregon 
down  into  Utah,  Texas,  and  California'.  To  this  Nahuatlan 
stock  belonged  the  barbaric  hordes  who  overthrew  the  civili- 
sation which  flourished  on  the  Anahuac  (Mexican)  table-land 
about  the  sixth  century  a.d.  and  is  associated  with  the  ruins 
of  Tula  and  Chalula.  It  now  seems  clear  that  the  so-called 
"  Toltecs,"  the  "  Pyramid-builders,"  were  not  Nahuatlans  but 
Huaxtecans,  who  were  absorbed  by  the  immigrants  or  driven 
southwards. 

out  {Bur.  Am.  Eth.  Bull.  57,  pp.  44-5)  that  though  the  Maya  doubtless  knew  that 
the  true  length  of  the  year  exceeded  365  days  by  6  hours,  yet  no  interpolation  of 
intercalary  days  was  actually  made,  as  this  would  have  thrown  the  whole  calendar 
into  confusion.  The  priests  apparently  corrected  the  calendar  by  additional  cal- 
culations to  show  how  far  the  recorded  year  was  ahead  of  the  true  year.  Those 
who  have  persistently  appealed  to  these  Maya-Aztec  calendric  systems  as  con- 
vincing proofs  of  Asiatic  influences  in  the  evolution  of  American  cultures  will  now 
have  to  show  where  these  influences  come  in.  As  a  matter  of  fact  the  systems  are 
fimdamentally  distinct,  the  American  showing  the  clearest  indications  of  local 
development,  as  seen  in  the  mere  fact  that  the  day  characters  of  the  Maya  codices 
were  phonetic,  i.e.  largely  rebuses  explicable  only  in  the  Maya  language,  which 
has  no  affinities  out  of  America.  A  careful  study  of  the  Maya  calendric  system 
based  both  on  the  codices  and  the  inscriptions  has  been  made  by  C.  P.  Bowditch, 
The  Numeration,  Calendar  Systems  arid  Astronomical  Knowledge  of  the  Mayas, 
Cambridge,  Mass.  1910.  The  Aztec  month  of  20  days  is  also  clearly  indicated  by 
the  20  corresponding  signs  on  the  great  Calendar  Stone  now  fixed  in  the  wall  of  the 
Cathedral  tower  of  Mexico.  This  basalt  stone,  which  weighs  25  tons  and  has  a 
diameter  of  1 1  feet,  is  briefly  described  and  figured  by  T.  A.  Joyce,  Mexican 
Archaeology,  1914,  pp.  73,  74;  cf.  PL  vili.  fig.  i.  See  also  the  account  by 
Alfredo  Chavero  in  the  Anales  del  Museo  Nacional  de  Mexico,  and  an  excellent 
reproduction  of  the  Calendar  Stone  in  T.  U.  Brocklehurst's  Mexico  To-day, 
1883,  p.  186 ;  also  Zelia  Nuttall's  study  of  the  "  Mexican  Calendar  System,"  Tenth 
Internal.  Congress  of  Americanists,  Stockholm,  1894.  "The  regular  rotation  of 
market-days  and  the  day  of  enforced  rest  every  20  days  were  the  prominent  and 
permanent  features  of  the  civil  solar  year"  {ib.). 

'  Spuren  der  Aztek.  Sprache,  li^g, passim. 

2  Linguistic  and  mythological  affinities  also  exist  according  to  Spence  between 
the  Nahuan  people  aneithe  Tsimshian-Noolka  group  of  Columbia.  Cf.  The  Civili- 
zation of  Ancient  Mexico,  191 2,  p.  6. 


394  Man  :   Past  and  Present  [ch. 

To  north  and  north-west  of  the  settled  peoples  of  the 

valley  lived  nomadic  hunting  tribes  called  Chichimec',  merged 

in  a  loose  political  system  which  was  dignified  in 

Stec'iEm  ^t    the  local  traditions  by  the  name  of  the  "  Chichimec 

Empire."    The  chief  part  was  played  by  tribes 

of  Nahuan  origin^  whose  ascendancy  lasted  from  about  the 

eleventh  to  the  fifteenth  century,  when  they  were  in  their  turn 

overthrown  and  absorbed  by  the  historical  Nahuan  confederacy 

of  the  Aztecs^  whose  capital  was  Tenochtitlan  (the  present  city 

of  Mexico),  the  Acolhuas  (capital  Tezcuco),  and  the  Tepanecs 

(capital  Tlacopan). 

Thus  the  Aztec  Empire  reduced  by  the  Conquistadores  in 
1520  had  but  a  brief  record,  although  the  Aztecs  themselves 
as  well  as  many  other  tribes  of  Nahuatl  speech,  must  have 
been  in  contact  with  the  more  civilised  Huaxtecan  peoples  for 
centuries  before  the  appearance  of  the  Spaniards  on  the  scene. 
It  was  during  these  ages  that  the  Nahuas  "borrowed  much 
from  the  Mayas,"  as  Fdrstemann  puts  it;  without  greatly 
benefiting  by  the  process.  Thus  the  Maya  gods,  for  the  most 
part  of  a  relatively  mild  type  like  the  Maya  themselves,  be- 
come in  the  hideous  Aztec  pantheon  ferocious  demons  with  an 
insatiable  thirst  for  blood,  so  that  the  teocalli,  "god's  houses," 
were  transformed  to  human  shambles,  where  on  solemn 
occasions  the  victims  were  said  to  have  numbered  tens  of 
thousands*. 

^  "Chiefly  of  the  Nahuatl  race"  (De  Nadaillac,  p.  279).  It  should,  however 
be  rioted  that  this  general  name  of  Chichimec  (meaning  little  more  than  "nomadic 
hunters")  comprised  a  large  number  of  barbarous  tribes — Fames,  Pintos,  etc. — 
who  are  described  as  wandering  about  naked  or  wearing  only  the  skins  of  beasts, 
living  in  caves  or  rock-shelters,  armed  with  bows,  slings,  and  clubs,  constantly  at 
war  amongst  themselves  or  with  the  surrounding  peoples,  eating  raw  flesh,  drinlcing 
the  blood  of  their  captives  or  treating  them  with  unheard-of  cruelty,  altogether  a 
horror  and  terror  to  all  the  more  civilised  communities.  "Chichimec  Empire" 
may  therefore  be  taken  merely  as  a  euphemistic  expression  for  the  reign  of  bar- 
barism raised  up  on  the  ruins  of  the  early  Toltec  civilisation.  Yet  it  had  its 
dynasties  and  dates  and  legendary  sequence  of  events,  according  to  the  native 
historian,  Ixtlilxochitl,  himself  of  royal  lineagfe,  and  he  states  that  Xolotl,  founder 
of  the  empire,  had  under  orders  3,202,000  men  and  women,  that  his  decisive 
victory  over  the  Toltecs  took  place  in  1015,  that  he  assumed  the  title  of  "Chichi- 
mecatl  Teciihti,"  Great  Chief  of  the  Chichimecs,  and  that  after  a  succession  of 
revolts,  wars,  conspiracies,  and  revolutions,  Maxtla,  last  of  the  dynasty,  was  over- 
thrown in  1431  by  the  Aztecs  and  their  allies. 

^  H.  BkuchaX.,  Manuel  ii'Arck^ologteam^ruaifte,  pp.  262-6. 

^  Named  from  the  shadowy  land  of  Aztlah  aWay  to  the  north,  where  they  long 
dwelt  in  the  seven  legendary  caves  of  Chicomoztoc,  whence  they  migrated  at  some 
unknown  period  to  the  lacustrine  region,  whtire  they  founded  Tenochtitlan,  seat  of 
thefr  empire. 

*  "  The  gods  of  the  Mayas  appear  to  have  been  less  sanguinary  than  those  of 
the  Nahuas.     The  immolation  of  a  dog  was  with  them  enough  for  an  occasion 


xi]  The  A'merican  Aborigines  395 

Besides  the  Aztecs  and  their  allies,  the  elevated  Mexican 
plateaus  were  occupied  by  several  other  relatively  civilised 
nations,  such  as  the  Miztecs  and  Zapotecs  of  uncultured 
Oajaca,  the  Tarasco  and  neighbouring  Matlalt-  Mexican 
zinca  of  Michoacan\  all  of  whom  spoke  inde-  Peoples, 
pendent  stock  languages,  and  the  Totonacs  of  Vera  Cruz,  who 
were  of  Huaxtecan  speech,  and  were  in  touch  to  the  north 
with  the  Huaxtecs,  a  primitive  Maya  people.  The  high  degree 
of  civilisation  attained  by  some  of  these  nations  before  their 
reduction  by  the  Aztecs  is  attested  by  the  magnificent  ruins 
of  Mitla,  capital  of  the  Zapotecs,  which  was  captured  and 
destroyed  by  the  Mexicans  in  1494^  Of  the  royal  palace 
Viollet-le-Duc  speaks  in  enthusiastic  terms,  declaring  that 
"the  monuments  of  the  golden  age  of  Greece  and  Rome 
alone  equal  the  beauty  of  the  masonry  of  this  great  building'." 
In  general  their  usages  and  religious  rites  resembled  those  of 
the  Aztecs,  although  tlie  Zapotecs,  besides  the  civil  ruler,  had 
a  High  Priest  who  took  part  in  the  government.  "  His  feet 
were  never  allowed  to  touch  the  ground ;  he  was  carried  on 
the  shoulders  of  his  attendants ;  and  when  he  appeared  all, 
even  the  chiefs  themselves,  had  to  fall  prostrate  before  him, 
and  none  dared  to  raise  their  eyes  in  his  presence\"  The 
Zapotec  language  is  still  spoken  by  about  260  natives  in  the 
State  of  Oajaca. 

Farther  north  the  plains  and  uplands  continued  to  be 
inhabited  by  a  multitude  of  wild  tribes  speaking  an  unknown 
number  of  stock  languages,  and  thus  presenting  a  chaos  of 
ethnical  and  linguistic ,  elements  comparable  to  that  which 
prevails  along  the  north-west  coast.-  Of  these  rude  popula- 
tions one  of  the  most  widespread  arfe  the  Otomi  ._„  . 
of  the  central  region,  noted  for  the  monosyllabic 

that  would  have  been  celebrated  by  the  Nahuas  with  hecatombs  of  victims. 
Human  sacrifices  did  however  take  place"  (De  Nadaillac,  p.  266),  though  they 
were  as  nothing  corrlpared  with  the  countless  victims  demanded  by  the  Aztec  gods. 
"The  dedication  by  Ahui^otl  of  the  great  temple  of  Huitzilopochtli  in  1487  is 
alleged  to  have  been  celebrated  by  the  butchery  of  72,344  victims,"  and  "  under 
Montezuma  II.  12,000  captives  are  said  to  have  perished"  on  one  occasion  {ib. 
p.  297) ;  all  no  doubt-gross  exaggerations,  but  leaving  a  large. margin  for  perhaps  the 
most  terrible  chapter  of  horrors  in  the  records  of  natural  religions.  Cf.  T.  A. Joyce, 
Mexican  Archaeology,  pp.  261-2. 

'  A  popular  and  well-illustrated  account  of  Huichols  and  Tarascos,  as  also  of 
the  Tarahumare  farther  north,  is  given  by  Carl  Lumholtz,  Unknown  Mexico,  2  vols. 
New  York,  1902. 

^  Cf.  Hans  Gadow,  Through  Southern  Mexico,  1908,  map  p.  296,  also  p.  314. 

3  Quoted  by  De  Nadaillac,  p.  365.  *  p.  363. 


396  Man :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

tendencies  of  their  language,  which  Najera,  a  native  gram- 
marian, has  on  this  ground  compared  with  Chinese,  from 
which,  however,  it  is  fundamentally  distinct.  Still  more 
primitive  are  the  Seri  Indians  of  Tiburon  island  in  the  Gulf 
of  California  and  the  adjacent  mainland,  who  were  visited  in 
1895  by  W.  J.  McGee,  and  found  to  be  probably  more  isolated 
and  savage  than  any  other  tribe  remaining  on  the  North 
American  Continent.  They  hunt,  fish,  and  collect  vegetable 
food,  and  most  of  their  food  is  eaten  raw,  they  have  no 
domestic  animals  save  dogs,  they  are  totally  without  agri- 
culture, and  their  industrial  arts  are  few  and  rude.  They  use 
the  bow  and  arrow  but  have  no  knife.  Their  houses  are 
flimsy  huts.  They  make-  pottery  and  rafts  of  canes.  The 
Seri  are  loosely  organised  in  a  number  of  exogamic,  matri- 
lineal,  totemic  clans.  Mother-right  obtains  to  a  greater  extent 
perhaps  than  in  any  other  people.  At  marriage  the  husband 
becomes  a  privileged  guest  in  the  wife's  mother's  household, 
and  it  is  only  in  the  chase .  or  on  the  war-path  that  men  take 
an  important  place.  Polygyny  prevails.  The  mo^t  conspicuous 
ceremony  is  the  girls'  puberty  feast.  The  dead  are  buried  in 
a  contracted  position.     "  The  strongest  tribal  characteristic  is 

implacable  animosity  towai"ds  aliens In  their  estimation  the 

brightest  virtue  is  the  shedding  of  alien  blood,  while  the 
blackest  crime  in  their  calendar  is  alien  conjugal  union  \" 

It  is  noteworthy  that  but  few  traces  of  such  savagery  have 

yet  been  discovered  in  Yucatan.  The  investigations  of  Henry  ■ 

Mercer^  in  this  region  lend  strong  support  to  Forstemann's 

views    regarding   the    early    H  uaxtecan    migrations    and  the 

general  southward  spread  of  Maya  culture  from  the  Mexican 

table-land.    Nearly  thirty  caves  examined  by  this 

YucSm.^"  *"    explorer  failed  to  yield  any  remains  either  of  the 

mastodon,  mammoth,  and  horse,  or  of  early  man, 

elsewhere  so  often  associated  with   these   animals.     Hence 

Mercer  infers  that  the  Mayas  reached  Yucatan  already  in  an 

advanced  state  of  culture,  which  remained  unchanged  till  the 

conquest.      In  the  caves  were  found  great  quantities  of  good 

pottery,  generally  well  baked  and  of  symmetrical  form,  the 

oldest  quite  as  good  as  the  latest  where  they  occur  in  stratified 

beds,  showing  no  progress  anywhere. 

The  caves  of  Loltun  (Yucatan)  and  Copan  (Honduras), 

'  iTth  Ann.  Rep.  Bur.  Am.  Eth.  1895-6,  Pt.  I  (1898),  p.  11. 
^  The  Hill  Caves  of  Yucatan,  New  York,  1903. 


xij  xhe  American  Aborigines  2)91 

examined  by  E.  H.  Thompson  and  G.  Byron-Gordon,  yielded 
pre- Mayan  debris  from  the  deep  strata.  Perhaps  this  very 
ancient  population  was  of  the  same  race  as  the  little  known 
tribes  still  living  in  the  forests  of  Honduras  and  San  Sal- 
vador\ 

Since  the  conquest  the  Aztecs,  and  other  cultured  nations 
of  Anahuac,  have  yielded  to  European  influences  to  a  far 
greater  extent  than  the  Maya-Quiche  of  Yucatan  and  Guate- 
mala. In  the  city  of  Mexico  the  Nahuatl  tongue  has  almost 
died  out,  and  this  place  has  long  been  a  leading  centre  of 
Spanish  arts  and  letters' ;  yet  the  Mexicans  yearly  celebrate 
a  feast  in  memory  of  their  great  ancestors  who  died  in  defence 
of  their  country'.  But  Merida,  standing  on  the  site  of  the 
ancient  Ti-ho6,  has  almost  again  become  a  Maya  town,  where 
the  white  settlers  themselves  have  been  largely  assimilated  in 
speech  and  usages  to  the  natives.  The  very  streets  are  still 
indicated  by  the  carved  images  of  the  hawk, 
flamingo,  or  other  tutelar  deities,  while  the  houses  ^-da^^^* 
of  the  suburbs  continue  to  be  built  in  the  old 
Maya  style,  two  or  three  feet  above  the  street  level,  with 
a  walled  porch  and  stone  bench  running  round  the  enclosure. 

One  reason  for  this  remarkable  contrast  may  be  that  the 
Nahua  culture,  as  above  seen,  was  to  a  great  extent  borrowed 
in  relatively  recent  times,  whereas  the  Maya  civilisation  is  now 
shown  to  date  from  the  epoch  of  the  Tolan  and  Cholulan 
pyramid-builders.  Henge  the  former  yielded  to  the  first  shock, 
while  the  latter  still  persists  to  some  extent  in  Yucatan.  Here 
about  looo  A.D.  the  cities  of  Chichen-Itza,  Uxmal  and  Mayapan 
■formed  a  confederacy  in  which  each  was  to  share  equally  in 
the  government  of  the  country.  Under  the  peaceful  conditions 
of  the  next  two  centuries  followed  the  second  and  last  great 
Maya  epoch,  the  Age  of  Architecture,  as  it  has  been  termed, 
as  opposed  to  the  first  epoch,  the  Age  of  Sculpture,  from  the 
second  to  the  sixth  century  a.d.  During  this  earlier  epoch 
flourished  the  great  cities  of  the  south,  Palenque,  Quirigua, 
Copan,  and  others\     Despite  their  more  gentle  disposition, 

1  H.  Beuchat,  Manuel  d' ArMologie  amdricaine,  1912,  p.  407. 

2  "  In  the  city  of  Mexico  everything  has  a  Spanish  look"  (Brocklehurst,  Mexico 
To-day,  p.  15).  The  Aztec  language  however  is  still  current  in  the  surrounding 
districts  and  generally  in  the  provinces  forming  part  of  the  former  Aztec  empire. 

3  C.  Lumholtz,  Unknown  Mexico,  11.  p.  480 ;  cf.  pp.  477-8°- 

«  Sylvanus  Griswold  Morley,  "An  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  the  Maya 
Hieroglyphs,"  Bur.  Am.  Eth.  Bull.  57,  1915.  PP-  2-5- 


398  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

as  expressed  in  the  softer  and  almost  feminine  lines  of  their 
features,  the  Mayas  held  out  more  valiantly  than  the  Aztecs 
against  the  Spaniards,  and  a  section  of  the  nation  occupying 
a  strip  of  territory  between  Yucatan  and  British  Honduras, 
still  maintains  its  independence.     The  "barbarians,"  as  the 
inhabitants  of  this  district  are  called,   would  appear   to  be 
scarcely  less  civilised  than  their  neighbours,  although  they 
have  forgotten  the  teachings  of  the  padres,  and  transformed 
the  Catholic  churches  to  wayside  inns.     Even  as  it  is  the 
descendants  of  the  Spaniards  have  to  a  great  extent  forgotten 
their  mother-tongue,   and   Maya-Quich^  dialects  are  almost 
everywhere  current  except  in  the  Campeachy  district.    Those 
also  who  call  themselves  Catholics  preserve  and  practise  many 
of  the  old  rites.     After  burial  the  track  from  the  grave  to  the 
house  is  carefully  chalked,  so  that  the  soul  of  the  departed 
may  know  the  way  back  when  the  time  comes  to  enter  the 
body  of  some  new-born  babe.    The  descendants  of  the  national 
astrologers  everywhere  pursue  their  arts,  determining  events, 
forecasting  the  harvests  and  so  on  by.  the  conjunctions  of  the 
stars,  and  every  village  has  its  native  "  Zadkiel "  who  reads 
the  future  in  the  ubiquitous  crystal  globe.    Even  certain  priests 
continue  to  celebrate  the  "  Field  Mass,"  at  which  a  cock  is 
sacrificed  to  the  Mayan  Aesculapius,  with  invocations  to  the 
Trinity  and  their  associates,  the  four  genii  of  the  rain  and 
crops.    "  These  tutelar  deities,  however,  have  taken  Christian 
names,   the   Red,  or  God  of  the   E^st,   having  become  St 
Dominic;  the  White,  or  God  of  the  North,  St  Gabriel;  the 
Black,  or  God   of  the  West,   St  Ja.mes;    and  the  'Yellow 
Goddess'  of  the  South,  Mary  Magdalene'." 


To  the  observer  passing  from  the  northern  to  the  southern! 
division  of  the  New  World  no  marked  contrasts  are  at  first 
Transitions  perceptible,  either  in  the  physical  appearance, 

from  North  to  or  in  the  social  condition  of  the  aborigines.  The 
South  America,  substantial  uniformity,  which  in  these  respects 
prevails  from  the  Arctic  to  the  Austral  waters,  is  in  fact 
well  illustrated  by  the  comparatively  slight  differences  pre- 
sented by  the  primitive  populations  dwelling  north  and  south 
of  the  Isthmus  of  Panama. 

At  the  discovery  the  West  Indies  were  inhabited  by  two' 

^  E.  Reclus,  Universal  Geography,  xvil.  p.  156. 


^^O  The  American  Aborigines  399 

distinct  peoples,  both  appareatly  of  South  American  origin. 
The  populations  of  the  Greater  Antilles,  Cuba,  Jamaica,  Santo 
♦  Domingo  and  Porto  Rico  were  of  Arawak  stock,  as  were  also 
the  Lucayans  of  the  Bahamas.  The  Lesser  Antilles  were 
peopled  by  Caribs,  whose  culture  had  been  somewhat  modified 
by  the  Arawaks  who  had  preceded  them.  As  regards  in- 
fluences from  the  north-west  and  west,  Joyce  considers' that 
intercourse  between  Yucatan  and  Western  Cuba  was  con- 
fined to  occasional  trading  voyages  and  did  not  long  antedate 
the  arrival  of  the  Spaniards.  The  same  applies  to  Florida 
where,  however,  Antillean  influences  may  be  traced,  especially 
in  pottery  designs'.  According  to  Beuchat,  however,  the 
Guacanabibes  of  Cuba  are  of  common  origin  with  the  Tekestas 
of  Florida.  Other  tribes  from  Florida  spread  to  the  Bahamas, 
Cuba',  and  perhaps  Hayti,  but  were  checked  by  Arawaks  from 
South  America  who  mastered  the  whole  of  the  West  Indies. 
Last  came  the  more  vigorous  but  less  advanced  Caribs,  also 
from  the  southern  mainland  (of  Arawak  origin  according  to 
Joyce  and  Beuchat).  The  statement  of  Columbus  that  the 
Lucayans'  were  "  of  good  size,  with  large  eyes  and  broader 
foreheads  than  he  had  ever  seen  in  any  other  race  of  men  "  is 
fully  borne  out  by  the  character  of  some  old  skulls  from  the 
Bahamas  measured  by  W.  K.  Brooks,  who  regarded  them  as 
belonging  to  "a  well-marked  type  of  the  North  American 
Indian  race  which  was  at  that  time  distributed  over  the 
Bahama  Islands,  Hayti,  and  the  greater  part  of  Cuba.  As 
thes^  islands  are  only  a  few  miles  from  the  peninsula  of 
Florida,  this  race  must  at  some  time  have  inhabited  at  least 
the  south-eastern  extremity  of  the  continent,  and  it  is  there- 
fore extremely  interesting  to  note  that  the  North  American 
crania  which  exhibit  the  closest  resemblance  to  those  from 

*  T.  A.  Joyce,  Central  American  and  West  Indian  Archaeology,  1916,  pp.  157, 
256-7.  An  admirable  account  is  given  of  the  material  culture  and  mode  of  life  of 
these  peoples  at  the  time  of  the  discovery. 

*  The  rapid  disappearance  of  the  Cuban  aborigines  has  been  the  subject  of 
much  comment.  Between  the  years  1512-32  all  but  some  4000  had  perished, 
although  they  are  supposed  to  have  originally  numbered  about  A  million,  distri- 
buted in  30  tribal  groups,  whose  names  and  territories  have  all  been  carefully 
preserved.  But  they  practically  offered  no  resistance  to  the  ruthless  Conquista- 
dores,  and  it  was  a  Cuban  chief  who  even  under  torture  refused  to  be  baptized, 
declaring  that  he  would  never  enter  the  same  heaven  as  the  Spaniard.  One  is 
reminded  of  the  analogous  cases  of  Jarl  Hakon,  the  Norseman,  and  the  Saxon 
Witikind,  who  rejected  Christianity,  preferring  to  share  the  lot  of  their  pagan  fore- 
fathers in  the  next  world. 

3  H.  Beuchat,  pp.  507-11,  526-8. 


400  Man  :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

the  Bahama  Islands  have  been  obtained  from  Florida'." 
This  observer  dwells  on  the  solidity  and  massiveness  of  the 
Lucayan  skulls,  which  bring  them  into  direct  relation  with  . 
the  races  both  of  the  Mississippi  plains  and  of  the  Brazilian 
and  Venezuelan  coast-lands,  though  the  general  ethnography 
of  Panama  and  Costa  Rica  reveals  no  active  influence  exerted 
by  tribes  of  Colombia  and  Venezuela,  except  in  eastern 
Panama  ^ 

Equally  close  is  the  connection  established  between  the 
surviving  Isthmian  and  Colombian  peoples  of  the  Atrato  and 
Magdalena  basins.  The  Chontal  of  Nicaragua 
Choc^'^"^  are  scarcely  to  be  distinguished  from  some  of 
the  Santa  Marta  hillmen,  while  the  Choco  and 
perhaps  the  Cuna  of  Panama  have  been  affiliated  to  the 
Choco  of  the  Atrato  and.  San  Juan  rivers.  The  cultural 
connection  between  the  tribes  of  the  Isthmus  and  of  Colombia 
appears  especially  in  the  gold-work  and  pottery  of  the  Chi- 
riqui;  at  the  Chiriqui  Lagoon,  however,  Nahuan  influence 
is  perceptible  ^  Attempts,  which  however  can  hardly  be 
regarded  as  successful,  have  even  been  made  to  establish 
linguistic  relations  between  the  Costa  Rican  Guatuso  and 
the  Timote  of  the  Merida  uplands  of  Venezuela,  who  are 
themselves  a  branch  of  the  formerly  widespread  Muyscan 
family. 

But  with  these  Muyscans  we  at  once  enter  a  new  ethnical 
and  cultural  domain,  in  which  may  be  studied  the  resemblances 
due  to  the  common  origin  of  all  the  American  aborigines, 
and  the  divergences  due  obviously  to  long  isolation  and  in- 
dependent local  developments  in  the  two  continental  divisions. 
In  general  the  southern  populations  present  more  violent 
contrasts  than  the  northern  in  their  social  and  intellectual 
developments,  so  that  while  the  wild  tribes  touch  a  lower 
depth  of  savagery,  some  at  least  of  the  civilised  peoples  rise 
to  a  higher  degree  of  excellence,  if  not  in  letters — where  the 
inferiority  is  manifest — certainly  in  the  arts  of  engineering, 
architecture,  agriculture,  and  political  organisation.  Thus  we 
need  not  travel  many  miles  inland  from  the  Isthmus  without 
meeting  the  Catio,  a  wild  tribe  between  the  Atrato  and  the 

'  Paper  read  before  the  National  Academy  of  Sciences,  America,  1890. 

^  T.  A.  Joyce,  p.  2,  who  deals  with  the  archaeology,  as  far  as  it  is  known  as  yet, 
of  Nicaragua,  Costa  Rica  and  Panama.  Cf.  especially  linguistic  map  at  p.  30  for 
distribution  of  tribes. 

'  T.  A.  Joyce,  South  American  Archaeology,  1912,  p.  7. 


xi]  The  American  Aborigines  401 

Cauca,  more  degraded  even  than  the  Seri  of  Tiburon  island, 
most  debased  of  all  North  American  hordes,  th  r  ti 
These  Catio,  a  now  nearly  extinct  branch  of  the 
Choco  stock,  were  said  to  dwell  like  the  anthropoid  apes,  in 
the  branches  of  trees ;  they  mostly  went  naked,  and  were 
reported,  like  the  Mangbattus  and  other  Congo  negroes,  to 
"fatten  their  captives  for  the  table."  Their  Darien  neigh- 
bours of  the  Nore  valley,  who  gave  an  alternative  name  to 
the  Panama  peninsula,  were  accustomed  to  steal  the  women 
of  hostile  tribes,  cohabit  with  them,  and  carefully  bring  up 
the  children  till  their  fourteenth  year,  when  they  were  eaten 
with  much  rejoicing,  the  mothers  ultimately  sharing  the  same 
fate';  and  the  Cocoma  of  the  Marafion  "were  in  the  habit 
of  eating  their  own  dead  relations,  and  grinding  their  bones 
to  drink  in  their  fermented  liquor.  They  said  it  was  better 
to  be  inside  a  friend  than  to  be  swallowed  up  by  the  cold 
earth^"  In  fact  of  the  Colombian  aborigines  Herrera  tells  us 
that  "the  living  are  the  grave  of  the  dead;  for  the  husband 
has  been  seen  to  eat  his  wife,  the  brother  his  brother  or  sister, 
the  son  his  father;  captives  also  are  eaten  roasted'." 

Thus  is  raised  the  question  of  cannibalism  in  the  New 
World,  where  at  the  discovery  it  was  incomparably  more 
prevalent  south  than  north  of  the  equator.  Compare  the 
Eskimo  and  the'  Fuegians  at  the  two  extremes,  the  former 
practically  exonerated  of  the  charge,  and  in  distress  sparing 
wives  and  children  and  eating  their  dogs;  the  latter  sparing 
their  dogs  because  useful  for  catching  otters,  and  smoking 
and  eating  their  old  women  because  useless  for  further  pur- 
poses^  In  the  north  the  taste  for  human  flesh  had  declined, 
and  the  practice  survived  only  as  a  ceremonial  rite,  chiefly 
amongst  the  British  Columbians  and  the  Aztecs,  except  of 
course  in  case  of  famine,  when  even  the  highest  races  are 
capable  of  devouring  their  fellows.  But  in  the  south  canni- 
balism in  some  of  its  most  repulsive  forms  was  common  enough 
almost   everywhere.      Killing   and   eating   feeble   and   aged 

>  "The  travels  of  P.  de  Cieza  de  Leon"  (Hakluyt  Soc.  1864,  p.  50  f.)- 

2  Sir  C.  R.  ^iarkham,  "List  of  Tribes,"  etc.,  Journ.  Roy.  Anth.  Inst.^l.  1910, 
p.  95.  "  This  idea  was  widespread,  and  many  Amazonian  peoples  declared  they 
preferred  to  be  eaten  by  their  friends  than  by  worms." 

3  Quoted  by  Steinmetz,  Endokannibalismus,  p.  19. 

*  C.  VtAtmn,  Journal  of  Researches,  1889,  p.  155.  Tljanks  to  their  frequent 
contact  with  Europeans  since  the  expeditions  of  Fitzroy  and  Darwin,  the'Fuegiajis 
have  given  up  the  practice,  hence  the  doubts  or  denials  of  Bridges,  Hyades,  .and 
other  later  observers. 


K. 


26 


402  Man :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

members  of  the  tribe  in  kindness  is  still  general ;  but  the 
Mayorunas  of  the  Upper  Amazon  waters  do  not  wait  till  they 
have  grown  lean  with  years  or  wasted  with  disease';  and  it 
was  a  baptized  member  of  the  same  tribe  who  complained  on 
his  death-bed  that  he  would  not  now  provide  a  meal  for  his 
Christian  friends,  but  must  be  devoured  by  worms^ 

In  the  southern  continent  the  social  conditions  illustrated 
by   these    practices    prevailed    everywhere,    except    on   the 

elevated  plateaus  of  the  western  Cordilleras, 
Andean^^ea''*     which  for  many  ages  before  the  discovery  had 

been  the  seats  of  several  successive  cultures,  in 
some  respects  rivalling,  but  in  others  much  inferior  to  those 
of  Central  America.  When  the  Conquistadores  reached  this 
part  of  the  New  World,  to  which  they  were  attracted  by  the 
not  altogether  groundless  reports  of  fabulous  wealth  embodied 
in  the  legend  oi  El  Dorado,  the  "  Man  of  Gold,"  they  found 
it  occupied  by  a  cultural  zone  which  extended  almost  con- 
tinuously from  the  present  republic  of  Cplombia  through 
Th  rhh  h         Ecuador,  Peru,  and  Bolivia  right  into  Chili.     In 

the  north  the  dominant  people  were  the  semi- 
civilised  Chibcha,  already  mentioned  under  the  name  of 
Muysca',  who  had  developed  an  organised  system  of  govern- 
ment on  the  Bogota  table-land,  and  had  succeeded  in  extending 
their  somewhat  more  refined  social  institutions  to  some  of  the 
other  aborigines  of  Colombia,  though  not  to  many  of  the  out- 
lying members  of  their  own  race.  As  in  Mexico  many  of  the 
Nahuatlan  tribes  remained  little  better  than  savages  to  the 
last,  so  in  Colombia  the  civilised  Muyscans  were  surrounded  by 
numerous  kindred  tribes — Coyaima,  Natagaima,  Tocaima  and 
others,  collectively  known  as  Panches — who  were  real  savages 
with  scarcely  any  tribal  organisation,  wearing  no  clothes,  and 
according  to  the  early  accounts  still  addicted  to  cannibalism. 

The  Muysca  proper  had  a  tradition  that  they  owed  their 
superiority  to  their  culture-hero  Bochica,  who  came  from  the 
east  long  ago,  taught  them  everything,  and  was  then  placed 
with  Chiminigagua,  the  creator,  at  the  head  of  their  pantheon, 

*  V.  Martius,  Zur  Ethnographie  Brasiliens,  1867,  p.  430. 

*  Herbert  Spencer,  The  Principles  of  Ethics,  1892,  I.  p.  330. 

'  The  national  name  was  Muysca,  "  Men,"  "  Human  Body,"  and  the  number 
twenty  (in  reference  to  the  ten  fingers  and  ten  toes  making  up  that  score). 
Chibcha  was  a  mimetic  name  having  allusion  to  the  sound  ch  (as  in  Charles), 
which  is  of  frequent  recurrence  in  the  Muysca  language.  With  man  =  20,  cf.  the 
Bellacoola  (British  Columbia)  19=1  man-  i  ;  20=1  man,  etc.;  and  this  again  with 
Lat.  undeviginti. 


xi]  The  American  Aborigines  403 

and  worshipped  with  solemn  rites  and  even  human  sacrifices. 
Amongst  the  arts  thus  acquired  was  that  of  the  goldsmith,  in 
which  they  surpassed  all  other  peoples  of  the  New  World. 
The  precious  metal  was  even  said  to  be  minted  in  the  shape 
of  discs,  which  formed  an  almost  solitary  instance  of  a  true 
metal  currency  amongst  the  American  aborigines'.  Brooches, 
pendants,  and  especially  grotesque  figurines  of  gold,  often 
alloyed  with  silver  and  copper,  have  been  found  in  great 
numbers  and  still  occasionally  turn  up  on  the  plateau.  These 
finds  are  partly  accounted  for  by  the  practice  of  offering  such 
objects  in  the  open  air  to  the  personified  constellations  and 
forces  of  nature,  for  the  primitive  religion  of  all  the  Andean 
tribes  consisted  of  nature-,  in  particular  sun-cults.  Near  Bo- 
gota was  a  temple  of  the  Sun,  where  children  were  reared  for 
sacrificed  Any  mysterious  sound  emanating  from  a  forest, 
a  rock,  a  mountain  pass,  or  gloomy  gorge,  was  accepted  as 
a  manifestation  of  some  divine  presence  ;  a  shrine  was  raised 
to  the  embodied  spirit,  and  so  the  whole  land  became  literally 
crowded  with  local  deities.  This  world  itself  was  upborne  on 
the  shoulders  of  Chibchacum,  a  national  Atlas,  who  now  and 
then  eased  himself  by  shifting  the  burden,  and  thus  caused 
earthquakes.  In  most  lands  subject  to  underground  disturb- 
ances analogous  ideas  prevail,  and  when  their  source  is  so 
obvious,  it  seems  unreasonable  to  seek  for  explanations  in 
racial  affinities,  contacts,  foreign  influences,  and  so  forth. 

It  has  often  been  remarked  that  at  the  advent  of  the  whites 
the  native  civilisations  seemed  generally  stricken  as  if  by  the 
hand  of  death,  so  that  even  if  not  suddenly  arrested  by  the 
intruders  they  must  sooner  or  later  have  perished  of  them- 
selves. Such  speculations  are  seldom  convincing,  because  we 
never  know  what  recuperative  forces  may  be  at  work  to  ward 
off  the  evil  day.  When  the  Spaniards  arrived  in  Colombia 
they  found  at  one  end  of  the  scale  naked  and  savage  canni- 
bals, at  the  other  a  people  with  a  feudal  form  of  government, 
whose  political  system  was  progressive,  who,  though  possessing 
no  form  of  writing,  had  a  system  of  measures  and  a  calendar, 
and  who  were  skilled  in  the  arts  of  weaving,  pottery,  and 
metallurgy\  The  chiefs  of  the  Chibcha  were  all  absolute 
monarchs  and  the  appointment  of  priests  rested  with  them. 

'  W.    BoUaert,   Antiquarian,  Ethnological,   and   other  Researches    in   New 
Granada,  etc.  ii6o,  passim. 

2  T.  A.  Joyce,  South  American  Archaeology,  1912,  p.  28.  ^  Ibid.  p.  44. 

26 — 2 


404  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

Succession  to  the  chieftainship  was  matrilineal,  and  installation 
in  the  office  was  attended  by  much  ceremony.     A  great  gulf 
separated  nobles  and  commoners ;  slavery  existed  as  an  insti- 
tution but  slaves  were  well  treated.     Polygyny  was  permitted, 
but  relatives  within  certain  degrees  might  not  marry\     This 
feebly  organised  political  system  broke  to  pieces  at  the  first 
shock  from  without,  and  so  disheartened  had  the  people  become 
under  their  half  theocratic  rulers,  that  they  scarcely  raised  a 
hand  in  defence  of  a  government  which  in  their  minds  was 
associated  only  with  tyranny  and  oppression.     The  conquest 
was  in  any  case  facilitated  by  the  civil  war  at  the  time  raging 
between  the  northern  and   southern   kingdoms  which  with 
several  other  semi-independent  states  constituted  the  Muyscan 
empire.     This  empire  was  almost  conterminous  southwards 
with  that  of  the  Incas.     At  least  the  numerous  terms  occur- 
ring in  the  dialects  of  the  Paes,  Coconucos,  and  other  South 
Colombian  tribes,  show  that  Peruvian  influences  had  spread 
beyond  the  political  frontiers  far  to  the. north,  without,  how- 
ever, quite  reaching  the  confines  of. the  Muyscan  domain. 

But  for  several  centuries  prior  to  the  discovery  the  sway 
of  the  Peruvian  Incas  had  been  established  throughout  nearly 

the  whole  of  the  Andean  lands,  and  the  territory 
Empire  of  the    directly  ruled  by  them  extended  from  the  Quito 

district  about  the  equator  for  some  2500  miles 
southwards  to  the  Rio  Maule  in  Chili,, with  an  average  breadth 
of  400  miles  between  the  Pacific  and  the  eastern  slopes  of  the 
Cordilleras.  Their  dominion  thus  comprised  a  considerable 
part  of  the  present  republics  of  Ecuador,  Peru,  Bolivia,  Chili, 
and  Argentina,  with  a  roughly  estimated  area  of  1,000,000 
square  miles,  and  a  population  of  over  10,000,000.     Here  the 

ruling  race  were  the  Quichua,  whose  speech, 
mid*Speech  ^^^     called  by  themselves  ruma-simi,  "  the  language 

of  men,"  is  still  current  in  several  well-marked 
dialects  throughout. all  the  provinces  of  the  old  empire.  In 
Lima  and  all  the  seaports  and  inland  towns  Spanish  prevails, 
but  in  the  rural  districts  Quichuan  remains  the  mother-tongue 
of  over  2,000,000  natives,  and  has  even  become  the  lingua 
franca  of  the  western  regions,  just  as  Tupi-Guarani  is  the 
lingoa  geral,  "general  language,"  of  the  eastern  section  of 
South  America.  The  attempts  to  find  affinities  with  Aryan 
(especially    Sanskrit),    and   other   linguistic    families    of    the 

'  T.  A.  Joyce,  loc.  cit.  pp.  18-22. 


XI J  The  American  Aborigines  405 

eastern  hemisphere,  have  broken  down  before  the  applica- 
tion of  sound  philological  principles  to  these  studies,  and 
Quichuan  is  now  recognised  as  a  stock  language  of  the  usual 
American  type,  unconnected  with  any  other  except  that  of  the 
Bolivian  Aymaras.  Even  this  connection  is  regarded  by  some 
students  as  verbal  rather  than  structural,  an  interchange  of  a 
considerable  number  of  terms  being  easily  explained  by  the 
close  contact  in  which  the  two  peoples  have  long  dwelt. 

As  to  the  origin  of  the  Incas  we  cannot  do  better  than 
follow  the  views  of  Sir  Clements  Markham,  who  has  made  a 
careful  study  of  the  various  early  authorities. 
His  account  {The  Incas  of  Peru,  19 10)  is  ^."d^HistS^ 
based  largely  on  the  works  of  Spanish  military 
writers  such  as  Ciezo  de  Leon  and  Pedro  Pizarro  (cousin 
of  the  conqueror),  of  priests  like  Molina,  Montesinos, 
and  the  half-breed  Bias  Valera,  and  on  those  of  the  Inca 
Garcilasso  de  la  Vega,  son  of  a  Spanish  knight  and  an  Inca 
princess.  The  megalithic  ruins  of  Tiahuanacu,  at  the  southern 
end  of  Lake  Titicaca,  mark  the  earliest  known  centre  of 
culture  in  southern  Peru.  They  are  situated  on  a  lofty  pla- 
teau, over  13,000  feet  above  the  sea,  and  are  the  remains  of 
a  great  city  built  by  highly  skilled  masons  who  used  enormous 
stones.  The  placing  of  such  monoliths,  unrivalled  except  by 
those  of  ancient  Egypt,  indicates  a  dense  and  well-organised 
population.  The  famous  monolithic  doorway  is  elaborately 
carved,  the  central  figure  apparently  representing  the  deity, 
while  on  either  side  are  figures,  human-  or  bird-headed, 
kneeling  in  adoration  {pp.  cit.,  pis.  at  pp.  26,  28).  Now  it 
seems  probable  that  the  builders  of  this  megalithic  city  were 
the  ancestors  of  the  Incas,  assuming  that  a  substratum  of 
truth  underlies  the  Paccari-tampu  myth. 

The  end  of  the  early  civilisation  is  stated  to  have  been 
caused  by  a  great  invasion  from  the  south,  when  the  king  was 
killed  in  a  battle  in  the  Collao,  north  of  Lake  Titicaca.  A 
state  of  barbarism  ensued.  A  remnant  of  the  royal  house  took 
refuge  in  a  district  called  Tampu-Tocco  ("Window  Tavern")^ 
and  there  preserved  a  vestige  of  their  ancient  traditions  and 
civilisation.  Elsewhere  religion  deteriorated  to  nature  worship, 
here  the  kings  declared  themselves  to  be  children  of  the  sun, 

1  Markham  locates  it  in  the  province  of  Paruro,  department  of  Cuzco ;  Hiram 
Bingham,  director  of  the  Peruvian  Expeditions  of  the  Nat.  Geog.  Soc.  and  Yale 
University,  identifies  it  with  Machu  Picchu  {Nat.  Geog.  Mag.,  Washington,  D.  C, 
Feb.  1915,  p.  172)- 


4o6  Man :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

Montesinos'  list  of  kings  gives  27  names  for  this  period  of 
Tampu-Tocco,  which  may  cover  650  years. 

The  myth,  which  is  "certainly  the  outcome  of  a  real 
tradition,... the  fabulous  version  of  a  distant  historical  event," 
tells  how  Manco  Ccapac  and  the  three  other  Ayars,  his 
brothers,  the  children  of  the  sun,  came  forth  with  their  wives 
from  the  central  opening  or  window  in  the  hill  Tampu-Tocco. 
They  advanced  slowly  at  the  head  of  several  ayllus  (lineages), 
Ayar  Manco  took  the  lead,  and  he  had  with  him  a  falcon-like 
bird  revered  as  sacred,  and  a  golden  staff  which  he  flung 
ahead ;  when  it  reached  soil  so  fertile  that  the  whole  length 
sank  in,  there  the  final  halt  was  to  be  made.  This  happened 
in  the  fertile  vale  of  Cuzco.  The  date  of  these  events  would 
be  about  four  centuries  before  the  Spanish  conquest. 

Farther  north  at  about  15°  S.  lat.  the  Inca  civilisation  was 
preceded,  according  to  Uhle,  by  the  very  ancient  one  of  lea 
and  Nazca,  where  dwelt  a  people  who  made  pottery  but  were 
ignorant  of  weaving.  The  same  authority  has  also  discpvered 
about  Lima  the  remains  of  a  tall  people,  who  made  rude 
pottery,  nets,  and  objects  of  bone^ 

Manco  established  himself  in  the  Cuzco  valley,  his  third 
successor  finally  subjugating  the  tribes  there.  The  early 
position  of  the  Incas,  cemented  by  judicious  marriages,  seems 
to  have  been  one  of  priority  in  a  very  loose  confederacy.  The 
rise  of  the  Incas  was  due  to  the  ambition  of  the  lady  Siuyacu 
whose  son,  Inca  Rocca,  appears  to  have  been  the  pioneer  of 
empire;  material  prosperity  began  under  him,  schools  were 
erected  and  irrigation  works  begun.  Then  from  a  strip  of 
land  250  miles  long  between  the  gorge  of  the  Apurimac  and 
the  wide  fertile  valley  of  Vilcamayu,  the  empire  was  extended 
to  form  the  Ttahua-ntin-suyu,  "the  four  provinces,"  of  which 
the  northern  one,  Chlnchay-suyu,  reached  to  Quito,  and  the 
southern,  Colla-suyu,  into  Chili.  This  southward  extension 
was  due  to  the  efforts  of  Pachacuti  who  succeeded  after  hard 
fighting  in  annexing  the  region  around  Lake  Titicaca,  and 
the  new  territory  was  named  after  the  Collas,  the  largest  and 
most  powerful  tribe  thereabouts.  In  order  to  pacify  the  region 
permanently  large  numbers  of  Collas  were  sent  as  mitimaes, 
or  colonists,  as  far  as  the  borders  of  Quito,  while  their  places 

1  H.  Beuchat,  pp.  573-5.  For  culture  sequences  in  the  Andean  area  see 
P.  A.  Means,  Proc.  Nineteenth  Internat.  Congress  of  Americanists,  1917,  p.  236  ff., 
and  Man,  1918,  No.  91. 


xi]  The  American  Aborigines  407 

were  filled  by  loyal  colonistsi  from  Inca  districts.  Among  these 
were  a  number  of  Aymaras  from  the  Quichuan  .^^  ^  ^^^^ 
region  of  the  Pachachaca,  a  left  bank  tributary  *  T^'^^- 
of  the  Apurimac,  who  were  settled  among  the  remaining 
Lupacas  on  the  west  shore  of  Lake  Titicaca  at  Juli.  Thither 
came  Jesuit  fathers  in  1572  and  learnt  the  language  of  the 
Lupacas  from  these  Aymara  colonists,  who  had  been  there 
three  generations  ;  the  name  Aymara  was  given  by  the  priests 
not  only  to  the  Lupaca  language  but  to  those  spoken  by  Collas 
and  other  Titicacan  tribes.  Thus  the  name  Aymara  is  now 
generally  but  quite  erroneously  applied  to  the  language  and 
people  of  this  region;  it  was  first  so  used  in  1575.  It  must 
be  pointed  out,  however,  that  other  authorities  regard  the 
Aymara  and  Quichua  as  entirely  distinct.  A.  Chervin^  dis- 
cusses the  physical  differences  at  great  length  and  concludes 
that  they  are  two  separate  brachycephalic  peoples. 

The  Peruvians  were  primarily  agriculturists,  maize  and  at 
higher  altitudes  the  potato  being  their  chief  crops.  Their 
aqueducts  and  irrigation  systems  moved  the  admiration  of 
early  chroniclers,  as  did  also  their  roads  and  suspension 
bridges^  The  supreme  deity  and  creator  was  Uira-cocha, 
who  was  worshipped  by  the  more  intellectual  and  had  a  temple 
at  Cuzco.  The  popular  religion  was  the  worship  of  the  founder 
of  each  ayllu,  or  clan,  and  all  joined  in  adoration  of  the  sun  as 
ancestor  of  the  sovereign  Incas.  Sun-worship  was  attended 
by  a  magnificent  ritual,  the  high  priest  was  an  official 
of  highest  rank,  often  a  brother  of  the  sovereign,  and  there 
were  over  3000  Virgins  of  the  Sun  {aclla)  connected  with  the 
cult  at  Cuzco.  The  peasants  put  their  trust  in  conopas,  or 
household  gods,  which  controlled  their  crops  and  their  llamas. 
The  calendar  had  been  calculated  with  considerable  ingenuity, 
and  certain  festivals  took  place  annually  and  were  usually 
accompanied  with  much  chicha-drinking.  It  is  remarkable 
that  so  advanced  a  people  kfept  all  their  elaborate  records  by 
means  of  quipus  (coloured  strings  with  knots). 

Here  is  not  the  place  to  enter  into  the  details  of  the  as- 
tonishing architectural,  engineering,  and  artistic  remains,  often 
assigned  to  the  Incas,  whose  empire  had  absorbed      ,^^^  Q.\xasm 
in  the  north  the  old  civilisation  of  the  Chimu, 

'  Anthropologit  Bolivienne,  3  vols.  Paris,  1907-8. 

2  An  admirable  account  of  the  material  culture  of  Peru  is  given  by  T.  A.  Joyce, 
South  American  Archaeology,  1912,  cap.  vi. 


4o8  ■  Man  :   Past  and  Present  [ch. 

perhaps  of  the  Atacameno,  and  other  cultured  peoples  whose 
very  names  have  perished.  The  Yunga  (Mochica  or  Chimu), 
conquered  by  the  IncaTupac  Yupanqui,  had  a  language  radically 
distinct  from  Quichuan,  but  have  long  been  assimilated  to  their 
conquerors. 

The  ruins  of  Grand  Chimu  (modern  Trujillo)  cover  a  vast 
area,  nearly  15  miles  by  6,  which  is  everywhere  strewn  with 
the  remains  of  palaces,  reservoirs,  aqueducts,  ramparts,  and 
especially  kuacas,  that  is,  truncated  pyramids  not  unlike  those 
of  Mexico,  whence  the  theory  that  the  Chimus,  of  unknown 
origin,  were  "  Toltecs  "  from  Central  America.  One  of  these 
huacas  is  described  by  Squier  as  150  feet  high  with  a  base 
580  feet  square,  and  an  area  of  8  acres,  presenting  from  a 
distance  the  appearance  of  a  huge  crater'.  Still  larger  is  the 
so-called  "  Temple  of  the  Sun,"  800  by  470  feet,  200  feet  high, 
and  covering  an  area  of  7  acres.  An  immense  population  of 
hundreds  of  thousands  was  assigned  to  this  place  in  pre-lnca 
times;  but  from  some  rough  surveys  made  in  1897  it  would 
appear  that  much  of  the  space  withiti  the  enclosures  consists 
of  waste  lands,  which  had  never  been  built  over,  and  it  is 
calculated  that  at  no  time  could  the  number  of  inhabitants 
have  greatly  exceeded  50,000. 

We  need  not  stop  to  describe  the  peculiar  civil  and  social 
institutions  of  the  Peruvians,  which  are  of  common  knowledge, 
Peruvian  Enough  to  say  that  here  everything  was  planned 

Political         ■  in  the  interests  of  the  theocratic  and  all-powerful 
System.  Incas,    who   were   more    than    obeyed,    almost 

honoured  with  divine  worship  by  their  much  bethralled  and 
priest-ridden  subjects.  "  The  despotic  authority  of  the  Incas 
was  the  basis  of  government;  that  authority  was  founded  on 
the  religious  respect  yielded  to  the  descendant  of  the  sun,  and 
supported  by  a  skilfully  combined  hierarchy"."  From  remote 
antiquity  the  peoples  of  this  area  were  organised  into  ayllus 
each  occupying  part  of  a  valley  or  a  limited  area.  It  was  a 
patriarchal  system,  land  belonging  to  the  ayllu,  which  was 
a  group  of  families.  The  Incas  systematised  this  institution, 
the  ayllu  was  made  to  comprise  100  families  under  a  village 
officer  who  annually  allotted  land  to  the  heads  of  families. 
Each  family  was  divided  by  the  head  into  10  classes  based 
on  age.    Ten  ayllus  (now  \.^xme.6.  pachacas)  formed  a  huaranca. 

'  Peru,  p.  120. 

2  De  Nadaillac,  Pre-Hisiortc  America,  1885,  p.  438. 


xi]  The  Americun  Aborigines  409 

A  valley  with  a  varying  number  of  kuarancas  was  termed  a 
hunu  ;  over  four  hunus  there  was  an  imperial  officer.  "  This 
was  indeed  Socialism,"  Markham  observes,  "existing  under  an 
inexorable  despotism"  (p.  169). 

Beyond  the  Maule,  southernmost  limits  of  all  these 
effete  civilisations,  man  reasserted  himself  in  the  "  South 
American  Iroquois,"  as  those  Chilian  aborigines,  TheArauca- 
have  been  called  who  called  themselves  Molu-che,  wans. 
"  Warriors,"  but  are  better  known  by  their  Quichuan  designa- 
tion of  yi«fa^.y,  "Rebels,"  whence  the  Spanish  Aucans(Araucan, 
Araucanian).  These  "  Rebels,"  who  have  never  hitherto  been 
'  overcome  by  the  arms  of  any  f)eople,  and  whose  heroic  deeds 
in  the  long  wars  waged  by  the  white  intruders  against  their 
freedom  form  the  topic  of  a  noble  Spanish  epic  poem',  still 
maintain  a  measure  of  national  autonomy  as  the  friends  and 
faithful  allies  of  the  Chilian  republic.  Individual  freedom  and 
equality  were  leading  features  of  the  social  system  which  was 
in  the  main  patriarchal.  The  Araucanians  were  led  by  four 
independent  chiefs,  each  supported  by  five  ulmen,  or  district 
chiefs,  whose  office  was  hereditary  but  whose  authority  was 
little  more  than  nominal.  It  was  only  in  time  of  national 
warfare  that  the  tribes  united  under  a  war-chieP.  Not  only 
are  all  the  tribes  absolutely  free,  but  the  same  is  true  of  every 
clan,  sept,  and  family  group.  Needless  to  say,  there  are  no 
slaves  or  serfs.  "  The  law  of  retaliation  was  the  only  one 
understood,  although  the  commercial  spirit  of  the  Araucano 
led  him  to  forego  personal  revenge  for  its  accruing  profit. 
Thus  every  injury  had  its  price'." 

The  basis  of  their  belief  is  a  rude  form  of  nature  worship, 
the  principal  deities  being  malignant  and  requiring  propitiation. 
The  chief  god  was  Pillan,  the  thunder  god.  Spirits  of  the 
dead  go  west  over  the  sea  to  a  place  of  abundance  where  no 
evil  spirits  have  entry*.  And  this  simple  belief  is  almost  the 
only  substitute  for  the  rewards  and  punishments  which  supply 
the  motive  for  the  observance  of  an  artificial  ethical  code  in 
so  many  more  developed  religious  systems. 

In  the  sonorous  Araucanian  language,  which  is  still  spoken 
by  about  40,000  full-blood  natives^  the  term  che,  meaning 

'  Alonzo  de  Ercilla's  Araucana. 

2  T.  A.  Joyce,  South  American  Archaeology,  1912,  p.  243;   R.  E.  Latham, 
"Ethnology  of  the  Araucanos,"/'!'"''^-  Roy-  ^nth.  Inst,  xxxix.  1909,  p.  355. 

3  Latham,  p.  356.  *  Ibid.  pp.  344-50. 


4IO  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

"people,"  occurs  as  the  postfix  of  several  ethnical  groups, 
which,  however,  are  not  tribal  but  purely  territorial  divisions. 
Thus,  while  Molu-che  is  -the  collective  name  of  the  whole 
nation,  the  Picun-cke,  Huilli-che,  and  Puel-che  are  simply  the 
North,  South,  and  East  men  respectively.  The  Central  and 
most  numerous  division  are  the  Puen-che^  that  is,  people 
of  the  pine  district,  who  are  both  the  most  typical  and  most 
intelligent  of  all  the  Araucanian  family.  Ehrenreich's  remark 
that  many  of  the  American  aborigines  resemble  Europeans  as 
much  as  or  even  more  than  the  Asiatic  Mongols,  is  certainly 
borne  out  by  the  facial  expression  of  these  Puenche.  The 
resemblance  is  even  extended  to  the  mental  characters,  as 
reflected  in  their  oral  literature.  Amongst  the  specimens  of 
the  national  folklore  preserved  in  the  Puenche  dialect  and 
edited  with  Spanish  translations  by  Rodolfo  Lenz\  is  the 
story  of  a  departed  lover,  who  returns  from  the  other  world 
to  demand  his  betrothed  and  carries  her  off  to  his  grave. 
Although  this  might  seem  an  adaptation  of  Burger's  "Lenore," 
Lenz  is  of  opinion  that  it  is  a  genuine  Araucanian  legend. 

Of  the  above-mentioned  groups  the  Puelche  are  now 
included  politically  in  Argentina.  Their  original  home  seems 
to  have  been  north  of  the  Rio  Negro,  but  they 
liM^ns"*^*^  raided  westwards  and  some  adopted  the  Arau- 
canian language''  and  to  them  also  the  Chilian 
affix  <:^^  has  also  been  extended.  Indeed  the  term  Puelche, 
meaning  simply  "  Easterns,"  is  applied  not  only  to  the  Argen- 
tine Moluche,  whose  territory  stretches  east  of  the  Cordilleras 
as  far  as  Mendoza  in  Cuyo,  but  also  to  all  the  aborigines 
commonly  called  Pampeans  [Pampas  Indians)  by  the  Euro- 
peans and  Penek  by  the  Patagonians.  Under  the  designation 
of  Puelche  would  therefore  be  comprised  the  now  extinct 
Ranqualche  (Ranqueles),  who  formerly  raided  up  to  Buenos^ 
Ayres  and  the  other  Spanish  settlements  on  the  Plate  River, 
the  Mapoche  of  the  Lower  Salado,  and  generally  all  the 
nomads  as  far  south  as  the  Rio  Negro. 

These  aborigines  are  now  best  represented  by  the  Gauchos, 

who  are  mostly  Spaniards  on  the  father's  side  and  Indians 

on  the  mother's,  and  reflect  this  double  descent 

in  their  half-nomadic,  half-civilised  life.     These 

Gauchos,  who  are  now  also  disappearing  before  the  encroach- 

1  In  the  Anales  de  la  Universidad  de  Chile  for  1897. 
^  T.  A.  Joyce,  p.  240. 


xi]  The  American  Aborigines  411 

ments  of  the  "Gringos',"  i.e.  the  white  immigrants  from 
almost  every  country  in  Europe,  have  been  enveloped  in  an 
ill-deserved  halo  of  romance,  thanks  mainly  to  their  roving 
habits,  splendid  horsemanship,  love  of  finery,  and  genial  dis- 
position combined  with  that  innate  grace  and  courtesy  which 
belongs  to  all  of  Spanish  blood.  But  those  who  knew  them 
best  described  them  as  of  sordid  nature,  cruel  to  their  women- 
kind,  reckless  gamblers  and  libertines,  ruthless  political  par- 
tisans, at  times  even  religious  fanatics  without  a  spark  of  true 
religion,  and  at  heart  little  better  than  bloodthirsty  savages. 

Beyond  the  Rio  Negro  follow  the  gigantic  Patagonians, 
that  is,  the  Tehuelche  or  Chuelche  of  the  Araucanians,  who 
have  no  true  collective  name  unless  it  be  Tsoneca, 
a  word  of  uncertain  use  and  origin.     Most  of  the    '"•^.P**^- 
tribal  groups — Yacana,  Pilma,  Chao  and  others 
— are  broken  up,  and  the  former  division  between  the  Northern 
Tehuelche  (Tehuelhet),  comprising  the  Callilehet  (Serranos  or 
Highlanders)  of  the  Upper  Chupat,  with  the  Calilan  between 
the  Rios  Chupat  and  Negro,   and  the  Southern  Tehuelche 
(Yacana,  Sehuan,  etc.),  south    to    Fuegia,  no   longer    holds 
good  since  the  general  displacement  of  all  these  fluctuating 
nomad  hordes.     A  branch  of  the  Tehuelche  are  unquestion- 
ably the  Ona  of  the  eastern  parts  of  Fuegia,  the  true  aborigines 
of  which  are  the  Yahgans  of  the  central  and  the  Alakalufs  of 
the  western  islands. 

Hitherto  to  the  question  whence  came  these  tall  Pata- 
gonians, no  answer  could  be  given  beyond  the  suggestion 
that  they  may  have  been  specialised  in  their  present  habitat, 
where  nevertheless  they  seem  to  be  obviously  intruders.  Now, 
however,  one  may  perhaps  venture  to  look  for  their  original 
home  amongst  the  Bororo  of  Matto  Grosso,  a  once  powerful 
race  who  held  the  region  between  the  Rios  Cuyaba  and 
Paraguay.  These  Bororo,  who  had  been  heard  of  by  Martius, 
were  visited  by  Ehrenreich^  and  by  Karl  von  den  Steinen^ 
who  found  them  to  be  a  nomadic  hunting  people  with  a 
remarkable  social  organisation  centring  in  the  men's  club- 
house {baitd).  Their  physical  characters,  as  described  by  the 
former  observer,  correspond  closely  with  those  of  the  Pata- 

'  Properly  Griegos,  "  Greeks,"  so  called  because  supposed  to  speak  "  Greek," 
i.e.  any  language  other  than  Spanish, 

2  Urbewohner  Brasiliens,  1897,  pp.  69,  no,  125. 

3  Unter  den  Naturvolkem  Zfntral-Brasiliens,  1894,  pp.  441-3,  468  ff. 


412  Man:   Past  and  Present  [gh. 

gonians:  "An  exceptionally  tall  race  rivalling  the  South  Sea 
Islanders,  Patagonians,  and  Redskins;  by  far  the  tallest 
Indians  hitherto  discovered  within  the  tropics,"  their  stature 
ranging  nearly  up  to  6  ft.  4  in.,  with  very  large  and  rounded 
heads  (men  81-2;  women  "JTA)-  With  this  should  be  com- 
pared the  very  large  round  old  Patagonian  skull  from  the 
Rio  Negro,  measured  by  Rudolf  Martin'.  The  account  reads 
like  the  description  of  some  forerunner  of  a  prehistoric  Bororo 
irruption  into  the  Patagonian  steppe  lands. 

To  the  perplexing  use  of  the  term  Puelche  above  referred 
to  is  perhaps  due  the  difference  of  opinion  still  prevailing  on 
the  number  of  stock  languages  in  this  southern  section  of 
the  Continent.  D'Orbigny's  emphatic  statement'  that  the 
Puelche  spoke  a  language  fundamentally  distinct  both  from 

the  Araucanian  and  the  Patagonian  has  been 
Rdftions*?         questioned   on   the   strength   of  some   Puelche 

words,  which  were  collected  by  Hale  at  Carmen 
on  the  Rio  Negro,  and  differ  but  slightly  from  Patagonian. 
But  the  Rio  Negro  lies  on  the  ethnical  divide  between  the 
two  races,  which  sufficiently  accounts  for  the  resemblances, 
while  the  words  are  too  few  to  prove  anything.  Hale  calls 
them  "Southern  Puelche,"  but  they  werfe  in  fact  Tehuelche 
(Patagonian),  the  true  Pampean  Puelche  having  disappeared 
from  that  region  before  Hale's  time^  I  have  now  the  un- 
impeachable authority  of  T.  P.  Schmid,  for  many  years  a 
missionary  amongst  these  aborigines,  for  asserting  that 
d'Orbigny's  statement  is  absolutely  correct.  His  Puelche 
were  the  Pampeans,  because  he  locates  them  in  the  region 
between  the  Rios  Negro  and  Colorado,  that  is,  north  of 
Patagonian  and  east  of  Araucanian  territory,  and  Schmid 
assures  me  that  all  three — Araucanian,  Pampean,  and  Pata- 
gonian— are  undoubtedly  stock  languages,  distinct  both  in  their 
vocabulary  and  structure,  with  nothing  in  common  except  their 
common  polysynthetic  form.  In  a  list  of  2000  Patagonian 
and  Araucanian  words  he  found  only  two  s\\\i&i  patac  =  100, 
and  huarunc  =  looo,  numerals  obviously  borrowed  by  the  rude 

'  Quarterly  Journal  of  Swiss  Naturalists,  Zurich,  1896,  p.  496  ff.;  cf.  T.  A. 
Joyce,  South  American  Archaeology,  1912,  pp.  241-2. 

^  V Homme  Amiricain,  II.  p.  70. 

'  They  were  replaced  or  absorbed  partly  by  the  Patagonians,  but  chiefly  by  the 
Araucanian  Puelche,  who  many  years  ago  migrated  down  the  Rio  Negro  as  far 
as  El  Carmen  and  even  to  the  coast  at  Bahia  Blanca.  Hence  Hale's  Puelche 
were  in  fact  Araucauians.  with  a  Patagonian  strain* 


^i].  The  American  Aborigines  413 

Tehuelche  from  the  more  cultured  Moluche.  In  Fuegia 
there  is  at  least  one  radically  distinct  tongue,  the  Yahgan, 
studied  by  Bridges.  Here  the  Ona  is  probably  a  Patagonian 
dialect,  and  Alakaluf  perhaps  remotely  allied  to  Araucanian, 
Thus  in  the  whole  region  south  of  the  Plate  River  the  stock 
languages  are  not  known  to  exceed  four:  Araucanian;  Pam- 
pean  (Puelche);  Patagonian  (Tehuelche);  and  Yahgan. 

Few  aboriginal  peoples  have  been  the  subject  of  more 
glaringly  discrepant  statements  than  the  Yahgans,  to  whom 
several  lengthy  monographs  have  been  devoted 
during  the  last  few  decades.  How  contradictory  ^^^  Yahgans. 
are  the  statements  of  intelligent  and  even  trained  observers, 
whose  good  faith  is  beyond  suspicion  and  who  have  no  cause 
to  serve  except  the  truth,  will  best  be  seen  by  placing  in 
juxtaposition  the  accounts  of  the  family  relations  by  G.  Bove, 
a  well-known  Italian  observer,  and  P.  Hyades  of  the  French 
Cape  Horn  Expedition,  both  summarised ': — 

J  Bove.  Hyades. 

The   women   are  treated  as  slaves.  The  Fuegians  are  capable  of  great 

The  greater  the   number   of  wives   or  love    which   accounts  for   the  jealousy 

slaves  a  man  has  the  easier  he  finds  a  of  the   men  over  their  wives  and  the 

living;  hence  polygamy  is  deep-rooted  coquetry     sometimes     manifested     by 

and  four  wives  common.     Owing  to  the  women  and  girls. 

rigid   climate   and   bad  treatment    the  Some  men  have  two  or  more  wives, 

mortality  of  children  under  lo  years  is  but  monogamy  is  the  rule, 
excessive;    the  mother's  love  Idsts  till  Children  are  tenderly  cared  for  by 

the  child  is  weaned,  after  which  it  rapidly  their  parents,  who  in  return  are  treated 

wanes,  and  is  completely  gone  when  the  by  them  with  affection  and  deference, 
child  attains  the  age  of  7  or  8  years.  The  Fuegians  are  of  a  generous  dis- 

The  Fuegian's  only  lasting  love  is  the  position  and  like  to  share  their  pleasures 

love  of  self     As  there  are  no  family  with  others.    The  husbands  exercise  due 

ties,  the  word  "  authority  "  is  devoid  of  control,  and  punish  severely  any  act  of 

meaning.  infidelity. 

These  seeming  contradictions  may  be  partly  explained  by 
the  general  improvement  in  manners  due  to  the  beneficent 
action  of  the  English  missionaries  in  recent  years,  and  great 
progress  has  certainly  been  made  since  the  accounts  of  King, 
Fitz-Roy  and  Darwin". 

But  even  in  the  more  favoured  regions  of  the  Parana  and 
Amazon  basins  many  tribes  are  met  which  yield  little  if  at 

1  Mission  Scientifique  de  Cap  Horn.,  vil.,  par  P.  Hyades  et  J.  Deniker,  1891, 
pp.  238,  243,  378. 

2  For  the  latest  information  and  full  bibliography  see  J.  M.  Cooper,  Bureau 
Am.  Eth.  Bull.  63,  1917,  and  Proc.  Nineteenth  Internal.  Congress  Americanists, 
1917,  p.  445;  also,  C.  W.  Furlong,  ibid.  pp.  420  flf.,  432  ff. 


414  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

all  to  the  Fuegians  of  the  early  writers  in  sheer  savagery  and 
debasement.  Thus  the  Cashibo  or  Carapache 
TheCashibo.  ^^  ^^  Ucayali,  who  are  described  as  "white 
as  Germans,  with  long  beards\"  may  be  said  to  answer  almost 
"  better  than  any  other  human  group  to  the  old  saying,  homo 
homini  lupus.  They  roam  the  forests  like  wild  beasts,  living 
almost  entirely  upon  game,  in  which  is  included  man  himself 
"  When  one  of  them  is  pursuing  the  chase  in  the  woods  and 
hears  another  hunter  imitating  the  cry  of  an  animal,  he  im- 
mediately makes  the  same  cry  to  entice  him  nearer,  and,  if 
he  is  of  another  tribe,  he  kills  him  if  he  can,  and  (as  is  alleged) 
eats  him."  Hence  they  are  naturally  "  in  a  state  of  hostility 
with  all  their  neighbours"." 

These  Cashibo,  i.e.  "  Bats,"  are  members  of  a  widespread 
linguistic  family  which  in  ethnological  writings  bears  the  name 
of  Pane,  from  the  Pano  of  the  Huallaga  and 
Fanii^"°  Marafion,  who  are  now  broken  up  or  greatly 
reduced,  but  whose  language  is  current  amongst 
the  Cashibo,  the  Conibo,  the  Karipuna,  the  Setebo,  the 
Sipivio  (Shipibo)  and  others  about  the  head  waters  of  the 
Amazons  in  Peru,  Bolivia,  and  Brazil,  as  far  east  as  the 
Madeira.  Amongst  these,  as  amongst  the  Moxo  and  so 
many  other  riverine  tribes  in  Amazonia,  a  slow  transformation 
is  in  progress.  Some  have  been  baptized,  and  while  still 
occupying  their  old  haunts  and  keeping  up  the  tribal  organi- 
sation, have  been  induced  to  forego  their  savage  ways  and 
turn  to  peaceful  pursuits.  They  are  beginning  to  wear  clothes, 
usually  cotton  robes  of  some  vivid  colour,  to  till  the  soil,  take 
service  with  the  white  traders,  or  even  trade  themselves  in 
their  canoes  up  and  down  the  tributaries  of  the  Amazons. 
Beyond  the  Rubber  Belt,  however,  many  tribes  are  quite 
untouched  by  outside  influences.  The  cannibal  Boro  and 
Witoto,  living  between  the  Issa  and  Japura,  are  ignorant  of 
any  method  of.  producing  fire,  and  their  women  go  entirely 
nude,  though  some  of  their  arts  and  crafts  exhibit  considerable 
skill,  notably  the  plait  work  and  blow-pipes  of  the  Boro*. 

In  this  boundless  Amazonian  region  of  moist  sunless 
woodlands  fringed  north  and  east  by  Atlantic  coast  ranges, 
diversified    by    the   open    Venezuelan    llanos,    and    merging 

1  Markham,  "  List  of  Tribes,"  etc.,  Journ.  Roy.  Anth.  Inst.  XI.  1910,  pp.  89-90. 
,  2  Ibid. 
3  T.  Whiffen,  The  North-West  Amazons,  191 5,  pp.  48,  78,  91,  etc. 


^i]  The  American  Aborigines  415 

southwards  in  the  vast  alluvial  plains  of  the  Parana- Para- 
guay basin,  much  light  has  been  brought  to  bear   ethnical 
on  the  obscure  ethnical  relations  by  the  recent   Relations  in 
explorations  especially  of  Paul  Ehrenreich  and   Amazonia. 
Karl  von  den  Steinen  about  the  Xingu,  Purus,  Madeira  and 
other  southern  affluents  of  the  great  artery  \    These  observers 
comprise   the   countless    Brazilian   aborigines   in   four   main 
linguistic  divisions,  which  in  conformity  with  Powell's  termino- 
logy may  here  be  named  the  Cariban,  Arawakan,  Gesan  and 
TuPi-GuARANiAN  families.      There  remain,  however,   nume- 
rous groups  which  cannot  be  so  classified,  such  as  the  Bororo 
and  Karaya  of  Matto  Grosso,  while  in  the  relatively  small 
area  between  the  Japura  and  the  Waupes  Koch-Griinberg found 
two  other  language  groups,   Betoya  and  Maku  in  addition  to 
Carib  and  Arawak^ 

Hitherto  the  Caribs  were  commonly  supposed  to  have  had 
their  original  homes  far  to  the  north,  possibly  in  the  Alleghany 
uplands,  or  in  Florida,  where  they  have  been 
doubtfully  identified  with  the  extinct  Timuqua-  '^^^  Canbs. 
nans,  and  whence  they  spread  through  the  Antilles  southwards 
to  Venezuela,  the  Guianas,  and  north-east  Brazil,  beyond 
which  they  were  not  known  to  have  ranged  anywhere  south 
of  the  Amazons.  But  this  view  is  now  shown  to  be  un- 
tenable, and  several  Carib  tribes,  such  as  the  Bakairi  and 
Nahuqua'  of  the  Upper  Xingn,  all  speaking  archaic  forms 
of  the  Carib  stock  language,  have  been  met  by  the  German 
explorers  in  the  very  heart  of  Brazil;  whence  the  inference 
that  the  cradle  of  this  race  is  to  be  sought  rather  in  the  centre 
of  South  America,  perhaps  on  the  Goyaz  and  Mated  Grosso 
table-lands,  from  which  region  they  moved  northwards,  if  not 
to  Florida,  at  least  to  the  Caribbean  Sea  which  is  named  from 
them\  The  wide  diffusion  of  this  stock  is  evidenced  by  the 
existence  of  an  unmistakably  Carib  tribe  in  the  basin  of  the 
Rio  Magdalena  beyond  the  Andes". 

In   the    north    the   chief  groups   are   the   Makirifare   of 

'  For  the  material  culture  of  the  Araguayan  tribes,  cf.  Fritz  Krause,  In  den 
Wildnissen  Brasiliens,  \')\\. 

2  T.  Koch-Griinberg,  Zwei  Jahre  unter  den  Indianern,  2  vols.  Berlin,  1910. 
See  Vol.  II.  map  after  p.  319. 

3  Ehrenreich,  loc.  cit.  p.  45  ff. ;  von  den  Steinen,  loc.  cit.  p.  153  flf. 

*  It  should  be  stated  that  a  like  conclusion  was  reached  by  Lucien  Adam  from 
the  vocabularies  brought  by  Crevaux  from  the  Upper  Japura  tribes— Witotos, 
Corequajes,  Kariginas  and  others— all  of  Carib  speech. 

s  A.  C.  Haddon,  The  Wanderings  of  Peoples,  Cambridge,  191 1,  p.  109, 


4i6  Man  :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

Venezuela  and  the  Macusi,  Kalina,  and  Galibi  of  British, 
Dutch,  and  French  Guiana'  respectively.  In  general  all  the 
Caribs  present  much  the  same  physical  characters,  although 
the  southerners  are  rather  taller  (5  ft.  4in.)  with  less  round 
heads  (index  79*6)  than  the  Guiana  Caribs  (5  ft.   2  in.,  and 

81-3). 

Perhaps  even  a  greater  extension  has  been  given  by  the 
German  explorers  to  the  Arawakan  family,  which,  like  the 
Cariban,  was  hitherto  supposed  to  be  mainly 
Famit'*''^'^*"  Confined  to  the  region  north  of  the  Amazons, 
but  is  now  known  to  range  as  far  south  as  the 
Upper  Paraguay,  about  20°  S.  lat.  {Layana,  Kwana,  etc.), 
east  to  the  Amazons  estuary  (Aruan),  and  north-west  to  the 
Goajira  peninsula.  To  this  great  family — which  von  den 
Steinen  proposes  to  call  Nu-Aruak  from  the  pronominal 
prefix  ««=  I,  common  to  most  of  the  tribes — belong  also  the 
Maypures  of  the  Orinoco ;  the  Atarais  and  Vapisiana  of 
British  Guiana ;  the  Manao  of  the  Rio  Negro ;  the  Yu- 
mana ;  the  Paumari  and  Ipurina  of  the  Ipuri  basin ;  the 
Moxo  of  the  Upper  Mamor6,  and  the  Mehinaku  and  Kus- 
tenau  of  the  Upper  Xingu. 

Physically  the  Arawaks  differ  from  the  Caribs  scarcely,  if 
at  all,  more  than  their  Amazonian  and  Guiana  sections  differ 
from  each  other.  In  fact,  but  for  their  radically  distinct  speech 
it  would  be  impossible  to  constitute  these  two  ethnical  divi- 
sions, which  are  admittedly  based  on  linguistic  grounds. 
But  while  the  Caribs  had  their  cradle  in  Central  Brazil  and 
migrated  northwards,  the  Arawaks  would  appear  to  have 
originated  in  eastern  Bolivia,  and  spread  thence  east,  north- 
east and  south-east  along  the  Amazons  and  Orinoco  and  into 
the  Paraguay  basing 

Our  third  great  Brazilian  division,  the  Gesan  family,  takes 

its  name  from  the  syllable  ges  which,  like  the  Araucan  che^ 

forms  the  final  element  of  several  tribal  names 

S^y^^*"       in  East  Brazil.     Of  this  the  most  characteristic 

are  the  Aimores  of  the  Serra  dos  Aimores  coast 

range,  who  are  better  known  as  Botocudo,  and  it  was  to  the 

kindred  tribes  of  the  province  of  Goyaz  that  the  arbitrary 

collective  name  of  "Ges"  was  first  applied  by  Martius.     A 

*  Described  by  E.  F.  im  Thurn,  Among  the  Indians  of  Guiana,  London, 
1883. 

^  A.  C.  Haddon,  The  Wanderings  of  Peoples,  pp.  iio-ii. 


xi]  The  American  Aborigines  417 

better  general  designation  would  perhaps  have  been  Tapuya, 
"  Strangers,"  "  Enemies,"  a  term  by  which  the  Tupi  people 
called  all  other  natives  of  that  region  who  were  not  of  their 
race  or  speech,  or  rather  who  were  not  "  Tupi,"  that  is, 
"  Allies  "  or  "  Associates."  Tapuya  had  been  adopted  some- 
what in  this  sense  by  the  early  Portuguese  writers,  who  how- 
ever applied  it  rather  loosely  not  only  to  the  Aimores,  but 
also  to  a  large  number  of  kindred  and  other  tribes  as  far  north 
as  the  Amazons  estuary. 

To  the  same  connection  belong  several  groups  in  Goyaz 
already  described  by  Milliet  and  Martins,  and  more  recently 
visited  by  Ehrenreich,  von  den  Steinen  and  Krause.  Such 
are  the  Kayapo  or  Suya,  a  large  nation  with  several  divi- 
sions between  the  Araguaya  and  Xingu  rivers ;  and  the 
Akua,  better  known  as  Cherentes,  about  the  upper  course 
of  the  Tocantins.  Isolated  Tapuyan  tribes,  such  as  the 
Kam^s  or  Kaingangs,  wrongly  called  "  Coroados,"  and  the 
Chogleng  of  Santa  Catharina  and  Rio  Grand  do  Sul,  are 
scattered  over  the  southern  provinces  of  Brazil. 

The  Tapuya  would  thus  appear  to  have  formerly  occupied 
the  whole  of  East  Brazil  from  the  Amazons  to  the  Plate  River 
for  ah  unknown  distance  inland.  Here  they  must  be  regarded 
as  the  true  aborigines,  who  were  in  remote  times  already  en- 
croached upon,  and  broken  into  isolated  fragments,  by  tribes 
of  the  Tupi-Guarani  stock  spreading  from  the  interior  sea- 
wards '. 

But  in  their  physical  characters  and  extremely  low  cultural 
state,  or  rather  the  almost  total  absence  of  anything  that  can 
be  called  "culture,"  the  Tapuya  are  the  nearest  representa- 
tives and  probably  the  direct  descendants  of  the  primitive  race, 
whose  osseous  remains  have  been  found  in  the  Lagoa  Santa 
caves,  and  the  Santa  Catharina  shell-mounds  (sambaqui).  On 
anatomic  gfrounds  the  Botocudo  are  allied  both    ^,.    „  ,     _, 

,        ,     o         „  /-       M  1  1  The  Botocudo. 

to  the  Lagoa  Santa  fossil  man  and  to  the  sam- 
baqui race  by  J.  R.  Peixoto,  who  describes  the  skull  as  marked 
by  prominent  glabella  and  superciliary  arches,  keel  or  roof- 
shaped  vault,  vertical  lateral  walls,  simple  sutures,  receding 
brow,  deeply  depressed  nasal  root,  high  prognathism,  massive 

'  V.  d.  Steinen,  Unterden  Naturvolkern  Zentral-Brasiliens^^.  157.  "D'apr^s 
Gongalves  Dias  les  tribus  brdsiliennes  descendraient  de  deux  races  absolument 
distinctes:  la  race  conqudrante  des  Tupi...et  la  race  vaincue,  pourchassde,  des 
Tapuya...";  V.  de  Saint-Martin,  p.  S'?)  J^ouveau  Dictionnaire  de  Giograjihie 
Universelle,  1879,  A — C. 

K.  27 


4i8  Man:  Past  and  Present   '  [ch, 

lower  jaw,  and  long  head  (index  73-30)  with  cranial  capacity 
1480  c.c.  for  men,  and   12 12   for  women'.     It  is  also  note- 
worthy that  some  of  the   Botocudo^  call   themselves  Nac- 
nanuk,  Nac-poruc,    "  Sons  of  the  Soil,"  and  they  have  no 
traditions  of  ever  having  migrated  from  any  other  land.     All 
their  implements — spears,  bow  and  arrows,  mortars,  water- 
vessels,  bags — are  of  wood  or  vegetable  fibre,  so  that  they 
may  be  said  not  to  have  yet  reached  even  the  stone  age. 
They  are  not,  however,  in  the  promiscuous  state,  as  has  been 
asserted,  for   the   unions,   though    temporary,    are  jealously 
guarded  while  they  last,  and,  as  amongst  the  Fuegians  whom 
they  resemble  in  so  many  respects,  the  women  are  constantly 
subject  to  the  most  barbarous  treatment,  beaten  with  clubs 
or   hacked   about   with    bamboo    knives.     One   of  those   in 
Ribeiro's  party,  who  visited  London  in  1883,  had  her  arms, 
legs,  and  whole  body  covered  with  scars  and  gashes  inflicted 
during  momentary  fits  of  brutal  rage  by  her  ephemeral  partner. 
Their  dwellings  are  mere  branches  stuck  in  the  ground,  bound 
together  with  bast,  and  though  seldom  over  4  ft.  in  height 
accommodating   two    or   more  families.     The   Botocudo  are 
pure  nomads,  roaming  naked  in  the  woods  in  quest  of  the 
roots,  berries,  honey,  frogs,  snakes,  grubs,  man,   and   other 
larger  game  which  form  their  diet,  and  are  eaten  raw  or  else 
cooked  in  huge  bamboo  canes.     Formerly  they  had  no  ham- 
mocks, but  slept  without  any  covering,  either  on  the  ground 
strewn  with  bast,  or  in  the  ashes  of  the  fire  kindled  for  the 
evening   meal.     About   their   cannibalism,    which    has    been 
doubted,  there  is  really  no  question.     They  wore  the  teeth 
of  those  they  had  eaten  strung  together  as  necklaces,  and  ate 
not  only  the  foe  slain  in  battle,   but  members  of  kindred 
tribes,  all  but  the  heads,  which  were  stuck  as   trophies  on 
stakes  and  used  as  butts  for  the  practice  of  archery. 

At  the  graves  of  the  dead,  fires  are  kept  up  for  some  time 
to  scare  away  the  bad  spirits,  from  which  custom  the  Boto- 
cudo might  be  credited  with  some  notitjns  concerning  the 
supernatural.  All  good  influences  are  attributed  by  them  to 
the  "day-fire"  (sun),  all  bad  things  to  the  "  night-fire "  (moon), 

,  1  Novos  Estudios  Craniologicos  sobre  os  Botocudos,  Rio  Janeiro,  iZii, passim. 
'  Possibly  so  called  from  the  Portuguese  betoque,  a  barrel  plug,  from  the  wooden 
plug,  or  disc  formerly  worn  by  all  the  tribes  both  as  a  lip  ornament  and  an  ear- 
plug, distending  the  lobes  like  great  leathern  bat's-wings  down  to  the  shoulders. 
But  this  embellishment  is  called  tembeitera  by  the  Brazilians,  and  Botocudo  may 
perhaps  be  connected  with  betd-apoc,  the  native  name  of  the  ear-plug. 


xi]  The  American  Aborigines  419 

which  causes  the  thunderstorm,  and  is  supposed  itself  at  times 
to  fall  on  the  earth,  crushing  the  hill-tops,  flooding  the  plains 
and  destroying  multitudes  of  people.  During  storms  and 
eclipses  arrows  are  shot  up  to  scare  away  the  demons  or  de- 
vouring dragons,  as  amongst  so  many  Indo-Chinese  peoples. 
But  beyond  this  there  is  no  conception  of  a  supreme  being, 
or  creative  force,  the  terms  yanckong,  tapan,  said  to  mean 
"  God,"  standing  merely  for  spirit,  demon,  thunder,  or  at  most 
the  thunder  god. 

Owing  to  the  choice  made  by  the  missionaries  of  the  Tupi 
language  as  the  lingoa  geral,  or  common  medium  of  inter- 
course amongst  the  multitudinous  populations  of  -p^e  Tupi- 
Brazil  and  Paraguay,  a  somewhat  exaggerated  Guaranian 
idea  has  been  formed  of  the  range  of  the  Tupi-  Family. 
Guarani  family.  Many  of  the  tribes  about  the  stations,  after 
being  induced  by  the  padres  to  learn  this  convenient  lingua 
franca,  were  apt  in  course  of  time  to  forget  their  o^n  mother- 
tongue,  and  thus  came  to  be  accounted  members  of  this 
family.  But  allowing  for  such  a  source  of  error,  there  can  be 
no  doubt  that  at  the  discovery  the  Tupi  or  Eastern,  and  the 
Guarani  or  Western,  section  occupied  jointly  an  immense 
area,  which  may  perhaps  be  estimated  at  about  one-fourth  of 
the  southern  continent.  Tupi  tribes  were  met  as  far  west  as 
Peru,  where  they  were  represented  by  the  Omagua  ("  Flat- 
heads'"),  in  French  Guiana  the  Emerillons  and  the  Oyampi 
belong  to  this  stock,  as  do  the  Kamayura  and  Aueto  on  the 
Upper  Xingu,  and  the  Mundurucu  of  the  middle  Tapajoz. 

Some  attention  has  been  paid  to  the  speech  of  the  Ti- 
cuna  of  the  Maranon,  which  appears  to  be  a  stock  language 
with  strong  Pana  and  weak  Aymara^  affinities.  Although 
its   numeral    system  stops  at  2,   it  is  still   in  advance  of  a 

'  They  are  the  Cambebas  of  the  Tupi,  a  term  also  meaning  Flatheads,  and  they 
are  so  called  because  "  apertao  aos  recemnacidos  as  cabegas  entre  duas  taboas  afim 
de  achatdl-as,  costume  que  actualmente  han  perdido"  (Milliet,  ll.  p.  174). 

'^  Such  "identities"  as  Tic.  drejd=Ayra.  chacha  (man);  etai=utax  (house)  etc., 
are  not  convincing,  especially  in  the  absence  of  any  scientific  study  of  the  laws  of 
Lautverschiebung,  if  any  exist  between  the  Aymara-Ticuna  phonetic  systems. 
And  then  the  question  of  loan  words  has  to  be  settled  before  any  safe  conclusions 
can  be  drawn  from  such  assumed  resemblances.  The  point  is  important  m  the 
present  connection,  because  current  statements  regarding  the  supposed  reduction 
of  the  number  of  stock  languages  in  South  America  are  largely  based  on  the  un- 
scientific comparison  of  lists  of  words,  which  may  have  nothing  in  common  except 
perhaps  a  letter  or  two  like  the  m  in  Macedon  and  Monmouth.  Two  languages 
(cf  Turkish  and  Arabic)  may  have  hundreds  or  thousands  of  words  in  common, 
and  yet  belong  to  fundamentally  different  linguistic  families. 

27—2 


420  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

neighbouring  Chiquito  tongue,  which  is  said  to  have  no 
numerals  at  all,  etama,  supposed  to  be  i,  really  meaning 
"alone." 

Yet  it  would  be  a  mfttake  to  infer  that  these  Bolivian 
Chiquito,  who  occupy  the  southernmost  headstreams  of  the 
.  Madeira,  are  a  particularly  stupid  people.     On 

iqm  o.      ^j^^  contrary,  the  Naquinoneis,  "  Men,"  as  they 
call  themselves,  are  in  some  respects  remarkably  clever,  and, 
strange  to  say,  their  otherwise  rich  and  harmonious  language 
(presumably  the   dominant  Moncoca   dialect   is   meant)   has 
terms  to  express  such  various  distinctions  as  the  height  of  a 
tree,  of  a  house,  of  a  tower,  and  other  subtle  shades  of  differ- 
ence disregarded  in  more  cultured  tongues'.     But  it  is  to  be 
considered  that,  pace  Max  Muller,  the  range  of  thought  and 
of  speech  is  not  the  same,  and  all  peoples  have  no  doubt 
many  notions  for  which  they  have  no  equivalents   in  their 
necessarily  defective  languages.     The  Chiquito,  i.e.  "  Little 
Folks,"  were  so  named  because,  "when  the  country  was  first 
invaded,  the  Indians  fled  to  the  forests;    and  the  Spaniards 
came  to  their  abandoned  huts,  where  the  doorways  were  so 
exceedingly  low  that  the  Indians  who  had  fled  were  supposed 
to  be  dwarfs  I"     They  are  a  peaceful  industrious  nation,  who 
ply  several  trades,  manufacture  their  own  copper  boilers  for 
making  sugar,  weave  ponchos  and  straw  hats,  and  when  they 
want  blue  trousers  they  plant  a  row  of  indigo,  and  rows  of 
white  and  yellow  cotton  when  striped  trousers  are  in  fashion. 
Hence  the  question  arises,  whether  these  clever  little  people 
may  not  after  all  have  originally  possessed  some  defective 
numeral  system,  which  was  merely  superseded  by  the  Spanish 
numbers. 

The  Gran  Chaco  is  another  area  of  considerable  modifica- 
tion induced  by  European  influence,  and  there  only  remain 

hybridised  descendants  of  many  of  the  ancient 
Toba.*^°  ^  peoples,  for  example,  the  Abipone  of  the  Guay- 

curu  family.  Pure  survivals  of  this  family  are 
the  Mataco  and  Toba  of  the  Vermejo  and  Pilcomayo  rivers. 
These  two  tribes  were  visited  by  Ehrenreich,  who  noticed 
their  disproportionately  short  arms  and  legs,  and  excessive 

1  A.  Balbi,  Atlas  Ethnographique  du  Globe,  XXVII.  With  regard  to  the 
numerals  this  authority  tells  us  that  "il  a  empruntd  k  I'espagnol  ses  noms  de 
nombres"  {ib.). 

^  Markham,  List  of  the  Tribes,  p.  92. 


xi]  The  American  Aborigines  421 

development  of  the  thorax'.  The  daily  life,  customs,  and 
beliefs  of  these  and  other  Chaco  Indians  have  been  admirably 
described  and  illustrated  by  Erland  Nordenskiold',  who  lived 
and  travelled  among  them.  The  Toba  and  Mataco  frequently 
fall  out  with  the  neighbouring  Choroti  and  Ashluslays  of 
the  Pilcomayo  anent  fishing  rights  and  so  on,  but  the  conflict 
consists  in  ambuscades  and  treachery  rather  than  in  pitched 
battles.  Weapons  consist  of  bows  and  arrows  and  clubs, 
and  lances  are  used  on  horseback.  Enemies  are  scalped 
and  these  trophies  are  greatly  prized,  being  hung  outside  the 
victor's  hut  when  fine  and  playing  a  part  on  great  occasions. 
On  the  conclusion  of  peace  both  sides  pay  the  blood-price  for 
those  slain  by  them  in  sheep,  horses,  etc.  Within  the  Cho- 
roti or  Ashluslay  village  all  are  equal,  and  though  property 
is  held  individually,  the  fortunate  will  always  share  with  those 
in  want,  so  that  theft  is  unknown.  To  kill  old  people  or 
young  children  is  regarded  as  no  crime'. 

1  Urbewokner  Brasiltens, 'g.  loi. 

^  "  La  vie  des  Indiens  dans  le  Chaco,"  trans,  by  H.  Beuchat,  Rev.  de  Giog. 
annuelle,  t.  VI.  Paris,  1912.  Cf.  also  the  forthcoming  book  by  R.  Karsten  of 
Helsingfors  who  has  recently  visited  some  of  these  tribes. 

'  While  this  account  of  Central  and  South  America  was  in  the  Press  Clark 
Wissler's  valuable  book  was  published,  The  American  Indian,  New  York,  1917. 
He  describes  (pp.  227-42)  the  following  culture  areas : 

X.  The  Nahua  area  (the  ancient  Maya  and  the  later  Aztec  cultures). 

XI.  The  Chibcha  area  (from  the  Chibcha-speaking  Talamanca  and  Chiriqui 

of  Costa  Rica  to  and  including  Colombia  and  western  Venezuela). 

XII.  The  Inca  area  (Ecuador,  Peru  and  northern  Chili). 

XIII.  The  Guanaco  area  (lower  half  of  Chili,  Argentine,  Patagonia,  Tierra 
del  Fuego). 

XIV.  The  Amazon  area  (all  the  rest  of  South  America). 

XV.  The  Antilles  (West  Indies,  linking  on  to  the  Amazon  area). 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE    PRE-DRAVIDIANS:   JUNGLE   TRIBES   OF   THE   DECCAN, 
VEDDA,    SAKAI,   AUSTRALIANS 

The  Pre-Dravidians— The  Kadir—T'he  Famyan—The  Irula—The  Kurumba— 
The  Vedda—The  Saiai— The  Toala — Austraha :  Physical  Conditions — Physical 
Type— Australian  Origins— Evidence  from  Language  and  Culture— Four  Suc- 
cessive Immigrations — Earlier  Views — Material  Culture — Sociology — Initia- 
tion Ceremonies— Totemism — The  Family — Kinship— Property  and  Trade- 
Magic  and  Religion. 

Conspectus. 

Present  Range.    Jungle  Tribes,  Deccan;  Vedda,  Ceylon; 
.     .  Sakai,   Malay  Peninsula   and  East   Sumatra; 

Australians,  unsettled  parts  of  Australia  and 
reservations. 

Hair,  wavy  to  curly,  long,  usually  black. 
Colour,    dark   brown.     Skull,  >  typically   dolichocephalic. 
Vedda   skull  dolichocephalic   (70" 5)    and  very   small,    Sakai 
mesaticephalic  (78),   Toala  {mixed)  low,  brachy- 
Characters        cephalic  (82).     Jaws,  ortkognatkous.     Austra- 
lians,  generally  prognathous.     Nose,    usually 
platyrrhine.    Stature,  low:.    Vedda   I'^^m.  (s/t.  o^in.)  to 
Australian  I'^j^m.  {5/t.  2  in.) 

Speech,  Jungle  tribes,  usually  borrowed  from  neighbours. 

Australian  languages  agglutinative,  not  uniform 

Characters        throughout  the  continent  and  unconnected  with 

any  other  group. 

Culture,  lowest  hunting  stage,  simple  agriculture  has  been 

adopted  by  a  few  tribes  from-  their  neighbours. 

The  term  Pre-Dravidian,  the  first  use  of  which  seems  to 
be  due  to  Lapicque,  is  now  employed  to  include  certain  jungle 
tribes  of  South  India,  the  Vedda  of  Ceylon,  the 
Dravi<UMs.       Sakai  of  the  southern  Malay  Peninsula,  the  basal 
element  in  certain  tribes  in  the  East  India  Archi- 
pelago and  the  main  element  in  the  Australians.    Pre-Dravidian 


CH.  xii]  The  Pre-Dravidians  423 

characters  are  coarse  hair,  more  of  less  wavy  or  curly,  a  narrow 
head,  a  very  broad  nose,  dark  brown  skin  and  short  stature. 

The  followingmaybe  taken  asexamplesof  the  Pre-Dravidian 
jungle  tribes  of  Southern  India'.  The  Kadir  of  the  Anaimalai 
Hills  and  the  mountain  ranges  south  into  Tra- 
vancore,  are  of  short  stature  (1-577  m.  5  ft.  2  in.),  ^"^^  ^*'*"'" 
with  a  dark  skin,  dolichocephalic  and  platyrrhine.  They  chip 
their  incisor  teeth,  as  do  the  Mala-  Vadan,  and  dilate  the  lobes 
of  their  ears,  but  do  not  tattoo.  They  wear  bamboo  combs 
similar  to  those  of  the  Sakai.  They  speak  a  Tamil  patois. 
"The  Kadirs,"  according  to  Thurston,  "afford  a  typical  ex- 
ample of  happiness  without  culture  " ;  they  are  nomad  hunters 
and  collectors  of  jungle  products,  with  scarcely  any  tillage ; 
they  do  not  possess  land  but  have  the  right  to  collect  all  minor 
forest  produce  and  sell  it  to  the  Government.  They  deal  most 
extensively  in  wax  and  honey.  They  are  polygynous.  Their 
dead  are  buried  in  the  jungle,  the  head  is  entirely  covered  with 
leaves  and  placed  towards  the  east ;  there  are  no  monuments. 
Their  religion  is  a  crude  polytheism  with  a  vague  worship  of 
stone  images  or  invisible  gods  ;  it  is  "  an  ejaculatory  religion." 

The  Paniyan,  who  live  in  Malabar,  the  Wyhad  and  the 
Nilgiris,  have  thick  and  sometimes  everted  lips  and  the  hair 
is  in  some  a  mass  of  short  curls,  in  others  long  . 

wavy  curls.     They  are  dark  skinned,   dolicho-  *    amyan. 

cephalic  (index  74),  platyrrhine  and  of  short  stature  (i"574m. 
5  ft.  2  in.).  They  sometimes  tattoo,  and.  the  lobes  of  the  ears 
are  dilated.  Fire  is  made  by  the  sawing  method.  They  are 
agriculturalists  and  were  practically  serfs ;  they  are  bold  and 
reckless  and  were  formerly  often  employed  as  thieves.  They 
speak  a  debased  Malayalam  patois.  Their  dead  are  buried  ; 
they  practise  monogamy  and  have  beliefs  in  various  spirits. 

The  Irula  are  the  darkest  of  the  Nilgiri  tribes.  They  are 
dolichocephalic  (index  7 5 '8),  platyrrhine  and  of  low  stature 
(1-598  m.  nearly  5  ft.  3  in.).  No  tattooing  is  re-  ^^  ^^^^ 
corded,  but  they  dilate  the  lobes  of  their  ears. 
Their  language  is  a  corrupt  form  of  Tamil.  They  are  agri- 
culturalists and  eat  all  kinds  of  meat  except  that  of  buffaloes 
and  cattle.  They  are  as  a  rule  monogamous.  Their  dead 
are  buried  in  a  sitting  posture  and  the  grave  is  marked  by  a 
stone.     Professedly  they  are  worshippers  of  Vishnu. 

•  E.  Thurston,  Castes  and  Tribes  of  Sokthern  India,  1909. 


424  Man :  Past  and  Present  [Ch. 

The  jungle  Kurumba  of  the  Nilgiris  appear  to  be  remnants 
of  a  great  and  widely  spread  people  who  erected  dolmens. 
They  have  slightly  broader  heads  (index  'j']^  than 
unim  a.  g^|]jg^  tribes,  but  resemble  them  in  their  broad 
nose,  dark  skin  and  low  stature  (1-575  m.  5  ft.  2  in.).  They 
cultivate  the  ground  a  little,  but  are  essentially  wood-cutters, 
hunters,  and  collectors  of  jungle  produce.  There  is  said  to  be 
no  marriage  rite,  and  several  brothers  share  a  wife.  Some 
bury  their  dead.  After  a  death  a  long  waterworn  stone  is  usually 
placed  in  one  of  the  old  dolmens  which  are  scattered  over  the 
Nilgiri  plateau,  but  occasionally  a  small  dolmen  is  raised  to 
mark  the  burial.  They  have  a  great  reputation  for  magical 
powers.  Some  worship  Siva,  others  worship  Kuribattraya 
(Lord  of  many  sheep),  and  the  wife  of  Siva.  They  also  wor- 
ship a  rough  stone,  setting  it  up  in  a  cave  or  in  a  circle  of 
stones  to  which  they  make  puja  and  offer  cooked  rice  at  the 
sowing  time.  The  Kadu  Kurumba  of  Mysore  bury  children 
but  cremate  adults ;  there  is  a  separate  house  in  each  village 
for  unmarried  girls  and  another  at  the  end  of  the  village  for 
unmarried  males. 

The  Vedda  of  Ceylon  have  long  black  coarse  wavy  or 
slightly  curly  hair.  The  cephalic  index  is  70*5,  the  nose  is 
Th  V  dd  depressed  at  the  root,  almost  platyrrhine ;  the 
broad  face  is  remarkably  orthognathous  and  the 
forehead  is  slightly  retreating  with  prominent  brow  arches ; 
the  lips  are  thin,  and  the  skin  is  dark  brown.  The  stature  is 
extremely  low,  only  1-533  m.  (5  ft.  o^in.).  The  Coast  and 
less  pure  Vedda  average  43  mm.  (if  in.)  taller  and  have 
broader  heads.  The  true  Vedda  are  a  grave  but  happy 
people,  quiet,  upright,  hospitable  with  a  strong  love  of  liberty. 
Lying  and  theft  are  unknown.  They  are  trmid  and  have  a 
great  fear  of  strangers.  The  bow  and  arrow  are  their  only 
weapons  and  the  arrow  tipped  with  iron  obtained  from  the 
Sinhalese  forms  a  universal '  tool.  They  speak  a  modified 
Sinhali,  but  employ  only  one  numeral  and  count  with  sticks. 
They  live  under  rock  shelters  or  in  simple  huts  made  of  boughs. 
They  are  strictly  monogamous  and  live  in  isolated  families 
with  no. chiefs  and  have  no  regular  clan  meetings.  Each 
section  of  the  Vedda  had  in  earlier  days  its  own  hunting 
grounds  where  fish,  game,  honey,  and  yams  constituted  their 
sole  food.  The  wild  Vedda  simply  leave  their  dead  in  a  cave, 
which  is  then  deserted.     The  three  things  that  loom  largest 


xii]  The  Pre-Dravidians  425 

in  the  native  mind  are  hunting,  honey,  and  the  cult  of  the 
dead.  The  last  constitutes  almost  the  whole  of  the  religious 
life  and  magical  practices  of  the  people ;  it  is  the  motif  of 
almost  every  dance  and  may  have  been  the  source  of  all. 
After  a  death  they  perform  certain  dances  and  rites  through  a 
shaman  in  connection  with  the  recently  departed  ghost,  yaka. 
They  also  propitiate  powerful  yaku,  male  and  female,  by 
sacrifices  and  ceremonial  dances  \ 

The  Sakat  or  Senoi  are  jungle  folk,  some  of  whom  have 
mixed  with  Semang  and  other  peoples.     Their  skin  is  of  a 
medium  brown  colour.    Their  hair  is  long,  mainly      tm,  «;  t  ■ 
wavy  or  loosely  curly,  and  black  with  a  reddish  ^       *'' 

tinge.  The  average  stature  may  be  taken  to  be  from  1-5  m. 
to  I '55  m.  (59  to  61  inches),  the  head  index  varies  from  about 
77  to  81.  The  face  is  fairly  broad,  with  prominent  cheek-bones 
and  brow  ridges  ;  the  low  broad  nose  has  spreading  alae  and 
short  concave  ridge  ;  the  lips  are  thick  but  hot  everted.  They 
are  largely  nomadic,  and  their  agriculture  is  of  the  most  primitive 
description,  their  usual  implement  being  the  digging  stick. 
Their  houses  are  built  on  the  ground  and  as  a  rule  are  rect- 
angular in  plan  though  occasionally  conical,  and  huts  are 
sometimes  built  in  trees  as  refuges  from  wild  beasts.  A  scanty 
garment  of  bark  cloth  was  formerly  worn,  and,  like  the  Semang, 
they  make  fringed  girdles  from  a  black  thread-like  fungus. 
Their  distinctive  weapon  is  the  blow-pipe  which  they  have 
brought  to  great  perfection,  and  their  food  consists  in  jungle 
produce,  including  many  poisonous  roots  and  tubers  which 
they  have  learnt  how  to  treat,  so  as  to  render  them  innocuous. 
They  do  not  make  canoes  and  rarely  use  rafts.  In  the  marriage 
ceremony  the  man  has  to  chase  the  girl  round  a  mound  of 
earth  and  catch  her  before  she  has  encircled  it  a  third  time. 
The  marriage  tie  is  strictly  observed.  Each  village  has  a 
petty  chief,  whose  influence  is  purely  personal.  Individual 
property  does  not  exist,  only  family  property.  Cultivation  is 
also  communal.  The  inhabitants  of  the  upper  heaven  consist 
of  Tuhan  or  Peng,  the  "  god "  of  the  Sakai  and  a  giantess 
named  "  Granny  Long-breasts "  who  washes  sin-blackened 
human  souls  in  hot  water ;  the  good  souls  ultimately  go  to  a 
cloud-land.     There  are  numerous  demons  and  whenever  the 

1  p.  and  F.  Sarasin,  Ergebnisse  NaturwissenschaftlicherForschungen  auf  Ceylon. 
Die  Steinzeit  auf  Ceylon,  1908;  H.  Parker,  Ancient  Ceylon,  1909.  The  mogt 
complete  account  is  given  by  C.  G.  and  B.  Z.  Seligman,  The  Veddas,  191 1. 


426  Man :   Past  and  Present  [ch. 

Sakai  have  done  wrong  Tuhan  gives  the  demons  leave  to 
attack  them,  and  there  is  no  contending  against  his  decree. 
He  is  not  prayed  to,  as  his  will  is  unalterable'. 

The  Toala  of  the  south-west  peninsula  of  the  'Celebes  are 

at  base,  according  to  the  Sarasins",  a  Pre-Dravidian  people, 

though  some  mixture  with  other  races  has  taken 

The  Toala.  1       '-'      -t^.       ,     .      .  ,  . 

place.  1  he  hair  is  very  wavy  and  even  curly, 
the  skin  darkish  browp,  the  head  low  brachycephalic  (index  82) 
and  the  stature  i'575  m.  (5  ft.  2  in.).  The  face  is  somewhat 
short  with  very  broad  nose  and  thick  lips..  Possibly  the  Ulu 
Ayar  of  west  Borneo  who  are  delated  to  the  Land  Dayaks  may 
be  partly  of  Pre-  Dravidian  origin  and  other  traces  of  this  race 
will  probably  be  found  in  the  East  India  Archipelago'. 

Australia  resembles  South  Africa  in   the  arid  conditions 
characterising  the  interior,  the  eastern  range  of  mountains 
Australia:         precipitating    the    warm    moisture-laden    winds 
Physical  from'  the  Pacific.     As  a  result  of  the  restricted 

Conditions.  rainfall  there  is  no  river  system  of  importance 
except  that  of  the  Murray  and  its  tributary  the  Darling.  In 
the  north  and  north-east,  owing  to  heavier  rainfall,  there  are 
numerous  water-courses,  but  they  do  not  open  up  the  interior 
of  the  country.  The  lack  of  uniformity  in  the  water  supply 
has  a  far-reaching  effect  oh  all  living  beings.  The  arid  con- 
ditions, the  irregularity  and  short  duration  of  the  rainfall  oblige 
the  natives  to  be  continually  migrating,  and  prevent  these 
unsettled  bands  from  ever  attaining  any  size,  indeed  they  are 
sometimes  hard  pressed  to  obtain  enough  food  to  keep  alive. 
It  may  be  assumed  that  the  backwardness  of  the  culture 
of  the  Australians  is  due  partly  to  the  low  state  of  culture  of 
their  ancestors  when  they  arrived  in  the  country,  and  partly 
to  the  peculiar  character  of  the  country  as  well  as  of  its  flora 
and  fauna,  since  Australia  has  never  been  stocked  with  wild 
animals  dangerous  to  human  life,  or  with  any  suitable  for 
domestication.  The  relative  isolation  from  other  peoples  has 
had  a  retarding  effect  and  the  Australian  has  developed  largely 
along  his  own  lines  without  the  impetus  given  by  competition 
with  other  peoples.     Records  of  simple  migration  are  rare, 

1  W.  W.  Skeat  and  C.  0.  Blagden,  Pagan  Races  of  the  M flay  Peninsula,  \<^; 
R.  Martin,  Die  Inlandstamme  der  Mdlayischen  Hdlbinseln,  1905. 

^  Fritz  Sarasin,  Versuch  einer  Anthropologie  der  Insel  Celebes.  Zweiter  Tell: 
Die  Varietdien  des  Menschen  auf  Celebes,  icy^. 

^  A.  C.  Haddon,  Appendix  to  C.  Hose  and  W.  McDoiigall,  The  Pagan  Tribes 
0/  Borneo,  11.  19 12, 


xn]  The  Pre-Dravidians  427 

There  have  been  no  waves  of  aggression,  and  intertribal  feuds 
are  not  very  serious  affairs.  The  Australians  have  never  in- 
fluenced any  other  peoples  and  they  are  doomed  gradually  to 
disappear. 

Baldwin  Spencer  says  "In  the  matter  of  personalappearance 
while  conforming  generally  to  what  is  known  as  the  Australian 
type,  there  is  considerable  variation.     The  man 
varies  from,  approximately,  a  maximum  of  6  ft.  3  in.      tIm  "*' 
to  a  minimum  of  5  ft.  2  in.... As  a  general  rule, 
few  of  them  are  taller  than  5  ft.  8  in.     The  women  vary  be- 
tween 5  ft.  9  in.  and  4  ft.  gin.     Their  average  height  is  not 
more  than  5  ft.  2  in.     The  brow  ridges  are  strongly  marked, 
especially  in  the  man,  and  the  forehead  slopes  back.    The  nose 
is  broad  with  the  foot  deep  set.     In  colour  the  native  is  dark 
chocolate  brown,  not  black .    The  hair. . . may  be  almost  straight, 
decidedly  wavy — its  usual  feature — or  almost,  but  never  really, 
frizzly — The  beard  also  may  be  well  developed  or  almost 
absent^"    The  skull  is  dolichocephalic  with  an  average  cranial 
index  of  72,  prognathous  and  platyrrhine. 

There  has  been  much  speculation  with  regard  to  the  origin 
of  the  present  Australian  race.    According  to  Baldwin  Spencer 
"  There  can  be  no  doubt  but  that  in  past  times 
the  whole  of  the  continent,  including  Tasmania,      or^Ls!*" 
was  occupied  by  one  race.    'This  original,  and 
probably  Negritto^  population,  at  an  early  period,  was  widely 
spread  over   Malayasia  and    Australia    including   Tasmania, 
which  at   that  time  was  not  shut  off  by  Bass  Strait.     The 
Tasmanians  had  no  boats  capable  of  crossing  the  latter  and 
[it  is  assumed  that  their  ancestors]  must  have  gone  over  on 
land'." 

Subsequently  when  the  land  sank  a  remnant  of  the  old 
ulotrichous  population  "  was  thus  left  stranded  in  Tasmania, 
where  Homo  tasmanianus  survived  until  he  came  in  contact 
with  Europeans  and  was  exterminated."  He  had  frizzly  hair. 
"  His  weapons  and  implements  were  of  the  most  primitive 
kind ;  long  pointed  unbarbed  spears,  no  spear  thrower,  no 
boomerang,  simple  throwing  stick  and  only  the  crudest  form 
of  chipped  stone  axes,  knives  and  scrapers  that  were  never 

»  Federal  Handbook,  Brit.  Ass.  for  Advancement  of  Science,  1914,  p.  36. 

2  The  Tasmanians  can  scarcely  be  termed  Negritoes.    The  important  point  to 
be  noted  is  that  this  early  population  was  ulotrichous,  cf.  p.  159. 

3  Loc.  cit.  p.  34.     Or  the  Strait  may  then  have  been  very  narrow. 


428  •  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

hafted.     Unfortunately   of    his    organisation,    customs,    and 
beliefs  we  know  but  little  in  detail'." 

It  is  now  generally  held  that  at  a  later  date  an  immigration 
of  a  people  in  a  somewhat  higher  stage  of  culture  took  place  ; 
these  are  regarded  by  some  as  belonging  to  the  Dravidian, 
and  by  others,  and  with  more  probability,  to  the  Pre-Dravidian 
race.  J.  Mathew""  suggests  that  "the  two  races  are  represented 
by  the  two  primary  classes,  or  phratries,  of  Australian  society, 
which  were  generally  designated  by  names  indicating  a  contrast 
of  colour,  such  as  eaglehawk  and  crow.  The  crow,  black 
cockatoo,  etc.,  would  represent  the  Tasmanian  element ;  the 
eaglehawk,  white  cockatoo,  etc.,  the  so-called  Dravidian." 
Baldwin  Spencer  does  not  think  that  the  moiety  names  lend 
any  serious  support  to  the  theory  of  the  mixture  of  two  races 
differing  in  colour.  He  goes  on  to.  say  "Mr  Mathew  also 
postulates  a  comparatively  recent  slight  infusion  of  Malay 
blood  in  the  northern  half  of  Australia.  There  is,  however, 
practically  no  evidence  of  Malay  infusion.  One  of  the  most 
striking  features  of  the  Malay  is  his  long,  lank  hair,_  and  yet 
it  is  just  in  these  north  parts  that  the  most  frizzly  hair  is  met 
with\" 

As  concerns  linguistics  S.  H.  Ray  says  "  There  is  no 
evidence  of  an  African,  Andaman,  Papuan,  or  Malay  con- 
Evidence  from  nection  with  the  Australian  languages.  There 
Language  and  are  reasons  for  regarding  the  Australian  as  in  a 
Culture.  similar  morphological  stage  to  the  Dravidian, 

but  there  is  no  genealogical  relationship  proved^"  No  con- 
nection has  yet  been  proved  between  the  Australian  languages 
and  the  Austronesian  or  Oceanic  branch  of  the  Austric  family 
of  languages,  first  systematically  described  by  W.  Schmidt*. 
The  study  of  Australian  languages  is  particularly  difficult 
owing  to  the  very  few  serviceable  grammars  and  dictionaries, 
and  the  large  number  of  very  incomplete  vocabularies  scattered 
about  in  inaccessible  works  and  journals.  The  main  conclusion 
to  which  Schmidt  has  arrived"  is  that  the  Australian  languages 
are  not,  as  had  been  supposed,  a  mainly  uniform  group.  Though 

'  Loc.  cit.  p.  34. 

^  Two  Representative  Tribes  of  Queensland,  1 910,  p.  30. 

^  Reports  Camb.  Exped.  to  Torres  Straits,  in.  1907,  p.  528. 

*  Die  Mon-Khmer  Volker,  1906.  Schmidt  has  for  many  years  studied  the 
Australian  languages  and  has  published  his  results  in  Anthropos,  Vols,  vil.,  vill. 
1912,  1913,  from  which,  and  also  from  Man,  No.  8,  1908,  the  following  summarised 
extracts  are  taken, 

'  See  Man,  No.  8,  1908,  pp.  184-5. 


^ii]  The  Pre-Dravidians 


429 


over  the  greater  part  of  Australia  languages  possess  strong 
conimon  elements,  North  Australia  has  languages  showing  no 
similarities  in  vocabulary  and  very  few  in  gramijiar  with  that 
larger  group  or  with  each  other.  The  area  of  the  North 
Australian  languages  is  included  in  a  line  from  south  of  Roe- 
buck Bay  in  the  west  to  Cape  Flattery  in  the  east,  with  a 
southward  bend  to  include  Arunta  (Aranda),  interrupted  by  a 
branch  of  southern  languages  running  up  north  down  Flinders 
and  Leichhardt  rivers'.  The  area  contains  two  or  three  linguistic 
groups,  best  distinguished  by  their  terminations  which  consist 
respectivelyof  vowels  and  consonants,  the  oldest  group;  vowels 
alone,  the  latest  group  ;  and  vowels  and  liquids,  probably  re- 
presenting a  transition  between  the  two. 

In  South  Australia,  though  differences  occur,  the  languages 
possess  common  features  both  in  grammar  and  vocabulary, 
having  similar  personal  pronouns,  and  certain  words  for  parts 
of  the  body  in  common.  Linguistic  differences  are  associated 
with  differences  in  social  grouping,  the  area  of  purely  vowel 
endings  coinciding  with  the  area  of  the  2-class  system  and 
matrilinear  descent,  while  the  area  of  liquid  endings  is  partly 
coterminous  with  the  4-class  system  and  (often)  patrilinear 
succession. 

Schmidt  endeavours  to  trace  the  connection  between  the 
distribution  of  languages  with  that  of  types  of  social  groupings, 
more  particularly  in  connection  with  the  culture 
zones  which  Graebner'  has  traced  throughout  immigration^* 
the  Pacific  area,  representing  successive  waves 
of  migration.  The  first  immigration,  corresponding  with 
Graebner's  Ur-period,  is  represented  by  languages  with  post- 
posed  genitive,  the  earliest  stratum  being  pure  only  in  Tas- 
mania ;  remnants  of  the  first  stratum  and  a  second  stratum 
occur  in  Victoria,  and  remnants  of  the  second  stratum  to  the 
north  and  north-east.  According  to  Schmidt  this  cultural 
stratum  is  characterised  by  absence  of  group  or  marriage 
totemism,  and  presence  of  sex  patrons  ("sex-totemism").  The 
second  immigration  is  represented  by  languages  with  pre- 
position of  the  genitive,  initial  r  and  /,  vowel  and  explosive 

1  See  the  map  constructed  by  P.  W.  Schmidt  and  P.  K.  Streit,  Anihrofios,  vil. 

'^'2'see  Globus  XC  1906,  and  "Die  sozialen  Systeme  d.  SuAsce," Ztschr.  f.  Sozial- 
wissenschaft,  XI.'  1908.  Schmidt's  divergence  from  Graebner's  views  are  dealt  with 
in  Zeitschr.f.  Ethnologic,  1909,  pp.  372-5>  and  Anthropos,  vii.  1912,  p.  246  ff. 


430  Man  :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

endings,  and  is  found  fairly  pure  only  in  the  extreme  north- 
west and  north,  and  in  places  in  the  north-east.  The  great 
multiplicity  qf  languages  belonging  to  this  stratum  may  be  attri- 
buted to  the  predominance  of  the  strictly  local  type  of  totem- 
groups.  These  are  thelanguagesof  Graebner's  "toterh -culture." 
The  third  immigration  is  represented  by  languages  with  pre- 
position, of  the  genitive,  no  initial  r  and  /,  and  purely  vowel 
terminations.  These  are  the  languages  of  the  south  central 
group  of  tribes  with  a  2-class  system  and  matrilinear  descent. 
This  uniform  group  has  the  largest  area  and  has  influenced 
the  whole  mass  of  Australian  languages,  only  North  Australia 
and  Tasmania  remaining  immune.  Their  sociological  structure 
with  no  localisation  of  totems  and  classes  contributed  to  their 
power  of  expansion.  The  fourth  immigration  is  represented 
by  languages  of  an  intermediate  type,  with  vowel  and  liquid 
endings  but  no  initial  r  and  /.  These  are  the  tribes  with  4-class 
and  8-class  systems,  universal  father-right  (proving  the  strong 
influence  of  older  totemic  ideas),  curious  fertility  rites,  con- 
ception ideas  and  migration  myths. 

It  will   be  seen  that  Schmidt's  conclusions  confute  the 
evolutionary  theory  developed  by  Fraz'er,  Hartland,  Howitt, 

.  "        Spencer  and  Gillen,    Durkheim   and  (in   part) 

lews.  Andrew  Lang,  that  Australia  was  essentially 
homogeneous  in  fundamental  ideas  which  haive  developed 
differently  on  account  of  geographic  and  climatic  variation. 
Schmidt's  view  is  that  Australia  was  entered  successively  by 
a  number  of  entirely  different  tribes,  so  that  the  variation  now 
met  with  is  due  to  radical  diversities  and  to  the  numerous 
intermixtures  arising  from  migrations  and  stratifications  of 
peoples.  The  linguistic  data  dispose  of  the  idea  that  the 
oldest  tribes  with  mother-right,  2-class  system,  traces  of 
group-marriage,  and  lack  of  moral  and  religious  ideas  live  in 
the  centre,  and  that  from  thence  advancement  radiated  towards 
the  coast  bringing  about  father-right,  abandonment  of  class 
system  and  totemism,  individual  marriage,  and  higher  ethical 
and  religious  ideas.  On  the  contrary  it  would  appear  that  the 
centre  of  the  continent  is  the  great  channel  in  which  movements 
are  still  taking  place  ;  the  older  peoples  are  driven  out  towards 
the  margin  and  there  preserve  the  old  sociological,  ethical  arid 
religious  conditions.  In  fact,  the  older  the  people,  judging 
from  their  linguistic  stratum,  the  less  one  finds  among  them 
what  has  been  assumed  to  be  the  initial  stage  for  Central 


xii]  The  Pre-Dravidians  431 

Australia^  These  are  Schmidt's  views  and  they  confirm  the 
cultural  results  established  by  Graebner.  But  as  the  whole 
question  of  the  culture  layers  in  the  Pacific  is  still  under 
discussion  it  is  inadvisable  at  this  stage  of  our  knowledge  to 
make  any  definite  statements.  It  is  woi:th  noting,  however, 
that'  the  distribution  of  simple  burial  of  the  dead  coincides  in 
the  main  with  Schmidt's  South  Australian  language  area,  and 
the  area  roughly  enclosed  on  the  east  by  long.  140"  E.  and  the 
north  by  lat.  20°  S.  appears  to  form  a  technological  province 
distinct  from  the  rest  of  Australia". 

Rarely  can  the  Australian  depend  on  regular  supplies  of 
food.  He  feeds  on  flesh,  fish,  grubs  and  insects,  and  wild 
vegetable  food ;  probably  everything  that  is 
edible  is  eaten.  Cannibalism  is  widely  spread,  culture! 
but  human  flesh  is  nowhere  a  regular  article  of 
food.  Clothing,  apart  from  ornament,  is  rarely  worn,  but  in 
the  south,  skin  cloaks  and  fur  aprons  are  fairly  common. 
Scarification  of  the  body  is  frequent  and  conspicuous.  The 
men  usually  let  their  hair  grow  long,  and  the  women  keep 
theirs  short.  Dwellings  are  of  the  simplest  charaeter,  usually 
merely  breakwinds  or  slight  huts,  but  where  there  is  a  large 
supply  of  vegetable  food,  huts  are  made  of  boughs  covered 
with  bark  or  grass  and  are  sometimes  coated  with  clay.  Im- 
plements are  made  of  shell,  bone,  wood  and  stone.  Baldwin 
Spencer  remarks  "It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  at  the  present 
time  we  can  parallel  amongst  Australian  stone  weapons  all  the 
types  known  in  Europe  under  the  names  Chellean,  Mousterian, 
Aurignacian  etc.... The  terms  Eolithic,  Palaeolithic,  and  Neo- 
lithic do  not  apply  in  Australia  as  indicating  either  time  periods 
or  levels  of  culture'."  Spears  and  wooden  clubs  are  universal, 
and  the  use  of  the  spear-thrower  is  generally  distributed.  The 
boomerang  is  found  almost  throughout  Australia ;  the  variety 
that  returns  when  it  is  thrown  is  as  a  rule  only  a  plaything  or 
for  throwing  at  birds.  The  forms  of  the  various  implements 
vary  in  difierent  parts  of  the  country  and  in  some  districts 
certain  implements  may  be  entirely  absent.  For  example  the 
boomerang  is  not  found  in  the  northern  parts  of  Cape  York 
peninsula  or  of  the  Northern  Territory,  and  the  spear- thrower 

1  Anthropos,  vii.  1912,  pp.  247,  248.  ,.    ,    r-  ,.,  o 

2  N.  W^.  Thomas,  "The  Disposal  of  the  Dead  in  Australia,"  Folklore,  xix.  1908. 

3  A.  R.  Brown,  MS.  ^       ,     ^  ^  ^    ,  c-  ■ 

«  Federal  Handbook,  British  Assoctation  for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  1914, 

p.  76. 


432  Man  :  Past  and'  Present  [ch. 

is  absent  from  south-east  Queensland.  Bows  and  arrows  are 
unknown  and  pottery  making  does  not  occur.  Rafts  are  made 
of  one  or  more  logs,  and  the  commonest  form  of  canoe  is  that 
made  of  a  single  sheet  of  bark.  Dug-outs  occur  in  a  few  places, 
and  both  single  and  double  outriggers  are  found  only  on  the 
Queensland  coast.  These  sporadic  occurrences  give  additional 
support  to  the  modern  view  that  the  racial  and  cultural  history 
of  Australia  is  by  no  means  so  simple  as  has  till  lately  been 
assumed  \ 

Students  of  Australian  sociology  have  been  so  much  im- 
pressed with  certain  prominent  features  of  social  organisation 
that   they   have   paid    insufficient   attention   to 
ocioogy.        kinship  and  the  family  ;  the  former  has  however 
recently  been  investigated  by  A.  R.  Brown",  while  information 
concerning  the  latter  has  been  carefully  sifted  by  B.  Malinowski^ 
The  main  features  of  social  groupings  are  the  tribe,  the  local 
groups,  the  classes,  the  totemic  clans  and  the  families.  A  tribe 
is  composed  of  a  number  of  local  groups  and  these  are  per- 
petuated in  the  sanre  tracts  by  the  sons,  who  hunt  over  the 
grounds  of  their  fathers ;    this  is  the  "  local  organisation." 
The  local  group  is  the  only  political  unit,  and  ziw/ra-group 
justice  has  been  extended  to  zW^r-group  justice,  where  the 
units  of  reference  are  not  based  on  kinship ;  this  may  be  re- 
garded as  the  earliest  stage  of  what  is  known  as  International 
Law*.     In  the  so-called  "social  organisation,"  the  tribe  as  a 
community  is  divided  into  two  parts  (moieties  or  phratries), 
which  are  quite  distinct  from  the  local  groups,  though  rarely 
they  may  be  coincident.     Each  moiety  may  Ise  sub-divided 
into  two  or  four  exogamous  sections  which  are  generally  called 
"classes "  and  are  peculiar  to  Australia.    Descent  in  the  classes 
is  as  a  rule  indirect  matrilineal  or  indirect  patrilineal,  that  is  to 
say,  while  the  child  still  belongs  to  its  mother's  or  father's 
moiety  (as  the  case  may  be)  it  is  assigned  to  the  class  to  which 
the  mother  or  the  father  does  not  belong ;  but  the  grand- 
children belong  to  the  class  of  a  grandmother  or  grandfather. 
In  diagram  I  (below)  A  and  C  are  classes  of  one  moiety, 
B  and  D  those  of  the  other.     Thus  when  A  man  marries 

'  A.  C.  Haddon,  "The  Outrigger  Canoes  of  Torres  Straits  and  North  Queens- 
land," Essays  and  Studies  Presented  to  W.  Ridgeway,  1913,  p.  621,  and  W.  H.  R. 
Rivers,  "  The  Contact  of  Peoples,"  in  the  same  volume,  p.  479. 

2  Man,  No.  32,  1910. 

^  The  Family  among  the  Australian  Aborigines,  1913. 

*  G.  C.Wheeler,  The  Tribe,  and  intertribal  relations  in  Australia,  1910,  p.  163. 


xii]  The  Pre-Dravidians  433 

B  woman  the  children  are  D.  B  man  marries  A  woman  and 
the  children  are  C  and  so  on.  When  there  are  four  classes  in 
each  moiety  the  diagram  works  out  as  follows  (11)^ : 


c  :  D 


I 

Very  important  in  social  life  are  the  initiation  ceremonies 
by  means  of  which  a  youth  is  admitted  to  the  status  of^  tribal 
manhood.  These  ceremonies  vary  greatly  from  tribe  to  tribe 
but  they  agree  in  certain  fundamental  points,  "(i)  They 
begin  at  the  age  of  puberty.  (2)  During  the  initiation  cere- 
monies the  women  play  an  important  part.  (3)  At  the  close 
of  the  first  part  of  the  ceremonies,  such  as  that  of  tooth 
knocking  out  or  circumcision,  a  definite  performance  is  enacted 
emblematic  of  the  fact  that  the  youths  have  passed  out  of  the 
control  of  the  women.  (4)  During  the  essential  parts  the 
women  are  typically  absent  and  the  youths  are,  shown  the  bull- 
roarer,  have  the  secret  beliefs  explained  to  them  and  are 
instructed  in  the  moral  precepts  and  customs,  including  food 
restrictions,  that  they  must  henceforth  observe  under  severe 
penalties.  (5)  The  last  grade  is  not  passed  through  until  a 
man  is  quite  mature"." 

Practically  universal  is  the  existence  of  a  grouping  of 

individuals  under  the  names  of  plants,  animals  or  various 

objects  ;  these  are  termed  totems  and  the  human      ^ 

■'  '  J   ^    ^  1  T^u  1  Totenusm. 

groups  are  termed  totem  clans.      1  he  members 

of  a  totem  clan  commonly  believe  themselves  to  be  actually 

descended  from  or  related  to  their  totem,  and  all  members  of 

a  clan,  whatever  tribe  they  may  belong  to,  are  regarded  as 

brethren,  who  have  mutual  duties,  prohibitions  and  privileges. 

Thus  a  member  of  a  totem  clan  must  help  and  never  injure 

any  fellow  member.    "  Speaking  generally  it  may  be  said  that 

every  totemic  group  has  certain  ceremonies  associated  with  it 

and  that  these  refer  to  old  totemic  ancestors.     In  all  tribes 

they  form  part  of  a  secret  ritual  in  which  only  the  initiated 

may  take  part.-    In  most  tribes  a  certain  number  are  shown 

1  A.  R.  Brown,  "Marriage  and  Descent  in  North  Australia,"  Man,  No.  32,  1910. 
^  W.  Baldwin  Spencer,  loc.'ctt.  p.  50. 

K.  '  28 


434  Man :  Past  and  Present  (^ch. 

to  the  youths  during  the  early  stages  of  initiation,  but  at  a  later 
period  he  sees  many  more^" 

In  several  tribes,  and  probably  it  was  very  general,  certain 
magical  ceremonies  were  performed  to  render  the  totem 
abundant  or  efficacious.  The  sex  patron  ("sex  totem"),  when 
the  women  have  one  animal,  such  as  the  owlet  night-jar 
associated  with  them,  and  the  men  another,  such  as  the  bat ; 
and  the  guardian  genius  (mis-called  "  individual  totem "), 
acquired  by  dreaming  of  some  animal,  are  of  rare  occurrence. 

The  individual  family  has  been  shown  by  Malinowski^  to 
be  "  a  unit  playing  an  important  part  in  the  social  life  of  the 
^  natives  and  well  defined  by  a  number  of  moral, 

r  ^  *  y-  customary  and  legal  norms  ;  it  is  further  deter- 
mined by  the  sexual  division  of  labour,  the  aboriginal  mode" 
of  living,  and  especially  by  the  intimate  relation  between  the 
parents  and  children.  The  individual  relation  between  husband 
and  wife  (marriage)  is  rooted  in  the  unity  of  the  family... and 
in  the  well-defined,  though  not  always  exclusive,  sexual  right 
the  husband  acquires  over  his  wife."  All  sexual  licence  is 
regulated  by  and  subject  to  strict  rules.  The  Pirrauru 
custom,  by  which  individuals  are  allocated  accessory  spouses, 
"proves  that  the  relationship  involved  does  not  possess  the 
character  of  marriage.  For  it  completely  differs  from  marriage 
in  nearly  all  the  essential  points  by  which  maLrriage  in  Australia 
is  defined.  And  above  all  the  Pirrauru  relation  does  not  seem 
to  involve  the  facts  of  family  life  in  its  true  sense  "  (p.  298). 

A.  R.  Brown'  asserts  that  so  far  as  our  information  goes, 

the  only  method  of  regulating  marriage  is  by  means  of  the 

relationship  system.    In  every  tribe  there  is  a  law 

^  '^'  to  the  effect  that  a  man  may  only  marry  women 

who  stand  to  him  in  a  certain  relationship,  and  there  is  no 
evidence  that  there  is  any  other  method  of  regulating  marriage. 
The  so-called  class  rule  by  which  a  man  of  a  special  division 
or  group  is  required  to  marry  a  woman  of  another  division  is 
merely  the  law  of  relationship  stated  in  a  less  exact  form.  It 
is  the  fact  that  a  man  may  only  marry  a  relative  of  a  certain 
kind  that  necessitates  the  marrying  into  a  particular  relationship 
division.  The  rule  of  totemic  exogamy,  according  to  A'.  R. 
Brown,  is  equally  seen  to  have  no  existence  apart  from  the 

1  W.  Baldwin  Spencer,  loc.  cit.  p.  44. 

2  The  Family  among  the  Australian  Aborigines,  1913,  p.  304. 

3  MS. 


xii]  The  Pre-Dravidians  435 

relationship  rule.  Where  a  totemic  group  is  a  clan  and  con- 
sists of  relations  all  of  one  line  of  descent,  a  man  is  prohibited 
from  marrying  a  woman  of  his  own  group  by  the  ordinary  rule 
of  relationship.  On  the  other  hand,  where  the  totemid  group 
is  not  a  clan,  but  is  a  local  group  (as  in  the  Burduna  tribe)  or 
a  cult  society  (as  in  the  Arunta  tribe)  there  is  no  rule  pro- 
hibiting a  man  from  marrying  a  woman  of  the  same  totemic 
group  as  himself.  The  so-called  rule  of  local  exogamy  in  some 
tribes  (perhaps  in  all)  is  merely  a  result  of  the  fact  that  the 
local  group  is  a  clan,  i.e.  a  group  of  persons  related  in  one  line 
of  descent  only.  Only  two  methods  of  regulating  marriage 
are  known  to  exist  in  the  greater  part  of  Australia':  Type  I. 
A  man  marries  the  daughter  of  one  of  the  men  he  denotes  by 
the  same  term,  as  his  mother's  brother.  Type  II.  A  man 
marries  a  woman  who  is  the  daughter's  daughter  of  some  man 
whom  he  denotes  by  the  same  term  as  his  mother's  mother's 
brother.  In  either  case  he  may  not  marry  any  other  kind  of 
relative.  The  existence  of  two  phratries  or  moieties  or  four 
named  divisions  ("classes")  in  a  tribe  conveys  no  information 
whatever  as  to  the  marriage  rule  of  the  tribe.  The  term 
"class"  and  "sub-class,"  according  to  A.  R.  Brown,  had  better 
be  discarded  as  writers  use  them  to  denote  several  totally 
distinct  kinds  of  divisions. 

The  tribe  has  collecting  and  hunting  rights  over  an  area 
with  recognised  limits,  smaller  communities  down  to  the  family 
unit    having    similar    rights    within    the    tribal 
boundaries.      In  some  cases  a  tribe  which  had      xrade'^*"^ 
no  stone  suitable  for  making  stone  implements 
within  its  own  boundaries  was  allowed  to  send  tribal  messengers 
to  a  quarry  to  procure  what  was  needed  without  molestation, 
though  Howitt  speaks  of  family  ownership  of  quarries^     Im- 
plements  are   personal   property.     An    extensive  system  of 
intertribal  communication  and  exchange  is  carried  on,   ap- 
parently by  recognised  middlemen,  and  tribes  meet  on  certain 
occasions  at  established  trade  centres  for  a  regulated  barter. 

Beneficent  and  malevolent  magic  are  universally  practised 
and  totemism  possesses  a  religious  besides  a  social  aspect. 
An  emotional  relation  often  exists  between  the 
members  of  a  totem  clan  and  their  totem,  and      Re^^iolJ"** 
the  latter  are  believed  at  times  to  warn  or  protect 

•  A.  R.  Brown,  "Three  Tribes  of  Western  Australia," /<'«'^-  R<>y-  Anthr.  Inst. 
XLiii.  1913. 

2  A.  W.  Howitt,  The  Native  Tribes  of  South-east  Australia,  1904,  p.  311. 

28—2 


436  Man  :  Fast  and  Present  [ch. 

their  human  kinsmen.  It  may  be  noted  that  the  widely 
spread  and  elaborate  ceremonies  designed  to  render  the 
totem  prolific  or  to  ensure  its  abundance,  though  performed 
solely  by  members  of  the  totem  clan  concerned,  are  less  for 
their  own  benefit  than  for  that  of  the  community\  Owing 
perhaps  to  the  difficulty  of  distinguishing  between  the  purely 
social  and  the  religious  institutions  of  primitive  peoples  great 
diversity  of  opinion  prevails  even  amongst  the  best  observers 
regarding  the  religious  views  of  the  Australian  aborigines. 
The  existence  of  a  "  tribal  All- Father  "  is  perhaps  most  clearly 
emphasised  by  A.  W.  Howitt'',  who  finds  this  belief  wide- 
spread in  the  whole  of  Victoria  and  New  South  Wales,  up 
to  the  eastern  boundaries  of  the  tribes  of  the  Darling  River. 
Amongst  those  of  New  South  Wales  are  the  Euahlayi,  whom 
K.  Langloh  Parker  describes'  as  having  a  more  advanced 
theology  and  a  more  developed  worship  (including  prayers, 
pp.  79-80)  than  any  other  Australian  tribe.  These  now  eat 
their  hereditary  totem  without  scruple — a  sure  sign  that  the 
totemic  system  is  dying  out,  although  still  outwardly  in  full 
force.  Amongst  the  Arunta,  Kaitish,  and  the  other  Central 
and  Northern  tribes  studied  by  Spencer  and  Gillen,  totemism 
still  survives,  and  totems  are  even  assigned  to  the  mysterious 
Iruntarinia  entities,  vague  and  invisible  incarnations  of  the 
ghosts  of  ancestors  who  lived  in  the  Alcheringa  time,  the  dim 
remote  past  at  the  beginning  of  everything.  These  are  far 
more  powerful  than  living  men,  because  their  spirit  part  is 
associated  with  the  so-called  churinga,  consisting  of  stones, 
pieces  of  wood  or  any  other  objects  which  are  deemed  sacred 
as  possessing  a  kind  of  mana  which  makes  the  yams  and  grass . 
to  grow,  enables  a  man  to  capture  game,  and  so  forth.  "That 
the  churinga  are  simply  objects  endowed  with  mana  is  the 
happy  suggestion  of  Sidney  Hartland^  whose  explanation  has 
dispelled  the  dense  fog  of  mystification  hitherto  enveloping 
the  strange  beliefs  and  observances  of  these  Central  and 
Northern  tribes"."  N.  W.  Thomas"  reviews  the  whole  ques- 
tion of  Australian  religion,  and  after  describing  Twanjiraka, 

1  W.  Baldwin  Spencer  and  F.  J.  Gillen,  The  Native  Tribes  of  Central  Australia, 
1899,  Chap.  VI.,  and  The  Northern  Tribes  of  Central  Australia,  1904,  Chap.  IX. 

^  The  Native  Tribes  of  South-east  Australia,  1904,  p.  500. 

3  The  Euahlayi  Tribe,  1905. 

*  Presidential  Address  (Section  H)  Brit.  Ass.  York,  1906. 

'  A.  H.  Keane,  Art.  "Australasia,"  in  Hastings'  Encyclopaedia  of  Religion  and 
Ethics,  1909,  p.  244. 

'  The  Natives  of  Australia,  1906,  Chap.  xiii.  Religion. 


XIl] 


The  Pre-Dravidians  437 


Malbanga  and  Ulthaana,  of  the  Arunta,  Baiame  or  Byamee, 
famous  in  anthropological  controversy  \  Daramulun  of  the 
Yuin,  Mungan-ngaua  (our  father)  of  the  Kurnai,  Nurrundere 
of  the  Narrinyeri,  Bunjil  or  Pundjel,  often  called  Mamingorak 
(our  father)  of  Victoria,  and  others,  he  concludes  "  These  are 
by  no  means  the  only  gods  known  to  Australian  tribes ;  on 
the  contrary  it  can  hardly  be  definitely  asserted  that  there  is 
or  was  any  tribe  which  had  not  some  such  belief  ^" 

1  E.  B.  Tylor,  Joum.  Anthr.  Inst.  XXI.  p.  292 ;  A.  Lang,  Magic  and  Religion, 
p.  25 ;  Myth,  Ritual  and  Religion,  Chap.  Xll. ;  K.  Langloh  Parker,  The  Euahlayi 
Tribe,  1905,  Chap.  IL ;  M.  F.  v.  Leonhardi,  Anthropos,  IV.  1909,  p.  1065,  and  many 
others. 

^  The  following  should  be  consulted : 

Original  memoirs :  C.  Strehlow,  Die  Aranda-  und  Loritza-Stdmme  in  Zentral- 
Australien,  1907 ;  W.  E.  Roth,  Ethnological  Studies  among  the  north-west-central 
Queensland  Aborigines,  1897  ;  North  Queensland  Ethnography,  Bulletins  1-8, 
1901-6,  and  Bulletins  9-18 ;  Records  of  the  Australian  Museum,  vi.-vill.  Sydney, 
1890-1910. 

Compilations  and  discussions :  E.  Durkheim,  The  Elementary  Forms  of  the 
Religious  Life :  a  Study  in  Religious  Sociology  (translated  by  J.  W.  Swain),  a  very 
suggestive  study  based  on  Australian  custom  and  belief ;  J.  G.  Frazer,  Exogamy 
and  Totemism,  1.  1910 ;  The  Belief  in  Immortality  and  the  Worship  of  the  Dead, 
I.  pp.  67-169,  1913. 


CHAPTER   XIII 


THE   CAUCASIC   PEOPLES 

General  Considerations — Constituent  Elements — Past  and  Present  Range — Cradle- 
land:  Africa  north  of  Sudan — Quaternary  "Sahara" — Early  European  and 
Mauretanian  types — The  Guanches,  Types  and  Affinities — Origin  of  the  Euro- 
pean Brachycephals — Summary  of  Orthodox  View — Linguistic  Evidence — The 
Basques — The  Iberians — The  Ligurians  in  Rhineland  and  Italy.  Sicilian 
Origins — Sicanij  Siculi — Sard  and  Corsican  Origins — Ethnological  Relations 
in  Italy — Sergi's  Mediterranean  Domain — Range  of  the  Mediterraneans — The 
Pelasgians — Theory  of  pre-Hellenic  Pelasgians — Pelasgians  and  Mykenean 
civilisation — Aegean  Culture — Other  Views — Range  of  the  Hamites  in  Africa — 
The  Eastern  Hamites — The  Western  "Moors" — General  Hamitic  Type — 
Foreign  Elements  in  Mauretania — Arab  and  Berber  Contrasts — The  Tibus — 
The  Egyptian  Hamites — Origins — Theory  of  Asiatic  Origins — Proto-Egyptian 
type — Armenoidtype — Asiatic  influence  on  Egyptian  Culture — Negroid  mixture 
— The  Fulah — Other  Eastern  Hamites — Bejas — Somals — Somal  Genealogies — 
The  Galla — The  Masai. 

Conspectus. 

Present  Range.     All  the  extra-tropical  habitable  lands, 
except   Chinese  empire,  Japan,   and  the  Arctic  zone;   inter- 
tropical America,  Arabia,  India,  and  Indonesia; 

Distribution.  l  i-      u  i 

S'boradtcally  everywhere. 
Three  main  types: — i.  Southern  dolichocephals,  Mediter- 

Physical  ranean ;    2.  Northern  Dolichocephals,  Nordic; 

Characters.  3.  Brachycephals,  Alpine.  / 
Hair:  i.  Very  dark  brown  or  black,  wiry,  curly  or  ring- 
letty.  2.  Very  light  brown,flaxen,  or  red,  rather  long,  straight 
or  wavy,  smooth  and  glossy.  3.  Light  chestnut  or  reddish  brown, 
wavy,  rather  short  and  dull.  All  oval  in  section;  beard  of  all 
full,  bushy,  straight,  or  wavy,  often  lighter  than  hair  of  head, 
sometime  very  long.  Colour:  i.  Very  variable — white,  light 
olive,  all  shades  of  brown  and  even  blackish  {Eastern  Hamites 
and  others).  2.  Florid.  3.  Pale  white,  swarthy  or  very  light 
brown.  Skull :  i  and  2  long  (72  to  79)/  3  round  (85  to  87 
and  upwards);  all  orthognathous.  Cheek-bone  of  all  small, 
never  projecting  laterally,  sometimes  rather  high  {some  Berbers 


CH.  xiii]  The  Caucasic  Peoples  439 

and  Scotch).  Nose,  mostly  large,  narrow,  straight,  arched  or 
hooked,  sometimes  rather  broad,  heavy,  concave  and  short. 
Eyes:  i.  Black  or  deep  brown,  but  also  blue.  2.  Mainly 
blue.     3.    Brown,  hazel-grey  and  black. 

Stature:  i.  Under-sized  [mean  i'62,om.  ^ft.  /\.in.),  but 
variable  {some  Hamites,  Hindus,  and  others  medium  or  tall). 
2.  Tall  [mean  I'yiSm.  ^ft.  8  or  <)in.).  3.  Medium  {mean 
<ift.  6tn.),  but  also  very  tall  {Indonesians  I'y^om.  to  I'S^om. 
S/t.  9  to  6/1.).  Lips,  mostly  rather  full  and  well-shaped,  but 
sometimes  thin,  or  upper  lip  very  long  {many  Irish),  and  under 
lip  pendulous  {many  Jews).  Arms,  rather  short  as  compared 
with  Negro.  Legs,  shapely,  with  calves  usually  well  developed. 
Feet :   i  and  3  small  with  high  instep;    2  rather  large. 

Temperament:  landT,.  Brilliant, quick-witted, excitable 
and  impulsive;  sociable  and  courteous,  but  fickle,  untrustworthy, 
and  even  treacherous  {Iberian,  South  Italian); 
often  atrociously  cruel  {many  Slavs,  Persians,      characters 
Semites,  Indonesians  and  even  South  Europeans); 
aesthetic   sense   highly,   ethic   slightly  developed.     All  brave, 
imaginative,  musical,  and  richly  endoived  intellectually.  2.  Earn- 
est,  energetic,   and  enterprising;   steadfast,  solid,  and  stolid; 
outwardly  reserved,  thoughtful,  and  deeply  religious;  humane, 
firm,  but  not  normally  cruel. 

Speech,  mostly  of  the  inflecting  order  with  strong  tendency 
towards  analytical  forms ;  very  few  stock  languages  {Aryan, 
Ibero-Hafnito-Semitic),  except  in  the  Caucasus,  where  stock 
languages  of  highly  agglutinating  types  are  numerous,  and 
in  Indonesia,  where  one  agglutinating  stock  language  pre- 
vails. 

Religion,  mainly  Monotheistic,  with  or  without  priesthood 
and  sacrifice  {Jewish,  Christian,  Muhammadan);  polytheistic 
and  animistic  in  parts  of  Caucasus,  India, Incbnesia,and Africa. 
Gross  superstitions  still  prevalent  in  many  places. 

Culture,  generally  high — all  arts,  industries,  science, 
philosophy  and  letters  in  a  flourishing  state  now  almost  every- 
where except  in  Africa  and  Indonesia,  and  still  progressive. 
In  some  regions  civilisation  dates  from,  an  early  period  {Egypt, 
South  Arabia,  Babylonia;  the  Minoan,  Hellenic,  Hittite,  and 
Italic  cultures).  Indonesians  and  many  Hainites  still  rude, 
with  primitive  usages,  few  arts,  no  science  or  letters,  and 
cannibalism  prevalent  in  some  places  {Gallaland). 

Mediterranean  type :  most  Iberians,  Corsicans,  Sards, 


440  Man:   Past  and  Present  [CH- 

Sicilians,   Italians;   some   Greeks;    Berbers  and  other  Ha- 
mites;  Arabs  and  other  Semites;  some  Hindus; 
Divi^s        Dravidians,    Todas,   Ainus,   Indonesians,   some 
Polynesians. 
Nordic    type :     Scandinavians,    North-west    Germans, 
Dutch,  Flemings,  most  English,  Scotch,  some  Irish,  Anglo- 
Americans,    Anglo- Australasians,    English    and  ,  Dutch    of 
S.  Africa;  Thrako-Hellenes,  true  Kurds,  most  West  Persians, 
Afghans,  Dards  and  Siah-post  Kafirs, 

Alpine  type  :  most  French,  South  Germans,  Swiss  and 
Tyrolese ;  Russians,  Poles,  Chekhs,  Yugo-Slavs;  some  Al- 
banians and  Rumanians;  Armenians,  Tajiks  {East  Persians), 
Galchas. 

It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  the  Caucasic  division  of  the 
human  family,  of  which  nearly  all  students  of  the  subject  are 
members,  with  which  we  are  in  any  case,  so  to 
Considerations  ^^^^  °"  '^^  most  intimate  terms,  and  with  the 
constituent  elements  of  which  we  might  conse- 
quently be  supposed  to  be  best  acquainted,  is  the  most 
debatable  field  in  the  whole  range  of  anthropological  studies. 
Why  this  should  be  so  is  not  at  first  sight  quite  apparent, 
though  the  phenomenon  may  perhaps  be  partly  explained  by 
the  consideration  that  the  component  parts  are  really  of  a  more 
complex  character,  and  thus  present  more  intricate  problems 
for  solution,  than  those  of  any  other  division.  But  to  some 
extent  this  would  also  seem  to  be  one  of  those  cases  in  which 
we  fail  to  see  the  wood  for  the  trees.  To  put  it  plainly,  few 
will  venture  to  deny  that  the  inherent  difficulties  of  the  subject 
have  in  recent  times  been  rather  increased  than  diminished  by 
the  bold  and  often  mutually  destructive  theories,  and,  in  some 
instances  one  might  add,  the  really  wild  speculations  put 
forward  in  the  earnest  desire  to  remove  the  endless  obscurities 
in  which  the  more  fundamental  questions  are  undoubtedly  still 
involved.  Controversial  matter  which  seemed  thrashed  out 
has  been  reopened,  several  fresh  factors  have  been  brought, 
into  play,  and  the  warfare  connected  with  such  burning  topics 
as  Aryan  origins,  Ibero-Pelasgic  relations,  European  round- 
heads and  long-heads,  has  acquired  renewed  intensity  amid 
the  rival  theories  of  eminent  champions  of  new  ideas. 

The  question  is  not  made  any  simpler  by  the  frequent 
attacks  that  have  been  directed  from  more  than  one  quarter 


xiii]  The  Caucasic  Peoples  441 

against  the  long-established  Caucasic  terminology,  and  welL 
supported  objections  are  raised  to  the  use  of  such  time-honoured 
names  as  "  Hamitic,"  "Semitic,"  and  even  "Caucasic"  itself. 
But  no  really  satisfactory  substitute  for  "  Caucasic  "  has  yet 
been  suggested,  and  it  is  doubtful  if  any  name  could  be  found 
sufficiently  comprehensive  to  include  all  the  races,  long-headed 
and  short-headed,  fair  and  dark,  tall  and  short,  that  we  are  at 
present  content  to  group  under  this  non-committal  heading. 
Undoubtedly  the  term  "Caucasic"  cannot  be  defended  on 
ethnical  grounds.  "Nowhere  else  in  the  world  probably  is 
so  heterogeneous  a  lot  of  people,  languages  and  religions 
gathered  together  in  one  place  as  along  the  chain  of  the 
Caucasus  mountains\"  But  we  are  no  more  called  upon  to 
believe  that  the  "  Caucasic  "  peoples  originated  in  the  Caucasus, 
than  that  the  Semites  are  all  descendants  of  Shem  or  Hamites 
of  Ham.  "  Caucasic  "  has  one  claim  that  can  never  be  dis- 
puted, that  of  priority,  and  it  would  be  well  if  innovators  in 
these  matters  were  to  take  to  heart  the  sober  language  of 
Ehrenreich,  who  reminds  us  that  the  accepted  names  are, 
what  they  ought  to  be,  "  purely  conventional,"  and  "historically 
justified/'  and  "  should  be  held  as  valid  until  something  better 
can  be  found  to  take  their  place^"  It  was  considerations  such 
as  these,  weighing  so  strongly  in  favour  of  current  usage,  that 
induced  me  stare  per  vias  antiquas  in  the  Ethnology,  and  con- 
sequently also  in  the  present  work.  Hence,  here  as  there, 
the  Caucasic  Division  retains  its  title,  together  with  those  of 
its  main  subdivisions — Hamitic,  Semitic,  Keltic,  Slavic,  Hel- 
lenic, Teutonic,  Iranic,  Galchic  and  so  on. 

The  chief  exception  is  "Aryan,"  a  linguistic  expression 
forced  by  the  philologists  into  the  domain  of  Ethnology,  where 
it  has  no  place  or  meaning.  There  was  of  course  a  time  when 
a  community,  or  group  of  communities,  existed  probably  in  the 
steppe  region  between  the  Carpathians  and  the  Hindu-Kush', 

1  The  Races  of  Europe:  A  Sociological  Study,  W.  Z.  Ripley,  1900,  p.  437. 

2  "Diese  Namen  sind  natiirlich  rein  conventionell.  Sie  sind  historisch  berech- 
tigt...und  mogen  Geltung  behalten,  so  lange  wir  keine  zutrefferenden  an  ihre  Stella 
setzen  konnen"  {Anthropologische  Studien,  etc.,  p.  15). 

'  E.  Meyer,  Geschichte  des  Altertums,  1909, 1.  2,  discussing  the  original  home 
of  the  Indo-Europeans  (§  561,  Das  Problem  der  Heimat  und  Ausbreitung der  Indo- 
germanen)  remarks  (p.  800)  that  the  discovery  of  Tocharish  (Sieg  und  Siegling, 
"Tocbarish,  die  Sprache  der  Indo-skythen,"  Sitz.  d.  Berl.  Ak.  1908,  p.  915  ff.),  a 
language  belonging  apparently  to  the  centum  (Western  and  European)  group,  over- 
throws, all  eariier  conceptions  as  to  the  distribution  of  the  Indogermans  and  gives 
weight  to  the  hypothesis  of  their  Asiatic  origin. 


442  Man :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

by  whom  the  Aryan  mother- tongiie  was  evolved,  and  who  still 
for  a  time  presented  a  certain  uniformity  in  their  physical 
characters,  were,  in  fact,  of  Aryan  speech  and  type.  But  while 
their  Aryan  speech  persists  in  endlessly  modified  forms,  they 
have  themselves  long  disappeared  as  a  distinct  race,  merged 
in  the  countless  other  races  on  whom  they,  perhaps  as  con- 
querors, imposed  their  Aryan  language.  Hence  we  can  and 
must  speak  of  Aryan  tongues,  and  of  an  Aryan  linguistic 
family,  which  continues  to  flourish  and  spread  over  the  globe. 
But  of  an  Aryan  race  there  can  be  no  further  question  since 
the  absorption  of  the  original  stock  in  a  hundred  other  races 
in  remote  prehistoric  times.  Where  comprehensive  references 
have  to  be  made,  I  therefore  substitute  for  Aryans  and  Aryan 
race  the  expression  peoples  of  Aryan  speech,  at  least  wherever 
the  unqualified  term  Aryan  might  lead  to  misunderstandings. 

This  way  of  looking  at  the  question,  which  has  now  become 
more  thorny  than  ever,  has  the  signal  advantage  of  being  in- 
different to  any  preconceived  theories  regarding  the  physical 
characters  of  that  long  vanished  proto- Aryan  race.  How  great 
this  advantage  is  may  be  judged  from  the  mere  statement  that, 
while  German  anthropologists  are  still  almost  to  a  man  loyal 
to  the  traditional  view  that  the  first  Aryans  were  best  repre- 
sented by  the  tall,  long-headed,  tawny-haired,  blue-eyed 
Teutonic  barbarians  of  Tacitus — who,  Virchow  tells  us,  have 
completely  disappeared  from  sight  in  the  present  population 
— the  Italian  school,  or  at  least  its  chief  exponent,  Sergi,  was 
equally  convinced  that  the  picture  was  a  myth,  that  such 
Aryans  never  existed,  that  "  the  true  primitive  Aryans  were 
not  long,  but  round-headed,  not  fair  but  dark,  not  tall  but 
short,  and  are  in  fact  to-day  best  represented  by  the  round- 
headed  Kelts,  Slavs,  and  South  Germans'." 

The  fact  is  that  the  Aryan  prototype  has  vanished  as 
completely  as  has  the  Aryan  mother-tongue,  and  can  be  con- 
jecturally  restored  only  by  processes  analogous  to  those  by 
which  Schleicher  and  other  philologists  have  endeavoured 
with  dubious  success  to  restore  the  organic  Aryan  speech  as 
constituted  before  the  dispersion. 

But  here  arises  the  more  important  question,  by  what  right 
are  so  many  and  such  diverse  peoples  grouped  together  and 
ticketed    "  Caucasians "  ?     Are   they   to   be   really   taken  as 

'  "lo  non  dubito  di  denominare  aria  questa  stirpe  etc."  {Utnbri,  Italici,  Arii, 
Bologna,  1897,  p.  14,  and  elsewhere). 


xiii]  The  Caucasic  Peoples  443 

objectively  one,  or  are  they  merely  artificial  groupings,  arbi- 
trarily   arranged    abstractions?     Certainly   this 
Caucasic    division    consists    apparently   of   the      |°emeS"* 
most   heterogeneous   elements,    more    so    than 
perhaps   any  other.     Hence   it  seems   to  require   a   strong 
mental  effort  to  sweep  into  a  single  category,  however  elastic,. 
so  many  different  peoples — Europeans,  North  Africans,  West 
Asiatics,  Iranians  and  others  all  the  way  to  the  Indo-Gangetic 
plains  and  uplands,  whose  complexion  presents  every  shade  of 
colour,  except  yellow,  from  white  to  the  deepest  brown  or 
even  black. 

But  they  are  grouped  together  in  a  single  division,  because 
of  certain  common  characteristics,  and  because,  as  pointed  out 
by  Ehrenreich,  who  himself  emphasises  these  objections,  their 
substantial  uniformity  speaks  to  the  eye  that  sees  below  the 
surface.  At  the  first  glance,  except  perhaps  in  a  few  extreme 
cases  for  which  it  would  be  futile  to  create  independent  cate- 
gories, we  recognise  a  common  racial  stamp  in  the  facial 
expression,  the  structure  of  the  hair,  partly  also  the  bodily- 
proportions,  in  all  of  which  points  they  agree  more  with  each 
other  than  with  the-  other  main  divisions.  Even  in  the  case 
of  certain  black  or  very  dark  races,  such  as  the  Beja,  Somali, 
and  a  few  other  Eastern  Hamites,  we  are  reminded  instinctively 
more  of  Europeans  or  Berbers  than  of  negroes,  thanks  to  their 
more  regular  features  and  brighter  expression.  "Those  who 
will  accept  nothing  unless  it  can  be  measured,  weighed,  and 
numbered,  may  think  perhaps  that  according  to  modern  notions 
this  appeal  to  the  outward  expression  is  unscientific.  Never- 
theless nobody  can  deny  the  evidence  of  the  obvious  physical 
differences  between  Caucasians,  African  Negroes,  Mongols, 
Australians  and  so  on.  After  all,  physical  anthropology  itself 
dates  only  from  the  moment  when  we  became  conscious  of 
these  differences,  even  before  we  were  able  to  give  them  exact 
expression  by  measurements.  It  was  precisely  the  general 
picture  that  spoke  powerfully  and  directly  to  the  eye\"  The 
argument  need  not  here  be  pursued  farther,  as  it  will  receive 
abimdant  illustration  in  the  details  to  follow. 

Since  the  discovery  of  the  New  and  the  Austral  Worlds, 
the  Caucasic  division  as  represented  by  the  chief  European 


1  Anthrop.  Studten,  p.  ij,  "Diese  Gemeinsamkeit  der  Charakteren  beweist  uns 
die  Blutverwandtschaft"  (ib.). 


444  Man :  Past  and  Present  :[ch. 

nations  has  received  an  enormous  expansion.  Here  of  course 
it  is  necessary  to  distinguish  between  political  and  ethnical 
conquests,  as,  for  instance,  those  of  India,  held  by  military 
tenure,  and  of  Australia  by  actual  settlement.  Politically  the 
whole  world  has  become  Caucasic  with  the  exception  of  half- 
•  a-dozen  states  such  as  China,  Turkey,  Japan,  Siam,  Maroeco, 
still  enjoying  a  real  or  fictitious  autonomy.  But,  from  thfe 
ethnical  standpoint,  those  regions  in  which  the  Caucasic  peoples 
can  establish  themselves  and  perpetuate  their  race  as  colonists 
are  alone  to  be.  regarded  as  fresh  accessions  to  the  original  and 
later  (historical)  Caucasic  domains.  Such  fresh  accessions  are 
however  of  vast  extent,  including  the  greater  part  of  Siberia 
and  adjoining  regions,  where  Slav  branches  of  the  Aryan- 
speaking  peoples  are  now  founding  permanent  new  homes  ; 
the  whole  of  Australia,  Tasmania,  and  New  Zealand,  which 
have  become  the  inheritance  of  the  Caucasic  inhabitants  of  the 
British  Isles ;  large  tracts  in  South  Africa,  already  occupied 
by  settlers  chiefly  from  Holland  and  Great  Britain  ;  lastly  the 
New  World,  where  most  of  the  northern  continent  is  settled 
by  full-blood  Europeans,  mainly  British,  French  and  German, 
while  in  the  rest  (Central  and  South  America)  the  Caucasic 
immigrants  (chiefly  from  the  Iberian  peninsula)  have  formed 
new  ethnical  groups  by  fusion  with  the  aborigines.    These  new 

accessions,  all  acquired  within  the  last  400  years. 
Present  Range,    "^''•y  ^^  roughly  estimated  at  about  28  mjllion 

square  miles,  which  with  some  12  millions  held 
throughout  the  historic  period  (Africa  north  of  Sudan,  most  of 
Europe,  South- West  and  parts  of  Central  and  South  Asia, 
Indonesia)  gives  an  extent  of  40  million  square  miles  to  the 
present  Caucasic  domain,  either  actually  occupied  or  in  process 
of  settlement.  As  the  whole  of  the  dry  land  scarcely  exceeds 
52  millions,  this  leaves  not  more  than  about  12  millions  for 
,the  now  reduced  domains  of  all  the  other  divisions,  and  even 
of  this  a  great  part  {e.g.  Tibetan  table-land,  Gobi,  tundras, 
Greenland)  is  barely  or  not  at  all  inhabitable.  This,  it  may 
be  incidentally  remarked,  is  perhaps  the  best  reply  to  those 
who  have  in  late  years  given  expression  to  gloomy  forebodings 
regarding  the  ultimate  fate  of  the  Caucasic  races.  The  "yellow 
scare"  may  be  dismissed  with  the  reflection  that  the  Caucasian  . 
populations,  who  have  inherited  or  acquired  nearly  four-fifths 
of  the  earth's  surface  besides  the  absolute  dominion  of  the  high 
seas,  is  not  destined  to  be  submerged  by  any  conceivable  com- 


xin]  The  Cducasic  Peoples  445 

bination  of  all  the  other  elements,  still  less  by  the  Mongol 
alone  \ 

Where  have  we  to  seek  the  primeval  home  of  this  most 
vigorous  and  dominant  branch  of  the  human  family  ?  Since 
no  direct  evidence  can  be  cited,  the  answer 
necessarily  takes  the  form  of  a  hypothesis,  and  ^Jorth^AJricll^ 
must  rely  mainly  on  the  indirect  evidence  supplied 
by  our  vague  knowledge  of  geographical  conditions  in  pleisto- 
cene times,  on  past  and  present  zoological  distributions,  with 
here  and  there,  the  assistance  of  a  hint  gleaned  from  archaeo- 
logical discoveries.  We  may  deal  first  with  the  arguments 
brought  forward  in  favour  of  Africa  north  of  Sudan.  Here 
were  found  in  quaternary  times  all  the  physical  elements  which 
zoologists  demand  for  great  specialisations — ample  space,  a 
favourable  climate  and  abundance  of  food,  besides  continuous 
land  connection  at  two  or  three  points  across  the  Mediterranean, 
by  which  the  pliocene  and  early  pleistocene  faunas  moved 
freely  between  the  two  continents. 

Many  of  the  speculations  on  the  subject  failed  to  convince, 
largely  because  the  writers  took,  so  to  say,  the  ground  from 
under  their  own  feet,  by  submerging  most  of  the 
land  under  a  vast  "Quaternary  Sahara  Sea,"  '^^'^^l 
which  had  no  existence,  and  which,  moreover, 
reduced  the  whole  of  North  Africa  to  a  Mauretanian  island, 
a  mere  "appendix  of  Europe,"  as  it  is  in  one  place  expressly 
called.  Then  this  inconvenient  inland  basin  was  got  rid  of, 
not  by  an  outflow — being  on  the  same  level  as  the  Atlantic, 
of  which  it  was,  in  fact  figured  as  an  inlet — but  by  "  evapora- 
tion," which  process  is  however  somehow  confined  to  this 
inlet,  and  does  not  affect  either  the  Mediterranean  or  the 
Atlantic  itself.  Nor  is  it  explained  how  the  oceanic  waters 
were  prevented  from  rushing  in  according  "  as  the  Sahara  sea 
evaporated  to  become  a  desert."  The  attempt  to  evolve  a 
"  Eurafrican  race "  in  such  an  impossible  area  necessarily 
broke  down,  other  endless  perplexities  being  involved  in  the 
initial  geological  misconception. 

Not  only  was  the  Sahara  dry  land  in  pleistocene  times, 
but  it  stood  then  at  a  considerably  higher  altitude  than  at 
present,  although    its   mean   elevation  is  still  estimated  by 

»  Sir  W.  Crooke's  anticipation  of  a  possible  future  failure  of  the  wheat  supply 
as  affecting  the  destinies  of  the  Caucasia  peoples  {Presidential  Address  at  Meeting 
Br.  Assoc.  Bristol,  1898)  is  an  economic  question  which  cannot  here  be  discussed. 


44^  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

Chavanne  at  1500  feet  above  sea-level.  "Quaternary  de- 
posits cover  wide  areas,  and  were  at  one  time  supposed  to  be 
of  marine  origin.  It  was  even  held  that  the  great  sand  dunes 
must  have  been  formed  under  the  sea ;  but  at  this  date  it  is 
scarcely  necessary  to  discuss  such  a  view.  The  advocates  of 
a  Quaternary  Sahara  Sea  argued  chiefly  from  the  discovery 
of  marine  shells  at  several  points  in  the  middle  of  the  Sahara. 
But  Tournouer  has  shown  that  to  call  in  the  aid  of  a  great 
ocean  in  order  to  explain  the  presence  of  one  or  two  shells  is 
a  needless  expenditure  of  energy  \" 

At  an  altitude  of  probably  over  2000  feet  the  Sahara  must 
have  enjoyed  an  almost  ideal  climate  during  late  pliocene  and 
pleistocene  times,  when  Europe  was  exposed  to  more  than  one 
glacial  invasion,  and  to  a  large  extent  covered  at  long  intervals 
by  a  succession  of  solid  ice-caps.  We  now  know  that  these 
stony  and  sandy  wastes  were  traversed  in  all  directions  by 
great  rivers,  such  as  the  Massarawa  trending  south  to  the 
Niger,  or  the  Igharghar''  flowing  north  to  the  Mediterranean, 
and  that  these  now  dry  beds  may  still  be  traced  for  hundreds 
of  miles  by  chains  of  pools  or  lakelets,,  by  long  eroded  valleys 
and  by  other  indications  of  the  action  of  running  waters. 

Nor  could  there  be  any  lack  of  vegetable  or  animal  life  in 
a  favoured  region,  which  was  thus  abundantly  supplied  with 
natural  irrigation  arteries,  while  the  tropical  heats  were  tempered 
by  great  elevation  and  at  times  by  the  refreshing  breezes  from 
sub-arctic  Europe. 

From  these  well-watered  and  fertile  lands,  some  of  which 
continued  even  in  Roman  times  to  be  the  granary  of  the  empire, 
came  that  succession  of  southern  animals — hippopotamus, 
hyaena,  rhinoceros,  elephant,  cave-lion — which  made  Europe 
seem  like  a  "zoological  appendix  of  Africa."  In  association 
with  this  fauna  may  have  come  man  himself,  for  although 
North  Africa  has  not  yet  yielded  evidence  of  a  widespread 
culture  comparable  to  that  of  the  Palaeolithic  Age  in  Europe, 

1  Ph.  Lake,  "The  Geology  of  the  Sahara,"  in  Science  Progress,  July,  1895. 

^  This  name,  meaning  in  Berber  "running  water,"  has  been  handed  down  from 
a  time  when  the  Igharghar  was  still  a  mighty  stream  with  a  northerly  course  of 
some  800  miles,  draining  an  area  of  many  thousand  square  miles,  in  which  tiiere  is 
not  at  present  a  single  perennial  brooklet.  It  would  appear  that  even  crocodiles 
still  survive  from  those  remote  times  in  the  so-called  Lake  Miharo  of  the  Tassili 
district,  where  von  Bary  detected  very  distinct  traces  of  their  presence  in  1876. 
A.  E.  Pease  also  refers  to  a  Frenchman  "who  had  satisfied  himself  of  the  existence 
of  crocodiles  cut  off  in  ages  long  ago  from  watercourses  that  have  disappeared" 
(Coniemp.  Review,  July,  1S96).  .  , 


xin]  The  Caucasic  Peoples  447 

yet  the  negroid  characters  of  the  Grimaldi  skeletons  have  been 
held  to  prove  an  early  connection  between  the  opposite  shores 
of  the  Mediterranean.  The  hypothesis  of  African  origin  is 
supported  by  archaeological  evidence  of  the  presence  of  early 
man  all  over  North  Africa  from  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean 
through  Egypt  to  Somaliland.  Thus  one  of  J.  de  Morgan's 
momentous  conclusions  was  that  the  existence  of  civilised  men 
in  Egypt  might  be  reckoned  by  thousands,  and  of  the  aborigines 
by  myriads  of  years.  These  aborigines  he  identified  with  the 
men  of  the  Old  Stone  Age,  of  whom  he  believed  four  stations 
to  have  been  discovered^Dahshur,  Abydos,  Tukh,  and 
Thebes'. 

Of  Tunisia  Ars^ne  Dumont  declared  that  "  the  immense 
period  of  time  during  which  man  made  use  of  stone  implements 
is  nowhere  so  strikingly  shown."  Here  some  of  the  flints  were 
found  in  abundance  under  a  thick  bed  of  quaternary  limestone 
deposited  by  the  waters  of  a  stream  that  has  disappeared. 
Hence  "the  origin  of  man  in  Mauretania  must  be  set  back  to 
a  remote'  age  which  deranges  all  chronology  and  confounds 
the  very  fables  of  the  mythologies^" 

The  skeleton  found  in  19 14  by  Hans  Reck  at  Oldoway 
(then  German  East  Africa)  was  claimed  to  be  of  Pleistocene 
Age,  but  according  to  A.  Keith  "the' evidence... cannot  be 
accepted  as  having  finally  proved  this  degree  of  antiquity'." 

The  doctrine  of  the  specialisation  of  the  dolichocephalic 
European  types  in  Africa,  before  their  migrations  northwards, 
lies  at  the  base  of  Sergi's  views  regarding  the  African  origin 
of  those  types.  Arguing  against  the  Asiatic  origin  of  the 
Hamites,  as  held  by  Prichard,  Virchow,  Sayce  and  others,  he 
points  out  that  this  race,  scarcely  if  at  all  represented  in  Asia, 
has  an  immense  range  in  Africa,  where  its  several  sub-varieties 
must  have  been  evolved  before  their  dispersion  over  a  great 
part  of  that  continent  and  of  Europe.  Then,  regarding 
Hamites  and  Semites  as  essentially  one,  he  concludes  that 
Africa  is  the  cradle  whence  this  primitive  stock  "spread 
northwards  to  Europe,  where  it  still  persists,  especially  in  the 

'  Recherches  sur  les  Origines  de  tJEgypte:  L'Age  de  la  Pierre  et  des  Mdtaux, 
1897. 

2  Bui.  Soc.  d'Anthrop.  1896,  p.  394.  This  indefatigable  explorer  remarks,  in 
reference  to  the  continuity  of  human  culture  in  Tunisia  throughout  the  Old  and 
New  Stone  Ages,  that."ces  populations  fortement  mdang^es  d'dl^ments  n^ander- 
thaloides  de  la  Kromirie  fabriquent  encore  des  vases  de  tous  points  analogues  k  la 
poterie  n^olithique"  {ib.). 

3  The  Antiquity  of  Man,  1915,  p.  255. 


448  Man:  Past  and  Present  [cH. 

Mediterranean  and  its  three  principal  peninsulas,  and  eastwards 
to  West  Asia\" 

The  theory  of  an  African  cradle  for  the  dolichocephalic 
Mediterranean  type  does  not  lack  supporters,  but  when,  re- 
lying on  the  undeniable  presence  of  brachycephals,  some 
writers  would  derive  the  Alpine  type  from  the  same  area,  the 
larger  aspect  of  continental  migrations  appears  to  be  overlooked 
(see  pp.  45 1-2  below).  To  constitute  a  distinct  race,  says  Zabo- 
rowski,  a  wide  geographical  area  is  needed,  such  as  is  presented 
by  both  shores  of  the  Mediterranean  "with  the  whole  of  North 
Africa  including  the  Sahara,  which  was  till  lately  still  thickly 
peopled''."  Then  to  the  question  by  whom  has  this  North 
African  and  Mediterranean  region  been  inhabited  since  qua- 
ternary times,  he  answers  "  by  the  ancestors  of  our  Libyans, 
Egyptians,  Pelasgians,  Iberians";  and  after  rejecting  the 
Asiatic  theory,  he  elsewhere  arrives  at  "  the  grand  generalisa- 
tion that  the  whole  of  North  Africa,  connected  by  land  with 
Europe  in  the  Quaternary  epoch,  formed  part  of  the  geo- 
graphical area  of  the  ancient  white  race,  of  which  the  Egyptians, 
so  far  from  being  the  parent  stem,  would  appear  to  be  merely 
a  branch'." 

Coming  to  details,  Bertholon^  from  the  human  remains 
found  by  Carton  at  Bulla- Regia,  determined  for  Tunisia  and 
Early  European  Surrounding  lands  two  main  long-headed  types, 
andMauretanian  one  like  the  Neandertal  (occurring  both  in 
types.  Khumeria,   and    in    the    stations   abounding    in 

palaeoliths),  the  other  like  the  later  Cro-Magnon  dolmen- 
builders,  whom  De  Quatrefages  had  already  identified  with 
the  tall,  long-headed,  fair,  and  even  blue-eyed  Berbers  still 
met  in  various  parts  of  Mauretania,  and  formerly  represented 
in  the  Canary  Islands".  Bertholon  agrees  with  CoUignon 
that  the  Mauretanian  megalith-builders  are  of  the  same  race 
as  those  of  Europe,  and  besides  the  two  long-headed  races 

1  Africa,  Aniropologia  della  Stirpe  Catnitica,  Turin,  1897,  p.  404  sq. 

2  "  Le  nord  de  TAfrique  entifere,  y  compris  le  Sahara  nagufere  encore  fort  peupl^" 
i.e.  of  course  relatively  speaking, "  Du  Dniester  &.  laCaspienne,"  mBul.  Soc.d'Anthrop. 
1896,  p.  81  sq. 

3  Ibid.  p.  654  sq. 

*  Resumd de  t Anthropologie  de  la  Tunisie,  1896,  p.  4  sq. 

^  This  identity  is  confirmed  by  the  characters  of  three  skulls  from  the  dolmens 
of  Madracen  near  Batna,  Algeria,  now  in  the  Constantine  Museum,  found  by 
Letourneau  and  Papillaut  to  present  striking  affinities  with  the  long-headed  Cro- 
Magnon  race  (Ceph.  Index  70, 74, 78) ;  leptoprosope  with  prominent  glabella,  notable 
alveolar  prognathism,  and  sub-occipital  bone  projecting  chignon-fa^hion  at  the  back 
{Bui.  Soc.  d'Anthrop.  1896,  p.  347). 


xiii]  The  Caucasic  Peoples  449 

describes  (i)  a  short  round-headed  type  in  Gerba  Island  and 
East  Tunisia^  representing  the  Libyans  proper,  and  (2)  a 
blond  type  of  the  Sahel,  Khumeria,  and  other  parts,  whom 
he  identifies  with  the  Mazices  of  Herodotus,  with  the  "  Afri," 
whose  name  has  been  extended  to  the  whole  continent,  and 
the  blond  Getulians  of  the  Aures  Mountains. 

It  has  been  objected  that,  as  established  by  de  Lapouge 
and  Ripley,  there  are  three  distinct  ethnical  zones  in  Europe : 
— ( I )  Nordic :  the  tall,  fair,  long-headed  northern  xhe  Three 
type,  commonly  identified  by  the  Germans  with  Great  European 
the  race  represented  by  the  osseous  remains  from  E*°"=^  Groups, 
the  "  Reihengraber,"  i.e.  the  "  Germanic,"  which  the  French 
call  Kymric  or  Aryan,  for  which  de  Lapouge  reserves  Linn^'s 
Homo  europaeus,  and  to  which  Ripley  applies  the  term 
"  Teutonic,"  because  the  whole  combination  of  characters 
"accords  exactly  with  the  descriptions  handed  down  to  us  by 
the  ancients.  Such  were  the  Goths,  Ostrogoths,  Visigoths, 
Vandals,   Lombards,   together  with    the    Danes,    Norsemen, 

Saxons History  is  thus  corroborated  by   natural  science." 

{2)  Mediterranean  :  the  southern  zone  of  short,  dark,  long- 
heads, i.e.  the  primitive  element  in  Iberia,  Italy,  South  France, 
Sicily,  Corsica,  Sardinia,  and  Greece,  called  Iberians  by  the 
English,  and  identified  by  many  with  the  Ligurians,  Pelasgians, 
and  allied  peoples,  grouped  together  by  Ripley  as  Mediter- 
raneans". (3)  Alpine :  the  central  zone  of  short,  medium- 
sized  round-heads  with  light  or  chestnut  hair,  and  gray  or 
hazel  eye,  de  Lapouge's  and  Ripley's  Homo  alpinus,  the  Kelts 
or  Kelto-Slavs  of  the  French,  the  Ligurians  or  Arvernians 
of  Beddoe  and  other  English  writers.  Here  belong  the  tall 
Armenoids,  the  Armenians  being  descendants  of  the  Hittites. 

The  question   is,  Can  all  these  have  come  from  North 

^  He  shows' ("Exploration  Anthropologique  de  I'lle  de  Gerba,"  in  VAnthropolo- 
gie,  1897,  p.  424  sq.)  that  the  North  African  brown  brachycephahcs,  forming  the  sub- 
stratum in  Mauretania,  and  very  pure  in  Gerba,  resemble  the  European  populations 
the  more  they  have  avoided  contact  with  foreign  races.  He  quotes^  H.  Martin : 
"  Le  type  brun  qui  domine  dans  la  Grande  Kabylie  du  Jurjura  ressemble  singuli^re- 
ment  en  majority  au  type  frangais  brun.  Si  I'on  habillait  ces  hommes  de  vgtements 
europdens,  vous  ne  les  distingueriez  pas  de  paysans  ou  de  soldats  frangais."  He 
compares  them  especially  to  the  Bretons,  and  agrees  with  Martin  that  "il  y  a  parmi 
les  Berbferes  bruns  des  brachycdphales ;  je  croirais  volontiers  que  les  brachyc^phales 
bruns  sorit  des  Ligures.  Libyens  et  Ligures  paraissent-  avoir  dtd  originairement  de 
la  mSme  race."  He  thinks  the  very  names  are  the  same:  "AijSues  est  exactement 
le  m^me  mot  que  Kiyva ;  rien  n'dtait  plus  frequent  dans  les  dialectes  primitifs  que 
la  mutation  du  b  en  g." 

^  The  Races  of  Europe,  iqoo,  passim. 

K.  29 


450  Man  :   Past  and  Present  [ch. 

Africa  ?  We  have  seen  that  this  region  has  yielded  the 
remains  of  one  round-headed  and  two  long-headed  prehistoric 
types.  Henri  Malbot  pointed  out  that,  as  far  back  as  we  can 
go,  we  meet  the  two  quite  distinct  long-headed  Berber  types, 
and  he  holds  that  this  racial  duality  is  proved  by  the  megalithic 
tombs  (dolmens)  of  Roknia  between  Jemmapes  and  Guelma, 
possibly  some  4000  or  5000  years  old.  The  remains  here 
found  by  L.  L.  C.  Faidherbe  belong  to  two  different  races, 
both  dolichocephalic,  but  one  tall,  with  prominent  zygomatic 
arches  and  very  strong  nasal  spine  (it  reads  almost  like  the 
description  of  a  brawny  Caledonian),  the  other  short,  with 
well-balanced  skull  and  small  nasal  spine'.  The  earliest 
(Egyptian)  records  refer  to  brown  and  blond  populations 
living  in  North  Africa  some  5000  years  ago,  and  it  has  been 
claimed  that  the  raw  materials,  so  to  say,  were  here  to  hand 
both  of  the  fair  northern  and  dark  southern  European  long- 
heads. 

These  different  races  were  repi'esented  even  amongst  the 
extinct  Guanches  of  the  Canary  Islands,  as  shown  by  a  study 
TheQuanches-  °^  ^^^  52  heads  procured  in  1894  by  H.  Meyer 
Types  and  Affi-  from  caves  in  the  archipelago^  Three  distinct 
nit'es.  types  are  determined  :   ( i )  Guanche,  akin  to  the 

Cro-Magnon,  tall  (5  ft.  8  in.  to  6  ft.  2  in.),  robust,  dolicho  (78), 
low,  broad  fac'e ;  large  eyes,  rather  short  nose  ;  fair,  reddish 
or  light  chestnut  hair ;  skin  and  eyes  light ;  ranged  throughout 
the  islands,  but  centred  chiefly  in  Tenerife ;  (2)  "Semitic" 
short  (5  ft.  4  or  5  in.),  slim,  narrow  mesocephalic  head  (81), 
narrow,  long  face,  black  hair,  light  brown  skin,  dark  eyes  ; 
range.  Grand  Canary,  Palma,  and  Hierro  ;  (3)  Armenoid,  akin 
to  von  Luschan's  pre-Semitic  of  Asia  Minor ;  shorter  than 
I  and  2  ;  very  short,  broad,  and  high  skull  (hyperbrachy,  84) ; 
hair,  skin  and  eyes  very  probably  of  the  West  Asiatic  brunette 
type ;  range,  mainly  in  Gomera,  but  met  everywhere.  Many 
of  the  skulls  had  been  trepanned,  and  these  are  brought  into 

'  "Les  Chaouias,"  etc.,  in  L'Antkropologie,  1897,  p.  i  sq. 

2  Ueber  eine  Schiidelsammlung  von  den  Kanarischen  Inseln,  with  F.  von 
Luschan's  appendix;  also  "Ueber  die  Urbewohner  der  Kanarischen  Inseln,"  in 
Bastian-Festschrift,  1896,  p.  63.  The  inferences  here  drawn  are  in  substantial 
agreement  with  those  of  Henry  Wallack,  in  his  paper  on  "The  Guanches,"  mjourn. 
Anthr.  Inst.  June,  1887,  p.  158  sq. ;  and  also  with  J.  C.  Shrubsall,  who,.however, 
distinguishes  four  pre-Spanish  types  from  a  study  of  numerous  skulls  and  other 
remains  from  Tenerife  in  Proc.  Cambridge  Phil.  Soc.  ix.  I54-78.'  The  152  cave 
skulls  measured  by  Von  Detloff  von  Behr,  Metrische  Studien  an  152  Guanchen- 
schddeln,  1908,  agree  in  the  main  with  earlier  results. 


xni]  The  Caucasic  Peoples  451 

direct  association  with  the  full-blood  Berbers  of  the  Aures 
Mts.  in  Algeria,  who  still  practise  trepanning  for  wounds, 
headaches,  and  other  reasons.  This  type  is  scarcely  to 
be  distinguished  from  Lapouge's  short  brown  Homo  alpinus, 
which  dates  from  the  Stone  Ages,  and  is  found  in  densest 
masses  in  the  Central  Alpine  regions,  but  the  true  Armenoids 
are  differentiated  by  their,  taller  stature'. 

How  numerous  were  the  inhabitants  of  France  at  that 
time  may  be  inferred  from  the  long  list  of  no  less  than  4000 
neolithic  stations  given  for  that  region  by  Ph.  Salmon.  Of 
the  688  skulls  from  those  stations  measured  by  him,.  577  per 
cent,  are  classed  as  dolicho,  21-2  as  brachycephalic,  and  21-1 
as  intermediate.  This  distinguished  palethnologist  regards 
the  intermediates  as  the  result  of  crossings  origin  of  the 
between  the  two  others,  and  of  these  he  thinks  European 
the  first  arrivals  were  the  round-heads,  who  Brachycephals. 
ranged  over  a  vast  area, between  Brittany,  the  Channel,  the 
Pyrenees,  and  the  Mediterranean,  60  per  cent,  of  the  graves 
hitherto  studied  containing  skulls  of  this  type".  Belgium  also, 
where  a  mixture  of  long-  and  round-heads  is  found  amongst 
the  men  of  Furfooz,  must  be  included  in  this  neolithic  brachy 
domain,  which  can  be  traced  as  far  westward  as  the  British 
Isles'.  Attempts  have  been  made,  as  indicated  above,  to 
derive  these  brachycephals,  as  well  as  the  dolichocephals,  from 
North  Africa,  in  accordance  with  the  view  that  the  latter 
region  was  the  true  centre  of  evolution  and  of  dispersion  for 
all  the  main  branches  of  the  Caucasic  family,  but  this  theory 
has  few  supporters  at  the  present  time.  Sergi  recognised  the 
Asiatic  origin  of  the  neolithic  round-heads  and  regarded  them 
as  "peaceful  infiltrations'*,''  forerunners  of  the  great  invasions 
of  the  later  Metal  Ages.  Verneau  points  out°  that  when  all 
the  neolithic  stations  in  which  brachycephalic  skulls  have  been 
discovered  are  plotted  out  on  a  map  of  Europe  it  is  easy  to 
recognise  a  current  running  almost  directly  from  east  to  west. 
Moreover  towards  the  west  this  current  divides,  being  clearly 
separated  by  zones  of  dolichocephaly. 

'  For  an  interpretation  of  the  significance  of  Armenoid  skulls  in  the  Canary  Is. 
see  G.  Elliot  Smith,  The  Ancient  Egyptians,  191 1,  pp.  156-7. 

2  "  Ddnombrement  et  Types  des  Cr4nes  N^olithiques  de  la  Gaule,"  in  Rev. 
Mens,  de  I'^cole  (VAnthrop.  i8g6. 

3  T.  Rice  Holmes,  Ancient  Britain,  1907,  p.  424. 

*  "  Infiltrazioni  pacifiche."     {Arii  e  Italici,  p.  124.) 
5  L'Anthr.  xii.  1901,  pp.  547-8. 

29 — 2 


452  Man :   Past  and  Present  [ch. 

Evidence  of  the  presence  in  early  times  of  tall  blond 
peoples  in  Africa,  side  by  side  with  a  short  dark  population, 
and  of  brachycephals  together  with  dolichocephals,  proves  that 
even  in  the  Stone  Age  ethnic  mixtures  had  already  taken 
place,  and  racial  purity — if  indeed  it  ever  existed — must  be 
sought  for  in  still  remoter  periods. 

With  Sergi's  view  which  trace;s  the  neolithic  inhabitants 
of  the  northern  shores  of  the  Mediterranean  (Iberians,  Ligu- 
rians,  Messapians,  Siculi  and  other  Itali,  Pelasgians),  to  North 
Africa,  most  anthropologists  agreed  Also  that  all  or  most  of 
these  were  primarily  of  a  dark  (brown),  short,  dolicho  type, 
which  still  persists  both  in  South  Europe  and  North  Africa, 
and  in  fact  is  the  race  which  Ripley  properly  calls  "  Mediter- 
ranean," although  in  the  west  they  almost  certainly  ranged 
into  Brittany  and  the  British  Isles.  But  there  are  some  who 
hold  that  the  migration  was  in  the  opposite  direction,  and 
derive  the  North  African  branch  from  Europe,  rather  than  the 
European  branches  from  Africa.  "  Anthropologists  who  have 
specially  studied  the  question  of  the  Berbers  or  Kabyles  have 
concluded  that  they  are  descendants  of  prehistoric  European 
invaders  who  occupied  the  tracts  that  suited  them  best^"  In 
France  the  neolithic  "Mediterranean  type"  has  been  regarded 
as  lineally  descended  from  palaeolithic  predecessors  in  situ^. 
Some  would  even  go  further  still,  and  claim  Europe  as  the 
place  of  origin  not  only  of  the  Mediterranean  but  also  of  the 
Alpine  and  Northern  branches.  "The  so-called  three  races 
of  Europe  are  in  the  main  the  result  of  variation  from  a  com- 
mon European  stock,  a  variation  due  to  isolation  and  natural 
selection*." 

Without  making  any  claim  to  finality  the  following  perhaps 
best  represents  orthodox  opinion  at  the  present  time.  It  may 
be  assumed  that  man  evolved  somewhere  in 
Or&o'^view  Southern  Asia  in  pliocene  times,  and  that  the 
early  groups  possessed  a  tendency  to  variability 
which  was  directed  to  some  extent  by  geographical  conditions 
and  became  fixed  by  isolation.  The  tall  fair  blue-eyed  dolicho- 
cephals (Northern  Race)  and  the  short  dark  dolichocephals 

1  Cf.  G.  Elliot  Smith,  The  Ancient  Egyptians,  191 1,  p.  58  ff. 

''■  T.  Rice  Holmes,  Caesar^  Conquest  of  Gaul,  191 1,  p.  266,  with  list  of  authorities. 
See  also  Sigmund  Feist,  KuUur,  Ausbreitung  und  Herkunft  der  Indogerm<znen, 
1913)  P-  364,  and  H.  H.  Johnston,  "A  Survey  of  the  Ethnography  of  Aincsi,"  Journ. 
Roy.  Anthr.  Inst.  XLIll.  1913,  pp.  386  and  387. 

'  T.  Rice  Holmes,  loc.  cit.  p.  272. 

*  W.  Wright,  Middlesex  Hospital  Journal,  xii.  1908,  p.  44. 


xin]  The  Cducasic  Peoples  453 

(Mediterranean  Race)  may  be  regarded  as  two  varieties  of  a 
common  stock,  the  former  having  their  area  of  characterisation 
in  the  steppes  north  of  the  plateaus  of  Eur- Asia,  and  migrating 
eastwards  and  westwards  as  the  country  dried  after  the  last 
glacial  phase.  The  southern  branch,  entering  East  Africa 
from  Southern  Asia,  spread  all  over  North  Africa ;  those  in 
the  east  were  the  archaic  Egyptians ;  to  the  west  were  the 
Libyans  whose  descendants  are  the  Berbers ;  those  who  crossed 
the  Mediterranean  formed  the  European  branches  of  the 
Mediterranean  race.  With  regard  to  the  third  type,  while  the 
J  J  central  plateaus  of  Asia  were  the  centre  of  dispersal  for  the  true 
Mongols  the  western  plateaus  were  the  area  of  characterisation 
of  a  non- Mongolian  brachycephalic  race,  which  includes  short 
and  tall  varieties.  This  is  the  Alpine  race,  which  extends  from 
the  Hindu  Kush  to  Brittany,  and  formerly  spread  further 
westwards  into  the  British  Isles\ 

The  problem  of  European  origins  has  often  in  the  past 
been  obscured  rather  than  enlightened  by  an  appeal  to  lin- 
guistics, but  linguistic  factors  cannot  altogether 
be  ignored.  No  doubt  the  earliest  populations  Evidence*^ 
of  the  Mediterranean  shores  during  the  Stone 
Age  spoke  non-Aryan  languages,  but  it  is  only  here  and  there 
that  traces — mostly  indecipherable — can  be  discovered.  On 
the  African  side  we  have  the  Berber  language  still  in  its  full 
vigour ;  and  apparently  little  changed  for  thousands  of  years. 
But  in  Europe  the  primitive  tongues  have  everywhere  been 
swept  away  by  the  Aryan  (Hellenic,  Italic,  Keltic)  except  in 
.  the  region  of  the  Pyrenees.  In  Italy  Etruscan  is  the  only 
language  which  can  with  safety  be  called  non-Aryan'',  though 
the  place  of  Ligurian  is  still  under  dispute^  Of  Pelasgian,  no- 
thing survives  except  the  statement  of  Herodotus,  a  dangerous 
guide  in  this  "matter,  that  it  was  a  barbaric  tongue  like  the 
peoples  themselves*,  but  Ridgeway  considers  it  Indo-European". 
Further  east,  in  Asia  Minor,  neither  Karian  inscriptions  and 
glosses  nor  occasional  Lydian"  and  Mysian  glosses  afford  any 

1  See  A.  C.  Haddon,  The  Wanderings  of  Peoples,  191 1,  pp.  16,  17,  55. 

2  R.  S.  Conway,  The  Italic  Dialects,  1897,  and  Art.  "Etruria:  La.nga3.ge,'' Ency. 
Brit.  191 1. 

3  Cf.  T.  Rice  Holmes,  Caesar's  Conquest  of  Gaul,  191 1,  p.  283.  "The  truth  is  that 
linguistic  data  are  insufficient." 

*  I.  57.  ^  See  p.  465. 

^  For  Lydian  see  E.  Littmann,  Sardis,  "Lydian  Inscriptions,"  1916,  briefly  sum- 
marised by  P.  Giles,  "Some  Notes  on  the  New  Lydian  Inscriptions,"  Camb.  Univ. 
Rep.  1917,  p.  587. 


454  Man  :  Past  and'  Present  [ch, 

safe  basis  for  establishing  relationships^;  the  fuller  evidence  of 
Lycian  leaves  its  position  indeterminate"  and  the  Cretan  script 
is  still  undeciphered'. 

But  in  Iberia  besides  the  Iberian  inscriptions,  which,  so 
far,  remain  indecipherable*,  there  survives  the  Basque  of  the 
western  Pyrenees,  which  beyond  question  represents  a  form 
of  speech  which  was  current  in  the  peninsula  in  pre-Aryan 
times,  and  on  the  assumption  of  a  common  origin  of  the 
populations  on  both  sides  of  the  Strait  of  Gibraltar  might  be 
expected  to  show  traces  of  kinship  with  Berber, 
asques.  j^  ^  posthumous  work  on  this  subject",  the 
eminent  philologist  G.  von  der  Gabelenz  goes  much  further 
than  mere  traces,  and  clairns  to  establish  not  only  phonetic 
and  verbal  resemblances,  but  structural  correspondences,  so 
that  his  editor  Graf  von  der  Schulenberg  was  satisfied  as  to 
the  relationship  of  the  two  languages^  This  conclusion  has 
not,  however,  met  with  general  acceptance'  and  the  affinities 
of  Basque  with  Finno-Ugrian  cannot  be  overlooked  I  A  study 
of  the  physical  features  of  the  modern  Basques  adds  complexity 
to  the  problem.  Most  observers  are  agreed  that  a  distinct 
Basque  type  exists,  and  this  physical  and  linguistic  singularity 
has  led  to  various  more  or  less  fanciful  theories  "connecting 
the  Basques  with  every  outlandish  language  and  bankrupt 
people  under  the  sun°,"  while  G.  Herve"  would  regard  them 
as  forming  by  themselves  a  separate  ethnic  group,  "  a  fourth 
European  race."     On  the  other  hand  Feist"  has  grounds  for 

1  S.  Feist,  Kultur,  Ausbreitung  und Herkunft  der  Indogermanen,  1913,  p.  385. 

2  "The  attempts  to  connect  the  language  with  the  Indo-European  family  have 
been  unsuccessful,"  A.  H.  Sayce,  Art.  "Lycia,"  Ency.  Brit.  191 1.  But  cf.  also  S. 
Feist,  loc.  cit.  pp.  385-7;  and  Th.  Kluge,  Die  Lykier,  ihre  Geschtchte  und  ihre 
Inschriften,  19 10. 

^  A.  J.  Evans,  Scripta  Minoa,  1909. 

*  T.  Rice  Holmes,  Caesar's  Conquest  of  Gaul,  191 1,  p.  289  n.  4. 

^  Die  Verwandtschaft  des  Baski'schen  mit  den  Berberspracheh  Nord-Afrikas 
nackgewiesen,  1894. 

*  "Die  Sprachen  waren  mit  einander  verwandt,  das  stand  ausser  Zweifel." 
(Pref  IV.) 

'  J.  Vinson  {Rev.  de  linguistique,  xxxvili.  1905,  p.  in)  says,  "no  more  absurd 
book  on  Basque  has  appeared  of  late  years."  See  T.  Rice  Holmes,  Caesar's  Conquest 
of  Gaul,  191 1,  p.  299  n.  3. 

8  "  In  the  general  series  of  organised  linguistic  families  it  [Basque]  would  take 
an  intermediate  place  between  the  American  on  the  one  side  and  the  Ugro-Alta'ic 
or  Ugrian  on  the  other."  Wentworth  Webster  and  Tulien  Vinson,  Ency.  Brit.  1910, 
"Basques." 

'  See  W.  Z.  Ripley,  The  Races  of  Europe,  1900,  Chap.  Vlii.  "The  Basques," 
pp.  180-204. 

'*  Rev.  mensuelle  de  I'Acole  d'Anthr.  x.'  1900,  pp.  225-7. 

"  S.  7 &\'st,  Kultur,  Ausbreitung  und  Herkunft  der  Indogermanenj  191 3. 


'^m]  The  Caucasic  Peoples  455 

claiming  that  the  Basques  are  not,  in  anthropological  respects, 
essentially  different  from  their  Spanish  or  French  neighbours 
(P-  357)  and  Jullian^  denies  them  more  than  a  superficial  unity. 
These  apparently  conflicting  opinions  are  reconciled  by  the 
conclusions  of  R.  Collignon',  himself  one  of  the  best  authori- 
ties on  the  subject.  "  The  physical  traits  characteristic  of  the 
Basques  attach  them  unquestionably  (' indiscutablement ')  to 
the  great  Hamitic  branch  of  the  white  races,  that  is  to  say, 
to  the  ancient  Egyptians  and  to  the  various  groups  commonly 
comprised  under  the  collective  name  of  Berbers.  Their 
brachycephaly,  slight  as,  it  is,  cannot  outweigh  the  aggregate 
of  the  other  characters  which  they  present. ...It  is  therefore  in 
this  direction  and  not  amongst  Finns  or  Esthonians  that  is  to 
be  sought  the  parent  stem  of  this  paradoxical  race.  It  is 
North  African  or  European,  assuredly  not  Asiatic."  Collignon's 
explanation  of  the  Basque  type  is  that  it  is  a  sub-species  of 
the  Mediterranean  stock  evolved  by  long-continued  and  com- 
plete isolation,  and  in-and-in  breeding,  primarily  engendered  by 
peculiarity  of  language.  The  effects  of  heredity,  aided  perhaps 
by  artificial  selection,  have  generated  local  peculiarities  and 
have  developed  them  to  an  extreme'. 

"The  Iberian  question,"  says  Rice  Holmes,  "is  the  most 
complicated  and  difficult  of  all  the  problems  of  Gallic  eth- 
nology ^"     From  the  testimony  of  Greek   and    _^   ,^   . 

T-,       o-'  ,  ,  ,  ,    -'    ^  ,,        .  The  Iberians. 

Roman  authors,  he  draws  the  lollowmg  con- 
clusions. "The  name  Iberian  was  probably  applied,  in  the 
first  instance,  only  to  the  people  who  dwelt  between  the  Ebro 
and  the  Pyrenees.  The  Iberians  once  occupied  the  seaboard 
of  Gaul  between  the  Rhdne  and  the  Pyrenees  ;  but  Ligurians 
encroached  upon  this  part  of  their  territory.  They  also 
probably  occupied  the  whole  eastern  region  of  the  Spanish 
peninsula.  But,"  he  adds,  "we  must  bear  in  mind  that  the 
data  are  both  insufficient  and.  uncertain "  (p.  288).  Later 
(p.  301),  reviewing  the  evidence  collected  by  philologists  and 

1  Hist,  de  la  Gaule,  I.  1908,  p.  271. 

2  "La  Race  Basque,"  L'Antkrop.  1894. 

3  W.  Z.  Ripley,  loc.  cit.  p.  200. 

*  Caesar's  Conquest  of  Gaul,  191 1,  p.  287.  Cf.  J.  V)kc\iA^\Xe.{Manueld.'Arch^o- 
logie prMstorique,  II.  1910,  p.  27),  "As  a  rule  it  is  wise  to  attach  to  this  expression 
(Iberian)  merely  a  geographical  value."  Reviewing  the  problems  of  Iberian  origins 
(which  he  considers  remain  unsolved),  he  quotes  as  an  example  of  their  range,  the 
opinion  of  C.  JuUian  (Revue  des  Etudes  Anciennes,  1903,  p.  383),  "There  is  no 
Iberian  race.  The  Iberians  were  a  state  constituted  at  latest  towards  the  6th  century, 
in  the  valley  of  the  Ebro,  which  received,  either  from  strangers  or  from  the  indigenous 
peoples,  the  .name  of  the  river  as  mm  de  guerre.'^ 


456  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

by  craniologists,  he  continues,  "it  seems  to  me  prooable  that 
the  Iberians  comprised  both  people  who  spoke,  or  whose 
ancestors  had  spoken,  Basque,  and  people  who  spoke  the 
language  or  languages^  of  the  'Iberian'  inscriptions;  that  to 
observers  who  had  not  learned  to  measure  skulls  and  knew 
nothing  of  scientific  methods,  they  appeared  to  be  homogeneous; 
that  the  prevailing  type  was  that  which  is  now  called  Iberian 
and  is  seen  at  its  purest  in  Sardinia,  Corsica  and  Sicily ;  but 
that  a  certain  proportion  of  the  whole  population  may  have 
been  characterised  by  physical  features  more  or  less  closely 
resembling  those  which  the  modern  Basques — French  and 
Spanish — possess  in  common,  and  which,  as  MM.  Broca  and 
Collignon  tell  us,  distinguish  them  from  all  other  European 
peoples.  Finally  it  seems  probable  that  the  true  Iberians 
wer^  the  people  who  spoke  the  languages  of  the  inscriptions, 
and  that  Basque  was  spoken  by  a  people  who  occupied  Spain 
and  Southern  Gaul  before  the  Iberians  arrived.  But  unless 
and  until  the  key  to  those  appalling  inscriptions  is  found,  the 
problem  will  never  be  solved." 

The   Ligurian  question  is  still  more  complex   than  the 
Iberian.     For  while  no  facts  can  be  brought  forward  in  direct 
.  contradiction  of  the  assumption  that  the  Iberians 

igunans.  ^gj.^  ^  short  dark  dolichocephalic  population 
occupying  the  Iberian  peninsula  in  the  Stone  Age,  and 
speaking  a  non- Indo-European  language,  no  such  generalisa- 
tions with  regard  to  race,  physical  type,  culture,  geographical 
distribution  or  language  are  accepted  for  the  Ligurians.  Some, 
with  Sergi^  consider  the  Ligurians  merely  as  another  branch 
of  the  Mediterranean  race.  Others,  with  Zaborowskj',  tracing 
their  presence  among  the  modern  inhabitants  of  Liguria,  re- 
gard them  as  representing  the  small,  dark,  brachycephalic  race 
at  its  purest.  While  many  who  recognise  the  Ligurians  as 
belonging  to  the  Mediterranean  physical  type  deny  their 
affinity  with  the  Iberians.  Meyer^  considers  such  a  relation- 
ship "not  improbable,"  but  D^chelette"  shows  that  it  is 
absolutely  untenable  on  archaeological  grounds.     The  geo- , 

1  J.  Vinson  {Rev.  de  linguistique,  XL.  1907,  pp.  5,  211)  divides  the  Iberian 
inscriptions  into  three  groups,  each  of  which,  he  beUeves, '  represents  a  different 
language. 

^  The  Mediterranean  Race,  190 1. 

^  Diet,  des  sc.  anthr.  p.  247,  and  Rev-  de  I'^cole  d'Antkr.  xvil,  1907,  p.  365. 

*  Geschichte  des  Altertums,  I.  2,  1909,  p.  723. 

^  Manuel  d'ArcMologie  prdhistorique,  11.  1910,  p.  27  «.,  see  also  p.  22  for 
archaeological  proofs  of  "ethnographic  distinctions." 


^"i]  The  Caucasic  Peoples  457 

graphical  range  is  equally  uncertain.  C.  JuUian'  distributes 
Ligurians  not  only  over  the  whole  of  Gaul,  but  also  throughout 
Western  Europe,  and  attributes  to  them  all  the  glories  of 
neolithic  civilisation ;  A.  Bertrand''  thinks  that  they  played 
even  in  Gaul  merely  a  secondary  r61e ;  D^chelette',  on  archaeo- 
logical evidence,  proves  that  the  Ligurian  period  was  par 
excellence  the  Age  of  Bronze,  and  Ridgeway'  identifies  it  with 
the  Terramare  civilisation.  Finally,  if  we  follow  Sergi,  the 
Ligurians  must  have  spoken  a  non- Indo-European  language  ; 
but  the  most  eminent  authorities  are  in  the  main  agreed  that 
such  traces  of  Ligurian  as  remain  show  affinities  with  Indo- 
European'.  With  regard  to  their  physical  type  Sergi  puts 
forward  the  view  that  the  true  Ligurians  were  like  the  Iberians, 
a  section  of  the  long-headed  Mediterranean  (Afro-European) 
stock.  From  prehistoric  stations  in  the  valley  of  the  Po  he 
collected  59  skulls,  all  of  this  type,  and  all  Ligurian;  history 
and  tradition  being  of  accord  that  before  the  arrival  of  the 
Kelts  this  region  belonged  to  the  Ligurian  domain.  "  If  it 
be  true  that  prehistoric  Italy  was  occupied  by  the  Mediter- 
ranean race  and  by  two  branches — Ligurian  and  Pelasgian — 
of  that  race,  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  the  Po  valley,  now 
exhumed  in  those  59  skulls,  were  Ligurian"." 

These  Ligurians  have  been  traced  from  their  homes  on 
the  Mediterranean  into  Central   Europe.     From  a  study  of 
the  neolithic  finds  made  in  Germany,  in  the  dis-    ugurians  in 
trict  between  Neustadt  and  Worms,  C.  Mehlis'    Rhineland  and 
infers  that  here  the  first  settlers  were  Ligurians,    '**'y- 
who  had  penetrated  up  the  Rhone  and  Sa6ne  into  Rhineland. 
In  the  Kircherian  Museum  in  Rome  he  was  surprised  to  find 
a  marked  analogy  between  objects  from  the  Riviera  and  from 

^  Hist,  de  la  Gaule,  I.  Chap.  iv.  The  author  makes  it  clear,  however,  that  his 
"Ligurians"  are  not  necessarily  an  ethnic  unit,  "De  I'unite  de  nom,  ne  concluons 
pas  kl'unitd  de  race"  (119),  and  later  (p.  120),  "Ne  considdrons  done  pas  les  Ligures 
comme  les  reprdsentants  uniformes  d'une  race  d^terminde.  lis  sont  la  popula- 
tion qui  habitait  I'Europe  occidentale  avant  les  invasions  connues  des  Celtes  ou  des 
Etrusques,  avant  la  naissance  des  peuples  latin  ou,  ib^re.  lis  ne  sont  pas  autre 
chose." 

^  Gaule  av.  Gaulois,  p.  248. 

^  Loc.  cit.  p.  23  «.  I. 

*  Early  Age  of  Greece,  1901,  p.  237  ff.,  and  "Who  were  the  Romans?"  Proc. 
Brit.  Acad.  III.  19,  1908,  p.  3. 

*  See  R.  S.  Conway,  Art.  "Liguria,"  Ency.  Brit.  191 1.  It  may  be  noted,  however, 
as  Feist  points  out  {Ausbreitung  und  Herkunftdes  Indogermane:n,  1913,  p.  368),  this 
hypothesis  rests  on  slight  foundations  ("ruht  auf  schwachen  Fiifen"). 

*  Arii  e  Italici,  p.  60. 

7  Corresbl.  d.  d.  Ges.f.  Anthrop.,  Feb.  1898,  p.  I2. 


458  Man  :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

the  Rhine ;  skulls  (both  dolicho),  vases,  stone  implements, 
mill-stones,  etc.,  all  alike.  Such  Ligurian  objects,  found 
everywhere  in  North  Italy,  occur  in  the  Rhine  lands  chiefly 
along  the  left  bank  of  the  main  stream  between  Basel  and 
Mainz,  and  farther  north  in  the  Rheingau  at  Wiesbaden,  and 
in  the  Lahn  valley. 

The  Ligurians  may  of  course  have  reached  the  Riviera 
round  the  coast  from  Illiberis  and  Iberia;  but  the  same  race 
is  found  as  the  aboriginal  element  also  at  the  "  heel  of  the 
boot,"  and  in  fact  throughout  the  whole  of  Italy  and  all  the 
adjacent  islands.  This  point  is  now  firmly  established,  and 
not  only  Sergi,  but  several  other  leading  Italian  authorities 
hold  that  the  early  inhabitants  of  the  peninsula  and  islands 
were  Ligurians  and  Pelasgians,  whom  they  look  upon  as  of 
the  same  stock,  all  of  whom  came  from  North  Africa,  and 
that,  despite  subsequent  invasions  and  crossings,  this  Mediter- 
ranean stock  still  persists,  especially  in  the  southern  provinces 
and  in  the  islands — Sicily,  Sardinia,  and  Corsica.  Hence  it 
seems  more  reasonable  to  bring  this  aboriginal  element  straight 
from  Africa  by  the  stepping  stones  of  Pantellaria,  Malta,  and 
Gozzo  (formerly  more  extensive  than  at  present,  and  still  strewn 
with  megalithic  remains  comparable  to  those  of  both  continents), 
than  by  the  roundabout  route  of  Iberia  and  Southern  Gaul'. 
This  is  a  simple  solution  of  the  problem,  but  it  is  a  question 
if  it  is  justifiable  to  extend  the  name  Ligurian  to  all  that  branch 
of  the  Mediterranean  race  which  undoubtedly  forms  the  sub- 
stratum of  population  in  Italy  and  parts  of  Gaul,  ignoring  the 
presence  or  absence  of  "Ligurian"  culture  or  traces  of  Ligurian 
language.  D^chelette^  relying  chiefly  upon  archaeological 
and  cultural  evidence,  sums  up  as  follows :  we  must  consider 
the  Ligurians  as  Indo-European  tribes,  whose  area  of  domi- 
nation had  its  centre,  during  the  Bronze  Age,  in  North  Italy, 
and  the  left  bank  of  the  Rhone.  They  were  enterprising  and 
energetic  in  agriculture  and  in  commerce.  Together  with 
neighbouring  peoples  of  Illyrian  stock  they  engaged  in  an 
indirect  but  nevertheless  regular  trade  with  the  northern 
regions  where  amber  was  collected.  Among  the  Ligurians, 
as  among  the  Illyrians  and  Hyperboreans,  a  form  of  heliolatry 
was  prevalent,  popularising  the  old  solar  myths  in  which  the 

'  Yet  Ligurians  are  actually  planted  on  the  North  Atlantic  coast  of  Spain  by 
S.  Sempere  y  Miguel  {Revista  de  Ciencias  Historicas,  I.  v.  1887). 
^  Manuel  d'ArcMologie prihistorique,  II.  1910,  p.  22. 


xiii]  The  Caucasic  Peoples  459 

swan  appears  to  have  played  an  important  r6le.  Rice  Holmes' 
defines  more  closely  their  geographical  range.  "  Ligurians 
undoubtedly  lived  in  South-eastern  Gaul,  where  they  were 
found  at  least  as  far  north  as  Bellegarde  in  the  department  of 
the  Ain ;  and,  mingled  more  or  less  with  Iberians,  in  the 
departments  of  the  Gard,  Hdrault,  Aude  and  Pyr^n^es- 
Orientales.  Most  probably  they  had  once  occupied  the  whole 
eastern  region  as  far  north  as  the  Marne,  but  had  been 
submerged  by  Celts :  and  perhaps  they  had  also  pushed 
westward  as  far  as  Aquitania."  He  continues,  "Were  it 
possible  to  regard  the  theory  of  MM.  d'Arbois  de  Jubainville 
and  Jullian  as  more  than  an  interesting  hypothesis,  we  should 
have  to  conclude  that  the  Ligurians  were  simply  the  long- 
headed and  short-headed  peoples  who,  reinforced  perhaps 
from  time  to  time  by  hordes  of  immigrants,  had  inhabited  the 
whole  of  Gaul  since  the  Neolithic  Age,  and  of  whom  the 
former,  or  many  of  them,  were  descended  from  palaeolithic 
hunters ;  in  other  words'  that  they  were  the  same  people  who, 
after  they  had  been  conquered  by,  or  had  coalesced  with,  the 
Celtic  invaders,  called  themselves  Celiac  :  but  to  say  which  of 
them  were  first  known  as  Ligurians  or  introduced  the  Ligurian 
language  would  be  utterly  hopeless.  Finally  the  little  evidence 
we  possess  tends  to  show  that  the  people  called  Ligurians, 
when  they  became  known  to  the  Greek  writers  who  described 
them,  were  a  medley  of  different  races." 

For  Sicily,  with  which  may  practically  be   included  the 
south  of  Italy,  we  have  the  conclusions  of  G.  Patroni  based 

on  years  of  intelligent  and  patient  labours".     To      

Africa  this  archaeologist  traces  the  palaeolithic  _!sicanis£uU. 
men  of  the  west  coast  of  Sicily  and  of  the  caves 
near  Syracuse  explored  by  Von  Adrian^  ''  We  are  forced  to 
conclude  that  man  arrived  in  Sicily  from  Africa  at  a  time 
when  the  isthmus  connecting  the  island  with  that  Continent 
still  stood  above  sea-level.  He  made  his  appearance  about 
the  same  time  as  the  elephant,  whose  remains  are  associated 
with  human  bones  especially  in  the  west.  He  followed  the 
sea  coasts,  the  shells  of  which  offered  him  sufficient  food\" 
He  was  followed  by  the  neolithic  man,  whose  presence  has 

1  Caesar's  Conquest  of  Gaul,  191 1,  p.  287. 

2  "  La  Civilisation  Primitive  dans  la  Sicilie  Orientale,"  in  L^ Anthropologies  1897, 
p.  130  sq. ;  and  p.  295  sq. 

3  Prcehistorische  Studien  aus  Sicilien,  quoted  by  Patroni.  *  p.  130. 


46o  Man  :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

been  revealed  by  the  researches  of  Paolo  Orsi  at  the  station 
of  Stentinello  on  the  coast  north  of  Syracuse. 

To  Orsi  is  also  due  the  discovery  of  what  he  calls  the 
"  Aeneolithic  Epoch  S"  represented  by  the  bronzes  of  the  Girgenti 
district.  Orsi  assigns  this  culture  to  the  Siculi,  and  divides  it 
into  three  periods,  while  regarding  the  neolithic  men  of  Stenti- 
nello as  pre-Siculi.  But  Patroni  holds  that  the  aeneolithic 
peoples  have  a  right  to  the  historic  name  of  Sicani,  and  that 
the  true  Siculi  were  those  that  arrived  from  Italy  in  Orsi's 
second  period.  It  seems  no  longer  possible  to  determine  the 
true  relations  of  these  two  peoples,  who  stand  out  as  distinct 
throughout  early  historic  times.  They  are- by  many^  regarded 
as  of  one  race,  although  both  (Si/cai/os,  ;Si/ce\os)  are  already 
mentioned  in  the  Odyssey.  But  the  evidence  tends  to  show 
that  the  Sicani  represent  the  oldest  element  which  came  direct 
from  Africa  in  the  Stone  Age,  while  the  Siculi  were  a  branch 
of  the  Ligurians  driven  in  the  Metal  Age  from  Italy  to  the 
island,  which  was  already  occupied  by  the  Sicani,  as  related 
by  Dionysius  Halicarnassus^  In  fact  this  migration  of  the 
Siculi  may  be  regarded  as  almost  an  historical  event,  which 
according  to  Thucydides  took  place  "  about  300  years  before 
the  Hellenes  came  to  Sicily^"  The  Siculi  bore  this  national 
name  on  the  mainland,  so  that  the  modern  expression  "  King- 
dom of  |he  Two  Sicilies"  (the  late  Kingdom  of  Naples)  has 
its  justification  in  the  earliest  traditions  of  the  people.  Later, 
both  races  were  merged  in  one,  and  the  present  Sicilian  nation 
was  gradually  constituted  by  further  accessions  of  Phoenician 
(Carthaginian),  Greek,  Roman,  Vandal,  Arab,  Norman,  French 
and  Spanish  elements. 

Very  remarkable  is  the  contrast  presented  by  the  conditions 
prevailing  in  this  ethnical  microcosm  and  those  of  Sardinia, 
inhabited  since  the  Stone  Ages  by  one  of  the  most  homogeneous 
groups  in  the  world.    From  the  statistics  embodied  in  R.  Livi's 

'  See  p.  21. 

^  It  may  be  mentioned  that  while  Penka  makes  the  Siculi  Illyrians  from  Upper 
Italy  ("Zur  Palaoethnologie  Mittel-  u.  Siideuropas,"  in  Wiener  Anthrop.  Ges.  1897, 
p.  18),  E.  A.  Freeman  holds  that  they  were  not  only  Aryans,  but  eloselyakin  to  the 
Romans,  speaking  "an  undeveloped  Latin,"  or  "something  which  did  not  differ 
more  widely  from  Latin  than  one  dialect  of  Greek  differed  from  another"  {The 
History  of  Sicily,  etc.,  I.  p.  488).  On  the  Siculi  and  Sicani,  see  E.  Meyer,  Geschichte 
des  Alteriums,  1909,  i.  2,  p.  723,  also  Art.  "Sicily,  History,"  Ency.  Brit.  191 1. 
Ddchelette  {Manuel cPArchSologieprdhistorique,  II.  1910,  p.  17)  suggests  that  Sikelos 
or  Siculus,  the  eponymous  hero  of  Sicily,  may  have  been  merely  the  personification 
of  the  typical  Ligurian  implement,  the  bronze  sickle  (Lat.  secula,  sicula). 

^  I.  22.  *  VI.  2. 


xiii]  The  Caucasic  Peoples  461 

Antropologia  Militare^  the  Sards  would  almost  seem  to  be 
cast  all  in  one  mould,  the  great  bulk  of  the 
natives  having  the  shortest  stature,  the  brownest  lorsfcan^ 
eyes  and  hair,  the  longest  heads,  the  swarthiest 
complexion  of  all  the  Italian  populations.  "  They  con- 
sequently form  quite  a  distinct  variety  amongst  the  Italian 
races,  which  is  natural  enough  when  we  remember  the  seclusion 
in  which  this  island  has  remained  for  so  many  ages^"  They 
seem  to  have  been  preserved  as  if  in  some  natural  museum  to 
show  us  what  the  Ligurian  branch  of  the  Mediterranean  stock 
may  have  been  in- neolithic  times.  Yet  they  were  probably 
preceded  by  the  microcephalous  dwarfish  race  described  by 
Sergi  as  one  of  the  early  Mediterranean  stocks.  Their  pre-r 
sence  in  Sardinia  has  now  been  determined  by  A.  Niceforo 
and  E.  A.  Onnis,  who  find  that  of  about  130  skulls  from  old 
graves  thirty  have  a  capacity  of  only  1150C.C.  or  under,  while 
several  living  persons  range  in  height  from  4ft.  2  in.  to  4ft.  1 1  in. 
Niceforo  agrees  with  Sergi  in  bringing  this  dwarfish  race  also 
from  North  Africa '. 

With  remarkable  cranial  uniformity,  similar  phenomena 
are  presented  by  the  Corsicans  who  show  ,"the  same  exag- 
gerated length  of  face  and  narrowness  of  the  forehead.  The 
cephalic  index  drops  from  87  and  above  in  the  Alps  to  about 
75  all  along  the  line.  Coincidently  the  colour  of  hair  and  eyes 
becomes  very  dark,  almost  black.  The  figure  is  less  amply 
proportioned,  the  people  become  light  and  rather  agile.  It  is 
certain  that  the  stature  at  the  same  time  falls  to  an  exceedingly 
low  level :  fully  9  inches  below  the  average  for  Teutonic 
Europe,"  although  "  the  people  of  Northern  Africa,  pure 
Mediterranean  Europeans,  are  of  medium  size*." 

In  the  Italian  peninsula  Sergi  holds  not  only  that  the 
aborigines  were  exclusively  of  Ligurian,  i.e.  Mediterranean 
stock,  but  that  this  stock  still  persists  in  the  whole  of  the 
region  south  of  the  Tiber,  although  here  and  there  mixed  with 
"Aryan"  elements.  North  of  that  river  these  elements  in- 
crease gradually  up  to  the  Italian  Alps,  and  at  present  are 
dominant  in  the  valley  of  the  Po^     In  this  way  he  would 

'  Parte  I.  Dati  Antropologici  ed  Etnologici,  Rome,  1896. 

2  p.  182.  3  Atti  Soc.  Rom.  d'  Antrop.  1896,  pp.  179  and  201. 

'  Cf.  W.  Z.  Ripley,  "Racial  Geography  of  Europe,"  Pop.  Set.  Monthly,  New 
York,  1897-9,  and  The  Races  of  Europe,  1900,  pp.  54,  175. 

*  Arii  e  Italici,  p.  188.  Hence  for  these  Italian  Ligurians  he  claims  the  name 
of  "Italici,"  which  he  refuses  to  extend  to  the  Aryan  intruders  in  the  peninsula. 
"A  questi  primi  abitatori  spetta  legittimamente  il  nome  di  Italici,  non  apopolazioni 


462  Man  :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

explain  the  rising  percentage  of  round-heads  in  that  direction, 
the  Ligurians  being  for  him,  as  stated,  long-headed,  the 
"  Aryans  "  round-headed. 

Similarly  Beddoe,  commenting  on  Livi's  statistics,  showing 
predominance  of  tall  stature,  round  heads,  and  fair  complexion 
in  North  Italy,  infers  "that  a  type,  the  one  we  usually  call  the 
Mediterranean,  does  really  predominate  in  the  south,  and  exists 
in  a  state  of  comparative  purity  in  Sardinia  and  Calabria ; 
while  in  the  north  the  broad-headed  Alpine  type  is  powerful, 
but  is  almost  everywhere  more  or  less  modified  by,  or  inter- 
spersed with  other  types — Germanic,  Slavic,  or  of  doubtful 
origin — to  which  the  variations  of  stature  and  complexion  may 
probably  be,  at  least  in  part,  attributed'." 

Similar  relations  prevail  in  the  Balkan  peninsula,  where 
the  Mediterranean  stock  is  represented  by  the  "Pelasgic''" 
substratum.  Invented,  as  has  been  said,  for  the 
gians.  pm-pQgg  Qf  confounding  future  ethnologists,  these 
Pelasgians  certainly  present  an  extremely  difficult  racial  pro- 
blem, the  solution  of  which  has  hitherto  resisted  the  combined 
attacks  of  ancient  and  modern  students.  When  Dionysius 
tells  us  bluntly  that  they  were  Greeks',  we  fancy  the  question 
is  settled  off-hand,  until  we  find  Herodotus  describing  them  a 
few  hundred  years  earlier  as  aliens,  rude  in  speech  and  usages, 
distinctly  not  Greeks,  and  in  his  time  here  and  there  (Thrace, 
Hellespont)  still  speaking  apparently  non- Hellenic  dialects ^ 
Then  Homer  several  centuries  still  earlier,  with  his  epithet  of 

successive  [Aryan  Umbrians],  che  avrebbero  sloggiato  i  primi  abitanti"  (p.  60).  The 
result  is  a  little  confusing,  "Italic"  being  now  the  accepted  name  of  the  Italian 
branch  of  the  Aryan  linj^uistic  family,  and  also  commonly  applied  to  the  Aryans 
of  this  Italic  speech,  although  the  word  Italia  itself  may  have  been  indigenous 
(Ligurian)  and  not  introduced  by  the  Aryans.  It  would  perhaps  be  better  to  regard 
"Italia"  as  a  "geographical  expression"  applicable  to' all  its  inhabitants,  whatever 
their  origin  or  speech. 

'  Science  Progress,  July,  1894.  It  will  be  noticed  that  the  facts,  accepted  by  all, 
are  differently  interpreted  by  Beddoe  and  Sergi,  the  latter  taking  the  long-headed 
element  in  North  Italy  as  the  aboriginal  (Ligurian),  modified  by  the  later  intrusion 
of  round-headed  Aryan  Slavs,  Teutons,  and  especially  Kelts,  while  Beddoe  seems 
to  regard  the  broad-headed  Alpine  as  the  original,  afterwards  modified  by  intrusive 
long-headed  types  "  Germanic,  Slavic,  or  of  doubtful  origin."  Either  view  would  no 
doubt  account  for  the  present  relations ;  but  Sergi's  study  of  the  prehistoric  remains 
(see  above)  seems  to  compel  acceptance  of  his  explanation.  From  the  statistics  an 
average  height  of  not  more  than  5  ft.  4  in.  results  for  the  whole  of  Italy. 

2  For  the  identification  of  the  Mediterranean  race  in  Greece  with  the  Pelasgians, 
see  W.  Ridgeway,  Early  Age  of  Greece,  I.  1901,  though  Ripley  coaX.e.xi6.%  {The.  Races 
of  Europe,  1900,  p.  407),  "Positively  no  anthropological  data  on  the  matter  exist." 
To  T^v  neXao-ywi/  yivoi  'EXXi/vtKoi/. 

*  I.  57- 


^iii]  The  Caucasic  Peoples  463 

SIoi,  occurring  both  in  the  //?W  and,  the  Odyssey"^,  exalts  them 
almost  above  the  level  of  the  Greeks  themselves.  It  would 
seem,  therefore,  almost  impossible  to  discover  a  key  to  the 
puzzle,  one  which  will  also  fit  in  both  with  Sergi's  Mediter- 
ranean theory,  and  with  the  results  of  recent  archaeological 
researches  in  the  Aegean  lands.  The  following  hypothesis  is 
supported  by  a  certain  amount  of  evidence.  I  f  the  pre-  M  ykenaean 
culture  revealed  by  Schliemann  and  others  in  the  Troad, 
Mykenae,  Argos,  Tiryns,  by  Evans  and  others  in  Crete,  by 
Cesnola  in  Cyprus,  be  ascribed  to  a  pre- Hellenic  rather  than 
to  a  proto- Hellenic  people,  then  the  classical  references  will 
explain  themselves,  while  this  pre-Hellenic  race  will  be  readily 
identified  with  the  Pelasgians,  as  this  term  is  understood  by 
Sergi. 

It  is,  I  suppose,  universally  allowed  that  Greece  really  was 
peopled  before  the  arrival  of  the  Hellenes,  which  term  is  here 
to  be  taken  as  comprising  all  the  invading  tribes  from  the 
north,  of  which  the  Achaeans  were  perhaps  the  earliest.  On 
their 'arrival  the  Hellenes  therefore  found  the  land  not  only 
inhabited,  but  inhabited  by  a  cultured  people  more  civilised 
than  themselves,  who  could  thus  be  identified  with  Sergi's 
Pelasgian  branch  of  the  Mediterranean  or  Afro- European 
stock,  whom  the  proto- Hellenes  naturally  regarded  as  their 
superiors,  and  whom  their  first  singers  also  Theory  of  pre- 
naturally  called  Sioi  IIeXao■yot^  But  in  the  course  Hellenic  Pelas- 
of  a  few  centuries'  these  Pelasgians  became  ^'*"^- 
Hellenised,  all  but  a  few  scattered  groups,  which  lagging 
behind  in  the  general  social  progress  are  now  also  looked  upon 
as  barbarians,  speaking  barbaric  tongues,  and  are  so  described 
by  contemporary  historians.  Then  these  few  remnants  of  a 
glorious  but  forgotten  past  are  also  merged  in  the  Hellenic 

'  //.  X.  429;  Od.  XIX.  177. 

2  "  We  recognize  in  the  Pelasgi  an  ancient  and  honourable  race,  ante-Hellenic, 
it  is  true,  but  distinguished  from  the  Hellenes  only  in  the  political  and  social  develop- 
ment of  their  age.... Herodotus  and  others  take  a  prejudiced  view  when,  reasoning 
back  from  the  subsequent  Tyrrhenian  Pelasgi,  they  call  the  ancient  Pelasgians  a 
rude  and  worthless  race,  their  language  barbarous,  and  their  deities  nameless. 
Numerous  traditionary  accounts,  of  undoubted  authenticity,  describe  them  as 
a  brave,  moral,  and  honourable  people,  which  was  less  a  distinct  stock  and  tribe, 
thanarace  united  by  a  resemblance  in  manners  and  the  formsof  life"  ( W.  Wachsmuth, 
The  Historical  Antiquities  of  the  Greeks,  etc.,  Engl.  ed.  1837,  I.,  p.  39).  Remarkable 
words  to  have  been  written  before  the  recent  revelations  of  archaeology  in  Hellas. 

^  That  the  two  cultures  went  on  for  a  long  time  side  by  side  is  evident  from  the 
different  social  institutions  and  religious  ideas  prevailing  in  different  parts  of  Hellas 
during  the  strictly  historic  period. 


464  Man  :   Past  and  Present  [ch. 

stream,  and  can  no  longer  be  distinguished  from  other  Greeks 
by  contemporary  writers.  Hence  for  Dionysius  the  Pelasgians 
are  simply  Greeks,  which  in  a  sense  may  be  true  enough. 
All  the  heterogeneous  elements  have  been  fused  in  a  single 
Hellenic  nationality,  built  upon  a  rough  Pelasgic  substratum, 
and  adorned  with  all  the  graces  of  Hellenic  culture. 

Now  to  make  good  this  hypothesis,  it  is  necessary  to  show, 
first,  that  the  Pelasgians  were  not  an  obscure  tribe,  a  small 
people  confined  to  some  remote  corner  of  Hellas,  but  a  wide- 
spread nation  diffused  over  all  the  land ;  secondly,  that  this 
nation,  as  far  as  can  now  be  determined,  presented  mental  and 
other  characters  answering  to  those  of  Sergi's  Mediterraneans, 
and  also  such  as  might  be  looked  for  in  a  race  capable  of 
developing  the  splendid  Aegean  culture  of  pre- Hellenic  times. 

On  the  first  point  it  has  been  claimed  that  the  Pelasgians 
were  so  widely  distributed^  that  the  difficulty  rather  is  to 
Pelasgians  and  discover  a  district  where  their  presence  was  un- 
Mykenaean  known.  They  fill  the  background  of  Hellenic 
civilisation.  origins,  and  even  spread  beyond  the  Hellenic 

horizon,  to  such  an  extent  that  there  seems  little  room  for  any 
other  people  between  the  Adriatic  and  the  Hellespont.  Thus 
Ridgeway^  has  brought  together  a  good  many  passages  which 
clearly  establish  their  universal  range,  as  well  as  their  occupa- 
tion especially  of  those  places  where  have  been  found  objects 
of  Mykenaean  and  pre-Mykenaean  culture,  such  as  engraved 
gems,  pottery,  implements,  buildings,  inscriptions  in  picto- 
graphic  and  syllabic  scripts.  In  Crete  they  had  the  "great 
city  of  Knossos"  in  Homer*s  time^  not  only  was  Mykenae 
theirs,  but  the  whole  of  Peloponnesus  took  the  name  of 
Pelasgia ;  the  kings  of  Tiryns  were  Pelasgians,  and  Aeschylus 
calls  Argos  a  Pelasgian  city ;  an  old  wall  at  Athens  was 
attributed  to  them,  and  the  people  of  Attica  had  from  all  time 
been  Pelasgians*.  Orchomenus  in  Boeotia  was  founded  by  a 
colony  from  Pelasgiotis  in  Thessaly ;  Lesbos  also  was  called 
Pelasgia,  and  Homer  knew  of  Pelasgians  in  the  Troad.  Their 
settlements  are  further  traced  to  Egypt,  to  Rhodes,  Cyprus, 
Epirus — where  Dodona  was  their  ancient  shrine — and  lastly 
to  various  parts  of  Italy. 

'  Kara  rfjv  'EXXdfia  JTa<rav  inenoKaae  (Strabo,  V.  22o).     This  might  almost  be 
translated,  "  they  flooded  the  whole  of  Greece." 
^  Early  Age  of  Greece,  igoi,  Chaps.  I.  and  ir. 
5  Od.  XIX.  4  Thuc.  I.  3. 


xiii]  The  Caucasic  Peoples  465 

Moreover,  the  Pelasgians  were  traditionally  the  civilising 
element,  who  taught  people  to  make  bread,  to  yoke  the  ox  to 
the  plough,  and  to  measure  land.  It  would  ap- 
pear from  these  and  other  allusions  that  there  cuWure. 
were  memories  of  still  earlier  aborigines,  amongst 
whom  the  Pelasgians  appear  as  a  cultured  people,  introducing 
perhaps  the  arts  and  industries  of  the  pre-Mykenaean  Age. 
But  the  assumption,  based  on  no  known  data,  is  unnecessary, 
and  it  seems  more  reasonable  to  look  on  this  culture  as  locally 
developed,  to  some  extent  under  eastern  (Egyptian,  Babylonian, 
Hittite?)  influences'.  Here  it  is  important  to  note  that  the 
Pelasgians  were  credited  with  a  knowledge  of  letters'',  and  all 
this  has  been  advanced  as  sufficient  confirmation  of  our  second 
postulate.  Nevertheless  it  must  be  acknowledged  that  the 
difficulties  are  not  all  overcome  by  this  hypothesis,  and  the 
further  question  of  language  divides  even  its  stanchest  sup- 
porters into  opposing  groups,  for  while  Sergi's  Mediterraneans 
necessarily  speak  a  non- Indo-European  language'.  Ridge  way's 
Pelasgians  speak  Aeolic  Greek*. 

The  range  and  importance  of  the  Pelasgians  are  most 
strictly  limited  by  J.  L.  Myres",  who  thinks  that  the  Alpine 
type  may  even  be  primitive  in  the  Morea,  Medi- 
terranean  man  being  an  intruder  from  the  south 
merely  fringing  the  coast  and  never  penetrating  inland.  The 
researches  of  von  Luschan  in  Lycia  support  this  view",  and 
Ripley's  map  of  the  present  inhabitants  of  the  Balkan  peninsula 
shows  the  "  Greek  contingent  closely  confined  to  the  sea- 
coast'."     Ripley,    however,    though    carefully    avoiding    any 

1  This  idea  of  an  independent  evolution  of  western  (European)  culture  is  steadily 
gaining  ground,  and  is  strenuously  advocated,  amongst  others,  by  M.  Salomon 
Reinach,  who  has  made  a  vigorous  attack  on  what  he  calls  the  "oriental  mirage," 
i.e.  the  delusion  which  sees  nothing  but  Asiatic  or  Egyptian  influences  everywhere. 
Sergi  of  course  goes  further,  regarding  the  Mediterranean  (Iberian,  Ligurian, 
Pelasgian)  cultures  not  only  as  local  growths,  but  as  independent  both  of  Asiatics 
and  of  the  rude  Aryan  hordes,  who  came  rather  as  destroyers  than  civilisers.  This 
is  one  of  the  fundamental  ideas  pervading  the  whole  of  his  Arii  e  Italici,  and  some 
earlier  writings.  ^  Pausanias,  in.  20.  5. 

^  G.  Sergi,  The  Mediterranean  Race,  1901.  In  the  main  he  is  supported  by 
philologists.  "The  languages  of  the  indigenous  peoples  throughout  Asia  Minor 
and  the  Aegean  area  are  commonly  believed  to  have  been  ngm-Indo-European." 
H.  M.  Chad  wick.  The  Heroic  Age,  1912,  p.  179  «. 

*  W.  Ridgeway,  The  Early  Age  of  Greece,  igoi,  p.  681  ff. 

6  The  Dawn  of  History,  191 1,  p.  40.  For  his  views  on  Pelasgians,  %et.Joum. 
Hell.  St.  1907,  p.  170,  and  the  Art.  "  Pelasgians"  in  Ency.  Brit.  igil. 

*  E.  Petersen  and  F.  von  Luschan,  Reisen  in  Lykien,  1889. 

'  W.  Z.  Ripley^  The  Races  of  Europe,  p,  404  ff.  The  map  (facing  p.  402)  does 
not  include  Greece,  and  the  grouping  is  based  on  language,  not  race. 

K.  30 


466  Man :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

dragging  of  "  Pelasgians  "  into  the  question,  assumes  a  primitive 
substratum  of  Mediterranean  type  all  over  Greece.  "  The 
testimony  of  these  ancient  Greek  crania  is  perfectly  harmonious. 
All  authorities  agree  that  the  ancient  Hellenes  were  decidedly 
long-headed,  betraying  in  this  respect  their  affinity  to  the 
Mediterranean  Race. . .  .Whether  from  Attica,  from  Schliemann's 
successive  cities  excavated  upon  the  site  of  Troy,  or  from  the 
coast  of  Asia  Minor^;  at  all  times  from  400  B.C.  to  the  third 
century  of  our  era,  it  would  seem  proved  that  the  Greeks  were 
of  this  dolichocephalic  type. ...  Every  characteristic  of  their 
modern  descendants  and  every  analogy  with  the  neighbouring 
populations,  leads  us  to  the  conclusion  that  the  classical 
Hellenes  were  distinctly  of  the  Mediterranean  racial  type, 
little  different  from  the  Phoenicians,  the  Romans  or  the 
Iberians^"  Nevertheless  Dofpfeld'  claims  that  there  were, 
from  the  first,  two  races  in  Greece,  a  Southern,  or  Aegean, 
and  a  Northern,  who  were  the  Aryan  Achaeans  of  history, 
and  recent  archaeological  discoveries  certainly  support  this 
view. 

Another  attempt  to  solve  the  Pelasgian  problem  is  that  of 
E.  Meyer*.  After  enumerating  the  various  areas  said  to  have 
been  occupied  by  the  Pelasgians  "  ein  grosses  Urvolk "  who 
ranged  from  Asia  Minor  to  Italy,  he  pricks  the  bubble  by 
saying  that  in  reality  there  were  no  Pelasgians  save  in  Thessaly, 
in  the  fruitful  plain  of  Peneus,  hence  called  "  Pelasgic  Argos^" 
and  later  Pelasgiotis.  They,  like  the  Dorians,  invaded  Crete 
from  Thessaly  and  at  the  beginning  of  the  first  millennium 
were  defeated  and  enslaved  by  the  incoming  Thessalians. 
These  are  the  only  true  Pelasgians.  The  other  so-called 
Pelasgians  are  the  descendants  of  an  eponymous  Pelasgos 
who  in  genealogical  poetry  becomes  the  ancestor  of  mankind. 
Since  the  Arcadians  were  regarded  as  the  earliest  of  the 
indigenous  peoples,  Pelasgos  was  made  the  ancestor  of  the 
Arcadians.     The  name    "  Pelasgic  Argos "  was    transferred 

'  The  Mykenaean  skull  found  by  Bent  at  Antiparos  is  described  as  "abnormally 
dolichocephalic."     W.  Ridgeway,  Early  Age  of  Greece,  I.  1901,  p.  78. 

^  But  in  Ridgeway's  view  the  "  classical  Hellenes "  were  descendants  of  tall 
fair-haired  invaders  from  the  North,  and  in  this  he  has  the  concurrence  of  J.  L. 
My  res,  The  Dawn  of  History,  191 1,  p.  209. 

3  Mitt.  d.  K.  d.  Inst.  Athen.  xxx.  See  H.  R.  Hall,  Ancient  History  of  the  Near 
East,  1 91 3,  pp.  61-4. 

*  Geschichte  des  Altertums,  I.  2,  1909,  §  507. 

'  For  a  discussion  of  the  meaning  of  "Pelasgic  Argos"  see  H.  M.  Chadwick, 
The  Heroic  Age,  1912,  pp.  274  if.  and  278-9,  and  for  his  criticism  of  Meyer,  p.  285. 


xiii]  The  Caucasic  Peoples  467 

from  Thessaly  to  the  Peloponnesian  city.  Attic  Pelasgians 
were  derived  from  a  mistake  of  Hecataeus'.  So  the  legend 
grew.  The  only  real  Pelasgian  problem,  concludes  Meyer,  is 
whether  the  Thessalian  Pelasgians  were  a  Greek  or  pre-Greek 
people,  and  he  is  inclined  to  favour  the  latter  view.  The 
identity  of  "  the  most  mysterious  people  of  antiquity "  is 
further  obscured  by  philology,  for,  as  P.  Giles  points  out, 
their  name  appears  merely  to  mean  "  the  people  of  the  sea," 
so  that  "they  do  not  seem  to  be  in  all  cases  the  same  stock"." 
Whether  we  call  them  Pelasgians  or  no,  there  would  seem 
to  be  little  doubt  that  the  splendours  of  Aegean  civilisation 
which  have  been  and  still  are  being  gradually  revealed  by  the 
researches  of  British,  Italian,  American  and  German  archaeo- 
logists are  to  be  attributed  to  an  indigenous  people  of  Medi- 
terranean type,  occupying  an  area  of  which  Crete  was  the 
centre,  from  the  Stone  Age,  right  through  the  Bronze  Age, 
down  to  the  Northern  invasions  of  the  second  millennium  and 
the  introduction  of  iron.  In  range  this  culture  included  Greece 
with  its  islands,  Cyprus,  and  Western  Anatolia,  and  its  influence 
extended  westwards  to  Sicily,  Italy,  Sardinia  and  Spain,  and 
eastwards  to  Syria  and  Egypt.  Its  chief  characteristics  are 
(i)  an  indigenous  script  both  pictographic  and  linear,  with 
possible  affinities  in  Hittite,  Cypriote  and  South-west  Ana- 
tolian scripts,  but  hitherto  indecipherable  ;  (2)  a  characteristic 
art  attempting  "to  express  an  ideal  in  forms  more  and  more 
closely  approaching  to  realities^"  exhibited  in  frescoes,  pottery, 
reliefs,  sculptures,  jewelry  etc. ;  (3)  a  distinctive  architectural 
style,  and  (4)  type  of  tomb,  which  have  no  parallels  elsewhere. 
Excavations  at  Cnossos  go  far  towards  establishing  a  chrono- 
logy for  the  Aegean  area.  At  the  base  is  an  immensely 
thick  neolithic  deposit,  above  which  come  pottery  and  other 
objects  of  Minoan  Period  I.  i,  which  are  correlated  by  Petrie 
with  objects  found  at  Abydos,  referred  by  him  to  the  ist 
Dynasty  (400QB.C.).  Minoan  Period  II.  2  corresponds  with 
the  Egyptian  XII  Dynasty  (2500  B.C.),  characteristic  Cretan 
pottery  of  this  period  being  found  in  the  Fayum.     Minoan 

'  But  see  W.  Ridgeway,  Early  Age  of  Greece,  I.  1901,  p.  138  flf. 

2  Art.  "Indo-European  Languages,"  Ency.  Brit.  191 1. 

3  R.  S.  Conway,  Art.  "Aegean  Civilisation,"  in  Ency.  Brit.  191 1,  whence  this 
summary  is  derived,  including  the  chronology,  which  is  not  in  all  respects 
universally  adopted  (see  p.  27).  For  a  full  discussion  of  the  chronology  see 
J.  D6chelette,  Manuel  d^ Archdqlogie prdhistorique.  Vol.  11.  1910,  Archiologie  celtigue 
ou  protohistofique,  Ch.  11.  §y.  Chronologie  6g3enne,  p.  54  ff. 

30—2 


468  Man  :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

Period  III.  i  and  2  synchronises  with  Dynasty  XVIII  (1600 
to  1400  B.C.).  Iron  begins  to  be  used  for  weapons  after 
Period  III.  3,  and  is  commonly  attributed  to  incursions  from 
the  north,  the  Dorian  invasion  of  the  Greek  authors,  about 
1000  B.C.  which  led  to  the  destruction  of  the  palace  of  Cnossos 
and  the  substitution  of  "  Geometric  "  for  "  Mykehaean  "  art. 

Turning  to  the  African  branch  of  the  Mediterranean  type, 
we  find  it  forming  not  merely  the  substratum,  but  the  great 
Range  of  the  ^ulk  of  the  inhabitants  throughout  all  recorded 
Haniites  in  time  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Red  Sea,  and  from 

Africa.  ^.jjg    Mediterranean   to.  Sudan,    although    since 

Muhammadan  times  largely  intermingled  with  the  kindred 
Semitic  stock  (mainly  Arabs)  in  the  north  and  west,  and  in 
the  east  (Abyssinia)  with  the  same  stock  since  prehistoric 
times.     All  are  comprised  by  Sergi/  in  two  main  divisions: — 

1.  Eastern  Hamites,  answering  to  the  Ethiopic  Branch 
of  some  writers,  of  somewhat  variable  type,  comprising  the 
Old  and  Modern  Egyptians  now  mixed  with  Semitic  (Arab) 
elements  ;  the  Nubians,  t!!\&  Bejas,  the  Abyssinians,  collective 
name  of  all  the  peoples  between  Khor  Barka  and  Shoa  (with, 
in  some  places,  a  considerable  infusion  of  Himyaritic  or  early 
Semitic  blood  from  South  Arabia) ;  the  Gallas  (Gallas  proper, 
Somals,  and  Afars  or  Dandkils);  the  Masai  and  Ba-Hima. 

2.  Northern  Hamites,  the  Libyan  Race  or  Berber 
( Western)  Branch  of  some  writers,  "comprising  the  Mediter- 
ranean Berbers  of  Algeria,  Tunis,  and  Tripoli ;  the  Atlantic 
Berbers  {Shluhs  and  others)  of  Morocco ;  the  West  Sakaran 
Berbers  commonly  called  Tuaregs ;  the  Tibus  of  the  East 
Sahara ;  the  Fulahs,  dispersed  amongst  the  Sudanese  Ne- 
groes ;  the  Guanches  of  the  Canary  I  slands. 

Of  the  Eastern  Hamites  he  remarks  generally  that  they 
do  not  form  a  homogeneous  division,  but  rather  a  number  of 
different  peoples  either  crowded  together  in  separate  areas, 
or  dispersed  in  the  territories  of  other  peoples.     They  agree 

'  In  his  valuable  and  comprehensive  work,  Africa:  Antrppologia  della  Stirpe 
Camitica,  Turin,  1897.  It  must  not  be  supposed  that  this  classification  is  un- 
challenged. T.  A.  Joyce,  "Hamitic  Races  and  Languages,"  Ency.  Brit.  191 1, 
points  out  that  it  is  impossible  to  prove  the  connection  between  the  Eastern  and 
Northern  Hamites.  The  former  have  a  brown  skin,  with  frizzy  hair,  and  are 
nomadic  or  semi-nomadic  pastors ;  the  lattef,  whom  he  would  call  not  Hamites  at 
all,  but  the  Libyan  variety  of  the  Mediterranean  race,  are  a  white  people,  with 
curly  hair,  and  their  purest  rept-esentatives,  the  Berbers,  are  agriculturalists.  For 
the  fullest  and  most  recent  treatment  of  the  subject  see  the  monumental  work  of 
Oric  Bates,  Tke  Eastern  Libyans:  An  Essay,  191 3,  with  bibliography. 


xiii]  The  Caucasic  Peoples  469 

more  in  their  inner  than  in  their  outer  characters,   without 
constituting  a  single  ethnical  type.     The  cranial 
forms  are  variable,  though  converging,  and  evi-   JamUes.*^™ 
dently  to  be  regarded  as  very  old  varieties  of 
an  original  stock.     The  features  are  also  variable,  converging 
and   characteristic,   with   straight  or  arched  (aquiloid)   nose 
quite  different  from  the  Negro ;  lips  rather  thick,  but  never 
everted  as  in   the   Negro  ;    hair  usually  frizzled,  not  wavy  ; 
beard    thin ;    skin    very  variable,    brown,    red-brown,   black- 
brown,  ruddy  black,  chocolate  and  coffee-brown,  reddish  or 
yellowish,  these  variations  being  due  to  crossings  and  the 
outward  physical  conditions. 

In  this  assumption  Sergi  is  supported  by  the  analogous 
case  of  the  western  Berbers  between  the  Senegal  and  Mo- 
rocco, to  whom  Collignon  and  Deniker'  restrict 
the  term  "Moor,"  as  an  ethnical  name.  The  Tmo^"*^™ 
chief  groups,  which  range  from  the  Atlantic 
coast  east  to  the  camping  grounds  of  the  true  TuaregsS  are 
the  Trarsas  and  Braknas  of  the  Senegal  river,  and  farther 
north  the  Dwaish  (Idoesh),  Uled-Bella,  Uled-Embark,  and 
Uled-en-Nasdr.  From  a  study  of  four  of  these  Moors,  who 
visited  Paris  in  1 895,  it  appears  that  they  are  not  an  Arabo- 
Berber  cross,  as  commonly  supposed,  but  true  Hamites,  with 
a  distinct  Negro  strain,  shown  especially  in  their  frizzly  hair, 
bronze  colour,  short  broad  nose,  and  thickish  lips,  their  general 
appearance  showing  an  astonishing  likeness  to  the  Bejas, 
Afars,  Somals,  Abyssinians,  and  other  Eastern  Hamites. 
This  is  not  due  to  direct  descent,  and  it  is  more  reasonable 
to  suppose  "  that  at  the  two  extremities  of  the  continent  the 
same  causes  have  produced  the  same  effects,  and  that  from 
the  infusion  of  a  certain  proportion  of  black  blood  in  the 
Egyptian  [eastern]  and  Berber  branches  of  the  Hamites, 
there  have  sprung  closely  analogous  mixed  groups'."  From 
the  true  Negro  they  are  also  distinguished  by  their  grave  and' 
dignified  bearing,  and  still  more  by  their  far  greater  intelli- 
gence. 

Both  divisions  of  the   Hamites,  continues  Sergi,   agree 
substantially  in  their  bony  structure,  and  thus  form  a  single 

1  "  Le's  Maures  du  S^n^gal,"  L' Anlhropologie,  1896,  p.  258  sq. 

2  That  is,  the  Sanhaja-an  LUham,  those  who  wear  the  litham  or  veil,  which  is 
needed  to  protect  them  from  the  sand,  but  has  now  acquired  religio'us  significance, 
and  is  never  worn  by  the  "  Moors." 

^  p.  269. 


470  Man  :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

anthropological  group  with  variable  skull — pentagonoid, 
ovoid,  ellipsoid,  sphenoid,  etc.,  as  expressed  in 
HamiticT  e  ^^^  terminology — but  constant,  that  is,  each 
variety  recurring  in  all  the  branches ;  face  also 
variable  (tetragonal,  ellipsoid,  etc.),  but  similarly  identical  in 
all  the  branches;  profile  non-prognathous ;  eyes  dark,  straight, 
not  prominent;  nose  straight  or  arched  ;  hair  smooth,  curly, 
long,  black  or  chestnut;  beard,  full,  also  scant;  lips  thin  or 
slightly  tumid,  never  protruding ;  skin  of  various  brown  shades ; 
stature  medium  or  tall. 

Such  is  the  great  anthropological  division,  which  was 
diffused  continuously  over  the  greater  part  of  Africa,  and 
round  the  northern  shores  of  the  Mediterranean.  According 
to  Stuhlmann^  it  had  its  origin  in  South  Arabia,  if  not  further 
east,  and  entered  Africa  in  the  region  of  Erythrea.  He  re- 
gards the  Red  Sea  as  offering  no  obstacle  to  migrations,  but 
suggests  a  possible  land  connection  between  the  opposite 
shores. 

Nothing  is  more  astonishing  than  the  strange  persistence 
not  merely  of  the  Berber  type,  but  of  the  Berber  temperament 
and  nationality  since  the  Stone  Ages,  despite  the  successive 
invasions  of  foreign  peoples  during  the  historic  period.  First 
came  the  Sidonian  Phoenicians,  founders  of  Carthage  and  Utica 
probably  about  1 500  B.C.  The  Greek  occupation  of  Cyrenaica 
(628  B.C.)  was  followed  by  the  advent  of  the  Romans  on  the 
Foreign  ruins  of  the  Carthaginian  empire.    The  Romans 

Elements  in  have  certainly  left  distinct  traces  of  their  presence, 
Mauretania.  ^^^  some  of  the  Aures  highlanders  still  proudly 
call  themselves  Rumaniya.  These  Skawias  ("  Pastors")  form 
a  numerous  group,  all  claiming  Roman  descent,  and  even  still 
keeping  certain  Roman  and  Christian  feasts,  such  as  Bu  Ini, 
i.e.  Christmas  ;  Innar  ox  January  (New  Year's  Day) ;  Spring 
(Easter),  etc.  A  few  Latin  words  also  survive  such  as  urtho 
=  hortus ;  kerrUsh  —  quercus  (evergreen  oak) ;  milli  =  milliarium 
(milestone). 

After  the  temporary  Vandal  occupation  came  the  great  Arab 
invasions  of  the  seventh  and  later  centuries,  and  even  these 
had  been  preceded  by  the  kindred  Ruadites,  who  had  in  pre- 
Moslem  times  already  reached  Mauretania  from  Arabia.   With 

'  See  F.  Stuhlmann's  invaluable  work  on  African  culture  and  race  distribution, 
Handwerk  und  Industrie  in  Ostafrika,  1910,  especially  the  map  showing  the 
distribution  of  the  Hamites,  PI.  n.  B. 


xiiij  The  Caucasic  Peoples  471 

the  Jews,  some  of  whom  had  also  reached  Tripolitana  before 
the  New  Era,  a  steady  infiltration  of  Negroes  from  Sudan, 
and  the  recent  French,  Spanish,  Italian,  and  Maltese  settlers, 
we  have  all  the  elements  that  go  to  make  up  the  cosmopolitan 
population  of  Mauretania. 

But  amid  them  all  the  Berbers  and  the  Arabs  stand  out  as 
the  immensely  predominant  factors,   still  distinct  despite  a 
probably  common  origin  in  the  far  distant  past   Arab  and 
and   later   interminglings.     The   Arab  remains    Berber  Con- 
above  all  a  nomad  herdsman,  dwelling  in  tents,   *^*^*^- 
without  house  or  hamlet,  a  good  stock-breeder,  but  a  bad 
husbandman,  and  that  only  on  compulsion.    "  The  ploughshare 
and  shame  enter  hand  in   hand   into  the  family,"  says  the 
national  proverb.     To  find  space  for  his  flocks  and  herds  he 
continues  the  destructive  work  of  Carthaginian  and  Roman, 
who  ages  ago  cleared  vast  wooded  tracts  for  their  fleets  and 
commercial  navies,  and  thus  rendered  large  areas  barren  and 
desolate. 

The  Berber  on  the  contrary  loves  the  sheltering  wood- 
lands ;  he  is  essentially  a  highlander  who  carefully  tills  the 
forest  glades,  settles  in  permanent  homes,  and  often  develops 
flourishing  industries.  Arab  society  is  feudal  and  theocratic, 
ruled  by  a  despotic  Sheikh,  while  the  Berber  with  his  Jemaa,  or 
"  Witenagemot,"  and  his  Kanun  or  unwritten  code,  feels  him- 
self a  freeman  ;  and  it  may  well  have  been  this  democratic 
spirit,  inherited  by  his  European  descendants,  that  enabled  the 
western  nations  to  take  the  lead  in  the  onward  movement  of 
humanity.  The  Arab  again  is  a  fanatic,  ever  to  be  feared, 
because  he  blindly  obeys  the  will  of  Allah  proclaimed  by  his 
prophets,  marabouts,  and  mahdis\  But  the  Berber,  a  born 
sceptic,  looks  askance  at  theological  dogmas ;  an  unconscious 
philosopher,  he  is  far  less  of  a  fatalist  than  his  Semitic  neigh- 
bour, who  associates  with  Allah  countless  demons  and  jins  in 
the  government  of  the  world. 

In  their  physical  characters  the  two  races  also  present  some 
striking  contrasts,  the  Arab  having  the  regular  oval  brain-cap 
and  face  of  the  true  Semite,  whereas  the  Berber  head  is  more 
angular,  less  finely  moulded,  with  more  prominent  cheek- 
bones, shorter  and  less  aquiline  nose,  which  combined  with  a 

'  The  Kababish  and  Baggara  tribes,  chief  mainstays  of  former  Sudanese  revohs, 
claim  to  be  of  unsullied  Arab  descent  with  long  fictitious  pedigrees  going  back  to 
early  Muhammadan  times  (see  p.  74). 


472  Man  :  Past  and  Present  •    [ch. 

slight  degree  of  sub-nasal  prognathism,  imparts  to  the  features 
coarser  and  less  harmonious  outlines.  He  is  at  the  same  time 
distinctly  taller  and  more  muscular,  with  less  uniformity  in  the 
colour  of  the  eye  and  the  hair,  as  might  be  expected  from  the 
numerous  elements  entering  into  the  constitution  of  present 
Berber  populations. 

In  the  social  conflict  between  the  Arab  and  Berber  races, 
the  curious  spectacle  is  presented  of  two  nearly  equal  elements 
(same  origin,  same  religion,  same  government,  same  or 
analogous  tribal  groupings,  at  about  the  same  cultural  develop? 
ment)  refusing  to  amalgamate  to  any  great  extent,  although 
living  in  the  closest  proximity  for  over  a  thousand  years.  In 
this  struggle  the  Arab  seems  so  far  to  have  had  the  advantage. 
Instances  of  Berberised  Arabs  occur,  but  are  extremely  rare, 
whereas  the  Berbers  have  not  only  everywhere  accepted  the 
Koran,  but  whole  tribes  have  become  assimilated  in  speech, 
costume,  and  usages  to  the  Semitic  intruders.  It  might  there- 
fore seem  as  if  the  Arab  must  ultimately  prevail.  But  we  are 
assured  by  the  French  observers  that  in  Algeria  and  Tunisia 
appearances  are  fallacious,  however  the  case  may  stand  in 
Morocco  and  the  Sahara.  "  The  Arab,"  writes  Malbot,  to 
whom  I  am  indebted  for  some  of  thfese  details,  "an  alien  in 
Mauretania,  transported  to  a  soil  which  does,  not  always  suit 
him,  so  far  from  thriving  tends  to  disappear,  whereas  the  Berber, 
especially  under  the  shield  of  France,  becomes  more  and  more 
aggressive,  and  yearly  increases  in  numbers.  At  present  he 
forms  at  least  three-fifths  of  the  population  in  Algeria,  and  in 
Morocco  the  proportion  is  greater.  He  is  the  race  of  the 
future  as  of  the  past^" 

This  however  would  seem  to  apply  only  to  the  races,  not 
to  their  languages,  for  we  are  elsewhere  told  that  Arabic  is 
encroaching  steadily  on  the  somewhat  ruder  Berber  dialects  I 
Considering  the  enormous  space  over  which  they  are  diffused, 
and  the  thousands  of  years  that  some  of  the  groups  have  ceased 
to  be  in  contact,  these  dialects  show  remarkably  slight  diverg- 
ence from  the  long  extinct  speech  from  which  all  have  sprung. 
Whatever  it  be  called — Kabyle,  Zenatia,  Shawia,  Tamashek, 
Shluh — the  Berber  language  is  still  essentially  one,  and  the 
likeness  between  the  forms  current  in  Morocco,  Algeria,  the 
Sahara,  and  the  remote  Siwah  Oasis  on  the  confines  of  Egypt, 


1  " 


2  p.   17 


Les  Chaouias,"  L Anthropologie,  1897,  p.  14. 


^iii]  The  Caucasic  Peoples  473 

is  much  closer,  for  instance,  than  between  Norse  and  English 
in  the  sub-Aryan  Teutonic  group\ 

But  when  we  cross  the  conventional  frontier  between  the 
contiguous  Tuareg  and  Tibu  domains  in  the  central  Sahara  the 
divergence  is  so  great  that  philologists  are  still 
doubtful  whether  the  two   languages  are  even  '  "^' 

remotely  or  are  at  all  connected.  Ever  since  the  abandonment 
of  the  generalisation  of  Lepsius  that  Hamitic  and  Negro  were 
the  sole  stock  languages,  the  complexity  of  African  linguistic 
problems  has  been  growing  more  and  more  apparent,  and  Tibu 
is  only  one  among  many  puzzles,  concerning  which  there  is 
great  discordance  of  opinion  even  among  the  most  recent  and 
competent  authorities  I 

The  Tibu  themselves,  apparently  direct  descendants  of  the 
ancient  Garamantes,  have  their  primeval  home  in  the  Tibesti 
range,  i.e.  the  "Rocky  Mountains,"  whence  they  take  their 
name'.  There  are  two  distinct  sections,  the  Northern  Tedas, 
a  name  recalling  the  Tedamansii,  a  branch  of  the  Garamantes 
located  by  Ptolemy  somewhere  between  Tripolitana  and  Pha- 
zania  (Fezzan),  and  the  Southern  Dazas,  through  whom  the 
Tibu  merge  gradually  in  the  negroid  populations  of  central 
Sudan.  This  intermingling  with  the  blacks  dates  from  remote 
time's,  whence  Ptolemy's  remark  that  the  Garamantes  seemed 
rather  more  "Ethiopians"  than  Libyans*.  But  there  can  be 
no  doubt  that  the  full-blood  Tibu,  as  represented  by  the 
northern  section,  are  mainly  Mediterranean,  and  although  the 
type  of  the  men  is  somewhat  coarser  than  that  of  their  Tuareg 
neighbours,  that  of  the  women  is  almost  the  finest  in  Africa. 
"Their  women  are  charming  while  still  in  the  bloom  of  youth, 
unrivalled  amongst  their  sisters  of  North  Africa  for  their 
physical  beauty,  pliant  and  graceful  figures  \" 

'  The  words  collected  by  Sir  H.  H.  Johnston  at  Dwirat  in  Tunis  show  a  great 
resemblance  with  the  language  of  the  Saharan  Tuaregs,  and  the  sheikh  of  that 
place  "  admitted  that  his  people  could  understand  and  make  themselves  understood 
by  those  fierce  nomads,  who  range  between  the  southern  frontier  of  Algeria  and 
Tunis  and  the  Sudan"  {Geogr. /our.,  June,  1898,  p.  590). 

2  Cf  Meinhof,  Die  Moderne  Sprachforschung  in  Africa,  1910. 

'  7y-(5«  =  "Rock  People";  cf  A'a««»2-te="Kanem  People,"  southernmost 
branch  of  the  family  on  north  side  of  Lake  Chad. 

*  "OvTotv  8e  KoX  airav  ^br)  /jiaWov  AWwirav  (l.  8).  I  take  ^Sr),  which  has  caused 
some  trouble  to  commentators,  here  to  mean  that,  as  you  advance  southwards  from 
the  Mediterranean  seaboard,  you  find  yourself  on  entering  Garamantian  territory 
already  rather  amongst  Ethiopians  than  Libyans. 

'  Reclus,  Eng.  ed.  Vol.  xi.  p.  429.  For  the  complicated  ancestral  mixture  pro- 
ducing the  Tibu  see  Sir  H.  H.  Johnston; "  A  Survey  of  the  Ethnography  of  Africa," 
Journ.  Roy.  Anthr.  Inst.  XLHI.  1913,  p.  386. 


474  Man :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

It  is  interesting  to  notice  amongst  these  somewhat  secluded 
Saharan  nomads  the  glow  growth  of  culture,  and  the  curious 
survival  of  usages  which  have  their  explanation  in  primitive 
social  conditions.  "The  Tibu  is  always  distrustful;  hence, 
meeting  a  fellow-countryman  in  the  desert  he  is  careful  not  to 
draw  near  without  due  precaution.  At  sight  of  each  other 
both  generally  stop  suddenly ;  then  crouching  and  throwing  the 
litham  over  the  lower  part  of  the  face  in  Tuareg  fashion,  they 
grasp  the  inseparable  spear  in  their  right  and  the  shanger- 
mangor,  or  bill-hook,  in  their  left.  After  these  preliminaries 
they  begin  to  interchange  compliments,  inquiring  after  each- 
other's  health  and  family  connections,  receiving  every  answer 
with  expressions  of  thanksgiving  to  Allah.  These  formalities 
usually  last  some  minutes'."  Obviously  all  this  means  nothing 
more  than  a  doffing  of  the  hat  or  a  shake-hands  amongst  more 
advanced  peoples ;  but  it  points  to  times  when  every  stranger 
was  a  hostis,  who  later  became  the  hospes  (host,  guest). 

It  will  be  noticed  that  the  Tibu  domain,  with  the  now. 
absolutely  impassable  Libyan  desert^  almost  completely  separ- 
ates the  Mediterranean  branch  from  the  Hamites 
HamitM^  ^°  proper.  Continuity,  however,  is  accorded,  both 
on  the  north  along  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean 
to  the  Nile  Delta  (Lower  Egypt),  and  on  the  south  thr6ugh 
Darfur  and  Kordofan  to  the  White  Nile,  and  thence  down 
the  main  stream  to  Upper  Egypt,  and  through  Abyssinia, 
Galla  and  Somali  lands  to  the  Indian  Ocean.  Between  the 
Nile  and  the  east  coast  the  domain  of  the  Hamites  stretches 
from  the  equator  northwards  to  Egypt  and  the  Mediterranean. 

It  appears  therefore  that  Egypt,  occupied  for  many  thou- 
sands of  years  by  an  admittedly  Hamitic  people,  might  have 
been  reached  either  from  the  west  by  the  Mediterranean  route, 
or  down  the  Nile,  or,  lastly,  it  maybe  suggested  that  the  Hamites 
were  specialised  in  the  Nile  valley  itself  The  point  is  not 
easy  to  decide,  because,  when  appeal  is  made  to  the  evidence 
of  the  Stone  Ages,  we  find  nothing  to  choose  between  such 
widely  separated  regions  as  Somaliland,  Upper  Egypt,  and 
Mauretania,  all  of  which  have  yielded  superabundant  proofs 
of  the  presence  of  man  for  incalculable  ages,  estimated  by 

'  Reclus,  Eng.  ed.  Vol.  xi.  p.  430. 

^  From  the  enormous  sheets  of  tuffs  near  the  Kharga  Oasis  Zettel,  geologist  of 
G.  Rohlf's  expedition  in  1876,  considered-  that  even  this  sandy  waste  might  have 
supported  a  rich  vegetation  in  Quaternary  times. 


xiii]  The  Caucasic  Peoples  475 

some  palethnologists  at  several  hundred  thousand  years.  In 
Egypt  the  palaeoliths  indicate  not  only  extreme  antiquity,  but 
also  that  the  course  of  civilisation  was  uninterrupted  by  any 
such  crises  as  have  afforded  means  of  chronological  classification 
in  Western  Europe.  The  differences  in  technique  are  local 
and  geographical,  not  historic.  The  Neolithic  period  tells  the 
same  "tale,  and  the  use  of  copper  at  the  beginning  of  the  historic 
period  only  slowly  replaced  the  flint  industry,  which  continued 
during  the  earlier  dynasties  down  to  the  period  of  the  Middle 
Empire  and  attained  a  degree  of  perfection  nowhere  surpassed. 
Prehistoric  pottery  strengthens  the  evidence  of  a  slow,  gradual 
development,  the  newer  forms  nowhere  jostling  out  the  old, 
but  co-existing  side  by  side'. 

It  might  seem  therefore  that  the  question  of  Egyptian 
origins  was  settled  by  the  mere  statement  of  the  case,  and 
that  there  could  be  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  .  . 

the  Egyptian  Hamites  were  evolved  on  Egyptian  "&>ns. 

soil,  consequently  are  the  true  autochthones  in  the  N  ile  valley. 
Yet  there  is  no  ethnological  question  more  hotly  discussed  than 
this  of  Egyptian  origins  and  culture,  for  the  two  seem  insepar- 
able. There  are  broadly  speaking  two  schools  :  the  African, 
whose  fundamental  views  are  thus  briefly  set  forth,  and  the 
Asiatic,  which  brings  the  Egyptians  with  all  their  works  from 
the  neighbouring  continent.  But,  seeing  that  the  Egyptians  are 
now  admitted  to  be  Hamites,  that  there  are  no  Hamites  to 
speak  of  (let  it  be  frankly  said,  none  at  all)  in  Asia,  and  that 
they  have  for  untold  ages  occupied  large  tracts  of  Africa,  there 
are  several  members  of  the  Asiatic  school  who  allow  that,  not 
the  people  themselves,  but  their  culture  only  came  from  western 
Asia  (Mesopotamia).  If  so,  this  culture  would  presumably 
have  its  roots  in  the  delta,  which  is  first  reached  by  the  Isthmus 
of  Suez  from  Asia,  and  spread  thence,  say,  from  Memphis 
up  the  Nile  to  Thebes  and  Upper  Egypt,  and  here  arises  a 
difficulty.     For  at  that  time  there  was  no  delta",  or  at  least  it 

*  See  Histoire  de  la  Civilisation  Egyptienne,  G.  Jdquier,  1913,  p.  53  ff.  Also, 
concerning  pottei-y,  E.  Naville,  "The  Origin  of  Egyptian  Civilisation," /isiar^.  Roy^ 
Anthr.  Inst,  xxxvii.  igo7,  p.  203. 

2  The  Egyptians  themselves  had  a  tradition  that  when  Menes  moved  north  he 
found  the  delta  still  under  water.  The  sea  reached  almost  as  far  as  the  Fayum, 
and  the  whole  valley,  except  the  Thebais,  was  a  malarious  swamp  (Herod.  11.  4). 
Thus  late  into  historic  times  memories  still  survived  that  the  delta  was  of  relatively 
recent  formation,  and  that  the  Retu  {Romitu  of  the  Pyramid  texts,  later  Rotu, 
Rami,  etc.)  had  already  developed  their  social  system  before  the  Lower  Nile  valley 
was  inhabitable.  Hence  whether  the  Nile  took  20,000  years  (Schweinfurth)  or  over 
70,000,  as  others  hold,  to  fill  in  its  estuary,  the  beginning  of  the  Egyptian  prehistoric 


47^  Man :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

was  only  in  process  of  formation,  a  kind  of  debatable  region 
between  land  and  water,  inhabitable  mainly  by  crocodiles,  and 
utterly  unsuited  to  become  the  seat  of  a  culture  whose  character- 
istic features  are  huge  stone  monuments,  amongst  the  largest 
ever  erected  by  man,  and  consequently  needing  solid  founda- 
tions on  terra  firma.  It  further  appears  that  although 
Memphis  is  very  old,  Thebes  is  much  older,  in  other  words, 
that  Egyptian  culture  began  in  Upper  Egypt,  and  spread  not 
up  but  down  the  Nile.  On  the  other  hand  the  Egyptians 
themselves  looked  upon  the  delta  as  the  cradle  of  their  civili- 
sation, although  no  traces  of  material  culture  have  survived, 
or  could  be  expected  to  survive,  in  such  a  soil\  Moreover  it 
is  not  necessary  to  introduce  Asiatic  invaders  by  way  of  Lower 
Egypt.  F.  Stuhlmann  postulates  a  land  connection  between 
Africa  and  Arabia,  but  even  without  this  assumption  he  regards 
the  Red  Sea  as  affording  no  hindrance  to  early  infiltrations^ 
Flinders  Petrie,  while  rejecting  any  considerable  water  trans- 
port for  the  uncultured  prehistoric  Egyptians  (whom  he  derives 
from  Libya),  detects  a  succession  of  subsequent  invasions  from 
Asia,  the  dynastic  race  crossing  the  Red  Sea  to  the  neighbour- 
hood of  Koptos,  and  Syrian  invasions  leading  to  the  civilisation 
of  the  Twelfth  Dynasty,  besides  the  later  Hyksos  invasions 
of  Semito- Babylonian  stock'. 

The  theory  of  Asiatic  origins  is  clearly  siimmed  up   by 
H.  H.  Johnston^     He  regards  the  earliest  inhabitants  of  Egypt 

as  a  dwarfish  Negro-like  race,  not  unlike  the 
Eilti?  Origins.    Congo  pygmies  of  to-day  (p.  375),  with  possibly 

some  trace  of  Bushman  (p.  378),  but  this  popu- 
lation was  displaced  riiore  than  15,000  years  ago  by  Medi- 
terranean man,  who  may  have  penetrated  as  far  as  Abyssinia, 
and  may  have  been  linguistically  parent  of  the  Fulah^ 
The  Fulah  type  was  displaced  by  the  invasions  of  the 
Hamites  and  the  Libyans  or  Berbers.     "The  Hamites  were 

period  must  still  be  set  back  many  millenniums  before  the  new  era.  "  Ce  que  nous 
Savons  du  Sahara,  lui-mSme  alors  sillonn^  de  riviferes,  atteste  qu'il  [the  delta]  ne 
devait  pas  6tre  habitable,  pas  ^tre  constitud  k  I'dpoque  quaternaire"  (M.  Zaborowski, 
Bui.  Soc.  d^Anthrop.  1896,  p.  655). 

'  G.  J6quier,  Histoire  de  la  Civilisation  KgypHenne,  1913,  p.  95,  but  see 
E.  Naville,  "  The  Origin  of  Egyptian  Civilisation,"/i3«r«.  Roy.  Anthr.  Inst,  xxxvil. 
1907,  p.  209. 

"  Handwerk  und  Industrie  in  Ostafrika,  1910,  p.  143. 

^  "Migrations," /"«''»■  Anthr.  Inst.  XXXVI.  1906. 

*  "A  Survey  of  the  Ethnography  of  Kbica.,"  Journ.  Roy.  Anthr.  Inst.  XLIII. 
1913- 

'  See  p.  482  below. 


xiii]  The  Caucasic  Peoples  477 

no  doubt  of  common  origin,  linguistically  and  racially,  with  the 
Semites,  and  perhaps  originated  in  that  great  breeding  ground 
of  conquering  peoples,  South-west  Asia.  They  preceded  the 
Semites,  and  (we  may  suppose)  after  a  long  stay  and  con- 
centration in  Mesopotamia  invaded  and  colonised  Arabia, 
Southern  Palestine,  Egypt,  Abyssinia,  Somaliland  and  North 
Affica  to  its  Atlantic  shores.  The  Dynastic  Egyptians  were 
also  Hamites  in  a  sense,  both  linguistically  and  physically  ;  but 
they  seem  to  have  attained  to  a  high  civilisation  in  Western 
Arabia,  to  have  crossed  the  Red  Sea  in  vessels,  and  to  have 
made  their  first  base  on  the  Egyptian  coast  near  Berenice  in 
the  natural  harbour  formed  by  Ras  Benas.  From  here  a  long, 
broad  wadi  or  valley — then  no  doubt  fertile — led  them  to  the 
Nile  in  the  Thebaid,  the  first  seat  of  their  kingly  power'.  The 
ancestors  of  the  Dynastic  Egyptians  may  have  originated  the 
great  dams  and  irrigation  works  in  Western  Arabia ;  and  such 
long  struggles  with  increasing  drought  may  have  first  broken 
them  in  to  the  arts  of  quarrying  stone  blocks  and  building  with 
stone.  Over  population  and  increasing  drought  may  have 
caused  them  to  migrate  across  the  Red  Sea  in  search  of  another 
home  ;  or  their  migration  may  have  been  partly  impelled  by  the 
Semitic  hordes  from  the  north,  whom  we  can  imagine  at  this 
period — some  9000  to  10,000  years  ago — pressing  southwards 
into  Arabia  and  conquering  or  fusing  with  the  preceding 
Hamites;  just  as  these  latter,  no  doubt,  at  an  earlier  day,  had 
wrested  Arabia  from  the  domain  of  the  Negroid  and  Dravidian  " 
(p.  382).    - 

That  the  founding  of  the  First  Dynasty  was  coincident 
with  a  physical  change  in  the  population,  is  proved  by  the 
thousands  of  skeletons  and  mummies  examined 
by  Elliot  Smith  ^  who  regards  the  Pre-dynastic  Pj^°to-E87Ptian 
Egyptians  as  "probably  the  nearest  approxi- 
mation to  that  anthropological  abstraction,  a  pure  race,  that 
we  know  of  (p.  83).   He  describes  the  type  as  follows  (Chap.  iv.). 

The  Proto-Egyptian  {i.e.  Pre-dynastic)  was  a  man  of  small 
stature,  his  mean  height,  estimated  at  a  little  under  5  ft.  5  in., 
in  the  flesh  for  men,  and  almost  5  ft!  in  the  case  of  women. 


'  For  an  alternative  route  see  E.  Naville,  "  The  Origin  of  Egyptian  Civilisation," 
Journ.  Roy.  Anthr.  Inst,  xxxvn.  I907,  p.  209;  J.  L.  Mjires,  The  Dawn  of  History, 
191 1,  pp.  56-7,  also  p.  65,  and  the  criticism  of  Elliot  Smith,  The  Ancient  Egyptians^ 
ign,  pp.  88-9. 

2  The  Amient  Egyptians,  191 1. 


478  Man :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

being  just  about  the  average  for  mankind  in  general,  whereas 
the  modern  Egyptian /"^//ayl  averages  about  5  ft.  6  in.     He  was 
of  very  slender  build  with  indications  of  poor  muscular  develop- 
ment.    In  fact  there  is  a  suggestion  qf  effeminate  grace  and 
frailty  about  his  bones,  which  is  lacking  in  the  more  rugged 
outlines  of  the  skeletons  of  his  more  virile  successors.     The 
hair  of  the  Proto- Egyptian  was  precisely  similar  to  that  of  the 
brunet  South  European  or  Iberian  people  of  the  present  day. 
It  was  a  very  dark  brown  or  black  colour,  wavy  or  almost 
straight  and  sometimes  curly,  never  "woolly."     There  can  be 
no  doubt  whatever  that  this  dark  hair  was  associated  with  dark 
eyes  and  a  bronzed  complexion.     Elliot  Smith  emphatically 
endorses   Sergi's  identification  of  the  ancient   Egyptian    as 
belonging  to  his  Mediterranean  Race.     "So  striking  is  the 
family  likeness  between  the  Early  Neolithic  peoples  of  the 
British  Isles  and  the  Mediterranean  and  the  bulk  of  the  popu- 
lation, both  ancient  and  modern,  of  Egypt  and  East  Africa, 
that  a  description  of  the  bones  of  an  early  Briton  might  apply 
in  all  essential  details  to  an  inhabitant  of  Somaliland."    But  he 
points  out  also  that  there  is  an  equally  close  relationship  linking 
the  Proto-Egyptians  with  the  populations  to  the  east,  from  the 
Red  Sea  as  far  as  India,  including  Semites  as  well  as  Hamites. 
Rejecting  the  terms  "Mediterranean"  or  "  Hamite"  as  inade- 
quate   he  would    classify  his    Mediterranean- Hamite-Semite 
group  as  the  "  Brown  Race'." 

A  most  fortunate  combination  of  circumstances  afforded 
Elliot  Smith  an  opportunity  for  determining  the  ethnic 
affinities  of  the  Egyptian  people. 

The  Hearst  Expedition  of  the  University  of  California, 
under  the  direction  of  G.  A.  Reisner,  was  occupied  from  1901 
onwards  with  excavations  at  Naga-ed-D^r  in  the  Thebaid, 
where  a  cemetery,  excavated  by  A.  M.  Lythgoe,  contained 
well-preserved  bodies  and  skeletons  of  the  earliest  known 
Pre-dynastic  period.  Close  by  was  a  series  of  graves  of  the 
First  and  Second  Dynasties  ;  a  few  hundred  yards  away  tombs 
of  the  Second  to  the  Fifth  Dynasties  (examined  by  A.  C.  Mace), 
with  a  large  number  of  tombs  ranging  from  the  time  of  the 
Sixth  Dynasty  to  the  Twelfth.  "  Thus  there  was  provided  a 
chronologically  unbroken  series  of  human  remains  representing 
every  epoch  in  the  history  of  Upper  Egypt  from  prehistoric 
times,  roughly  estimated  at  4000  B.C.,  up  till  the  close  of  the 

^  The  Ancient  Egyptians,  191 1,  pp.  56,  58,  62., 


xiii]  The  Caucasic  Peoples  479 

Middle  Empire,  more  than  two  thousand  years  later."  To 
complete  the  story  Coptic  (Christian  Egyptian)  graves  of  the 
fifth  and  sixth  centuries  were  discovered  on  the  same  site. 

"The  study  of  this  extraordinarily  complete  series  of 
human  remains,  providing  in  a  manner  such  as  no  other  site 
has  ever  done  the  materials  for  the  reconstruction  of  the  racial 
history  of  one  spot  during  more  than  forty-five  centuries,  made 
it  abundantly  clear  that  the  people  whose  remains  were  buried 
just  before  the  introduction  of  Isldm  into  Egypt  were  of  the 
same  flesh  and  blood  as  their  forerunners  in  the  same  locality 
before  the  dawn  of  history.  And  nine  years'  experience  in 
the  Anatomical  Department  of  the  School  of  Medicine  in 
Cairo,"  continues  Elliot  Smith,  "  has  left  me  in  no  doubt  that 
the  bulk  of  the  present  population  in  Egypt  conforms  to 
precisely  the  same  racial  type,  which  has  thus  been  dominant 
in  the  rforthern  portion  of  the  Valley  of  the  Nile  for  sixty 
centuries\" 

As  early  as  the  Second  Dynasty  certain  alien  traits  began 
to  appear,  which  became  comparatively  common  in  the  Sixth 
to  Twelfth  series.    The  non-Eeryptian  characters    ,         .,^ 

,  11      •  •         c  •  Armenoid  Type. 

are  observable  m  remams  irom  numerous  sites 
excavated  by  Flinders  Petrie  in  Lower  and  Middle  Egypt,  and 
are  particularly  marked  in  the  cemetery  round  the  Giza 
Pyramids  (excavated  by  the  Hearst  Expedition,  1903),  con- 
taining remains  of  more  than  five  hundred  individuals,  who 
had  lived  at  the  time  of  the  Pyramid-builders  ;  they  are  there- 
fore referred  to  by  Elliot  Smith  as  "Giza  traits,"  and  attributed 
to  Armenoid  influence.  Soon  after  the  amalgamation  of  the 
Egyptian  kingdoms  of  Upper  and  Lower  Egypt  by  Menes 
(Mena),  consequent  perhaps  upon  the  discovery  of  copper  and 
the  invention  of  metal  implements",  expeditions  were  sent 
beyond  the  frontiers  of  the  United  Kingdom  to  obtain  copper 
ore,  wood  and  other  objects.  Even  in  the  times  of  the  First 
Dynasty  the  Egyptians  began  the  exploitation  of  the  mines 
in  the  Sinai  Peninsula  for  copper  ore.  It  is  claimed  by  Meyer' 
that  Palestine  and  the  Phoenician  coast  were  Egyptian  de- 
pendencies, and  there  is  ample  evidence  that  there  was  intimate 
intercourse  between  Egypt  and  Palestine  as  far  north  as  the 
Lebanons  before  the  end  of  the  Third  Dynasty.     From  this 

1  The  Ancient  Egyptians,  191 1,  pp.  104-5. 

2  G.  Elliot  Smith,  loc.  cit.  pp.  97  and  147. 

3  E.  Meyer,  Geschichte  des  Altertums,  I.  2,  1909,  §§229,  232,  253. 


480  Man  :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

time  forward  the  physical  characters  of  the  people  of  Lower 
Egypt  show  the  results  of  foreign  admixture,  and  present 
marked  features  of  contrast  to  the  pure  type  of  Upper  Egypt. 
The  curious  blending  of  characters  suggests  that  the  process 
of  racial  admixture  took  place  in  Syria  rather  than  in  Egypt 
itselP.  The  alien  type  is  best  shown  in  the  Giza  necropolis, 
and  its  representatives  may  be  regarded  as-  the  builders  and 
guardians  of  the  Pyramids.  The  stature  is  about  the  same  as 
that  of  the  Proto-Egyptians,  possibly  rather  lower,  but  they 
were  built  on  far  sturdier  lines,  their  bones  being  more  massive, 
with  well-developed  muscular  ridges  and  impressions,  and  none 
of  the  effeminacy  or  infantilism  of  the  prehistoric  skeletons. 
The  brain-case  has  greater  capacity  with  no  trace  of  the  meagre 
ill-filled  character  exhibited  by  the  latter.  Characteristic 
peculiarities  were  the  "Grecian  profile"  and  a  jaw  closely 
resembling  those  of  the  round-headed  Alpine  races.   •*' 

These  "Giza  traits"  were  not  a  local  development,  for 
they  have  been  noted  in  all  parts  of  Palestine  and  Asia  Minor, 
and  abundantly  in  Persia  and  Afghanistan.  They  occur  in 
the  Punjab  but  are  absent  from  India,  having  an  area  of 
greatest  concentration  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Pamirs; 
while  in  a  westerly  direction,  besides  beittg  sporadically 
scattered  over  North  Africa,  they  are  recognised  again  in  the 
extinct  Guanches  of  the  Canary  Islands.  From  these  con- 
siderations Elliot  Smith  shapes  the  following  "  working 
hypothesis." 

"The  Egyptians,  Arabs  and  Sumerians  may  have  been 
kinsmen  of  the  Brown  Race,  each  diversely  specialized  by 
long  residence  in  its  own  domain ;  and  in  Pre-dynastic  times, 
before  the  wider  usefulness  of  copper  as  a  military  instrument 
of  tremendous  power  was  realized,  the  Middle  Pre-dynastic 
phase  of  culture  became  diffused  far  and  wide  throughout 
Arabia  and  Sumer.  Then  came  the  awakening  to  the  know- 
ledge of  the  supremacy  which  the  possession  of  metal  weapons 
conferred  upon  those  who  wielded  them  in  combat  against 
those  not  so  armed.  Upper  Egypt  vanquished  Lower  Egypt 
in  virtue  of  this  knowledge  and  the  possession  of  such  weapons. 
The  United  Kingdom  pushed  its  way  into  Syria  to  obtain 
wood  and  ore,  and  incidentally  taught  the  Arabs  the  value  of 
metal  weapons.     The  Arabs  thereby  obtained  the  supremacy 

'  G.  Elliot  Smith,   The  Ancient  Egyptians,  1911,  p.  108,  but  for  a  different 
interpretation  see  J.  li  Mytes,  The  Dawn  of  Histoiy,  191 1   pp.  51  and  65. 


xiii]  The  Caucasic  Peoples  481 

over  the  Armenoids  of  Northern  Syria,  atid  th^  hybrid  race 
of  Semites  formed  from  this  blend  were  able  to  descend  the 
Euphrates  and  vanquish  the  more  cultured  Sumerians,  because 
the  latter  were  without  metal  implements  of  war.  The  non- 
Semitic  Armenoids  of  Asia  Minor  carried  the  new  knowledge 
into  Europe*." 

This  hypothesis  might  explain  some  of  the  difficult  pro- 
blems connecting  Egypt  and  Babylonia'.  The  non-Asiatic 
origin  of  the  Egyptian  people  appears  to  be  Asiatic  influence 
indicated  by  recent  excavations,  but,  as  men-  on  Egyptian 
tioned  above,  there  are  still  many  who  hold  that  ^^"i*"'*- 
Egyptian  culture  and  civilisation  were  derived  mainly,  if  not 
wholly,  from  Asiatic  (probably  Sumerian)  sources.  The  Semitic 
elements  existing  in  the  ancient  Egyptian  language,  certain 
resemblances  between  names  of  Sumerian  and  Egyptian  gods, 
and  the  similarity  of  hieroglyphic  characters  to  the  Sumerian 
system  of  writing  have  been  cited  as  proofs  of  the  dependence 
of  the  one  culture  upon  the  other ;  while  the  introduction  of 
the  knowledge  of  metals,  metal-working  and  the  crafts  of 
brick-making  and  tomb  construction  have,  together  with  the 
bulbous  mace-head,  cylinder-seal  and  domesticated  animals 
and  plants',  been  traced  to  Babylonia. 

But  the  excavations  of  Reisner  at  Naga-ed-D6r  and  those 
of  Naville  at  Abydos  (1909-10)  appear  to  place  the  indigenous 
development  of  Egyptian  culture  beyond  question.  Reisner's 
conclusions'  are  that  there  was  no  sudden  break  of  continuity 
between  the  neolithic  and  early  dynastic  cultures  of  Egypt. 
No  essential  change  took  place  in  the  Egyptian  conception 
of  life  after  death,  or  in  the  rites  and  practices  accompanying 
interment.  The  most  noticeable  changes,  in  the  character  of 
the  pottery  and  household  vessels,  in  the  materials  for  tools 
and  weapons  and  the  introduction  of  writing,  were  all  gradually 
introduced,  and  one  period  fades  into  another  without  any 

1  Loc.  cit.  p.  147. 

2  H.  R.  Hall  {The  Ancient  History  of  the  Near  East,  191 3,  p.  87  n.  3)  sees  ''no 
resemblance  whatever  between  the  facial  traits  of  the  Memphite  grandees  of  the 
Old  Kingdom  and  those  of  Hittites,  Syrians,  or  modem  Anatolians,  Armenians  or 
Kurds.  They  were  much  more  like  South  Europeans,  like  modern  Italians  or 
Cretans." 

'  Cf.  H.  H.  Johnston,  "A  Survey  of  the  Ethnography  of  Mnca,"  Joum.  Roy. 
Anthr.  Soc.  XLIH.  1913,  p.  383,  and  also  E.  Naville,  "The  Origin  of  Egyptian 
Civilisation," Z^^'^-  Roy.  Anthr.  Inst,  xxxvii.  1907,  p.  210. 

*  G.  A.  Reisner,  "  The  Early  Dynastic  Cemeteries  of  Naga-ed-DSr,"  Part  I. 
Vol.  II.  of  University  of  California  Publications,  1908,  summarised  by  L.  W.  King, 
History  of  Sumer  and  Akkad,  1910,  pp.  326,  334. 

K.  31 


482  Man :   Past  and  Present  [ch. 

strongly  marked  line  of  division  between  them.  Egypt  no 
doubt  had  trading  relations  with  surrounding  countries. 
Egyptians  and  Babylonians  must  have  met  in  the  markets  of 
Syria,  and  in  the  tents  of  Bedouin  chiefs.  Still,  as  Meyer 
points  out,  far  from  Egypt  taking  over  a  ready-made  civilisa- 
tion from  Babylonia,  Egypt,  as  regards  cultural  influence,  was 
the  giver  not  the  receiver'. 

One  more  alien  element  in  Egypt  remains  to  be  discussed. 
Most  writers  on  Egyptian  ethnology  detect  a  Negro  or  at 
least  Negroid  element  in  the  Caucasoid  popula- 
Sllfture  '^°"'  ^'^^  although  usually  assigning  priority  to 

the  Negro,  assume  the  co-existence  of  the  two 
races  from  time  immemorial  to  the  present  day.  Measurements 
on  more  than  1000  individuals  were  made  by  C.  S.  Myers, 
and  these  are  his  conclusions.  "  There  is  no  anthropometric 
(despite  the  historic)  evidence  that  the  population  of  Egypt, 
past  or  present,  is  composed  of  several  different  races.  Our 
new  anthropometric  data  favour  the  view  which  regards  the 
Egyptians  always  as  a  homogeneous  people,  who  have  varied 
now  towards  Caucasian,  now  towards  negroid  characters 
(according  to  environment),  showing  such  close  anthropometric 
affinity  to  Libyan,  Arabian  and  like  neighbouring  peoples, 
showing  such  variability  and  possibly  such  power  of  absorption, 
that  from  the  anthropometric  standpoint  no  evidence  is  obtain- 
able that  the  modern  Egyptians  have  been  appreciably  affected 
by  other  than  sporadic  Sudanese  admixture"." 

It  was  seen  above  (Chap.  III.)  that  non- Negro  elements 

are  found  throughout  the  Sudan  from  Senegal  nearly  to  Darfur, 

nowhere  forming  the  whole  of  the  population, 

*    "  but    nearly  always  the    dominant    native    race. 

These  are  the  Fulah  (Fula,  Fulbe  or  Fulani),  whose  ethnic 
affinities  have  given  rise  to  an  enormous  amount  of  speculation. 
Their  linguistic  peculiarity  had  led  many  ethnologists  to  regaird 
them  as  the  descendants  of  the  first  white  colonists  of  North 
Africa, "  Caucasoid  invaders,"  1 5,000  years  ago,  prior  to  H  amitic 
intrusions  from  the  east'.  Thus  would  be  explained  the  fact 
that  their  language  betrays  absolutely  no  structural  affinity 
with   Semitic  or   Libyo-Hamitic  groups,  or  with  any   other 

'  Geschichte  des  Altertums,  I.  2,  1909,  p.  156. 

2  Journ.  Anthr.  Inst.  XXXlll.  1903,  XXXV.  1905,  xxxvi.  1906,  anAJourn.  Roy. 
Anthr.  Inst,  xxxviii.  1908. 

5  Cf.  H.  H.  Johnston,  "A  Survey  of  the  Ethnography  of  Airica.,"  Journ.  Roy. 
Antfir.  Inst.  Xhlll.  igi2,  p- 3S2. 


xiii]  The  Caucasic  Peoples  483 

speech  families  outside  Africa,  though  offering  faint  resem- 
blances in  structure  with  the  Lesghian'  speech  of  the  Caucasus 
and  the  Dravidian  tongues  of  Baluchistan  and  India.  Physi- 
cally there  seems  to  be  nothing  to  differentiate  them  from 
other  blends"  of  Hamite-Negro.  The  physical  type  of  the 
pure-bred  Fulah  H.  H.  Johnston  describes  as  follows :  "  Tall 
of  stature  (but  not  gigantic,  like  the  Nilote  and  South-east 
Sudanese),  olive-skinned  or  even  a  pale  yellow ;  well-pro- 
portioned, with  delicate  hands  and  feet,  without  steatopygy, 
with  long,  oval  face,  big  nose  (in  men),  straight  nose  in  women 
(nose  finely  cut,  like  that  of  the  Caucasian),  eyes  large  and 
"melting,"  with  an  Egyptian  look  about  them,  head-hair' 
long,  black,  kinky  or  ringlety,  never  quite  straight^"  They 
were  at  first  a  quiet  people,  herdsmen  and  shepherds 
with  a  high  and  intricate  type  of  pagan  religion  which  still 
survives  in  parts  of  Nigeria.  But  large  numbers  of  them 
became  converted  to  Islam  from  the  twelfth  century  onwards 
and  gained  some  knowledge  of  the  world  outside  Africa  by 
their  pilgrimages  to  Mecca.  At  the  end  of  the  eighteenth 
and  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  centuries  an  uprise  of 
Muhammadan  fanaticism  and  a  proud  consciousness  of  their 
racial  superiority  to  the  mere  Negro  armed  them  as  an  aris- 
tocracy to  wrest  political  control  of  all  Nigeria  from  the  hands 
of  Negro  rulers  or  the  decaying  power  of  Tuareg  and  Songhai. 
This  race  was  all  unconsciously  carrying  on  the  Caucasian 
invasion  and  penetration  of  Africa. 

A  less  controversial  problem  is  presented  by  the  Eastern 
Hamites,  who  form  a  continuous  chain  of  dark  Caucasic 
peoples  from  the  Mediterranean  to  the  equator,  other  Eastern 
and  whose  ethnical  unity  is  now  established  by  Hamites— Bejas 
Sergi  on  anatomical  grounds*.  Bordering  on  — So^n^is. 
Upper  Egypt,  and  extending  thence  to  the  foot  of  the 
Abyssinian  plateau,  is  the  Beja  section,  whose  chief  divisions 
— Ababdeh,  Hadendoa,  Bisharin,  Beni  Amer — have  from  the 
earliest  times  occupied  the  whole  region  between  the  Nile  and 
the  Red  Sea. 

1  No  physical  affinity  is  suggested.  The  Lesghian  tribes  "betray  an  accentuated 
brachycephaly  equal  to  that  of  the  pure  Mongols  about  the  Caspians."  W.  Z.  Ripley,. 
The  Races  of  Europe,  p.  440. 

^  J.  Deniker,  The  Races  of  Man,  1900,  p.  439,  places  the  Fulahs  in  a  separate 
group,  the  Fulah-Zandeh  group.  Cf.  also  A.  C.  Haddon,  The  Wanderings  of 
Peoples,  191 1,  p.  59- 

'  Loc.  cit.  p.  401  n. 

*  Africa,  i8g7, passim. 

31 — 2 


484  Man :  Past  and  Present  {ch. 

C.  G.  Seligman  has  analysed  the  physical  and  cultural 
characters  of  the  Beja  tribes  {Biskarin,  Hadendoa  and  Beni 
Amer),  the  Barabra,  nomad  Arabs  (such  as  the  Kababish  and 
Kawahld),  Nilotes  {Shilluk,  Dinka,  Nuer)  and  half-Hamites 
{Ba-Hima,  Masai),  in  an  attempt  by  eliminating  the  Negro 
and  Semitic  elements  to  deduce  the  main  features  which  may 
be  held  to  indicate  Hamitic  influence.  He  regards  the  Beni 
Amer  as  approximating  most  closely  to  the  original  Beja  type 
which  he  thus  describes;  "  Summarizing  their  physical  char- 
acteristics it  may  be  said  that  they  are  moderately  short, 
slightly  built  men,  with  reddish-brown  or  brown  skins  in  which 
a  greater  or  less  tinge  of  black  is  present,  while  in  some  cases 
the  skin  is  definitely  darker  and  presents  some  shade  of  brown- 
black.  The  hair  is  usually  curly,  in  some  instances  it  certainly 
might  be  described  as  wavy,  but  the  method  of  hair  dressing 
adopted  tends  to  make  difficult  an  exact  description  of  its 
condition.  Often,  as  is  everywhere  common  amongst  wearers 
of  turbans,  the  head  is  shaved.... The  face  is  usually  long  and 
oval,  or  approaching  the  oval  in  shape,  the  jaw  is  often  lightly 
built,  which  with  the  presence  of  a  rather  pointed  chin  may 
tend  to  make  the  upper  part  of  the  face  appear  disproportion- 
ately broad.  The  nose  is  well  shaped  and  thoroughly  Caucasian 
in  type  and  form\"  Among  ithe  Hadendoa  the  "  Armenoid" 
or  so-called  "Jewish"  nose  is  not  uncommon.  Seligman 
draws  attention  to  the  close  resemblance  between  the  Beja 
type  and  that  of  the  ancient  Egyptians. 

Through  the  Afars  (Danakil)  of  the  arid  coastlands  between 
Abyssinia  and  the  sea,  the  Bejas  are  connected  with  the  nu- 
merous Hamitic  populations  of  the  Somali  and 

Ge^iogies.  ^^"^  ^^^^S-  ^^"^  ^he  term  "Somal,"  which  is 
quite  recent  and  of  course  unknown  to  the 
natives,  H.  M.  Abud^  suggests  an  interesting  and  plausible 
explanation.  Being  a  hospitable  people,  and  milk  their  staple 
food,  "  the*  first  word  a  stranger  would  hear  on  visiting  their 
kraals  would  be  '  S6  mil,'  i.e.  '  Go  and  bring  milk.' "  Strangers 
may  have  named  them  from  this  circumstance,  and  other 
tribal  names  may  certainly  be  traced  to  more  improbable 
sources. 

1  "Some  Aspects  of  the  Hamitic  Problem  in  the  Anglo-Egyptian  Sudan," 
Journ.  Roy.  Anthr.  Inst.  XLIII.  191 3,  p.  604.  See  also  C.  Crossland,  Desert  and 
Water  Gardens  of  the  Red  Sea,  1913. 

^  Genealogies  of  the  Somal,  1896. 


xiii]  The  Caucasic  Peoples  485 

The  natives  hold  that  two  races  inhabit  the  land :  ( i )  Asha, 
true  Somals,  of  whom  there  are  two  great  divisions,  Ddrdd 
and  Iskdk,  both  claiming  descent  from  certain  noble  Arab 
families,  though  no  longer  of  Arab  speech  ;  (2)  HAwfvA,  who 
are  not  counted  by  the  others  as  true  Somals,  but  only  "pagans," 
and  also  comprise  two  main  branches,  Aysa  and  Gadabursi. 
In  the  national  genealogies  collected  by  Abud  and  Cox,  many 
of  the  mythical  heroes  are  buried  at  or  near  Meit,  which  may 
thus  be  termed  the  cradle  of  the  Somal  race.  From  this 
point  they  spread  in  all  directions,  the  Dar6ds  pushing  south 
and  driving  the.  Galla  beyond  the  Webbe  Shebel,  and  till 
lately  raiding  them  as  far  as  the  Tana  river.  It  should  be 
noticed  that  these  genealogical  tables  are  far  from  cotnplete, 
for  they  exclude  most  of  the  southern  sections,  notably  the 
Rahanwin  who  have  a  very  wide  range  on  both  sides  of  the  Jub. 

In  the  statements  made  by  the  natives  about  true  Somals 
and  "pagans,"  race  and  religion  are  confused,  and  the  distinction 
between  Asha  and  Hdwiya  is  merely  one  between  Moslem  and 
infidel.  The  latter  are  probably  of  much  purer  stock  than  the 
former,  whose  very  genealogies  testify  to  interminglings  of 
the  Moslem  Arab  intruders  with  the  heathen  aborigines. 

Despite  their  dark  colour  C.  Keller'  has  no  difficulty  in 
regarding  the  Somali  as  members  of  the  "  Caucasic  Race." 
The  Semitic  type  crops  out  decidedly  in  several  groups,  and 
they  are  generally  speaking  of  fine  physique,  well  grown,  with 
proud  bearing  and  often  with  classic  profile,  though  the  type 
is  very  variable  owing  to  Arab  and  Negro  grafts  on  the 
Hamitic  stock.  The  hair  is  never  woolly,  but,  like  that  of 
the  Beja,  ringlety  and  less  thick  than  the  Abyssinian  and 
Galla,  sometimes  even  quite  straight.  The  forehead  is  finely 
•rounded  and  prominent,  eye  moderately  large  and  rather 
deep-set,  nose  straight,  but  also  snub  and  aquiline,  mouth 
regular,  lips  not  too  thick,  head  sub-dolichocephalic. 

Great  attention  has  been  paid  to  all  these  Eastern  Hamitic 
peoples  by  Ph.  Paulitschke^  who  regards  the  Galla  as  both 
intellectually  and  morally  superior  to  the  Somals  and  Afars, 
the  chief  reason  being  that  the  baneful  influences  exercised  by 
the  Arabs  and  Abyssinians  affect  to  a  far  greater  extent  the 
two  latter  than  the  former  group. 

'  "  Reisestudien  in  den  Somalilandern,"  Globus,  Lxx.  p.  33  sq. 
2  Ethnographie  Nord-Ost-Afrikas:  Die  geistige  Kuliur  der  Dandkil,  Galla  u. 
Somdl,  1896,  2  vols. 


486  Man :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

The  Galla  appear  to  have  reached  the  African  coast  before 
the  Da;nakil  and  Somali,  but  were  driven  south-east  by  pressure 
from  the  latter,  leaving  Galla  remnants  as  serfs 
among  the  southern  Somali,  while  the  presence 
of  servile  negroid  tribes  among  the  Galla  gives  proof  of  an 
earlier  population  which  they  partially  displaced.  Subsequent 
pressure  from  the  Masai  on  the  south  forced  the  Galla  into 
contact  with  the  Dajidkil,  and  a  branch  penetrating  inland 
established  themselves  on  the  north  and  east  of  Victoria 
Nyanza,  where  they  are  known  to-day  as  the  Ba-Hima,  Wa- 
Tusi,  Wa-Ruanda  and  kindred  tribes,  which  have  been  de- 
scribed on  p.  91. 

The  Masai,  the  terror  of  their  neighbours,  are  a  mixture 
of  Galla  and  Nilotic  Negro,  producing  what  has  been  described 
.  as  the  finest  type  in  Africa.  The  build  is  slender 
and  the  height  often  over  six  feet,  the  face  is 
well  formed,  with  straight  nose  and  finely  cut  nostrils,  the  hair 
is  usually  frizzly,  and  the  skin  dark  or  reddish  brown.  They 
are  purely  pastoral,  possessing  enormous  herds  of  cattle  in 
which  they  take  great  pride,  but  they  are  chiefly  remarkable 
for  their  military  organisation  which  was  hardly  surpassed  by 
that  of  the  Zulu.  They  have  everywhere  found  in  the  agri- 
cultural peoples  an  easy  prey,  and  until  the  reduction  of  their 
wealth  by  rinderpest  (since  1891)  and  the  restraining  influence 
of  the  white  man,  the  Masai  were  regarded  as  an  ever-dreaded 
scourge  by  all  the  less  warlike  inhabitants  of  Eastern  Africa'. 

Amongst  the  Abyssinian  Hamites  we  find  the  strangest 

interminglings  of  primitive  and  more  advanced  religious  ideas. 

On  a  seething  mass  of  African  heathendom,  already  in  pre- 

Abyssinian        historic  times  affected  by  early  Semitic  ideas  intro- 

Hamites:  duced  by  the  Himyarites  from  South  Arabia,  was- 

Religion.  somewhat  suddenly  imposed  an  undeveloped  form 

of  Christianity  by  the  preaching  of  Frumentius  in  the  fourth 

century,  with  results  that  cannot  be  called  satisfactory.     While 

the  heterogeneous  ethnical  elements  have  been  merged  in  a 

composite  Abyssinian  nationality,  the  discordant  religious  ideas 

1  M.  Merker,  Die  Masai,  1904;  A.  C.  HoUis,  The  Masai,  their  Language  and 
Folklore,  1905.  C.  Dundas,  "  The  Organization  and  Laws  of  some  Bantu  Tribes 
in  East  Mrica,"  Journ.  Roy.  Anthr.  Inst.  XLV.  1915,  pp.  236-7,  thinks  that  the  power 
of  the  Masai  was  over-rated,  and  that  the  Galla  were  really  a  fiercer  race.  He 
quotes  Krapf,  "Give  me  the  Galla  and  I  have  Central  Africa."  The  Nandi  (an 
aUied  tribe)  are  described  by  A.  C.  HoUis,  1909,  and  The  Suk  by  M.  W.  H.  Beech, 
1911. 


xiii]  The  Caucasic  Peoples  487 

have  never  yet  been  fused  in  a  consistent  uniform  system. 
Hence  "Abyssinian  Christianity"  is  a  sort  of  by-word  even 
amongst  the  Eastern  Churches,  while  the  social  institutions  are 
marked  by  elementary  notions  of  justice  and  paradoxical 
"shamanistic"  practices,  interspersed  with  a  few  sublime  moral 
precepts.  M  any  th  ings  came  as  a  surprise  to  the  members  of  the 
Rennell  Rodd  Mission \  who  could  not  understand  such  a 
strange  mixture  of  savagery  and  lofty  notions  in  a  Christian 
community  which,  for  instance,  accounted  accidental  death  as 
wilful  murder.  The  case  is  mentioned  of  a  man  falling  from  a 
tree  on  a  friend  below  and  killing  him.  "He  was  adjudged  to 
perish  at  the  hands  of  the  bereaved  family,  in  the  same  manner 
as  the  corpse.  But  the  family  refused  to  sacrifice  a  second 
member,  so  the  culprit  escaped."  Dreams  also  are  resorted  to, 
as  in  the  days  of  the  Pharaohs,  for  detecting  crime.  A  priest  is 
sent  for,  and  if  his  prayers  and  curses  fail,  a  small  boy  is 
drugged  and  told  to  dream.  "Whatever  person  he  dreams  of 
is  fixed  on  as  the  criminal  ;  no  further  proof  is  needed.... If 
the  boy  does  not  dream  of  the  person  whom  the  priest  has 
determined  on  as  the  criminal,  he  is  kept  under  drugs  until  he 
does  what  is  required  of  him." 

To  outsiders  society  seems  to  be  a  strange  jumble  of  an 
iron  despotism,  which  forbids  the  selling  of  a  horse  for  over 
£\o  under  severe  penalties,  and  a  personal  freedom  oi"  licence, 
which  allows  the  labourer  to  claim  his  wages  after  a  week's 
work  and  forthwith  decamp  to  spend  them,  returning  next  day 
or  next  month  as  the  humour  takes  him.  Yet  somehow  things 
hold  together,  and  a  few  Semitic  immigrants  from  South  Arabia 
have  for  over  2000  years  contrived  to  maintain  some  kind  of 
control  over  the  Hamitic  aborigines  who  have  always  formed 
the  bulk  of  the  population  in  Abyssinia". 

'  A.  E.  W.  Gleichen,  Rennell  Rodd^s  Mission  to  Menelik,  1897. 

2  Among  recent  works  on  Abyssinia  may  be  mentioned  A.  B.  Wylde,  Modern 
Abyssinia,  1901  ;  H.  Weld  Blundell,  "A  Journey  through  Abyssinia,"  Geog.  Journ. 
XV.  1900,  and  "Exploration  in  the  Abai  Basin,"  ib.  xxvil.  1906 ;  the  Anthropological 
Survey  of  Abyssinia  published  by  the  French  Government  in  1911 ;  and  various 
publications  of  the  Princeton  University  Expedition  to  Abyssinia,  edited  by 
E.  Littmann. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

THE  CAUCASIC  PEOPLES  {continued) 

The  Semites— Cradle,  Origins,  and  Migrations — Divisions:  Semitic  Migrations — 
Babylonia,  People  and  Civilisation — Assyria,  People  and  Civilisation — Syria 
and  Palestine — Canaanites:  Amorites :  Phoenicians — The  yews — Origins — 
Early  and  Later  Dispersions — Diverse  Physical  Types — Present  Range  and 
Population — The  Hittites— Conflicting  Theories— 7^/4^  ^ra^j— Spread  of 
the  Arab  Race  and  Language — Semitic  Monotheism — Its  Evolution. 

,  The  Hirtiyaritic  immigrants,  who  still  hold  sway  in  a  foreign 
land,  have  long  ceiased  to  exist  as  a  distinct  nationality  in  their 
own  country,  where  they  had  nevertheless  ages  ago  founded 
flourishing  enipires,  centres  of  one  of  the  very  oldest  civilisa- 
tions of  which  there  is  any  record.  Should  future  research 
confirm  the  now  generally  received  view  that  Hamites  and 
Semites  are  fundamentally  of  one  stock,  a  view  based  both  on 
The  Semites—  physical  and  linguistic  dataS  the  cradle  of  the 
Cradle,  Origins,  Semitic  branch  will  also  probably  be  traced  to 
and  Migrations.  South  Arabia,  and  more  particularly  to  that  south- 
western region  known  to  the  ancients  as  Arabia  Felix,  i.e.  the 
Yemen  of  the  Arabs.  While  Asia  and  Africa  were  still  partly 
separated  in  the  north  by  a  broad  marine  inlet  before  the  for- 
mation of  the  Nile  delta,  easy  communication  was  afforded 
between  the  two  continents  farther  south  at  the  head  of  the 
Gulf  of  Aden,  where  they  are  still  almost  contiguous.  By  this 
route  the  primitive  Hamito-Semitic  populations  may  have 
moved  either  westwards  into  Africa,  or,  as  has  also  been  sug- 
gested, eastwards  into  Asia,  where  in  the  course  of  ages  the 
Semitic  type  became  specialised. 

On  this  assumption. South  Arabia  would  necessarily  be  the 
first  home  of  the  Semites,  who  in  later  times  spread  thence 

„.  .  .  north  and  east.     They  appear  as  Babylonians 

^JlVlSlOtlS  0  L   X.  • 

and  Assyrians  in  Mesopotamia ;  as  Phoenicians 
on    the   Syrian    coast;    as  Arabs   on    the    Nejd  steppe ;    as 

1  The  divergent  views  of  orientalists  concerning  Semitic  (linguistic)  origin^  are 
summarised  by  W.  Z.  Ripley,  The  Races  of  Europe,  1900,  p.  375. 


CH.  XI v]  The  Caucasic  Peoples  489 

Canaanites,  Moabites  and  others  in  and  about  Palestine ;  as 
Amorites  {Aramaeans,  Syrians)  in  Syria  and  Asia  Minor. 

This  is  the  common  view  of  Semitic  origins  and  early 
migrations,  but  as  practically  no  systematic  excavations  have 
been  possible  in  Arabia,  owing  to  political  conditions  and  the 
attitude  of  the  inhabitants,  definite  archaeological  or  anthro- 
pological proofs  are  still  lacking.  The  hypothesis  would,  how- 
ever, seem  to  harmonise  well  with  all  the  known  conditions. 
In  the  first  place  is  to  be  considered  the  very  narrow  area 
occupied  by  the  Semites,  both  absolutely  and  relatively  to  the 
domains  of  the  other  fundamental  ethnical  groups.  While  the 
Mongols  are  found  in  possession  of  the  greater  part  of  Asia, 
and  the  Hamites  with  the  Mediterraneans  are  diffused  over 
the  whole  of  North  Africa,  South  and  West  Europe  since  the 
Stone  Ages,  the  Semites,  excluding  later  expansions — Himy- 
arites  to  Abyssinia,  Phoenicians  to  the  shores  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean, Moslem  Arabs  to  Africa,  I rania,  and  Transoxiana — 
have  always  been  confined  to  the  south-west  corner  of  Asia, 
comprising  very  little  more  than  the  Arabian  Peninsula,  Meso- 
potamia, Syria,  and  (doubtfully)  parts  of  Asia  Minor.  More- 
over the  whole  mental  outlook  of  the  Semites,  their  mode  of 
thought,  their  religion  and  organisation,  indicate  their  deriva- 
tion from  a  desert  people ;  while  in  Arabia  are  found  at  the 
present  time  the  purest  examples  not  only  of  Semitic  type,  but 
also  of  Semitic  speech \  Their  early  history,  however,  as 
pointed  out  above,  still  awaits  the  spade  of  the  archaeologist, 
and  the  earliest  migrations  that  can  be  definitely  traced  are  in 
the  form  of  invasions  of  already  established  states^ 

The  first  great  wave  of  Semitic  migration  from  Arabia  is 
placed  in  the  fourth  millennium  B.C.,  3500  to  2500  or  earlier;  it 
affected  Babylonia  and  probably  Syria  and  Pales- 
tine, judging  from  the  Palestinian  place-names    Mirations, 
belonging  to  this  "Babylonian-Semitic"  period, 
and  the  close  connection  between  Palestine  and  Babylonia  in 

'  E.  Meyer,  Geschichte  des  Altertums,  i.  2,  1909,  §  336.  O.  Procksch,  however, 
while  regarding  the  origin  of  the  Semites  as  an  unsolved  problem,  considers  Arabia 
as  their  centre  of  dispersal  rather  than  their  original  home.  As  far  as  early  Semitic 
migrations  can  be  traced  he  thinks  they  indicate  a  north  to  south  direction,  and  he 
sees  no  cause  for  disputing  the  Biblical  account  {fien.  ii.  10  ff.)  deriving  the  descen- 
dants of  Shem  "  from  the  neighbourhood  of  Ararat,  i.e.  Armenia,  across  the  Taurus 
to  the  North  Syrian  plain."  "  Die  Volker  Altpalastinas,"  Das  Land  der  Bibel,  1.  2, 
1914,  p.  II.     Cf.  also  J.  L.  Myres,  The  Dawn  0/ History,  191 1,  p.  115.  ' 

2  For  the  discussion  as  to  whether  Semites  or  Sumerians  were  the  earlier  occu- 
pants of  Babylonia  see  p.  263  above. 


490  Man :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

culture  and  in  religious  ideas,  indicating  prehistoric  relation- 
ship\  A  second  wave,  Winckler's  Canaanitic  or  Amoritic 
migration,  followed  in  the  third  millennium,  covering  Babylonia, 
laying  the  foundations  of  the  Assyrian  Empire,  invading  Syria 
and  Palestine  (Phoenicians,  Amorites)  and  possibly  later  Egypt 
{Hyksos).  A  third  wave,  the  Aramaean,  which  spread  over 
Babylonia,  Mesopotamia  and  Syria  in  the  second  millennium, 
was  preceded  by  the  swarming  into  Syria  from  the  desert  of 
the  Khabiri  (Habiru)  or  Hebrews  (Edomites,  Moabites,  Am- 
monites and  Israelites  among  others).  From  the  same  area 
the  Suti  pressed  into  Babylonia  about  i  loo,  followed  by  another 
branch,  the  Chaldeans  from  Eastern  Arabia. 

These  are  but  a  few  of  the  earlier  waves  of  migration  from 
the  south  of  which  traces  can  be  detected  in  Western  Asia. 
Of  all  invasions  from  the  north,  that  of  the  Hittites  is  the  most 
important  and  the  most  confusing.  The  Hittites  appear  to  have 
moved  south  from  Cappadocia  about  2000  B.C.,  and  they  are 
found  warring  against  Babylonia  in  the  eighteenth  century.  A 
Hittite  dynasty  flourished  at  Mittanni  1420-1411  and  in  the 
fourteenth  and  thirteenth  centuries  they  conquered  and  largely 
occupied  Syrial  Invasions  of  Phrygian^  and  Philistines  from 
the  west  followed  the  breaking  up  of  the  Hittite  Empire.  The 
last  great  Semitic  migration  was  the  most  widespread  of  all. 
"  It  issued,  like  its  predecessors,  along  the  whole  margin  of  the 
desert,  and  in  the  course  of  a  century  had  flooded  not  only 
Syria  and  Egypt,  but  all  North  Africa  and  Spain ;  it  had 
occupied  Sicily,  raided  Constance,  and  in  France  was  only 
checked  at  Poitiers  in  732.  Eastward  it  flooded  Persia, 
founded  an  empire  in  India,  and  carried  war  and  commerce 
by  sea  past  Singapore'." 

"  Thus  Western  Asia  has  been  swept  times  and  again, 
almost  without  number,  by  conquering  hordes  and  the  no  less 
severe  ethnical  disturbances  of  peaceful  infiltrations  converging 

from  every  point  of  the  compass  in  turn How,  then,  is  it 

possible  to  learn  anything  today  from  the  contents  of  this 
cauldron,  filled  with  such  an  assortment  of  ingredients  and  still 

*  Hugo  Winckler,  "Die  Volker  Vorderasiens,''  Der  Alte  Orient,  I.  1900,  pp. 
14-15  and  Auszug  aus  der  Vorderasiatische  Geschichte,  1905,  p.  2. 

^  Cf.  A.  C.  Haddon,  Wanderings  of  Peoples,  191 1,  p.  21. 

^  J.  L.  Myres,  The  Dawn  of  History,  191 1,  pp.  1 18-9.  For  an  admirable  de- 
scription of  the  Semitic  migrations  see  pp.  104-5,  ^"^^  for  the  geographical  aspect, 
see  E.  C.  Semple,  Influences  of  Geographic  Environment :  on  the  basis  of  KatzeVs 
System  of  Anthropo-Geography,  1911,  pp.  6-7  and  uhder  "  Nomads"  in  the  Index. 


xiv]  The  Caucasic  Peoples  491 

seething  from  the  effects  of  the  disturbance  incidental  to  the 
harsh  mixing  of  such  incompatible  elements'  ?  "  Some  of  the 
problems  must  for  the  present  be  regarded  as  insoluble,  but 
with  the  evidence  provided  by  archaeologists  and  anthropologists 
an  attempt  may  be  made  to  read  the  ethnological  history  in 
these  obscure  regions. 

The  earliest  Semitic  wave  was  traceable  in  Babylonia,  but, 
as  seen  above,  opinions  differ  as  to  its  origin  and  date.     "At 
what  period   the   Semites  first   invaded   Baby-    Babylonia, 
Ionia,  when  and  where  they  first  attained  supre-    People  and 
macy,  are  not  yet  matters  of  history.     We  find    Civilisation. 
Semites  in  the  land  and  in  possession  of  considerable  power 
almost  as   early  as  we   can  go  back^"     The    characteristic 
Semitic  features  are  clearly  marked,  and  the  language  is  closely 
connected  with  Canaanitic  and  Assyrianl      From  the  monu- 
ments we  learn  that  the  Babylonian  Semites  had  full  beards 
and  wore  their  hair  long,  contrasting  sharply  with  the  shaven 
Sumerians,  and  thus  gaining  the  epithet  "  the  black-headed 
ones."     In  nose  and  lips,  as  in  dress,  they  are  clearly  distinct 
from  the  Sumerian  type*. 

When  history  commences,  the  inhabitants  of  Babylonia 
were  already  highly  civilised.  They  lived  in  towns,  containing 
great  temples,  and  were  organised  in  distinct  classes  or  occu- 
pations, and  possessed  much  wealth  in  sheep  and  cattle,  manu- 
factured goods,  gold,  silver  and  copper.  Engraving  on  metals 
and  precious  stones,  statuary,  architecture,  pottery,  weaving 
and  embroidery,  all  show  a  high  level  of  workmanship.  They 
possessed  an  elaborate  and  efficient  system  of  writing,  exten- 
sively used  and  widely  understood,  consisting  of  a  number  of 
signs,  obviously  descended  from  a  form  of  picture  writing,  but 
conventionalised  to  an  extent  that  usually  precludes  the  recog- 
nition of  the  original  pictures.  This  writing  was  made  by  the 
impression  of  a  stylus  on  blocks  or  cakes  of  fine  clay  while  still 
quite  soft.  These  "  tablets  "  were  sun-dried,  but  occasionally 
baked  hard.  This  cuneiform  writing  was  adopted  by,  or  was 
common  to,  many  neighbouring  nations,  being  freely  used  in 

1  G.  Elliot  Smith,  The  Ancient  Egyptians,  191 1,  p.  133. 

2  C.  H.  W.  Johns,  Ancient  Babylonia,  1913,  pp.  18-19.  Fo""  culture  see  pp. 
16-17. 

3  O.  Procksch,  "Die  Volker  Altpalastinas,"  Das  Land der  Bibel,  i.  2,  1914. 

*  Cf.  E.  Meyer,  "Sumerier  und  Semiten  in  Babylonien,"  Abh.  der  Konigl. 
Preuss.  Akad.  des  Wissenschaft.  1906;  L.  W.  King,  History  of  Sumer  and  Akkad, 
1910,  p.  4off. 


492  Man  :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

Elam,  Armenia  and  Northern  Mesopotamia  a&  far  as  Cappa- 
docia, 

Assyrian  culture  was  founded  upon  that  of  Babylonia,  but 
the  Assyrians  appear  to  have  differed  from  the  Babylonians 
Assyria  ^"^  character,  though  not  in  physical  type\  while 

People  and  they   were   closely   related   in   speech.      "  The 

CiviUsation.  Assyrians  differed  markedly  from  the  Baby- 
lonians in  national  character.  They  were  more  robust,  war- 
like, fierce,  than  the  mild  industrial  people  of  the  south.  It  is 
doubtful  if  they  were  much  devoted  to  agriculture,  or  distin- 
guished for  manufactures,  arts  and  crafts.  They  were  essen- 
tially a  military  folk.  The  king  was  a  despot  at  home,  but 
the  general  of  the  army  abroad.  The  whole  organisation  of 
the  state  was  for  war.  The  agriculture  was  left  to  serfs  or 
slaves.  The  manufactures,  weaving  at  any  rate,  were  done 
by  women.  The  guilds  of  workmen  were  probably  foreigners, 
as  the  merchants  mostly  were.  The  great  temples  and  palaces, 
walls  and  moats,  were  constructed  by  captives. ...  For  the  greater 
part  of  its  existence  Assyria  was  the  scourge  of  the  nations 
and  sucked  the  blood  of  other  races.  It  lived  on  the  tribute 
of  subject  states,  and  conquest  ever  meant  added  tribute  in  all 
necessaries  and  luxuries  of  life,  beside  an  annual  demand  for 
men  and  horses,  cattle  and  sheep,  grain  and  wool  to  supply  the 
needs  of  the  army  and  the  city^" 

The  early  history  of  Syria  'and  Palestine  is  by  no  means 
clear,  although  niuch  light  has  been  shed  in  recent  years  by  the 
Syria  and  excavations  of  R.  A.  S.  Macalister  at  Gezer', 

Palestine.  where  remains  were  found  of  a  pre-Semitic  race, 

Amoritesr '  ^^  ^rnst  Sellin  at'Tell  Ta'anek  and  Jericho^,  and 
Phoenicians :  the  labours  of  the  Deutscher  Paliistina-  Verein  and 
J®^s-  especially  G.  Schumacher  at  Megiddo".     Caves 

apparently  occupied  by  man  in  the  Neolithic  period  were  dis- 
covered at  Gezer,  and  are  dated  at  about  3500  to  3000  B.C. 

'  In  the  Assyrians  von  Luschan  detects  traces  of  the  hyperbrachycephalic 
people  of  Asia  Minor  and  Armenia,  for  they  appear  to  differ  from  the  pure  Semites 
especially  in  the  shape  of  the  nose.  Meyer  regards  this  variation  as  possibly  due 
to  a  prehistoric  population,  but,  he  adds,  studies  of  physical  types  both  historically 
and  anthropologically  are  in  their  infancy.  E.  Meyer,  Geschichte  des  Altertums,  i.  2, 
1909.  §  330  A. 

2  C.  H.  W.  Johns,  Ancient  Assyria,  1912,  p.  8. 

^  Palestine  Exploration  Fund  Quarterly  Statements,  1902  onwards.  See  also 
L.  B.  Paton,  Art.  "  Canaanites,"  in  'W^'aim.%^  Encyclopaedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics. 

*  Tell  Ta'anek,  1904,  Denkschriften,  Vienna  Academy,  and  "  The  German  Ex- 
cavations at  Jericho,"  Pal.  Expl.  Fund  Quart.  St.  1910. 

'  Tell  el-Mutesellim,  1908. 


xiv]  The  Caucasic  Peoples  493 

from  their  position  below  layers  in  which  Egyptian  scarabs 
appear.  Fragments  of  bones  give  indications  of  the  physical 
type.  None  of  the  individuals  exceeded  5  ft.  7  inches  (i  702  m.) 
in  height,  and  most  were  under  5  ft.  4  inches  (i'626  m.).  They 
were  muscular,  with  elongated  crania  and  thick  heavy  skull- 
bones.  From  their  physical  characters  it  could  be  clearly  seen 
that  they  did  not  belong  to  the  Semitic  race.  They  burned 
their  dead,  a  non-Semitic  custom,  a  cave  being  fitted  up  as  a 
crematorium,  with  a  chimney  cut  up  through  the  solid  rock  to 
secure  a  good  draught'. 

The  first  great  influx  of  Semitic  nomads  is  conjectured  to 
have  reached  Babylonia,  not  from  the  south,  but  from  the 
north-west,  after  traversing  the  Syrian  coast  lands.  They  left 
colonists  behind  them  in  this  region,  who  afterwards  as  the 
Amurru  (Amorites)  pressed  on  in  their  turn  into  Babylonia  and 
established  the  earliest  independent  dynasty  in  Babylonl 

The  second  great  wave  of  Semitic  migration  appears  to 
have  included  the  Phoenicians^  so  called  by  the  Greeks,  though 
they  called  themselves  Canaanites  and  their  land  Canaan*,  and 
are  referred  to  in  the  Old  Testament,  as  in  inscriptions  at 
Tyre,  as  "  Sidonians."  They  themselves  had  a  tradition  that 
their  early  home  was  on  the  Persian  Gulf,  a  view  held  by 
Theodore  Bent  and  others',  and  recent  discoveries  emphasise 
the  close  cultural  (not  necessarily  racial)  connection  between 
Palestine  and  Babylonia". 

The  weakening  of  Egyptian  hold  upon  Palestine  about  the 
fourteenth  century  B.C.  encouraged  incursions  of  restless  Habiru 
(Habiri)  from  the  Syrian  deserts,  commonly  identified  with  the 
Hebrews,  and  invasions  of  Hittites  from  the  north.  In  the 
thirteenth  century  Egypt  recovered  Palestine,  leaving  the 
Hittites  in  possession  of  Syria.   About  this  time  the  coast  was 

1  Palestine  Exploration  Fund  Quarterly  Statements,  1902,  p.  347  fif. 

*  L.  W.  King,  History  of  Sumer  and  Akkad,  igio,  p.  55;  C.  H.  W.  Johns, 
Ancient  Babylonia,  1913,  pp.  61-2 ;  L.  B.  Paton,  Art.  "Canaanites,"  Hastings'^wiry. 
of  Religion  and  Ethics,  1910 ;  E.  Meyer,  Geschichte  des  Altertums,  I.  2,  1909,  §§  396, 
436;  O.  Procksch,  "DieV6lkerAltpalastinas,"i?ajZ««^(/^>'5z*«/,  1.2,  i9i4,p.2Sff.; 
G.  Maspero,  The  Struggle  of  the  Nations,  Egypt,  Syria,  and  Assyria,  1910. 

3  ^oiviKfs,  probably  meaning  red,  either  on  account  of  their  sun-burnt  skin,  or 
from  the  dye  for  which  they  were  famous.  For  the  Phoenician  physical  type  cf. 
W.  Z.  Ripley,  Races  of  Europe,  1900,  pp.  287,  444. 

*  In  the  Old  Testament  "Cdnaanite"  and  "Amorite"  are  usually  synonymous. 
<>  A.  C.  Haddon,  Wanderings  of  Peoples,  191 1,  p.  22.    For  a  general  account  of 

Phoenician  history  see  J.  P.  Mahaffy,  in  Hutchinson's  History  of  the  Nations,  1914, 
p.  303  ff. 

*  Cf.  Morris,  Jastrow,  Hebrew  and  Babylonian  Traditions  (Haskell  Lectures), 

1913- 


494  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch.. 

invaded  by  Levantines,  including  the  Purasati,  in  whom  may 
perhaps  be  recognised  the  PhiHstines,  who  gave  their  name  to 
Palestine^ 

With  the  Hebrew  or  Israelitish  inhabitants  of  south  Syria 
(Canaan,  Palestine,  "  Land  of  Promise")  we  are  here  concerned 
only  in  so  far  as  they  form  a  distinct  branch  of  the  Semitic  family. 
The  term  "Jews',"  properly  indicating  the  children 
ejews.  of  Judah,  fourth  son  of  Jacob,  has  long  been  ap- 
plied generally  to  the  whole  people,  who  since  the  disappearance 
of  the  ten  northern  tribes  have  been  mainly  represented  by  the 
tribe  of  Judah,  a  remnant  of  Benjamin  and  a  few  Levites,  i.e. 
the  section  of  the  nation  which  to  the  number  of  some  50,000 
returned  to  south  Palestine  (kingdom  of  Judaea)  after  the 
Babylonian  captivity.  These  were  doubtless  later  joined  by 
some  of  the  dispersed  northern  tribes,  who  from  Jacob's  alter- 
native name  were  commonly  called  the  "ten  tribes  of  Israel." 
But  all  such  Israelites  had  lost  their  separate  nationality,  and 
were  consequently  absorbed  in  the  royal  tribe  of  Judah.  Since 
the  suppression  of  the  various  revolts  under  the  Empire,  the 
Judaei  themselves  have  been  a  dispersed  nationality,  and  even 
before  those  events  numerous  settlements  had  been  made  in 
different  parts  of  the  Greek  and  Roman  worlds,  as  far  west  as 
Tripolitana,  and  also  in  Arabia  and  Abyssinia. 

But  most  of  the  present  communities  probably  descend  from 
those  of  the  great  dispersion  after  the  fall  of  Jerusalem  (70  a.d.), 
increased  by  considerable  accessions  of  converted  "Gentiles," 
for  the  assumption  that  they  have  made  few  or  no  converts  is 
no  longer  tenable.  In  exile  they  have  been  far  more  a  religious 
body  than  a  broken  nation,  and  as  such  they  could  not  fail  under 
favourable  conditions  to  spread  their  teachings,  not  only 
amongst  their  Christian  slaves,  but  also  amongst  peoples, 
suqh  as  the  Abyssinian  Falashas,  of  lower  culture  than  them- 
selves. In  pre-Muhammadan  times  many  Arabs  of  Yemen 
and  other  districts  had  conformed,  and  some  of  their  Jewish 
kings  (Asad  Abu-Karib,  Dhu  Nowas,  and  others)  are  still 
remembered.  About  the  seventh  century  all  the  Khazars — a 
renowned  Turki  people  of  the  Volga,  the  Crimea,  and  the 

1  See  S.  A.  Cook,  Art.  "Jews,"  Ency.  .Brit.  1911;  O.  Procksch,  "Die  Voiker 
Altpalastinas,"  Das  Land  der  Bibel,  i.  2,  1914,  p.  28  ff. 

^  From  Old  French  Juis,  Lat.  Judaei,  i.e.  Sons  of  Jehiidah  (Judah).  See  my 
article,  "Jews,"  in  Cassell's  Storehouse  of  General  Information,  1893,  from  which  I 
take  many  of  the  following  particulars. 


xiv]  The,  Caucasic  Peoples  495 

Caspian — accepted  Judaism,  though  they  later  conformed  to 
Russian  orthodoxy.  The  Visigoth  persecution  of  the  Spanish 
Jews  (fifth  and  sixth  centuries)  was  largely  due  to  their  prose- 
lytising zeal,  against  which,  as  well  as  against  Jewish  and 
Christian  mixed  marriages,  numerous  papal  decrees  were  issued 
in  medieval  times. 

To  this  process  of  miscegenation  is  attributed  the  great 
variety  of  physical  features  observed  amongst  the   Jews  of 
different  countries',  while  the  distinctly  red  type  cropping  out 
almost  everywhere  has  been  traced  by  Sayce  and      Diverse 
others    to    primordial    interminglings    with    the      Physical 
Amorites   ("Red    People").     "Uniformity  only      "^^P^^- 
exists  in  the  books  and  not  in  reality.     There  are  Jews  with 
light  and  with  dark  eyes,  Jews  with  straight  and  with  curly 
hair,  Jews  with  high  and  narrow  and  Jews  with  short  and  broad, 
noses ;  their  cephalic  index  oscillates  between  65  and  98 — as 
far  as  this  index  ever  oscillates  in  i)s\&  genus  homo^ ! "     Never- 
theless ■  certain    marked  characteristics — large    hooked   nose, 
prominent  watery  eyes,  thick  pendulous  and  almost  everted 
under  lip,  rough  frizzly  lustreless  hair — are  sufficiently  general 
to  be  regarded  as  racial  traits. 

The  race  is  richly  endowed  with  the  most  varied  qualities, 
as  shown  by  the  whole  tenour  of  their  history.  Originally 
pure  nomads,  they  became  excellent  agriculturists  after  the 
settlement  in  Canaan,  and  since  then  they  have  given  proof 
of  the  highest  capacity  for  science,  letters,  erudition  of  all 
kinds,  finance,  music,  and  diplomacy.  The  reputation  of  the 
medieval  Arabs  as  restorers  of  learning  is  largely  due  to  their 
wise  tolerance  of  the  enlightened  Jewish  communities  in  their 
midst,  and  on  the  other  hand  Spain  and  Portugal  have  never 
recovered  from  the  national  loss  sustained  by  the  expulsion  of 
the  Jews  in  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries.  In  late 
years  the  persecutions,  especially  in  Russia,  have  caused  a  fresh 
exodus  from  the  east  of  Europe,  and  by  the  aid  of  philanthro- 
pic capitalists  flourishing  agricultural  settlements  have  been 

1  W.  M.  Flinders  Petrie  attributes  the  variation  to  environment,  not  miscegena- 
tion. "History  and  common  observation  lead  us  to  the  equally  legitimate  conclusion 
that  the  country  and  not  the  race  determines  the  cranium."  "  Migrations,"  yoKr^. 
Anthr.  Inst,  xxxvi.  1906,  p.  218.  He  is  here  criticising  the  excellent  discussion 
of  the  whole  question  in  W.  Z.  Ripley's  The  Races  of  Europe,  1900,  Chap.  xiv.  "The 
Jews  and  Semites,"  pp,  368-400,  with  bibliography.  Cf.  also  R.  N.  Salaman,  "He- 
redity and  the  ]e-ws,"  Journ.  of  Genetics,  I.  p.  274. 

2  F.  von  Luschan,  "The  Early  Inhabitants  ofWestern  Asia,"/i?«r«.  Roy.  Anthr. 
Inst.  XLi.  191 1,  p-  326. 


49^  Man :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

founded  in  Palestine  and  Argentina.  From  statistics  taken 
in  various  places  up  to  191 1  the  Jewish  communities  are  at 
present  estimated  at  about  1 2,000,000,  of  whom  three-fourths 
are  in  Europe,  380,000  in  Africa,  500,000  in  Asia,  the  rest  in 
America  and  Australia'. 

Intimately  associated  with  all  these  Aramaic  Canaanitic 

Semites  were  a  mysterious  people  who  have  been  identified 

-T~^  „-^-.         with  the  Hittites'^  of  Scripture,  and  to  whom  this 

The  Hittites.  ,  ,  i     i    i 

name  has  been  extended  by  common  consent. 
They  are  also  identified  with  the  Kheta  of  the  Egyptian  monu- 
ments', as  well  as  with  the  Khatti  of  the  Assyrian  cuneiform 
texts.  Indeed  all  these  are,  without  any  clear  proof,  assumed 
to  be  the  same  people,  and  to  them  are  ascribed  a  considerable 
number  of  stones,  cylinders,  and  gems  from  time  to  time  picked 
up  at  various  points  between  the  Middle  Euphrates  and  the 
Mediterranean,  engraved  in  a  kind  of  hieroglyphic  or  rather 
pictorial  script,  which  has  been  variously  deciphered  according 
to  the  bias  or  fancy  of  epigraphists.  This  simply  means  that 
the  "Hittite  texts"  have  not  yet  been  interpreted,  and  are 
likely  to  remain  unexplained,  until  a  clue  is  found  in  some  bi- 
lingual document,  such  as  the  Rosetta  Stone,  which  surrendered 
the  secret  of  the  Egyptian  hieroglyphs.  L.  Messerschmidt, 
editor  of  a  number  of  Hittite  texts^  declared  (in  1902)  that 
only  one  sign  in  two  hundred  had  been  interpreted  with  any 
certainty  ^  and  although  the  system  of  A.  H.  Sayce*  is  based 
on  a  scientific  plan,  his  decipherments  must  for  the  present 
remain  uncertain.  The  important  tablets  found  by  H.  Winck- 
ler  in  1907^  at  Boghaz  Keui  in  Cappadocia,  identified  with 
Khatti,  the  Hittite  capital,  have  thrown  much  light  on  Hittite 
history,  and  support  many  of  Sayce's  conjectures.    The  records 

'  M.  Fishberg,  The  Jews,  rgii,  p.  10. 

2  As  Heth,  settled  in  Hebron  {Gen.  xxiii.  3)  and  the  central  uplands  {Num.  xiii. 
29)  but  also  as  a  confederacy  of  tribes  to  the  north  (i  Kings  x.  29,  2  Kings  vii.  6). 

^  This  identification  is  based  on  "the  casts  of  Hittite  profiles  made  by  Petrie 
from  the  Egyptian  monuments.  The  profiles  are  peculiar,  unlike  those  of  any  other 
people  represented  by  the  Egyptian  artists,  but  they  are  identical  with  the  profiles 
which  occur  among  the  Hittite  hieroglyphs"  (A.  H.  Sayce,  Acad.,  Sept.  1894,  p.  259). 

*  "Corpus  insc.  Hetticarum,"  Zeitschr.  d.  d.  morgenldnd.  Gesellsch.  1900,  1902, 
igo6,  etc. 

6  "Die  Hettiter,"  Der  Alte  Orient,  1.4,  1902,  p.  14  «.  The  sign  in  question, 
a  bisected  oval,  is  interpreted  "  god." 

*  "Decipherment  of  the  Hittite  Inscriptions,"  Soc.  of  Bibl.  Archaeology,  1903, 
and  "Hittite  Inscriptions,"  ib.  1905,  1907. 

'  Orient.  LiteraturseituHg,\qpT,&vA.Orient-GesellscKi.yy].  See  D.  G.  Hogarth, 
"Recent  Hittite  Research," /o»r«.  Roy.  Anthr.  Inst,  xxxvi.  1909,  p.  408. 


xiv]  The  Caucasic  Peoples  497, 

show  that  the  Hittites  were  one  of  the  great  nations  of  an^ 
tiquity,  with  a  power  extending  at  its  prime  from  the  Asiatic 
coast  of  the  Aegean  to  Mesopotamia,  and  from  the  Black  Sea 
to  Kadesh  on  the  Orontes,  a  power  which  neither  Egypt  nor 
Assyria  could  withstand.  "  It  is  still  not  certain  to  which  of 
the  great  families  of  nations  they  belonged.  The  suggestion 
has  been  made  that  their  language  has  certain  Indo-European 
characteristics ;  but  for  the  present  it  is  safer  to  regard  them 
as  an  indigenous  race  of  Asia  Minor.  Their  strongly-marked 
facial  type,  with  long,  straight  nose  and  receding  forehead  and 
chin,  is  strikingly  reproduced  on  all  their  monuments,  and 
suggests  no  comparison  with  Aryan  or  Semitic  stocks'." 

F.  von  Luschan,  however,  is  able  to  throw  some  light  on 
the  ethnological  history  of  the  Hittites.  When  investigating 
the  early  inhabitants  of  Western  Asia  he  was  constantly  struck 
by  the  appearance  of  a  markedly  non-Semitic  type,  which  he 
called"  Arm  enoid."  The  most  typical  were  the  Tahtadji  or 
woodcutters  of  Western  Lycia  living  up  in  the  mountains  and 
totally  distinct  in  every  way  from  their  Mohammedan  neigh- 
bours. "  Their  somatic  characters  are  remarkably  homo- 
geneous ;  they  have  a  tawny  white  skin,  much  hair  on  the  face, 
straight  hair,  dark  brown  eyes,  a  narrow,  generally  aquiline 
nose,  and  a  very  short  and  high  head.  The  cephalic  index 
varies  only  from  82  to  91,  with  a  maximum  frequency  of  86^" 
Similar  types  were  found  in  the  Bektash,  who  are  town-dwellers, 
in  Lycia,  and  in  the  Ansariyeh  in  Northern  Syria.  In  Upper 
Mesopotamia  these  features  occur  again  among  the  Kyzylbash, 
and  in  Western  Kurdistan  among  the  Yezidi.  "We  find  a 
small  minority  of  groups  possessing  a  similarity  of  creed  and, 
a  remarkable  uniformity  of  type,  scattered  over  a  vast  part  of 
Western  Asia.  I  see  no  other  way  to  account  for  this  fact 
than  to  assume  that  the  members  of  all  these  sects  are  the 
remains  of  an  old  homogeneous  population,  which  have  pre- 
served their  religion  and  have  therefore  refrained  from  inter- 
marriage with  strangers  and  so  preserved  their  old  physical 
characteristics'."    They  all  speak  the  languages  of  their  ortho- 

'  L.  W.  King,  "The  Hittites,"  Hutchinson's  ffistory  of  ike /Vaiions,  19 14,  p.  263. 
For  this  type  see  the  illustration  of  Hittite  divinities,  Pi.  XXXI.  of  F.  von  Luschan'? 
paper  referred  to  below.  For  language  see  now  C.  J.  S.  Marstrander,  "  Caractfere 
Indo-Europden  de  la  langue  Hittite,"  Videnskapsselskapets  Skrifter  11  Hist.  Jilos. 
Klasse,  1918,  No.  2. 

2  "The  Early  Inhabitants  of  Western  hs\a.,''  Journ.  Roy.  Anthr.  Inst.  XLI.  191 1, 
p.  230.  For  this  region  see  D.  G.  Hogarth,  The  Nearer  East,  \<yy2,  with  ethnological 
map.  ^  Loc.  cit.  p.  ^32. 

K.  32 


498  Man  :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

dox  neighbours,  Turkish,  Arabic  and  Kurdish,  but  are  abso- 
lutely homogeneous  as  to  their  somatic  characters.  Two  other 
groups  with  the  same  physical  type  are  the  Druses  of  the 
Lebanon  and  Antilebanos  country,  who  speak  Arabic  and  pass 
officially  as  Mohammedans,  though  their  secret  creed  contains 
many  Christian,  Jewish  and  pantheistic  elements.  To  the 
north  of  the  Druses  are  the  Christian  Maronites,  said  to  be 
the  descendants  of  a  Monophysite  sect,  separated  from  the 
common  Christian  Church  after  the  Council  of  Chalcedon  in 
451  A.D.  "Partly  through  their  isolation  in  the  mountains, 
partly  through  their  not  intermarrying  with  their  Mahometan 
or  Druse  neighbours,  the  Maronites  of  today  have  preserved 
an  old  type  in  almost  marvellous  purity.  In  no  other  Oriental 
group  is  there  a  greater  number  of  men  with  extreme  height 
of  the  skull  and  excessive  flattening  of  the  occipital  region 
than  among  the  Maronites.... Very  often  their  occiput  is  so 
steep  that  one  is  again  and  again  inclined  to  think  of  artificial 
deformation."     But  "  no  such  possibility  is  found\" 

These  hypsibrachycephalic  groups  with  high  narrow  noses, 
found  also  in  Persia,  among  Turks,  Greeks,  and  still  more 
commonly  among  Armenians,  were  first  (1892)  called  by  von 
Luschan  "Armenoid,"  but  "there  can  be  no  doubt  that  they 
are  all  descended  from  tribes  belonging  to  the  great  Hittite 
Empire.  So  it  is  the  type  of  the  Hittites  that  has  been  pre- 
served in  all  these  groups  for  more  than  3000  years"."  As  to 
their  primordial  home  von  Luschan  connects  them  with  the 
"  Alpine  Race "  of  Central  Europe,  but  leaves  it  an  open 
question  whether  the  Hittites  came  from  Central  Europe,  or 
the  Alpine  Race  from  Western  Asia,  though  inclining  to  the 
latter  view.  The  high  narrow  nose  (the  essential  somatic 
difference  between  the  Hittites  and  the  other  brachycephalic 
Arabs)  "  originated  as  a  merely  accidental  mutation  and  was 
then  locally  fixed,  either  by  a  certain  tendency  of  taste  and 
fashion  or  by  long,  perhaps  millennial  in-breeding.  The 
'Hittite  nose'  has  finally  become  a  dominant  characteristic 
in  the  Meridelian  sense,  and  we  see  it,  not  only  in  the  actual 
geographical  province  of  the  Alpine  Racej  but  often  enough 
also  here  in  England^" 

In  Arabia  itself  inscriptions  point  to  the  early  existence  of 
civilised  kingdoms,  among  which  those  of  the  Sabaeans'  and 

^  F.  von  Luschan,  loc.  cit.  p.  233.  ^  Loc.  cit.  pp.  242-3. 

^  Saba',  Sheba  of  the  Old  Testament,  where  there  are  various  allusions  to  its 
wealth  and  trading  importance  from  the  tiifte  of  Solomon  to  that  of  Cyrus. 


xiv]  The  Caucasic  Peoples  499 

the  Minaeans^  stand  out  most  clearly,  though  their  dates  and 
even  their  chronological  order  are  much  disputed. 
Possibly  both  lasted  until  the  rise  of  the  Himyar-   Jj^J^*  *"''  *'' 
ites  at  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era.    All  are 
agreed  however  that  Arabian  civilisation  reached  a  very  high 
level  in  the  centuries  preceding  the  birth  of  the  Prophet,  before 
the  increase  ip  shipping  led  to  the  abandonment  of  the  cara- 
van trade. 

The  modern  inhabitants  are  divided  into  the  Southern 
Arabians,  mainly  settled  agriculturalists  of  Yemen,  Hadramaut 
and  Oman,  who  trace  their  descent  from  Shem,  and  the 
Northern  Arabians  (Bedouin"),  pastoral  tribes,  who  trace 
their  descent  from  Ishmael.  The  two  groups  have  even  been 
considered  ethnologically  distinct,  but,  as  von  Luschan  points 
out,  "peninsular  Arabia  is  the  least-known  land  in  the  world, 
and  large  regions  "of  it  are  even  now  absolutely  terrae  incog- 
nitae,  so  great  caution  is  necessary  in  forming  conclusions,  from 
the  measurements  of  a  few  dozens  of  men,  concerning  the  an- 
thropology of  a  land  more  than  five  times  as  great  as  France'." 
His  measurements  of  "the  only  real  Semites,  the  Bedawy," 
gave  a  cephalic  index  ranging  from  68  to  78,  while  the  nose 
was  short  and  fairly  broad,  very  seldom  of  a  "Jewish  type." 
Recently  Seligman*  has  shown  that  whereas  the  Semites  of . 
Northern  Arabia  conform  more  or  less  to  the  type  just  men- 
tioned those  of  Southern  Arabia  are  of  low  or  median  stature 
(i  "62-1 '65  m.,  63f-65  in.),  and  are  predominantly  brachy- 
cephalic,  the  cephalic  index  ranging  from  71  to  92,  with  an 
average  of  about  82. 

Elsewhere — Iberia,  Sicily,  Malta',  I rania,  Central  Asia,  Ma- 
laysia— the  Arab  invaders  have  failed  to  preserve  either  their 
speech  or  their  racial  individuality.  In  some  places  (Spain, 
Portugal,  Sicily)  they  have  disappeared  altogether,  leaving 
nothing  behind  them  beyond  some  slight  linguistic  traces,  and 
the  monuments  of  their  wonderful  architecture,  crumbling  Al- 
hambras  or  stiipendous  mosques  re-consecrated  as  Christian 
temples.    But  in  the  eastern  lands  their  influence  is  still  felt  by 

'  Ma'in  of  the  inscriptions. 

^  Arabic  badawiy,  a  dweller  in  the  desert. 

^  Loc.  cit.  p.  235. 

*  C.  G.  Seligman,  "  The  physical  characters  of  the  Arabs,"  Joiirn.  Roy.  Anthr. 
/«j/.  XLVii.  1917,  p.  214  flf. 

*  The  rude  Semitic  dialect  still  current  in  this  island  appears  to  be  fundamentally 
Phoenician  (Carthaginian),  later  affected  by  Arabic  and  Italian  influences.  (M.  Mizzi, 
A  Voice  from  Malta,  i8q6,  passim.) 

32—2 


500  Man :  Past  and  Present  [ch.  xiv 

multitudes,  who  profess  Isldm  and  use  the  Arabic  script  in 
writing  their  Persian,  Turki,  or  Malay  languages,  because  some 
centuries  ago  those  regions  were  swept  by  a  tornado  of  rude 
Bedouin  fanatics,  or  else  visited  by  peaceful  traders  and  mis- 
sionaries from  the  Arabian  peninsula. 

The  monotheism  proclaimed  by  these  zealous  preachers  is 
often  spoken  of  as  a  special  inheritance  of  the  Semitic  peoples, 
or  at  least  already  possessed  by  them  at  such  an 
Monotheism.  ^^""^Y  Period  in  their  life-history  as  to  seem  in- 
separable from  their  very  being.  But  it  was  not 
so.  Before  the  time  of  Allah  or  of  Jahveh  every  hill-top  had 
its  tutelar  deity;  the  caves  and  rocks  and  the  very  atmosphere 
swarmed  with  "jins";  Assyrian  and  Phoenician  pantheons, 
with  their  Baals,  and  Molochs,  and  Astartes  and  Adonais,  were 
as  thickly  peopled  as  those  of  the  Hellenes  and  Hindus,  and 
in  this,  as  in  all  other  natural  systems  of  belief,  the  monotheistic 
concept  was  gradually  evolved  by  a  slow  process  of  elimination. 
Nor  was  the  process  perfected  by  all  the  Semitic  peoples — 
Canaanites,  Assyrians,  Amorites,  Phoenicians,  and  others  having 
always  remained  at  the  polytheistic  stage — but  only  by  the 
Hebrews  and  the  Arabs,  the  two  more  richly  endowed  mem- 
bers of  the  Semitic  family.  Even  here  a  reservation  has  to 
be  made,  for  we  now  know  that  there  was  really  but  one 
evolution,  that  of  Jahveh,  the  adoption  of  the  idea  embodied 
in  Allah  being  historically  traceable  to  the  J  ewish  and  Christian 
systems.  As  Jastrow  points  out,  the  higher  religious  and 
ethical  movement  began  with  Moses,  who  invested  the  national 
Jahveh  with  ethical  traits,  thus  paving  the  way  for  the  wider 
conceptions  of  the  Prophets.  "The  point  of  departure  in  the 
Hebrew  religion  from  that  of  the  Semitic  in  general  did  not 
come  until  the  rise  of  a  body  of  men  who  set  up  a  new  ideal  of 
divine  government  of  the  universe,  and  with  it  as  a  necessary 
corollary  a  new  standard  of  religious  conduct.  Throwing  agide 
the  barriers  of  tribal  limitations  to  the  jurisdiction  of  a  deity, 
it  was  the  Hebrew  Prophets  who  first  prominently  and  em- 
phatically brought  forth  the  view  of  a  divine  power  conceived 
in  spiritual  terms,  who,  in  presiding  over  the  universe  and  in 
controlling  the  fates  of  nations  and  individuals,  acts  from  self- 
imposed  laws  of  righteousness  tempered  with  mercy\" 

'  M.  Jastrow,  Hebrew  and  Babylonian  Traditions,  1910. 


CHAPTER   XV 

THE   CAUCASIC   PEOPLES  {continued) 

The  Peoples  of  Aryan  Speech— European  Trade  Routes—"  Aryan  "  Migra- 
tions— Indo-European  Cradle— Indo-European  Type — Date  of  Indo-European 
Expansion — Origin  of  Nordic  Peoples — The  Cimbri  and  Teuloni—The 
Bastaniae — The  Moeso-Goths — Scandinavia — Modification  of  the  Nordic  Type 
— The  Celto-Slavs  :  Their  Ethnical  Position  defined— Aberrant  Tyrolese 
Type — Rhaetians  and  Etruscans — Etruscan  Origins — The  Celts^Definitions — 
Celts  in  Britain — The  Picts — Brachycephals  in  Britain — Round  Barrow  Type — 
Alpine  Type — Ethnic  Relations — Formation  of  the  English  Nation— Ethnic 
Relations  in  Ireland — Scotland — and  in  Wales — Present  Constitution  of  the 
British  Peoples — The  English  Language — The  French  Nation — Constituent 
Elements — Mental  Traits — The  Spaniards  and  Portuguese — Ethnic  Relations 
in  Italy — Ligurian,  Ilfyrian,  and  Aryan  Elements — The  Present  Italians — 
Art  and  Ethics — The  Rumanians — Ethnic  Relations  in  Greece — The  Hellenes 
— Origins  and  Migrations — The  Lithuanian  Factor — Aeolians;  Dorians j 
lonians — The  Hellenic  Legend — The  Greet  Language — The  Slavs — Origins 
and  Migrations — Sarmatians  and  Budini — Wends,  Chekhs,  and  Poles — The 
Southern  Slavs — Migrations — Serbs,  Croats,  Bosnians — The  Albanians — The 
Russians — Panslavism — Russian  Origins — Alans  and  Ossets — Aborigines  of 
the  Caucasus — The  Iranians — Ethnic  and  Linguistic  Relations — Persians, 
Tajiks  and  Galcha — Afghans — Lowland  and  Hill  Tajiks — The  Galchic  Lin- 
guistic Family — Galcha  and  Tajik  Types — Homo  Europaeus  and  H.  Alpinus  in 
Central  Asia — The  Hindus — Ethnic  Relations  in  India — Classification  of 
Types — The  K6ls — The  Dravidians — Dravidian  and  Aryan  Languages — The 
Hindu  Castes — Oceania — Indonesians — Micronesians — Eastern  Polynesians 
— Origins,  Types,  and  Divisions — Migrations — Polynesian  Culture. 

As  the  result  of  recent  researches  there  is  an  end  of  the 
theory  that  bronze  came  in  with  the  "  Aryans,"  and  it  is  from 
this  standpoint  that  the  revelation  of  an  independent  Aegean 
culture  in  touch  with  Babylonia  and  Egypt  some  four  millen- 
niums before  the  new  era  is  of  such  momentous  import  in 
determining  the  ethnical  relations  of  the  historical,  i.e.  the 
present  European  populations. 

Some  idea  of  cultured  relations  in  prehistoric  times  may  be 
obtained  from  a  review  of  the  trade  communications  as  in- 
dicated by  archaeology  during  the  Bronze  Age      European 
which  lasted    through  the  whole   of  the    third      Trade 
millennium  down  to  the  middle  of  the  second.       Routes. 
As  we  have  seen,  in  the  Nile  valley,  in  Mesopotamia  and  in 
the  Aegean  area,  remains  characteristic  of  Bronze  Age  culture 
rest  on  a  neolithic  substratum,  and  a  transitional  stage,  when 


502  Man  :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

gold  and  copper  were  the  only  metals  known,  often  connects 
the  two.  From  the  time  of  this  dawning  of  the  Age  of  Metals, 
the  inhabitants  of  the  Nile  Valley,  of  Crete,  of  Cyprus  and  of 
the  mainland  of  Greece  freely  exchanged  their  products. 
Navigation  was  already  flourishing,  and  the  sea  united  rather 
than  divided  the  insular  and  coastal  populations.  Gradually 
Egeo-Mykenaean  civilisation  extended  froin  Crete  and  the 
Greek  lands  to  the  west,  influencing  Sicily  directly,  and 
leaving  distinct  traces  in  Southern  Italy,  Sardinia  and  the 
Iberian  peninsula,  while  Iberia  in  its  turn  contributed  to  the 
development  of  Western  Gaul  and  the  British  Isles.  The 
knowledge  of  copper,  and,  soon  after,  that  of  bronze,  spread 
by  the  Atlantic  route  to  Ireland,  while  Central  Europe  was 
reached  directly  from  the  south.  Thanks  to  the  trade  in  amber, 
always  in  demand  by  the  Mediterranean  populations,  there 
was  a  continuous  trade  route  to  Scandinavia,  which  thus  had 
direct  communication  with  Southern  Europe.  As  civilisation 
developed,  the  lands  of  the  north  and  west  became  exporters 
as  well  as  importers,  each  developing  a  distinct  industry  not 
always  inferior  to  the  more  precocious  culture  of  the  south  \ 

With  trade  communications  thus  stretching  across  Europe 
from  south  to  north,  and  from  east  to  extreme  west,  it  would 

seem  not  improbable  that  movements  of  peoples 
Migrations.      were  equally  unrestricted,  and  this  would  account 

for  the  appearance  on  the  threshold  of  history  of 
various  peoples  formerly  grouped  together  on  account  of  their 
language,  as'"  Aryan."  J.  L.  Myres,  however,  is  inclined  to 
attribute  "  the  coming  of  the  North "  to  the  same  type  of 
climatic  impulse  which  induced  the  Semitic  swarms  described 
above  (p.  489).  After  referring  to  the  earliest  occurrence  of 
Indo-European  names^  he  continues  "  Before  the  time  of  the 
Eighteenth  Dynasty  of  Egypt  there  had  been  a  very  exten- 
sive raid  of  Indo-European-speaking  folk  by  way  of  the  Persian 
plateau,  as  far  as  the  Syrian  coastland  and  the  interior  of  Asia 
Minor."  These  raids  coincide  with  a  new  cultural  feature  of 
great  significance.  "It  is  of  the  first  importance  to  find  that 
it  is  in  the  dark  period  which  immediately  precedes  the  Eigh- 

1  Cf.  J.  Ddchelette,  Manuel  d^archdologie  prdhistorique.  Vol.  ll.  1910,  p.  2,  and 
for  neolithic  trade  routes,  ib.  Vol.  I.  p.  626. 

''■  The  Tell-el-Amarna  correspondence  contains  names  of  chieftains  in  Syria  and 
Palestine  about  1400  B.C.,  including  the  name  of  Tushratta,  king  of  Mitanni ;  the 
Boghaz  Keui  document  with  Iranian  divine  names,  and  Babylonian  records  of  Iranian 
names  from  the  Persian  highlands,  are  a  little  later  in  date. 


xv]  The  Caucasic  Peoples  503 

teenth  Dynasty  revival — when  Egypt  was  prostrate  under 
mysterious  'Shepherd  Kings,'  and  Babylon  under  Kassite 
invaders  equally  mysterious — that  the  civilized  world  first 
became  acquainted  with  one  of  the  greatest  blessings  of  civil- 
isation, ■  the  domesticated  horse.  The  period  of  Arabian 
drought,  which  drove  forth  the  '  Canaanite '  emigrants,  may 
have  had  its  counterpart  on  the  northern  steppe,  to  provoke 
the  migration  of  these  horsemen."  He  adds,  however,  "  our 
knowledge  both  of  the  extent  of  these  droughts  and  of  the 
chronology  of  both  these  migrations,  is  too  vague  for  this  to 
be  taken  as  more  than  a  provisional  basis  for  more  exact 
enquiry^" 

The  attempt  has  often  been  made  to  locate  the  original 
home  of  the  Indo-European  people  by  an  appeal  to  philology, 
and  idyllic  pictures  have  been  drawn  up  of  the 
"  Aryan  family  "  consisting  of  the  father  the  pro-  crtdi?'"'''*" 
tector,  the  mother  the  producer,  and  the  children 
"whose  name  implied  that  they  kept  everything  clean  and 
heat","  They  were  regarded  as  originally  pastoral  and  later 
agricultural,  ranging  over  a  wide  area  with  Bactria  for  its 
centre.  With  advancing  knowledge  of  what  is  primitive  in 
Indo-European  this  circumstantial  picture  crumbled  to  pieces, 
and  Feist'  reduces  all  inferences  deducible  from  linguistic 
palaeontology  to  the  sole  "argumentum  ex  silencio"  (which 
he  regards  as  distinctly  untrustworthy  in  itself),  that  the 
"  Urheimat "  was  a  country  in  which  in  the  middle  of  the  third 
millennium  B.C.  such  southern  animals  as  lion,  elephant,  and 
tiger,  were  unknown.  It  was  commonly  assumed  that  the 
"Aryan  cradle"  was  in  Asia,  and  the  suggestion  of  R.  G.  La- 
tham in  1 85 1  that  the  original  home  was  in  Europe  was 
scouted  by  one  of  the  most  eminent  writers  on  the  subject — ■ 
Victor  Hehn — as  lunacy  possible  only  to  one  who  lived  in  a 
country  of  cranks^  But  since  this  date,  there  has  been  a 
shifting  of  the  "  Urheimat "  further  and  further  west. 
O.  Schrader^  places  it  in  South  Russia,  G.  Kossinna°  and 
H.  Hirt"  support  the  claims  of  Germany,  while  K.  Penka  and 

1  J.  L.  Myres,  The  Dawn  of  History,  191 1,  p.  200. 

2  Cf.  P.  Giles,  Art.  "Indo-European  Languages"  in  Ency.  Brit.  191 1. 

3  S.  Feist,  Kultur,  Ausbreitung  und  Herkunft  der  Indogermanen,  1913,  pp.  40 
and  486-528. 

*  O.  Schrader,  Sprachvergleichung  und  Urgeschichte,  3rd  ed.  1906-7. 
6  G.  Kossinna,  Die  Herkunft  der  Germanen,  191 1. 

*  H.  Hirt,  Die  Indogermanen,  ihre  Verbreitung,  ihre  Urheimat  und ikre  Kultur, 
1905-7. 


504  Man  :   Past  and  Present  [ch. 

many  others  go  still  further  north,  deriving  both  language  and 
tall  fair  dolichocephalic  speakers  (proto-Teutons)  from  Scan- 
dinavia\ 

F.  Kauffmann'',  noting  the  contrast  between  the  cultures 
associated  with  pre-neolithic  and.with  neolithic  kitchen-middens, 
is  prepared  to  attribute  the  former  to  aboriginal  inhabitants, 
Ligurians,  and,  further  north,  Kvaens  (Finns,  Lapps),  and  the 
neolithic  civilisation  of  Europe  to  Indo-Europeans.  "  Thus 
the  heolithic  Indo-Europeans  would  already  have  advanced  as 
far  as  South  Sweden  in  the  Litorina  period  of  the  Baltic,  during 
the  oak-period." 

On  the  other  hand  the  discovery  of  Tocharish  has  inclined 
E.  Meyer'  to  reconsider  an  Asiatic  origin,  but  the  information 
as  to  this  language  is  too- fragmentary  to  be  conclusive  on  this 
point.  After  reviewing  the  various  theories  Gile^^  concludes 
"  in  the  great  plain  which  extends  across  Europe  north  of  the 
Alps  and  Carpathians  and  across  Asia  north  of  the  Hindu 
Kush  there  are  few  geographical  obstacles  to  prevent  the  rapid 
spread  of  peoples  from  any  part  of  its  area  to  any  other,  and", 
as  we  have  seen,  the  Celts  and  the  Hungarians  etc.  have  in  the 
historical  period  demonstrated  the  rapidity  with  which  such 
migrations  could  be  made.  Such  migrations  may  possibly 
account  for  the  appearance  of  a  people  using  a  centum  language 
so  far  east  as  Turkestan  ^" 

More  acrimonious  than  the  discussion  of  the  original  home 
is  the  dispute  as  to  the  original  physical  type  of  the  Indo-Euro- 
pean-speaking; people.    It  was  almost  a  matter  of 

TnHn  Piirnnpati  Oil 

Type  i2\X}!\  with  Germans  that  the  language  was  in- 

troduced by  tall  fair  dolichocephals  of  Nordic 
type.  On  the  other  hand  the  Gallic  school  sought  to  identify 
the  Alpine  race  as  the  only  and  original  Aryans.  The  futility 
of  the  whole  discussion  is  ably  demonstrated  by  W.  Z.  Ripley 
in  his  protest  against  the  confusion  of  language  and  race^ 
Feist'  summarisesour  information  as  follows.  All  that  we  can  say 

1  S.  Feist,  Kultur,  Ausbreitung  und  Herkuhft  der'Indogermanen,  1913,  pp.  40 
and  486-528. 

2  Deutsche  Altertutriskunde,  I.  1913,  p.  49.  '  See  Note  3,  p.  441  above. 
*  Art.  "Indo-European  Languages,"  Ency.  Brit.  191 1,  p.  500. 

'  Centum  (hard  guttural)  group  is  the  name  applied  to  the  Western  and  entirely 
European  branches  of  the  Indo-European  family,  as  opposed  to  the  satem  (sibilant) 
group,  situated  mainly  in  Asia. 

°  The  Races  of  Europe,  1900,  p.  17  and  chap.  XVll.  European  origins :  Race 
and  Language :  The  Aryan  Question. 

'  S.  Feist,  Kultur,  Ausbreitung  und  Herkunft  der  Indogermanen,  1913,  pp.  497, 
501  ff. 


xv]  The  Caucasic  Peoples  505 

about  the  physical  type  of  the  "  Urvolk  "  is  that  since  the  Indo- 
Europeans  came  from  a  northerly  region'  (not  yet  identified) 
it  is  surmised  that  they  belonged  to  the  light-skinned  people. 
The  observation  that  mountain  folk  of  Indo-Germanic  speech 
in  southern  areas,  such  as  the  Ossets  of  the  Caucasus,  the 
Kurds  of  the  uplands  of  Armenia  and  Irania,  and  the  Tajiks 
of  the  western  Pamirs  not  infrequently  exhibit  fair  hair  or  blue 
eyes  supports  this  view.  Nevertheless,  as  he  points  out, 
brachycephals  are  not  hereby  excluded.  His  own  conclusion, 
which  naturally  results  from  a  review  of  the  whole  evidence, 
is  that  the  "  Urvolk"  was  not  a  pure  race,  but  a  mixture  of 
different  types.  Already  in  neolithic  times  races  in  Europe 
were  no  longer  pure,  and  in  France  "formed  an  almost  inex- 
tricable medley"  and  Feist  assumes  with  E.  de  Michelis"  that 
the  I  ndo- Europeans  were  a  conglomerate  of  peoples  of  different 
origins  who  in  prehistoric  times  were  welded  together  into  an 
ethnic  unity,  as  the  present  English  have  been  formed  from 
pre- 1  ndo- European  Caledonians  (Picts  and  Scots),  Celts, 
Roman  traders  and  soldiers  and  later  Teutonic  settlers*. 

The  evidence  that  Indo-Europeans  were  already  in  exist- 
ence in  Mesopotamia,  Syria  and  Irania  about  the  middle  of 
the  second  millennium  B.C.  has  already  been  Date  of 
mentioned.  About  the  same  time  the  Vedic  Indo-European 
hymns  bear  witness  to  the  appearance  of  the  expansion. 
Aryans  of  Western  India.  The  formation  of  an  Aryan  group 
with  a  common  language,  religion  and  culture  is  a  process 
necessarily  requiring  considerable  length  of  time,  so  that  their 
swarming  off  from  the  Indo-European  parent  group  must  be 
pushed  back  to  far  into  the  third  millennium.  At  this  period 
there  are  indications  of  the  settling  of  the  Greeks  in  the 
southern  promontories  of  the  Balkan  peninsula  at  latest  about 
2000  B.C.,  while  Thracikn  and  Illyrian  peoples  may  have  filled 
the  mainland,  though  the  Dorians  occupied  Epirus,  Macedonia, 
and  perhaps  Southern  lUyri'a.  Indo-European  stocks  were 
already  in  occupation  of  Centra!  Italy.  It  would  appear  there- 
fore that  the  period  of  the  Indo-European  community,  before 
the  migrations,  must  be  placed  at  the  end  of  the  Stone  Ages, 
at  the  time  when  copper  was  first  introduced.     Thus  it  seems 

■     1  Cf.  T.  Rice  Holmes,  Caesar's  Conquest  of  Gaul,  191 1,  p.  273. 

2  E.  de  Michelis,  Lori^ine  degli  Jndo-Europei,  1905. 

3  Even  Sweden,  regarded  as  the  home  of  the  purest  Nordic  type,  already  had  a 
brachycephalic  mixture  in  the  Stone  Age.  See  G.  Retzius,  "  The  So-called  North 
European  Race  of  Mankind," /''«''«•  Roy.  Anthrop.  Inst,  xxxix.  1909,  p.  364. 


5o6  Man  :   Past  and  Present  [ch. 

legitimate  to  infer  that  the  expansion  of  the  I  ndo- Europeans 
began  about  2500  b.c.  and  the  furthest  advanced  branches 
entered  into  the  regions  of  the  older  populations  and  cultures 
at  latest  after  the  beginning  of  the  second  millennium^  About 
1000  B.C.  we  find  three  areas  occupied  by  Indo-European- 
speaking  peoples,  all  widely  separated  from  each  other  and 
apparently  independent.  These  are.(i)  the  Aryan  groups  in 
Asia ;  (2)  the  Balkan  peninsula  together  with  Central  and 
Lower  Italy,  and  the  Mysians  and  Phrygians  of  Asia  Minor 
(possibly  the  Thracians  had  already  advanced  across  the 
Danube) ;  and  (3)  Teutons,  Celts  and  Letto-Slavs  over  the 
greater  part  of  Germany  and  Scandinavia,  perhaps  also  already 
in  Eastern  France  and  in  Poland.  The  following  centuries  saw 
the  advance  of  Iranians  to  South  Russia  and  further  west,  the 
pressing  of  the  Phrygians  into  Armenia,  and  lastly  the  Celtic 
migrations  in  Western  Europe. 

From  the  linguistic  and  botanical  evidence  brought  forward 
by  the  Polish  botanist  Rostafinski^  the  ancestors  of  the  Celts, 
Origin  of  the     Germans  and  Balto-Slavs  must  have  occupied  a 
Nordic  region  north  of  the  Carpathians,  and  west  of  a  line 

Peoples.  between  Konigsberg  and  Odessa  (the  beech  and 

yew  zone).  The  Balto-Slavs  subsequently  lost  the  word  for 
beech  and  transferred  the  word  for  yew  to  the  sallow  and  black 
alder  (both  with  red  wood)  but  their  possession  of  a  word  for 
hornbeam  locates  their  original  home  in  Polesie — the  marsh- 
land traversed  by  the  Pripet  but  not  south  or  east  of  Kiev. 

Although,  owing  to  the  absence  of  Teutonic  inscriptions 
before  the  third  or  fourth  century  a.d.  it  is  difficult  to  trace  the 
Nordic  peoples  with  any  certainty  during  the  Bronze  or  Early 
Iron  Ages,  yet  the  fairly  well-defined  group  of  Bronze  Age 
antiquities,  covering  the  basin  of  the  Elbe,  Mecklenburg, 
Holstein,  Jutland,  Southern  Sweden  "and  the  islands  of  the 
Belt  have  been  conjectured  with  much  probability  to  represent 
early  Teutonic  civilisation.  "  Whether  we  are  justified  in 
speaking  of  a  Teutonic  race  in  the  anthropological  sense  is  at 
least  doubtful,  for  the  most  striking  characteristics  of  these 
peoples  [as  deduced  from  prehistoric  skeletons,  descriptions  of 
ancient  writers  and  present  day  statistics]  occur  also  to  a  con- 
siderable extent  among  their  eastern  and  western  neighbours, 

'  Cf.  !§;.  Meyer,  Geschichte  des  Altertums,  1909, 1.  2,  §  551. 
^  For  the  working  out  of  this  hypothesis  see  T.  Peisker,  "  The  Expansion  of  the 
Slavs,"  Cambridge  Medieval  History,  Vol.  II.  1913. 


xv]  The  Caucasic  Peoples  507 

where  they  can  hardly  be  ascribed  altogether  to  Teutonic 
admixture.  The  only  result  of  anthropological  investigation 
which  so  far  can  be  regarded  as  definitely  established  is  that 
the  old  Teutonic  lands  in  Northern  Germany,  Denmark  and 
Southern  Sweden  have  been  inhabited  by  people  of  the  same 
type  since  the  neolithic  age  if  not  eariier'."  This  type  is 
characterised  by  tall  stature,  long  narrow  skull,  light  complexion 
with  light  hair  and  eyes". 

During  the  age  of  national  migrations,  from  the  fourth  to 
the  sixth  century,  the  territories  of  the  Nordic  peoples  were 
vastly  extended,  partly  by  conquest,  and  partly 
by  arrangement  with   the  Romans.     But  these   IfaSoni. 
movements  had  begun  before  the  new  era,  for  we 
hear  of  the  Cimbri  invading  Illyricum,  Gaul  and  Italy  in  the 
second  century  b.c.  probably  from  Jutland',  where  they  were 
apparently  associated  with  the  Teutoni.     Still  earlier,  in  the 
third  century  B.C.,  the  Bastarnae,  said  by  many  ancient  writers 
to  have  been  Teutonic  in  origin,  invaded  and 
settled  between  the  Carpathians  and  the  Black      I'^^ 

o  A1  1  •  iii<-iii<^i  Bastarnae. 

bea.  Already  mentioned  doubtfully  by  Strabo 
as  separating  the  Germani  from  the  Scythians  (Tyragetes) 
about  the  Dniester  and  Dnieper,  their  movements  may  now 
be  followed  by  authentic  documents  from  the  Baltic  to  the 
Euxine.  Furtwangler*  shows  that  the  earliest  known  German 
figures  are  those  of  the  Adamklissi  monument,  in  the  Dobruja, 
commemorating  the  victory  of  Crassus  over  the  Bastarnae, 
Getae,  and  Thracians  in  28  B.C.  The  Bastarnae  migrated  before 
the  Cimbri  and  Teutons  through  the  Vistula  valley  to  the 
Lower  Danube  about  200  b.c.  They  had  relations  with  the 
Macedonians,  and  the  successes  of  Mithridates  over  the 
Romans  were  due  to  their  aid.  The  account  of  their  overthrow 
by  Crassus  in  Dio  Cassius  is  in  striking  accord  with  the  scenes 
on  the  Adamklissi  monument.    Here  they  appear  dressed  only 

'  H.  M.  Chadwick,  Art.  "Teutonic  Peoples"  in  Ency.  Brit.  191 1.  Cf.  S.  Feist, 
Kultur,  Ausbreiiung  und  Herkunft  der  Indogermanen,  1913,  p.  480. 

2  See  R.  Much,  Art.  "Germanen,"  J.  Hoops'  Reallexikon  d.  Germ.  Altertums- 
kunde,  1 9 14. 

3  H.  M.  Chadwick,  The  Origin  of  the  English  Nation,  1907,  pp.  210-215.  Foi* 
a  full  account  of  the  affinities  of  the  Cimbri  and  Teutoni  see  T.  Rice  Holmes, 
Caesar's  Conquest  of  Gaul,  191 1,  pp.  546-553. 

*  Paper  read  at  the  Meeting  of  the  Ger.  Anthrop.  Soc,  Spiers,  1896.  Figures 
of  Bastarnae  from  the  Adamklissi  monument  and  elsewhere  are  reproduced  in 
H.  Hahne's  Das  Vorgeschichtliche  Europa:  Ktilturen  und  Volker,  1910,  figs.  144, 
149.  Cf.  T.  Peisker,  "The  Expansion  of  the  Slavs,"  Camb.  Med.  Hist.  Vol.  11.  1913, 
p.  430. 


So8  Man  :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

in  a  kind  of /trowsers,  with  long  pointed  beards,  and  defiant 
but  noble  features.  The  same  type  recurs  both  on  the  column 
of  Trajan,  who  engaged  them  as  auxiliaries  in  his  Dacian  wars, 
and  on  the  Arch  of  Marcus  Aurelius,  here  however  wearing  a 
tunic,  a  sign  perhaps  of  later  Roman  influences.  And  thus 
after  2000  years  are  answered  Strabo's  doubts  by  modern 
archaeology. 

Much  later  there  followed  along  the  same  beaten  track 
between  the  Baltic  and  Black  Sea  a  section  of  the  Goths, 
whom  we  find  first  settled  in  the  Baltic  lands  in 
Gotiis.  °^^°'  proximity  to  the  Finns.  The  exodus  from  this 
region  can  scarcely  have  taken  place  before  the 
second  century  of  the  new  era,  for  they  are  still  unknown  to 
Strabo,  while  Tacitus  locates  them  on  the  Baltic  between  the 
Elbe  and  the  Vistula.  Later  Cassiodorus  and  others  bring 
them  from  Scandinavia  to  the  Vistula,  and  up  that  river  to"  the 
Euxine  and  Lower  Danube.  Although  often  regarded  as 
legendary',  this  migration  is  supported  by  archaeological 
evidence.  In  1837  a  gold  torque  with  a  Gothic  inscription  was 
found  at  Petroassa  in  Wallachia,  and  in  1858  an  iron  spear- 
head with  a  Gothic  name  in  the  same  script,  which  dates  from 
the  first  Iron  Age,  turned  up  near  Kovel  in  Volhynia.  The 
spear-head  is  identical  with  one  found  in  1865  at  Munchenberg 
in  Brandenburg,  on  which  Wimmer  remarks  that  "of  15  Runic 
inscriptions  in  Germany  the  two  earliest  occur  on  iron  pikes. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  the  runes  of  the  Kovel  spear-head  and 
of  the  ring  came  from  Gothic  tribes^"  These  Southern  Goths, 
later  called  Moeso-Goths,  because  they  settled  in  Moesia 
(Bulgaria  and  Servia),  had  certain  physical  and  even  moral 
characters  of  the  Old  Teutons,  as  seen  in  the  Emperor  Maxi- 
minus,  born  in  Thrace  of  a  Goth  by  an  Alan  woman — very 
tall,  strong,  handsome,  with  light  hair  and  milk-white  skin', 
temperate  in  all  things  and  of  great  mental  energy. 

Before  their  absorption  in  the  surrounding  Bulgar  and  Slav 
populations  the  Moeso-Goths  were  evangelised  in  the  fourth 
century  by  their  bishop  Ulfilas  ("Wolf"),  whose  fragmentary 
translation  of  Scripture,  preserved  in  the  Codex  Argenteus  of 
Upsala,  is  the  most  precious  monument  of  early  Teutonic 
speech  extant. 

■^  Cf.  H.  M.  Chadwick,  The  Origin  of  the  English  Nation,  1907,  PP-  174  and  219. 
^  Monuments  runiques  in  Mdm.  Soc.  R.  Ant.  du  Nord,  1893. 
'  "  Lactea  cutis  "  (Sidonius  ApoUinaris). 


xv]  The  Caucasic  Peoples  509 

To  find  the  pure  Nordic  type  at  the  present  day  we  must 
seek  for  it  in  Scandinavia,  which  possesses  one  of  the  most 
highly  individualised  populations  in  Europe.  The 
Osterdal,  and  the  neighbourhood  of  Vaage  in  S'=*"*''°^^**' 
Upper  Gudbrandsdal  in  Norway,  and  the  Dalarna  district  in 
Sweden  contain  perhaps  the  purest  Teutonic  type  in  all 
Europe,  the  cephalic  index  falling  well  below  78.  But  along 
the  Norwegian  coasts  there  is  a  strong  tendency  to  brachy- 
cephaly  (the  index  rising  to  82-3),  combined  with  a  darkening 
of  the  hair  and  eye  colour  (the  type  occurs  also  in  Denmark), 
indicating  an  outlying  lodgement  of  the  Alpine  race  from 
Central  Europe.  The  anthropological  history  of  Scandinavia, 
according  to  Ripley,  is  as  follows :  "Norway  has. .  .probably  been 
peopled  from  two  directions,  one  element  coming  from  Sweden 
and  another  from  the  south  by  way  of  Denmark.  The  latter 
type,  now  found  on  the  sea  coast  and  especially  along  the  least 
attractive  portion  of  it,  has  been  closely  hemmed  in  by  the 
Teutonic  immigration  from  Sweden\"  Brachycephalic  people 
already  occupied  parts  of  Denmark  in  the  Stone  Age'',  and, 
according  to  the  scanty  information  available,  the  present 
population  is  extremely  mixed.  One-third  of  the  children 
have  light  hair  and  light  eyes,  and  tall  stature  coincides  in  the 
main  with  fair  colouring,  but  in  Bornholm  where  the  cephalic 
index  is  80  there  is  a  taller  dark  type  and  a  shoifter  light  type, 
the  latter  perhaps  akin  to  the  Eastern  variety  of  the  Alpine 
race^ 

The    original    Nordic  type  is  by    no    means  universally 
represented  among  the  present  Germanic  peoples.     From  the 
examination  made  some  years  ago  of  6,758,000    Modification 
school  children^  it  would  appear  that  about  3 1  per   of  the  Nor- 
cent.  of  living  Germans  may  be  classed  as  blonds,    ^^  '^r?^- 
14  as  brunettes,  and  55  as  mixed  ;  and  further  that  of  the 
blonds  about  43  per  cent,  are  centred  in  North,  33  in  Central 
and  24  in  South  Germany.    The  brunettes  increase,  generally 

»  W.  Z.  Ripley,  The  Races  of,  Europe,  1900,  p.  205  ff.  See  also  O.  Montelius, 
Kulturgeschichte  Schwedens,  190$;  G.  Retzius  and  C.  M.  Fiirst,  Anthrepologica 
Suedca,  1902.  .      ,     .  , 

2  Commonly  called  the  Borreby  type  from  skulls  found  at  Borreby  m  the  island 
of  Falster,  which  resemble  Round  Barrow  skulls  in  Britain. 

3  For  Denmark  consult  Meddelelser  om  Danmarks  Antropologi  udgivne  af  den 
Antropologisfee  Komit6,  with  EngUsh  summaries,  Bd.  I.  1907-1911,  Bd.  II.  1913. 

♦  The  results  were  tabulated  by  Virchow  and  may  be  seen,  without  going  to 
German  sources,  in  W.  Z.  Ripley's  map,  p.  322,  of  The  Races  of  Europe,  1900,  where 
the  whole  question  is  fully  dealt  with. 


5IO  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch, 

speaking,  southwards,  South  Bavaria  showing  only  about 
14  per  cent,  of  blonds,  and  the  same  law  holds  good  of  the 
long-heads  and  the  round-heads  respectively.  To  what  cause 
is  to  be  attributed  this  profound  modification  of  this  branch  of 
the  Nordic  type  in  the  direction  of  the  south  ? 

That  the  Teutons  ranged  in  considerable  numbers  far 
beyond  their  northern  seats  is  proved  by  the  spread  of  the 
German  language  to  the  central  highlands,  and  beyond  them 
down  the  southern  slopes,  where  a  rude  High  German  dialect 
lingered  on  in  the  so-called  "  Seven  Communes "  of  the 
Veronese  district  far  into  the  nineteenth  century.  But  after 
passing  the  Main,  which  appears  to  have  long  formed  the 
ethnical  divide  for  Central  Europe,  they  entered  the  zone  of 
the  broWn  Alpine  round-heads\  to  whom  they  communicated 
their  speech,  but  by  whom  they  were  largely  modified  in 
physical  appearance.  The  process  has  for  long  ages  been 
much  the  same  everywhere — perennial  streams  of  Teutonism 
setting  steadily  from  the  north,  all  successively  submerged  in 
the  great  ocean  of  dark  round-headed  humanity,  which  under 
many  names  has  occupied  the  central  uplands  and  eastern  plains 
since  the  Neolithic  Age,,  overflowing  also  in  later  times  into 
the  Balkan  Peninsula. 

This  absorption  of  what  is  assumed  to  be  the  superior  in 
the  inferior  type,  may  be  due  to  the  conditions  of  the  general 
movement— warlike  bands,  accompanied  by  few  women,  ap- 
pearing as  conquerors  in  the  midst  of  the  Alpines  and  merging 
with  them  in  the  great  mass  of  brachycephalic  peoples.  Or  is  the 
transformation  to  be  explained  by  de  Lapouge's  doctrine,  that 
cranial  forms  are  not  so  much  a  question  of  race  as  of  social 
conditions,  and  that,  owing  to  the  increasingly  unfavourable 
nature  of  these  conditions,  there  is  a  general  tendency  for  the 
superior  long-heads  to  be  absorbed  in  the  inferior  round-heads  I 

The  fact  that  dolichocephaly  is  more  prevalent  in  cities  and 
brachycephaly  in  rural  areas  has  been  interpreted  in  various 
ways.    De  Lapoiige*  contended  thatjn  France  the  restless  and 

^  See  Ripley's  Craniological  chart  in  "  Une  carte  de  I'Indice  Cdphalique  en 
Europe,"  E Anthropologie,  Vll.  1896,  p.  513. 

2  The  case  is  stated  in  uncompromising  language  by  'Alfred  Fouill^e ;  "  Une 
autre  loi,  plus  g^ndralement  admise,  c'est  que  depuis  les  temps  prdhistoriques,  les 
brachyc^phales  tendent  k  eliminer  les  dolichocdphales  par  I'invasion  progressive  des 
couches  inferieures'  et  Tabsorption  des  aristocraties  dans  les  ddmocraties,  cm  elles 
viennent  se  noyer"  {Rev.  des  Deux  Mondes,  March  15,   1895). 

^  Recherches  Anthrop.  sur  le  Problime  de  la  Depopulation,  in  Rev.  d'iconomie 
politique,  ix.  p.  1002  ;  x.  p.  132  (1895-6). 


-^^^v]  The  Caucasic  Peoples  5 1 1 

more  enterprising  long-heads  migrated  from  the  rural  districts 
in  disproportionate  numbers  to  the  towns,  where  they  died  out. 
For  the  department  of  Aveyron  he  gives  a  table  showing  a 
steady  rise  of  the  cephalic  index  from  7 1  "4  in  prehistoric  times 
to  86-5  in  1899,  and  attributes  this  to  the  dolichos  gravitating 
chiefly  to  the  large  towns,  as  O.  Ammon  has  also  shown  for 
Baden.  L.  Laloy  summed  up  the  results  thus :'  France  is  being 
depopulated,  and,  what  is  worse,  it  is  precisely  the  best  section 
of  the  inhabitants  that  disappears,  the  section  most  productive 
in  eminent  men  in  all  departments  of  learning,  while  the 
ignorant  and  xwA^pecus  alone  increase. 

These  views  have  met  with  favour  even  across  the  Atlantic, 
but  are  by  no  means  universally  accepted.  The  ground  seems 
cut  from  the  whole  theory  by  A.  Macalister,  who  read  a  paper  at 
the  Toronto  Meeting  of  the  British  Association,  1897,  on 
"  The  Causes  of  Brachycephaly,"  showing  that  the  infantile 
and  primitive  skull  is  relatively  long,  and  that  there  is  a  gradual 
change,  phylogenetic  (racial)  as  well  as  ontogenetic  (individual) 
toward  brachycephaly,  which  is  certainly  correlated  with,  and 
is  apparently  produced  by,  cerebral  activity  and  growth  ;  in  the 
process  of  development  in  the  individual  and  the  race  the 
frontal  lobes  of  the  brain  grow  the  more  rapidly  and  tend  to 
fill  out  and  broaden  the  skulP.  The  tendency  woul4  thus 
have  nothing  to  do  with  rustic  and  urban  life,  nor  would  the 
round  be  necessarily,  if  at  all,  inferior  to  the  long  head.  Some  ' 
of  de  Lapouge's  generalisations  are  also  traversed  by  Livi^ 
Deniker^  Sergi*  and  others,  and  the  whole  question  is  admir- 
ably summarised  by  W.  Z.  Ripley'. 

But  whatever  be  the  cause,  the  fact  must  be  accepted  that 

1  Nature,  1897,  p.  487.  Cf.  also  A.  Thomson,  "Consideration  of.. .factors  con- 
cerned in  production  of  Man's  Cranial  Form,"  Journ.  Anthr.  Inst,  xxxill.  1903, 
and  A.  Keith,  "The  Bronze  Age  Invaders  of  Britain," />'«''»•  Roy-  Anthr,  Inst.  XLV. 
1915. 

^  Livi's  results  for  Italy  {Antropometria  Militare)  differ  in  some  respects  from 
those  of  de  Lapouge  and  Ammon  for  France  and  Baden.  Thus  he  finds  that  in  the 
brachy  districts  the  urban  population  is  less  brachy  than  the  rural,  while  in  the 
dolicho  districts  the  towns  are  more  brachy  than  the  plains. 

3  Dealing  with  some  studies  of  the  Lithuanian  race,  Deniker  writes :  "  Ainsi 
done,  contrairement  aux  iddes  de  MM.  de  Lapouge  et  Ammon,  en  Pologne, 
comme  d'ailleurs  en  Italie,  les  classes  les  plus  instruites,  dirigeantes,  urbaines,  sont 
plus  brachy  que  lespaysans"(Z'^«//5rsi>c/o^>,  1896,  p.  351).  Similar  contradictions 
occur  in  connection  with  light  and  dark  hair,  eyes,  etc. 

*  "  E  qui  non  posso  tralasciare  di  avvertire  un  errore  assai  diffuso  fra  gli  antro- 
pologi...i  quali  vorrebbero  ammettere  una  trasformazione  del  cranio  da  dolicocefalo 
in  brac'liicefalo"  [Arii  e  Italici,  p.  155). 

6  W.  Z.  Ripley's  The  Races  of  Europe,  1900,  p.  544  ff. 


512  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

Homo  Europaeus  (the  Nordics)  becomes  merged  southwards 
in  Homo  Alpinus  whose  names,  as  stated,  are  many.     Broca 

and  many  continental  writers  use  the  name  Kelt 
Slavs^^'*°"       *-""  Slavo-Kelt,  which  has  led  to  much  confusion. 

But  it  merely  means  for  them  the  great  mass 
of  brachycephalic  peoples  in  Central  Europe,  where,  at  various 
times,  Celtic  and  Slavonic  languages  have  prevailed. 

It  is  remarkable  that  in  the  Alpine  region,  especially  Tyrol, 
where  the  brachy  element  comes  to  a  focus,  there  is  a  peculiar 

form  of  round-head  which  has  greatly  puzzled  de 
Tyroiese  Type     Lapouge,  but  may  perhaps  be  accounted  for  on 

the  hypothesis  of  two  brachy  types  here  fused  in 
one.  To  explain  the  exceedingly  round  Tyroiese  head,  which 
shows  affinities  on  the  one  hand  with  the  Swiss,  on  the  other 
with  the  Illyrian  and  Albanian,  thait  is,  with  the  normal  Alpine; 
a  Mongol  strain  has  been  suggested,  but  is  rightly  rejected  by 
Franz   Tappeiner  as   inadmissible  on   many   grounds'.     De 

Ujfalvy^  a  follower  of  de  Lapouge,  looks  on 
and^Etrascans     ^^  hyperbrachy  Tyroiese  as  descendants  of  the 

ancient  Rhaetians  or  Rasenes,  whom  so  many 
regard  as  the  parent  stock  of  the  Etruscans. 

But  Montelius  (with  most  other  modern  ethnologists)  rejects 
the  lajid  route  from  the  north,  and  brings  the  Etruscans  by 
the  sea  route  direct  from  the  Aegean  and  Lydia.(Asia  Minor). 
They  are  the  Thessalian  Pelasgians  whom  Hellanikos  of 
Lesbos  brings  to  Campania,  or  the  Tyrrhenian  Pelasgians 
transported  by  Antiklides  from  Asia  Minor  to  Etruria,  and  he 
is  "  quite  sure  that  the  archaeological  facts  in  Central  and  North 
Italy... prove  the  truth  of  this  tradition'."  Of  course,  until  the 
affinities  of  the  Etruscan  language  are  determined,  from  which 

^  This  specialist  insists  "dass  von  einer  mongolischen  Einwanderung  in  Europa 
keine  Rede  mehr  sein  konne  "  {Der  eurapaische  Mensch.  u.  die  Tiraler,  1896).  He 
is  of  course  speaking  of  prehistoric  times,  not  of  the  late  (historical)  Mongol  irrup- 
tions. Cf.  T.  Peisker,  "The  Expansion  of  the  Slavs,"  Camb.  Med.  Hist.  Vol.  11. 
1913,  p.  452,  with  reference  to  mongoloid  traits  in  Bavaria. 

2  "  Malgr^  les  nombreuses  invasions  des  populations  germaniques,  le  Tyrolien 
est  rest^,  quant  k  sa  conformation  cranienne,  le  Rasfene  ou  Rhsetien  des  ten^s 
antiques — hyperbrachycdphale  "  {Les  Aryens,  p.  7).  The  mean  index  of  the  so-called 
Disentis  type  of  Rhaetian  skulls  is  about  86  (His  and  Riitimeyer,  Crania  Helvetica, 
p.  29  and  Plate  E.  i). 

3  "The  Tyrrhenians  in  Greece  and  Italy,"  vajoum.  Anthrop.  Inst.  1897,  p.  258. 
In  this  splendidly  illustrated  paper  the  date  of  the  immigration  is  referred  to  the 
nth  century  B.c.  on  the  ground  that  the  first  Etruscan  saeculum  was  considered  as 
beginning  about  1050  B.C.,  presumably  the  date  of  their  arrival  in  Italy  (p.  259). 
But  Sergi  thinks  they  did  not  arrive  till  about  the  end  of  the  8th  century  (Arii  e 
Italici,  p.  149). 


xv]  The  Caucasic  Peoples  513 

we  are  still  as  far  off  as  ever\  Etruscan  origins  must  remain 
chiefly  an  archaeological  question.  Even  the 
help  afforded  by  the  crania  from  the  Etruscan  q^^^^ 
tombs  is  but  slight,  both  long  and  round  heads 
being  here  found  in  the  closest  association.  Sergi,  who  also 
brings  the  Etruscans  from  the  east,  explains  this  by  supposing 
that,  being  Pelasgians,  they  were  of  the  same  dolicho  Medi- 
terranean stock  as  the  Italians  (Ligurians)  themselves,  and 
differed  only  from  the  brachy  Umbrians  of  Aryan  speech. 
Hence  the  skulls  from  the  tombs  are  of  two  types,  the  intruding 
Aryan,  and  the  Mediterranean,  the  latter,  whether  representing 
native  Ligurians  or  intruding  Etruscans,  being  indistinguish- 
able. "  I  can  show,"  he  says,  "  Etruscan  crania,  which  differ 
in  no  respect  from  the  Italian  [Ligurian],  from  the  oldest 
graves,  as  I  can  also  show  heads  from  the  Etruscan  graves 
which  do  not  differ  from  those  still  found  in  Aryan  lands, 
whether  Slav,  Keltic,  or  Germanic'."  Perhaps  the  difficulty 
is  best  explained  by  Feist's  suggestion  that  the  Etruscans 
were  merely  a  highly  civilised  warlike  aristocracy,  spreading 
thinly  over  the  conquered  population  by  which  they  were 
ultimately  absorbed'. 

The  migrations  of  the  Celts  preceded  those  of  the 
Teutonic  peoples  to  whom  they  were  probably  closely  related 
in  race  as  in  language*.  At  the  beginning  of  _,  „  . 
the  historical  period  Celts  are  found  in  the  west 
of  Germany  in  the  region  of  the  Rhine  and  the  Weser.  Possibly 
about  600  B.C.  they  occupied  Gaul  and  parts  of  the  Iberian 
peninsula,  subsequently  crossing  over  into  the  British  Isles. 
In  Italy  they  came  into  conflict  with  the  rising  power  of  Rome, 
and,  after  the  battle  of  the  AUia  (390  b.c.)  occupied  Rome 
itself.  Descents  were  also  made  into  the  Danube  valley  and  the 
Balkans-,  and  later  (280  b.c.)  into  Thessaly.  At  the  height  of 
their  power  they  extended  from  the  north  of  Scotland  to  the 
southern  shores  of  Spain  and  Portugal,  and  from  the  northern 
coasts  of  Germany  to  a  little  south  of  Senegaglia.     To  the 

>  See  R.  S.  Conway,  Art.  Etruria:  Language,  Ency.  Brit.  191 1. 

2  Op.  cit.  p.  151.     By  German  he  means  the  round-headed  South  German. 

3  S.    Feist,   Kultur,   Ausbreitung  und  Herkunft  der   Indogermanen,    1913, 

P-  370. 

*  S.  Feist,  loc.  cit.  p.  65.  For  cultural  and  linguistic  influence  of  Celts  on  Germans 
see  pp.  480  ff.  Evidence  of  Celtic  names  in  Germany  is  discussed  by  H.  M. 
Chadwick  "  Some  German  River  names,"  Essays  and  Studies  presented  to  William 
Ridgeway,  1913. 

K.  33 


514  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

west  their  boundary  was  the  Atlantic,  to  the  east,  the  Black 
Sea\ 

Unfortunately  the  indiscriminate  use  of  the  term  Celt  has 
led  to  much  confusion.     For  historians  and  geographers  the 

Celts  are  the  people  in  the  centre  and  west  of 
"  (feif'°"  °^     Europe  referred  to  by  writers  of  antiquity  under 

the  names  of  Keltoi,  Celtae,  Galli  and  Galatae. 
But  many  anthropologists,  especially  on  the  continent,  regard 
Celts  and  Gauls  as  representing  two  well-determined  physical 
types,  the  former  brachycephalic,  with  short  sturdy  build  and 
chestnut  coloured  hair  (Alpine  type),  and  the  latter  dolicho- 
cephalic with  tall  stature,  fair  complexion  and  light  hair  (Nordic 
type).  Linguists,  ignoring  physical  characters,  class  as  Celts 
those  people  who  speak  an  Indo-European  language  character- 
ised in  particular  by  the  loss  of  p  and  by  the  modifications 
undergone  by  mutation  of  initial  consonants,  while  for  many 
archaeologists  the  Celts  were  the  people  responsible  for  the 
spread  of  the  civilisation  of  the  Hallstatt  and  La  Tene  periods, 
that  is  ,of  the  earlier  and  later  Iron  Age''. 

It  is  not  surprising  therefore  that  it  has  been  proposed  to 
drop  the  word  Celt  out  of  anthropological  momenclature,  as 
having  no  ethnical  significance.  But  this,  says  Rice  Holmes^ 
"is  because  writers  on  ethnology  have  not  kept  their  heads 
clear."  And  in  particular  one  point  has  been  overlooked. 
"Just  as  the  French  are  called  after  one  conquering  people, 
the  Franks  ;  just  as  the  English  are  called  after  one  conquering 
people,  the  Angles ;  so  the  heterogeneous  Celtae  of  Transalpine 
Gaul  were  called  after  one  conquering  people  ;  and  that  people 
were  the  Celts,  or  rather  a  branch  of  the  Celts  in  the  true 
sense  of  the  word.  The  Celts,  in  short,  were  the  people  who 
introduced  the  Celtic  language  into  Gaul,  into  Asia  Minor, 
and  into  Britain ;  the  people  who  included  the  victors  of  the 
Allia,  the  conquerors  of  Gallia  Celtica,  and  the  conquerors  of 

'  H.  d'Arbois  de  Jubainville,  Les  Celtes  depuis  les  Temps  lesplus  anciensjusqiien 
fan  100  avani  noire  ere,  1904,  p.  i. 

^  G.  Dottin,  Manuel  pour  servir  d.  Vdtude  de  VAntiquitd  Celtique,  191 5,  p.  i. 

'  T.  Rice  Holmes,  Caesar's  Conquest  of  Gaul,  191 1,  p.  321.  W.  Z.  Ripley,  The 
Races  of  Europe,  1900,  reviewing  the  "  Celtic  Question,  than  which  no  greater  stum- 
bling-block in  the  way  of  our  clear  thinking  exists"  (p.  124)  comes  to  a  different 
conclusion.  He  states  that  "the  term  Celt,  if  used  at  all,  belongs  to  the... brachy- 
cephalic, darkish  population  of  the  Alpine  highlands,"  and  he  claims  for  this  view 
"complete  unanimity  of  opinion  among  physical  anthropologists"  (p.  126).  His 
own  view  however  is  that  "the  linguists  are  best  entitled  to  the  name  Celt"  while 
the  broad-headed  type  commonly  called  Celtic  by  continental  writers  "we  shall... 
everywhere. ..call. ..Alpine"  (p.  128). 


xv]  The  Caucasic  Peoples  515 

Gallia  Belgica  ;  the  people  whom  Polybius  called  indifferently 
Gauls  and  Celts ;  the  people  who,  as  Pausanius  said,  were 
originally  called  Celts  and  afterwards  called  Gauls.  If  certain 
ancient  writers  confounded  the  tall  fair  Celts  who  spoke  Celtic 
with  the  tall  fair  Germans  who  spoke  German  the  ancient 
writers  who  were  better  informed  avoided  such  a  mistake. . . . 
Let  us  therefore  restore  to  the  word  '  Celt '  the  ethnical  signi- 
ficance which  of  right  belongs  to  it." 

It  is  not  certain  at  what  date  the  Celtic  tribes  effected 
settlements  in  Great  Britain,  but  it  is  held  by  many  that  the 
earliest  invasions  were  not  prior  to  the  sixth  or 
possibly  even  the  fifth  century.  At  the  time  of  BritLn" 
the  Roman  conquest  the  Celts  were  divided  into 
two  linguistic  groups,  Goidelic,  represented  at  the  present  day 
by  Irish,  Manx  and  Scotch  Gaelic,  and  Brythonic,  including 
Welsh,  Cornish  and  Breton.  These  groups  must  have  been 
virtually  identical  save  in  two  particulars.  In  Brythonic  the 
labial  velar  q  became  p  (a  change  which  apparently  took  place 
before  the  time  of  Pytheas),  whilst  in  Goidelic  the  sound 
remained  unaltered,  q  is  retained  in  the  earlier  ogham  inscrip- 
tions, but  by  the  end  of  the  seventh  century  it  had  lost  the 
labial  element,  appearing  in  Old  Irish  as  c.  Thus  O.  Irish 
cenn,  head,  as  in  Kenmare,  Kintyre,  Kinsale,  equates  with 
Brythonic  pen,  as  in  Penryn  (Cornwall),  Penrhyn  (Wales), 
Penkridge  (Staffordshire),  Penruddock,  Penrith  and  many 
others.  The  two  groups  are  therefore  distinguished  as  the  Q 
Celts  and  the  P  Celts'.  From  the  fact  that  Goidelic  retained 
the  q  it  has  been  commonly  assumed  that  the  Goidels  were 
separated  from  the  main  Celtic  stock  at  a  time  before  the 
labialisation  had  taken  place,  but  many  scholars  maintain  that 
the  parent  Goidelic  was  evolved  ia  Ireland,  and  was  carried 
from  that  island  to  Man  and  Scotland  in  the  early  centuries  of 
our  era^ 

From  an  anthropological  point  of  view,  the  Picts  are  if 
possible  more  difficult  to  identify  than  the  Celts.      But  the 
question  is  not  between  tall  fair  long-heads  and      ^^^  p.^^^ 
short  dark  round-heads,  but  between  short  dark 
long-heads    (neolithic   aborigines)    and    Celts.     The    Pictish 

1  Cf.  the  similar  dual  treatment  in  Italic. 

2  "  No  Gael  \i.e.  Q  Celt]  ever  set  his  foot  on  British  soil  save  on  a  vessel  that 
had  put  out  from  Ireland."  Kuno  Meyer,  Trans.  Hon.  Soc.  Cymmrodorion,  1895-6, 
p.  69. 

33—2 


5i6  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

question  is  summed  up  by  Rice  Holmes'  and  the  various 
theories  have  been  more  recently  reviewed  by  Windisch^  giving 
a  valuable  summary  of  earlier  writings.  On  the  one  hand 
it  is  maintained  as  "  the  most  tenable  hypothesis  that  the 
Picts  were  non-Aryans,  whom  the  first  Celtic  migrations 
found  already  settled  here... descendants  of  the  Aborigines'." 
Windisch^  at  the  other  extreme,  regards  them  as  late  comers 
into  North  Britain,  when  Scotland  was  already  occupied  by 
Brythonic  tribes.  But  the  geographical  distribution  of  the 
Picts  in  historical  times  suggests  rather  a  people  driven  into 
mountainous  regions  by  successive  conquerors,  than  the 
settlements  of  successful  invaders.  Also  it  is  not  improbable 
that  the  language  of  the  Bronze  Age  lingered  in  these  wilder 
districts,  and  this  would  account  for  the  fact  that  St  Columba 
had  to  employ  an  interpreter  in  his  relations  with  the  Picts ; 
though  this  is  explained  by  others  on  the  assumption  that 
Pictish  was  Brythonic.  The  linguistic  evidence  is  however 
extremely  slight,  only  a  few  words  presumably  Pictish  having 
survived  and  these  through  Celtic  writers.  "  The  one  abso- 
lutely certain  conclusion  to  which  the  student  of  ethnology 
can  come  is  that  the  name  of  the  Picts  has  not  been  proved  to 
be  of  pre-Aryan  origin*."  "  For  me,"  continues  Rice  Holmes 
(p.  417),  "the  Picts  were  a  mixed  people  comprising  descend- 
ants of  the  neolithic  aborigines,  of  the  Round  Barirow  Race, 
and  of  the  Celtic  invaders — a  mixed  people  who  [or  at  least 
whose  aristocracy]  spoke  a  Celtic  dialect." 

Before  attempting  a  survey  of  the  ethnology  of  Britain  it 
is    necessary   to    ascertain    what    ethnic    elements    the    area 

contained  before  the  arrival  of  the  Celts.  The 
KSa''*'^     neolithic   inhabitants,  the   short,   dark   dolicho- 

cephals  of  Mediterranean  type  have  already  been 
described  (Ch.  XHI.).  Their  remains  are  associated  with  the 
characteristic  forms  of  sepulchral  monuments  the  dolmens  and 
the  long  barrows.  But  towards  the  end  of  the  Stone  Age  a 
brachycephalic  race  was  already  penetrating  into  the  islands. 
This  appears  to  have  been  a  peaceful  infiltration,  at  any  rate 
in  certain  districts,  where  remains  of  the  two  types  are  found 

1  Ancient  Britain,  1907,  pp.  409-424. 

^  Das  keltische  Britannien,  191 2,  pp.  28-37. 

'  J.  Rhys,  The  Welsh  People,  1902,  pp.  13-14. 

*  Ancient  Britain,  I'piT,  p.  414.  The  name  of  the  Picts  is  apparently  Indo- 
European  in  form,  and  if  the  Celts  were  late  comers  into  Britain  (see  above)  they 
may  well  have  been  preceded  by  invaders  of  Indo-European  speech. 


xv]  The  Caucasic  Peoples  517 

side  by  side  and  there  is  evidence  of  racial  intermixture.  The 
brachycephals  introduced  a  new  form  of  sepulture,  making 
their  burial  mounds  circular  instead  of  elongated,  whence 
Thurnam's  convenient  formula,  "long  barrow,  long  skull; 
round  barrow,  round  skull."  But  the  earlier  view  that  there 
was  a  definite  transition  from  long  heads,  neolithic  culture  and 
long  barrows,  to  round  heads,  bronze  culture  and  round  barrows 
can  no  longer  be  maintained.  "It  is  often  taken  for  granted 
that  no  round  barrows  were  erected  in  Britain  before  the  close 
of  the  Neolithic  Age,  and  that  the  earliest  of  the  brachy- 
cephalic  invaders  whose  remains  have  been  found  in  them 
landed  with  bronze  weapons  in  their  hands'."  But  there  is 
abundant  evidence  that  the  brachycephalic  element  preceded 
the  knowledge  of  metals,  and  a  number  of  round  barrows  in 
Yorkshire  and  further  north  show  no  trace  of  bronze. 

Nevertheless  the  majority  of  the  round  barrows  belong  to 
the  Bronze  Age,  and  the  physical  type  of  their  builders  is 
sufficiently  well  marked.  The  stature  is  remark- 
ably tall,  attaining  a  height  of  1763  m.  or  over  ?^f  ^^""'^ 
5  ft.  9  ins.  The  skull  is  brachycephalic  with 
an  average  index  of  about  80.  It  is  also  characterised  by  great 
strength  and  ruggedness  of  outline,  with  (often)  a  sloping 
forehead,  prominent  supraciliary  ridges,  and  a  certain  degree 
of  prognathism. 

According  to  Rolleston's  description  "  The  eyebrows  must 
have  given  a  beetling  and  probably  even  formidable  appearance 
to  the  upper  part  of  the  face,  whilst  the  boldly  outstanding  and 
heavy  cheekbones  must  have  produced  an  impression  of  raw 
and  rough  strength.  Overhung  at  its  root,  the  nose  must 
have  projected  boldly  forward."  And  Thurnam  adds  "the 
prominence  of  the  large  incisor  and  canine  teeth  is  so  great  as 
to  give  an  almost  bestial  expression  to  the  skulP." 

Although  this  type  is  conveniently  called  the  Round 
Barrow  type,  or  even  the  Round  Barrow  Race,  the  round 
barrows  also  contain  remains  of  a  different  racial  . 

character.     The  skull  form  shows  a  more  extreme  ^^' 

brachycephaly,  with  an  index  of  84  or  85,  and  exhibits  none 
of  the  rugged  features  associated  with  the  true  Round  Barrow 
type.     On  the  contrary,  of  the  two  typical  groups,  one  from 

1  T.  Rice  Holmes,  Ancient  Britain,  1907,  p.  408.     Cf.  A.  Keith,  "The  Bronze 
Age  Invaders  of  Britain," y^'''^-  R°y-  Anthr.  Inst.  XLV.  1915. 

2  Quoted  in  T.  Rice  Holmes,  Ancient  Britain,  1907,  pp.  426-427, 


5i8  Man  :   Past  and  Present  [ch. 

round  barrows  in  Glamorganshire,  and  the  other  from  short 
cists  in  Aberdeenshire  not  one  of  the  skulls  is  prognathous, 
the  supraciliary  ridges  are  but  slightly  developed,  the  cheek 
bones  are  not  prominent,  the  face  is  both  broad  and  short  and 
the  lower  jaw  is  small.  But  the  greatest  contrast  is  in  the 
height,  which  averages  in  the  two  groups,  i  "664  m.  and  i  "6  m. 
respectively,  i.e.  5  ft.  5^  ins.  and  5  ft.  3  ins.  All  these  characters 
connect  this  type  closely  with  the  Alpine  type  on  the 
continent. 

These  round-headed  peoples  have  been  the  subject  of  much 
discussion  ably  summarised  and  criticised  by  Rice  Holmes, 
whose  conclusion  perhaps  best  represents  the  view  now  taken 
of  their  affinities  and  origins. 

"  The  great  mistake  that  has  been  made  in  discussing  the 
question  is  the  not  uncommon  assumption  that  the  brachy- 
cephalic  immigrants  who  buried  their  dead  in  round  barrows 
arrived  in  Britain  at  one  time,  and  came  from  one  place.  Some 
of  them  certainly  appeared  before  the  end  of  the  Neolithic 
Age :  others  may  have  introduced  bronze  implements  ,or 
ornaments  ;  others  doubtless  came,  in  successive  hordes,  during 
the  course  of  the  Bronze  Age.  Some  of  those  who  belonged 
to  the  Grenelle  race  [Alpine  type],  who  certainly  came  from 
Eastern  Europe  and  possibly  from'  Asia,  and  whose  centre  of 
dispersion  was  the  Alpine  region,  may  have  started  from 
Gaul ;  others  could  have  traced  their  origin  to  some  Rhenish 
tribe ;  and  I  am  inclined  to  believe  that  those  who  belonged 
to  the  characteristic  rugged  Round  Barrow  type  crossed  over, 
for  the  most  part,  from  Denmark  or  the  out-lying  islands^" 

After  the  passage  of  the  Romans,  who  mingled  little  with 
the  aborigines  and  made,  perhaps,  but  slight  impression  on  the 
Formation  of  speech  or  type  of  the  British  populations,  a  great 
the  English  transformation  was  effected  in  these  respects  by 
Nation.  ^^  arrival  of  the  historical  Teutonic  tribes.    Hand 

in  hand  with  the  Teutonic  invasions  went  a  lust  for  expansion 
on  the  part  of  the  peoples  in  Ireland.  Settlements  were  effected 
by  them  in  South  Wales  and  Anglesey,  the  Isle  of  Man  and 

1  T.  Rice  Holmes,  Ancient  BHtain,  1907,  p.  443.  See  also  John  Abercromby, 
A  Study  of  the  Bronze  Age  Pottery  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  and  its  associated 
Grave  Goods,  1912,  tracing  the  distribution  and  migration  of  pottery  forms  ;  and  the 
.  following  papers  of  H.  J.  Fleure,  "Archaeological  Problems  of  the  West  Coast  of 
Britain,"  Archaeologia  Cambrensis,  Oct.  191 5  ;  "The  Early  Distribution  of  Popula- 
tion in  South  Britam,"  ib.  April,  1916;  "The  Geographical  Distribution  of  Anthro- 
pological Types  in  Wales,"  Journ.  Roy.  Anthr.  Inst.  XLVI.  1916,  and  "  A  Proposal 
for  Local  Surveys  of  the  British  People,"  Arch.  Camb.  Jan.  1917. 


xv]  The  Caucasic  Peoples  .    519 

Argyll,  probably  also  in  North  Devon  and  Cornwall.  For 
many  generations  the  south  and  east  of  England  were  the 
scenes  of  fierce  struggles,  during  which  the  Romano- British 
civilisation  perished.  Only  in  more  inaccessible  districts,  such 
as  the  fen  country,  may  a  British  population  have  survived, 
though  Celtic  languages  are  not  yet  dislodged  from  their 
mountain  strongholds  in  Wales  and  Scotland,  and  lingered  for 
many  centuries  in  Strathclyde  and  Cornwall.  After  the 
strengthening  of  the  Teutonic  element  by  the  arrival  of  the 
Scandinavians  and  Normans,  all  very  much  of  the  same 
physical  type,  no  serious  accessions  were  made  to  this  com- 
posite ethnical  group,  which  on  the  east  side  ranged 
uninterruptedly  from  the  Channel  to  the  Grampians.  Later 
the  expansion  was  continued  northwards  beyond  the 
Grampians,  and  westwards  through  Strathclyde  to  Ireland, 
while  now  the  spread  of  education  and  the  development  of  the 
industries  are  already  threatening  to  absorb  the  last  strong- 
holds of  Celtic  speech  in  Wales,  the  Highlands,  and  Ireland. 
Thanks  to  its  isolation  in  the  extreme  west,  Ireland  had  been 
left  untouched  by  some  of  the  above  described  ethnical  move- 
ments. It  is  'doubtful  whether  Palaeolithic  man  Ethnic  Re- 
ever  reached  this  region,  and  but  few  even  of  the  lations  in 
round-heads  ranged  so  far  west  during  the  Bronze  Ireland. 
Age\  The  land  oscillations  during  post-Glacial  times  appear  to 
have  been  practically  identical  over  an  area  including  northern 
Ireland,  the  southern  half  of  Scotland,  and  northern  England. 
There  was  a  period  of  depression  followed  by  one  of  elevation. 
The  Lame  beach-deposits  prove  that  Neolithic  man  was  in 
existence  from  almost  the  beginning  of  the  deposition  of  that 
series  until  after  its  conclusion.  The  estuarine  clays  of  Belfast 
Lough  correspond  to  the  depression,  and  the  Neolithic  period 
extended  from  at  least  near  the  top  of  the  lower  estuarine  clay 
to  the  beach-deposit  of  yellow  sand  which  overlies  it,  or 
possibly  till  later.  It  is  to  this  period  of  elevation  that  the 
Neolithic  sites  among  the  sand  dunes  of  North  Ireland  belong; 
those  of  Whitepark  Bay  and  Portstewart,  for  example,  extend 
to  the  maximum  elevation.  A  slight  movement  of  subsidence 
of  about  five  feet  in  recent  times  has  left  the  surface  as  we  now 
find  it.  The  implements  found  in  the  Larne  gravels  correspond 
to  some  extent  with  those  of  Danish  kitchen-middens ;  this 

1  W.  Z.  Ripley,  The  Races  of  Europe,  1900,  p.  310;  T.  Rice  Holmes,  Ancient 
Britain,  1907,  p.  432. 


520    ,  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

was  not  a  dwelling  site  but  a  quarry-shop  or  roughing-out 
place,  the  serviceable  flakes  being  taken  away  for  further 
manipulation  ;  it  thus  belongs  to  the  earliest  phase  of  neolithic 
times.  The  sandhill  sites  were  occupied,  continuously  and 
occasionally,  during  neolithic  times,  through  the  Bronze  Age, 
and  into  the  Iron  and  Christian  periods^  Nina  F.  Layard 
has  recently  studied  the  Larne  raised  beach  and  exposed  a  new 
section.  She  states  that  "Taken  as  a  whole  the  flints  certainly 
do  not  correspond  at  all  closely  either  to  the  Palaeoliths  or 
Neoliths  so  far  found  in  England.,.. Some  are  strongly 
reminiscent  of  well-known  drift  type....  A  gain,  there  are  shapes 
that  bear  a  closer  resemblance  to  some  of  the  earliest  Neolithic 
types"."  She  believes  that,  from  their  rolled  condition,  they 
were  derived  from  another  source. 

F.  J.  Bigger*  described  some  kitchen-middens  at  Port- 
nafeadog,  near  Roundstone,  Connemara,  which  yielded  stone 
hammers  but  no  worked  flints,  pottery  or  metal-ware.  The 
chief  interest  of  this  paper  is  due  to  the  fact  that  it  is  the  first 
record  of  the  occurrence  of  vast  quantities  of  the  shells  of 
Purpura  lapillus,  all  of  which  were  broken  in  such  a  manner 
that  the  animal  could  easily  be  extracted.  There  can  be  no 
doubt  that  the  purple  dye  was  manufactured  here  in  prehistoric 
times^  W.  J.  Knowjes^  suggests  from  the  close  resemblance 
— in  fact  identity — of  a  great  number  of  neolithic  objects  in 
Ireland  with  palaeolithic  forms  in  France  (Saint- Acheul, 
Moustier,  Solutre,  La  Madeleine  types),  that  the  Irish  objects 
bridge  over  the  gap  between  the  two  ages,  and  were  worked 
by  tribes  from  the  continent  following  the  migration  of  the 
reindeer  northwards.  These  peoples  may  have  continued  to 
make  tools  of  palaeolithic  types,  while  at  the  same  time  coming 
under  the  influence  of  the  neolithic  culture  gradually  arriving 
from  some  southern  region.  The  astonishing  development  of 
this  neolithic  culture  in  the  remote  island  on  the  confines  of  the 
west,  as  illustrated  in  W.  C.  Borlase's  sumptuous  volumes",  is 

1  G.  Coffey  and  R.  Lloyd  Praeger,  "  The  Antrim  Raised  Beach :  a  Contribution 
to  the  Neolithic  History  of,  the  North  of  Ireland,"  Proc.  Roy.  Irish  Acad.  XXV.  (c.) 
1904.  See  also  the  valuable  series  of  "  Reports  on  Prehistoric  Remains  from  the 
Sandhills  of  the  Coast  of  Ireland,"  P.  R.  I.  A.  XVI. 

^  Mari,  ix.  1909,  No.  54. 

'  Proc.  Roy.  Irish  Acad.  (3),  ill.  1896,  p.  727. 

*  Cf.  also  J.  Wilfred  Jackson,  "The  Geographical  Distribution  of  the  Shell- 
Purple  Industry,"  Mem.  and  Proc.  Manchester  Lit.  and  Phil.  Soc.  LX.  No.  7,  1916. 

^  Swvivcdsfrom  the  Palaeolithic  Age  among  Irish  Neolithic  Implements,  1897. 

^  The  Doltnens  of  Ireland,  1897. 


xv]  The  Caucasic  Peoples  521 

a  perpetual  wonder,  but  is  rendered  less  inexplicable  if  we 
assume  an  immense  duration  of  the  New  Stone  Age  in  the 
British  Isles.  The  Irish  dolmen-builders  were  presumably  of 
the  same  long-headed  stock  as  those  of  Britain\  and  they  were 
followed  by  Celtic-speaking  Goidels  who  may  have  come 
directly  from  the  continent^  and  there  is  evidence  in  Ptolemy 
and  elsewhere  of  the  presence  of  Brythonic  tribes  from  Gaul 
in  the  east.  Since  these  early  historic  times  the  intruders  have 
been  almost  exclusively  of  Teutonic  race,  and  Viking  invaders 
from  Norway  and  Denmark  founded  the  earliest  towns  such 
as  Dublin,  Waterford  and  Limerick.  Now  all  alike,  save  for 
an  almost  insignificant  and  rapidly  dwindling  minority,  have 
assumed  the  speech  of  the  English  and  Lowland  Scotch 
intruders,  who  began  to  arrive  late  in  the  12th  century,  and 
are  now  chiefly  massed  in  Ulster,  Leinster,  and  all  the  large 
towns.  The  rich  and  highly  poetic  Irish  language  has  a 
copious  medieval  literature  of  the  utmost  importance  to 
students  of  European  origins. 

In  Scotland  few  ethnical  changes  or  displacements  have 
occurred  since  the  colonisation  of  portions  of  the  west  by 
Gaelic-speaking  Scottic  tribes  from  Ireland,  and 
the  English  (Angle)  occupation  of  the  Lothians.  fclttind!  '° 
The  Grampians  have  during  historic  times  formed 
the  main  ethnical  divide  between  the  two  elements,  and  brook- 
lets which  can  be  taken  at  a  leap  are  shown  where  the  opposite 
banks  have  for  hundreds  of  years  been  respectively  held  by 
formerly  hostile,  but  now  friendly  communities  of  Gaelic  and 
broad  Scotch  speech.  Here  the  chief  intruders  have  been 
Scandinavians,  whose  descendants  may  still  be  recognised  in 
Caithness,  the  Hebrides,  and  the  Orkney  and  Shetland  groups. 
Faint  echoes  of  the  old  Norrena  tongue  are  said  still  to  linger 
amongst  the  sturdy  Shetlanders,  whose  assimilation  to  the 
dominant  race  began  only  after  their  transfer  from  Norway  to 
the  Crown  of  Scotland. 


'  They  need  not,  however,  have  cottie  from  Britain,  and  the  allusions  in  Irish 
literature  to  direct  immigration  from  Spain,  probable  enough  in  itself,  are  too 
numerous  to  be  disregarded.  Thus,  Geoffrey  of  Monmouth : — "  Hibernia  Basclen- 
sibus  [to  the  Basques]  incolenda  datur"  {Hist.  Reg.  Brit.  ill.  §  12);  and  Giraldus 
Cambrensis:— "De  Gurguntio  Brytonum  Rege,  qui  Rasclenses  [read  Basclenses] 
in  Hiberniam  transmisit  et  eandem  ipsis  habitandam  concessit."  I  am  indebted  to 
Wentworth  Webster  for  these  references  {Academy,  Oct.  19,  1895). 

2  H.  Zimmer,  "  Auf  welchen  Wage  kamen  die  Goidelen  vom  Kontinent  nach 
Irland?"  Abh.  d.  K.  preuss.  Akad.  d.  Wiss.  1912. 


522  Man :   Past  and  Present  [ch. 

Since  1 90 1  the  researches  of  Gray  and  Tocher^  on  the 
pigmentation  of  some  500,000  school  children  of  Scotland 
have  increased  our  information  as  to  racial  distribution.  The 
average  percentage  of  boys  with  fair  hair  is  nearly  25  for  the 
whole  of  the  country,  and  when  this  is  compared  with  82  in 
Schleswig  Holstein  "we  are  driven  to  the: conclusion  that  the 
pure  Norse  or  Anglo-Saxon  element  in  our  population  is  by 
no  means  predominant.  There  is  evidently  also  a  dark  or 
brunette  element  which  is  at  least  equal  in  amount  and 
probably  greater  than  that  of  the  Norse  element"  (p.  380). 
Pure  blue  eyes  for  the  whole  of  Scotland  average  14"  7  per 
cent.,  which  may  be  compared  with  42*9  in  Prussia.  The 
greatest  density  for  fair  hair  and  eyes  is  to  be  found  in  the 
great  river  valleys  opening  on  to  the  German  Ocean,  and  also 
in  the  Western  Isles.  The  Tweed,  Forth,  Tay  and  Don  all 
show  indications  of  settlements  of  a  blonde  race  "  probably  due 
to  Anglo-Saxon  invasions,"  but  the  maximum  is  to  be  found 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Spey.  The  high  percentage  here  and  in 
the  Hebrides  and  opposite  coasts,  the  authors  trace  to  Viking 
invasions.  The  percentage  of  dark  hair  for  boys  and  girls  is 
25*2  as. compared  with  i'3  in  Prussian  school  children,  the 
maximum  density  as  we  should  expect  being  in  the  west.  Jet 
black  hair  (i"2°/o)  has  its  maximum  density  in  the  central 
highlands  and  wild  west  coast.  Beddoe"  commenting  on  Gray 
and  Tocher's  results  calculates  an  even  higher  percentage  of 
black  hair  (over  2  °  j ^,  "  either  within  or  astride  of  the  Highland 
frontier.  Except  Paisley,  there  is  not  a  single  instance  south 
of  the  Forth,  nor  one  between  the  Spey  and  the  Firth  of  Tay. 
Surely  there  is  something  '  racial '  here."  Beddoe's  map, 
constructed  from  Gray  and  Tocher's  statistics,  clearly  indicates 
the  distribution  of  racial  types. 

The  work  carried  on  in  Wales  for  a  number  of  years  by 

H.  J.  Fleure  and  T.  C.  James'  has  produced  some  extremely 

interesting  results.    The  chief  types  (based  on 

Wales!  measurements  and  observations  of  head,    face, 

nose,  skin,  hair  and  eye  colour,  stature,  etc.)  fall 
into  the  following  groups. 

'  J.  Gray,  "  Memoir  on  the  Pigmentation  Survey  of  Scotland,"  Journ.  Roy. 
Anthr.  Inst,  xxxvii.  1907. 

^  "A  Last  Contribution  to  Scottish  Ethnology,"  Journ.  Roy.  Anthr.  Inst. 
xxxviii.  1908. 

^  "  The  Geographical  Distribution  of  Anthropological  Types  in  Wales,"  Journ. 
Roy.  Anthr.  Inst.  XLVI.  1916. 


xv]  The  Caucasic  Peoples  523 

1.  "The  fundamental  type  is  certainly  the  long-headed 
brunet  of  the  moorlands  and  their  inland  valleys.  He  is  uni- 
versally recognised  as  belonging  to  the  Mediterranean  race  of 
Sergi  and  as  dating  back  in  this  country  to  early  Neolithic 
times."  The  cephalic  index  is  about  78,  with  high  colouring, 
dark  hair  and  eyes,  and  stature  rather  below  the  average.  A 
possible  mixture  of  earlier  stocks  is  shown  in  a  longer-headed 
type  (c.i.  about  75),  with  well-marked  occiput,  very  dark  hair 
and  eyes,  swarthy  complexion,  and  average  stature  (about 
1690  mm.  =  5  ft.  6^  ins.).  Occasionally  in  North  Wales  the 
occurrence  of  lank  black  hair,  a  sallow  complexion  and 
prominent  cheekbones  suggests  a  "  Mongoloid  "  type ;  and  a 
type  with  small  stature,  black,  closely  curled  hair  and  a  rather 
broad  nose  has  negroid  reminiscences.  The  Plynlymon 
moorlands  contain  a  "  nest"  of  extreme  dolichocephaly  and  an 
unusually  high  percentage  of  red  hair. 

2.  Nordic-Alpine  type,  with  cephalic  index  mainly  between 
76  and  81.  This  group  includes  {a)  a  "local  version  of  the 
Nordic  type"  occurring  at  Newcastle  Emlyn  and  in  South  and 
South-West  Pembrokeshire  with  fair  hair  and  eyes,  usually 
tall  stature  and  great  strength  of  brow,  jaw  and  chin ;  {b)  a 
heavier  variant  on  the  Welsh  border,  often  with  cephalic  index 
above  80,  and  extremely  tall  stature ;  {c)  the  Borreby  or 
Beaker- Maker  type,  broad-headed  and  short-faced  with  darker 
pigmentation,  probably  a  cross  between  Alpine  and  Nordic, 
characteristic  of  the  long  cleft  from  Corwen  via  Bala  to  Tabyllyn 
and  Towyn. 

3.  Dark  bullet-headed  short  thick-^et  men  of  the  general 
type  denoted  by  the  term  Alpine  or  more  exactly  perhaps  by 
the  term  Cevenole  are  found,  though  not  commonly,  in  North 
Montgomeryshire  valleys.  • 

4.  Powerfully  built,  often  intensely  dark,  broad-headed, 
broad-faced,  strong  and  square  jawed  men  are  characteristic 
of  the  Ardudwy  coast,  the  South  Glamorgan  coast,  Newquay 
district  (Cardiganshire)  and  elsewhere. 

The  authors  observe  that  Type  i  with  its  variations  con- 
tributes "  considerable  numbers  to  the  ministries  of  the  various 
churches,  possibly  in  part  from  inherent  and  racial  leanings, 
but  partly  also  because  these  are  the  people  of  the  moorlands. 
The  idealism  of  such  people  usually  expresses  itself  in  music, 
poetry,  literature  and  religion  rather  than  in  architecture, 
painting  and  plastic  arts  generally.     They  rarely  have  a  suffi- 


524  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

ciency  of  material  resources  for  the  latter  activities.  These 
types  also  contribute  a  number  of  men^to  the  medical  profes- 
sion. ...The  successful  commercial  men,  who  have  given  the 
Welsh  their  extraordinarily  prominent  place  in  British  trade 
(shipping  firms  for  example)  usually  belong  to  types  2  or  4, 
rather  than  to  i,  as  also  do  the  majority  of  Welsh  members  of 
Parliament,  though  there  are  exceptions  of  the  first  importance. 
The  Nordic  type  is  marked  by  ingenuity  and  enterprise  in 
striking  out  new  lines.  Type  2  [c)  in  Wales  is  remarkable  for 
governmental  ability  of  the  administrative  kind  as  well  as  for 
independence  of  thought  and  critical  power  "  (p.  1 19). 

We  have  now  all   the  elements  needed  to  unravel  the 
ethnical  tangle  of  the  present  inhabitants  of  the  British  Isles. 
Present  Con-    The  astonishing  prevalence  everywhere  of  the 
stitution  of       moderately  dolicho  heads  is  at  once  explained  by 
tiie^  British       ^j^g  absence  of  brachy  immigrants  except  in  the 
Bronze  period,  and  these  could  do  no  more  than 
raise  the  cephalic  index  from  about  70  or  72  to  the  present 
mean  of  about  78.    With  the  other  perhaps  less  stable  charac- 
ters the  case  is  not  always  quite  so  simple.     The  brunettes, 
representing  the  Mediterranean  type,  certainly  increase,  as  we 
should  expect,  from  north-east  to  south-west,  though  even  here 
there  is  a  considerable  dark  patch,  due  to  local  causes,  in  the 
home  shires  about  London \     But  the  stature,  almost  every- 
where  a    troublesome    factor,    seems    to   wander   somewhat 
lawlessly  over  the  land. 

Although  a  short  stature  more  or  less  coincides  with 
brunetteness  in  England  and  Wales,  and  the  observations  in 
Ireland  are  too  few  to  be  relied  on,  no  such  parallelism  can  be 
traced  in  Scotland.  The  west  (Inverness  and  Argyllshire), 
though  as  dark  as  South  Wales,  shows  an  average  stature  of 
173  m.  to  1 74  m.  (5  ft.  Sins,  to  5  ft.  8^  ins.),  which  is  higher  than 
the  average  for  the  whole  of  Britain.  And  South-west  Scotland, 
where  the  type  is  fairly  dark,  contains  the  tallest  population 
in  Europe,  if  not  in  the  world.  Ripley  suggests  either  that 
"  some  ethnic  element  of  which  no  pure  trace  remains,  served 
to  increase  the  stature  of  the  western  Highlanders  without  at 
the  same  time  conducing  to  blondness ;  or  else  some  local 
influences  of  natural  selection  or  environment  are  responsible 
for  it"" ;  and  he  hints  also  that  the  linguistic  distinction  between 

1  For  the  explanation  see  W.  Z.  Ripley,  The  Races  of  Europe,  1900,  p.  322  ff. 

2  W.  Z.  Ripley,  loc.  cit.  p.  329. 


xv]  The  Caucasic  Peoples  525 

Gaels  and  Brythons  may  have  been  associated  with  physical 
variation. 

The  English  tongue  need  not  detain  us  long.  Its  qualities, 
illustrated  in  the  noblest  of  all  literatures,  are  patent  to 
the  world*,  indeed  have  earned  for  it  from  Jacob 
Grimm  _ the  title  of  Welt-Sprache,  the  "World  SngSS'*" 
Speech."  It  belongs,  as  might  be  anticipated  from 
the  northern  origin  of  the  Teutonic  element  in  Britain,  to  the 
Low  German  divisionof  the  Teutonic  branch  of  the  Aryan  family. 
Despite  extreme  pressure  from  Norman  French,  continued  for 
over  200  years  (1066 — 1300),  it  has  remained  faithful  to  this 
connection  in  its  inner  structure,  which  reveals  not  a  trace  of 
Neo- Latin  influences.  The  phonetic  system  has  undergone 
profound  changes,  which  can  be  only  indirectly  and  to  a  small 
extent  due  to  French  action.  What  English  owes  to  French 
and  Latin  is  a  very  large  number,  many  thousands,  of  words, 
some  superadded  to,  some  superseding  their  Saxon  equivalents, 
but  altogether  immensely  increasing  its  wealth  of  expression, 
while  giving  it  a  transitional  position  between  the  somewhat 
sharply  contrasted  Germanic  and  Romance  worlds. 

Amongst   the    Romance    peoples,    that    is,    the    French, 
Spaniards,  Portuguese,  Italians,  Rumanians,  many  Swiss  and 
Belgians,  who  were  entirely  assimilated  in  speech 
and   largely   in    their  civil   institutions  to  their      Nation!^"*^ 
Roman  masters,  the  paramount  position,  a  sort  of 
international  hegemony,  has  been  taken  by  the  French  nation 
since  the  decadence  of  Spain  under  the  feeble  successors  of 
Philip  II.     The  constituent  elements  of  these  Gallo-Romans, 
as  they  may  be  called,  are  much  the  same  as  those  of  the 
British  peoples,  but  differ  in  their  distribution  and  relative 
proportions.     Thus  the  Iberians  (Aquitani,  Pictones.  and  later 
Vascones),  who  may  perhaps  be  identified  with  the  neolithic 
long-heads',  do  not  appear  ever  to  have  ranged  much  farther 
north  than  Brittany,  and  were  Aryanised  in  pre-Roman  times 
by  the  P-speaking  Celts  everywhere  north  of  the  Garonne. 
The  prehistoric  Teutons  again,  who  had  advanced  beyond 

1  "  The  Frenchman,  the  German,  the  Italian,  the  Englishman,  to  each  of  whom 
his  own  literature  and  the  great  traditions  of  his  national  life  are  most  dear  and 
familiar  cannot  help  but  feel  that  the  vernacular  in  which  these  are  embodied  and 
expressed  is  and  must  be,  superior  to  the  alien  and  awkward  languages  of  his 
neighbours."'    L.  Pearsall  Smith,  The  English  Language,  p.  54. 

2  See  above  p.  455.  T.  Rice  Holmes  points  out  that  the  Aquitani  were  already 
mixed  in  type.     Caesar's  Conquest  0/ Gaul,  1911,  p.  12. 


526  Man :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

the  Rhine  at  an  early  period  (Caesar  says  antiquitus)  into 
the  present  Belgium,  were  mainly  confined  to  the  northern 
provinces.  Even  the  historic  Teutons  (chiefly  Franks  and 
Burgundians)  penetrated  little  beyond  the  Seine  in  the  north 
and  the  present  Burgundy  in  the  east,  while  the  Vandals, 
Visigoths  and  a  few  others  passed  rapidly  through  to  Iberia 
beyond  the  Pyrenees. 

Thus  the  greater  part  of  the  land,  say  from  the  Seine- 
Marne  basin  to  the  Mediterranean,  continued  to  be  held  by 
the  Romanised  mass  of  Alpine  type  throughout  all  the  central 
and  most  of  the  southern  provinces,  and  elsewhere  in  the 
south  by  the  Romanised  long-headed  Mediterranean  type. 
This  great  preponderance  of  the  Romanised  Alpine  masses 
explains  the  rapid  absorption  of  the  Teutonic  intruders,  who 
were  all,  except  the  Fleming  section  of  the  Belgae,  completely 
assimilated  to  the  Gallo- Romans  before  the  close  of  the  tenth 
century.  It  also  explains  the  perhaps  still  more  remarkable 
fact  that  the  Norsemen  who  settled  (912)  under  Rollo  in 
Normandy  were  all  practically  Frenchmen  when  a  fewgenera^ 
tions  later  they  followed  their  Duke  William  to  the  conquest 
of  Saxon  England.  Thus  the  only  intractable  groups  have 
proved  to  be  the  Basques^  and  the  Bretons,  both  of  whom  to 
this  day  retain  their  speech  in  isolated  corners  of  the  country. 
With  these  exceptions  the  whole  of  France,  save  the  debate- 
able  area  of  Alsace-Lorraine,  presents  in  its  speech  a  certain 
homogeneous  character,  the  standard  language  {langue  d'oiP) 
being  current  throughout  all  the  northern  and  central  pro- 
vinces, while  it  is  steadily  gaining  upon  the  southern  iorm.{langue 
d'oc^)  still  surviving  in  the  rural  districts  of  Limousin  and 
Provence. 

But  pending  a  more  thorough  fusion  of  such  tenacious 

elements  as  Basques,  Bretons,  Auvergnats,  and  Savoyards,  we 

,  _   .        can  scarcely  yet  speak  of  a  common  French  type. 

Mental  Traits.      ,     ^         ,        /  ■         i-^         -n   11  '^ 

but  only  01  a  common  nationality.    Tall  stature, 
long  skulls,  fair  or  light  brown  colour,  grey  or  blue  eyes,  still 

'  See  above  p.  454. 

2  That  is,  the  languages  whose  afifirmatives  were  the  Latin  pronouns  hoc  illud 
(oil)  and  hoc  {oc),  the  former  being  more  contracted,  the  latter  nwre  expanded,  as 
we  see  in  the  very  names  of  the  respective  Northern  and  Southern  bards  :  Trouvires 
and  Troubadours.  It  was  customary  in  medieval  times  to  name  languages  in  this 
way,  Dante,  for  instance,  calling.  Italian  la  lingua  del  si,  "the  language  of  yes" ; 
and,  strange  to  say,  the  same  usage  prevails  largely  amongst  the  Australian 
aborigines,  who,  however,  use  both  the  affirmative  and  the  negative  particles,  so 
that  we  have  here  no-  as  well  as  .y^j-tribes. 


xv]  The  Caucasic  Peoples  527 

prevail,  as  might  be  expected,  in  the  north,  these  being  traits 
common  alike  to  the  prehistoric  Belgae,  the  Franks  of  the 
Merovingian  and  Carlovingian  empires,  and  Rollo's  Norsemen. 
With  these  contrast  the  southern  peoples  of  short  stature, 
olive-brown  skin,  round  heads,  dark  brown  or  black  eyes  and 
hair.  The  •  tendency  towards  uniformity  has  proceeded  far 
more  rapidly  in  the  urban  than  in  the  rural  districts.  Hence 
the  citizens  of  Paris,  Lyons,  Bordeaux,  Marseilles  and  other 
large  towns,  present  fewer  and  less  striking  contrasts  than 
the  natives  of  the  old  historical  provinces,  where  are  still 
distinguished  the  loquacious  and  mendacious  Gascon,  the 
pliant  and  versatile  Basque,  the  slow  and  wary  Norman,  the 
dreamy  and  fanatical  Breton,  the  quick  and  enterprising 
Burgundian,  and  the  bright,  intelligent,  more  even-tempered 
native  of  Touraine,  a  typical  Frenchman  occupying  the  heart 
of  the  land,  and  holding,  as  it  were,  the  balance  between  all 
the  surrounding  elements. 

In  Spain  and  Portugal  we  have  again  the  same  ethnological 
elements,  but  also  again  in  different  proportions  and  differently 
distributed,  with  others  superadded — proto-Phoe-  -j-jje 
nicians  and  later  Phoenicians  (Carthaginians),  Spaniards  and 
Romans,  Visigoths,  Vandals,  and  still  later  Ber-  Portuguese, 
bers  and  Arabs.  Here  the  Celtic-speaking  mixed  peoples 
mingled  in  prehistoric  times  with  the  long-headed  Mediter- 
raneans, an  ethnical  fusion  known  to  the  ancients,  who  labelled 
it  "  Keltiberian^"  But,  as  in  Britain,  the  other  intruders 
were  mostly  long-heads,  with  the  striking  result  that  the 
Peninsula  presents  to-day  exactly  the  same  uniform  cranial 
type  as  the  British  Isles.  Even  the  range  (76  to  79)  and  the 
mean  (78)  of  the  cephalic  index  are  the  same,  rising  in  Spain 
to  80  only  in  the  Basque  corner.  As  Ripley  states,  "the 
average  cephalic  index  of  78  occurs  nowhere  else  so  uni- 
formly distributed  in  Europe "  except  in  Norway,  and  this 
uniformity  "  is  the  concomitant  and  index  of  two  relatively 
pure,  albeit  widely  different,  ethnic  types — Mediterranean  in 
Spain,  Teutonic  in   Norway^" 

In   other  respects   the  social,  one  might  almost  say  the 
national,  groups  are  both  more  numerous  and  perhaps  even 
more    sharply   discriminated    in    the    Peninsula      Provincial 
than    in    France.      Besides    the    Basques    and      Groups. 

1  S.  Feist  points  out  that  two  physical  types  were  recognised  in  antiquity,  one 
dark  and  one  fair,  and  reference  to  red  hair  and  fair  skin  suggests  Celtic  infusion. 
K'ultur,  Ausbreitung.  und  Herkunft  dtr  Indogermarien,  1913,  p.  365. 

2  Science  Progress,  ^.  159. 


528  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

Portuguese,  the  latter  with  a  considerable  strain  of  negro 
bloody  we  have  such  very  distinct  populations  as  the  haughty 
and  punctilious  Castilians,  who  under  an  outward  show  of 
pride  and  honour,  are  capable  of  much  meanness  ;  the  sprightly 
and  vainglorious  Andalusians,  who  have  been  called  the 
Gascons  of  Spain,  yet  of  graceftil  address  and  seductive 
manners  ;  the  morose  and  impassive  Murcians,  indolent  because 
fatalists  ;  the  gay  Valenqiaps  given  to  much  dancing  and  revelry, 
but  also  to  sudden  fits  of  murderous  rage,  holding  life  so  cheap 
that  they  will  hire  themselves  out  as  assassins,  and  cut  their 
bread  with  the  blood-stained  knife  of  their  last  victim  ;  the 
dull  and  superstitious  Aragonese,  also  given  to  bloodshed, 
and  so  obdurate  that  they  are  said  to  "drive  nails  in  with 
their  heads  "  ;  lastly  the  Catalans,  noisy  and  quarrelsome,  but 
brave,  industrious,  and  enterprising,"  on  the  whole  the  best 
element  in  this  motley  aggregate  of  unbalanced  temperaments. 
The  various  aspects  of  Spanish  temperament  are  regarded  by 
Havelock  Ellis''  as  manifestations  of  an  aboriginally  primitive 
race,  which,  under  the  stress  of  a  peculiarly  stimukting  and 
yet  hardening  environment,  has  retained  through  every  stage 
of  development  an  unusual  degree  of  the  endowment  of  fresh 
youth,  of  elemental  savagery,  with  which  it  started.  This 
explains  the  fine  qualities  of  Spain  and  her  defects,  the 
splendid  initiative,  and  lack  of  sustained  ability  to  carry  it  out, 
the  importance  of  the  point  of  honour  and  the  glorification  of 
the  primitive  virtue  of  valour. 

In  Italy  the  past  and  present  relations,  as  elucidated  especially 
by  Livi  and  Sergi,  may  be  thus  briefly  stated.  After  the 
first  Stone  Age,  of  which  there  are  fewer  in- 
lations  in  Vtaly  dications  than  might  be  expected ^  the  whole  land 
was  thickly  settled  by  dark  long-headed  Mediter- 
ranean peoples  in  neolithic  times.  These  were  later  joined 
by  Pelasgians  of  like  type  from  Greece,  and  by  Illyrians 
of  doubtful  affinity  from  the   Balkan   Peninsula.     Indeed  C. 

1  "The  Portuguese  are  much  mixed  with  Negroes  more  particularly  in  the  south 
and  along  the  coast.  The  slave  trade  existed  long  before  the  Negroes  of  Guinea 
were  exported  to  the  plantations  of  America.  Damiao  de  Goes  estimated  the 
number  of  blacks  imported  into  Lisbon  alone  during  the  i6th  century  at  10,000 
or  12,000  per  annum.  If  contemporary  eye-witnesses  can  be  trusted,  the  number 
of  blacks  met  with  in  the  streets  of  Lisbon  equalled  that  of  the  whites.  Not  a  house 
but  had  its  negro  servants,  and  the  wealthy  owned  entire  gangs  of  them  "  (Reclus, 
I.  p.  471). 

2  "The  Spanish  People,"  Cont.  Rev.  May,  1907,  and  The  Soul  of  Spain,  1908. 

^  T.  E.  Peet,  Stone  and  Bronze  Ages  in  Italy  and  Sicily,  1909,  gives  a  full 
account  of  the  archaeology. 


xv]  The  Caucasic  Peoples  529 

Penka',  who  has  so  many  paradoxical  theories,  makes  the 
lUyrians  the  first  inhabitants  of  Italy,  as  shown  by  the  striking 
resemblance  of  the  terramara  culture  of  Aemilia  with  that  of 
the  Venetian  and  Laibach  pile-dwellings.  The  recent  finds  in 
Bosnia  also^  besides  the  historically  proved  (?)  migration  of 
the  Siculi  from  Upper  Italy  to  Sicily,  and  their  Illyrian  origin, 
all  point  in  the  same  direction.  But  the  facts  are  differently 
interpreted  by  Sergi^  who  holds  that  the  whole  land  was 
occupied  by  the  Mediterraneans,  because  we  find  even  in 
Switzerland  pile-dwellers  of  the  same  type*. 

Then  came  the  peoples  of  Aryan  speech,  Celtic-speaking 
Alpines  from  the  north-west  and  Slavs  from  the  north-east, 
who  raised  the  cephalic  index  in  the  north,  where  the  brachy 
element,  as  already  seen,  still  greatly  predominates  but 
diminishes  steadily  southwards".  They  occupied  the  whole 
of  Umbria,  which  at  first  stretched  across  the  peninsula  from 
the  Adriatic  to  the  Mediterranean,  but  was  later  encroached' 
upon  by  the  intruding  Etruscans  on  the  west  side.  Then  also 
some  of  these  Umbrians,  migrating  southwards  to  Latium 
beyond  the  Tiber,  intermingled,  says  Sergi,  with  the  Italic 
(Ligurian)  aborigines,  and  became  the  founders  of  the  Roman 
state^  With  the  spread  of  the  Roman  arms  the  Latin  language, 
which  Sergi  claims  to  be  a  kind  of  Aryanised  Ligurian,  but 
must  be  regarded  as  a  true  member  of  the  Aryan  family,  was 

1  "Zur  Palaoethnologie  Mittel-  u.  Sudeuropas"  in  Mitt.  Wiener  Anthr op.  Ges. 
1897,  p.  i8.  It  should  here  be  noted  that  in  his  History  of  the  Greek  Language 
(1896)  Kretschmer  connects  the  inscriptions  of  the  Veneti  in  north  Italy  and  of  the 
Messapians  in  the  south  with  the  Illyrian  linguistic  family,  which  he  regards  as 
Aryan  intermediate  between  the  Greek  and  the  Italic  branches,  the  present  Albanian 
being  a  surviving  member  of  it.  In  the  same  Illyrian  family  W.  M.  Lindsay  would 
also  include  the  "  Old'Sabellian  "  of  Picenum,  "believed  to  be  the  oldest  inscriptions 
on  Italian  soil.  The  manifest  identity  of  the  name  Aodatos  and  the  word  meitimon 
with  the  Illyrian  names  Kihaxa  and  Meitima  is  almost  sufficient  of  itself  to  prove 
these  inscriptions  to  be  Illyrian.  Further  the  whole  character  of  their  language, 
with  its  Greek  and  its  Italic  features,  corresponds  with  what  we  know  and  what  we 
can  safely  infer  about  the  Illyrian  family  of  languages "  ^(/4ca(/^»y,  Oct.  24,  1896). 
Cf.  R.  S.  Conway,  The  Italic  Dialects,  1897. 

2  R.  Munro,  Bosnia,  Herzegovina  and Dalmatia,  1900.  See  also  W.  Ridgeway, 
The  Early  Age  of  Greece,  1901,  ch.  v.,  showing  that  remains  of  the  Iron  Age  in 
Bosnia  are  closely  connected  with  Hallstatt  and  La  T^ne  cultures. 

3  Arii  e  Italici,  p.  158  sq. 

*  "  Liguri  e  Pelasgi  furono  i  primi  abitatori  d'  Italia ;  e  Liguri  sembra  siano  stati 
quelli  che  occupavano  la  Valle  del  Po  e  costrussero  le  palafitte,  e  Liguri  forse  anche 
i  costruttori  delle  palafitte  svizzere:  Mediterranei  tutti"  {lb.  p.  138). 

*  Ripley's  chart  shows  a  range  of  from  87  in  Piedmont  to  76  and  77  in  Calabria, 
Puglia,  and  Sardinia,  and  75  and  under  in  Corsica.  The  Races  of  Europe,  1900, 
p.  251. 

«  But  cf.  W.  Ridgeway,  Who  were  the  Romans?  1908. 

K.  34 


530  Man  :   Past  and  Present  [ch. 

diffused  throughout  the  whole  of  the  peninsula  and  islands, 
sweeping  away  all  traces  not  only  of.  the  original  Ligurian  and 
other  Mediterranean  tongues,  but  also  of  Etruscan  and  its 
own  sister  languages,  such  as  Umbrian,  Oscan,  and  Sabellian. 
At  the  fall  of  the  empire  the  land  was  overrun  by  Ostrogoths, 
HeruH,  and  other  Teutons,  none  of  whom  formed  permanent 
settlements  except  the  Longobards,  who  gave  their  name  to 
the  present  Lombardy,  but  were  themselves  rapidly  assimilated 
in  speech  and  general  culture  to  the  surrounding  populations, 
whom  we  may  now  call  Italians  in  the  modern  sense  of  the 
term. 

When  it  is  remembered  that  the  Aegean  culture  had  spread 
to    Italy   at    an    early   date,    that    it    was    continued    under 

Hellenic  influences  by  Etruscans  and  Umbrians, 
Ethics  ^2Lt   Greek  arts  and  letters  were   planted    on 

Italian  soil  {Magna  G^ra^txa)  before  the  foundation 
of  Rome,  that  all  these  civilisations  converged  in  Rome  itself 
and  were  thence  diffused  throughout  the  West,  that  the 
traditions  of  previous  cultural  epochs  never  died  out,  acquired 
new  life  with  the  Renascence  and  were  thus  perpetuated  to 
the  present  day,  it  may  be  claimed  for  the  gifted  Italian  people 
that  they  have  been  for  a  longer  period  than  any  others  under 
the  unbroken  sway  of  general  humanising  influences.  . 

These  "  Latin  Peoples,"  as  they  are  called  becaiise  they 
all  speak  languages  of  the  Latin  stock,  are  not  confined  to 

the  West.    To  the  Italian,  French,  Spanish,  Por- 
Rumanians.       tuguese,  with  the  less  known  and  ruder  Walloon 

of  Belgium  and  Romansch  of  Switzerland,  Tyrol, 
and  Friuli,  must  be  associated  the  Rumanian  current  amongst 
some  nine  millions  of  so-called  "  Daco-  Rumanians  "  in  Moldavia 
and  Wallachia,  i.e.  the  modern  kingdom  of  Rumania.  The 
same  Neo- Latin  tongue  is  also  spoken  *by  the  Tsintsars  or 
Kutzo-  Vlacks^  of  the  Mount  Pindus  districts  in  the  Balkan 
Peninsula,  and  by-  numerous  Rumanians  who  have  in  later 
limes  migrated  into  Hungary.  They  form  a  compact  and 
vigorous  nationality,  who  claim  direct  descent  from  the  Roman 

'  The  true  name  of  these  southern  or  Macedo-Rumanians,  as  pointed  out  by 
Gustav  Weigland  {Globus,  LXXI.  p.  54),  is  Aramdni  or  Armdni,  i.e.  "  Romans." 
Tsintsar,  Kutzo-  Vlack,  etc.  are  mere  nicknames,  by  which  they  are  known  to  their 
Macedonian  (Bulgar  and  Greek)  neighbours.  See  also  W.  R.  MorfiU  in  Academy, 
July  I,  1893.  The  Vlachs  of  Macedonia  are  described  by  E.  Pears,  Turkey  and  its 
People,  191 1,  and  a  full  account  of  the  Balkan  Vlachs  is  given  by  A.  J.  B.  Wace 
and  M.  S.  Thompson,  The  Nomhds  of  the  Balkans,  1914. 


xv]  The  Caucasic  Peoples  531 

military  colonists  settled  north  of  the  Lower  Danube  by  Trajan 
after  his  conquest  of  the  Dacians  (107  a.d.).  But  great 
difficulties  attach  to  this  theory,  which  is  rejected  by  many 
ethnologists,  especially  on  the  ground  that,  after  Trajan's 
time,  Dacia  was  repeatedly  swept  clean  by  the  Huns,  the 
Finns,  the  Avars,  Magyars  and  other  rude  Mongolo-Turki 
hordes,  besides  many  almost  ruder  Slavic  peoples  during  the 
many  centuries  when  the  eastern  populations  were  in  a  state 
of  continual  flux  after  the  withdrawal  of  the  Roman  legionaries 
from  the  Lower  Danube.  Besides,  it  is  shown  by  Roesler^ 
and  others  that  under  Aurelian  (257  a.d.)  Trajan's  colonists 
withdrew  bodily  southwards  to  and  beyond  the  Hemus  to  the 
territory  of  the  old  Bessi  (Thracians),  i.e.  the  district  still 
occupied  by  the  Macedo- Rumanians.  But  in  the  13th  century, 
during  the  break-up  of  the  Byzantine  empire,  most  of  these 
fugitives  were  again  driven  north  to  their  former  seats  beyond 
the  Danube,  where  they  have  ever  since  held  their  ground, 
and  constituted  themselves  a  distinct  and  far  from  feeble 
branch  of  the  Neo-Latin  community.  The  Pindus,  therefore, 
rather  than  the  Carpathians,  is  to  be  taken  as  the  last  area  of 
dispersion  of  these  valiant  and  intelligent  descendants  of  the 
Daco- Romans.  This  seems  the  most  rational  solution  of 
what  A.  D.  Xenopol  calls  "  an  historic  enigma,"  although  he 
himself  rejects  Roesler's  conclusions  in  favour  of  the  old  view 
so  dear  to  the  national  pride  of  the  present  Rumanian  peopled 
The  composite  character  of  the  Rumanian  language — funda- 
mentally Neo-Latin  or  rather  early  Italian,  with  strong  Illyrian 
(Albanian)  and  Slav  affinities — would  almost  imply  that  Dacia 
had  never  been  Romanised  under  the  empire,  and  that  in  fact 
this  region  was  for  the  first  time  occupied  by  its  present 
Romance  speaking  inhabitants  in  the  13th  century'.  The 
nomadic  life  of  the  Rumanians  is  in  itself,  as  Peisker  points 
out^  a  refutation  of  their  descent  from  settled  Roman  colonists, 
and  indicates  a  Central  Asiatic  origin.  The  mounted  nomads 
grazed  during  the  summer  "  on  most  of  the  mountains  of  the 

^  Romdnische  Studien,  Leipzig,  1 871. 

2  Les  Roumains  au  Moyen  Age,  passim.  Hunfalvy,  quoted  by  A.  J.  Patterson 
{Academy,  Sept.  7,  1895),  also  shows  that  "for  a  thousand  years  there  is  no  authentic 
mention  of  a  Latin  or  Romance  speaking  population  north  of  the  Danube." 

3  This  view  is  held  by  L.  R^thy,  also  quoted  by  Patterson,  and  the  term  Vlack 
( Welsch,  whence  Wallachia)  applied  to  the  Rumanians  by  all  their  Slav  and  Greek 
neighbours  points  in  the  same  direction. 

*  T.  Peisker,  "The  Asiatic  Background,"  Camb.  Med.  Hist.  Vol.  I.  191 1,  p.  356, 
and  "The  Expansion  of  the  Slavs,"  ib.  Vol.  II.  191 3,  p.  440. 

34—2 


532  Man :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

Balkan  peninsula,  and  took  up  their  winter  quarters  on  the 
sea-coasts  among  a  peasant  population  speaking  a  different 
language.  Thence  they  gradually  spread,  unnoticed  by  the 
chroniclers,  along  all  the  mountain  ranges,  over  all  the 
Carpathians  of  Transylvania,  North  Hungary,  and .  South 
Galicia,  to  Moravia;  towards  the  north-west  from  Montenegro 
onwards  over  Herzegovina,  Bosnia,  I  stria,  as  far  as  South 
Styria ;  towards  the  south  over  Albania  far  into  Greece.... And 
like  the  peasantry  among  which  they  wintered  (and  winter) 
long  enough,  they  became  (and  become)  after  a  transitory  bilin- 
gualism,  Greeks,  Albanians,  Servians,  Bulgarians,  Ruthenians, 
Poles,  Slovaks,  Chekhs,  Slovenes,  Croatians...a  mobile  nomad 
stratum  among  a  strange-tongued  and  more  numerous  peasant 
element,  and  not  till  later  did  they  gradually  take  to  agriculture 
and  themselves  become  settled." 

The  Pelasgians  and  Minoancivilisation  have  been  brieflydis- 

cussed above  (Ch.  XIII.).  Later  problems  in  Greek  ethnology 

Ethnic  Re-     are  Still  under  dispute.  Sergi,  who  regards  the  proto- 

lations  in       Aryans    as    round-headed   barbarians   of   Celtic, 

Greece.  Slav,  and  Teutonic  speech,  makes  no  exception  in 

favour  of  the  Hellenes.  These  also  enter  Greece  not  as  civilisers, 

but  rather  as  destroyers  of  the  flourishing  Mykenaean  culture 

developed  here,  as  in  Italy,  by  the  Mediterranean  aborigines. 

But  in  course  of  time  the  intruders  become  absorbed  in  the 

Pelasgic  or  eastern  branch  of  the  Mediterraneans,  and  what 

we  call  Hellenism  is  really  Pelasgianism  revived,  and  to  some 

extent  modified  by  the  Aryan  (Hellenic)  element. 

If  it  may  be  allowed  that  at  their  advent  the  Hellenes  were 
less  civilised  than  the  native  Aegeans  on  whom  they  imposed 
their  Aryan  speech,  whence  and  when  came  they  ? 
e  enes.  g^  Penka\  for  whom  the  Baltic  lands  would  be 
the  original  home  not  merely  of  the  Germanic  branch  but  of 
all  the  Aryans,  the  Hellenic  cradle  is  located  in  the  Oder  basin 
between  the  Elbe  and  the  Vistula.  As  the  Doric,  doubtless 
the  last  Greek  irruption  into  Hellas,  is  chronologically  fixed 
at  1 149  B.C.,  the  beginning  of  the  Hellenic  migrations  may  be 
dated  back  to  the  13th  century.  When  the  Hellenes  migrated 
from  Central  Europe  to  Greece,  the  period  of  the  general 
ethnic  dispersion  was  already  closed,  and  the  migratory  period 
which  next  followed  began  with  the  Hellenes,  and  was  con- 
tinued by  the   I  tali,   Gauls,   Germans,  etc.     The  difficulties 

'  Mitt.  Wiener  Anthrop.  Ges.  1897,  p.  18. 


xv]  The  Caucasic  Peoples  533 

created  by  this  view  are  insurmountable.  Thus  we  should 
have  to  suppose  that  from  this  relatively  contracted  Aryan 
cradle  countless  tribes  swarmed  over  Europe  since  the  13th 
century  B.C.,  speaking  profoundly  different  languages  (Greek, 
Celtic,  Latin,  etc.),  all  differentiated  since  that  time  on  the 
shores  of  the  Baltic.  The  proto-Aryans  with  their  already 
specialised  tongues  had  reached  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean 
long  before  that  time  and,  according  to  MasperoS  were  known 
to  the  Egyptians  of  the  5th  dynasty  (3990-3804  B.C.)  if  not 
earlier.  Allowing  that  these  may  have  rather  been  pre- 
Hellenes  (Pelasgians),  we  still  know  that  the  Achaeans  had 
traditionally  arrived  about  1250  B.C.  and  they  were  already 
speaking  the  language  of  Homer. 

"  The  indications  of  archaeology  and  of  legend  agree 
marvellously  well  with  those  of  the  Egyptian  records,"  says 
H.  R.   HalP,  "  in  making  the  Third  Late  Minoan  period  one 

of  incessant  disturbance The  whole  basin  of  the  Eastern 

Mediterranean  seems  to  have  been  a  seething  turmoil  of 
migrations,  expulsions,  wars  and  piracies,  started  first  by  the 
Mycenaean  (Achaian)  conquest  of  Crete,  and  then  intensified 
by  the'  constant  impulse  of  the  Northern  iron-users  into 
Greece."  Herodotus  speaks  of  the  great  invasion  of  the 
Thesprotian  tribes  from  beyond  Pindus,  which  took  place 
probably  in  the  13th  century  B.C.'  As  a  result  "an  over- 
whelming Aryan  and  iron-using  population  was  first  brought 
into  Greece.  The  earlier  Achaian  (.■*)  tribes  of  Aryans  in 
Thessaly,  who  had  perhaps  lived  there  from  time  immemorial, 
and  had  probably  already  infiltrated  southwards  to  form  the 
mixed  Ionian  population  about  the  Isthmus,  were  scattered,  only 
a  small  portion  of  the  nation  remaining  in  its  original  home, 
while  of  the  rest  part  conquered  the  South  and  another  part 
emigrated  across  the  sea  to  the   Phrygian   coast.     Of  this 

1  Dawn  of  Civilization,  p.  391. 

^  The  Ancient  History  of  the  Near  East,  191 3,  p.  69. 

'  Hall  notes  (p.  73)  that  "  it  is  to  the  Thesprotian  invasion,  which  displaced  the 
Achaians,  that,  in  all  probability,  the  general  introduction  of  iron  into  Greece  is  to 
be  assigned.  The  invaders  came  ultimately  from  the  Danube  region,  where  iron 
was  probably  first  used  in  Europe,  whereas  their  kindred,  the  Achaians,  had  possibly 
already  lived  in  Thessaly  in  the  Stone  Age,  and  derived  the  knpwledge  of  metal 
from  the  Aegeans.  The  speedy  victory  of  the  new-comers  over  the  older  Aryan 
inhabitants  of  Northern  Greece  may  be  ascribed  to  their  possession  of  iron  weapons." 
Ridgeway,  however,  has  little  difficulty  in  proving  that  the  Achaeans  themselves  were 
tall  fair  Celts  from  Central  Europe.  The  Early  Age  of  Greece,  1901,  especially  chap. 
IV.,  "Whence  came  the  Acheans?"  The  question  is  dealt  with  from  a  different 
point  of  view  by  J.  L.  Myres,  in  The  Da'wn  of  History,  191 1,  chap,  ix.,  "The  Coming 
of  the  North,"  tracing  the  invasion  from  the  Eurasian  steppes. 


534  Man :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

emigration  to  Asia  the  first  event  must  have  been  the  war  of 
Troy..,. The  Boeotian  and  Achaian  invasion  of  the  South 
scattered  the  Minyae,  Pelasgians,  and  lonians.  The  remnant 
of  the  Minyae  emigrated  to  Lemnos,  the  Pelasgi  and  lonians 
were  concentrated  in  Attica  and  another  body  of  lonians  in 
the  later  Achaia,  while  the  Southern  Achaeans  pressed  forward 
into  the  Peloponnese'." 

It  is  evident  from  the  national  traditions  that  the  proto- 
Greeks  did  not  arrive  en  bloc,  but  rather  at  intervals  in  separate 
and  often  hostile  bands  bearing  different  names.  But  all  these 
groups — Achaeans,  Danai,  Argians,  Dolopes,  Myrmidons, 
Leleges  and  many  others,  some  of  which  were  also  found  in 
Asia  Minor — retained  a  strong  sense  of  their  common  origin. 
The  sentiment,  which  may  be  called  racial  rather  than  national, 
received  ultimate  expression  when  to  all  of  them  was  extended 
the  collective  name  of  Hellenes  (Sellenes  originally),  that  is, 
descendants  of  Deucalion's  son  Hellen,  whose  two  sons  Aeolus 
and  Dorus,  and  grandson  Ion,  were  supposed  to  be  the  pro- 
genitors of  the  Aeolians,  Dorians,  and  lonians.  But  such 
traditions  are  merely  reminiscences  of  times  when  the  tribal 
groupings  still  prevailed,  and  it  may  be  taken  for  granted  that 
the  three  main  branches  of  the  Hellenic  stock  did  not  spring 
from  a  particular  family  that  rose  to  power  in  comparatively 
recent  times  in  the  Thessalian  district  of  Phthiotis.  Whatever 
truth  may  lie  behind  the  Hellenic  legend,  it  is  highly  probable 
that,  at  the  time  when  Hellen  is  said  to  have  flourished  (about 
1500  B.C.),  the  Aeolic-speaking  communities  of  Thessaly, 
Arcadia,  Boeotia,  the  closely-allied  Dorians'' of  Phocaea,  Argos, 
and  Laconia,  and  the  lonians  of  Attica,  had  already  been 
clearly  specialised,  had  in  fact  formed  special 
Lsmeuaee  groups  before  entering  Greece.  Later  their  dia- 
lects, after  acquiring  a  certain  polish  and  leaving 
some  imperishable  records  of  the  many-sided  Greek  genius, 
were  gradually  merged  in  the  literary  Neo- Ionic  or  Attic, 
which  thus  became  the  Koivr\  SiaXeKTos,  or  current  speech  of 
the  Greek  world. 

Admirable  alike  for  its  manifold  aptitudes  and  surprising 
vitality,  the  language  of  Aeschylus,  Thucydides,  and  the 
other   great  Athenians    outlived  all   the  vicissitudes  of  the 

'  H.  R.  Hall,  loc.  cit.  p.  68;  cf.  H.  Vcakt,  Journ.  Roy.  Anth.  Inst.  1916,  p.  154. 

^  C.  H.  Hawes,  "Some  Dorian  Descendants,"  Ann.  Brit.  School  Ath.  No.  xvi. 
igcjg-io,  proves  that  the  Dorian  or  lUyrian  (Alpine)  type  still  persists  in  South  Greece 
and  Crete. 


xv]  The  Caucasic  Peoples  535 

Byzantine  empire,  during  which  it  was  for  a  time  banished 
from  Southern  Greece,  and  even  still  survives,  although  in  a 
somewhat  degraded  form,  in  the  Romaic  or  Neo- Hellenic 
tongue  of  modern  Hellas.  Romaic,  a  name  which  recalls  a 
time  when  the  Byzantines  were  known  as  "Romans"  through- 
out the  East,  differs  far  less  from  the  classical  standard  than 
do  any  of  the  Romance  tongues  from  Latin.  Since  the  re- 
storation of  Greek  independence  great  efforts  have  been  made 
to  revive  the  old  language  in  all  its  purity,  and  some  modern 
writers  now  compose  in  a  style  differing  little  from  that  of  the 
classic  period. 

Yet  the  Hellenic  race  itself  has  almost  perished  on  the 
mainland.  Traces  of  the  old  Greek  type  have  been  detected 
by  Lenormant  and  others,  especially  amongst  the  women  of 
Patras  and  Missolonghi.  But  within  living  memory  Attica 
was  still  an  Albanian  land,  and  Fallmerayer  has  conclusively 
shown  that  the  Peloponnesus  and  adjacent  districts  had  become 
thoroughly  Slavonised  during  the  6th  and  7th  centuries\ 
"  For  many  centuries,"  writes  the  careful  Roesler,  "  the  Greek 
peninsula  served  as  a  colonial  domain  for  the  Slavs,  receiving 
the  overflow  of  their  population  from  the  Sarmatian  lowlands^" 
Their  presence  is  betrayed  in  numerous  geographical  terms, 
such  as  Varsova  in  Arcadia,  Glogova,  Tsilikhova,  etc.  Never- 
theless, since  the  revival  of  the  Hellenic  sentiment  there  has 
been  a  steady  flow  of  Greek  immigration  from  the  Archipelago 
and  Anatolia ;  and  the  Albanian,  Slav,  Italian,  Turkish, 
Rumanian,  and  Norman  elements  have  in  modern  Greece 
already  become  almost  completely  Hellenised,  at  least  in  speech. 
Of  the  old  dialects  Doric  alone  appears  to  have  survived  in  the 
Tsaconic  of  the  Laconian  hills.  The  Greek  language  has, 
however,  disappeared  from  Southern  Italy,  Sicily,  Syria,  and 
the  greater  part  of  Egypt  and  Asia  Minor,  where  it  was  long 
dominant. 

To  understand  the  appearance  of  Slavs  in  the  Peloponnesus 
we  must  go  back  to  the  Eurasian  steppe,  the  probable  cradle  of 
these  multitudinous  populations.    Here  they  have      ,^^  ^^^^ 
often  been  confused  with  the  ancient  Sarmatae, 
who  already  before  the  dawn  of  history  were  in  possession  of 
the  South  Russian  plains  between  the  Scythians  towards  the 

1  Geschichte  der  Halbinsel  Morea,   Stuttgart,    1830.      See  also  G.   Finlay's 
Mediaeval  Greece^  and  the  Anthrop.  Rev.  1868,  vi.  p.  154. 

2  Romdnische  Studien,  1871. 


53^  Man :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

east  and  the  proto-Germanic  tribes  before  their  migration  to 
the  Baltic  lands.  But  even  at  that  time,  before  the  close  of  the 
Neolithic  Age,  there  must  have  been  interminglings,  if  not  with 
the  western  Teutons,  almost  certainly  with  the  eastern  Scythians, 
which  helps  to  explain  the  generally  vague  characteroftherefer- 
ences  made  by  classical  writers  both  to  the  Sarmatians  and  the 
Scythians,  who  sometimes  seem  to  be  indistinguishable  from 
savage  Mongol  hordes,  and  at  others  are  represented  as  semi- 
cultured  peoples,  such  as  the  Aryans  of  the  Bronze  period  might 
have  been  round  about  the  district  of  Olbia  and  the  other  early 
Miletian  settlements  on  the  northern  shores  of  the  Euxine. 
Owing  to  these  early  crossings  Andre  Lefevre  goes  so  far 
as  to  say  that  "there  is  no  Slav  race',"  but  only  nations  of 
divers  more  or  less  pure  types,  more  or  less  crossed,  speaking 
dialects  of  the  same  language,  who  later  received  the  name  of 
Slavs,  borne  by  a  prehistoric  tribe  of  Sarmatians,  and  meaning 
"renowned,"  "  illustrious  I"  Both  their  language  and  mytho- 
logies, continues  Lefevre,  point  to  the  vast  region  near  Irania 
as  the  primeval  home  of  the  Slav,  as  of  the  Celtic  and  Germanic 
populations.  The  Sauromatae  or  Sarmatae  of  Herodotus^  who 
had  given  their  name  to  the  mass  of  Slav  or  Slavonised  peoples, 
still  dwelt  north  of  the  Caucasus  and  south  of  the  Budini 
between  the   Caspian,   the  Don  and   Sea  of  Azov  ;    "  after 

crossing  the  Tanais  (Don)  we  are  no  longer  in 
matiM^"         Scythia ;    we  begin  to  enter  the  lands  of  the 

Sauromatae,  who,  starting  from  the  angle  of  the 
Palus  Moeotis  (Sea  of  Azov),  occupy  a  space  of  1 5  days' march, 
where  are  neither  trees,  fruit-trees,  nor  savages.  Above  the 
tract  fallen  to  them  the  Budini  occupy  another  district,  which 
is  overgrown  with  all  kinds  of  trees^"  Then  Herodotus 
seems  to  identify  these  Sarmatians  with  the  Scythians, 
whence  all  the  subsequent  doubts  and  confusion.  Both  spoke 
the  same  language,  of  which  seven  distinct  dialects  are  men- 

'  Bui.  Soc.  d'Anthrop.  1896,  p.  351  sq. 
■  2  By  a  sort  of  grim  irony  the  word  has  come  to  mean  "slave"  in  the  West, 
.  owing  to  the  multitudes  of  Slavs  captured  and  enslaved  during  the  medieval  border 
warfare.  But  the  term  is  by  many  referred  to  the  root  slovo,  word,  speech,  im- 
plying a  people  of  intelligible  utterance,  and  this  is  supported  by  the  form  Slovene 
occurring  investor  and  still  borne  by  a  southern  Slav  group.  Se§  T.  Peisker,  "The 
Expansion  of  the  Slavs,"  Cami.  Med.  Hist.  Vol.  ll.  1913,  p.  421  n.  2. 

3  IV.  21. 

*  These  Budini  are  described  as  a  large  nation  with  "  remarkably  blue  eyes  and 
red  hair,"  on  which  account  Zaborowski  thinks  they  may  have  been  ancestors  of  the 
present  Finns.  But  they  may  also  vei-y  well  have  been  belated  proto-Germani  left 
behind  by  the  body  of  the  nation  en  route  for  their  new  Baltic  homes. 


xv]  The  Caucasic  Peoples  537 

tioned,  yet  a  number  of  personal  names  preserved  by  the 
Greeks  have  a  certain  Iranic  look,  so  that  these  Scythian 
tongues  seem  to  have  been  really  Aryan,  forming  a  transition 
between  the  Asiatic  and  the  European  branches  of  the  family. 

The  probable  explanation  is  that  the  Scythians'  were  a 
horde  which  came  down  from  Upper  Asia,  conquered  an 
Iranian -speaking  people,  and  in  time  adopted  the  speech  of  its 
subjects.  E.  H.  Minns'  suggests  that  the  settled  Scythians 
represent  the  remains  of  the  Iranian  population,  and  the  nomads 
the  conquering  peoples.  These  were  displaced  later  by  the 
Sarmatians,  and  Scythia  becomes  merely  a  geographical  term. 
Skulls  dug  up  in  Scythic  graves  throw  no  light  on  racial 
affinities,  some  being  long,  and  some  short,  but  in  customs 
there  is  a  close  analogy  with  the  Mongols,  though,  as  Minns 
points  out,  "  the  natural  conditions  of  steppe-ranging  dictated 
the  greater  part  of  them." 

Both  Slav  and  Germanic  tribes  had  probably  in  remote 
times  penetrated  up  the  Danube  and  the  Volga,  while  some 
of  the  former  under  the  name  of  Wends  (Venedi^),  appear  to 
have  reached  the  Carpathians  and  the  Baltic  shores  down  the 
Vistula.  The  movement  was  continued  far  into  medieval 
times,  when  great  overlappings  took  place,  and  when  numerous 
Slav  tribes,  some  still  known  as  Wends,  others  as  Sorbs,  Croats, 
or  Ckekks,  ranged  over  Central  Europe  to  Pomerania  and  beyond 
the  Upper  Elbe  to  Suabia.  Most  of  these  have  long  been  Teu- 
tonised,  but  a  few  of  the  Polabs*'  survive  as  Wends  in  Prussian 
and  Saxon  Lausatz,  while  the  Chekhs  and  Slovaks  still  hold 
their  ground  in  Bohemia  and  Moravia,  as  the  Poles  do  in 
Posen  and  the  Vistula  valley,  and  the  Rusniaks  or  Ruthenes 
with  the  closely  allied  "  Little  Russians,"  in  the  Carpathians, 
Galicia,  and  Ukrania. 

It  was  from  the  Carpathian^  lands  that  came  those  Yugo- 
slavs ("Southern  Slavs")  who,  under  the  collective  name  of 

1  Cf.  p.  304.  ^.  Scythians  and  Greeks,  1909. 

3  The  meaning  of  Wend  is  uncertain.  It  has  led  to  confusion  with  the  Armorican 
Veneti',  the  Paphlagonian  Enetae,  and  the  Adriatic  Enetae-  Venetae,  all  non-Slav 
peoples.  Shakhmatov  regards  it  as  a  name  inherited  by  Slavs  from  their  conq^uerors, 
the  Celtic  Venedi,  who  occupied  the  Vistula  region  in  the  3rd  or  2nd  centuries  B.C. 
See  T.  Peisker,  "The  Expansion  of  the  Slavs,"  Camb.  Med.  Hist.  Vol.  11.  1913, 
p.  421  «.  2. 

*  That  is,  the  Elbe  Slaves,  from  po=hy,  near,  and  Labe=^Voe.;  cf.  Pomor 
(Pomeranians),  "  by  the  Sea " ;  Borussia,  Porussia,  Prussia,  originally  peopled  by 
the  Pruczi,  a  branch  of  the  Lithuanians  Germanised  in  the  17th  century. 

*  Carpath,  Khrobat,  Khorvat  are  all  the  same  word,  meaning  highlands, 
mountains,  hence  not  strictly  an  ethnic  term,  although  at  present  so  used  by  the 
Crovats  or  Croatians,  a  considerable  section  of  the  Yugo-Slavs  south  of  the  Danube. 


53^  Man :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

Sorbs  (Serbs,  Servians),  moved  southwards  beyond  the 
Danube,  and  overran  a  great  part  of  the  Balkan 
Slavs  °"  ^"^  peninsula  and  nearly  the  whole  of  Greece  in  the 
6th'  and  7th  centuries.  They  were  the  Khorvats' 
or  Khrobats'  from  the  upland  valleys  of  the  Oder  and  Vistula, 
whom,  after  his  Persian  wars,  Heraclius  invited  to  settle  in 
the  wasted  provinces  south  of  the  Danube,  hoping,  as  Nadir 
Shah  did  later  with  the  Kurds  in  Khorasan,  to  make  them  a 
northern  bulwark  of  the  empire  against  the  incursions  of  the 
Avars  and  other  Mongolo-Turki  hordes.  Thus  was  formed 
the  first  permanent  settlement  of  the  Yugo-Slavs  in  Croatia, 
Istria,  Dalmatia,  Bosnia,  and  the  Nerenta  valley  in  680,  under 
the  five  brothers  Klukas,  Lobol,  Kosentses,  Miikl,and  Khrobat, 
with  their  sisters  Tuga  and  Buga.  These  were  followed  by 
the  kindred  Srp  (Sorb)  tribes  from  the  Elbe,  who  left  their 
homes  in  Misnia  and  Lusatia,  and  received  as  their  patrimony 
the  whole  region  between  Macedonia  and  Epirus,  Dardania, 
Upper  Moesia,  the  Dacia  of  Aurelian,  and  Illyria,  i.e.  Bosnia 
and  Servia.  The  lower  Danube  was  at  the  same  time  occupied 
by  the  Severenses,  "  Seven  Nations,"  also  Slavs,  who  reached 
to  the  foot  of  the  Hemus  beyond  the  present  Varna.  Nothing 
could  stem  this  great  Slav  inundation,  which  soon  overflowed 
into  Macedonia  (Rumelia),  Thessaly,  and  Peloponnesus,  so 
that  for  a  time  nearly  the  whole  of  the  Balkan  lands,  from  the 
Danube  to  the  Mediterranean,  became  a  Slav  domain — parts 
of  Illyria  and  Epirus  (Albania)  with  the  Greek  districts  about 
Constantinople  alone  excepted. 

Hellas,  as  above  seen,  has  recovered  itself,  and  the 
Albanians'^,  direct  descendants  of  the  ancient  Illyrians,  still 
The  Albanians  ^^'^  their  ground  arid  keep  alive  the  last  echoes 
of  the  old  Illyrian  language,  which  was  almost 
certainly  a  proto-Aryan  form  of  speech  probably  intermediate, 
as  above-mentioned,  between  the  Italic  and  Hellenic  branches. 
They  even  retain  the  old  tribal  system,  so  that  there  are  not 
only  two  main  sections,  the  northern  Ghegs  and  the  southern 
Toshks,  but  each  section  is  divided  into  a  number  of  minor 
groups',  such  as  the  Malliesors  (Klementi,  Pulati,  Hoti,  etc.) 

^  See  note  5,  p.  537. 

^  That  is,  "  Highlanders"  (root  alb,  alp,  height,  hill).  From  Albanites  through  the 
Byzantine  Arvanites  comes  the  Turkish  Arnaut,  while  the  national  name  Skipetar 
has  precisely  the  same  meaning  (root  skip,  scop,  as  in  a-KoireXos,  scopulus,  cliff,  crag). 

^  There  are  about  twenty  of  these  p)its  or  p^ar  (phratries)  amongst  the  Ghegs, 
and  the  practice  of  exogamous  marriage  still  survives  amongst  the  Mirdites  south 
of  the  Drin,  who,  although  Catholics,  seek  their  wives  amongst  the  surrounding 
hostile  Turkish  and  Muhammadan  Gheg  populations. 


■^^J  The  Caucasic  Peoples  539 

and  Mirdites  (Dibri,  Fandi,  Matia,  etc.)  in  the  north,  and  the 
1  oxides  (whence  Toshk)  and  the  Yapides  (Lapides)  in  the 
south.  The  southerners  are  mainly  Orthodox  Greeks,  and  in 
other  respects  half-Hellenised  Epirotes,  the  northerners  partly 
Moslem  and  partly  Roman  Catholics  of  the  Latin  rite.  From 
this  section  came  chiefly  those  Albanians  who,  after  the  death 
(1467)  of  their  valiant  champion,  George  Castriota  {Scanderbeg, 
''  Alexander  the  Great "),  fled  from  Turkish  oppression  and 
formed  numerous  settlements,  especially  in  Calabria  and  Sicily, 
and  still  retain  their  national  traditions. 

In  their  original  homes,  located  by  some  between  the  Bug 
and  the  Dnieper,  the  Slavs  have  not  only  recovered  from  the 
fierce  Mongolo-Turki  and  Finn  tornadoes,  by  ^^^  ^^^  .^ 
which  the  eastern  steppes  .were  repeatedly  swept 
for  over  1500  years  after  the  building  of  the  Great  Wall,  but 
have  in  recent  historic  times  displayed  a  prodigious  power  of 
expansion  second  only  to  that  of  the  British  peoples.  The 
Russians  (Great,  Little,  and  White  Russians),  whose  political 
empire  now  stretches  continuously  from  the  Baltic  to  the 
Pacific,  have  already  absorbed  nearly  all  the  Mongol  elements 
in  East  Europe,  have  founded  compact  settlements  in  Caucasia 
and  West  Siberia,  and  have  thrown  off"  numerous  pioneer 
groups  of  colonists  along  all  the  highways  of  trade  and 
migration,  and  down  the  great  fluvial  arteries  between  the 
Ob  and  the  Amur  estuary.  They  number  collectively  over 
100  millions,  with  a  domain  of  some  nine  million  square  miles. 
The  majority  belong  to  Deniker's  Eastern  race*  (a  variety  of 
the  Alpine  type),  being  blond,  sub-brachycephalic  and  short, 
I '64  m.  (5  ft.  Af\  ins.).  The  Little  Russians  in  the  South  on  the 
Black  Mould  belt  are  more  brachycephalic  and  have  darker 
colouring  and  taller  stature.  The  White  Russians  in  the  West 
between  Poland  and  Lithuania  are  the  fairest  of  all. 

We  need  not  be  detained  .by  the  controversy  carried  on 
between  Sergi  and  Zaborowski  regarding  a  prehistoric  spread 
of  the  Mediterranean  race  to  Russial    The  skulls 
from  several  of  the  old  Kurgans,  identified  by      orig^° 
Sergi  with  his  Mediterranean  type,  have  not  been 
sufficiently  determined  as  to  date  or  cultural  periods  to  decide 
the  question,  while  their  dolicho  shape  is  common  both  to  the 

'  J.  Deniker,  "Les  Six  Races  composant  la  Population  actuelle  de  I'Europe," 
Journ.  Anthr.  Inst,  xxxiv.  1904,  pp.  182,  202. 
2  Bui.  Soc.  d'Anthrop.  vii.  1896. 


540  Man  :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

Mediterraneans  and  to  the  proto-Aryans  of  the  North  Euro- 
pean type'.  To  this  stock  the  proto-Slavs  are  affiliated  by 
Zaborowski  and  many  others",  although  the  present  Slavs  are 
air  distinctly  round-headed.  Ripley  asks,  almost  in  despair, 
what  is  to  be  done  with  the  present  Slav  element,  and  decides 
to  apply  "  the  term  Homo  Alpinus  to  this  broad-headed  group 
wherever  it  occurs,  whether  on  mountains  or  plains,  in  the 
west  or  in  the  east'." 

We  are  beset  by  the  same  difficulties  as  we  pass  with  the 
Ossets  of  the  Caucasus  into  the  Iranian  and  Indian  domains  of 

the  proto-Aryan  peoples.    These  Ossets,  who  are 

the  only  aborigines  of  Aryan  speech  in  Caucasia, 
are  by  Zaborowski"  identified  with  the  Alans,  who  are  already 
mentioned  in  the  ist  century  a.d.  and  were  Scythiaris  of 
Iranian  speech,  blonds,  mixed  with  Medes,  and  perhaps 
descendants  of  the  Massagetae.  We  know  from  history  that 
the  Goths  and  Alans  became  closely  united,  and  it  may  be 
from  the  Goths  that  the  Osset  descendants  of  the  Alans 
(some  still  call  themselves  Alans)  learned  to  brew  beer.  Else- 
where^ Zaborowski  represents  the  Ossets  as  of  European 
origin,  till  lately  for  the  most  part  blonds,  though  now  showing 
many  Scythian  traits.  But  they  are  not  physically  Iranians 
"  despite  the  Iranian  and  Asiatic  origin  of  their  language,"  as 
shown  by  Max  Kowalewsky".  On  t,he  whole,  therefor-e,  the 
Ossets  "may  be  taken  as  originally  blond  Europeans,  closely 
blended  with  Scythians,  and  later  with  the  other  modern 
Caucasus  peoples,  who  are  mostly  brown  brachys.  But  Ernest 
Chantre'  allies  these  groups  to  their  brown  and  brachy  Tatar 
neighbours,  and  denies  that  the  Ossets  are  the  last  remnants 
of  Germanic  immigrants  into  Caucasia. 

We  have  therefore  in  the  Caucasus  a  very  curious  and 

puzzling  phenomenon — several  somewhat  dis- 
Aborigfne^"^      ''"'^^  groups  of  aborigines,  mainly  of  de  Lapouge's 

Alpine  type,  but  all  except  the  Ossets  speaking 

'  Hence  Virchow  (Meeting  Ger.  Anthrop.  Soc.  1897)  declared  that  the  extent 
and  duration  of  the  Slav  encroachments  in  German  territory  could  not  be  determined 
by  the  old  skulls,  because  it  is  impossible  to  say  whether  a  given  skull  is  Slav  or  not. 

'^  Especially  Lubor  Niederle,  for  whom  the  proto-Slavs  are  unquestionably  long- 
headed blonds  like  the  Teutons,  although  he  admits  that  round  skulls  occur  even 
of  old  date,  and  practically  gives  up  the  attempt  to  account  for  the  transition  to  the 
modern  Slav. 

'  "  The  Racial  Geography  of  Europe,"  in  Popular  Science  Monthly,  June,  1897. 

*  Bui.  Soc.  d' Anthrop.  1896,  p.  81  sq.  ^  q^i  5^^,  d' Anthrop.  1894,  p.  36. 

*  Droit  Coutumier  OssMien,  1893. 

'  Quoted  by  Ujfalvy,  L.es  Aryens  etc.  p.  11. 


i     I 


xv]  The  Caucasic  Peoples  541 

an  amazing  number  of  non-Aryan  stock  languages.  Philo- 
logists have  been  for  some  time  hard  at  work  in  this  linguistic 
wilderness,  the  "  Mountain  of  Languages  "  of  the  early  Arabo- 
Persian  writers,  without  greatly  reducing  the  number  of 
independent  groups,  while  many  idioms  traceable  to  a  single 
stem  still  differ  so  profoundly  from  each  other  that  they  are 
practically  so  many  stocks.  Of  the  really  distinct  families  the 
more  important  are : — the  Kartweli  of  the  southern  slopes, 
comprising  the  historical  Georgian,  cultivated  since  the 
5th  century,  the  Mingrelian,  Imeritian,  Laz  of  Lazistan,  and 
many  others ;  the  Ckerkess  (Circassian),  the  Abkhasian  and 
Kabard  of  the  Western  and  Central  Caucasus  ;  the  Chechenz 
and  Lesghian,  the  Andi,  the  Ude,  the  Kubachi  and  Duodez  of 
Daghestan,  i.e.  the  Eastern  Caucasus.  Where  did  this  babel 
of  tongues  come  from  ?  We  know  that  2500  years  ago  the 
relations  were  much  the  same  as  at  present,  because  the  Greeks 
speak  of  scores  of  languages  current  in  the  port  of  Dioscurias 
in  their  time.  If  therefore  the  aborigines  are  the  "  sweepings 
of  the  plains,"  they  must  have  been  swept  up  long  before  the 
historic  period.  Did  they  bring  their  differeiit  languages  with 
them,  or  were  these  specialised  in  their  new  upland  homes  ? 
The  consideration  that  an  open  environment  makes  for  uni- 
formity, secluded  upland  valleys  for  diversity,  seems  greatly  to 
favour  the  latter  assumption,  which  is  further  strengthened  by 
the  now  established  fact  that,  although  there  are  few  traces  of 
the  Palaeolithic  epoch,  the  Caucasus  was  somewhat  thickly 
inhabited  in  the  New  Stone  Age. 

Crossing  into  Irania  we  are  at  once  confronted  with  totally 
different  conditions.  For  the  ethnologist  this  region  comprises, 
besides  the  tableland  between  the  Tigris  and 
Indus,  both  slopes  of  the  Hindu- Kush,  and  the 
Paniir,  with  the  uplands  bounded  south  and  north  by  the  upper 
courses  of  the  Oxus  and  the  Sir-darya.  Overlooking  later 
Mongolo-Turki  encroachments,  a  general  survey  will,  I  think, 
show  that  from  the  earliest  times  the  whole  of  this  region  has 
formed  part  of  the  Caucasic  domain  ;  that  the  bulk  of  the 
indigenous  populations  must  have  belonged  to  the  dark,  round- 
headed  Alpine  type ;  that  these,  still  found  in  compact  masses 
in  many  places,  were  apparently  conquered,  but  certainly 
Aryanised  in  speech,  in  very  remote  prehistoric  times  by  long- 
headed blond  Aryans  of  the  Iranic  and  Galchic  branches, 
who  arrived  in  large  numbers  from  the  contiguous  Eurasian 


542  Man :  Past  and  Present  [cH. 

steppe,  mingled  generally  with  the  brachy  aborigines,  but  also 
kept  aloof  in  several  districts,  where  they  still  survive  with 
more  or  less  modified  proto-Aryan  features.  Thus  we  are  at 
once  struck  by  the  remarkable  fact  that  absolute  uniformity  of 
speech,  always  apart  from  late  Mongol  intrusions,  has  prevailed 
during  the  historic  period  throughout  Irania,  which  has  been 
in  this  respect  as  completely  Aryanised  as  Europe  itself;  and 
further,  that  all  current  Aryan  tongues,  with  perhaps  one  trifling 
exception^  are  members  either  of  .the  Iranic  or  the  Galchic 
branch  of  the  family.  Both  Iranic  and  Galchic  are  thus  rather 
linguistic  than  ethnic  terms,  and  so  true  is  this  that  a  philo- 
logist always  knows  what  is  meant  by  an  Iranic  language, 
while  the  anthropologist  is  unable  to  define  or  form  any  clear 
conception  of  an  Iranian,  who  may  be  either  of  long-headed 
Nordic  or  round-headed  Alpine  typie.  Here  confusion  may  be 
avoided  by  reserving  the  historic  name  of  Persian''  for  the 
former,  and  comprising  all  the  Alpines  under  the  also  time- 
honoured  though  less  known  name  of  Tajiks. 

Khanikoff  has   shown    that  these    Tajiks    constitute  the 
primitive  element  in  ancient  Iran.     To  the  true  Persians  of 
..  the  west,  as  well  as  to  the  kindred  Afghans  in 

*■'  ■  the  east,  both  of  dolicho  type,  the  term  is  rarely 
applied.  But  almost  everywhere  the  sedentary  and  agri- 
cultural aborigines  are  called  Tajiks,  and  are  spoken  of  as 
Parsivdn,  that  is,  Parsizabdn^,  "  of  Persian  speech,"  or  else 
Dihkdn^,  that  is,  ''  Peasants,"  all  being  mainly  husbandmen' 
"  of  Persian  race  and  tongue*."  They  form  endless  tribal,  or 
at  least  social,  groups,  who  keep  somewhat  aloof  from  their 
proto-Aryan  conquejrors,  so  that,  in  the  east  especially,  the 

'  The  Yagnobi  of  the  river  of  hke  name,  an  affluent  of  the  Zerafshan ;  yet  even 
this  shows  lexical  affinities  with  Iranic,  while  its  structure  seems  to  connect  it  with 
Leitner's  Kajuna  and  Biddulph's  Burish,  a  non-Aryan  tongue  current  in  Ghilghif, 
Yasin,  Hunza  and  Nagar,  whose  inhabitants  are  regarded  by  Biddulph  as  descen- 
dants of  the  Yu^-chi.  The  Yagnobi  themselves,  however,  are  distinctly  Alpines, 
somewhat  short,  very  hirsute  and  brown,  with  broad  face,  large  head,  and  a  Savoyard 
expression.  They  have  the  curious  custom  of  never  cutting  but  always  breaking 
their  bread,  the  use  of  the  knife  being  sure  to  raise  the  price  of  flour. 

2  F.  V.  Luschan  points  out  that  very  little  is  known  of  the  anthropology  of  Persia. 
"  In  a  land  inhabited  by  about  ten  millions  not  more  than  twenty  or  thirty  men  have 
been  regularly  measured  and  not  one  skull  has  been  studied."  The  old  type  preserved 
in  the  Parsi  is  short-headed  and  dark.  "The  Early  Inhabitants  of  Western  Asia," 
Journ.  Roy.  Anthr.  Inst.  XLI.  191 1,  p.  233. 

2  Dih,  deh,  village.     Zabdn,  tongue,  language. 

*  H.  Walter,  From  Indus  to  Tigris,  p.  16.  Of  course  this  traveller  refers  only 
to  the  Tajiks  of  the  plateau  (Persia,  Afghanistan).  Of  the  Galchic  Tajiks  he  knew 
nothing ;  nor  indeed  is  the  distinction  even  yet  quite  understood  by  European 
ethnologists. 


xv]  The  Cauc^sic  Peoples  543 

ethnic  fusion  is  far  from  complete,  the  various  sections  of  the 
community  being  still  rather  juxtaposed  than  fused  in  a  single 
nationality.  When  to  these  primeval  differences  is  added  the 
tribal  system  still  surviving  in  full  vigour  amongst 
the  intruding  Afghans  themselves,  we  see  how  ^  *°*" 
impossible  it  is  yet  to  speak  of  an  Afghan  nation,  but  only  of 
heterogeneous  masses  loosely  held  together  by  the  paramount 
tribe — at  present  the  Durani  of  Kabul. 

The  Tajiks  are  first  mentioned  by  Herodotus,  whose 
Dadikes^  are  identified  by  Hammer  and  Khanikoff  with  them^ 
They  are  now  commonly  divided  into  Lowland,  and  Highland 
or  Hill  Tajiks,  of  whom  the  former  were  always  ParsivAn, 
whereas  the  Hill  Tajiks  did  not  originally  speak  Persian  at 
all,  but,  as  many  still  do,  an  independent  sister  language  called 
Galchic,  current  in  the  Pamir,  Zerafshan  and  Sir-darya  uplands, 
and  holding  a  somewhat  intermediate  position  between  the 
Iranic  and  Indie  branches. 

This  term  Galcha,  although  new  to  science,  has  long  been 
applied  to  the  Aryans  of  the  Pamir  Vallfeys,  being  identified 
with  the  Calcienses  popult  of  the  lay  Jesuit  ^j^^  caicha 
Benedict  Goez,  who  crossed  the  Pamir  in  1603, 
and  describes  them  as  "of  light  hair  and  beard  like  the 
Belgians."  Meyendorff  also  calls  those  of  Zerafshan  "  Eastern 
Persians,  Galchi,  Galchas."  The  word  has  been  explained  to 
mean  "the  hungry  raven  who  has  withdrawn  to  the  moun- 
tains," probably  in  reference  to  those  Lowland  Tajiks  who 
took  refuge  in  the  uplands,  from  the  predatbry  Turki  hordes. 
But  it  is  no  doubt  the  Persian  galcha,  a  peasant  or  clown,  then 
a  vagabond,  etc.,  vAi^ViCO.  galchagi,  rudeness. 

As  shown  by  J.  Biddulph',  the  tribes  of  Galchic  speech 
range  over  both  slopes  of  the  Hindu- Kush,  comprising  the 
natives  of  Sarakol,  Wakhan,  Shignan,  Munjan  (with  the 
Yidoks  of  the  Upper  Lud-kho  or  Chitral  river),  Sanglich,  and 
Ishkashim.  To  these  he  is  inclined  to  add  the  Pakhpus  and 
the  Shakshus  of  the  Upper  Yarkand-darya,  as  well  as  those  of 
the  Kocha  valley,  with  whom  must  now  be  included  the 
Zerafshan  Galchas  (Maghians,  Kshtuts,  Falghars,  Machas  and 
Fans),  but  not  the  Yagnobis.     All  these  form  also  one  ethnic 

'  III.  91. 

2  Even  Ptolemy's  iratri.x'^i  appear  to  be  the  same  people,  v  bemg  an  error  for  r, 
so  that  racrtxai  would  be  the  nearest  possible  Greek  transcription  of  Tajik. 

3  Tribes  of  the  Hindoo- Koosh,  \%Zo,  passim. 


544  ^'^^  •*  Pci'^i  ^^^  Present  [ch. 

group  of  Alpine  type,  with  whom  on  linguistic  grounds  Bid- 
dulph  also  includes  two  other  groups,  the  Khos  of  Chitral 
with  the  Siah  Posh  of  Kafiristan,  and  the  Shins  (Dards),  Gors, 
Chilisi  and  other  small  tribes  of  the  Upper  Indus  and  side 
valleys,  all  these  apparently  being  long-heads  of  the  blond 
Aryan  type.  Keeping  this  distinction  in  view,  Biddulph's 
valuable  treatise  on  the  Hindu-Kush  populations  may  be 
followed  with  safety.  He  traces  the  Galcha  idioms  generally 
to  the  old  Baktrian  (East  Persia,  so-called  "Zend  Avesta"), 
the  Shin  however  leaning  closely  to  Sanskrit,  while  Khowar, 
the  speech  of  the  Chitrali  (Khos),  is  intermediate  between 
Baktrian  and  Sanskrit.  But  differences  prevail  on  these  details, 
which  will  give  occupation  to  philologists  for  some  time  to 
come. 

Speaking  generally,  all  the  Galchas  of  the  northern  slopes 
(most  of  Biddulph's  first  group)  are  physically  connected  with 

all  the  other  Lowland  and  Hill  Tajiks,  with  whom 
TajLk^Types        should  also  probably  be  included  Elphinstojie's' 

southern  Tajiks  dwelling  south  of  the  Hindu- 
Kush  (Kohistani,  Berraki,  Purmuli  or  Fermuli,  Sirdehi, 
Sistani,  and  others  scattered  over  Afghanistan  and  northern 
Baluchistan).  Their  type  is  pronouncedly  Alpine,  so  much  so 
that  they  have  been  spoken  of  by  French  anthropologists  as 
"those  belated  Savoyards  of  Kohistan"."  De  Ujfalvy,  who 
has  studied  them  carefully,  describes  them  as  tall,  brown  or 
bronzed  and  even  ,  white,  with  ruddy  cheeks  recalling  the 
Englishman,  black  or  chestnut  hair,  sometimes  red  and  even 
light,  smooth,  wavy  or  curly,  full  b^ard,  brown,  ruddy  or  blond 
(he  met  two  brothers  near  Penjakend  with  hair  "  blanc  comme 
du  lin ") ;  brown,  blue,  or  grey  eyes,  never  oblique,  long, 
shapely  nose  slightly  curved,  thin,  straight  lips,  oval  face,  stout, 
vigorous  frame,  and  round  heads  with  cephalic  index  as  high 
as  86*50.  This  description,  which  is  confirmed  by  Bonvalot 
and  other  recent  observers,  applies  to  the  Darwazi,  Wakhi, 
Badakhshi,  and  in  fact  all  the  groups,  so  that  we  have  beyond 
all  doubt  an  eastern  extension  of  the  Alpine  brachycephalic 
zone  through  Armenia  and  the  Bakhtiari  uplands  to  the 
Central  Asiatic  highlands,  a  conclusion  confirmed  by  the 
explorations  of  M.  A.  Stein  in  Chinese  Turkestan  and  the 


'  An  Account  of  the  Kingdom  ofCaubul,  1815. 

2  "Ces  Savoyards  attardds  du  Kohistan"  (Ujfalvy,  Les  Aryens  etc.). 


xv]  The  Caucasic  Peoples  545 

Pamirs  ( 1 900-8)  \  I  ndeed  this  Asiatic  extension  of  the  Alpine 
type  incHnes  v.  Luschan'  to  regard  the  European  branch  as 
one  offshoot,  and  the  high  and  narrow  ("  Hittite")  nosed  type 
as  another,  or  rather  as  a  specialised  group,  of  which  the 
Armenians,  Persians,  Druses,  and  other  sectarian  groups  of 
Syria  and  Asia  Minor  represent  the  purest  examples.  Ac- 
cording to  his  summary  of  this  complicated  region  "All 
Western  Asia  was  originally  inhabited  by  a  homogeneous 
melanochroic  race,  with  extreme  hypsi-brachycephaly  and 
with  a  'Hittite'  nose.  About  4000  b.c.  began  a  Semitic 
invasion  from  the  south-east,  probably  from  Arabia,  by  people 
looking  like  the  modern  Bedawy.  Two  thousand  years  later 
commenced  a  second  invasion,  this  time  from  the  north-west, 
by  xanthrochroous  and  long-headed  tribes  like  the  modern 
Kurds,  half  savage,  and  in  some  way  or  other,  perhaps,  con- 
nected with  the  historic  Harri,  Amorites,  Tamehu  and 
Galatians'." 

But  the  eventful  drama  is  not  yet  closed.   Arrested  perhaps 
for  a  time  by  the  barrier  of  the  Hindu-Kush  and  SulimAn 
ranges,   proto-Aryan   conquerors  burst   at   last.       Ethnic  Re- 
probably  through  the  Kabul  river  gorges,  on  to      lations  in 
the  plains  of  India,  and  thereby  added  another      ^"^'*' 
world  to  the  Caucasic  domain.      Here  they  were  brought  face 
to  face  with  new  conditions,  which  gave  rise  to  fresh  changes 
and  adaptations  resulting  in  the  present  ethnical  relations  in 
the  peninsula.     There  is  good  reason  to  think  that  in  this 
region  the  leavening  Aryan  element  never  was   numerous, 
while  even  on  their  first  arrival  the  Aryan  invaders  found  the 
land  already  somewhat  thickly  peopled  by  the  aborigines'. 

The  marked  linguistic  and  ethnical  differences  between 
Eastern  and  Western  Hindustan  have  given  rise  to  the  theory 
of  two  separate  streams  of  immigration,  perhaps   continued 


1  The  anthropological  data  are  dealt  with  by  T.  A.  Joyce,  "Notes  on  the  Physical 
Anthropology  of  Chinese  Turkestan  and  the  Pamirs,"  Journ.  Roy.  Anthr.  InsL 
XLII.  1912.  "The  original  inhabitant. ..is  that  type  of  man  described  by  Lapouge 
as  Homo  Alpinus,"  p.  468. 

'^  F.  V.  Luschan,  "The  Early  Inhabitants  of  ksa^'  Journ.  Roy.  Anthr.  Inst, 
XLI.   191 1,  p.  243. 

3  For  the  evidence  of  the  extension  of  this  element  in  East  Central  Asia  see 
Ch.  IX. 

*  R.  B.  Foote,  Madras  Government  Museum.  The  Foote  Collection  of  Indian 
Prehistoric  and  Protohistoric  Antiquities.  Notes  on  their  ages  and  distribution., 
1916,  is  the  most  recent  contribution  to  the  prehistoric  period,  but  the  conclusions 
are  not  universally  accepted. 

K.  35 


54^  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

over  many  centuries  \  The  eariier  entered  from  the  north- 
west, bringing  their  herds  and  families  with  them,  whose 
descendants  are  the  homogeneous  and  handsome  populations 
of  the  Punjab  and  Rajputana.  Later  swarms  entered  by  way 
of  the  difficult  passes  of  Gilgit  and  Chitral,  a  route  which  made 
it  impossible  for  their  women  to  accompany  them.  "  Here  they 
came  in  contact  with  the  Dravidians ;  here  by  the  stress  of 
that  contact  caste  was  evolved  ;  here  the  Vedas  were  composed 
and  the  whole  fantastic  structure  of  orthodox  ritual  and  usage 
was  built  up. . . .  The  men  of  the  stronger  race  took  to  themselves 
women  of  the  weaker,  and  from  these  unions  was  evolved  the 
mixed  type  which  we  find  in  Hindustan  and  Biharl" 

An  attempt  to  analyse  the  complicated  ethnic  elements 

contained  in  the  vast  area  of  India  was  made  by 
of  Types!^°"        ^-  ^-  Risley^  who  recognised  seven  types,  his 

classification  being  based  on  theories  of  origin. 

1.  The  Turko-Iranian  type,  including  the  Baloch, 
Brahui,  and  Afghans  of  Baluchistan  and  the  North- West 
Frontier  Provinces,  all  Muhammadans,  with  broad  head,  long 
prominent  nose,  abundant  hair,  fair  complexion  and  tall  stature. 

2.  Indo-Aryan  type  in  the  Punjab,  Rajputana  and 
Kashmir,  with  its  most  conspicuous  members  the  Rdjputs, 
Khatri  and  Jdts  in  all  but  colour  closely  resembling  the 
European  type  and  showing  little  difference  between  upper  and 
lower  social  strata.  Their  characteristics  are  tall  stature,  fair 
complexion,  plentiful  hair  on  face,  long  head,  and  narrow 
prominent  nose. 

3.  Aryo-Dra VIDIAN  or  Hindustani  type  in  the  United 
Provinces,  parts  of  Rajputana,  Bihar,  and  Ceylon,  with  lower 
stature,  variable  complexion,  longish  head,  and  a  nose  index 
exactly  corresponding  to  social  station. 

4.  Scytho-Dravidian  of  Western  India,  including  the 
Maratha  Brahmans,  Kunbi,  and  Coorgs,  of  medium  stature, 
fair  complexion,  broad  head  with  scanty  hair  on  the  face,  and 
a  fine  nose. 

1  A.  F.  R.  Hoernle,  A  Grammar  of  Eastern  Hindi  compared  with  the  other 
Gaudian  Languages,  1880,  first  suggested  (p.  xxxi.  fF.)  the  distinction  between  the 
languages  of  the  Midland  and  the  Outer  Band,  which  has  been  corroborated  by 
G.  A.  Grierson,  Languages  of  India,  1903,  p.  Si  ;  Imperial  Gazetteer  of  India, 
1907-8,  Vol.  I.  pp.  357-8. 

^  H.  H.  Risley,  The  People  of  India,  1908,  p.  54.  See  also  J.  D.  Anderson,  The 
Peoples  of  India,  191 3,  p.  27. 

^  Tribes  and  Castes  of  Bengal  ^tc.  1892,  Indian  Census  Report,  1901,  and  Imperial 
Gazetteer,  Vol.  I.  ch.  vi. 


xv]  The  Caucasic  Peoples  547 

5.  Dravidian,  generally  regarded  as  representing  the 
indigenous  element.  The  characteristics  are  fairly  uniform 
from  Ceylon  to  the  Ganges  valley  throughout  Madras,  Hyde- 
rabad, the  Central  Provinces,  Central  India  and  Chota  Nagpur, 
and  the  name  is  now  used  to  include  the  mass  of  the  population 
unaffected  by  foreign  (Aryan,  Scythian,  Mongoloid)  immi- 
gration. The  Nairs  of  Malabar  and  the  Santal  of  Chota 
Nagpur  are  typical  representatives.  The  stature  is  short, 
complexion  very  dark,  almost  black,  hair  plentiful  with  a 
tendency  to  curl,  head  long  and  nose  very  broad  \ 

6.  Mongolo-Dravidian  or  Bengali  type  of  Bengal  and 
Orissa,  showing  fusion  with  Tibeto-Burman  elements.  The 
stature  is  medium,  complexion  dark,  and  head  conspicuously 
broad,  nose  variable. 

7.  Mongoloid  of  the  Himalayas,  Nepal,  Assam,  and 
Burma,  represented  by  the  Kanet  of  Lahoul  and  Kulu,  the 
Lepcha  of  Darjiling,  the  Limbu,  Murmi  and  GurungoS.  Nepal, 
the  Bodo  of  Assam  and  the  Burmese.  The  stature  is  short,  the 
complexion  dark  with  a  yellowish  tinge,  the  hair  on  the  face 
scanty.  The  head  is  broad  with  characteristic  flat  face  and 
frequently  oblique  eyes. 

This  classification  while  more  or  less  generally  adopted  in 
outline  is  not  allowed  to  pass  unchallenged,  especially  with 
regard  to  the  theories  of  origin  implied.  Concerning  the 
brachycephalic  elenient  of  Western  India  Risley's  belief  that 
it  was  the  result  of  so-called  "  Scythian "  invasions  is  not 
supported  by  sufficient  evidence.  "  The  foreign  element  is 
certainly  Alpine,  not  Mongolian,  and  it  may  be  due  to  a 
migration  of  which  the  history  has  not  been  written^"  Rama- 
prasad  Chanda'  goes  further  and  traces  the  broad-headed 
elements  in  both  "  Scytho-Dravidians  "  (Gujaratis,  Marathas 
and  Coorgs)  and  "  Mongolo-Dravidians"  (Bengalis  and 
Oriyas)  to  one  common  source,  "  the  Homo  alpinus  of  the 
Pamirs  and  Chinese  Turkestan,"  and  attempts  to  reconstruct 
the  history  of  the  migration  of  the  Alpine  invaders  from 
Central  Asia  over  Gujarat,  Deccan,  Bihar  and  Bengal.  His 
conclusions  are  supported  by  the  reports  of  Sir  Aurel  Stein  of 
the  Homo  Alpinus  type  discovered  in  the  region  of  Lob  Nor, 

1  The  jungle  tribes  of  this  group,  such  as  the  Paniyan,  Kurumba  and  Irula 
are  classed  as  Pre-Uravidian.     See  chap.  xii. 

2  A.  C.  Haddon,  Wanderings  of  Peoples,  igii,  p.  27. 

3  The  Indo-Aryan  Races,  1916,  pp.  65-71  and  75-78. 

35—2 


54^  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

dating  from  the  first  centuries  a,d.  This  type  "  still  supplies 
the  prevalent  element  in  the  racial  constitution  of  the  indige- 
nous population  of  Chinese  Turkestan,  and  is  seen  in  its  purest 
form  in  the  Iranian-speaking  tribes  near  thePamirs^" 

But  any  scheme  of  classification  must  be  merely  tentative, 
subject  to  modification  as  statistics  of,  the  vast  area  are 
gradually  collected.  And  W.  Crooke^  while  acknowledging 
the  value  of  Risley's  scheme"  points  out  the  need  of  caution  in 
accepting  measurements  of  skull  and  nose  forms  applied  to  the 
mixed  races  and  half-breeds  which  form  the  majority  of  the 
people.  "  The  race  migrations  are  all  prehistoric,  and  the  amal- 
gamation of  the  races  has  continued  for  ages  among  a  people  to 
whom  moral  restraints  are  irksome  and  unfamiliar.  The  existing 
castes  are  quite  a  modern  creation,  dating  only  from  the  later 
Buddhist  age."  "The  present  population  thus  represents  the 
flotsam  and  jetsam  collected  from  many  streams  of  ethnical 
movement,  and  any  attempt  to  sort  out  the  existing  races  into 
a  set  of  pigeon-holes,  each  representing  a  defined  type  of  race, 
is,  in  the  present  state  of  our  knowledge,  impossible^" 

In  features,  says  Dalton,  the  Kols°  show  "much  variety, 

and  I  think  in  a  great  many  families  there  is  a  considerable 

admixture  of  Aryan  blood.     Many  have  high 

noses  and  oval  faces,  and  young  girls  ^re  at  times 

1  "  A  Third  Journey  oif  Exploration  in  Central  Asia  1913-16,"  Geog.  Journ.  1916. 

^  Natives  of  Northern  India,  1907,  pp.  19,  24.  See  also  his  article  "Rajputs 
and  Marathas,"  Journ.  Roy.  Anthr.  Inst.  XL.  1910. 

'  "  His  report,  compiled  during  the  inevitable  distractions  incident  to  the 
enumeration  of  a,  population  of  some  300  millions,  was  a  notable  performance,  and 
will  remain  one  of  the  classics  of  Indian  anthropology."  "  The  Stability  of  Caste 
and  Tribal  Groups  in  Indca."  Journ.  Roy.  Anthr.  Inst.  XLiv.  1914,  p.  270. 

*  A  vast  amount  of  material  has  been  collected  in  recent  years  besides  Ethno- 
graphical Surveys  of  the  various  provinces,  the  Imperial  Gazetteer  of  1909,  and  the 
magnificent  Census  Reports  of  igoi  and  1911.  Some  of  the  more  important  works 
are  as  follows  : — H.  H.  Risley,  Ethnography  of  India,  1903,  The  People  of  India, 
1908;  E.  Thurston,  Ethnographical  Notes  on  Southern  India,  1906,  Castes  and 
Tribes  of  Southern  India,  1909 ;  H.  A.  Rose,  Glossary  of  the  Tribes  and  Castes  of 
the  Punjab  and  N.  W.  Frontier  Province,  1911 ;  E.  A.  de  Brett,  Gazetteer,  Chhatis- 
garh  Feudatory  States,  1909;  C.  E.  Luard,  Ethnographic  Survey,  Central  India, 
1909;  L.  K.  Anantha  Krishna  Iyer,  7%«  Cochin  Tribes  and  Castis,  1909,  Tribes  and 
Castes  of  Cochin,  191 2;  M.  Longworth  Dames,  The  Baloch  Race,  1904;  W.  H.  R. 
Rivers,  The_  Todas,  1906;  P.  R.  T.  Gurdon,  The  Khasis,  1907;  T.  C.  Hodson,  The 
Meitheis,  1908,  The  Naga  Tribes  of  Manipur,  191 1 ;  E.  Stack  and  C.  J.  Lyall,  The 
Mikirs,  1908;  A.  Playfair,  The  Garos,  1909;  S.  Endle,  The  Kachaiis,\<)ii;  C.  G. 
and  B.  Z.  Seligman,  The  Veddas,  1911;  J.  Shakespear,  The  Lushei  Kuki  Clans, 
1912  ;  S.  Chandra,  Roy,  The  Mundas  and  their  Country,  1912,  The  Oraons,  1915  ; 
and  R.  V.  Russell,  Tribes  and  Castes  of  the  N.W.  Central  Provinces,  1916. 

'  The  term  Kol,  which  occurs  as  an  element  in  a  great  many  tribal  names,  and 
was  first  introduced  by  Campbell  in  a  collective  sense  (1866),  is  of  unknown  origin, 
but  probably  connected  with  a  root  meaning  "Man  "  (W.  Crooke,  Tribes  and  Castes, 
III.  p.  294). 


xv]  The  Caucasic  Peoples  549 

met  with  who  have  delicate  and  regular  features,  finely-chiselled 
straight  noses,  and  perfectly  formed  mouths  and  chins.  The 
eyes,  however,  are  seldom  so  large,  so  bright,  and  gazelle-like 
as  those  of  pure  Hindu  maidens,  and  I  have  met  strongly 
marked  Mongolian  features.  In  colour  they  vary  greatly,  the 
copper  tints  being  about  the  most  common  [though  the  Mir- 
zapur  Kols  are  very  dark].  Eyes  dark  brown,  hair  black, 
straight  or  wavy  [as  all  over  India].  Both  men  and  women 
are  noticeable  for  their  fine,  erect  carriage  and  long,free  stride'." 

The  same  variations  are  found  among  the  Dravidians, 
where,  as  should  be  expected,  there  are  many  aberrant  groups 
showing  divergences  in  all  directions,  as  amongst  . 

the  Kurumba  and  Toda  of  the  Nilgiris,  the  * 
former  approximating  to  the  Mongol,  thg"~ktter  to  the  Aryan 
standard.  W.  Sikemeier,  who  lived  amongst  them  for  years, 
notes  that  "  many  of  the  Kurumbas  have  decided  Mongoloid 
face  and  stature,  and  appear  to  be  the  aborigines  of  that  region^" 
The  same  correspondent  adds  that  much  nonsense  has  been 
written  about  the  Todas,  who  have  become  the  trump  card 
of  popular  ethnographists.  "  Being  ransacked  by  European 
visitors  they  invent  all  kinds  of  traditions,  which  they  found 
out  their  questioners  liked  to  get,  and  for  which  they  were 
paid."  Still  the  type  is  remarkable  and  strikingly  European, 
"well  proportioned  and  stalwart,  with  straight  nose,  regular 
features  and  perfect  teeth,"  the  chief  characteristic  being  the 
development  of  the  hairy  system,  less  however  than  amongst 
the  Ainu,  whom  they  so  closely  resemble^  From  the  illustra- 
tions given  in  Thurston's  valuable  series  one  might  be  tempted 
to  infer  that  a  group  of  proto-Aryans  had  reached  this  extreme 
limit  of  their  Asiatic  domain,  and  although  W.  H.  R.  Rivers 
has  cleared  away  the  mystery  and  established  links  between 
the  Todas  and  tribes  of  Malabar  and  Travancore,  the  problem 
of  their  origin  is  not  yet  entirely  solved*. 

The  Dravidians  occupy  the  greater  part  of  the  Deccan, 
where  they  are  constituted  in  a  few  great  nations — Telugus 
(Telingas),  Tamils  (numbers  of  whom  have  crossed  into  Ceylon 
and  occupied  the  northern  and  central  parts  of  that  island, 
working  in  the  coffee  districts),  Kanarese,  and  the  Malayalim 

'  Descriptive  Ethnology  of  Bengal,  p.  190. 
'^  \n2L  letter  to  the  author,  June  18,  1895. 

2  Edgar  Thurston,  Anthropology  etc.,  Bui.  4,  Madras,  1896,  pp.  147-8.    For 
fuller  details  see  his  Castes  and  Tribes  of  S.  India,  1909, 

*  The  Todas,  1906.     See  chap.  xxx.  "The  Origin  and  History  of  the  Todas." 


550  Man:  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

of  the  west  coast.  These  with  some  othiers  were  brought  at 
an  early  date  under  Aryan  (Hindu)  influences,  but  have  pre- 
served their  highly  agglutinating  Dravidian  speech,  which  has 
no  known  affinities  elsewhere,  unless  perhaps  with  the  language 
of  the  Brahuis,  who  are  regarded  by  many  as  belated  Dravidians 
left  behind  in  East  Baluchistan. 

But  for  this  very  old,  but  highly  cultivated  Dravidian 
language,  which  is  still  spoken  by  about  54  millions  between 
Dravidian  and  the  Ganges  and  Ceylon,  it  would  no  longer  be 
Aryan  possible  to  distinguish  these  southern   Hindus 

Languages.  from  those  of  Aryan  speech  who  occupy  all  the 
rest  of  the  peninsula  together  with  the  southern  slopes  of  the 
Hindu-Kush  and  parts  of  the  western  Himalayas.  Their  main 
divisions  are  the  Kashmiri,  many  of  whom  might  be  called 
typical  Aryans  ;  the  Punjabis  with  several  sub-groups,  amongst 
which  are  the  Sikhs,  religious  sectaries  half  Moslem  half  Hindu, 
also  of  magnificent  physique  ;  the  Gujaratis,  Mahratis,  Hindis, 
Bengalis,  Assamis,  and  Oraons  of  Orissa,  all  speaking  Neo- 
Sanskritic  idioms,  which  collectively  constitute  the  Indie  branch 
of  the  Aryaa  family.  Hindustani  or  Urdu,  a  simplified  form 
of  Hindi  current  especially  in  the  Doab,  or  "Two  waters," 
the  region  between  the  Ganges  and  Jumna  above  Allahabad, 
has  become  a  sort  of  lingua  franca,  the  chief  medium  of  inter- 
course throughout  the  peninsula,  and  is  understood  by  certainly 
over  100  millions,  while  all  the  population  of  Neo-Sanskritic 
speech  numbered  in  1898  considerably  over  200  millions. 

Classification  derives  little  help  from  the  consideration  of 
caste,  whatever  view  be  taken  of  the  origin  of  this  institution. 
The  rather  obvious  theory  that  it  was  introduced 
Castes"*  "  ^y  ^^  handful  of  Aryan  conquerors  to  prevent 
the  submergence  of  the  race  in  the  great  ocean 
of  black  or  dark  aborigines,  is  now  rejected  by  many  in- 
vestigators, who  hold  that  its  origin  is  occupational,  a  question 
rather  of  social  or  industrial  pursuits  becoming  hereditary  in 
family  groups  than  of  race  distinctions  sanctioned  by  religion. 
They  point  out  that  the  commentator's  interpretation  of  the 
Pancha  Ksitaya,  "  Five  Classes,"  as  Brdhmans  (priests), 
Kshatriyas  (fighters),  Vaisya  (traders),  Sudra  (peasants  and 
craftsmen  of  all  kinds),  and  Ntshdda  (savages  or  outcasts)  is 
recent,  and  conveys  only  the  current  sentiment  of  the  age. 
It  never  had  any  substantial  base,  and  even  in  the  compara- 
tively late  Institutes  of  Manu  "  the  rules  of  food,  connubium 


xv]  The  Caucasic  Peoples  551 

and  intercourse  between  the  various  castes  are  very  different 
from  what  we  find  at  present "  ;  also  that,  far  from  being 
eternal  and  changeless,  caste  has  been  subject  to  endless 
modifications  throughout  the  whole  range  of  Hindu  myth  and 
history.  Nor  is  it  an  institution  peculiar  to  India,  while  even 
here  the  stereotyped  four  or  five  divisions  neither  accord  with 
existing  facts,  nor  correspond  to  so  many  distinct  ethnical 
groups. 

All  this  is  perfectly  true,  and  it  is  also  true  that  for 
generations  the  recognised  castes,  say,  social  pursuits,  have 
been  in  a  state  of  constant  flux,  incessantly  undergoing  pro- 
cesses of  segmentation,  so  that  their  number  is  at  present  past' 
counting.  Nevertheless,  the  system  may  have  been,  and 
probably  was,  first  inspired  by  racial  motives,  an  instinctive 
sense  of  self-preservation,  which  expressed  itself  in  an  informal 
way  by  local  class  distinctions  which  were  afterwards  sanctioned 
by  religion,  but  eventually  broke  down  or  degenerated  into 
the  present  relations  under  the  outward  pressure  of  imperious 
social  necessities'. 


Beyond  the  mainland  and  Ceylon  no  Caucasic  peoples  of 
Aryan  speech  are  known  to  have  ranged  in  neolithic  or  pre- 
historic times.     But  we  have  already  followed 
the  migrations  of  a  kindred',  though  mixed  race,    in^esians. 
here    called    Ini/onesians,   into    Malaysia,   the 
Philippines,  Formosa,  and  the  Japanese  Archipelago,  which 
they  must  have  occupied  in  the  New  Stone  Age.     Here  there 
occurs  a  great  break,  for  they  are  not  again  met  till  we  reach 
Micronesia  and  the  still  more  remote  insular  groups  beyond 
Melanesia.      In  Micronesia  the  relations  are  ex-    ,,. 

,  .         ,    ,  ,  .  Micronesians. 

tremely  confused,  because,  as  it  seems,  this  group 
had  already  been  occupied  by  the  Papuans  from  New  Guinea 
before  the  arrival  of  the  Indonesians,  while  after  their  arrival 
they  were  followed  at  intervals  by  Malays  perhaps  from  the 
Philippines  and  Formosa,  and  still  later  by  Japanese,  if  not 
also  by  Chinese  from  the  mainland.  Hence  the  types  are 
here  as  varied  as  the  colour,  which  appears,  going  eastwards, 
to  shade  off  from  the  dark  brown  of  the  Pelew  and  Caroline 
Islanders  to  the  light  brown  of  the  Marshall  and  Gilbert  groups, 

1  For  the  discussion  of  Caste  see  E.  A.  Gait's  article  in  Ency.  of  Religion  and 
Ethics,  1910,  with  bibliography ;  also  V.  A.  Smith,  Caste  in  India,  East  and  West, 
1013.  '  ^  See  Ch.  VII. 


552  Man  :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

where  we  already  touch  upon  the  skirts  of  the  true  Indonesian 
domain'. 

A   line   drawn   athwart   the    Pacific  from   New  Zealand 
through  Fiji  to  Hawaii  will  roughly  cut  off  this  domain  from 

the  rest  of  the  Oceanic  world,  where  all  to  the 

oynesians.      ^ggj  jg  Melanesian,  Papuan  or  mixed,  while  all 

to  the  right — Maori,  some  of  the  eastern  Fijians,  Tongans, 

Santoans,    Tahitians,    Marquesans,    Hawaiians    and    Easter 

Islanders— \s,  grouped   under  the  name  Polynesian,  a  type 

produced   by  a  mixture  of  ProtO- Malayan  and   Indonesian. 

Dolichocephaly   and    mesaticephaly   prevail   throughout   the 

'region,  but  there  are  brachycephalic  centres  in  Tonga,  the 

Marquesas  and  Hawaiian  Islands.     The  hair  is  mostly  black 

and  straight,  but  also  wavy,  though   never  frizzly  or  even 

kinky.     The  colour   also  is  of  a  light  brown  compared  to 

cinnamon  or  cafi6-au-lait,  and  sometimes  approaching  an  almost 

white  shade,  while  the  tall  stature  averages  172m.  {5  ft.  7f  ins.). 

Migrating  at  an  unknown  date  eastwards  from  the  East 

Indian  archipelago ^  the  first  permanent  settlements   appear 

to  have  been  formed  in  Samoa,  and  more  par- 

ticularly  in  the  island  of  Savaii,  originally  Sa- 
vaiki,  which  name  under  divers  forms  and  still  more  divers 
meanings  accompanied  all  their  subsequent  migrations  over 
the  Pacific  waters.  Thus  we  have  in  Tahiti  Havaii^,  the 
"  universe,"  and  the  old  capital  of  Raiatea ;  in  Rarotonga 
Avaiki,  "the  land  under  the  wind" ;  in  New  Zealand  Hawaiki, 
"the  land  whence  came  the  Maori " ;  in  the  Marquesas  Havaiki, 
"the  lower  regions  of  the  dead,"  as  in  to  fenua  Havaiki,  "re- 
turn to  the  land  of  thy  forefathers,"  the  words  with  which  the 
victims  in  human  sacrifices  were  speeded  to  the  other  world  ; 
lastly  in  Hawaii,  the  name  of  the  chief  island  of  the  Sandwich 
group. 

The  Polynesians  are  cheerful,  dignified,  polite,  imaginative 
and  intelligent,  varying  in  temperament  between  the  wild  .and 

energetic  and  politically  capable  Maori  to  his 
Culture^'*"       indolent  and  politically  sterile  kinsmen  to  the 

north,  who  have  been  unnerved  by  the  unvarying 

1  See  A.  Kramer,  Hawaii,  Ostmikronesien  und  Samoa,  1906. 

^  For  Polynesian  wanderings  see  S.  Percy  Smith,  Hawaiki:  the  original  home 
of  the  Maori,  1904;  J.  M.  Brown,  Maori  and  Polynesian;  their  origin,  history  and 
culture,  1907;  W.  Churchill,  The  Polynesian  Wanderings,  1911. 

'  H  everywhere  takes  the  place  of  S,  which  is  preserved  only  in  the  Samoan 
mother-tongue ;  cf.  Gr.  kina  with  Lat.  septem,  Eng.  seven. 


xv]  The  Caucasic  Peoples  553 

uniformity  of  temperature.  Wherever  possible,  they  are  agri- 
culturalists, growing  yams,  sweet  potatoes  and  taro.  Coconuts, 
bread-fruit  and  bananas  form  the  staple  food  in  many  islands. 
Scantily  endowed  with  fertile  soil  and  edible  plants  the  Poly- 
nesians have  gained  command  over  the  sea  which  everywhere 
surrounds  them,  and  have  developed  into  the  best  seamen 
among  primitive  races.  Large  sailing  double  canoes  were 
formerly  in  use,  and  single  canoes  with  an  outrigger  are  still 
made.  Native  costume  for  men  is  made  of  bark  cloth,  and 
for  women  ample  petticoats  of  split  and  plaited  leaves.  Orna- 
ments, with  the  exception  of  flowers,  are  sparingly  worn. 
The  bow  and  arrow  are  unknown,  short  spears,  clubs  and 
slings  are  used,  but  no  shields.  The  arts  of  writing,  pottery 
making,  loom-weaving  and  the  use  of  metals  were,  with  few 
exceptions,  unknown,  but  mat-making,  basketry  and  the  making 
of  tapa  were  carried  to  a  high  pitch,  and  Polynesian  bark-cloth 
is  the  finest  in  the  world. 

Throughout  Polynesia  the  community  is  divided  into  nobles 
or  chiefs,  freemen  and  slaves,  which  divisions  are,  by  reason 
of  tabu,  as  sharp  as  those  of  caste.  They  fall  into  those  which 
participate  in  the  divine,  and  those  which  are  wholly  excluded 
from  it.  Women  have  a  high  position,  and  men  do  their  fair 
share  of  work.  Polygyny  is  universal,  being  limited  only  by 
the  wealth  of  the  husband,  or  the  numerical  preponderance 
of  the  men.  Priests  have  considerable  influence,  there  are 
numerous  gods,  sometimes  worshipped  in  the  outward  form  of 
idols,  and  ancestors  are  deified. 

Polynesian  culture  has  been  analysed  by  W.  H.  R.  Rivers', 
and  the  following  briefly  summarises  his  results.  At  first  sight 
the  culture  appears  very  simple,  especially  as  regards  language 
and  social  structure,  while  there  is  a  considerable  degree  of 
uniformity  in  religious  belief  Everywhere  we  find  the  same 
kind  of  higher  being  or  god  and  the  resemblance  extends  even 
to  the  name,  usually  some  form  of  the  word  atua.  In  material 
culture  also  there  are  striking  similarities,  though  here  the 
variations  are  more  definite  and  obvioiis,  and  the  apparent 
uniformity  is  probably  due  to  the  attention  given  to  the  customs 
of  chiefs,  overlooking  the  culture  of  the  ordinary  people  where 
more  diversity  is  discoverable. 

There  is  much  that  points  to  the  twofold  nature  of  Poly- 
nesian culture.     The  evidence  from  the  study  of  the  ritual 

'  The  History  of  Melanesian  Society,  1914. 


554  Man :  Past  and  Present  [ch. 

indicates  the  presence  of  two  peoples,  an  earlier  "who  interfed 
their  dead  in  a  sitting  posture  like  the  dual  people  of  Melanesia^ 
and  a  later,  who  became  chiefs  and  believed  in  the  need  for 
the  preservation  of  the  dead  among  the  living.  All.the  evidence 
available,  physical  and  cultural,  points  to  the  conjecture  that 
the  early  stratum  of  the  population  of  Polynesia  was  formed 
by  an  immigrant  people  who  also  found  their  way  to  Melanesia. 

The  later  stream  of  settlers  can  be  identified  with  the  kava- 
people\  Kava  was  drunk  especially  by  the  chiefs,  aqd  the 
accompanying  ceremonial  shows  its  connection  with  the  higher 
ranks  of  the  people.  The  close  association  of  the  Areoi  (secret 
society)  of  eastern  Polynesia  with  the  chiefs  is  further  proof. 
Thus  both  in  Melanesia  and  in  Polynesia  the  chiefs  who  pre- 
served their  dead  are  identified  with  the  founders  of  secret 
societies — organisations  which  came  into  being  through  the 
desire  of  an  immigrant  people  to  practise  their  religious  rites 
in  secret.  Burial  in  the  extended  position  occurs  in  Tikopia, 
Tonga  and  Samoa — perhaps  it  may  have  been  the  custom  of 
some  special  group  of  the  kava-people.  Chiefs  were  placed 
in  vaults  constructed  of  large  stones — a  feature  unknown  else- 
where in  Oceania.  It  is  safe  also  to  ascribe  the  human  design 
which  has  undergone  conventionalisation  in  Polynesia  to  the 
kava-people.  The  geometric  art  through  which  the  conven- 
tionalisation was  produced  belonged  to  the  earlier  inhabitants 
who  interred  their  dead  in  the  sitting  position. 

Money,  if  it  exists  at  all,  occupies  a  very  unimportant  place 
in  the  culture  of  the  people.  There  is  no  evidence  of  the  use  of 
any  object  in  Polynesia  with  the  definite  scale 
CommiM^  of  values  which  is  possessed  by  several  kinds 
of  money  in  Melanesia.  The  Polynesians  are 
largely  communistic,  probably  more  so  than  the  Melanesians, 
and  afford  one  of  the  best  examples  of  communism  in  property 
with  which  we  are  acquainted.  This  feature  may  be  ascribed 
to  the  earlier  settlers.  The  suggestion  that  the  kava-people 
never  formed  independent  communities  in  Polynesia,  but  were 
accepted  at  once  as  chiefs  of  those  among  whom  they  settled 
would  account  for  the  absence  of  money  (for  which  there  was 
no  need),  and  the  failure  to  disturb  in  any  great  measure  the 
communism  of  the  earlier  inhabitants.  Communism  in  property 
was  associated  with  sexual  communism.  There  is  evidence 
that  Polynesian  chiefs  rarely  had  more  than  one  wife,  while 

1  Cf.  p.  139  flf. 


xv]  The  Caucasic  Peoples  555 

the  licentiousness  which  probably  stood  in  a  definite  relation 
to  the  communism  of  the  people  is  said  to  have  been  more 
pronounced  among  the  lower  strata  of  the  community.  Both 
communism  and  licentiousness  appear  to  have  been  much  less 
marked  in  the  Samoan  and  Tongan  islands,  and  here  there  is 
no  evidence  of  interment  in  the  sitting  position.  These  and 
other  facts  support  the  view  that  the  influence  of  the  kava- 
people  was  greater  here  than  in  the  more  eastern  islands: 
probably  it  was  greatest  in  Tikopia,  which  in  many  respects 
differs  from  other  parts  of  Polynesia. 

Magic  is  altogether  absent  from  the  culture  of  Tikopia 
and  it  probably  took  a  relatively  unimportant  place  throughout 
Polynesia.      In  Tikopia  the  ghosts  of  dead  an- 
cestors and  relatives  as  well  as  animals  are  atua      Religion?^ 
and  this  connotation  of  the  word  appears  to  be 
general  in  other  parts  of  Polynesia.     These  may  be  regarded 
as  the  representatives  of  the  ghosts  and  spirits  of  Melanesia. 
The  vui  of  Melanesia  may  be  represented  by  the  tii  of  Tahiti, 
beings  not  greatly  respected,  who  had  to  some  extent  a  local 
character.    This  comparison  suggests  that  the  ancestral  ghosts 
belong  to  the  culture  of  the  kava-people,  and  that  the  local 
spirits  are  derived  from  the  culture  of  the  people  who  interred 
their  dead  in  the  sitting  position,  from  which  people  the  dual 
people  of  Melanesia  derived  their  beliefs  and  practices. 

To  sum  up.  Polynesian  culture  is  made  up  of  at  least  two 
elements,  an  earlier,  associated  with  the  practice  of  interring 
the  dead  in  a  sitting  position,  communism,  geometric  art,  local 
spirits  and  magical  rites,  and  a  later,  which  practised  preserva- 
tion of  the  dead.  These  latter  may  be  identified  with  the 
kava-people  while  the  earlier  Polynesian  stratum  is  that  which 
entered  into  the  composition  of  the  dual-people  of  Melanesia 
at  a  still  earlier  date,  and  introduced  the  Austronesian  language 
into  Oceania  \ 

1  Among  recent  works  on  Polynesia  see  H.  Mager,  Le  Monde  polynisien,  1902; 
B.  H.  Thomson,  Savage  Island,  1902 ;  A.  Kramer,  Die  Samoa-Inseln,  1902;  J.  M. 
Brown,  Maori  and  Polynesian,  1907 ;  G.  Brown,  Melanesians  and  Polynesians, 
1910;  F.  W.  Christian,  Eastern  Pacific  Islands,  1910. 


APPENDIX  A.   (p.  5) 

Since  the  first  few  pages  of  this  book  were  in  print  an  im- 
portant memoir  on  th^  "Phylogeny  of  Recent  and  Extinct 
Anthropoids  with  Special  Reference  to  the  Origin  of  Man" 
has  been  published  by  W.  K.  Gregory  {Bull.  Am.  Mus.  Nat. 
Hist.  Vol.  XXXV.,  Article  XIX,  pp.  258  ff.,  New  York,  1916). 
As  Gregory's  lucid  statement  of  the  problems  involved  is  based 
on  a  prolonged  examination  of  very  varied  and  abundant 
material  we  have  considered  it  advisable  to  present  his  summary. 
The  chief  conclusions,  which  appear  to  be  of  a  conservative 
character,  are  as  follows  (p.  341). 

The  Origin  of  Man. 

1.  Comparative  anjatomical  (including  embryological)  evidence 
alone  has  shown  that  man  and  the  anthropoids  have  been  derived 
from  a  primitive  anthropoid  stock  and  that  man's  existing  relatives 
are  the  chimpanzee  and  the  gorilla. 

2.  The  chimpanzee  and  gorilla  have  retained,  with  only  minor 
changes,  the  ancestral  habits  and  habitus  in  brain,  dentition,  skull  and 
limbs,  while  the  forerunners  of  the  Hominidae,  throOgh  a  profound 
change  in  function,  lost  the  primitive  anthropoid  habitus,  gave  up  ar- 
boreal frugivorous  adaptations  and  early  became  terrestrial,  bipedal 
and  predatory,  using  crude  flints  to  cut  up  and  smash  the  varied  food. 

3.  The  ancestral  chimpanzee-gorilla-man  stock  appears  to  be  repre- 
sented by  the  Upper  Miocene  genera  Sivapithecus  and  Dryopithecus, 
the  former  more  closely  allied  to,  or  directly  ancestral  to,  the  Homi- 
nidae, the  latter  to  the  chimpanzee  and  gorilla. 

4.  Many  of  the  differences  that  separate  man  from  anthropoids  of 
the  Sivapithecus  type  are  retrogressive  changes,  following  the  profound 
change  in  food  habits  above  noted.  Here  belong  the  retraction  of  the 
face  and  dental  arch,  the  reduction  in  size  of  the  canines,  the  reduction 
of  the  jaw  muscles,  the  loss  of  the  prehensile  character  of  the  hallux. 
Many  other  differences  are  secondary  adjustments  in  relative  propor- 
tions, connected  with  the  change  from  semi-arboreal,  semi-erect  and 
semi-quadrupedal  progression  to  fully  terrestrial  bipedal  progression. 
The  earliest  anthropoids  being  of  small  size  doubtless  had  slender  limbs ; 
later  semi-terrestrial  semi-erect  forms  were  probably  not  unlike  a  very 
young  gorilla,  with  fairly  short  legs  and  not  excessively  elongate  arms. 
The  long  legs  and  short  arms  of  man  are  due,  I  believe,  to  a  secondary 
readjustment  of  proportions.  The  very  short  legs  and  very  long  arms 
of  old  male  gorillas  may  well  be  a  specialization. 


Appendix  557 

5.  At  present  I  know  no  good  evidence  for  believing  that  the  se- 
paration of  the  Hominidae  from  the  Simiidce  toolt  place  any  earlier  than 
the  Miocene,  and  probably  the  Upper  Miocene.  The  change  in  struc- 
ture during  this  vast  interval  (two  or  more  million  years)  is  much 
greater  in  the  Hominidae  than  in  the  conservative  anthropoids,  but  it 
is  not  unlikely  that  during  a  profound  change  of  life  habits  evolution 
sometimes  proceeds  more  rapidly  than  in  the  more  familiar  cases  where 
uninterrupted  adaptations  proceed  in  a  single  direction. 

6.  Homo  heidelbergensis  appears  to  be  directly  ancestral  to  all  the 
later  Hominidae. 

On  the  evolution  of  human  food  habits . 

While  all  the  great  apes  are ,  prevailingly  frugivorous,  and  even 
their  forerunners  in  the  Lower  Oligocene  have  the  teeth  well  adapted 
for  piercing  the  tough  rinds  of  fruits  and  for  chewing  vegetable  food, 
yet  they  also  appear  to  have  at  least  a  latent  capacity  for  a  mixed 
diet.  The  digestive  tract,  especially  of  the  chimpanzee  and  gorilla,  is 
essentially  similar  to  that  of  man  and  at  least  some  captive  chimpan- 
zees thrive  upon  a  mixed  diet  including  large  quantities  of  fruits, 
vegetables  and  bread  and  small  quantities  of  meat'.  Mr  R.  L.  Garner, 
who  has  spent  many  years  in  studying  the  African  anthropoids'  in 
their  wild  state,  states^  that  "  their  foods  are  mainly  vegetable,  but 
that  flesh  is  an  essential  part  of  their  diet."  Other  observers  state' 
that  the  gorilla  and  chimpanzee  greedily  devour  young  birds  as  well 
as  eggs,  vermin  and  small  rodents. 

Even  the  existing  anthropoids,  although  highly  conservative  both 
in  brain  development  and  general  habits,  show  the  beginning  of  the 
use  of  the  hands,  and  trained  anthropoids  can  perform  quite  elaborate 
acts.  At  a  time  when  tough-rined  tubers  and  fruits  were  still  the  main 
element  of  the  diet  the  nascent  Hominidae  may  have  sought  out  the 
lairs  and  nesting  places  of  many  animals  for  the  purpose  of  stealing 
the  young  and  thus  they  may  have  learned  to  fight  with  and  kill  the 
enraged  parents.  They  had  also  learned  to  fight  in  protecting  their  own 
nesting  places  and  young.  And  possibly  they  killed  both  by  biting,  as 
in  carnivores,  and  by  strangling,  or,  in  the  case  of  a  small  animal,  by 
dashing  it  violently  down. 

We  may  conceive  that  the  Upper  Tertiary  ape-men,  in  the  course 
of  their  dispersal  from  a  south  central  Asiatic  centre*,  entered  regions 
where  flint-bearing  formations  were  abundant.  In  some  way  they 
learned  perhaps  that  these  "  Eolith "  flints  could  be  used  to  smash 
open  the  head  of  a  small  strangled  animal,  to  crack  open  tough  vege- 
tables, or  to  mash  substances  into  an  edible  condition.  Much  later, 
after  the  mental  association  of  hand  and  flint  had  been  well  established, 
'  A.  Keith,  "On  the  Chimpanzees  and  their  Relationship  to  the  Gorilla,"  Proc. 
•Zool.  Soc.  London,  1899,  I.  p.  296. 

2  Science,  Vol.  XLll.  Dec.  10,  1915,  p.  843. 

3  A.  H.  Kezxic,  Ethnology,  1901,  p.  iii. 

*  W.  D.  Matthew,  "Climate  and  Evolution,"  Ann.  New  York  Acad.  Set.  XXiv. 
1915,  pp.  210,  214. 


558  Man:  Past  and  Present 

they  may  have  struck  at  intruders  with  the  flints  with  which  they  were 
preparing  their  food  and  in  this  way  they  may  have  learned  to  use  the 
heavier  flints  as  hand  axes  and  daggers.  At  a  very  early  date  they 
learned  to  throw  down  heavy  stones  upon  an  object  to  smash  it,  and 
this  led  finally  to  the  hurling  of  flints  at  men  and  small  game.  Very 
early  also  they  had  learned  to  swing  a  heavy  piece  of  wood  or  a  heavy 
bone  as  a  weapon.  For  all  such  purposes  shorter  and  stoqkier  arms 
are  more  advantageous  than  the  long  slender  arms  of  a  semi-quadru- 
pedal ancestral  stage  and  I  have  argued  above  (p.  333)  that  a  second- 
ary shortening  and  thickening  of  the  arms  ensued. 

One  of  the  first  medium-sized  animals  that  the  nascent  Hominidse 
would  be  successful  in  killing  was  the  wild  boar,  which  in  the  Pleisto- 
cene had  a  wide  Palaearctic  distribution. 

From  the  very  first  the  ape-men  were  more  or  less  social  in  habits 
and  learned  to  hunt  in  packs.  Whether  the  art  of  hunting  began  in 
south  central  Asia  or  in  Europe,  perhaps  one  of  the  first  large  animals 
that  men  learned  to  kill  after  they  had  invaded  the  open  country  was 
the  horse,  because,  when  a  pack  of  men  had  surrounded  a  horse,  a 
single  good  stroke  with  a  coup-de-poing  upon  the  brain-case  might  be 
sufficient  to  kill  it. 

I  have  argued  above  (p.  321)  that  the  retraction  of  the  dental  arch 
and  the  reduction  of  the  canines  is  not  consistent  with  the  use  of  meat 
as  food,  because  men  learned  to  use  rough  flints,  in  place  of  their  teeth, 
to  tear  the  flesh  and  to  puncture  the  bones,  and  because  the  erect  in- 
cisors, short  canines  and  bicuspids  \vere  highly  eff"ective  in  securing  a 
powerful  hold  upon  the  tough  hide  and  connective  tissue.  It  must  be 
remembered  that  with  a  given  muscular  power  small  teeth  are  more 
easily  forced  into  meat  than  large  teeth. 

After  every  feast  there  would  be  a  residuum  of  hide  and  bones  which 
would  gradually  assume  economic  value.  The  hides  of  animals  were 
at  first  rudely  stripped  off  simply  to  get  at  the  meat.  Small  sharp- 
edged  natural  flints  could  be  used  for  this  purpose  as  well  as  to  cut 
the  sinews  and  flesh.  After  a  time  it  was  found  that  the  furry  sides  of 
these  hides  were  useful  to  cover  the  body  at  night  or  during  a  storm. 
Thus  the  initial  stage  in  the  making  of  clothes  may  have  been  a  bi- 
product  of  the  hunting  habit. 

Dr  Matthew  {loc,  cit.  pp.  211,  212)  has  well  suggested  that  man 
may  have  learned  to  cover  the  body  with  the  skins  of  animals  in  a  cool 
temperate  clittiate  (such  as  that  on  the  northern  slopes  of  the  Hima- 
layas) and  that  afterward  they  were  able  to  invade  colder  regions.  The 
use  of  rough  skins  to  cover  the  body  must  have  caused  exposure  to 
new  sources  of  annoyance  and  infection,  but  we  cannot  affirm  that 
natural  selection  was  the  cause  of  the  reduction  of  hair  on  the  body 
and  of  the  many  correlated  modifications  of  glandular  activity.  We 
can  only  affirm  that  a  naked  race  of  mammals  must  surely  have  had 
hairy  ancestors  and  that  the  loss  of  hair  on  the  body  was  probably 
subsequent  to  the  adoption  of  predatory  habits. 

The  food  habits  of  the  early  Hominidse,  and  thus  indirectly  the 
jaws  and  teeth,  were  later  modified  through  the  use  of  fire  for  softening 


Appendix  '  559 

the  food.  Men  had  early  learned  to  huddle  round  the  dying  embers 
of  forest  fires  that  had  been  started  by  lightning,  to  feed  the  fire-monster 
with  branches,  and  to  carry  about  firebrands.  They  learned  eventually 
that  frozen  meat  could  be  softened  by  exposing  it  to  the  fire.  Thus 
the  broiling  and  roasting  of  meat  and  vegetables  might  be  learned 
even  before  the  ways  of  kindling  fire  through  percussion  and  friction 
had  been  discovered.  But  the  full  art  of  cooking  and  the  subsequent 
stages  in  the  reduction  of  the  jaws  and  teeth  in  the  higher  races  pro- 
bably had  to  await  the  development  of  vessels  for  holding  hot  water, 
perhaps  in  neolithic  times. 

This  account  of  the  evolution  of  the  food  habits  of  the  Hominidae 
will  probably  be  condemned  by  experimentalists,  who  have  adduced 
strong  evidence  for  the  doctrine  that  "acquired  characters  "  cannot  be 
inherited.  But,  whatever  the  explanation  may  be,  it  is  a  fact  that  prq- 
gressive  changes  in  food-habits  and  correlated  changes  in  structure 
have  occurred  in  thousands  of  phyla,  the  history  of  which  is  more  or 
less  fully  known.  Nobody  with  a  practical  knowledge  of  the  mechanical 
interactions  of  the  upper  and  lower  teeth  of  mammals,  or  of  the  pro- 
gressive changes  in  the  evolution  of  shearing  and  grinding  teeth,  can 
doubt  that  the  dentition  has  ewolved  pari  passu  with  changes  in  food 
habits.  Whether,  as  commonly  supposed,  the  food  habits  changed  be- 
fore the  dentition,  or  vice  versa,  the  evidence  appears  to  show  that  the 
Hominidae  passed  through  the  following  stages  of  evolution  : 

1.  A  chiefly  frugivorous  stage,  with  large  canines  and  parallel  rows 
of  cheek  teeth  (cf.  Sivapithecus). 

2.  A  predatory,  omnivorous  stage,  with  reduced  canines  and  con- 
vergent tooth  rows  (cf  Homo  heidelbergensis). 

3.  A  stage  in  which  the  food  is  softened  by  cooking  and  the  den- 
tition is  more  or  less  reduced  in  size  and  retrograde  in  character,  as  in 
modernized  types  of  H.  sapiens. 

The  following  is  an  abbreviation  of  Gregory's  arrangement 
of  the  Primates  (pp.  266,  267). 

Order  Primates 

Suborder  Lemuroidea 
Suborder  Anthropoidea 

Series  Platyrrhinse  [New  World  monkeys] 
Fam.  Cebidae 

Fam.  Hapalidse  [Marmosets] 
Series  Catarrhinae  [Old  World  monkeys] 
Fam.  Parapithecidai  [extinct] 
Fam.  Cercopithecidae 
Fam.  Simiidae 

Sub-fam.  Hylobatinae  [Gibbons] 

Sub-fam.  Simiinae  [Simians  or  Anthropoid  apes] 

By  the  courtesy  of  the  author  we  are  permitted  to  repro- 
duce his  provisional  diagram  of  the  phylogeny  of  the  Hominidae 
and  Simiidae  (p.  zzi)- 


56o 


Man :  Past  and  Present 


HQfjlMID>g 


-WW.  found  in  Asia 

..       ..  fljrica 

_^^^^        (>        ■•  &urope 

The  following  explanation  is  offered  for  the  convenience 
of  those  who  may  not  be  familiar  with  the  technical  terms 
here  employed. 

Simia,  the  genus  containing  the  orang-utan. 

Pan,  a  name  occasionally  employed  for  the  genus  containing  the  chim- 
panzee. Most  authorities  place  the  chimpanzee  and  the  gorilla  in 
•■  the  genus  Anthropopithecus. 

Hylobatince,  the  sub-family  containing  the  gibbons. 

PalcBopithecus,  Dryopithecus,  PcUczosimia,  and  Sivapithecus  are  extinct 
simians. 

Pan  vetus  is  the  name  suggested  by  Miller'  for  the  supposed  chimpan- 
zee whose  jaw  was  found  associated  with  the  Piltdown  cranium. 
He*  says  "  The  Piltdown  remains  include  parts  of  a  brain-case 
showing  fundamental  characters  not  hitherto  known  except  in 
members  of  the  genus  Homo,  and  a  mandible,  two  molars,  and  an 
upper  canine  showing  equally  diagnostic  features  hitherto  un- 
known, except  in  members  of  the  genus  Pan  [Anthropopithecus]. 
On  the  evidence  furnished  by  these  characters  the  fossils  must  be 
supposed  to  represent  either  a  single  individual  belonging  to  an 

1  Gerrit  S.  Miller,  "The  Jaw  of  Piltdown  Man,"  Smithsonian  Misc.  Coll.  Vol.  65, 
No.  12,  1915. 


Appendix  561 

otherwise  unknown  extinct  genus  (Eoanthropus)  or  to  two  indivi- 
duals belonging  to  two  now-existing  families  (Hominidce  and  Pon- 
gidce)"  He  argues  that  the  jaw  was  actually  that  of  a  chimpanzee 
and  that  the  cranium  was  that  of  a  true  man,  whom  he  terms 
Homo  Dawsoni.  Gregory  accepts  this  hypothesis.  W.  P.  Pycraft^ 
has  submitted  Miller's  data  and  conclusions  to  searching  criticism 
and  bases  his  deductions  on  far  more  ample  material  than  that 
at  the  disposal  of  Miller.  He  says  "  That  the  Piltdown  jaw  does 
present  many  points  of  striking  resemblance  to  that  of  the  chim- 
panzee is  beyond  dispute.  Dr  Smith  Woodward  pointed  out  these 
resemblances  long  ago,  in  his  original  description  of  the  jaw.  But 
Mr  Miller  contends  that  because  of  these  resemblances  therefore 
it  is  the  jaw  of  a  chimpanzee  "  {loc.  cit.  p.  408).  Pycraft  points  out 
that  there  is  more  variability  in  the  jaws  of  chimpanzees  than 
Miller  was  aware  of.  and  that  most  of  the  features  of  the  Piltdown 
jaw  are  well  within  the  limits  of  human  variation ;  in  discussing 
the  conformation  of  the  inner  surface  of  the  body  of  the  jaw  he 
says  "  Between  the  two  extremes  seen  in  the  jaws  of  chimpanzees 
every  gradation  will  be  found,  but  in  no  case  would  there  be  any 
possibility  of  confusing  the  Piltdown  fragment,  or  any  similar 
fragment  of  a  modern  human  jaw,  with  similar  fragments  of  chim- 
panzee jaws  "  (p.  407). 

>  "The  Jaw  of  the  Piltdown  Man,  a  Reply  to  Mr  Gerrit  S.  Miller,"  Science 
Progress,  No.  43,  1917,  p.  389. 


36 


INDEX 


Thanks  are  due  to  Hilary  and  Patrick  Quiggin  for  help  in  the  preparation, 
and  to  Miss  L.  Whitehouse  for  help  in  the  revision,  of  the  index. 


Ababdeh,  the,  483 

Abaka,  the,  78 

Abbadie,  A.  d',  123 

Abbot,  W.  J.  L.,  7 

Abipone,  the,  420 

Abkhasian  language,  the,  541 

Abnaki,the,3S4,37S,andmap,pp.334— S 

Abo,  the,  117 

Abor,  the,  ijon. 

Abud,  H.  M.,  484  sq. 

Abydos,  excavations  at,  481 

Abyssinians,  the,  468  sq. 

Achaeans,  the,  463,  466,  533  sq. 

Acheulean  culture,  11,  14 

Achinese,  the,  223,  238  sq. 

Acolhuas,  the,  342,  394 

Acoma,  the,  382  n. 

Adam,  L.j  283,  415  n. 

Adelung,  J.  C,  127  n. 

Aderbaijani,  the,  312 

Aegean,  the,  culture  of,  25  sq.,  463  sqq., 

467  sq.,  501  sq.;  prehistoric  chronology 

of,  27 ;  race,  466 
Aeneolithic  period,  21,  460 
Aeta,  the,  138,  149,  156  sqq.,  and  PI.  H 

fig- 3 
Afars,  the,  468  sq.,  484  sqq. 
Afghans,  the,  542  sq.,  546 
Ahoms,  the,  192 

Ahtena,  the,  361,  and  map,  pp.  334 — J 
Aimaks,  the,  312 
Aimores.     See  Botocudos 
Ainu,  the,  289, 294  sq.,  and  PI.  Vll  figs.- 1 , 2 
Akkadians,  the,  261  sqq.,  264 
Akua.    See,  Cherentes 
Alakalufs,  the,  411  ;  language  of,  413 
Alans,  the,  312,  540 
Albanians,  the,  532,  538  sq. 
Algonquian  linguistic  stock,  the,  342, 347, 

354sq.,  37osqq.,  381 
Algonquin,   the,   347  n.   and   map,   pp. 

334—5 

Alldridge,  T.  J.,  56  n. 

Alpine  race,  the,  449,  452  sq..  Pi.  XI  figs. 
3,  4,  6,  and  PI.  Xiv  figs.  3—6  ;  in  the 
Morea,  465  ;  in  Western  Asia,  498, 
504 ;  in  Scandinavia,  509 ;  in  Germany, 
509  sq.;  in  France,  510,  525  sqq.;  in 
the  Tyrol,  512;  and  the  Celts,  5i4sq. ; 
in  Britain,  5 16  sqq. ;  in  Italy,  529;  m 
Russia,  539  sq. ;  in  Irania,  541  sqq. ;  in 
Central  Asia,  544  sq. ;  in  India,  547  sq. 


Altamira  cave  art,  13 

Alur,  the,  79 

Ama-Fingu,  the,  102 

Ama-Tembu,  the,  104 

Ama-Xosa,  the,  loi 

Ama-Zulu,  the,  loi 

Amits,  the,  250 

Ammon,  O.,  511 

Ammonites,  the,  490 

Amorites,  the,  489  sq.,  493,  545 

Anau,  exploration  of,  257  sq. 

Andaman  Islanders,  the,  138,  149  sqq., 

155,  158,  and  PI.  II  fig.  I 
Anderson,  J.  D.,  546  n. 
Anderson,  John,  186  n. 
Andi  language,  the,  541 
Andrae,  W.,  264  n. 

Angami  Naga,  the,  178;  language,  177 
A-Ngoni,  the,  102 
Annamese,  the,  180,  202  sqq. 
Annandale,  N.,  153,  222  «. 
Anorohoro,  the,  242 
Ansariyeh,  the,  497 
Antankarana,  the,  241 
Antimerina.    See  Hova 
Anu,  the,  197 
Anuchin,  A,  289 
Apaches,  the,  342,  354,  383 
Aquitani,  the,  525 
Arabs,  the,  468,  470  sqq.,  480,  488,  495, 

498  sqq. 
Arakanese,  the,  180 
Aramaeans,  the,  489  sq. 
Aramka,  the,  73 
Arapaho,  the,    354,  370,  372,   374,  and 

map,  pp.  334— S 
Araucanians,   the,   409  sqq. ;   language, 

412 
Arawakan  linguistic  stock,  415  sq. 
Arawaks,  the,  348,  399,  416 
Arbois   de  Jubainville,  M.  H.  d',  459, 

514  «. 
Arcadians,  the,  466 
Argentina,  fossil  man  in,  338 
Arikara,   the,   355,   371,  and   map,  pp. 

334— S 
Aristov,  N.  A,  316  «. 
Arldt,  T.,  93 
Armenians, the,  449,498,  545,  and  PI.  Xiv 

figs-  3,  4 
Armenoids,  the,  449,  450  sq.,  479,  481, 

497  sq. 


Index 


563 


Aruan,  the,  416 

Arunta,  the,  429,  435  sqq. 

Arvernians.    See  Alpine  race 

Aryan  languages.     See  Indo-European 

languages 
"Aryans,"  the,  441  sq.,  449,   501  sqq.; 

"  cradle  "  of,  503  sq. 
Aryans,  the.  in   India,  505  sq.,  545  sq., 

550  and  PI.  XV  figs.  1-3 
Aryo-Dravidian  type,  Risley's,  546 
Asha,  the,  485 
Ashango,  the,  115 
Ashanti,  the,  58  sq. 
Ashe,  R.  P.,  95  n. 
Ashluslays,  the,  421 
Aspelin,  J.  R.,  309  ».,  319 
Assami,  the,  193,  550 
Assiniboin,  the,  355,  370,  372,  and  map, 

PP-  334—5 
Assyrians,  the,  488  sq.,  492 
Atacamenos,  the,  408 
Atarais,  the,  416 
Athapascan  hnguistic  stock,   the,   342, 

347,  354,  363,  383 
Atharaka,  the,  97  n. 
Aucaes.    See  Araucanians 
Auetb,  the,  348,  419 
Aurignacian  man,  2,  9,  10  ;  culture,  12, 

14 
Australians,  the,  422, 426 — 437,  and  PI.  X 

figs.  5,  6 ;  languages  of,  428  sqq. 
Austronesian  languages,  221,  223,  240 
Autenrieth,  H.  von,  237  n. 
Avars,  the,  310,  326,  329  sq.,  531 
Ayamats,  the,  52 
Aymara,  the,  407,  419 
Aysa,  the,  485 
Azandeh,  the,  44 
Azilian  culture,  12  sqq. 
Aztecs,  the,  384,  389—395,  397 

Babine,  the,  361,  and  map,  pp.  334 — 5 

Babir,  the,  70 

Babylonia,  Copper  Age  in,  22 ;  Bronze 
Ag:e  in,  24;  chronology,  27,  264  sq. ; 
writing,  32  sqq. ;  influence  of,  on  China, 
207  sq. ;  inhabitants,  261  sqq.,  488  sq., 
491  sqq. ;  religion,  268;  social  system, 
269;  culture,  270  sq.,  491 ;  connection 
with  Egypt,  481 

Badakhshi,  the,  544 

Baele,  the,  73 

Baelz,  E.,  294,  296  n. 

Ba-Fiot.    See  Eshi-Kongo 

Ba-Ganda,  the,  44,  94  sqq.,  248 

Ba-Gesu,  the,  91  n. 

Baggara,  the,  74,  471  n. 

Baghirmi,  the,  69,  72 

Bagobo,  the,  247 

Bahau,  the,  231. 


Ba-Hima,  the,  91,  93,  468,  484,  486 

Ba-Huana,  the,  115 

Baining,  the,  142 

Bajau,  the,  228 

Ba-Kalai,  the,  115 

Baka'iri,  the,  348,  415 

Ba-Kene,  the,  91 

Ba-Kish,  the,  117 

Ba-Kundu,  the,  117 

Ba-Kwiri,  the,  117 

Balagnini,  the,  228 

Balbi,  A.,  420  n. 

Balinese,  the,  224 

Balkashin,  M.,  316  «. 

Ball,  C.  J.,  208  «. 

Ball,  J.,  Dyer,  212  «.,  216  n. 

Baloch,  the,  546 

Ba-Lolo,  the,  no,  114 

Ba-Long,  the,  117 

Balti,  the,  167 

Balto-Slavs,  the,  506 

Ba-Luba,  the,  113 

Ba-Mangwato,  the,  109 

Ba-Mba,  the,  112 

Bambara,  the,  49,  50 

Bancroft,  H.  H.,  353 

Bandelier,  A.  F.,  383  n. 

Bandziri,  the,  87 

Banjars,  the,  52 

Bantu,   the,   compared   with    Sudanese 

Negro,  44  sqq. ;  Chap.  iv.  passim  ;  in 

Madagascar,  239  sq. 
Ba-Nyai,  the,  105 
Ba-Nyoro,  the,  92 
Banyuns,  the,  52 
Ba-Puti,  the,  109 
Bara,  the,  244  sq. 
Barabra,  the,  75  sqq.,  484 
.  Bara  wan,  the,  231 
Barea,  the,  42 
Bari,  the,  78,  79 
Ba-Rolong,  the,  106 
Ba-Rotse,  the,  106  sqq. 
Barrett,  W.  E.  H.,  100  «. 
Barth,  H.,  5 1,  64  «.,  65  sq.,  70  sq.,  72  «. 
Bary,  E.  von,  446  «. 
Ba-Sa,  the,  117 
Ba-Sange,  the,  113 
Base,  the,  42 
Ba-Senga,  the,  105 
Ba-Shilartge,  the,  no,  113 
Bashkirs,  the,  303,  318  sq.,  328  «. 
Ba-Soga,  the,  91  n. 
Ba-Songe,  the,  113 
Basques,  the,  454  sqq.,  526  sq. 
Bastarnae,  the,  326,  507 
Ba-Suto,  the,  104,  106 
Batak,  the,  247 
Ba-Tanga,  the,  117 
Ba-Tau,  the,  109 

36—2 


564 


Man:   Past  and  Present 


Batchelor,  J.,  295  n. 

Ba-Teke,  the,  115 

Bateman,  C.  S.  L.,  113 

Bates,  O.,  468 

Ba-Teso,  the,  91  n. 

Ba-Thonga,  the,  102 

Ba-Tlapin,  the,' 106 

Batta,  the,  237  sq. 

Ba-Twa,  the,  125,  130 

Bavaria,  blond  type  in,  510;  Mongoloid 

traits  in,  512  «. 
Bayaj  the,  88 
Ba-Yanzi,  the,  120 
Ba-Yong,  the,  117 
Bayots,  the,  52 
Bean,  R.  B.,  248 

Beaver,  the,  361,  and  map,  pp.  334 — 5 
Beccari,  O.,  231  n. 

Be-Chuana,  the,  44, 49,  104,  106,  108  sq. 
Beddoe,  J.,  449,  462,  522 
Bede,  the,  70 

Bedouin,  the,  499  sq.,  545,and  PI.  xu  fig.  5 
Beech,  M.  W.  H.,  486«. 
Behr,  V.  D.  v.,  450  n. 
Beja,  the,  76  sq.,  443,  468  sq.,  483  sq. 
Bektash,  the,  497 
Belck,  W.,  26  «. 
Belgae,  the,  526  sq. 
Belgium,  neolithic  inhabitants  o^  451 
Bellacoola,  the,  363,  and  map,  pp.  334 — 5 
Bengali,  the,  547,  550 
Beni  Amer,  the,  483  sq. 
Bent,  J.  T.,  44,  89,  105,  466  «.,  493 
Bentley,  W.  H.,  iii,  119 
Berbers,  the,  448,  449  n.,  45b  sqq.,  .453, 

468—472,  476;  language  of,  453  sqq-, 

472  sq. 
Bernard,  A.,  137 
Berrakis,  the,  544 
Bertholon,  L.,  448 
Bertin,  G.,  129 
Bertrand,  A.,  457 
Bertrand-Bocand^,  M.,  53  «. 
Betoya,  linguistic  stock,  415 
Betsiko,  the,  242  sqq. 
Betsimisaraka,  the,  242  sq. 
Beuchat,  H.,  389 «.,  392,  394 «.,  397  «., 

399,  406  «.,  421  n. 
Bhotiya,  the,  169  sq. 
Bicol,  the,  221  «.,  247 
Biddulph,  J.,  542  «.,  543  sq. 
Bigandet,  P.,  186,  190 
Bigger,  F.  J.,  520 
Billet,  A.,  197  sq. 
Binger,  L.  G.,  50  n.,  52,  62 
Bingham,  H.,  405  n. 
Bini,  the,  58  sq. 
Bird,  G.  W.,  188  «. 
Bisayas,  the,  221 
Bisharin,  the,483  sq.,  andPl.  Xlllfigs.  l,  2 


Bishop,  I.  (Bird),  197  «.,  218  «.,  293  «. 

Blackfoot.    See  Siksika 

Blagden,   C.  O.,   153 «.,  154  »•>  222  ?«., 

426  n. 
Bleek,  E.  D.,  128  «. 
Bleek,  W.  H.  I.,  118,  128  sq. 
Blood  Indians.    See  Kainah 
Blumentritt,  F.,  156  «. 
Blundell,  H.  Weld,  487  n. 
Boas,  F.,  343,  347^-,  358sq.,  364  sqq-, 

367  n. 
Bock,  Carl,  192  «.,  194 
Bodo,  the,  547 
Bod-pa,  the,  168  sq.,  171 
Bogoras,  W.,  288,  341 
Boghaz  Keui,  496,  502  n. 
BoUaert,  W.,  403  n. 
Bongo,  the,  78  sq. 
Bonjo,  the,  87 
Bonvalot,  P.  G.,  544 
Booth,  A.  J.,  34  n. 
Borgu,  the,  62 
Bori,  the,  I70«. 
Borlase,  W.  C.,  520 
Borneo,  natives  of,  230  sqq. 
Boro,  the,  414 
Bororo,  the,  411  sq.,  415 
Borreby  type,  the,  509  n. 
Botocudo,  the,  416  sqq. 
Bottego,  v.,  81  n. 
Boule,  M.,  8  sq. 
Bove,  G.,  413 
Bowditch,  C.  P.,  393  n. 
Brahui,  the,  546,  550 
Braknas,  the,  469 
Bretons,  the,  449  «.,  529  sq. 
Brett,  E.  A.  de,  548  n. 
Breuil,  H.,  I3«. 
Bridges,  T.,  401  «.,  413 
Brinton,  D.  G.,  337 
Britain,  neolithic  inhabitants  of,  45 1  sqq. ; 

and  prehistoric  trade  routes,  501 ;  races 

of,  516  sqq.,  524 
Broca,  P.,  456,  51:2 
Brocklehurst,  T.  U.,  393  «.,  397  n. 
Brjrfgger,  W.  C.,  14 
Brooks,  W.  K.,  399 
Brown,  A.  R.,  151,  431  «.,  432  sqq. 
Brown,  G.,  146 «.,  555  «. 
Brown,  J;  M.,  353,  552  «.,  555  «. 
Brown,  R.,  181  n. 
Brown,  R.  Grant,  190 
Briickner,  E.,  13  sqq. 
Briinn,  skeleton,  the,  9 
Briix  skull,  the,  9 
Brythons,  the,  5 1 5 
Budini,  the,  536 
Buduma,  the,  69 
Bugis,  the,  224,  226  sqq.,  236 
Bukidnon,  the,  247 


Index 


565 


Bulala,  the,  73 

Bulams,  the,  53 

Bulgarians,  the,  532 

Bulgars,  the,  318,  336  sqq.,  329 

Burduna,  the,  435 

Burish  dialect,  542  n. 

Burmese,  the,  180,  188  sqq.,  547  ;  lan- 
guage, 177  «. 

Burton,  Sir  R.,  116 

Bury,  J.  B.,  303  n. 

Buryats,  the,  272,  277 

Buschmann,  K.  E.,  393 

Bushmen,  the,  12,  30,  226  sqq.,  and  PI.  I 
figs.  5,  6 ;  traces  of,  in  Egypt,  476 

Bwais,  the,  187 

Byrne,  J.,  283,  346  n. 

By»on-Gordon  G.,  397 

Caddo,  the,  355 

Caddoan  linguistic  stock,  the,  355,  381 

Cagayans,  the,  247 

California,  Indians  of,  368  sqq.   See  map, 

PP-  334—5 

Callilehet,  the,  411 

Cambeba,  the,  419  «. 

Cambojans,  the,  180 

Canaanites,  the,  489  sq.,  493,  503 

Canary  Islands,  natives  of  the,  448,  450, 
480 

Capitan,  L.,  9  n. 

Carabuyanas,  the,  348 

Carapaches,  the,  414 

Carey,  S.,  183 

Cariban  linguistic  stock,  415 

Caribs,  the,  399,  415  sq.,  and  PI.  IX  fig.  i 

Carpin,  J.  du  P.,  328  n. 

Carrier,  the,  361  sq.,  and  map,  pp.  334 — 5 

Carruthers,  D.,  257 

Cartailhac,  E.,  13  n. 

Cashibos,  the,  414 

Castrto,  M.  A.,  278,  317 

Catios,  the,  400  sq. 

"Caucasic,"  definition  of,  440sq.;  peoples. 
Chaps.  XIII,  XIV,  XV ;  type  in  Central 
Asia,  291  sq. ;  in  Knno-Turki  Mon- 
gols, 300  sqq. 

Caucasus,  racial  elements  in  the,  540  sq. 

Cayuga,  the,  354,  377 

Cebunys,  the,  342 

Celts,  the,  442,  457,  459,  462  «.,  506, 
513  sqq.,  525;  languageof,453,  512,  515 

Cesnola,  L.  P.  di,  463 

Chadwick,  H.  M.,  465  «.,  466  «.,  507  n., 
508  «.,  5I3«. 

Chaldeans,  the,  490 

Chalmers,  J.,  146  «. 

Chamberlain,  A.  F.,  344,  375  n. 

Chamberlain,  B.  H.,  296  sq. 

Champas,  the,  166,  180,  203 

Champion,  A.  M.,  97  n. 


Chanda,  Ramaprasad,  547 

Chandra  Das,  S.,  169  «.,  175  «. 

Chanler,  W.  A.,  124 

Chantre,  E.,  540 

Chao,  the,  411 

Chatelperron  industry,  the,  1 2 

Chavanne,  J.,  446 

Chavero,  A.,  393 «. 

Chechenz  language,  541 

Chekhs,  the,  331,  532,  537 

Chellean  culture,  7,  1 1,  14  sq. 

Cheremisses,  the,  325 

Cherentes,  the,  417 

Cherokee,  the,  32  n.,  342,  354,  378,  and 

map,  pp.  334—5 
Chervm,  A.,  407 
Cheyenne,  the,  354,  357,  no,  372,  374, 

and  map,  pp.  334—5 
Chibcha,  the,  402  sqq.,  421  n. 
Chichimecs,  the,  342,  388  n.,  394 
Chickasaw,  the,  355,  378,  and  map,  pp. 

334—5 
Childsi,  the,  544 
Chiliks,  the,  316 
Chimakuan,  the,  363 
Chimmesayan,  the,  355 
Chimu,  the,  407  sq. 
China,  prehistoric  age  in,  30  sq. 
Chinese,  the,  193  sqq.,  206  sqq. 
Cbingpaws.    See  Singpho 
Chinhwans,  the,  250 
Chinook,  the,  363,  366,  and  map,  pp. 

334—5 
Chins,  the,  182  sqq. 

Chipewyan,  the,  361,  and  map,  pp.  334 — 5 
Chiquito,  the,  348,  420 
Chiriqui,  the,  400,  421  n. 
Chiru,  the,  178 
Chitimachan,  the,  381 
Chocos,  the,  400  sq. 
Choctaw,  the,  355,  378,  and   map,  pp. 

334—5 
Choglengs,  the,  417 
Chontals,  the,  400 
Choroti,  the,  421 
Christian,  F.  W.,  555  ;^. 
Chudes,  the,  258,  301,  317,  319.  sq. 
Chukchi,  the,  274  sq.,.  277,  285  sqq.,  344 
Church,  G.  E.,  348 
Churchill,  W.,  552  ra. 
Cimbri,  the,  507 
Circassians,  the,  541 
Clark,  C.  U.,  317  n. 
Clifford,  H.,  153  sqq.,  22171.,  229 
Clozel,  F.  J.,  88,  90 
Coahuila,  the,  342 
Cochiti,  the,  382  «. 
Cockburn,  J.,  166  n. 
Cocks,  A.  H.,  323 
Cocoma,  the,  401 


566 


Man:   Past  and  Present 


Cocopa,  the,  383,  and  PI.  viii  fig.  3 

Coconuco,  the,  404 

Codrington,  R.,  102  n. 

Codrington,  R.  H.,  146  «.,  241  n. 

Coffey,  G.,  23«.,  26,  520  «. 

Cole,  Fay-Cooper,  248  n. 

CoUas,  the,  406  sq. 

CoUignon,  R.,  448,  455  sq.,  469 

Colquhoun,  A.  R.,  193  «.,  202 

Colvile,  Z.,  243  «.,  244 

Comanche,  the,  355,  370,  372,  and  map, 

PP-  334— S 
Combe  Capelle  skeleton,  the,  9,  10 
Conestoga,  the,  354 
Conibos,  the,  414 
Conway,    R.    S.,  453  «.,  457  «.,  467  «., 

513  «.,  529 
Congo  pygmies,  the,  122,  125;  in  Egypt, 

122,  124,  476 
Cook,  S.  A.,  494  n. 
Cool,  W.,  225 
Cooper,  J.  M.,  413  «. 
Coorgs,  the,  546  sq. 
Corequajes,  the,  415  «. 
Coroados.    See  Kamds  • 
Corsicans,  the,  461 
Cowan,  W.  D.,  242  «. 
Coyaima,  the,  402 
Crawfurd,  J.,  146  sq. 
Cree,  the,  354 ;  Plains-Cree,  371  ;  Wood- 

Cree,  375,  and  map,  pp.  334—5 
Creek,  the,  355,  378  sq.,  and  map,  pp. 

334—5 

Crete,  bronze  in,  25;  iron  in,  26;  ex- 
ploration in,  463,  467 ;  Pelasgians  in, 
464,  466 ;  language,  454 ;  and  prehis- 
toric trade  routes,  502 

Crevaux,  J.,  415  n. 

Croatians,  the,  532,  537  sq. 

Cro-Magnon  skeletons,  the,  9,  448,  450 

Crook,  Dr  W.,  189 «.,  306 «.,  308 «.,  445«., 
548 

Crossland,  C,  484  n. 

Crow,  the,  355,  370,  372,  and  map,  pp. 

334-5 
Cummins,  S.  L.,  79  «. 
Cunas,  the,  400 
Cunningham,  A.,  176 
Cunningham,  J.  F.,  94  n. 
Curzon,  G.  N.,  Lord,  204 
Gushing,  F.  H.,  381,  385  «.,  387/2. 
Cyprus,  463  ;    Pelasgians  in,  464,  467  ; 

and  prehistoric  trade  routes,  502 
Czaplicka,  M.  A.,  275,  277  «.,  325 

Dadikes.    See  Tajiks 
Dafias,  the,  170 
Dahae,  the,  306  sq. 
Dahle,  L.,  241,  245 
Dahomi,  the,  58  sq. 


Dakota,  the,  355, 370sqq.,  andPl.viiifigs. 

5' 6 
Dalton,  E.  T.,  170M.,  186 «.,  192 «.,  548 

Dalton,  O.  M.,  62 

Damant,  G.  H.,  178  n. 

Damara.    See  Ova-Herero 

Dames,  M.  Longworth,  548/;. 

Dandkil.    See  Afars 

Danes,  the,  449,  and  PI.  XI  figs,  i — 3 

Dards,  the,  167 

Dir6d,  the,  485 

Darwazi,  the,  544 

Darwin,  C,  401 «.,  413 

Dauri,  the,  281 

Dawson,  C.,  3  n.,  6  n. 

Daza,  the,  473 

D^chelette,  J.,  on  the  prehistoric  period, 
1 1  «.,  13  «.,  21 «.,  22  «.,  25  «.,  26,  27  «., 
28  «.,  35  ;  Iberians,  455  n. ;  Ligurians, 
456  sqq. ;  Siculi,  460  n.  ;  .lEgean 
chronology,  467  «. ;  trade  routes,  502  n. 

Dfecle,  L.,  91 

Deggaras,  the,  68 

Dehiya.    See  Dahae 

Dehwar.    See  Tajik 

Delaware  (Leni  Lenap^),  language,  349 

Ddnd  (Tinneh),  the,  354,  361  sqq.,  and 
map,  pp.  334— S 

Deniker,  J.,  38  «.,  240  n.,  295,  346,  413  «., 
469,  483^.,  511,  539 

Denmark,  Alpine  type  in,  509 

Dennett,  R.  E.,  45  «.,  58  n. 

Deodhaings,  the,  192 

Desgodins,- P.,  l67«.,  170^.,  171,  196,' 
J97  n. 

Dewey,  H.,  10  «. 

Dh&    See  Dahae 

DiaramockS,  the,  250 

Diasu,  the,  197 

Dieseldorff,  E.  P.,  342,  389 

Dinka,  the,  46,  78  sqq.,  484 

Dittmar,  C.  von,  286 

Diula,  the,  51/2. 

Dixon,  R.  B.,  347,  355  sq. 

Dog  Rib,  the,  361,  and  map,  pp.  334 — 5 

Doko,  the,  123 

Dongolawi,  the,  75^ 

Dorians,  the,  466,  468,  505,  534 

Dorpfeld,  W.,  466 

Dorsey,  G.  A.,  372  n.  sqq.,  385  n. 

Dottin,  G.,  5I4«. 

Dravidians,  the,  428,  546  sq.,  549  sqq., 
and  PI.  XV  figs.  4,  5 ;  language,  550 

Dris,  Rajah,  230 

Drouin,  M.,  307 

Dru-pa,  the,  168 

Druses,  the,  498,  545, 

Du  Bois,  C.  G.,  370 

Dubois,  E.,  3  n. 

Dubois,  F.,  65 


Index 


567 


Duckworth,  W.  L.  H.,  2  «.,  3  «.,  4  «.,  8, 

243.  343  »• 
Dume,  the,  123  sq. 
Dumont,  A.,  447 
Dundas,  C,  486  n. 
Dungan,  the,  311 
Duodez  language,  541 
Durani,  the,  543 
Durkheim,  E.,  430 
Dusun,  the,  230  sq. 
Dwaish,  the,  469 
Dwala  (Duala),  the,  47«.,  117 
Dybowski,  M.,  86  sq. 
Dzo,  the,  178 

Ebisu,  the,  261 

Edkins,  J.,  211  n. 

Edomites,  the,  490 

Efiks,  the,  1 1 7 

Egypt,  Copper  Age  in,  21  sq. ;  Bronze 
Age  in,  24  sq. ;  Iron  Age  in,  26 ;  pre- 
historic chronology, 27 ;  writing,  32 sq.; 
Pelasgian  influence  in,  464 ;  racial  ele- 
ments in,  474 — 481 ;  and  Babylonia, 
481,  501 ;  and  Palestine,  493 

Egyptians,  the,  450,  453,  455,  468, 474— 

483 
Ehrenreich,  P.,  38,  331,  347  sq.,  410  sq., 

415,  417.  420,  441,  443 
Elam,  Copper  Age  in,  22  ;  Bronze  Age 

in,  25 
Elamites,  the,  266 
Ehot,  C,  97  n. 
Ehri,  the,  75 

ElUs,  A.  B.,  47  «.,  55  «;,  58  sqq.,  119 
Ellis,  Havelock,  528 
Elphinstone,  Mountstuart,  544 
Emerillons,  the,  419 
Emmons,  G.  T.,  363  n. 
Endle,  S.,  548  n. 
Enoch,  C.  R.,  353 

Eoanthropus  Dawsoni.    See  Piltdown 
Eolithic  period,  10 
Ephthalites.    See  Yd-tha 
Ercilla,  A.  de,  409  n. 
Erie,  the,  375,  and  map,  pp.  334—5 
Eshi-Kongo,  the,  no,  112,  248 
Eskimauan  linguistic  stock,  the,  354 
Eskimo,  the,  Alaskan,  343,  357  sq.,  401 ; 

Labrador,  343,  357  sq.  ;  Asiatic,  344 ; 

"  blonde,"    360 ;    see    also    map,    pp. 

334 — s,  and  PI.  VIII  fig.  I 
Esthonians,  the,  320 
Ethiopians.    See  Eastern  Hamites 
Etruscan  language,  453 
Etruscans,  the,  512  sq. 
Euahlayi,  the,  436 
Europaeus,  D.  E.  D.,  319  «. 
Evans,  Sir  A.  J.,  454  «•,  463 
Evans,  Sir  J.,  7 


Ewe,  the,  46,  58 

Faidherbe,  L.  L.  C,  450 

Falghars,  the,  543 

Fallmerayer,  J.  P.,  535 

Fans,  the  (West  Africa),  81  «.,  115 

Fans,  the  (Zerafshan),  543 

Fanti,  the,  58  sq. 

Farrand,  L.,  354,  386  n. 

Featherman,  A.,  62  n. 

Feist,  S.,  452,  454,  457  «.,  503  «.,  504  sq., 
507  «.,  513,  527  «. 

Felups,  the,  52  sq. 

Fenner,  C.  N.,  339 

Fermuli.    See  Purmuli 

Fewkes,  J.  W.,  350,  384  sqq.,  387  n. 

Finlay,  G.,  535  n. 

Finno-Turki  Mongols,  the,  Chap.  IX. 
passim 

Finno-Ugrians,  the,  3 1 9  sq. ;  language,  454 

Finns,  the,  317 sqq.,  504,  5o8,  53i,  S36«- ; 
Danubian,  318;  Volga,  318,  320;  Bal- 
tic, 320  sq. ;  Tavastian,  320,  322 ; 
Karelian,  ib. 

Finsch,  O.,  146  «. 

Fishberg,  M.,  496  n. 

Fitzgerald,  W.  W.  A.,  98 

Fitz-Roy,  R.,  413 

Five  Nations,  the,  354,  375>  377 

Flat-heads  (Columbia  River).  See  Chi- 
nook 

Flat-heads  (Inland  Salish),  the,  343,  366 

Fleischer,  H.  L.,  241 

Fletcher,  A.  C,  372  n.  sq. 

Fleure,  H.  J.,  522 

Flower,  Sir  W.,  123 

Forstemann,  E.,  342,  389  sq.,  394,  396 

Folkmar,  D.,  1 56  «. 

Foote,  R.  B.,  545  n. 

Forbes,  C.J.  F.  S.,  147,  188  «. 

Foreman,  J.,  156,  246 «.,  247  sq. 

Formosa,  aborigines  of,  248  sqq. 

Fouill^e,  A.,  sio«. 

Foy,  W.,  236  n. 

Fraipont,  J.,  8  n. 

France,  neolithic  inhabitants  of,  451  sq. ; 
racial  elements  in,  510  sq.,  525  sqq. 

Frazer,  Sir  J.  G.,  364,  430 

Freeman,  E.  A.,  460  n. 

Friederici,  G.,  138  sq. 

Friis,  J.  A.,  323 

Fritsch,  G.,  126 

Frobenius,  L.,  62  n. 

Fuegians,  the,  401,  411,  413 

Fulah,  the,  46,  53,  59,  66  sq.,  73,  75.  gov 
468,  476,  482  sq. 

Fulani.    See  Fulah 

Fulbe.    5^1?  Fulah 

Fuluns,  the,  52 

Funj,  the,  78 


568 


Man  :  Past  and  Present 


Fur,  the,  75 

Furfooz  brachycephals,  the,  451 
Furlong,  C.  W.,  413  «. 
Furness,  W.  H.,  234  n. 
.  Furtwangler,  A.,  507 

Ga,  the,  58  sq. 
Gabelenz,  G.  v.  d.,  454 
Gadabursi,  the,  485 
Gaddanes,  the,  157 
Gadiow,  H.,  395  n. 
Gagelin,  Abbd,  204 
"Gaillard,  R.,  69  n. 
Gait,  E.  A.,  192  «.,  551  n. 
Galatians,  the,  545 
Galcha,  the,  541,  543  sq. 
Galchic  language,  541  sqq. 
Galibi,  the,  416 

Galla,  the,  90  sqq.,  98,  468,  485  sq. 
Galley  Hill  skeleton,  the,  8  sq. 
Gallinas,  the,  53 
Gamergu,  the,  70 
Gannett,  H.,  248  n. 
Garamantes,  the,  473 
Garhwali,  the,  170 
Garner,  R.  L.,  SS7 
Gatschet,  A.  S.,  379  n. 
Gauchos,  the,  410 
Gautier,  J.  E.,  258 
Geer,  Baron  G.  de,  14  sq. 
Geikie,  J.,  14,  i6«.,  123 «. 
Gentil,  E.,  69 
Georgians,  the,  541 
Gepidae,  the,  329 
Germanic  race.    See  Nordic  race 
Germans,  the,  318,  321 
Germany,  racial  elements  in,  509  sq. 
Gesan  linguistic  stock,  41 5  sq. 
Getae,  the,  326 
Ghegs,  the,  538 
Ghuz.    See  Oghuz 
Giao-shi,  the,  203 
Gibbons,  A.  St  H.,  107  n. 
Gibraltar  skull,  the,  8 
Gidley,  J.  W.,  339 
Giles,  H.  A.,  215  «.,  218  «.,  280 «. 
Giles,  P.,  34».,  453  »•,  467,  503  «•>  S04 
Gill,  W.,  197  n. 
Gillen,  F.  J.,  430,  436 «. 
Gilyaks,  the,  274  sq.,  277,  285,  288  sq., 

344,  and  PI.  VI  fig.  6 
Gladstone,  J.  H.,  21,  24 
Gleichen,  A.  E.  W.,  487  n. 
Goddard,  P.  E.,  383«. 
Sodden,  G.  M.,  177  «. 
Goez,  B.,  543 
Goidels,  the,  515 
Gola,  the,  53 
Golds,  the,  274  sq.,  277,  289;  and  PI.  Vi 

fig- 5 


Goliki,  the,  172 

Golo,  the,  78  sq. 

Gomes,  E.  H.,  234  «. 

Gonaqua,  the,  128 

Gorjanovic-Kramberger,  8  n. 

G6rs,  the,  544 

Goths,  the,  449,  508,  540 

Gowland,  W.,  260 

Graebner,  F.,  139,  350;  429  sqq. 

Grasserie,  R.  de  la,  345  n. 

Gravette  industry,  the,  12 

Gray.  J->  522 

Greece,  prehistoric  chronology  of,  27 

Greeks,  the,  463  sqq!,  466,  532  sqq. 

Gregory,  W.  K.,  556,  559  sqq. 

Grenard,  F.,  169  «. 

Grey,  Sir  G.,  237 

Grierson,  G.  A.,  I76«.,   177 ».,    178 «., 

546  «. 
Grimaldi  skeletons,  the,  447 
Grinnell,  G.  B.,  372  ».,  375  n. 
Griqua,  the,  128 
Gras  Ventre,  the,   370,  and  map,  pp. 

334-.S 
Guacanabibes,.the,  399 
Guanches,  the,  450,  468^  480 
Guarani,  the,  419.  See  also  Tupi-Guarani 
Guatusos,  the,'  400,  and  PI.  ix  fig.  2 
Guillemard,  F.  H.  H.,  147 «.,  247,  296  sq. 
Guinness,  H.  G.  (Mrs),  1 14 
Gujarati,  the,  547,  550 
Guppy,  H.  B.,  137 
Gura'an,  the,  73 
Gurdon,  P.  R.  T.,  548 «. 
Gurkhas,  the,  170 
Gurungs,  the,  170  n.,  547 

Habiru.    See  Khabiri 

Hackman,  A.,  261,  319  «. 

Hacquard,  P^re,  65  n. 

Haddon,  A.  C,  on  Negrilloes,  126 «., 
I49«.,  154 «.,  156 «. ;  Melanesia,  I3S«., 
138  «.;  146  ».;  Indonesians,  221  «.; 
Borneo,  230  sqq.,  426  n.  ;  America, 
336  «.,  341  «.,  41 5  n.,  416  n. ;  Australia, 
432  n. ;  racial  migrations,  292  «.,4S3  «., 
483  n.,  490  «.,  493  «.,  S47  n. 

Hadendoa,  the,  483  sq. 

Haebler,  K.,  337  «. 

Hagar,  S.,  351 

Hagen,  B,,  224 

Hahne,  H.,  507  n. 

Haida,J*ejj63,^d  map,  pp.  334—5 

HafestKHTK^,  the,  310 

HaWas,  (Burma),  the,  183,  185 

Hakkas,  the,  211,  249 

Hale,  H.,  412 

Haldvy,  J.,  262 

Hall,  H.  Fielding,  191  n. 

Hall,  H.  R.  H  .,  on  prehistoric  periods, 


Index 


569 


21  ».,  26  ».,  27  «.,  43  «. ;  Greece,  466  «., 

533,  534  «. 
Hall,  R.  N.,89«.,  106  «. 
Hallett,   H.  S.,  190  sq.,  192  «.,  201  »., 

202  n. 
Hallstatt,  Iron  Age,  culture  of,  28  sq. 
Hamada,  K.,  260 
Hamilton,  A.,  l^on. 
Hamites,  the,  441,.  447,  468—487,  488, 

and   PI.   xni ;    Abyssinian,  486  sq. ; 

Eastern,  468  sqq.,  474  sqq.,  483.-7  ; 

Egyptian,  468,  474  sqq.  ;    Northern, 

468  sqq. 
Hammer,  G.,  543 
Hampel,  J.,  23,  24  «. 
Hamy,  E.  T.,  5o«.,  126,  221 «.,  276,  ?9o, 

303 
Hano,  the,  382  n. 
Hans  (San-San),  the,  291 
Harding,  Sir  A.,  97 
Hares,  the,  361,  and  map,  pp.  334 — 5 
Harri,  the,  545 
Harrison,  H.  S.,  49  n. 
Harrison  Lake.    See  Lillooet 
Hartland,  E.  S.,  100 «.,  120 «.,  430,  436 
Haiisa,  the,  44,  66  sqq.,  and  PI.  I  fig.  i 
Havasupai,  the,  383 
Hawes,  C.  H.,  27«.,  S34'*- 
Hawes,  H.  B.,  27  «. 
H4wiya,  the,  485    — ■    " 
Hazaras,  the,  312 
Hebrews.    See  Khabiri 
Hedin,  Sven,  257,  310 
Heikel,  A.  O.,  309 
Hellenes,  the,  463  sq.,  466,  532 
Helm,  O.,  24  «. 
Hermann,  K.  A.,  262 
Herv^,  G.,  454 
Hewitt,  J.  N.  B.,  375  n. 
Hickson,  S.  J.,  iign.,  148 «. 
Hidatsa,  the,  371,  and  map,  pp.  334 — 5 
Hill-Tout,  C,  363  n.,  367 
Hilprecht,  H.  V.,  265  n. 
Hilton-Simpson,  M.  W.,  11 3  n. 
Himyarites,  the,  487  sq.,  499 
Hirt,  H.,  503  n. 
Hirth,  F.,  210  ft. 

Hittites,  the,  449,  467,  490,  493,  496  sqq. 
Hiung-nu,  the,  291  sq.,  305 
Hobley,  C.  W.,  97  «. 
Hodge,  H.,  385  n. 
Hodgson,  B.  H.,  177 
Hodson,  T.  C,  178,  181,  182  «.,  548  «. 
Hoei,  the,  211 
Hoemle,  A.  F.  R.,  546  n. 
Hoffman,  W.  J.,  375  «• 
Hogarth,  D.  G.,  268  «.,  496  «.,  497  «. 
Hok-los,  the,  211,  249 
Hollis,  A.  C,  486  n. 
Holmes,  T.  Rice,  25 «.,  i74«.,  45i«-; 


on  the  Mediterranean  Race,  452 — 456, 
459  ;  Indo-Europeans,  505  «.,  507  n. ; 
Celts,  514;  Picts,  516;  British  round- 
heads, 5I7«.,  518  ;  525  «. 

Holmes,  W.  H.,  339,  351,  357,  381 «-, 
387  «. 

Hommel,  F.,  2lo«.,  270 

Homo  Alfiinus,  449  sq.  See  also  Alpine 
race 

Europaeus,  449.    See  also  Nordic 

race 

heidelbergensis,  8,    9.     See   also 

Mauer  jaw 

primigenius,  8,  9.    See  also  Nean- 

dertal  man 

recens,  8  sqq. 

Hooper,  W.  H.,  286 
Hoops,  J.,  507  n. 

Hopi,  the,  355,  357,  382,  385,  and  map, 

PP-  334—5 
Hor-pa,  the,  172 
Horspks,  the,  172 
Hose,  C,  231 

Hottentots,  the,  1 26  sqq.,  and  PI.  I  figs.  3, 4 
Hough,  W.,  351,  385  «.,  387  n. 
Houghton,  B.,  183 
Hova,  the,  224,  240,  242  sqq.,  244  sq. 
Howitt,  A.  W.,  430,  435  «.,  436 
Howorth,  Sir  H.  H.,  172  «.,  281,  302 
Hrasso,  the,  170 
Hrdhcka,  A.,  338  sqq. 
Huaxtecans,  the,  388,  393  sqq.,  396 
Huaxtecs  (Totonacs),  the,  342, 388  sq.,  395 
Hue,  E.  R.  (Abb^),  280 
Huichols,  the,  395  n. 
Huilli-che,  the,  410 
Hungarians,  th§,  317  n.,  328  sqq. 
Hungary,  Copper  Age  in,  23 
Huns,  the,  307,  326  sqq.,  531 
Huntington,  E.,  165  «.,  257,  263;/.,  384  ». 
Hurgronje,  C.  S.,  239  «. 
Huron,  the,   354,   375,   378,   and   map, 

PP-  334—5 
Hyades,  P.  D.  J.,  401  «.,  413 
Hyksos,  the,  476,  490 
"  Hyperboreans,"  the,  285 

Iban,  the,  230,  232  sqq. 

Ibara,  the,  242 

Ibea,  the,  117 

Iberians,  the,  449,  452,  455  sq.,  459,  525  ; 

language  of,  454 
Ibis,  P.,  249 
Idoesh.    See  Dwa'ish 
Igorots  (Igorrotes),  the,  157,  247 
Ihring,  H.  v.,  270 
Illanuns,  the,  228  «. 
Illinois,  the,  375,  and  map,  pp.  334 — 5 
Illinois  dialect,  the,  354 
lUyrians,  the,  460  «.,  529  «.,  538 


570 


Man :  Past  and  Present 


Ilocano,  the,  247 
Imeritian  language,  541 
Inca,  the,  404 — 407,  421  n. 
Indo-Aryan  type,  Risley's,  546 
Indo-European  languages,  441  sq.,  453, 

456  sq.,  502  sqq, ;  type,  504  sq. ;  migra- 
tions, 505  sqq. 
Indo-Germanic.    See  Indo-European 
Indonesians,  the,  221,  230,  235,  248  sq., 

551  sq. 
Ingham,  E.  G.,  56«.,  57 
Ingrians,  the,  322 

Iowa,  the,  371,  and  map,  pp.  334^ — 5 
Ipurina,  the,  348,  416 
Iranians,  the,  506,  541  sqq.,  and  PI.  XII 

fig.  6 
Ireland,  Copper  Age  in,  23 ;  Bronze  Age 

in,   25  sq.,   502;    racial  elements  in, 

S 19  sqq. 
Ireland,  A.,  191  n. 
Iroquoian  linguistic  stock,  the,  354  sq., 

375  sqq.,  381 
Iroquois,  the,  342,  354  sq.,  375  sqq.,  and 

map,  pp.  334—5 
Irula,  the,  423,  and  PI.  x  fig.  2 
Ishik,  the,  485 
Ishogo,  the,  115 
Isleta,  the,  382  «. 
Israelites,  the,  490,  494 
Italic  language,  461  n. 
"Italici"  of  Sergi,  461  n. 
Italy,  racial  elements  in,  528  sqq. 
Itaves,  the,  157 
Itelmes.    See  Kamchadales 
lungs  (Njungs),  the,  196 
Ivanovski,  A.,  316  «. 
Iyer,  L.  K.  A.  K.,  548  n. 

Jaalin,  the,  74 
Jackson,  F.  G.,  324 
Jackson,  J.  Wilfred,,  353,  520  n. 
Jallonkd,  the,  49,  51 
Jallio,  the,  80 
Jawies,  A.  W.,  386  n. 
James,  G.  C,  522 
Jaiisens,  the,  178 
Japian,  Stone  Age  in,  260  sq. 
Japanese,  the,  274,  294  sqq. ;  language, 
297 ;  religion,  297  sqq.,  and  PI.  VII  figs. 

3,4 
Jas'trow,  M.,  493  «.,  500 
Jits,  the,  306  sqq.,  546 
Java,  fossil  man  in,  3 
Javanese,  the,  224,  240 
Jazyges,  the,  326 
Jemez,  the,  382  n. 
Je^iks,  A.  E.,  247  sq.,  375  n. 
Jdquier,  G.,  475  tt. 
Jette,  J.,  363 
Jews,  the,  494  sqq. 


Jicarilla,  the,  383,  and  map,  pp.  334—5 

Jigushes,  the,  52 

Joats,  the,  52 

Jochelson,  W.  I.,  286  n. 

Johns,  C.  H.  W.,  265  n.,  268  n.,  491  «., 
492  n,  493  n. 

Johnston,  Sir  H.  H.,  on  the  Sudanese, 
43  «-.  45.  57  «-,  65,  67  «. ;  86 ;  Bantu, 
92 sq.;  94».j96«.,  106 «.,  ii3«.,  116, 
117 «.;  Bushman,  I2i  «.,  126,  I29«.; 
229  n. ;  Berbers,  452  «.,  473  n. ;  Egypt, 
476  sq.,  481  « ;  Fulah,  483 

Johnson,  J.  P.,  43«.,  161 

Jola,  the,  52 

Jolof,  the,  47 

Jones,  W.,  377  n. 

Joyce,  T.  A.,  on  Africa,  41  «.,  43  n.,  44  «., 
113  «.,  1 1 5  «.,  468  n. ;  Madagascar,  240, 
244  sq. ;  Central  Asia,  311,  545  «.; 
Mexico,  342,  393  n.,  395  n. ;  Central 
America,  399 ;  South  America,  400  n., 
403  «.,  404  «.,  407  «.,  409  «.,  410  «., 
412  n. 

JuUian,  C,  455,  457,  459 

Junker,  W.,  79  sq.,  82  sq.,  122,  124 

Junod,  H.  A.,  102  «.,  104  «. 

Juris,  the,  348 

Kababish,  the,  74,  471  n.,  484,  and  PI.  xii 

figs.  3,  4 
Kabard  language,  the,  541 
Kabinda,  the,  no,  112  sq. 
Kabuis,  the,  178 
Kabyles,  the,  452 
Kachins.    See  Kakhyens 
Kadayans,  the,  232 
Kadir,  the,  423 
Kai-Colo,  the,  137  «•,  343 
Kainah,  the,  374,  and  map,  pp.  334 — 5 
Kaingangs.    See  Kam6s 
Kaitish,  the,  436,  and  PI.  x  fig.  5 
Kajuna  dialect,  the,  542  n. 
Kakhyens,  the,  182,  186,  193 
Kalabit,  the,  230  sq. 

Kalapooian,the,  363,  andmap,  pp.  334 — 5 
Kalina,  the,  416 
Kalmuks,  the,  272,  274  sq.,  311,  and  PI. 

VI  fig.  4  . 
Kamassintzi,  the,  317 
Kamayura,  the,  348,  419 
Kamchadales,  the,  274  sq.,  285  sqq.,  344 
Kam^s,  the,  417 
Kamjangs,  the,  192 
"Kanakas,"  the,  137 
Kanarese,  the,  549,  and  PI.  xv  fig.  6 
Kanembu,  the,  69,  72  sq. 
Kanet,  the,  547 
Kansa,  the,  371 
Kanuri,  the,  69,  72 
Kara,  the,  75 


Index 


571 


Karagasses,  the,  317 

Kara-Kalpaks,  the,  312 

Kara- Kirghiz,  the,  314,  316 

Kara-Tangutans,  the,  169 

Karaya,  the,  415' 

Karenni,  the,  187 

Karens,  the,  182,  186  sq.,  199 

Kargo,  the,  75 

Karian  inscriptions,  453 

Karigina,  the,  415  n. 

Karipuna,  the,  414 

Karons,  the,  52 

Karsten,  R.,  421  n. 

Kartweh,  the,  541 

Kasak,  the,  316 

Kashgarians,  the,  311,  313  «. 

Kashmiri,  the,  550 

Kassonke,  the,  49 

Kattea.    See  Vaalpens 

Kauflfmann,  F.,  504 

Kavirondo,  the,  91  n. 

Kawahla,  the,  484 

Kayan,  the,  159  «.,  231  sqq. 

Kayapos,  the,  417 

Keith,  A.,  2  «.,  3  «.,  5  «.,  6,  8  «.,  9,  447, 

511 «.,  517  «•,  557  «■ 
Keller,  C,  485 

Kelt  (Celt),  use  of  term,  449,  512,  514 
"  Keltiberians,"  the,  527 
Kelto-Slavs,  the,  449 
Kennan,  G.,  288  «. 
Kennan,  R.,  314 
Kennelly,  M.,  212  «.,  216  «. 
Kenyah,  the,  231  sqq. 
Keresans,  the,  382  n. 
Keribina,  the,  70 
Kerrikerri,  the,  70 
Khabiri   (Hebrews),   the,    490,   493  sq., 

religion  of  the,  500 
Khamti,  the,  180 
Khanikoff,  N.  V.,  542  so. 
Khanungs.    See  Kiu-tse 
Khas  (Gurkha),  the,  170 
Khas  (of  Siam),  the,  i7o«.- 
Khatri,  the,  546 
Khatti,  the,  496 
Khazars,  the,  326,  494 
Khemis,  the,  188 
Kheongs,  the,  187 
Kheta,  the,  496 
Khitans,  the,  279 
Khmers,  the,  199 
Khorvats.    See  Croatians 
Khos,  the,  544 

Khotana,  the,  361,  and  map,  pp.  334— S 
Khyengs,  the,  188 
Khyungthas,  the,  188 
Kiao-shi.    See  Giao-shi 
Kichai,  the,  355 

Kickapoo,  the,  37S,  and  map,  pp.  334—5 
Kidd,  D.,  104  n. 


Kimmerians,  the,  267  n. 

Kimos,  the,  239 

King,    L.   W.,   23«.,   27^.,    262 «.  sqq., 
481  «.,  491  «.,  493  «•)  497  «• 

King,  P.  P.,  413, 

Kingsley,  M.  H.,  58,  1 16 

Kiowa,  the,  370,  372,  and  map,  pp.  334—5 

Kiowa-Apache,  the,  370 

Kipchaks,  the,  312,  315 

Kirghiz, the, 274, 301,  303,3iosq.,3i4sqq. 

Kitars,  the,  316 

Kiu-tse,  the,  197 

Klaatsch,  H.;  2,  qn.,  \on. 

Klangklangs,  the,  183 

Klaproth,  H.  J.,  306,  309  n. 

Klemschmidt,  S.,  346  n. 

Klemantan,  the,  231  sqq. 

Klements,  D.  A.,  310 

Kloss,  C.  B.,  252  «. 

Kobito,  the,  260 

Knowles,  W.  J.,  520 

Koch-Griinberg,  T.,  415 

Koeze,  C.  A.,  248  n. 

Koganei,  Y.,  295  n. 

Kohistani,  the,  544 

Kohlbrugge,  J.  H.,  230 «. 

Koibals,  the,  317 

Kolaji,  the,  75 

Koldewey,  K.,  264  n. 

KoUmann,  J.,  123 

Kols,  the,  548  sq. 

Kolya,  the,  178 

Komans,  the,  312 

Kono,  the,  53 

Konow-Sten,  I76«.,  I77«-,  '78  «• 

Koraqua,  the,  128 

Koreans,the,274,  289sqq.,andPl.vnfig. 
5 ;  Korean  script,  294 

Korinchi,  the,  236 

Koro-pok-guru,  the,  260,  295 

Koryak,  the,  274  sq.,  277,  285  sqq.,  344 

Kossacks.    See  Kasak 

Kossinna,  G.,  503  «. 
"Kowalewsky,  M.,  540 

Kramer,  A.,  ^I2n.,  555  n. 

Krapina  skeletons,  the,  8,  12 

Krause,  F.,  4I5«.,  417 

Kreitner,  G.,  194 

Krej,  the,  78 

Kretschmer,  P.,  529  «. 

Kroeber,  A.  L.,  347,  368  sqq.,  374  «. 

Kropotkin,  P.  A.,  prince,  165  n. 

Kru,  the,  53,  57  sq- 

Kshtuts,  the,  543 

Kubachi  language,  the,  541 

Kuki,  the,  178  sq.,  182,  186 

Kuki-Lushai,  the,  I78«.,sqq.,  183;  lan- 
guage, 177 

Kulfan,  the,  75 

Kumi,  the,  188 

Kumuks,  the,  312 


572 


Man :  Past  and  Present 


Kunbi,  the,  546 

Kurankos,  the,  53 

Kurds,  the,  267  ».,  505,  545,  an4  PI.  XIV 

figs.  I,  2 
Kuri,  the,  69 
Kurlanders,  the,  330 
Kurnai,  the,  437 
Kurugli,  the,  303 
Kurumba,  the,  424,  547  «.,  549 
Kussas,  the,  53 
Kustenaus,  the,  416 
Kutchin,  the,  361 
Kutigurs,  the,  329 
Kwsens,  the,  323 
Kwakiutl,  the,  343,  363  sqq.,  see  map, 

PP-  334—5,  and  PI.  viii  fig.  2 
Kwana,  the,  416 
Kymric  race.    See  Nordic  race 
Kyzylbash,  the,  497 

La  Chapelle-aux-Saints  skull,  the,  8, 9, 12 
Lacouperie,  T.  de,  168 «.,   ij6n.,   193, 

195  sq.,  207  sqq.,  294  «.,  249  ».,  251  n. 
Ladakhi,  the,  i66sq.  " 

La  Ferassie  skeleton,  the,  9,  I2 
Lafofa,  the,  75 
Lagden,  G.,  109  «. 
Lagoa  Santa  race,  the,  339  sq.,  417 
Laguna,  the,  382  n.  \ 

Lai,  the,  183 
Lai,  the,  211 
Laing,  S.,  267  «. 
Lake,  P.,  446  n. 
Laloy,  L.,  16,  511 
La  Micoque  industry,  the,  1 1 
Lampongs,  the,  235  sq. 
Lam'pre,  G.,  258 
Lamut,  the,  274  sq. 
Land  Dayak,  the,  230  sq.,  426 
Lang,  Andrew,  151,  430,  437 «. 
Lansdell,  H.,  280,  281  n.,  285  «.,  289 
Laos,  the,  180,  191  sq.,  201 
Lapicque,  L.,  149  sq.,  422 
Lapouge,  G.  V.  de,  449,  510,  512,  540 
Lapps,  the,  321  sqq.,  324,  and  PI.  VII 

fig.  6 ;  physical  characters  of,  324 
Lartet,  L.,  9  n. 
Last,  J.  T.,  241 

La  Ttoe,  Later  Iron  Age  culture  of,  28 
Latham,  R.  E.,  409  n. 
Lawas,  the,  199 
Layana,  the,.  416 
Layard,  N.  F.,  520 
Laz  language,  541 
Leder,  H.,  258,  sqq. 
Lef^vre,  A.,  536 
Legendre,  A.  F.,  i^(tn. 
Leitner,  G.  W.,  167,  542  «. 
Le  Moustier,  culture,  8,  11, 14  ;  skeleton, 

9.  12 
Lenormant,  F.,  535 


Lenz,  O.,  ii6«. 

Lenz,  R.,  410 

Ldon,  N.,  345  n. 

Leonard,  A.  G.,  45  «.,  58  n. 

Leonhardi,  M.  F.  v.,  437  w. 

Lepcha,  the,  547;  language;  177 

Lepsius,  K.  R.,  76  sq.,  473 

Lesghians,  the,  541 ;  language  of,  483 

Letourneau,  C.,  36,  448 

Letto-Slavs,  the,  506 

Letts,  the,  321 

Levallois  industry,  the,  1 1 

Levchine,  A.  de,  3i6«. 

Lewis,  A.  B.,  367  n. 

Leyden,  J.,  222  n. 

Lho-pa,  the,  170 

Liberians,  the,  53,  56  sq. 

Libyan  Race.    See  Northern  Hamites 

Libyans,  the,  448  sq.,  453,  476 

Lichtenstein,  M.  H.  K.;  127 

Ligurians,  the,  449,  4SS— 9,  461  sq.,  504, 

513,  529;  language  of,  453 
Lillooetjthe,  343, 367,  and  map>  pp.  334— 5 
Limba,  the,  53 
Limbu,  the,  547 
Lindsay,  W.  M.,  529  ». 
Lin-tin-yu.    See  Yayo 
Lippert,  J.,  67  n. 
Lithuanians,  the,  318 
Littmann,  E.,  453  «.,  487  n. 
Liu-Kiu  (Lu-Chu),  the,  274,  296  sq. 
Livi,  R.,  460,  462,  5 1  r,  528 
Livingstone,  D.,  107 
Livonians,  the,  320 
Logon,  the,  70 
Lohest,  M.,  8  n. 
Lokko,  the,  53 
Lolos,  the,  173,  19s  sq.,  211 
Lombards,  the,  449 

Loucheux,  the,  361,  and  map,  pp.  334—5 
Low,  Brook,  231 
Lowie,  R.  H.,  367  n. 
Luard,  C.  E.,  548  n. 
Lubbers,  A.,  239 
Lucayans,  the,  399  sq.     . 
Luchuans.    See  Liu-Kiu 
Lugard,  F.  D.,  62 
Lugard,  F.  S.  (Lady),  73  n. 
Luiseno,  the,  355,  370 
Lukach,  H.  C,  \6n. 
Lumholtz,  C,  395  «.,  397  n. 
Lupacas,  the,  407 
Luschan,  F.  v.,  268  «.,  450,  465,  492  n., 

495  »■,  497  sqq.,  542  «.,  545 
Lushai,  the,  178 
Lu-tse,  the,  197 
Lyall,  C.  J.,  548  n. 
Lycia,   inhabitants   of,  497 ;    language, 

454 
Lydian  dialect,  the,  453 
Lythgoe,  A.  M.,  478 


Index 


573 


Maba,  the,  73  sq. 

Macalister,  A.,  j  1 1 

Macalister,  R.  A.  S.,  492 

MacCurdy,  G.  G.,  5  «.,  35 

Macdonald,  J.,  104  ».,  108 

Mace,  A.  C,  478 

Machas,  the,  543  , 

Mackintosh,  C.  W.,  107  n. 

MacMichael,  H.  A.,  74,  75  n. 

Macusi,  the,  416 

Madagascar.  239  sqq. 

Madi,  the,  78 

Madurese,  the,  224 

Mafflian  industry,  the,  10,  14 

Maful.u,  the,  158 

Magars,  the,  I70«. 

Magdalenian  culture,  12  sqq. 

Mager,  H.,  555  «. 

Maghians,  the,  543 

Magyars,  the,  301,  318,  326,  328  sqq., 

531 ;  language  of,  283 
Mahaffy,  J.  P.,  493  n. 
Mahai,  the,  75 
Mahamid,  the,  73 
Mahrati,  the,  550 
Mainwaring,  G.  B.,  177  n. 
Ma-Kalaka,  the,  104  sq. 
Makaraka,  the,  78  sq. 
Makari,  the,  69  sq. 
Makirifares,  the,-  415 
Ma-Kololo,  the,  106  sqq. 
Makowsky,  A.,  9  n. 
Maku,  linguistic  stock,  415 
Malagasy,  the,  239  sqq. ;  language,  241 ; 

mental  qualities,  244 
Mala-Vadan,  the,  423 
Malayalim,  the,  549 
Malayans,  the,  221  sqq.,  227;  folklore  of, 

229  sq. 
Malayo-Polynesian.    See  Austronesian 
Malays,  the,  221  sqq.,  226;  in  Borneo, 

230,  232  sqq. ;  in  Madagascar,  240 ;  in 

Australia,  428,  551 
Malbot,  H.,  450,  472 
Malinowski,  B.,  432,  434 
Malhesors,  the,  538 
Malta,  inhabitants  of,  499 
Man,  E.  H.,  150M.,  152,  251  sqq. 
Man,  the,  197  sq.,  211 
Manaos,  the,  416 
Manchu,  the,  274  sq.,  279  sqq. 
Manda,  the,  267  «. 
Mandan,   the,   355,   371  sq.,   and   map, 

PP- 534-5    , 
Mandara,  the,  6g  sq. 
Mandaya,  the,  247 
Mandingans,  the,  44,  46,  49  sqq.,  66 
MangbattU,  the,  44,  46,  78,  80  sqq. 
Mangkassaras,  the,  224,  226,  236 
Manguianes,  the,  237 


Manipuri,  the,  178  sqq.,  181 

Manobo,  the,  247 

Mans-Coc,  the,  1^8 

Mdns-Meo,  the,  198,  211 

M4ns-Tien,  the,  198 

Mansuy,  M.,  186  «. 

Man-tse.     See  Man 

Mao  Nagas,  the,  178  sq. 

Maori,  the,  552,  and  PI.  xvi  figs.  3,  4 

Mapoches,  the,  410 

Maram  Nagas,  the,  178  sq. 

Maratha  Brahmans,  the,  546  sq. 

Margi,  the,  70  .. 

Maricopa,  the,  383 

Markham,  Sir  C.  R.,  347  sq.,  401 «.,  405, 

409,  414/2.,  420  ». 
Maronites,  the,  498 
Marre,  A.,  241  n. 
Marrings,  the,  178  sq. 
Marstrander,  C.  J.  S.,  497  n. 
Martin,  H.,  449  «. 
Martin,  R.,  I53«.,  154,  412,  426  «. 
Martius,  V.,  402  «.,  411,  416  sq. 
Masai,  the,  97,  468,  484,  486 
Mas-d'Azil,  12  ;  pebbles,  34  sqq. 
Ma-Shona,  the,  104 
Maspero,  G.,  270,  493  n.,  533 
Massagetae,  the,  305  sq. 
Ma-Tabili,  the,  105 
Mataco,  the,  420  sq. 
Mathew,  J.,  237  «.,  428 
Matlaltzincas,  the,  395 
Matokki,  the,  75 
Matores,  the,  317 
Matthew,  W.  D.,  557  «. 
Mauer  jaw,  the,  3  sqq.,  11,  14 
Ma-Vambu,  the,  113 
Maya,  the,  389—398 
Mayang  Khong,  the,  178 
Maya-Quichd,  the,  342,  393,  397  sq. 
Mayorunas,  the,  402 
Maypures,  the,  416 
Mberiga,  the,  1 1 5 
McCabe,  R.  B.,  177 
McDougall,  W.,  231  n. 
McGee,  W.  J.,  396 
Means,  P.  A.,  406  n. 
Mecklenberg,  A.  F.,  Duke  of,  ii3«. 
Medes,  the,  267  n. 
Mediterranean  race,  the,  448  sq.,  452 ;  in 

Europe,  455 — 468;    in  Africa,  468 — 

478  ;  language  of,  453  sq. 
Mehinaku,  the,  348,  416 
Mehlis,  C,  457 
Meinhof,  C.,  473  n. 
Meithis,  the,  181 ;  language  of,  \^^  n. 
Melam,  the,  197 
Melanesians,  the,  135  sqq.  j  analysis  of, 

138  sq.  ;  culture  of,  139 — 146 
Mendi,  the,  53 


574 


Man :  Past  and  Present 


Menominee,  the,   354,   375,   and   map, 

,  PP-  33.4—5 

Mentawi,  the,  natives  of,  235 

Mentone,  Grottes  de  Grimaldi,  the,  9 

Mercer,  H.,  396 

Merker,  M.,  486  n. 

Mescalero,  the,  383,  and  map,  pp.  334 — 5 

Messapians,  the,  452,  529  «. 

Messerschmidt,  L.,  496 

Mesvinian  industry,  the,  10,  14 

Meyer,  A.  B.,  230 

Meyer,  E.,  27 «.,  262  sqq. ;  on  Indo- 
Europeans,  441 «.,  456,  504,  5o6«.  ; 
460  n. ;  Pelasgians,  466  sqq.  ;  Egyp- 
tians, 479, 482 ;  Semites,  489  «.,  491  «., 
492  «.,  493  n. 

Meyer,  H.,  450 

Meyer,  Kuno,  515  «. 

Miami,  the,  354, 375,  and  map,  pp.  334— S 

Miao-tse.    See  M4ns-Meo 

Michelis,  E.  de,  505 

Micmac,  the,  375,  and  map,  pp.  334 — 5 

Micronesians,  the,  551,  and  Pl.'XVl  figs.  5',  6 

Mikhailovskii,  V.  M.,  277  «.,  278  n. 

Miklukho-Maclay,  N.  v.,  137  «. 

Milanau,  the,  231,  233 

Miller,  Gerrit  S.,  560 «.,  561 

Milliet.    See  Saint  Adolphe 

Milligan,  J.,  160 

Milne,  J.,  260 

Minaeans,  the,  499 

Minahasans,  the,  224 

Mindeleff,  C,  383  «. 

Mingrelian  language,  the,  541 

Minnetari,  the,  342 

Minns,  E.  H.,  537 

Minoan  culture,  463  sqq.,  467,  502 

Minyong,  the,  170 

Mirdites,  the,  538  «.,  539 

Miri,  the,  170 

Mishmi,  the,  170 

Mishongnovi,  the,  382  n. 

Missouri,  the,  371,  and  map,  pp.  334 — 5 

Mittu,  the,  78 

Miwok,  the,  pp.  334—5 

Miztecs,  the,  390,  395 

Mizzi,  M.,  499  n. 

Moabites,  the,  489  sq. 

Mochicas,  the,  408 

Moeso-Goths,  the,  508 

Mohave,  the,  383,  and  map,  pp.  334—5 

■Mohawk,  the,  354,  377 

Moi,  the,  197 

Molu-che.    See  Araucanians 

Mongolia,  prehistoric  remains  in,  259  sq. 

Mongoloid  type,  Risle^s,  547 

Mongolo-Dravidian  type,  Risley's,  547 

Mongolo-Tatar.    See  Mongolo-Turki 

Mongolo-Turki,  the,  164  sq.,  256, 274sqq. 

Mongols,  Northern,  Chap.  Vlll 


Mongols,  Oceanic,  Chap,  vii 

Southern,  Chap,  vi 

Mono,ihe,  355 
Mons,  the,  180 
Montagnais,   the,  354,  375,  and  map, 

PP-  334—5 
Montano,  J.,  157 

Montehus,  O.,  27,  7,1011.,  319  «.,  512 
Mooney,  J.,  374  n. 
Moorehead,  W.  K.,  343 
"  Moors,"  the,  469 
Moravians,  the,  331 
Mordvinians,  the,  325 
Morel,  E.  D.,  58  n. 
Morgan,  J.  de,  22,   25 «.,  258,   2(fjn., 

447 
Morgan,  E.  Delmar,  173  «. 
MorfiU,  W.  R.,  530 
Morice,  A.  G.,  362  sq. 
Morley,  S.  G.,  391  n.,  392  «.,  397  ». 
Mosgu,  the,  69,  71 
Mossi,  the,  62 
Mossos,  the,  173,  195  sq. 
Mostitz,  A.  P.,  259 
Moszkowski,  Max,  149 
Mousterian  man.    See  Le  Moustier 
Moxos,  the,  348,  414,  416 
M  pang  we.    See  Fans 
M  pong  we,  the,  115 
Mros,  the,  187  sq. 
Mrungs,  the,  188 
Much,  M.,  23 
Much,  R.,  507  n. 
Miiller,  F.,  236  «. 
Mugs,  the,  187  sq. 
Mundu,  the,  78 
Mundurucu,  the,  419 
Munro,  N.  G.,  295  n. 
Munro,  R.,  529  «. 
Muong,  the,  197 
Murmi,  the,  547 
Murut,  the,  230  sq. 
Muskhogean  linguistic  stock,  the,  355, 

381 
Musquakie.    See  Sauk  and  Fox 
Mussian,  explorations  at,  258 
Muyscans,  the,  400,  402 
Myers,  C.  S.,  75».,  79«.,  482 
Mycenaean  (Mykenaean).    See  Minoan 
Myong,  the,  197 
Myres,  J.  L.,  465,  466  «.,  477  «.,  489  «., 

490  «.,  502,  533  «. 
Mysians,  the,  506 ;  language  of,  453 

Nactitig-al,  G.,  70  sqq.,  74  n. 

Nadaillac,  Marquis  de,  J.   F.  A.,   381, 

394  «•-  395  »•,  408  n. 
Naga,  the,  178  sq. ;  language,  177 
Naga-ed-DSr,  excavations  at,  478,  481 
Nahane  the,  361,  and  map,  pp.  334 — 5 


Index 


SIS 


Nahua,  the,  342  sq.,  388  n.,  392  sqq.,  397, 

400,  421  n. 
Nahuatlans,  the,  342,  388,  393  sqq.,  402 
Nahuqua,  the,  348,  415 
Nairs,  the,  547 
Najera,  396 
Nambe,  the,  382  n. 
Narrinyeri,  the,  437 
Nashi  (Nashri).    See  Mossos 
Naskapi,  the,  375,  and  map,  pp.  334—5 
Nassaiu,  R.  H.,  61  n. 
Natagaima,  the,  402 
Natchez,  the,  355,  and  map,  pp.  334 — 5 
Navaho,   the,    354,   383,   see    map,   pp. 

334—5,  and  PI.  VIII  fig.  4. 
Naville,  E.,  475  «.,  477  «.,  481 
Neandertal  man,  2,  8  sqq.,  12,  448 
Negrilloes,  the,  122  sqq.,  and  PI.  II  fig.  4 
Negritoes,  the,  149  sqq.,  and  PI.  II  figs.  I, 

2,  3,  5 — 7  ;  culture  of,  158 — 9,  230 
Neumann,  O.,  127 
Nez-percds.    See  Shahapts 
Ngao,  the,  198 
Ngiou.    See  Burmese 
Ngisem,  the,  70 
Nias,  the,  235 
Niblack,  A.  P.,  366  n. 
Niceforo,  A.,  461 
Nickas,  the,  250 
Nicobarese,  the,  251  sqq. 
Niederle,  L.,  540  «. 
Nieuwenhuis,  A.  W.,  234  «. 
Nilotes,  the,  486,  and  PI.  Xlll 
Niquirans,  the,  388 
Niu-chi  (Yu-chi,  Nu-chin),  the,  279 
Njungs.    See  lungs 
Nogai,  the,  303 
Nong,  the,  197  sq. 
Nootka,  the,  363,  393  «•,  and  map,  pp. 

334—5     ' 

Nordenskiold,  A.  E.  von,  287 

Nordenskiold,  E.,  421 

Nordenskiold,  G.,  383  n. 

Nordic  race,  the,  449,  452  sq.,  504, 
506  sqq.,  PI.  XI  figs.  1, 2,  5,  and  PI.  XIV 
figs.  I,  2 ;  in  Scandinzivia,  509 

Norsemen,  the,  449,  526  sq. 

Northcote,  G.  A.  S.,  79  n. 

Norway,  racial  elements  in,  509 

Nossu  (Nesu).    See  Lolos 

Nu-Aruak,  the,  416 

Nuba,  the,  74  sqq. 

Nubians,  the,  75  sqq.,  468 

Nuer,  the,  78  sq.,  484 

Niiesch,  J.,  16,  123 

Nutria,  the,  382  «. 

Nuttall,  Z.,  353,  393  n. 

Nwengals,  the,  183 

Obermaier,  H.,  4«.,  8,  9«.,  14 «. 
Oghuz,  the,  311  sqq. 


Ojibway.the,  354,  371,  375sqq.,  and  map, 

PP-  334—5 
Ojo  Cahente,  the,  382  n. 
Okanda,  the,  115 
Oldoway  skeleton,  the,  43  «.,  447 
Omagua  (Flat-heads),  the,  419 
Omaha,   the,   355,   371,   and   map,   pp. 

334—5 
Onas,  the,  411 ;  language  of,  413 
Oneida,  the,  354,  377 
Onnis,  E.  A.,  461 
Onondaga,  the,  354,  377 
Ons,  the,  316 
Oraibi,  the,  382  n. 
Orang-Baruh,  the,  238 

Benua,  the,  223 

' Maldyu.    See  Malays 

Selat,  the,  228 

-Tunong,  the,  238 

Oraons,  the,  550 
Orbigny,  A.  D.  d',  412 
Oriyas,  the,  547 
'  Orleans,   H.,   Prince  d',   186  «.,    191  «., 
192  sq.,  19s  sqq. 
Oroch,  the,  275 
Orochon,  the,  274  sq.,  277 
Oroke,  the,  275 
Orsi,  P.,  460 
Osage,  the,  342,  355,  371,  and  map,  pp. 

334—5 
Oshyeba.  See  Fans 
Ossets,  the,  505,  540 
O'SuUivan,  H.,  79  n. 
Ostrogoths,  the,  449 
Ostyaks,  the, 275, 277, 303,  325,  and  PI.  VI 

fig-  3 
Otomi,  the,  395 
Ottawa,  the,  375,  and  map,  pp.  334 — 5  ; 

language,  354 
Oto,  the,  371,  and  map,  pp.  334 — 5 
Ova-Herero,  the,  44,  109  sqq.,  1 19  sq. 

Mpo,  the,  109 

Zorotu,  the,  no 

Oyampi,  the,  419 

Padam,  the,  170  «.,  193 

Padao,  the,  193 

Paes,  the,  404 

Pahuins.    See  Fans  (West  Africa) 

Paiwans,  the,  250 

Pa'i,  the,  (Laos)  of  Assam,  192 

Pa-'i,  the,  of  S.W.  China,  211 

Pakhpu,  the,  543 

Pakpaks,  the,  237  n. 

Palaeasiatics,  Deniker's,  295 

Palaeo-Siberians,  the,  275,  344 

Palawans,  the,  237 

Palembang,  the  235  sq. 

Paleo-Asiatics.    See  Palaeo-Siberians 

Palmer,  H.  R.,  68  n. 

Pames,  the,  394  n. 


576 


Man  :    Past  and  Present 


Pampangan,  the,  247 

Pampeans,  the,  410  ;  language  of,  412 

Panches,  the,  402 

Pangasinan,  the,  247 

Paniyan,  the,  423,  and  PJ.  X  fig.  4 

Pano,  the,  414,  419 

Pan-y,  the',  £98 

Pan-yao,  the,  198 

Papuans,   the,    135    sq.,   188,-  I46  sqq., 

551,  and  PI.  Ill  figs.  3,  4 
Papuasians,  the,  chap.  v.  passim 
Papuo-Melanesians,   the,    135   sq.,  and 

PI.  HI  figs.  5,  6 
Parker,  A.  C,  375  n. 
Parker,  E.  H.,  216  a.,  292  n.,  294  «.,  304 
Parker,  H.,  425  n. 

Parker,  K.  Langloh,  436,  437  n.  1 

Parkinson,  J.,  58  n. 
Parkinson,  R.,  146 
Parthians,  the,  305  sq. 
Partridge,  C,  58  n. 
Passumahs,  the,  223 
Patagonians,  the,  41 1  sq.,  and  PI.  IX  figs. 

5,  6  ;  language  of,  412  sq. 
Paton,  L.  B.,  492  «.,  493  n. 
Patroni,  G.,  459  sq. 
Patterson,  A.  J.,  531  n. 
Paulitschke,  P.,  485 
Paumari,  the,  348,  416 
Pawnee,  the,  355,  371  sqq.,  375,and  map, 

PP-  334—5 
Peal,  S.  E.,  192  n. 
Pears,  E.,  530  n. 
Pease,  A.  E.,  446  n. 
Pechenegs,  the,  312 
Pecos,  the,  382  n. 
Peet,  T.  E.,  528  n. 
Peisker,  T.,  257,  260  n.,  303   sq.,    330, 

506  «.,  507  «.,  512  «.,  531,  536  «.,  537  n. 
Peixoto,  J.  R.,  417 
Pelasgians,  the,  449,  452,  458,  462—7, 

5 1 2  sq. ;  in  Italy,  528;  in  Greece,  532  sq. ; 

language  of,  453,  465 
Penck,  A.,  13  sqq. 
Penek,  the,  410 
Penka,  C.,  460  «.,  529,  532 
Peoria,  the,  375,  and  map,  pp.  334 — 5 
Pepohwans,  the,  249 
Peringuey,  L.,  121 
Permians,  (Beormas,   Permian    Finns), 

the,  318  «.,  322,  324,  330 
Persians,  the,  542,  545 
Pescado,  the,  382  n. 
Perry,  W.  J.,  352 

Peschel,  O.,  286  «.,  302  «.,  315  «.,  317  n. 
Pesegem,  the,  158 
Petersen,  E.,  465  n. 
Petrie,  W.  M.  Flinders,  27  «.,  37,  467, 

476,  479.  495  «• 
Peyrony,  M.,  9  «. 
Philippines,  the,  24(5  gqq. 


Philistines,  the,  490,  494 

Phoenicians,  the,  352,  488  sq.,  493,  527 

Phrygians,  the,  490,  506 

Piankashaw,  the,  375 

Pickett,  A.  J.,  379  «. 

Pictones,  the,  525 

Picts,  the,  515  sq. 

Picun-che,  the,  410 

Picuris,  the,  382  n. 

Piegan,  the,  374,  and  map,  pp.  334—5 

Piette,  E.,  13,  34,  36 

Pilma,  the,  411 

Piltdown  skull,  the,  3  sqq.,  11,  560  sq. 

Pima,  the,  382  sq.,  and  map,  pp.  334—5 

Pinches,  T.  G.,  34,  208,  266 

Pintos,  the,  394  n. 

Pipils,  the,  388  sqq. 

Pithecanthropus  erectus,  2  sqq.,  9 

Plains  Indians,  the,  342, 370— 5,  and  map, 

PP-  334-5 
Planert,  W.,  129  «. 
Playfair,  A.,  548  n. 
Pojoaque,  the,  382  n. 
Polabs,  the,  537 
Polak,  J.  E.  R.,  345  n. 
Poles,  the,  532,  537 
Polynesians,  the,  341,  552  sqq.,  and  PI. 

XVI  figs.  I — 4 
Pomo,  the,  pp.  334—5 
Ponca,  the,  342,  371  sq.,  and  map,  pp. 

334—5 
Portugal,  racial  elements  m,  527  sq. 
Potanin,  G.  N.,  169,  311  n. 
.  Potawatomi,the,  375,,and  map,  pp.  334—5 
Poutrin,  L.,  69  n. 

Povfell,  J.  W.,  16,  347,  349.  354,  39i  «• 
Powhatan,  the,  378,  and  map,  pp.  334—5 
Praeger,  R.  Lloyd,  520  n. 
Pre-Dravidians,  the,  149,  230,  Chap,  xil, 

428,  and  PI.  X  figs.  1—4 
Prichard,  J.  C,  300,  303,  306,  447 
Prince,  J.  D.,  262 
Prjevalsky,  N.  M.,  168,  172 
Procksch,0.,  489  «.,  491  n.,  493  n.,  494  «. 
Proto-Malays,  the  230 
Proto-Polynesians,  the,  138 
Pryer,  W.  <B.,  228  w. 
Pueblo  Indiana,  the,  356,  382 — 7,  392 ; 

and  map,  pp.  334— 5 
Puelche,  the,  410,  412 
Puenche,  the,  410 
Pumpelly,  R.^  257 
Punan,  the,  230  sq.,  233 
Punjabi,  the,  550 
Pun-ti,  the,  212 
Purasati,  the,  494 
Purmuli,  the,  544 
Pwos,  the,  187 
Pycraft,  W.  P.,  561 

Quapaw,  the,  378 


Index 


S11 


Quatrefages,  A.  de,  230 
Quoirengs,  the,  178 
Quichuas,  the,  404  sq.,  407 

Radloff,  W.,  315 

Raffles,  Sir  T.  S.,  238 

Rahanwfn,  the,  48; 

RAjputs,  the,  306  sqq.,  546 

Rakhaingtha,  the,  188 

Randall-Maclver,  D.,  89  «.,  106  n. 

Rangkhols,  the,  177 

Ranqualches,  the,  410 

Rat,  J.  Numa,  345  n. 

Rattray,  R.  S.,  69  n. 

Rawling,  C.  G.,  157  «. 

Rawlinson,  G.,  262  «.,  307 

Ray,  S.  H.,  135  «.,  139  n.,  428 

Read,  C.  H.,  62 

Reade,  W.  Winwood,  n6 

Reck,-  Hans,  43  «.,  447 

Reclus,  E.,  276  «.,  398  n. 

Reed,  W.  A.,  156  «. 

Regnault,  M.  F.,  48 

Rein,  J.  J.,  298  n. 

Reinach,  L.  de,  192  n. 

Reinach,  S.,  13  «.,  465  n. 

Reinecke,  P.,  27 

Reinisch,  L.,  80 

Reisner,  G.  A.,  22,  75,  478,  481 

Rejang,  the,  223,  235  sq. 

Retu,  the,  475  «. 

Retzius,  G.,  505  «. 

Reutelian  culture,  10 

Rhaetians  (Rasenes),  the,  512 

Rhoxolani,  the,  326 

Rhys,  Sir  J.,  516  n. 

Rialle,  G.  de,  249  n. 

Richthofen,  F.  von,  302,  311 

Ridge^ay,  SirW.,  2«.,  28;on  Pelasgians, 
453, 462  «,  464sq.,466«.,  467  «.;  Ligu- 
rians,  457  ;  Romans,  529  n. ;  Achaeans, 

533  "■ 

Rink,  H.  J.,  346,  358 

Rink,  S.,  287 

Ripley,  W.  Z.,  17  «.,  441  «.,  449  ;  on 
the  Mediterranean  race,  452,  461  n.; 
Basques,  454  «.,  455  A. ;  Greeks,  462  «., 
465, 483  n.  ;  Phoenicians,  493  «.;  Jews 
and  Semites,  495  «.,  504 ;  Scandinavia, 
509;  Central  Europe,  510  «.,  511  «. ; 
Celts,  514  «.;  Britain,  524,  527;  Italy, 
529  n, 

Risley,  H.  H.,  167  «.,  308,  546  sqq. 

Rivers,  W.  H.  R.,  139  sqq.,  432  «.,  548  «., 

549,  553 
Rivet,  P.,  339  sq. 
Robinson,  C.  H.,  67  n. 
Robinson,  H.  C,  153,  222  n. 
Rockhill,  W.  W.,  168  sqq.,  171,  174 
Roesler,  R.,  531,  535 


Roeys,  the,  178 

Rol,  the,  78 

Rolleston,  J.,  517 

Romans  in  North  Africa,  the,  470 

Romilly,  H.  H.,  146  «. 

Rong,  the,  170,  177 

Roscoe,  J.,  91  sq.,  97  n. 

Rose,  H.  A.,  548  n. 

Rosenberg,  H.  von,  234  «.,  235  «.,  237  n. 

Rostaffnski,  J.,  506, 

Roth,  H.  Ling,  62  n.,  160  «.,  231  n. 

Routledge,  W.  S.  and  K.,  97  «. 

Roy,  S.  C,  548  n. 

Ruadites,  the,  470 

Rumanians,  the,  318,  331,  530  sqq. 

Rumanfya,  the,  470 

Russell,  F.,  383  «. 

Russell,  R.  v.,  548  n. 

Russians,  the,  318,  539  sq. 

Ruthenians,  the,  532,  S37 

Rutot,  M.,  10,  14 

Sabaeans,  the,  498 

Sacse,  the,  167  sq. 

Saint-Adolphe,  Milliet  de,  417,  419  «. 

Saint-Denys,  d'H.  de,  198 

Saint-Martin,  V.  de,  290  «.,  327  «.,  328  n. 

Sakai,  the,  149,  154,  422  sq.,  425  sq.,  and 

PI.  X  fig.  2 
Sakalava,  the,  241  sq.,  245 
Sakhersi,  the,  51  n. 
Salaman,  R.  N.,  495  n. 
Salars,  the,  169 
Salish,  the  Coast,  363,  366  sq.,  and  map, 

PP-  334—5 
Salish,  the   Inland,  343,  366  sqq.,  and 

map,  pp.  334—5      V 
Salmon,  P.,  451 

Sambaqui  (shell-mound)  race,  the,  417 
Samoyeds,  the,  275,  301, 303,  3l7,323sq., 

and  PI.  VI  fig.  I ;  religion  of,  277  sq.,  325 
Sandberg,  G.,  169  «. 
Sande,  G.  A.  J.  van  der,  146 
Sandia,  the,  382  n. 
San  Felipe.  (Indians),  the,  382  n. 
San  Ildefonso  (Indians),  the,  382  n. 
San  Juari  (Indians),  the,  382  n. 
Santa  Ana  (Indians),  the,  382  n. 
Santa  Barbara  (Indians),  the,  369  sq. 
Santa  Clara  (Indians),  the,  382 
Santa  Domingo  (Indians),  the,  382  n. 
Santal,  the,  547 
Santee-Dakota,  the,  371,  and  map,  pp. 

334—5 
Sapper,  K.,  390 
Sarasin,  F.,  224  n.,  425  «.,  426 
Sarasin,  P.,  224  «.,  425  «.,  426 
Sards,  the,  460  sq. 

Sarmatians  (Sarmatae),  the,  326,  535  sq. 
Sarsi,the,  354, 370,andmap,  pp.  334—335 

37 


578 


Man  :  Past  and  Present 


"Sartes,"  the,  312 

Sassaks,  the,  224  sq. 

Sauk  and  Fox,  the,  354,  375,  377,  and 
map,  pp.  334—5 

Saulteaux,  the,  375,  and  map,  pp.  334 — 5 

Saxons,  the,  449 

Sayce,  A.  H.,  236  «.,  267  «.,  300,  447, 
495  sq. 

Scandinavia  and  amber  trade,  502 ;  "Ary- 
an cradle"  in,  504  ;  population  of,  509 

Schafarik,  P.  J.,  327  n. 

Scharff,  R.  F.,  337 

Schetelig,  A.,  251 

Schiefner,  A.,  286 

Sdhleicher,  A.,  283,  442 

Schliemann,  H.,  463 

Schlenker,  C.  F.,  54  n. 

Schmid,  T.  P.,  412 

Schmidt,  H.,  258 

Schmidt,  W.,  135  «.,  151  «.,  221  n.,  350, 
428  sqq. 

Schoetensack,  O.,  3  n. 

Schoolcraft,  H.  R.,  377 

Schott,  H.,  311  n. 

Schrader,  O.,  503  n. 

Schultz,  J.  W.,  374  n. 

Schumacher,  G.,  492 

Schwalbe,  G.,  9  n. 

Schweinfurth,  G.,  79  n. 

Scotland,  racial  elements  in,  521  sqq. 

Scott,  J.  G.,  189  K.,  191  7Z.,  204 

Scythians,  the,  168  «.,  304,  507,  535  sqq.; 
in  India,  547 

Scytho-Dravidian  type,  Risle/s,  546 

Sea  Dayak.   See  Iban 

Sebop,  the,  231 

Seger,  H.,  29  n. 

Seguas,  the,  388  n. 

Sekani,  the,  361  sq.,  and  map,  pp.  334—5 

Sekhwans,  the,  249 

Seki-Manzi,  the,  261 

Seler,  E.,  389 

Seligman,  B.  Z.,  76  «.,  425  n. 

Seligman,  C.  G.,  74  ».,  75,  76  «.,  77  «.,  79, 

135,  425  «.,  484,  499.  548  «. 
Seljuks,  the,  314 
Sellin,  E.,  492 
Semang,   the,    138,  149,  153  sqq.,  158, 

425,  and  PI.  II  fig.  2 
Seminole,  the,  355,  378,  381,  and  map, 

PP..  334—5 
Semites,   the,   in    Babylonia,  262   sqq., 

266, 441, 468 ;  Arabs,  470  sqq.,  477  sqq-. ; 

in  Africa,  481,  485  ;  Chap,  xiv 
Semple,  E.  C.,  490  n. 
Seneca,  the,  354,  377 
Senoi.  See  Sakai 
Serbians,  the,  532,  538 
Serer,  the,  47  sqq. 
Sergi,  G.,  36,  442,  447 ;  on  the  Mediter- 


ranean race,  451  sq.,  456  sqq.,  461  sqq., 
47B;  in  Italy,  512  «.,  513,  528  sq. ;  in 
Greece,  532 ;  in  Russia,  539 ;  Hamites, 
468  sq.,  483 

Seri  Indians,  the,  396,  401 

Setebos,  the,  414 

Sgaws,  the,  187 

Shahapts,  the,  366  sq.,  and  map,  pp. 

334—5       • 
Shakespear,  J.,  178  «.,  548  n. 
Shakshu,  the,  543 
Shans,  the,  166,  180, 191  sqq.;  alphabets 

of,  195,  f98  sq. 
Shargorodsky,  S.,  284 
Sharra,  the,  272 
Shaw,  G.  A.,  242 
Shawfas,  the,  470 
Shawnee,  the,  354,  375,  378,  and  map, 

pp.  334-5 
Shendu,  the,  183 
Sheyantd,  the,  183 
Shilluk,  the,  78  sqq.,  484 
Shinomura,  M.,  261 
Shfns,  the,  544 
Shipaulovj,  the,  382  n. 
Shipibos.  See  Sipivios 
Shluhs,  thd,  468 
Shom  Pen,  the,  251  sqq. 
Shoshoni,  the,  355,  367, 371  sq.,  and  map, 

PP-  334—5. 
Shoshonian  Imguistic  stock,  the,  347,  369 
Shrubsall,  F.  C,  121,  126,  450  n. 
Shu,  the,  183 
Shunopovi,  the,  382  n. 
Shushwap,  the,  343,  367,  and  map,  pp. 

334—5 

Sia,  the,  382  n. 

Siah  Posh,  the,  544 

Siamese,  the,  180,  199  sq. ;  writing  sys- 
tem, 195 

Sibree,  J.,  242  n, 

Sicani,  the,  460 

Sichumovi,  the,  382  n. 

Siculi,  the,  452,  460,  529 

Sidonians.   See  Phoenicians 

Siebold,  H.  v.,  289 

Sien-pi,  the,  290  sqq. 

Sierochevsky,  V.  A.,  314 

Sierra-Leonese,  the,  53  sqq. 

Sifans,  the,  211 

Sihanakas,  the,  242 

Sikemeier,  W.,  549 

Sikhs,  the,  550 

Siksika,  the,  354,  370, 372  sqq.,  and  map, 

pp.  334—5 . 
Singpho,  the,  186 
Siouan  linguistic  stock,   the,   342,   347, 

355.  371  sqq.,  381 ;  Eastern,  378 
Sioux.   See  Dakota 
Sipivios,  the,  414 


Index 


S19 


Sirdehi,  the,  544 

Sistani,  the,  544 

Siyirs,  the,  183 

Skeat,  W.  W.,  1 53  «.,  1 54  «.,  222  «.,  426  n. 

Skidi,  the,  373 

Skinner,  A.,  375  n. 

Slavey,  the,  361,  and  map,  pp.  334 — 5 

Slavo-Kelt,  use  of  term,  512  * 

Slavs,  the,  318,  321,  327  sqq.,  442,  444, 

529.  S3S.  537  sqq. 
Slovaks,  the,  331,  532,  537 
Slpvenes,  the,  532,  536  «. 
Smeaton,  D.  M.,  187 
Smith,  A.  H.,  215  «. 
Smith,  Donaldson,  122 
Smith,   G.  Elliot,  2i  sq.,  25,  78,  81  «., 

351  sqq.,  451  «.,  452  «.,  477  sqq.,  480, 

491  n. 
Smith,  R.,  10  n. 
Smith,  S.  Percy,  552  n. 
Smith,  V.  A.,  551  n. 
Smyth,  R.  Brough,  160  n. 
Smyth- Warington,  H.,  165,  201  n. 
Snellman,  A.  H.,  309  «.,  320 
So,  the,  70 

Sok-pa,  the,  168  «.,  172 
Soktd,  the,  183 
SoUas,  W.  J.,  ^  io«.,  12  sqq.,  128  «.,  131, 

159,  161 
Sols,  the,  316 
Solutrian  culture,  12,  14 
Somali,  the,  443,  468  sq.,  484  sqq. 
Songhai,  the,  64  sqq. 
Soninkd,  the,  49,  Ji 
Sonorans,  the,  342 
Soppitt,  C.  A.,  178 
Soyotes,  the,  317 
Spain,  racial  elements  in,  527  sq. 
Spartman,  P.  S.,  370  n. 
Speck,  F.  G.,  380 
Speiser,  F.,  1^6.  n. 
Speke,  J.  H.,  91 
Spence,  L.,  393  n. 
Spencer,  H.,  402  n. 
Spencer,  Sir  W.  Baldwin,  427  sq.,  430sq., 

433.  434  «■.  436 
Spinden,  H.  J.,  367  «.,  390  n. 
Spy  skeletons,  the,  8 
Squier,  E.  G.,  408 
Stack,  E.,  548  n. 
Stanley,  H.  E.  J.,  loi  n. 
Stanley,  H.  M.,  95  n. 
Starr,  F.,  112  «. 
Steensby,  H.  P.,  359 
Stefinsson,  V.,  360 

Stein,  Sir  M.  A.,  257  sq.,  310  sq.,  544.547 
Steinen,  K.  v.  D.,  347  «.,  411,  415  sqq. 
Steinmetz,  R.  S.,  81  «.,  401  n 
Sternberg,  L.,  288  ». 
Stevenson,  M.  C,  385  n. 


Stow,  G.  W.,  104  «.,  106  n. 

Strandloopers,  the,  121 

Strepyan  culture,  10 

Stuhlmann,  F.,  27  «.,  45  «.,  93,  470,  476 

Sturge,  Allen,  15 

Subano,  the,  247 

Sudanese  Negro,  chap,  in 

Sumerians,  the,  261  sqq.,  480  sq.,  491; 

see  also  Babylonia 
Sumu,  the,  197 
Sundanese,  the,  224 
Susa,  explorations  at,  258,  267 
Susquehanna,  the,  354,  375,  and  map, 

PP-  334—5 

Suti,  the,  490 

Suyas.   See  Kayapos 

Swahili.  See  Wa-Swaheli 

Swanton,  J.  R.,  355,  363  n. 

Swazi,  the,  104 

Sweden,  Alpine  type  in,  505  «.,  509;  Nor- 
dic type  in,  509 

Swettenham,  Sir  F.  A.,  222  «.,  227 

Swiss  pile-dwellers,  the,  529 

Sykes,  Sir  M.,  268  n. 

Syrians,  the,  489  sq. 

Szinnyei,  J.,  317 

Tagalogs,  the,  156,  224,  237,  246  sq. 

Tagbanua,  the,  247 

Ta-Hia,  the,  306 

Tahltan  Indians,  the,  363  n. 

Tahtadji,  the,  497 

Tai  (T'hai).    See  Shans 

Tai-Shan  language,  the,  194  sq. 

Tajiks,  the,  307,  505,  542  sqq.,  and  PI.  XIV 

figs.  5,  6 
Talaings,  the,  180 
Talamanca,  the,  421  n. 
Talbot,  P.  A.,  69  n. 
Talko-Hryncewicz,  J.  D.,  259 
Talodi,  the,  75 
Tamai,  K.,  250 
Tamehu,  the,  545 
Tamils,  the,  549 
Tanal^'the,  242 
Tangkhuls,  the,  178 
Tanguts,  the,  168,  172 
Tanoaijs,  the,  382  n. 
Taos,  the,  382  «. 

Tapiro,  the,  157,  and  PI.  11  figs.  5 — 7 
Tappeiner,  F.,  512 
Tapuyaj  the,  417 
Tarahumare,  the,  395  n. 
Taranchi,  the,  311 
Tarasfcan  language,  the,  345 
Tarasfcos,  the,  395 
Tardenoisian  industry,  the,  13 
"Taijtars,"  the,  292  «.,  303  ;  Kazan,  312  ; 

Nqgai,  ib. ;  Siberian,  318;  Volga,  320 
Tart^  industry,  the,  1 2 


58o 


Man :  Past  and  Present 


Tashons,  the,  183  sq, 

Tasmanians,  the,  159  sqq.,  427  sqq.,  and 

PI.  Ill  figs.  I,  2  , 

Taubach  tooth,  the,  6       ~^ 

Taut4  the,  183 

Tavoyers,  the,  188 

Tawangs,  the,  170 

Tawyans,  the,  184 

Taylor,  E.  J.,  225 

Taylor,  G.,  249  ». 

Taylor,  W.  E.,  98,  100 

Teda,  the,  473 

Tehuelche.    See  Patagonians 

Teilhard,  P.,  6 

Teit,  J.,  367  n. 

Tekestas,  the,  399 

Telinga  (Telugu,  Tling),  the,  180,  549 

Temple,  Sir  R.  C,  152  sq.,  182,  183  »., 

i87«. 
Ten  Kate,  H.  F.  C,  147 
Tepanecs,  the,  342,  394 
Terrage,  M.  de  V.  du,  23 
Tesuque,  the,  382  n. 
Teton-Dakota,  the,  370,  and  map,  pp. 

334—5 
Teutoni,  the,  507 
Teutonic  race.    See  Nordic  race 
Teutons,  the,  historic  and  prehistoric, 

506,  525  sq.,  530 
Theal,  G.  M.,  104^.,  105  «.,  108 «.,  126  n. 
Thessalians,  the,  466 
Tho,  the,  197  sq.,  211 
Thomas,  Cyrus,  391,  392  «. 
Thomas,  N.  W.,  58  n.,  59  n.,  431  n.,  436 
Thompson,  Basil,  146  ». 
Thompson,  E.  H.,  397 
Thompson,  J.  P.,  146  n. 
Thompson,  M.  S.,  530  «. 
Thompson,  P.  A.,  201  n. 
Thompson,  the,  367,  and  map,  pp.  334 — 5 
Thomsen,  Wilhelm,  259,  261,  309,  319  «., 

320 
Thomson,  A.,  5 1 1  «. 
Thomson,  B.  H.,  555 
Thracians,  the,  505  sq.,  531 
Thurn,  Sir  E.  F.  im,  4i6«. 
Thurnam,  J.,  517 
Thurston,  E.,  423,  548  n.,  549 
Tibetans,   the,   165  sqq. ;    language  of, 

281 
Tibeto-Indo-Chinese  branch,  165 
Tibu,  the,  468,  473  sq. 
Ticuna,  the,  419 
Tilho,  M.,  69  «.,  72  n. 
Timni,  the,  53  sq. 
Timotes,  the,  400 
Timuquanans,  the,  415 
Tipperahs,  the,  188 
Tipuns,  the,  250 
Tling.      See  Telinga 


Tlingit,  the,  343,  355,  363  sq.,  and  map, 

PP-  334—5 
Toala,  the,  426 
Toba,  the,  420  sq. 
Tocaima,  the,  402 
Tocharish,  441  «.,  504 
Tocher,  J.  F.,  522 
'  Toda,  the,  549 
Toghuz,  the,  310  sq. 
Toltecs,  the,  342,  388  sq.,  393,  394  «• 
Tongue,  M.  H.,  i28«.  1 

Tooke,  W.  H.,  1 19 
Topinard,  P.,  38 
Torday,  E.,  ii3«.,  iis«. 
Toshk's,  the,  538  sq. 
Tosti,  G.,  37 

Totonacs.    See  Huaxtecs 
Toung-gnu,  the,  188 
Toxides,  the,  539 
Trarsas,  the,  469 
Tremeame,  A.  J.  N.,  58«.,  69  «. 
Tremlett,  C.  F.,  203  n. 
Tshi,  the,  46,  58 
Tsiampa.    See  Champa 
Tsimshian,  the,  343,  363,  393  n. 
Tsintsars,  the,  530 
Tsoneca.    See  Tehuelche 
Tuaregs,  the,  468  sq.,  473. 
Tuck,  H.  N.,  183 
Tucker,  A.  W.,  75  n.,  79  n. 
Tumali,  the,  75 
Tungthas,  the,  188 

Tungus,  the,  274  sqq.,  and  PI.  VI  figs.  2,  5 
Tunican,  the,  378,  381,  and   map,  pp. 

334—5 

Tunisia,  natives  of,  448  sq. 

Tupi,  the,  417,  419;  language,  419 

Tupi-Guarani,  the,  348 ;  language,  404  ; 
linguistic  stock,  415,  417,  419 

Turki,  the,  169,  172,  302  sqq. ;  physical 
features,  303 ;  in  India,  308 ;  in  Cen- 
tral Asia,  308  sqq. ;  in  Asia  Minor, 
313  sq. ;  in  Siberia,  314  sqq. 

Turko-Iranian  type,  Risle/s,  546 

Turkomans,  the,  305,  312  sq. 

Turks,  Osmanli,  301,  303,  313  sq. 

Turner,  S.,  171 

Turner,  Sir  William,  15,  159^. 

Tusayans,  the,  385  sq. 

Tuscarora,  the,  354,  377  sq.,  and  map, 

PP-  334—5 
Tylor,  Sir  E.  B.,  353,  437  n. 
Tynjur,  the,  74 
Tyrol,  the,  brachycephaly  in,  512 

Uaupfe,  the,  348 

Ude  language,  541 

Ugrian  Finns,  the,  317  sqq.,  326  sq. 

Uigurs,  the,  301,  308  sqq.,  329  «. 

Uinta,  the,  371 


Index 


581 


Ujfalvy,  C.  de,  i66sq.,  271  sq.,  291,  302 «., 
307,  3ii«.,  512,  544 

Ukit,  the,  230  sq. 

Uled-Bella,  the,  469 

Uled-Embark,  the,  469 

Uled-en-Nasdr,  the,  469 

Ulu  Ayar,  the,  230,  426 

Umbrians,  the,  513,  529 

Ural-Altaic  peoples.    See  Northern  Mon- 
gols 
languages,  281  sqq. 

Usuns  (Wusun),  the,  291,  301,  306 

Ute,  the,  35  5,  371  sq. 

Utigurs,  the,  329 

Uzbegs,  the,  303,  312,  315 

Vaalpens,  the,  120  sq. 
Vacas,  the,  52 
Valentini,  P.  J.  J.,  342,  389 
Vambdry,  A.,  314,  330  «. 
Vandals,  the,  449,  470 
Vandeleur,  S.,  68  «. 
Vansittart,  E.,  170  «. 
Vapisianas,  the,  416 
Vascones,  the,  525 
Vasilofsky,  N.  E.,  314  «. 
Vater,  J.  S.,  127 
Vauru,  the,  348 
Vazimba,  the,  239,  244  sq. 
Vedda,  the,  149, 422,  424,  arid  PI.  x  fig.  i 
Vei,  the,  32  «.,  46  «.,  49 
Venedi,  the,  537 
Veneti,  the,  529  «.,  537  n. 
Vepses,  the,  320,  322 
Vemeau,  R.,  9«.,  123,  186  «.,  198,  451 
Vierkandt,  A.,  37  «. 
Vinson,  J.,  454  «.,  456  n. 
Virchow,  R.,  29,  38,  127,  442,  447,  540  «. 
Visayas,  the,  224,  246 
Visigoths,  the,  449 
Vlachs,  the,  530 
.  Voguls,  the,  303,  325 
Volkov;  T.,  259  «.,  305  n. 
Volz,  W.,  237  n. 
Votes,  the,  320,  322 
Voth,  H.  R.,  385  n. 
Votyaks,  the,  325 
Vouchereau,  A.,  243 

Wa-Boni,  the,  97 
Wace,  A.  J.  B.,  530  n. 
Wa-Chaga,  the,  97 
Wachsmuth,  W.,  463  n. 
Waddell,  L.  A.,  i69«. 
Wa-Duruma,  the,  97 
Wa-Giryama,  the,  97  sqq. 
Wa-Gweno,  the,  97 
Wa-Hha,  the,  91 
Wahuma.    See  Ba-Hima 
Waiilatpuan,  the,  363 


Wainwright,  G.  A.,  26  «. 

Wa-Kamba,  the,  97 

Wa-Kedi,  the,  62«.,  96 

Wakhi,  the,  544 

Wa-Kikuyu,  the,  97  n. 

Wakor^,  the,  5 1  n. 

Walapai,  the,  383 

Wales,  racial  elements  in,  522  sqq. 

Walkhoff,  E.,  4«. 

Wallace,  A.  R.,  223,  224  «.,  226  sqq. 

Wallack,  H.,  450 

Walpi,  the,  382  n. 

Walter,  H.,  542  «. 

Wandorobbo,  the,  124 

Wangara,  the,  5 1  «. 

Wa-Nyika,  the,  97 

Wa-Pokomo,  the,  97 

Wa-Ruanda,  the,  91,  486 

Wa-Sandawi,  the,  127,  129 

Wa-Swahili,  the,  44,  100 

Wa-Taveita,  the,  97 

Wa-Teita,  the,  97 

Watt,  G.,  181,  i82«. 

Wa-Tusi,  the,  91,  486 

Webster,  W.,  454  «.,  521  «. 

Weeks,  J.  H.,  ii3«. 

Weigland,  G.,  530  «. 

Weiss,  M.,  97  n. 

Wends,  the,  537 

Werner,  A.,  97  «.,  98  «.,  102  n. 

Weule,  K.,  97  n. 

Wheeler,  G.  C,  432  n. 

Whenohs,  the,  184 

Whiffen,  T.,  414/2. 

Wibling,  Carl,  16 

Wichita,  the,   355,  371,  and   map,  pp. 

334—5  ■ 
Williamson,  R.  W.,  158 
Willis,  B.,  339 
Wilson,  Thomas,  175 
Winchell,  N.  H.,  344 
Winckler,  H.,  490,  496 
Windisch,  E.,  516 
Windt,  H.  de,  287 
Winnebago,  the,  355,  375 
Wintun,  the,  pp.  334— 5 
Wissler,  €.,  357 — ■^^^ passim 
Wissmann,  H.  von,  125 
Witoto,  the,  414,  415  n. 
Wochua,  the,  124 
Wolf,  L.,  125 

WoUaston,  A.  F.  R.,  149  «.,  154  «.,  157  «. 
Wolof,  the,  44,  47  sqq. 
Woodford,  C.  M.,  137  «.,  146  «. 
Woodthorpe,  R.  G.,  195  n. 
Woodward,  A.  Smith,  3  «.,  5  «.,  6  n. 
Worcester,  D.  C,  is6«. 
Wray,  L.,  155  «. 
Wright,  F.  E.,  339 
Wright,  W.,  4  «.,  452  n. 


582 


Man  :   Past  and  Present 


Wuri,  the,  117 

Wyandot,  the,  375,  and  map,  pp.  334 — 5 

Wylde,  A.  B.,  487  n. 

Xenopol,  A.  D.,  531 

Yacana,  the,  41 1 

Yadrintseff,  N.  M.,  309  «. 

Vagi,  S.,  261 

Yagnobi,  the,  542  n. 

Yahgans,  the,  411,413;  language  of,  413 

Yakut,  the,  172, 274  sq. ;  language,  283  «., 

303,  314  sq. 
Yamamadi,  the,  348 
Yankton-Dakota,    the,   371,   and    map, 

PP-  334—5 
Yavapai,  the,  383 
Yavorsky,  J.  L.,  305 
Yayo  (Yao),  the,  197 
Yedina,  the,  69 
Yegrai,  the,  172 
Yegurs,  the,  311  «. 
Yellow  Knives,  the,  361,  and  map,  pp. 

334—5 
Yemanieh,  the,  74 
Y^-tha,  the,  307  sq. 
Yezidi,  the,  497 
Yidoks,  the,  543 
Y-jen,  the,  211 
Yo,  the,  183 


Yokut,  the,  pp.  334—5 

Yoma,  the,  188 

Yoruba,  the,  46,  58  sq. 

Yotkan,  explorations  at,  258 

Younghusband,  Sir  F.,  301  sq. 

Yuan-yuans,  the,  292,  307 

Yuehi,  the,  378  sqq.,  and  map,  pp.  334 — 5 

Yud-chi,  the,  291,  305  sqq.,  542  n. 

Yugo-Slavs,  the,  331,  537 

Yuin,  the,  437 

Yukaghir,  the,  274  sq. ;  writmg  system, 

284  sq.,  344 
Yuma,  the,  383 

Yuman  linguistic  stock,  the,  355,  369 
Yumanas,  the,  416 
Yungas,  the,  408 

Zaborowski,  S.,  448,  456,  S36«.,  539  sq- 
Zandeh,  the,  44,  78  sq.,  81  sq. 
Zapotecs,  the,  390,  395 
Zimbabwe  monuments,  the,  44,  89  sq., 

105,  241  n. 
Zimmer,  H.,  521 «. 
Zimmern,  H.,  269  n. 
Ziryanians,  the,  324 
Zoghawa,  the,  73 
Zulu-Xosa,  the,  44,  loi  sqq.,  129,  and  PI. 

I  fig.  2 
Zuni,  the,  382,  and  map,  pp.  334 — 5 


CAMBRIDGE  :   PRINTED  BY  J.  B.  PEACE,  M.A.,  AT  THE  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 


PLATR   I 


Hau>,[,  Wc^lcni  Siidaiir 
Xi-jro 


2.    Zulu,  Bantu  NeLji'uid 


3.     I\'ni:iiiii,i   HnttiaiUii 


3.     liubliinan 


6.    Buslinian 


PLATH  II 


1.    AiuUimaiiL^L,  Nl^iUi 


Seniaii;^,    .\t'i;rili. 


^ii«^ 

1 

r**'             v^^Ik 

i 

■iS^ISF  ^Kf^i^B^F 

'^"'^m 

3ln^ 

3.    Acta,  Net;"rito 


4.    Cciitial  AfVican,  Negrillo 


PLATR  III 


^ 

^ 

•€!»«  J 

f 

f 

•^^^^s 

!►• 

n^ 

!►*»-■- 

^» 

Jj^KTwy^*!- j^ 

& 

^^ 

r 

^/           m 

r 

''■^'■^^S^ 

-■-^^f^ 

V 

\ 

I.      [\LMii.iiiian 


I'asniai' 


4.     Kiwai,  l'.'i|iuan 


'"'^ 

1 

,,''v-   ^ajl 

W.^:' 

^      ^ 

i  -;.:.: 

W 

j^ 

..--^ 

^^t 

yj 

|. 

5.    Hula,  I'a|"juo-M''Iaiii'sian 


Ci.     Hula,  Pa|)uii-MclaiK'sian 


PLATE  IV 


I.    Chinese 


Chinese 


3     Kaia  Kirghiz,  Alcmf^olo  Turki  4.    Kara-Kirghiz,  Mongolo-Turki 


'    I   r,l        I 


5.    Kara-Kirghiz 


6.    Manchu-Tung'us 


PI.ATR  V 


I.     Ili.Lii.  niivt'd   I  'roti'-Maln\' 


liLi'^inesc,  M:iU\au 


j.     Ildiu.H.   I-ni-iit,  Mala\,in 


4.     Hagdlin.  Malayan 


PLATE  VI 


Tiinyus 


_|      l\  ilniiils,  \\  tsti  111  Alon^ul 


GoUl  of  Amur  Ri\ei',  Tunmis 


6,    Gilyak  ('N.E.  ?v[ongol) 


1^1. ATI-:  \'ii 


^.  4.     |a|i,tnr>L-.  iiiixrd  M,iHLliii-K'in-;iii  ami  Snullirrn   Moii 


5     Ki)if  111 


(I.     I.apii 


PLATE  ".Vi  1 1 


m 

i 

\ 

'* 

"; 

^\ 

% 

', 

I.    Eskimo 


Indian,  Noilh-west  co:ist  of 
North  America 


' 

iM 

jjt 

^MM 

^ 

^^M(m 

^j* 

y^fyk 

'J 

t^mM 

Sm| 

^mlt^k 

L^f 

^M^Ub 

M     "^ 

1  ^ifNH 

3k  '  1 

3.    Cuc(jpa,  Vuman 


4.     Navaho,  Athapascan 


5.    Dakota,  Siouan 


6.    iJalvOta,  Siouan 


PLATH   IX 


I.    Carib 


2.    (juatuso,  Costa  Kii  ,i 


V     Xati\L'  (if  (  Hii\  al'i,   M.  uailiir 


4.     \ali\e  iif  Z;'iiiil)isa,  l-aiiaclor 


T.    Tehuel-i.  lit',  I'ataynni 


(>.    'I'ehuel-chu,  J'ala'^^  mia 


PLATE  X 


I.    \'c(lda,   rre-I)ra\  idiai' 


Sakai,  I'l'i-I  )i'a\iil)a 


1^^'''**^QL 

f^'^J^P^' 

wf^^^^^^f^w 

^'"^a 

Iff' 

^^y^ 

fc 

'^ 

3.     hula,  rru-lJrax  iclian 


_).    I'aniyan,  l'i-e-I)ra\i(liaii 


6.    Australian 


PLATR  XI 


1  ).inf,  Nciidic 


2.     Dane,  Xfjrclii" 


4.     1  ireLon,  iiiiNcd  .-\l|nn( 


Swiss,  Nordi 


(h    S«  iss,  Alpi 


PLATE  XII 


.    CaUilan,  lljerian 


2.    Irisliiiiaii    Mcditerranr-nn 


3.    Kababish,  mixed  Semite 


4.    Kababish,  mixed  Semite 


3.    E;4yptian  IJcdouin,  mixed 
Semite 


(>.    Af'dian,  Iranian 


PLATR  XIII 


I.    }ii>hariii,  I  laniitc 


nishai'iii,  1  lamitc 


4.    Masai,  mixed  Nilotic  Ilaiiiitc 


Shilluk,  Hamitic  Nilote 


6.    Shilluk,  Nildlc 


PLATB  XIV 


I.    Kurd,  Nordic 


Kurd,  Nordic 


3.    Annenian,  Annenoid  Alpine 


5.    Tajik,  Al|jine 


6.    Tajil<,  mixed  Alpine  and  Turki 


PLATK  XV 


Sinli.ile>e,  nii\ud  ■■Ar\-,in" 


Sinhalese,  mixed  "Ai"\an 


Hindu,  mixed  "Aryan" 


4-     KIinL^",   1  )i'a\  iilian 


5.    Linya,  Dra\idian 


6.    \'akk;di_i^a,  mixed  Alpine 


PLATB  XVI 


I,  2    Raiatca,  Polynesian 


Maori,  Pohaiesian 


4.    Maori,  Polynesian 


;,  6    Caroline  Islands,  Micronesian