MANKIND.
THE RACES OF MAN,
AND
THEIR GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION.
FROM THE GERMAN OF
OSCAR PESCHEL
NEW YORK:
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,
I, 3, AND 5 BOND STREET.
if.8*.
PV13
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.
INCLINATION without some form of external pressure is insufficient
to induce an author to publish a handbook, for though complete-
ness is essential, the work is little attractive. Moreover, in such
a subject as ethnology the author finds himself obliged to enter
into matters requiring special study. He can no longer bring
forward his own thoughts, but has only to repeat the dicta of the
recognized authorities, and he never loses the oppressive sensation
of gathering roses in the garden of another. It would never have
occurred to the present author to reconstruct a doctrinal system
of ethnology, had he not in the beginning of 1869 been requested
by the then War Minister, General A. von Roon, to edit a fourth
and revised edition of his " Ethnology as an Introduction to
Political Geography" (Volkerkunde als Propadeutik der politischen
Geographic). The wish of a man whose name is closely con-
nected with the creation of our military system, became a duty to
a German on whom the newly acquired strength of his nation has
imposed obligations of gratitude towards its great originator and
promoter. After a short correspondence it was agreed that the
new work was to be described on the title-page as the joint pro-
duction of Herr von Roon and the present author, and that it
should be previously submitted to the former for approbation.
vl Preface to the First Edition.
Last autumn, however, when after nearly five years a portion of
the proof was ready, it appeared that, owing to the shattered
state of his health, His Excellency Field-marshal Count Roon was
for the time unable to examine the contents of the " Ethnology,"
and that although he intended to do so when convalescent, yet if
such delay should be prejudicial to the author and the publisher,
he urged an immediate publication of the work, but that in this
case any mention of his name on the title-page must be omitted.
Any longer delay was indeed undesirable, for the rapidity with
which writings grow old, owing to the present activity of science,
more especially in the province of ethnology, was painfully im-
pressed upon the author while his work was in the press, by the
appearance of several new investigations, of which he was unable
to make use. Thus in the early chapters the Mohammedan
monarchy at Talifu was described as' extant and prosperous,
whereas, according to the latest intelligence, the Chinese destroyed
it in 1872.
The original object of the undertaking, namely, to urge anew the
scientific claims of A. von Roon's " Volkerkunde als Propadeutik
der politischen Geographic," thus came to naught, much to the
regret of the author.
OSCAR PESCHEL.
Leipsic,Jan, 10, 1874*
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
THE issue of a Second Edition has been delayed for some time by
the author that he might avail himself of the opportunity completely
to rearrange his work. But owing to considerations of health
this intention must be postponed to a future time. Such addi-
tional material as has been gathered, as well as all elucidations
derived from critical discussions on ethnology in the press of
Germany and of other countries, and in private correspondence,
have been placed in the list of " Addenda and Corrections "
before the list of "Contents."* Although at present no alteration of
the systematic groups has been adopted, it must be remembered
that new arguments have lately been urged against the com-
bination of the Indo-European, Semitic, and Hamite nations into
a Mediterranean race. When, for instance, Professor R. Hart-
mann recognized a remarkable correspondence between the skulls
of the Shillook negroes and the heads of the old Egyptians and
of their descendants, the Fellaheen (Schweinfurth, The Heart of
Africa, vol. i. p. 96), such a fact could not fail to produce a
deep impression. On the other hand, in the absence of measure-
* These have been inserted in the text of the English edition.
viii Preface to the Second Edition.
ments and distinct physical descriptions of many members of
these groups, a separation could not as yet be carried into effect :
nor is it indeed impossible that proof may yet be obtained of the
common origin. In the three great groups of languages it is
perhaps .unadvisable hastily to replace an old and questionable
arrangement by one which, though new, is also questionable.
OSCAR PESCHEL.
Lripzic, October, 1874.
CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION.
I. Man's Place m Creation. Similarities and Dissimilarities between Men
and Apes.
II. Unity or Plurality of the Human Race. Morphological and Physio-
logical Conception of Species. Fertility of Racial Hybrids. Darwin's
Natural and Sexual Selections. Psychical Identity of the Human Race.
III. Place of Origin of the Human Race. Not on Islands. Not in
Australia. Not in America. Lemuria.
IV. Antiquity of the Human Race. Flint Implements at Abbeville.
Discoveries in Caves. Reindeer Period in France. Schussenried. Kitchen-
middens. Lake Dwellings. Discoveries in Nilitic Deposits.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERS.
I. Proportions of the Brain-case. Cross-heads. Sexual Differences.
Index of Breadth. Index of Height.
II. The Brain of Man. Weight in Men and Animals. Microcephals.
Racial Weights. Size of Brain. Form and Weight of Brain.
III. Osseous Facial Apparatus. Position of the Jaw. Zygomatic Arches.
Root of the Nose,
Contents.
IV. Proportions of the Pelvis and Limbs. Shape of the Pelvis. Stature
Proportions of the Upper to the Lower Limbs.
A*3 V. tSft* and Hair. Pigment Cells. Colour of New-born Infants.
'' Odour. Origin of the Colour of the Skin. Colour of the Hair. Section
of the Hair. Matting of the Hair. Hair on the Body.
LINGUISTIC CHARACTERS.
"^.-^Evolutionary History of Human Language. Language of Animals.
Independence of Sound and Sense. Onomatopoetry. Interjections. Accentu-
ation. Gestures. Deaf-mutes. Infantine Language. Wealth of Words.
II. Structure of Human Language. Monosyllabism. Definition of Meaning.
Ural-Altaic Type. Euphony. Incorporation. Prefix Languages of South
Africa. Gender. Semitism. Indo-European Type.
III. Language as a Means of Classification,
INDUSTRIAL, SOCIAL, AND RELIGIOUS PHASES OF
DEVELOPMENT.
I. Primitive Condition. No Animal Condition demonstrated. Discovery of
Fire. Fire-Drills. Bushmen. Veddahs. Mincopies. Fuegians. Botocudos.
Causes of the Extinction of Barbarous Nations.
II. Food and its Preparation. Wild Nutritive Plants. Pantophagy.
Cannibalism. Alcoholic and Narcotic Articles of Food. Stone Cooking.
Earthenware Vessels. Forks. Spoons. Salt.
III. Clothing and Shelter. Sense of Modesty. Materials of Clothing.
Clothing of the Feet. Screens of Foliage. Leaf Huts. Stone Buildings.
Arched Vaulting.
IV. Weapons. Bows and Arrows. Blow Pipes. Arrow Poisons. Slings.
Weapons of Agricultural Nations.
V. Boats and Navigation. Rivers and Inland Seas. Phoenicians and
Arabs. Inhabitants of Fiords. Islanders.
Contents. xi
VI. Influence of Commerce on the Local Distribution of Nations. Precious
Metals. Cod Fishery. Fur-bearing Animals. Spices. Logwood. Slave
Trade. Tin. Amber.
VII. Marriage and Paternal Authority. Age of Marriage. Unchastity.
Polygamy. Polyandry. Incest. Wife Stealing. Purchase of Brides,
rletarism. Terms expressive of Relationship. Gyneocracy. Heirship of
Nephews. Kissing.
VIII. Social Germs. Vendetta. Weregild. Ideas of Property. Dignity
of Chiefs. Slavery. Caste. Nobility.
IX. Religious Impulses in Uncivilized Nations. Man's Need of Causality.
Stone Worship. Tree Worship. Animal Worship. Worship of Water, the
Sun, and the Forces of Nature. Idea of Immortality. Ancestor Worship.
Hero Worship.
X. Shamanism. Priestcraft. Sorcery as the Cause of Death. Trial
for Witchcraft. Trial by Ordeal. Prayer. Sacrifice. Brahma and the
Brahmins.
XI. Buddhism. Vedanta 1 and Sankhja. Life of Buddha. Nirvana.
Morality. Extension.
XII. Dualistic Religions. Good and Evil Powers. Zoroaster. Ormuzd
and Ahriman. Resurrection of the Dead. Morality.
XIII. Monotheism of Israel. Polytheistic Rudiments. Former Crudeness
of the Conception of the Deity. Appearance of the Prophets. Moral Order
of the World. Contempt for Sacrifice. Lofty Conception of the Deity.
Enlightenment in Exile.
XIV. Doctrines of Christianity. Doctrine of Preexist ence in the Old
Testament. Benign Providence. The Lord's Prayer. Morality. Christianity
and Buddhism.
XV. Islam. Mohammed. The Koran. Monotheistic Purism. Moral
Laws. Doctrine of Election. Extension.
XVI. The Zone of the Founders of Religions. Terrors of Nature.
Influence of Food. Influence of the Desert.
l\
xil Contents.
THE RACES OF MANKIND.
I. Australians. II. Papuans. III. Mongols. IV. Dravidas. V. Hot-
tentots and Bushmen. VI. Negroes. VII. Mediterranean Nations.
I. AUSTRALIANS.
Physical Characters. Language. Abode. Implements. Mental Endow-
ments. Customs. Causes of their Extinction.
II. PAPUANS.
Physical Characters. Australian and Asiatic Group (Alfurs, Negritoes,
Mincopies, Semangs). Mental Endowments. Implements and Customs.
Fijians.
III. MONGOLOID NATIONS.
I. The Malay Race. Geographical Distribution of the Polynesians. Im-
plements, Customs, and Mental Endowments of the Polynesian Malays.
Asiatic Malays (Sundanese, Tagals, Bisaya, True Malays, Javanese, Batta,
Dyaks, Macassarenes, Bugis). Micronesians. Inhabitants of Madagascar
and Formosa. Physical Characters.
II. Southern Asiatics with Monosyllabic Languages. Races in Thibet and the
Himalayas. Burmese. Siamese. Laos. Annamites. Chinese. Chinese
Civilization. Confucius. Laotse.
III. Coreans and Japanese. Linguistic Characters.
IV '.Mongoloid Nations in the North of the Old World. Ural-Altaic
Race. (a) Tungus Branch, (b] Mongolian Branch (Eastern Mongolian,
Kalmuck, Buriat, Hazara). (<:) Turkish Branch (Uighur, Uzbek, Osmanli,
Yakut, Turcoman, Nogay, Basian, Kumuk, Karakalpak, Kirghiz), (d) Finnish
Branch, Ugrian Division (Ostiak, Voguls, Magyar). Bulgarian Division.
Permian Division. True Finnish Division (Suomi, Lapps), (e) Samoyed
Branch.
V. Northern Asiatics of Doubtful Position. Yenesei- Ostiak. Yukagiri.
Aino.
VI. The Tribes of Behring's Straits. Physical Characters, (a) Kamtskadals.
(b) Koriak and Tshuktshi. (c) Namollo and Eskimo. (d) Aleutian.
(e) Thlinkite and Vancouver Tribes.
VII. Aborigines of America. Migration from Asia by way of Behring's
Straits. Mongoloid Racial Characters. Linguistic Relation to the Altaic
Contents. xiii
Type. Mongolian Customs. Comparison of the New and the Old World.
(a) The Hunting Tribes in the Northern Continent (Kenay and Athabask,
Algonkin, Iroquois, Dahcota, South-eastern and South-western Group).
(b) South American Hunting Tribes (Tupi, Guaycuru, Ges, Cren, Ara-
wak, Carib). Comparison of Northern and Southern Hunting Tribes.
Moundbuilders. Copper Mines. De Sotos' Military Expedition. (c\ The
Civilized Nations of North America (Sonora Languages. Cibola, Pueblo,
Nahualtec, Maya, (Quiche.) The Civilized Nations of South America
(Chibcha, Quichua, Yunca, Araucanian, Patagonian). Indigenous Origin
of American Culture. Comparison of the Civilizations of the Northern and
Southern Continents.
IV. DRAVIDA POPULATION OF WESTERN INDIA.
I. Physical Characters. Munda Nations, or Jungle Tribes.
II. True Dravidas (Brahui, Tulu, Tamul, Telegu, Canarese, TudaJ.
III. Cingalese. Type of the Dravida Languages.
V. HOTTENTOTS AND BUSHMEN.
Physical Characters. Dwarf Nations. Hottentot Language. Hottentot
Customs.
VI. NEGROES.
Physical Characters. I. Bantu Negroes. Suaheli, Betchuana, Kaffirs,
Inland Tribes, Bunda Nations, Congo Negroes.
II. Soudan Negroes. (Ibo, Nuffi, Ewhe, Otshi). Ivory and Pepper Coast.
Mandingo. Joloffer. Sererer. Fulbe. Sourhay. Hausa. Kanuri. Teda
(Tibbu) not Negroes. Bagrimma. Maba. Nile Tribes. Fundi. Nobah.
Africa as a Residence. Civilization of the Bantu and Soudan Negroes.
VII. THE MEDITERRANEAN RACE.
I. Hamite. Physical Characters, (a) Berber, Guanch, Shellah, Tuareg,
Teda. (b) Ancient Egyptians, (c] East African Hamite (Berabra, Bedsha,
Shukurieh, Kababish, Hassanieh, Dankali, Galla, Somali, Wakuafi, Masai).
Civilization of Ancient Egypt
II. Semite. Physical Characters. Ethnography of the Bible, (a) Northern
Semite (Aramaic, Hebrew, Canaanite, Assyrian, and Babylonian). Position
of the Akkadian or Sumerian. (b) Southern Semite; a Northern Arab,
Southern Arab, Abyssinian. Chaldean Civilization. Religion of the
Semites.
\
xiv Contents.
III. European Races of Doubtful Position, (a) Basque, (b) Caucasian
Peoples (Daghestan, Tshetsh, Abkhas, Tsherkess, Lazi, Suan, Mingrelian,
Georgian).
IV. The Indo-European Race. (a) Asiatic, Sanscrit Nations (Neo-
Indian Languages, Siah Posh, Gipsy). Eranian (Persian, Kurd, Armenian,
Osset, Tadshik). Afghan. () European, a Northern European. Letto-
Slavonian (Lett, Slavonian.) Germanic Nations '(Scandinavian, Goth,
Teuton). /3 Southern European, Greek, Albanian, Latin (Portuguese,
Spanish, Catalonian, Provencal, Northern French, Alpine Dialects, Fur-
lanian, Roumanian). Celtic. Original Abode of Indo- Europeans. Europe
as a Place of Abode.
APPENDIX A. Welcker's Cranial Measurements.
APPENDIX B. Barnard Davis's Cranial Measurement*
INDEX OF NAMES AND SUBJECTS.
INTRODUCTION.
MANKIND.
INTRODUCTION.
L MAN'S PLACE IN CREATION.
IN the earliest attempt to classify animated nature Linnaeus
excited no indignation, though he united Man and Apes in one
order of the class of Mammalia, which he designated the
Primates. In our days, however, a scientific dispute has arisen
whether the human race is to be separated from the apes by the
rank of an order or a sub-order, but as this is a question of
the value to be attributed to the idea of orders and sub-orders
in a systematic edifice, Ethnology is not called upon to join
in the discussion. Richard Owen thought that he had ascer-
tained that in man alone the cerebellum is completely eclipsed
by the cerebrum, and that a decidedly superior rank was thus
secured to us. But even naturalists who, with Gratiolet, oppose
the doctrine of historically successive transmutations of species,
have acknowledged that this assertion was founded only on
erroneous observations.
The distinction between man and apes, as bimanous and quadru-
manous, has also been set aside by recent investigations. The
tarsal bones of the gorilla resemble those of man in all important
respects in number, arrangement, and shape ; only the metatarsal
bones and phalanges of this animal are relatively longer and
slimmer, while the hallux is not merely comparatively shorter and
weaker, but, in conjunction with its metatarsal bone, is attached
Mans Place in Creation.
to the tarsus by a more flexible joint. 1 But though the attachment
of the flexors of the toes may be somewhat different in man, the
prehensile foot of the ape possesses three muscles ( M. peroneus
longus, flexor brevis, extensor brevis) which are wanting in the
hand. 2 Although the hinder limbs of the gorilla must therefore
be recognized as genuine feet, their arrangement differs from that
of our foot, and by this alone the morphological rank of man is
raised far above that of the highest apes ; for we reckon as higher
the bodily construction which restricts special functions to special
organs. Conversely, we regard as lower, those creatures which
accomplish a variety of actions with the same members, as for
instance, birds which are obliged to use their mandibles (which
serve us only for the mastication of food) for prehension, and
occasionally for climbing; in other words, for locomotion. The
fore and the hind limbs of apes perform the same service, i.e.,
they grasp and climb, from which it may be conjectured that the
locomotion of these creatures is mainly conducted by means of
climbing. The anthropomorphous apes, it is true, endeavour to
walk erect, but they accomplish only short distances, and this
not without effort. In the Malay Archipelago the Hylobates, which
otherwise stand far nearer to man than the other three highest
apes, always walk erect, although with bent knees,- but, to keep
their balance, they touch the earth alternately to the right and
left with the tips of their long fingers which reach down to the
ground. 3 On the other hand it must be admitted that in some
races of mankind the foot is used for grasping, especially in the
case of certain Nubian tribes 4 who hold fast to the ship's tackle
with the hallux, and the natives of the Philippines, who pick
up small coins from the ground with their toes ; even in the
midst of European civilization, caligraphers and painters have, in
consequence of bodily defects, guided pen and pencil with their
toes, s Still these slight approximations scarcely narrow the wide
1 Huxley, Man's Place in Nature, p. 23.
9 Claus, Grundziige der Zoologie, p. 1125.
Dr. Mohnike, Die Affen der indischen Welt Ausland, voL xlv. 1872.
No. 3, 714.
4 G. Pouchet, Plurality of the Human Race, p. 39. London, 1864.
Mohnike, No. 36, p. 847. Waitz, Anthropologie, i. 117.
Men and Apes compared.
chasm between us and the apes, which is mainly founded on
the division of labour between the fore and hinder limbs. As
soon as the child ceases to use its hands for locomotion, it has
acquired a high rank in creation. If the foot of the gorilla only
preserves the distinction that the hallux can be opposed to the
other toes, it becomes by this an organ of prehension and unfit
for walking. Apes always tread either on the outer edges of
their soles or, like the orang or chimpanzee, on the backs of
their bent finger-joints. 6 Man in contrast with the ape, stands,
walks, runs, jumps, dances, climbs, swims, rides, sits, and can
remain for a long time in a recumbent position. The erect gait
has caused the shortening of the anterior limbs, and has also, as
Carl Vogt observes, given rise to the dish-like form of the pelvis
as a support to the intestines. 7 Our comparatively spacious skull
is poised on the support afforded by the vertebral column, and if
the jaws greatly protrude, as in the negroes, the balance is re-
stored by the elongation of the occiput. The anterior limbs,
released from their functions of locomotion, now serve for prehen-
sion only, and as yet they have always been found adapted to
carry out every purpose of the human mind. 8
Naturalists such as Pruner Bey have given currency to the
assertion that the vocal organs of the apes are not adapted to
the ejaculation of articulate sounds, but this statement has
been refuted by Darwin, who cited as an example a monkey of
Paraguay,9 which, when excited, emits six distinct sounds which
excite similar emotions in its comrades. And although the
dentition of man and apes in the Old World is alike, the per-
manent canine tooth is developed in us before the last molar
teeth, and of the molar teeth, the front before the back j in the
8 Darwin, Descent of Man, vol. i. p. 139.
T Vorlesungen iiber den Menschen, vol. i. p. 172.
8 Steinthal (Psychologie und Sprachwissenschaft, vol. i. p. 342, 453. Berlin,
1871) maintains that our eye is assisted by the arms in the recognition of the
relations of space, and that hence the knowledge of space is more developed
in man than in animals. But the same service is rendered to the apes by their
arms, and to the elephant by its trunk, and the antennae of the insects perform
perhaps better services.
9 Cebus Azarae. Darwin, Descent of Man, vol. i. p. 53.
Mans Place in Creation.
apes, on the contrary, the development of the canine teeth forms
the conclusion of dentition, and the second back molar tooth
appears before the front ones. Finally, the early disappearance
of the intermaxillary bone in the human infant may be cited as
a distinction from the apes.
These last facts oblige us to glance at the evolutionary history
of man, which has gained great importance since Johann Friedrich
Meckel, of Halle, asserted in 1812, that every animal in its imma-
ture condition (and this lasts from the fecundation of the egg to
the first sexual functions) passes through all the forms which occur
during the entire life of the animals of every grade beneath it.
At the time of birth the gap between the child and the young of
the ape is as yet very narrow. Novices might be puzzled to
distinguish between the skulls of children and young chimpanzees.
The brains of children and young apes approach very closely
in size, but of all parts of the body, the brain of the ape grows
the least Thus, although the brain of the anthropomorphous ape
contains all the main parts of the human skull, its development
nevertheless assumes quite another direction. In the course of
growth, the young of the orang or chimpanzee, which closely
resemble our children in their ways, gradually lose their resem-
blance to the human structure. Before the change of teeth has
begun, the brain of the ape has usually attained its completion,
whereas in the child its proper development is just then actively
beginning. In the apes, on the contrary, the facial bones grow in
an animal direction, so that finally the largest ape has the brain
of a child and the jaws of an ox. Thence it follows, that a man
would never originate from the progressive evolution of the apes,
for their development is directed to different ends, and the longer
they advance towards these ends, the greater are the contrasts. It
is in quite the lowest species of apes, the Uistiti of Eastern Brazil,
which are, as it were, behindhand in their evolution, that the bony
portion of the head presents a greater resemblance to that of man
than in the anthropomorphous species. 10 It is only a popular mis-
apprehension that, by the theory of the transmutation of species,
man is supposed to be descended from one of the four highest
10 Virchow, Menschen und Affenschadel, pp. 25, 26. Berlin, 1870.
Men and Apes compared.
species of apes. Neither Darwin nor any of his adherents . ever
asserted anything of the sort, but on the contrary they maintain that
the ancestors of mankind branched off, in the first or earliest part
of the tertiary period, from species of the Catarrhine group long
since extinct. If this conjecture is to be recognized by science,
the intermediate and transitional forms from these apes of the
eocene period to the man of the present time, must be some-
where discovered. From the moment that the separate links in
the chain of transmutations of form become known to us, no
thoughtful man will longer doubt as to the process. But till then
every other hypothesis is equally justified, and so far geological
discoveries afford no promise that this gap will necessarily be
filled up either sooner or later.
We cannot conclude these observations without answering
the accusation which may perhaps be silently made, that we
leave out of sight the intellectual functions of mankind. We at
once repeat what Darwin 11 has already said, that the motions
of conscience as connected with repentance, and the feelings of
duty, are the most important differences which separate us from
the animal ; that in the latter there is no capability of solving a
mathematical problem, or of admiring a landscape painting, or a
manifestation of power \ neither can any reflection take place
respecting the correlation of phenomena, and still less as to the
hypothesis of a First Cause or a Divine Will. 12
The greatest differences between man and animals will first
claim attention during the investigation of the evolutionary
history of speech ; and the history of national customs likewise
tacitly contains the best argument for the superior dignity of
mankind. Yet all these facts in no way concern us in assigning
to man his position in the animal kingdom, any more than the
position of the elephant in a zoological system can be affected by
its sagacity. Man is only entitled to that rank in a morpho-
logical system which, in future ages, when nothing is left of our
race but a sufficient number of fossil bones, a thinking being
11 Darwin, Descent of Man, vol. i. chap, ii. Ilaeckel, History of Creation,
roL ii. p. 344. London, 1876.
12 Darwin, Descent of Man, vol. i. chap. iL
6 Mans Place in Creation.
would assign to him in a scientific arrangement of the animal
kingdom. According to the principles of comparative anatomy
and by systematic requirements, he would then be separated from
the apes of the present geological era only as an order or a
sub-order.
It THE UNITY OR PLURALITY OF SPECIES OF THE
HUMAN RACE.
THE attempt to classify all the most similar creatures under one
name, dates from the time when in the growth of language the
invention of the name perfected the class. In nations which have
remained at a low stage of civilization, we find names for different
species of oaks, but none for the genus oak, nay, not even one for
tree. The distinctive marks are therefore apprehended before
the analogous qualities. Names for dog, wolf, and fox arose from
a need of intelligible communication respecting the outer world,
and with the names, a classification was already accomplished.
Linnaeus was the first who scientifically justified such use of
language. Scarcely a century and a half therefore has elapsed
since the idea of species was first instituted ; and Linnaeus himself
did not imagine species to have been created for ever invariable in
number, but believed that new ones might be produced from the
mongrels of dissimilar representatives of the genera. Goethe, on
the other hand, still maintained that Nature knows only individuals,
and that species exist only in school books. As soon as terms were
to be invented for the typical varieties of the human race, a
dispute arose as to whether the nations of the earth are divisible
into different species or only into different varieties. Often, as in
this instance, it is the highest and most obscure problems which
most strongly attract the inexperienced, hurrying them on to pre-
mature and utterly worthless conclusions. Nor was it even with
unprejudiced minds that anthropologists approached this difficult
question, for some endeavoured to harmonize their conclusions with
the Hebrew legend of the creation of a first human pair, while
others strove to establish the plurality of species in order to with-
draw the sympathy of humanity from the negro, and to hush the
appeals of conscience against the degradation of man into a beast
Definitions of Species.
of burden in tropical husbandry. It is a remarkable fact, that
this dispute as to the unity or plurality of species should have
occupied the attention of men before a single definition of species
had found universal or even general acceptance. " We reckon in
one and the same species," says Blumenbach, " those animated
beings which are so analogous in structure and form that their
'differences can have originated only from variation. But we regard
as separate species, those of which the differences are so essential
that they cannot be explained by the recognized influences of
variation, if this expression is allowable." *
It is strange that Blumenbach, otherwise so acute, should not
have perceived that in this play of words everything remains
vague, since he assumes the idea of variation to be known, and
therefore leaves it undefined. Moreover, if we can imagine that
a being exactly similar to ourselves both in bodily structure and
in mental functions, had miraculously descended from the planet
Mars, Blumenbach must have agreed with us in reckoning it a
member of the same species. This would have been the case
in Cuvier's opinion also, for " the species," he says, " is the sum of
all living beings descended from one another and from common
ancestors, and those which resemble them as much as they re-
semble one another." 2 Xhns Cuvier. and Blumenbach did not
as yet insist that all the members of the same species should
possess common ancestors.
A common descent was however postulated by the elder De
Candolle. " The species," so ran his definition, " is the associa-
tion of all individuals which reciprocally resemble each other
more than others, and from whose union proceed fertile offspring,
which again, in their turn, reproduce themselves in successive
generations, so that their descent from a single being can be
inferred." 3
Here at last species seemed to be sharply and well defined.
All animated beings, however striking the differences perceptible
in their structure and form, would be included in one species
1 De generis humani varietate nativa, p. 66. Ed. 3. Gottingen, 1 795.
* Quatrefages, Rapport sur les progres de 1'Anthropologie, p. 56. Paris, 1867.
Ibid. p. 104.
8 Unity or Plurality of the Human Race.
whenever they generate fertile offspring which, as well as their
descendants, effect fertile crosses in their turn. Sterility in the
offspring, or even in the second generation, was decisive of the
contrary. Flourens also adhered to this mark of recognition.
"Fertility," he says, "is the foundation of the persistency of
specific character. Different species generate hybrids of limited
fertility."* Drawing the definition still closer, De Quatrefages says,
" The species includes all more or less similar individuals which
descend, or can be supposed to descend, from a single ancestral
pair in unbroken succession." s
Before we decide as to the value of this definition of species,
we will first inquire whether the hybrids of different races of
mankind possess the characteristic of fertility. That Aryan
Hindoos and Dravidas, Chinese and Europeans, Arabs and
Negresses can generate hybrids, and that these hybrids in their
turn produce offspring, has probably never been disputed, but on
the other hand, it is frequently maintained that Mulattoes die out
in subsequent generations, and in Central America, women of
mixed blood are commonly considered barren. The cause of this
phenomen, which is certainly frequent, is not however physiolo-
gical, but an immoral course of life. 6 The fact that in the islands
of Cuba and St Domingo, the half-caste population has increased
to hundreds of thousands, attest at least that the offspring of
South European Creoles and Negroes are fruitful. Only one
observer has affirmed the entire sterility of Mulattoes in Jamaica,
and the statement was not left without contradiction. 7 In
America a hybrid race, the Zambos, has arisen, descendants of
Negroes and the women of the so-called red aborigines. 8 They
4 Flourens, Examen du livre de Mr. Darwin sur 1'origine des especes, p. 21.
Paris, 1864.
Unite de 1'espece humaine, p. 54. Paris, 1861.
On this point of dispute, which it is impossible to settle in the absence of
strict observations, the author has questioned German merchants long resident
in Cuba, and invariably received the answer that mulatto women of every con-
ceivable degree of fertility are not uncommon, and that the frequent unproduc-
tiveness of such women must be ascribed to early excesses.
P. Broca, Hybridity in the Genus Homo, p. 36. London, 1864.
Cases in which negresses form unions with the indigenous men of America
are, as might be expected, very rare.
Fertility of Hybrids.
are frequently found 9 among the Creek Indians of the United
States, as well as in Central America ; and on the coasts of Ystmo
and New Granada the population already bears distinct marks of
semi- African blood. In the former dependencies of Spain, the
hybrids of Europeans and American women may be reckoned
by millions ; Ladinos, as they are termed in Mexico ; Cholos, in
Ecuador, Peru, and Chili, and collectively known as Mestizios.
If hybrids are rarities in Australia, this, as judicial investigations
have attested, is because the natives themselves habitually destroy
the half-castes. 10 Tasmanian women have likewise given birth
to numerous hybrids, for James Bonwick knew and names the
mother of thirteen half-caste children," Paul Broca was there-
fore falsely informed when he denied the existence of half-caste
Australians and Tasmanians, 12 and thus fall to the ground the con-
clusions which he pronounced with unwarranted assurance. But
it is still more significant that half-castes are born of unions
between Europeans and Hottentots, for if any race of men have a
claim to be regarded as a separate species, it is undoubtedly these
aboriginal inhabitants of the Cape. I 3 Finally in remote islands,
such as Tristan d'Acunha, various crosses between English, Dutch,
Mulattoes, and Negresses have taken place. 1 -* To judge by ex-
perience in the vegetable kingdom, as Darwin observes, threefold
crosses betwixt Negroes, Indians, and Europeans, as they occur in
America, afford the most certain proof of the reciprocal fertility of
the parental forms. 13
Even were it no longer disputed that all the families of mankind,
however different, were capable of generating hybrids, we should
still be no nearer a decision as to the unity or plurality of the human
According to the Second Annual Report of the Board of Indian Commis-
sioners, vol. iii. p. 412. Washington, 1871.
10 Charles Darwin, Descent of Man, vol. i. p. 194. Also Edward John
Eyre, Central Australia, vol. ii. p. 324 London, 1845.
11 The Last of the Tasmanians, p. 316. London, 1870. lf Broca, p. 47.
18 In their own country, these mongrels are sometimes called hybrids, some-
times Griquas, but this latter designation has been so misapplied that it no
longer conveys any strict anthropological idea. Fritsch, Die Eingeborner
Sudafrika's, p. 376.
14 Quatrefages, Rapport, p. 477. ls Descent of Man, voL i. p. 198.
2
io Unity or Plurality of the Human Race.
species. For modern science acknowledges that animals which
when in a state of freedom avoided one another sexually, can be
induced to form an entire mixture of blood and specific characters.
We do not say so much of the commonly cited hybrid produc-
tions of the dog, the wolf, and the fox, of the goat and the sheep,
of the rabbit and the hare, for in some cases the mongrel forms
were not successfully established, while in others the fertility of
the hybrids was not continued beyond a few generations. But
we will cite the experiment for which we are indebted to
Mr. Buxton, who has naturalized two species of cockatoos, in
his park in Norfolk, which not only breed every year, but have
crossed in the open air and produced a hybrid race which, un-
like both its parents, is decorated with a scarlet hood, so that
creation here seems to be enriched by a new species. More-
over our canine races are certainly the result of a mixture of
species. In shape and make the Eskimo dog approximates to
the Arctic wolf ; the Indian dog to the prairie wolf ; the Nubian
domestic dog and its mummied examples clearly testify to their
descent from the jackal. 16 Again, the peculiar smell of the last-
named animal was acquired by dogs which Geoffroi St Hilaire had
for some time fed on raw meat Our present breeds of cattle have
moreover been evolved from two distinct European species : Bos
primigenius, which was still wild in Caesar's time, and Bos longi-
frons or brachyceros of the Swiss lake dwellings. 1 7 As long as
they lived side by side in freedom they preserved their specific
characters in full purity, whereas their structure and form 'are
now completely blended by intercrossing. European cattle are
capable of generating hybrids even with the zebu (Bos indicus}, the
* Herr Jeitteles, who has been long studying this question, and has diligently
collected the skulls of animals, maintains the complete accordance of the dog
of the lake dwellings and the Algerian jackal (Cants Sacalius). Alterthiimer
der Stadt Olmiistz, p. 79. Vienna, 1872.
" Rutimeyer arrived at the conclusion that the cattle of Chill ingh am Park
are the descendants of the tamed ure-ox (Bos primi^enius), also that the
Trochocetos and Frontosus forms are likewise derived from the ure-ox, whereas
the Bos brachyceros represents a distinct so-called species. Art und Race
des europaischen Rindes im Archiv fur Anthropologie. vol. L pp. 240-247
Brunswick, 1866.
Fertility of Hybrids. 1 1
Indian buffalo. Again, our domestic swine are mongrels of the
wild-boar, or Sus scrofa, and the Sus indica, which no longer exists
in a wild condition. We owe this statement to the craniological
investigations of Herr von Nathusius, who in other points ranks
among the enlightened opponents of the Darwinian school. That
the same can be said of Agassiz gives double weight to the fact,
that he declared the endeavour to employ fertility of union as
a limitation of species to be a complete fallacy. 18 If this be the
case, no obstacle remains to the opinion that the several races of
man are distinct species, provided they fulfil the condition which
Grisebach holds to be essential for the formation of a species,
namely, the absence of transitions not arising from crosses. J 9
Occasionally a distinct line may really be drawn, as for instance
between Hottentots and the Kaffir tribes ; the Papuans of New
Guinea and the true Polynesians. Facts such as these have
encouraged the pluralistic school of anthropologists to assert a
multiplicity of human species. To the United States of America,
where this school formerly found its most energetic champion, we
may trace the doctrine which teaches that the various inhabitants
of the earth were created in those regions which they now inhabit,
and that they are not descended from single ancestral pairs, but,
like seed sown broadcast by the Creator, at once peopled the
earth in hordes, being already in partial possession of their
present vocabulary ; for in its zeal, this school assumed a plurality
of species even within a family connected by ties of language as
in the Aryan. These strange opinions were primarily based on
the assertion that the characters of specific variety have been
maintained in historic ages, especially by the Jews and Brahminical
Indians. 20 These examples are incapable of converting sincere
18 Essay on Classification, p. 250. London, 1849.
19 Die Vegetation der Erde, vol. i. p. 8. "The sytematiser's method of dis-
tinguishing between varieties and species consists in this," that in the first case
he can point to intermediate forms, but none in the latter.
20 Tyros in ethnology must be warned against mistakes with regard to the
" Black Jews " of Cochin, which were formerly erroneously cited as an example
that the sun is capable of altering the colour of the skin. The black Jews are
natives of India, purchased as slaves by true white Jews, and received into the
community after the fulfilment of the Mosaic rites.
1 2 Unity or Plurality of the Human Race.
sceptics, for we know that during thousands of years, Jews as well
as Brahminical Indians have intermarried only among themselves,
while the experience of breeders of animals proves that racial
characters must thus necessarily become established. Even in
modern societies, in which the precepts of caste enjoin marriages
in the same rank, it is acknowledged that an aristocratic type occa-
sionally appears ; in the Hapsburgs and in the Bourbon families
peculiarities of physiognomy have become hereditary in a com-
paratively short period.
It is furthermore supposed that this high antiquity and per-
sistency of type is shown in the representations of various races in
the monuments on the Nile. Egyptologists are certainly unani-
mous that the people of the Pharaohs are distinctly recognizable
in the Fellaheen of the Nile, and that, although much defaced,
the negroes of the Soudan are beyond all doubt so distinctly
portrayed beside them on the wall-paintings that there can be no
confusion. It is, however, a suspicious circumstance that the old
Egyptian artists unnaturally distorted their figures according to
fixed prototypes ; they draw the face always in profile, the eye
always full face, and the hands invariably as two right hands.
Hence we are surprised at the temerity of the pluralists who would
infer from these portraits of kings and queens an admixture of
Semitic or European blood in the Pharaohs. Of the wife of the
founder of the iyth dynasty, Amunoph I., ascribed to the year
1671 B.C., it is said that she most strongly and evidently bears the
characteristics of Hebrew blood, and this is at once adduced as
proof that the Chaldean type has been traced in Egypt, prior to
the arrival of Abraham. 21 The head of Rameses the Great is
spoken of as highly European and Napoleonic in type. In Rosel-
lini's representation the portrait of Rameses does certainly vividly
recall the first Emperor of the French, but that this copy was either
unsuccessful, or was purposely endowed with Buonapartist features,
is shown by a more accurate drawing published by Robert Hart-
mann. 22 Darwin relates that, in a visit to the British Museum, he
and two officials of that institution, whom he speaks of as competent
81 Morton, Types of Mankind, p. 163, fi^. 33.
82 Zeitschrift fur Ethnologic, p. 153. Berlin, 18691.
Persistency of Types. 13
judges, were struck by the strongly marked negro character of the
statue of Amunoph III. 2 3 Yet this is described by Nott and
Gliddon as a " hybrid without admixture of negro blood." Robert
Hartmann was unable to satisfy himself that the Egyptian type
had undergone alteration by mixture with Asiatic races, but on
the contrary he perceived modifications such as might be accounted
for by Nubian conquests and invasions. 2 * If the monuments of
Egypt prove on the one hand that, after the lapse of 4000 years,
the inhabitants of the Nile valley still resemble their ancestors, they
teach us on the other that, even at that time, the so-called types
were merged into one another by intermixtures. No one can
feel more forcibly the weakness of the opinion which holds to the
immutability of racial characters, than one who has endeavoured
to describe various nations, for no single characteristic is strictly
the exclusive possession of any race of men, but each loses itself
by imperceptible gradations. If it were easy to draw the line
between the various races, anthropologists would not so far differ
from one another, that one feels himself obliged to separate man-
kind into two, another into a hundred and fifty species, races,
or families. 2 s The method followed in these divisions is usually
founded on error, for it is not the frequent occurrence of definite
characters which is established, but among the numerous repre-
sentatives of a type, that one is selected which differs most
strongly from the members of other races of mankind. Thus the
German traveller before he crosses the Alps, possesses a definite
conception of the Italian countenance and figure. At Naples he
expects everywhere to meet men on whose heads he has only to
put a Phrygian cap, in order to recognize in them the well-known
operatic figures, and he imagines that he has but to place a trunk-
less head on a silver plate in the hands of any girl to transform her
23 Darwin, Descent of Man, i. 217.
24 Zeitschrift fiir Ethnologic, p. 147. Berlin, 1869.
' 25 Quatrefages, Unite, p. 366. According to Darwin (Descent of Man, i. 226),
Virey assumed 2, Jacquinot 3, Kant 4, Blumenbach 5, Buffon 6, Hunter 7,
Agassiz 8, Pickering 11, Bory St. Vincent 15, Desmoulins 16, Morton 22,
Crawford 60, and Burke 63 species or races. Haeckel (Natiirliche Schop-
fungsgeschichte, 2 Aufl., p. 604) and Friedrich Miiller (Anthropol. ThL iii.
der Novara-Reise) are satisfied with 12 species, and we ourselves have been
led to accept 7 divisions.
14 Unity or Plurality of the Human Race.
into a Judith. 26 The delusion does not last long, and the traveller
soon confesses that what he had pictured to himself as the Italian
type is only to be found at Rome assembled on the steps of the
Trinita di Monte, where models selected from among thousands
offer themselves to the artist The same thing occurs in Germany.
If we see a child with delicate skin, rosy colour, flaxen hair, and
modest blue eyes, we congratulate ourselves that we have found
such a genuinely German type of girl, without considering that
we are thus declaring thousands of others to be not genuine, that
is, belonging to no race.
In our days, belief in the persistency of specific characters
hitherto current has been profoundly shaken by Charles Darwin.
Even before his time the fanciful idea of the older geologists had
been refuted, that each of the sectional periods, which teachers
are obliged to assume for the sake of clearness of expression, had
closed with a total annihilation of organic nature, and that then,
by a creative fiat a new organic world had followed in its place.
As long as our planet has harboured organic life, single new forms
of living creatures have silently mingled with the old ones, others
have silently disappeared, until, after the lapse of certain periods,
new species, all differing from the older ones, are found associated.
The succession of time in which the different forms replaced one
another was not arbitrary, but presents a morphological chain, each
link holding the other, each innovation (in obedience to the law
of all genesis) is connected with that which previously existed.
Perhaps there is not a single expert in Europe who would not
acknowledge that the organic world of the present age pre-
supposes with imperative necessity that a tertiary creation preceded
it, for in Australia and South America, as well as in other portions
of the earth well-secured against an interchange of species, the
animal world is most closely allied to the local fauna now extinct.
Hence if Darwin's doctrine consisted merely of the proposition
that the succession of species 'is connected with the past by some
cause or other, all geologists, botanists, and zoologists would
belong to the school of the great Englishman. But, not satisfied
28 Peschel is thinking of Bernard Luini's picture of the daughter of Hero*
dias, not of Judith, at Vienna.
Modifications of Type. 15
with this claim, he believes himself able to disclose the process
itself and its necessity. According to his theory, parents or sexual
couples will transmit all their characters, including even the smallest
varieties, so that the offspring resemble their parents and yet
differ from them in a useful, indifferent, or detrimental direction in
some exceedingly minute peculiarity. The detrimental deviations
would lead to the speedy destruction of their possessors, nor would
the indifferent have any prospect of permanent preservation ; the
useful alone would effect the transformation of the creatures. But
by continual accumulation, imperceptibly minute variations may
in the course of considerable periods gradually grow up into
specific differences. In this development of new forms, creation
at the same time, as it were, criticizes its own works, for as each
individual or parental pair usually generates far more descendants
than can prosper on the earth, there arises between the offspring
of the same, as well as between the representatives of the different
species, a struggle for existence in which the more vigorous com-
petitors overpower those less favourably equipped. By continued
elimination of the feeble members of the species, and by con-
stant transmission of the favourable newly acquired variations,
a change of form gradually occurs. The gist and novelty of
Darwin's doctrine consists in the selection just described and
which is supposed to be carried on by Nature. This process of
transmutation of species has therefore been justly spoken of by
Nageli as a utilitarian system. When enthusiasm for this novel and
bold idea had given way to cooler reflection, it became more and
more evident that selection on utilitarian principles could not
always have taken place. The evolution of new organs, or the
transformation of old, would certainly have required long periods,
during which the incomplete novelty, if not directly detrimental,
must at least have remained neutral in the struggle for existence.
Moreover, it became evident that organs may exist before advan-
tage can be taken of them. Even among the most different races
of mankind, a majority of their number possess vocal apparatus
admirably adapted to song, although not employed for musical
purposes. 2 ? Nor does natural selection explain how the shape and
8T This is admitted by Darwin himself.
1 6 Unity or Plurality of the Human Race.
appearance of the organic world can arouse aesthetic dispositions in
sensitive persons. We find not only the beautiful, the graceful,
the agreeable, but also the repulsive, the terrible, the ridiculous,
and the demoniac, represented in animals or plants. Darwin, in
his book on the descent of man, has attempted to overcome this
difficulty by a new article of belief, namely, in sexual selection ;
the female animals being supposed to prefer the male which most
actively excites their senses. But in butterflies, particularly in the
Sphingidae, the lower wings are coloured with peculiar brightness
and are adorned with gaudy eyes; yet this creature conceals its
own decorations when at rest, while all perception of penciling
and colour is precluded by its rapid movements when in flight. 28
Many finely formed men and women in America and Africa
habitually disfigure themselves by placing discs and plugs in their
lips and cheeks, and thereby prove that their taste is still unde-
veloped, so that their other physical beauties are certainly not due
to a fortunate selection. Again we find beauties in such members
of the animal kingdom as fecundate themselves, and even in the
motionless vegetable kingdom. The aspect of an oak during a
storm, the mournful appearance of a Deodara, the hues of many a
corolla, the graceful lines of trailing vines, the fabric of a rose-
bud, are all capable of affording us aesthetic satisfaction, and yet
any idea of the exercise of sexual selection by these objects is
absolutely impossible.
Still less can the transmission of prejudicial characters be recon-
ciled with intentional selection. Darwin indeed appeals to the
correlation of the constituent parts of an animal body, in conse-
quence of which changes in one part are accompanied by changes
in remote portions of the body ; but as we cannot demonstrate, or
even imagine, the necessity of this correlation, this argument has
no foundation.
According to the Darwinian theory, the ancestor of modern
man must have been a hairy creature, protected from changes of
temperature by a furry coat Yet the loss of this fur could only
* Darwin, who never conceals anything that disturbs him, gives in his
Descent of Man, vol. i. p. 354, a number of cases in which the lower surface of
the wings of nocturnal butterflies are brilliantly coloured or adorned with
splendid eyes. When at rest these beauties are invariably concealed.
Natural Selection. 17
act prejudicially in the struggle for existence. 2 9 In the case of
birds the same observation applies to gaudy plumage, which
favours the schemes of their enemies, to the boat-like excres-
cences of their beaks, as well as to the trailing tails which
hinder flight and incubation. Thus it is just the new pith of
the Darwinian doctrine, namely, natural selection, which still
remains unaccredited ; nay, Darwin himself, truth-loving as he
always is, has openly confessed with regard to the objections made
by Nageli and Broca, that in the earlier editions of " The Origin
of Species " he has probably ascribed too much to the effects of
natural selection and the survival of the fittest. 3 We may add
that the older history of the organic world exhibits cases in which
the extinction of families of animals has been originated by pro-
found alterations of structure which, as far as such inferences are
justifiable with regard to phenomena exhibited by fossils, must have
been prejudicial to them. The Ammonites, which died out during
the cretaceous period, previously began to pass into so-called
cripple forms. Their shells, originally curled into a planiform
spiral, subsequently become perpendicularly spiral, extend them-
selves lineally, or bend like a bow, a hook, or a shepherd's
crook, or at least distend themselves so much, that the individual
convolutions are no longer in contact with one another. 3 1 But
this abandonment of the old type was followed by the complete
extinction of the family.
We, nevertheless, hold the Darwinian doctrine, not indeed as a
successful, but yet as the best attempt to explain the connection
of the older with the newer creation, and it will only be supplanted
by a more satisfactory solution. It is scarcely comprehensible
that pious minds can be disquieted by this doctrine, for creation
29 Inveterate disciples of Darwin remind us that if graminivorous animals, such
as horses, take to animal food, their bellies lose their hair. Seligmann, Fort-
schritte der Racenlehre, Geogr. Jahrbuch, vol. iv. p. 288. Gotha, 1872.
The ghost Lemur (Tarsius) is, however, a beast of prey. Carl Semper himself
witnessed how one of these creatures killed a mouse with a bite, and devoured
it (Allgem. Ztg., p. 239. 1873.) Yet we do not find that baldness has been
caused by these articles of food.
10 Descent of Man, vol. i. p. 152.
M Credner, Elemente der Geologic, I edit. p. 435.
1 8 Unity or Plurality of the Human Race.
gains in dignity and importance if it possesses the power of
renovation, and of evolving higher perfection. We may remind
the religous world of the danger to which they expose themselves
by contemning an investigator so highly esteemed as Darwin.
When Copernicus came forward with his, as yet, feebly substan-
tiated doctrine of the planetary character of the earth ; nay, even
later, when the telescope had discovered in the crescent shape of
Venus, as well as in Jupiter and its satellites, a testimony con-
firming that of the senses ; and Kepler by his laws had furnished
strict proofs of the truth of the Copernican theory, the new revela-
tion was condemned not by the Roman Curia alone, but also by
Protestant zealots. The true Creator, because he had acted on the
plan pointed out by Copernicus rather than that of Ptolemy, was
placed on the Index in the person of those who had made known
his system of worlds ; they were persecuted as heretics, for whom,
as Kepler writes of himself, God waited six thousand years,
in order that they might recognize his works. 3* Once more, two
creators are represented to us ; the Creator as Cuvier pictured
him, who destroys his works because he has devised better ones,
and the Creator as Darwin pictures him, who created life variable,
but foresaw the tendency of this variation of form, and now
allows the clock to go undisturbed. A single fossil discovery,
which, however, we will not either desire or predict, might any day
testify that the true Creator more nearly resembles the Darwinian
conception than that of Cuvier ; the rash zealots would then have
to lament, as did Galileo's tormentors, that they had persecuted
the true God for the sake of a scientific phantom. The history
of the transmutation theory can already claim a brilliant case of
refutation. Cuvier silenced Lamarck, Darwin's precursor, by
requiring him to discover the intermediate form between the
Palaeotherium and the horse of the present day, if a transformation
from the older into the newer animal was supposed to have taken
place. Were he still alive, Cuvier, seeing in any of our museums
the graceful Hipparion of prehistoric times, with its two aborted
hoofs, would have been forced to acknowledge with shame that his
demand had been strictly fulfilled. 33
** C. G. Reuschle- Kepler und die Astronomic, p. 127. Frankf. 1870.
** Richard Owen, Anatomy of Vertebrates, vol. iii. p. 791. London, 1868.
Climatic Limits to Distribution. 19
Although Darwin has not been able to give strict proof of
his theory of the transmutation of species, he has, nevertheless,
thoroughly shaken the credit of the opposite theory of the immu-
tability of specific characters, and, in the sphere of ethnology, has
corroborated the conjecture that all races have sprung from a
single primordial form, and by the accumulation of small differ-
ences, rendered persistent by undisturbed transmission, have
developed into varieties. This opinion is favoured by a number
of facts, which lead us to infer the high antiquity of our race
as well as the capacity of man to adapt himself to the greatest
contrasts of temperature found on the face of the earth.
As far as man has hitherto advanced in the direction of the
poles, traces of inhabitants have been discovered ; for not long
before the sailor Moiton and the Eskimo Hans reached Cape
Constitution on the west coast of Greenland (81 22' north lat),
on June 24th, 1854, they noticed the fragments of a sledge. 34
Traces of inhabitants, such as walrus ribs which had been used
as sledge-runners, an old knife handle, and some circular stones
for fastening tents, were found by the crew of the Polaris at the
extremity of West Greenland's These testified to the previous
presence of Eskimo, whom in Homeric language we must regard
as the " uttermost men " (eV^a* Wfyu>j/). With the men we also
discover the tracks of at least one domestic animal, for the dog
has always been his companion. That portion of the earth has
yet to be found which could not be inhabited, or at least visited
by some race or other. It is true, the transitions from different
climates must not be too sudden. Even Icelanders who immi-
grate to Copenhagen, are apt to perish from consumption^ 6
although they are of common origin with the Danes, and only
eight hundred years ago spoke the same language. While in
the New World, and in the Philippine Islands, the Spaniards
have adapted themselves to a tropical life, 37 the English have
been unable to populate India, and the Dutch to people Su-
84 Kane, Arctic Explorations, i. 297. Philadelphia, 1856.
M Proceedings of the Royal Geogr. Society, vol. xviii.
99 Waitz, Anthropologie, vol. i. p. 145.
17 Jager, Reisen in den Philippinen, p. 29. Berlin, 1873.
2O Unity or Plurality of the Human Race.
matra and Java with the descendants of Europeans. Children
born of English parents in India, sicken and die when they pass
the age of about six years. Hence the English send their
children to Europe on the approach of the dangerous moment,
and the same occurs among the Dutch. In the Dutch posses-
sions in India a European woman reflects maturely before she
consents to a marriage, for the first child-bed usually costs the
life of the mother. Even the Portuguese women at Tete, on
the Zambesi, succumb to this fatality, as is stated by Rowley, the
English missionary. But if the transitions to other climates
follow gradually and at great intervals of time, there is no doubt
that men of the same breed can people every zone of the earth,
for no one disputes that the Hindoo of high caste, whether in
Bengal, in Madras, or in Scinde, or any other tropical portion of
his own country, is of the same Aryan origin as the old northern
inhabitants of Iceland, and that the unknown primordial ancestors
of both must have dwelt in a common home. Nor will any one
maintain that the Gothic conquerors on the other side of the
Pyrenees did not long preserve the purity of their " blue blood,"
and give birth to children of their own stock, Spaniards in Spain.
From the Spanish peninsula again were derived the settlers in
Madeira and the Canary Islands who, some twenty years ago,
after the outbreak of the vine disease, emigrated in multitudes
to Trinidad and British Guiana. All ethnologists agree that the
aborigines of America, with the exception perhaps of the Eskimo,
constitute a single race, and that this race has succeeded in
adapting itself to every climatic condition in both hemispheres
from the Arctic circle to the equator, and beyond it as far as the
5oth latitude. We meet the Chinese at Maimaitchin (Kiakhta)
on the Siberian boundary, where the mean temperature is below
freezing point, and the thermometer falls in winter to 40 Reaumur ;
and we find them also on the island of Singapore, which almost
touches the equator. 38 Turkish races, such as the Yakuts, are
settled on the Lena, where Kennan found them 39 gossiping in the
open air at a temperature of 32 Reaumur, clad only in a shirt and
* Pumpelly, Across America and Asia, p. 256. London, 1870,
* Tent Life in Siberia, p. 218.
Psychical Identity. 2 1
a fur coat The Kirghiz pasture their flocks on the Pamir plateau,
perhaps the highest steppe in the world, and they dwell as the
dominant race in the tropical part of South Egypt/ as well as at
the ill-famed Massowah on the Red Sea.
In the examination of racial characters, we shall show how little
these great fluctuations permit fixed limits to be drawn ; but mean-
while we may prove by a number of facts, that nations and races
of men the most remote from, and least resembling each other, are
so analogous in their mental habits, that at least it is impossible
to question the unity and identity of the intellectual faculties of
the human species. We shall refer later on to the fact that the
language of signs and gestures used by the deaf and dumb of
Europe coincides with the method of communication employed
under similar circumstances by the North American Redskins. With
but few exceptions, all nations have arrived at a single or double
decimal system, because they have used their fingers in count-
ing. Skin-painting and tattooing reappear in every part of the
world. Knocking out the front teeth is not only a negro custom,
but occurs also in Australia. Again, the teeth are filed to a
point in Brazil/ 1 as well as by the Otando, Apono, Tshogo, and
Ashango tribes in Western Africa. 4 2 Hippocrates even, or whoever
else may have been the author of the book on "Air, Water,
and Situation," mentions that by the people of the steppes of
Southern Russia, the skulls of free-born children were pressed
between boards to give them a more upright form ; and we meet
the same fashion among the Conivos on the Ucayali, in South
America; 44 it was observed by Ch. Bell and Berthold Siemann
in the Mosquitia among the Smu ; 45 it is practised also on
the northern continent, especially by the Tshinuks of British
Columbia, and generally by all the so-called Flatheads, who
further only permit the pressure of the skulls of the children of the
40 Latham, Varieties of Man, p. 77.
41 Von Martins, Ethnographic, i. 536.
4t Du Chaillu, Equatorial Africa, p. 74, and Ashango Land, p. 431.
48 Cap. 80. 44 Grandidier, Perou et Bolivie, p. 129.
45 Journal Royal Geogr. Society, vol. xxxii. p. 256, and Siemann, Nicaragua,
Panama, and Mosquitea, p. 308.
22 Unity or Plurality of the Human Race.
free-born.-* 6 Sanitary considerations have induced many nations
to introduce circumcision. Herodotus w considered that the
Egyptians and Ethiopians were the inventors of this preventive
measure, which was only borrowed from them by the Phoenicians
and Syrians. At the time of the conquest, the Spaniards found
circumcised nations in Central America/ 8 and on the Amazon,
the Tecuna and Manaos tribes still observe this practice. 4 ?
In the South Seas it has been met with among three different
races, but it is performed in a somewhat different manner. On
the Australian continent, not all, but the majority of tribes prac-
tise circumcision. Among the Papuans, the inhabitants of New
Caledonia 5 and the New Hebrides adhere to this custom. In
his third voyage, Captain Cook found it among the inhabitants
of the Friendly Islands, in particular at Tongataboo^ 1 and the
younger Pritchard bears witness to its practice in the Samoa or
Fiji groups. s 2 Another Mosaic statute requires that the Jew
should endeavour to raise posterity to his brother's widow. S3
This view of fraternal duty was met with by Plan Carpin, the
ambassador of St Louis to the Mongols, 54 and by Martius
among the Brazilian tribes of Tupinamba,ss and it prevails also
among the Kolush, in the north-west of America,* 6 and the
Ostiaks in Northern Russia. 57 We even find an instance in which
we come upon two Mosaic statutes, namely, circumcision and
the above-mentioned duty of brothers-in-law, which is quite
beyond suspicion of any connection with Judaism, that is to say,
among the Papuans of New Caledonia. s 8 The strange custom of
greeting by rubbing noses, is not only peculiar to all Eskimo even
as far as Greenland, 5 ? but is also ascribed to the Australians. 60
46 Paul Kane, Indians of North America, p. 181. 4T Book ii. 104.
48 Herrera, Historia general, Dec. IV. lib. ix. cap. 181.
49 Von Martius, Ethnographic, i. 582.
* Cook, Voyages in the Australian Hemisphere, voL iii. p. 156^
11 Cook and King, vol. i. p. 384.
M Polynesian Reminiscences, p. 393.
M Deut. xxv. 5-10. " Receuil de Voyages, iv. 613.
M Ethnographic, i. 153. 5a Waitz, Anthropologie, iii. 328.
91 Castren, Ethnolog. Vorlesungen, p. 119.
Rochas, Nouv. Caledonie, p. 232. M Barrow, Arctic Voyages, p. 3a
Waitz (Gerland), Anthropologie, vol. vi. p. 749.
Psychical Identity. 23
Darwin observed it among the Maori of New Zealand, 61 Lament
noticed it among the Polynesians of the Penrhyn and Marquesas
islands. 62 Wallace, who was startled to see it in practice among
his crew on taking leave of Mancassar, calls it the Malay kiss, 6 3
and Linnaeus observed it in Lapland. 6 *
The descriptions of Cook's first and second voyages by Hawkes
worth and the two Forsters, made us acquainted with the Polynesian
custom of ratifying a bond of friendship by an exchange of names.
The same practice prevailed among the Mohawks in North
America, 65 and in South Africa, a bond of fraternity was concluded
in the same manner by a Makololo and a Zulu Kaffir in Living-
stone's presence. 66 Every possibility that such community of
custom is the result of intercourse is removed, when we find that
both among the Fuegians of South America, and the inhabitants of
the Andaman Islands in the Gulf of Bengal, widows are obliged to
wear the skulls of their dead husbands suspended round the neck 6 ?
by a cord.
From the lofty plains of Peru and Bolivia may be seen cairns or
so-called Apachetas on the mountain tops, which no mule driver
will pass without adding a new stone to the memorial. 68 This
custom extends all over the world. Captain Speke observed
it in the region of Usui to the south of Karagve and south-
west of the Ukerewe Lake. 6 9 Colonel Meadows Taylor in a
romance 7 esteemed for its ethnographic delineations, describes the
same custom in the Mahratta districts of India. Adolphe Bastian
saw similar pyramids of stones in the mountain passes in Burmah,
and among the Kayans in Borneo, 71 the brothers Schlagenweit
61 Voyage in the Beagle, vol. ii. p. 198.
62 Wild Life among the Pacific Islanders, pp. 18, 269.
68 Malay Archipelago, ii. 165.
64 Tylor, Early History of Mankind, p. 66.
65 Ibid. p. 161. M Zambesi, p. 149.
* 7 Frederick Mouat, Andaman Islanders, p. 327.
M Grandidier, Perou et Bolivie. In more detail in J. J. von Tschudi, Reisen
durch Siidamerika, vol. v. p. 52. Leipzig, 1869.
69 Source of the Nile, p. 193.
70 Tara, a Mahratta tale, i. 144.
71 Volker des ostlichen Asiens, vol. ii, p. 483 ; voL v. p. 47.
24 Unity or Plurality of the Human Race.
in Thibet, 7 3 Michie during his journey from Pekin across the
Mongolian steppes, v* Ebers on the Sinaitic peninsula. 74 In
Switzerland stones are piled upon the graves of the victims of fatal
accidents, 75 and in Venezuela these monuments have precisely the
same signification at the present day.? 6 Spenser St. John relates
that similar cairns are erected by the Dyaks of Borneo to the
eternal disgrace of any man guilty of a shameless falsehood or a
breach of promise, 77
Lastly, it is to all appearance a perfectly meaningless custom that
a man, when a child is born to him, should stretch himself on a
couch, and behave like a lying-in woman. Diodorus was acquainted
with this custom in Corsica, Strabo notices it among the Spanish
Basques,? 8 among whom it is still maintained under the name of
" couvade ; " Marco Polo ascribes this habit to the population of
Zardandan or the " people with golden teeth," whom, according to
Pauthier's explanations, we must look for westwards of the Chinese
Yunnan on the upper Mekong; 8o and not very far from it, namely,
in Borneo among the Dyaks, the father of the new-born child is
for eight days allowed to eat nothing but rice, must take care not
to expose himself to the sun, and must give up bathing during four
days. 81 In South America, east of the Cordilleras, the custom of
the paternal lying-in has been observed by Martius among the
Mundrucus and Manaos on the Amazon, and it extends to the
Caribs 82 and to the Macushi of Guayana, among whom it was met
with by the younger Schomburgk ; 8 3 according to James Orton 8 * it
78 Indien und Hochasien, vol. ii. p. 330.
n Siberian Overland Route, p. 136.
T4 George Ebers, Durch Gosen zum Sinai, p. 188.
78 Carl Vogt, Vorlesungen liber den Menschen, vol. ii. p. 119.
19 Dr. Ernst im Globus, vol. xxL p. 124.
TT Life in the Far East, vol. i. p. 76. London, 1862.
T * Geogr., lib. iii. cap. 4. Tauchn. ed. L 265.
TB Lubbock, Prehistoric Times, p. 580.
w Marco Polo, lib. ii. cap. 41. (Vol. ii. p. 52, in Yule's edition.)
w Spenser St. John, i. p. 160.
* Spix and Martius, Reise in Brasilien, voL iii. p. 1339, and Martius, Ethno-
graphic, pp. 392 and 538.
w Reisen, vol. ii. p. 314.
* The Andes and the Amazon Land, p. 172. 1870.
" Couvade." 25
is also customary among the Jivaros on the Napo. Even yet we
have not exhausted the list of nations which adopt this custom, 8 *
but we will merely add that in the beginning of the last century it
was also met with by the missionary Zucchelli among the negroes
of Cassango. 86 Heedless travellers have not failed to revile or
ridicule this practice as a senseless absurdity; profound judges on
the other hand inform us that it is founded upon a misguided
solicitude. Dobrizhoffer, who describes it among the Abipones,
informs us that the fathers avoid draughts and fast strictly only
because they consider that a material connection still exists
between themselves and the new-born infant, so that their excesses
or abstinence might affect the child. If the infant dies during the
first few days, the women accuse the father of heartless frivolity. 8 ?
In the Antilles, the father who is expecting offspring might not
eat the flesh of the turtle or the manati, for in the first case
deafness and deficiency of brain, in the second disfigurement by
small round eyes, might be apprehended for the child. 88 Similarly,
among the Indians of British Guayana, on the occasion of a bite of
a serpent, the parents and brothers of the wounded person inflict
fasts and privations upon themselves for several days. 8 ? Thus the
inhabitants of the four quarters of the world have hit on the same
ideas and superstitions, a coincidence which can be explained
only in two ways ; either these errors originated when all the
varieties of our race still dwelt together in one narrow home, or
they haye been independently developed after the dispersion over
the entire globe. If the latter be probable, then the mental
faculties of all families of mankind are alike, even in their strangest
twists and aberrations.
85 Since the above was printed (Ausland, 1867, p. 1108), Dr. Ploss has
published a treatise on the paternal child-bed with a greater profusion of
testimony, in the loth Jahresbericht des Leipzigers Vereins fur Erdkunde,
pp. 33-48. Leipzig, 1871.
M Antonio Zucchelli, Missioned! Congo, vii. 15, p. Il8: Venice, 1712.
87 Geschichte der Abiponer, vol. ii. p. 273.
88 E. B. Tylor, Early History of Mankind, p. 372.
89 C. F. Appun im Ausland, No. 31, p. 440.
26 The First Home of the Human Race.
III. THE FIRST HOME OF THE HUMAN RACE.
WITH few exceptions all oceanic islands, that is, such as lie at
a considerable distance from the nearest continent, have been
found uninhabited when first visited by European navigators.
That JBarent should have discovered no inhabitants on Bears'
Island and Spitzbergen in 1596, does not surprise us when we
remember their inhospitable position, but it is strange that the
same should have been the case in Iceland, for the opposite
coast of East Greenland is inhabited by Eskimo as far as 75
north latitude. The earliest colonists of Iceland seem to have been
Celtic Christians in the year 795 ; for there are legends which
say that when the Normans first set foot on the "Ice Land,"
they found croziers, bells, and Irish books on an islet on the
south coast, still called Priest's Island. In the Atlantic Ocean
the coral-built group of the Bermudas, the volcanic Azores, the
volcanic group of Madeira, the volcanic group of the Cape Verd
Islands, the volcanic islands in the Gulf of Guinea, 1 the lonely
volcanic islands of Fernando Noronha, Trinidad with the Martin
Vaz-Klippen Islands, St. Helena, Ascension, Tristan d'Acunha,
and even the numerous Falkland Islands, not to mention those in
the Antarctic Ocean, were all uninhabited. The volcanic islands
of the Marion, Croset, and Kerguelen groups, with those which
lie southwards, and the two island volcanoes of St Paul and
Amsterdam, and even Mauritius and Bourbon, and the granitic
island of Rodrigue, which is reckoned with them, were all void of
human beings. Even New Zealand, extensive as it is, has been
inhabited only in modern times, for according to the statements
of the Maori, though these are unreliable, their forefathers
landed on the northern island about 1400 A.D., while the volcanic
group of the Chatham Islands, lying eastwards, was colonized
by New Zealanders only during the last century, and the volcanic
Auckland Islands to the south are still uncolonized.
In the whole ocean hitherto examined, the Canary Islands
1 They were discovered by the Portuguese, 1470-1486, and were untenanted
Ghillany Martin Behaim.
Continental Origin of Man. 27
alone were inhabited ; here were found the Guanches, now
extinct, who at the time of their discovery were no longer aware
that a continent existed in their neighbourhood, for on being asked
by the Spanish missionary how they had come to their archi-
pelago, they gave the ingenuous answer, " God placed us on these
islands, and then forsook and forgot us." Fragments of their
language have, however, since indicated that they were scattered
members of the Berber family. We know moreover that they were
in the habit of making their dead into mummies, and also that
they brought goats with them when they first settled in the islands.
Again, the islands in the Pacific Ocean to the west of South
America were found uninhabited ; among them Juan Fernandez,
the scene of Alexander Selkirk's adventures, and Massafuera,
S. Felix, and Ambrosia, likewise Sala y Gomez, the volcanic
Galapagos Islands, chosen by the buccaneers for their hiding-
places, Cocos Island, and the Revillagigedo group. In some cases
even islands which were extensive, and situated near the mainland,
remained uninhabited, such as Behring's Island, notorious for the
shipwreck of its discoverer, whose name it bears.
Arguing from these historical facts, we may venture to state
that the first human beings were inhabitants of a continent The
diffusion of the Malay tribes to which, besides the actual Malays
of Sumatra and Malacca. and the Javans, belong also the brown
tribes with straight hair which, under the name of Polynesians,
are distributed over all the tropical or subtropical islands of the
South Sea, might be quoted as a single but only apparent exception.
Since Wilhelm von Humboldt's researches on the Kawi language,
we know that the dominant race in Madagascar also belongs to the
Malay family, a fact which was previously disputed. This race of
mankind has spread from the Comoro Islands, where the language
is Malayan, to Easter Island, from 43 30" east long, to 109 17"
west long., that is to say, over five-ninths of the circumference of
the world. Nevertheless, it is not prima, facie very credible that the
original stock of the Malay family should have arisen on islands.
The resemblance of their languages proves that before their disper-
sion the widely remote members of this family must have inhabited
a common home. But this home must be sought only where the
Malay nations are still most densely populous. The point from
28 The First Home of the Human Race.
which these hordes spread, lay therefore somewhere between
Sumatra, Java, and the peninsula of Malacca. We may even go
somewhat further and look for it on the South Asiatic continent,
for in their physical characters the Malays are allied to the great
Mongolian race. The extension of the Malay family more than
half-way round the world, suffices as an example of how far the
migratory instinct may scatter a human family which has once
procured means for crossing the sea. But on continents also,
the migrations of the earliest human families extended to the
remotest districts. A single great language with various shades
of dialect fills the whole of South Africa as far as the equator, so
that Suaheli of the east coast is not entirely unintelligible even
to the Africans on the Gaboon in equatorial West Africa. In
language, we ourselves belong to the great circle of Aryan nations,
which includes the Celts of Gaul and Britain, all Germans, the
Italians, Greeks, and Albanians, all the Sclavonians, the Armenians,
the Ossets of the Caucasus, the Kurds, the people of ancient
Persia, and the Brahminical Hindoos.
In America, though the case is not quite the same, a similar
fact is observable. Setting aside the Eskimo and certain tribes
of what was once Russian America, all the inhabitants of the New
World, according to the unanimous testimony of all anthropolo-
gists, belong to a single stock, so that we might believe them to
have sprung from a single parental pair. Although a confusion,
such as exists in the districts of the Caucasus, prevails in the
vocabulary of their languages, yet the construction of the sentences,
or rather the formation of the words, is so peculiar and homoge-
neous that Spanish missionaries in South America have preferred to
preach the Gospel sometimes in the Peruvian Quichua language,
sometimes in the Brazilian Tupi or Guarani languages, because
the Indians of those parts easily enter into the spirit of those lan-
guages, while Spanish and Portuguese are unintelligible to them.
It is true that a family likeness in language, or even a close
analogy, is no infallible proof of a common bodily pedigree, for
otherwise the nations to the east of the Elbe which formerly spoke
Sclavonian and now speak German, must always have been Ger-
mans; the English-speaking negroes of the United States must have
been Anglo-Saxons, and the Spanish-speaking Indians of Central
Not in Australia. 29
or South America, blood relations of Calderon. Yet identity or
family likeness in language unquestionably proves that all nations
included in it must once have been united by a social tie. We
may, therefore, conclude that before the separation of their lan-
guage the whole of the Australians, the South Africans, the Aryan
nations, and the Americans possessed a common home, from
whence they spread by migration. But if the New World could
be gradually peopled from any one starting-point, we can easily
imagine that time alone was required for all continents to become
peopled from a single point.
We have as yet merely shown that our race, starting from a
common habitat, may gradually have ranged over all continents and
peopled them. But what is possible may not be probable, and
still less inevitable. Fortunately, geology and our knowledge of
the distribution of animals enable us to set narrow limits to the
district within which we may expect to find the original home of
the human race. Geology teaches us that the layers of the
earth's crust, are ranged in chronological sequence, so that where
abnormal disturbances have not occurred, the most recent lies at
the top, the most ancient at the bottom. If we now descend from
the highest layer, the forms of creation change; with imperceptible
transitions they become more and more alien to those of the
present time. That which is modern we find above, that which is
primitive below, for the history of creations resembles the history of
fashions. For we at once observe that, as a rule, the more highly
integrated creatures are the newer, the less perfectly integrated, the
older. But the zoological forms have not changed everywhere
with equal celerity. They have been transformed most rapidly in
the Old World, less quickly in North America; they have remained
somewhat behindhand in South America, and are most primitive
in Australia. Small and remote localities laid aside their organic
forms more slowly, or in some cases preserved them altogether.
The fauna of Australia preserves the characters of the age in
which forms such as the kangaroo were still usual, while at home we
now find marsupials only as fossils of the tertiary period; with
the exception of some few smaller species, they have entirely
vanished from the face of the earth in the New World. Australia
is destitute of all kinds of monkeys, beasts of prey, ungulates and
3O The First Home of the Human Race.
edentata. Of its 132 mammalian species, 102 are marsupials, and
the remainder consists of rodents, bats, and strange monotrernes.
It is true man has made his way into this fauna, and with him
for like associates with like a carnivorous animal, the dingo or
wild dog of Australia. But that they set foot in this zoological
province as strangers 2 is held by all who have profited by the
historical lessons afforded by a study of the distribution of animals.
The same applies to South America, which contains a peculiar
and completely distinct mammalian kingdom of which the edentata
are considered the representatives. All the species, the majority
of the genera, and even of the families, are different from those
of the Old World. Our argument gains much weight from the
observations made by Andreas Wagner, that the existing mammals
of Australia and South America approximate much more nearly
than do ours to the fossil forms of the tertiary period ; 3 so that
in both these districts the characters have changed much more
slowly. South America was however an island within a recent
zoological period, before the isthmus of Panama united the two
continents. This district therefore, which has remained so primi-
tive, is not a province of which the mammalia are of such a cha-
racter as to point to its being a possible birthplace of the most
modern of all creatures.
It is more reasonable to suppose that the cradle of the human
race was in North America, The animal and vegetable world in
North America is to some extent similar and is closely analogous
to that of Asia and Europe. The physiognomy of nature changes
completely only in Central America, nearly, if not exactly, at the
southern limit of the true pines, of which, as is well known, South
America is destitute.
It is however precisely in the second highest order of mammalia
that America has remained more primitive. The falsely so-called
Quadrumana of America are so different from ours, that they
constitute a separate family, and might in a zoological system be
termed the apes of the New World, if they were geographically
* This is admitted even by Agassiz in the Essay on Classification, p. 60.
London, 1849.
* Abhandlungen der mathem. physik. Classe der K. bayr. Akademie der
Wissenschaften, voL iv. pp. I, 18. Munich, 1846.
Not in America. 3 1
classified, The American family differs in dentition, in the lateral
position of the nostrils, in the absence of ischial callosities and
cheek-pouches ; nor is any tailless monkey to be found in the
whole of America. It is where the highest animals appear the
chimpanzee, the gorilla, and the orang that we must also look
for man.
All these inferences are independent of the fate of the Darwinian
dogma ; they stand or fall with the doctrine of a single centre of
creation for the species of the animal and vegetable kingdom.
Even this doctrine by itself meets with stubborn opposition because
it is not yet capable of explaining all the facts. Nevertheless, the
greatest difficulty, namely, the occurrence of fifty northern species
of plants in Terra del Fuego, has been overcome by the acuteness
and learning of a German botanist. 4 In the chapter which treats
of the primitive inhabitants of America, we shall endeavour to
prove their derivation from Northern Asia. We will only observe
in anticipation, that the more rude, and hence the more frugal
and hardy, a people is, the more readily does it change its abode,
so that, in their lowest stages of development, all families of people
were capable of accomplishing the migrations which we have
ascribed to them. The difficulties generally exist only in the
imagination of the spoilt children of civilization.
In Central Australia, where European explorers were exhausted
by starvation, hordes of black men roam about, free of care ;
and if we are startled by the idea that, thousands of years ago,
Asiatic tribes are supposed to have crossed Behring's Straits to
people America, we quite forget that even at the present day, a
naked nation of fishermen still exists in Terra del Fuego, where
the glaciers stretch down to the sea, and even into it
We have already demonstrated that the first appearance of man
must have been on a continent ; we proved from migrations which
have actually taken place, that the dispersion of our race frpm a
single starting-point over the whole world might be only a question
of time ; we have ascertained from the geographical distribution of
animals, that neither Australia nor South America, nor even North
America, was a fitting position for the cradle of humanity ; con-
4 Grisebach, Vegetation der Erde, voL L p. 96.
32 The First Home of the Human Race.
sequently, it is in the Old World that we must look for it Then,
again, we may confidently set aside the lowlands of Siberia, for at
a time geologically recent it was still covered by the sea. This
objection would not exist with regard to Europe ; but if Europe
had been the starting-point, we should assuredly have found
so-called fossil men among us, just as two very highly organized
tertiary apes have been discovered, one in Greece, the other in
Switzerland.
If we give up Europe also, it is only in Southern Asia or in
Africa that we have any prospect of finding the oldest vestiges
of our race. Of these regions, British India has already under-
gone the most thorough geological research, and as many pre-
cursory types of the .present mammals have already been found,
the prospects of localizing our primordial parents in that district
are diminished.
It is possible, however, that the first appearance of man may
have taken place neither in Southern Asia nor in Africa, but in the
Indian Ocean itself. There at one time existed a great continent
to which belonged Madagascar and perhaps portions of Eastern
Africa, the Maledives and Lacadives, and also the island of Ceylon,
which was never attached to India, perhaps even the island of
Celebes in the far East, which possesses a perplexing fauna with
semi-African features. This continent, which would correspond
with the Indian Ethiopia of Claudius Ptolemaeus, has been named
Lemuria by the English zoologist, Sclater, because it would include
the entire range of the lemurs. Such a continent is required by
anthropology, for we can then conceive that the inferior popu-
lations of Australia and India, the Papuans of the East Indian
islands, and lastly, the negroes, would thus be enabled to reach
their present abode by dry land. Such a region would be also
climatically suitable, for it lies in the zone in which we now find
the anthropomorphous apes.
The selection of this locality is, moreover, far more orthodox
than it might at the first glance appear, for we here find our-
selves in the neighbourhood of the four enigmatic rivers of the
scriptural Eden in the vicinity of the Nile, the Euphrates, the
Tigris, and the Indus. By the gradual submergence of Lemuria,
the expulsion from Paradise would also be inexorably accomplished.
Lemuria. 33
To this maybe added that ecclesiastical writers, such as Lactantius,*
the Venerable Bede, 6 Hrabanus Maurus,? Kosmos Inlicopleustes, 8
and also the anonymous geographer of Ravenna,? placed the
scriptural Paradise in South-eastern Asia, and some explicitly on
a detached continent, and that the ingenious maps of the Middle
Ages exhibit the first parental pair on a land surrounded by sea,
lying beyond India. This explains how Columbus after the dis-
covery of South America, taking it for an insular continent lying
south-east of the mouth of the Ganges, wrote home to Spain,
" There are here great indications suggesting the proximity of the
earthly Paradise, for not only does it correspond in mathematical
position with the opinions of the holy and learned theologians,
but all other signs concur to make it probable." *
This suggestion is, however, a mere hypothesis which need not
disquiet those who like to imagine Paradise in the land of the
lotus blossom, or who turn to the papyrus-fringed shores of the
newly discovered lakes of the Upper Nile, or perchance prefer to
believe it still nearer to the eastern lands of the scriptures. The
value of the hypothesis is, that it challenges a geological investigaT
tion of Madagascar, Ceylon, and the island of Rodrigue, as well
as deep-sea soundings in the Indian Ocean, to ascertain whether
vestiges exist of the higher points of the vanished Lemuria. A1J
that we require is the vindication of a single starting-point for
all human races, in opposition to the anthropological school of
the Americans which has recently constituted above a hundred
human species, not races, of men; as many species, that is, as it
is possible to find natural types, and these it is imagined were
at once sown broadcast by the Creator, in numbers as vast as
swarms of bees, in the localities which they now inhabit. An
hypothesis such as this does not explain why the islands were left
fallow at this general seed-time, nor why the several quarters of
the world admit of being characterized as provinces by means of
their fauna and flora. Any explanation of the present by the past
5 Div. Instit. ii. 13. De Mundi constit. p. 326.
7 De Universe, xii. 3. Ed. Montfaucon, torn. ii. p. 188.
9 Geogr. lib. i. cap. 6.
10 Navarrete, Coleccion de los viages y descubrimientos, voL L p. 259,
Madrid, 1825.
8
34 The First Home of the Human Race.
is thus abandoned, although it lies deeply rooted in human nature
not to rest satisfied with observed facts until they have been
reconciled with some law of necessity.
IV. THE ANTIQUITY OF THE HUMAN RACE.
THOSE who pronounce in favour of the development of the
different races from a single human species which, making its first
appearance within a limited region, gradually spread over the
whole earth, must admit that events such as these demand periods
of vast duration, and on them falls the burden of proof that
vestiges of our species may actually be traced up to remote pre-
historic times. These objections would be removed by the dis-
covery made by the Abbe' Bourgeois, who extracted stone knives
and axes from strata of unquestionably miocene date, in the
neighbourhood of Tenay (Loir et Cher), which would testify
that France was inhabited as early as the middle of the tertiary
period. But at the Archaeological Congress at Brussels, in 1872,
the best judges of such articles decided against the artificial origin
of these so-called human relics of the miocene period. On the
other hand, the highest probability of a human origin must be
attributed to the flint implements which were first discovered by
Boucher de la Perthes, in 1847, at Menchecourt, in the valley of
the Somme, between Abbeville and Amiens, intermingled in the
chalky clay with remains of the mammoth, the woolly rhinoceros,
an extinct species of horse, the European hippopotamus, and
other animals of the diluvial period ; a discovery which has
attracted to the site the best geologists of the present time.
Human remains have as yet been sought in vain, for the jaw-
bone discovered near Moulin Quignon, is supposed to have been
inserted for purposes of fraud. The absence of remains of human
bones must not however excite too much distrust, for after the
draining of the lake of Haarlem, which was once a gulf, scanty
fragments of ships but no human bones were found, although
vessels had been wrecked and naval engagements fought on it.
According to Prestwich's ingenious conjecture, it is conceivable
that in the glacial period, at the end of the tertiary age, the
Flint Instruments and Cave Deposits. 35
inhabitants of Picardy, like the Eskimo of the present day,
broke open the ice of the Somme and harpooned the fish with
their missiles through these openings, which they kept free from
ice. The stone flakes which in an unsuccessful cast fell into the
bed of the river, and were then enveloped in the diluvial deposit,
are those which now decorate museums and rejoice the hearts of
archaeologists. Among these treasures there really are some so
regular in outline and so accurately pointed that there can be no
question of their artificial origin. But it would be important to
ascertain whether they have been selected from among hundreds
or thousands of similar but ruder stones in the same neighbour-
hood. In countries where masses of flint are found on the surface,
and where they are readily broken by a sharp blow, they frequently
splinter into chips and flakes, from which a very fair collection of
stone implements might be put together, for the trouble of picking
them up. Among the stone implements which Boucher de la
Perthes had placed in the museum of St Germain, Virchow
remarked many objects quite familiar to him in his home in
Pomerania as sports of nature."
Fortunately, there is a profusion of unimpeachable evidence
which confirms the testimony of these flint implements of the
Somme valley. As early as 18331840 deposits of human remains
were discovered by Dr. Schmerling, in Belgian caves, mingled
with bones of diluvial mammals, but they were for a long time
disregarded in deference to Cuvier, who had denied that man
had appeared on the scene before the animals of the present
age. These discoveries were much misinterpreted, and it was
assumed that the human bones had been transported by beasts of
prey, or washed down into the caves by streams, and deposited
among the diluvial remains. But since archaeologists have been
willing to recognize new truths, discoveries of similar bone-caves
in other countries rapidly succeeded one another. Occasionally
the remains of the diluvial denizens of the earth were extracted
11 Comp. Virchow in the Zeitschr. fur Ethnologic, p. 51 (1871), in reference
to Pomerania. His statements could be supplemented by Wetzstein in regard
to the southern parts of Syria where in the tract of 'Ardh e'-Saman, three days'
journey in length, the ground is covered with splinters of flint stone.
36 The Antiquity of the Human Race.
from beneath a flooring of calcareous stalactite, and flint implements
of certainly artificial origin from beneath a stratum containing
bones of prehistoric animals. The examination of one of these
caves at Brixham, by a geologist as trustworthy as Dr. Falconer,
convinced the specialists of Great Britain as early as 1858, that
man was a contemporary of the mammoth, the woolly rhinoceros,
the cave-bear, the cave-hyaena, the cave-lion, and therefore of the
mammalia of the geological period antecedent to our own.
With the animals just mentioned was associated the reindeer,
which, as is well known, belongs not to the extinct, but only to the
expelled species. Formerly it roamed over Western France, where
its vestiges are now abundant in the valley of the Vezere. In the
district of Pe'rigord, in the department of Dordogne, through
which the railway between Orleans and Agen passes, six caves
have been found. They contain among their detritus remains of
reindeer's antlers artistically worked, as well as stone implements.
In one of these old hiding-places near Cro-Magnon, the skulls
and skeletons of two men and two women were found beside
the remains of the cave-tiger (Felis spclea\ of a colossal bear, of
the ure-ox, and also of animals belonging to the far north, such as
the jisel (Sptrmophilus erythrogenus) and the ibex. These cave-
men of France maintained themselves on the produce of the chase,
the horse especially being pursued as game. As the bones of the
animals exhibit no traces of fire, the meat must have been either
eaten raw, or seethed in water-tight plaited baskets, as is still the
custom of certain North Americans, who, having no earthen
vessels, heat their water in wooden vessels by dropping in heated
stones. Indeed, pebbles which suggest a custom of this sort are
found among the ash heaps in the cave of Cro-Magnon.
The ancient inhabitants of the Dordogne already attempted to
portray objects of the outer world, such as fish, reindeer, or men,
in carvings on horn and the ivory of mammoth's teeth, with a
distinctness and animation which compels recognition." Among
18 Sir John Lubbock, in his Prehistoric Times, ed. 2, 1869, has published the
portrait of a mammoth scratched on bone, found in the cave of la Madeleine in
Perigord. Critical observers, however, are of opinion that archaeological
imagination has filled in the outlines of this piece of animal portraiture. Oui
Reindeer Period. 37
the horn implements, mostly awls and arrow-heads with or with-
out barbs, our attention is attracted by the occurrence of needles,
with which, doubtless, the inhabitants of the caves sewed together
the hides of animals.
\ A soft red ochre which occurs amongst the remains, enables us
to infer that they painted their skin. Their love of finery is also
betrayed by the discovery of necklaces of animals' teeth and shells.
The latter, moreover, were derived from the far-distant shores of the
Atlantic, and could, therefore, have come into their possession
only by means of barter ; the same must have been the case with
the rock crystals, which are found, but which do not occur naturally,
within a large radius of the deposits in which they have been found.
Even the horns of the Saiga antelope, of which the nearest range
must have been in Poland, were among the possessions of these
old hunters, and serve as records that even at that time valued
merchandize was distributed over great distances by means of
commerce. Judging from the remains of bones, the hunters of the
Dordogne were not, like the Belgian cave-dwellers, a small race of
men, but of large size and powerful structure. The skulls were of
a long or dolichocephalic form, and the bones of the face, not-
withstanding a slight tendency to prognathism, surprise us by the
beauty of their oval outlines. The capacity of the brain-case of a
man (1590 cubic centimetres), and a woman (1450 cubic centi-
metres),^ would also indicate high mental endowments, if any such
inference were reliable.
We may here notice the fragment of a skull found in August,
1856, in a cave in the Neanderthal, not far from Diisseldorf, and
which was at first regarded, on account of its huge brow ridges
and its flat brain-case, as a testimony to the rise of our race from
the animal kingdom. It soon appeared, however, that its pro-
portions were tolerably near those of average Europeans of these
text refers to a work which we believe to be still unfinished, of Edward Lartet
and Henry Christy, Reliquiae Aquitaniae. London, 1865-69. An extract from
this work, with some of the original woodcuts, was published by Alex. Ecker,
in the Archiv fur Anthropologie, vol. iv. p. 109. Brunswick, 1870.
18 A. Ecker in the Archiv fur Anthropologie, vol. i. p. 1 16. The skull of the
man could actually be measured, the capacity of the woman's could only be
estimated, on account of injuries received.
38 The Antiquity of the Human Race.
days. In its present condition, this brain-case encloses a space
of 63 cubic inches (zollen), which, according to an estimate
made by Schaafhausen, would rise to 75 cubic inches if it had
remained uninjured. 14 Charles Darwin was thus able to describe
the Neanderthal skull as " very well developed and capacious." x s
European skulls, however, vary from 55 to 112 cubic inches.
Virchow ultimately stated before the Anthropological Society of
Berlin, April 27th, 1872, that this skull belonged to an old man
afflicted with the rickets, that it was to be rejected as a racial type,
and that its dimensions also were very moderate, and that in
regard to the masticatory muscles it does not show signs of brute-
like coarseness, as in Eskimo and Australians. 16 The value of
this discovery is thus reduced to very common-place dimensions.
Germany also possesses remains of cave-dwellers, such as those
examined since the year 1871, in Hohlefels near Schelklingen,
not far from Blaubeuren. The fauna of the valley of the Blau
included not only mammoths and elephants, but also a majestic
tiger (Felis spelaea) three extinct species of bears (Ursus spelaeus,
U. priscus, and U. tarandi), and the reindeer, the antlers of which
were made into instruments. Fragments of earthenware vessels,
which from their shallow form must have served for roasting and
broiling,^ also occur among these relics of a past civilization.
All the discoveries hitherto made merely enable us to put back .
the antiquity of our race as far as the times of the extinct cave
fauna. On the other hand, the existence of the reindeer in central
France does not justify us in presupposing any important altera-
tions of climate, for even those who hesitate to recognize the
Cervus tarandus in Caesar's description 18 of the Rhine, must yet
admit that the reindeer is not strictly confined to polar regions,
for the caribu, its representative in America, was found in lat. 43,
that is, on the parallel of Toulon, at the time of the first coloniza-
tion of the eastern coasts of the United States, but it was speedily
14 Fuhlrott, Der fossile Mensch aus dem Neanderthale, p. 69. Duisburg, 1865.
If Descent of Man, vol. i. p. 146.
" Verhandlungen der Gesellschaft flir Anthropologie, pp. 157-161. 1872.
" See Oscar Fraas, Uber die ausgrabungen im Hohlefels in the Wiirtem-
berg. naturw. Jahresheften, i. p. 25. 1872,
18 De Bello GalL VI. 21 and 26.
Schusscnried. 39
scared away to the far north by the presence of Europeans.
Bones of the sheep and goat have, moreover, been found with
those of the reindeer, in a Belgian cave, so that the cave-men
who dwelt there must have been peaceable shepherds. '9 The dis-
appearance from Europe of the cave fauna, consisting in part of
noxious beasts of prey, in part of huge pachyderms, which latter
are always represented locally by a scanty number of individuals
only, might have been accomplished in a comparatively short time,
as soon as our part of the world became more densely colonized,
and the inhabitants combined more efficacious weapons with
greater skill in hunting. The rapid disappearance of many species
of animals within the last few centuries, such as the wingless auk
in northern Europe, the sea-cow (manatee) in Behring's Straits,
the dodo in the Mauritius, the Moa species in New Zealand, greatly
modifies our notions of the time necessary for the disappearance
of the diluvial species.
Fortunately, however, we possess tokens that the Suabian dis-
trict was inhabited at a time when mighty glaciers filled up the
valley of the Rhine and the Lake of Constance. Near the old
Abbey of Schussenried, in some earthworks at the source of the
Schuss a small stream which falls into the Lake of Constance,
in the neighbourhood of Langenargen a lower stratum was
uncovered in the summer of 1866, in which carved antlers of
reindeer, bodkins with eyes, a smooth-scraped needle, fish-hooks,
flints in the shape of lancets and saw-blades, lumps of red material
for skin-painting, ashes, and remains of charcoal were found inter-
mingled. 20 Even if we attach less weight to the fact that these
relics of civilization were enclosed between two layers of glacier
mud, their antiquity is marked by the fact that with the human
implements were found bones of a species of polar fox, agreeing
in structure with one which now inhabits the neighbourhood of
Nain in Labrador as well as of a species of glutton ( Gulo borealis),
and of two species of moss, of which one (Hypnum sarmentosum)
now exists only in Lapland, in Norway on the limits of perpetual
snow, and on the highest Sudetic mountains and the Tyrol, and
19 O. Fraas im Archiv fur Anthropologie, vol. v. p. 480. Brunswick, 1872.
80 Ibid, vol. iii. pp. 38, 39, 42, 44.
4O The Antiquity of the Human Race.
the other (Hypnum fluitans, var. tcnuissima) in marshy Alpine
meadows and in Arctic America. 21 These are facts which firmly
convince every one versed in geology that man inhabited Suabia
as early as the glacial period. The prevalence of glaciers in
this district at an earlier period must not, however, be explained
by the solar system having passed through colder regions of the
heavens, less warmed by stellar light, nor yet by the precession of
the equinoxes during a period of increased eccentricity of the
earth's orbit, for in both cases the glacial period would have
extended equally over every portion of the northern hemisphere,
whereas its traces are very faint in the Caucasus, and totally
wanting in the Altai." But the prevalence of glaciers in Switzer-
land and the neighbouring countries may be easily explained by a
different distribution of land and water in Europe. Nevertheless,
as changes in the outlines of continents require periods of ex-
tremely long duration, the presence of man in the glacial period^af
Suabia is quite sufficient to bespeak a high antiquity for the first
appearance of our race.
Far more recent are the memorials which former inhabitants of
the Baltic coast have piled up like embankments on the shores
of Jutland and the Danish islands, of the shells of edible mussels ;
archaeologists have bestowed on these the suitable name of
kitchen-middens. Among this refuse of food were found stone
implements, with roughly chipped or occasionally smooth surfaces,
fragments of earthen vessels, the remains of dogs as domestic
animals, and even a spindle, but no traces of extinct animals of
the diluvial period. Hence, at the time of their accumulations,
these eaters of shell-fish either did not yet practise, or were just
beginning to exercise, the art of polishing flint. A better idea of
the age of these shell heaps is suggested by the circumstance that
Jutland and the Danish islands were at that time covered with
pine forests. These fir-trees had disappeared by the time that the
M O. Frass, Die neuesten Erfunde an der Schussenquelle, Wurtemb. natur-
wissensch. Jahreshefte, i. pp. 7-24. 1867. In the Archiv fur Anthropo-
logie, vol. ii. p. 33, Fraas cites among the discoveries a third moss (Hypnum
tutuncum, var. Greenlandica Hedw.), now found only in the northern regions.
M B. v. Cotta, Der Altai, p. 65. Leipzig, 1871.
Kitchen-middens. 41
inhabitants had supplied themselves with bronze implements, and
oaks took their place. But, since the bronze period, the oak forests
have gradually been supplanted by the beech, which now occupies
that district almost exclusively. The kitchen-middens, however,
contain the bones of the black cock, which feeds on the sprouts
of the fir-tree, and presupposes the presence of conifers. Since
the time of the mussel-eating inhabitants of these shores, this
region has therefore twice changed its vegetation, a process which
assuredly must each time have required thousands of years. 2 3 This
is also confirmed by the occurrence of oyster-shells in the Danish
kitchen-middens, for the oyster no longer thrives in the Baltic, on
account of the small proportion of salt contained in its waters.
Consequently, currents from the North Sea must then have reached
the Danish islands by channels much wider than the Sound, as it
now exists.
Among the most recent remains of prehistoric ages are the
villages on the Alpine lakes, which were built over the water on
platforms of piles as was Venice originally, and as is the case
even now with the dwellings of the natives of the Gulf of Mara-
caibo with the town of Brunai in Borneo, and the huts of the
Papuans on the northern coast of New Guinea. 2 * The custom of
building huts on platforms erected in the water, must have con-
tinued through long periods; for in the older lake dwellings there
are stone blades polished, but not pierced or, in other words,
prepared for the reception of a handle ; in the more modern
villages, on the contrary, the pointed stones are pierced; and
in the most recent, bronze implements already appear amongst
the stone. Although the greater number of lake dwellings were
destroyed by fire, it is not necessary to suppose that this was
always caused by hostile invasions, for we shall presently find
88 Sir Charles Lyell, Antiquity of Man, pp. 9-17. London, 1863.
14 The Gulf of Maracaibo was called the Gulf of Venice by its first discoverers,
because an Indian lake village at the entrance had previously received the name
of Venezuela (See Peschel, Zeitalter der Entdeckungen, p. 313). Even at the
present day dwellings are built on piles in the middle of the Gulf of Maracaibo
(Ramon Paez, Wild Scenes in South America, p. 392). On the Papuan lake
dwellings, see Wallace, Malay Archipelago, vol. ii. p. 282 ; and on Brunai, see
Spenser St. John, Life in the Far East, vol. i. p. 39. London, 1862.
42 The Antiquity of the Human Race.
races of men who have been induced by Shamanistic superstition, a *
to set fire to their own abodes when they are about to migrate.
There is nothing at present to hinder us from considering the lake
dwellers of Switzerland to have been an Aryan people. Thus, the
skull of a child about thirteen years of age, found near Meilen, and
the skull of the bronze period discovered at Auvernier, both
belong to the so-called Sion type, of which the Celtic Helvetian is
the representative. 26 The Swiss lake dwellers practised husbandry
and ate bread, planted fruit-trees, and dried apples. Cattle, sheep,
and goats inhabited the lake buildings in company with their
owners ; provision must therefore have been made for their forage
in the winter-time ; even cats and dogs had already been domesti-
cated as companions. The pig alone remained in a wild condition,
at least at the time of the oldest settlements ; the ure-ox, the bison,
and the elk were still, though perhaps rarely, among the booty
of the chase. Except these animals, which have been extirpated
within historic times, the fauna has suffered no losses ; and in the
vegetable kingdom the change is limited to the disappearance
of one species of conifer and two aquatic plants, which have
disappeared from the plains. 2 7 These lake buildings are in some
cases buried beneath layers of peat, in others removed inland from
the shore by the silting up of the lakes ; or the stone imple-
ments were buried beneath the detritus of torrents, as in the delta
.of the Tiniere, near Villeneuve, on the Lake of Geneva. From
the size and extent of these new formations, an attempt has been
made to refer these relics to a period some five to seven thousand
years ago. But all the ingenuity of investigators was baffled by the
unfortunate circumstance that neither the growth of peat nor the
deposition of mountain detritus proceeds with the same regularity
as the sand in an hour-glass, but in such formations, periods of
repose alternate with periods of activity. At present, therefore, no
fact necessitates our regarding any of these remains of lake
dwellings as older than the pyramids of the Nile, nor would it
M This is Peschel's term for all priestcraft.
** His u. Rutimeyer, Crania Helvetica, pp. 36, 37.
17 Riitimeyer, Die Fauna der Pfahlbauten in der Schweiz, pp. 8, 228, and 229.
Basle, 1861.
Lake Dwellings. 43
even be possible to disprove an assertion that the remnants of the
stone age in Switzerland belong to a period between one and two
thousand years before Christ.
The attempt to find a reliable date for the very ancient evidence
we have of man's presence in Egypt has never met with complete
success.
In 1851-54, no less than ninety-six shafts in four rows, at
intervals of eight English miles, were sunk at right angles to the
Nile, by an excellent engineer, Hekekyan Bey, under the super-
intendence of Leonard Horner, 28 an extremely cautious geologist.
The greater number of these borings furnished remains of domestic
animals, fragments of bricks, and pottery at various depths. These
relics did not always afford a satisfactory date of their antiquity, for
the strata which were pierced were often broken by layers of sand,
due to the action of the desert wind. In the immediate vicinity
of the statue of Rameses II. at Memphis, from beneath strata
of pure Nilitic mud, over which the desert sand had not been
wafted, a red baked potsherd was extracted from a depth of thirty-
nine feet. Since the statue of Rameses II. was erected, that is,
since about 1361 B.C., a Nilitic stratum of nine feet four inches
has accumulated round it, without reckoning a stratum of sand
eight inches in depth ; the rate of alluvial formation in this place
has therefore been three and a half inches in the century since
1361 B.C. Hence if this potsherd has been covered by Nile mud
at the same rate, earthen vessels must have been baked on the
Nile 11,646 years before the commencement of our era. Many
groundless objections have been raised against this calculation.
Some conjectured that in old times the Nile flowed beneath the
statue of Rameses, others, forgetting that we were not dealing with
a single fragment but merely with the one lying deepest among
countless others, that this potsherd was extracted from an ancient
well or tank. Again, it is urged that at any given point sediments
of great depth may be accumulated in a short time by the influence
of water, but it is entirely overlooked that this would have affected
the whole district occupied by the four rows of shafts, so that as
** Leonard Horner in Philosophical Transactions, vol. cxlviii. pp. 74-75.
London, 1859.
44 The Antiquity of the Human Race.
the base of the statue of Rameses stands 78' 3" above the sea
level, *9 the potsherds were therefore found at a positive elevation
of only 39' 3". Even the consideration suggested by Sir Charles
Lyell that, according to Herodotus, the old Egyptians protected
their temples and monuments from the inundations of the Nile
by means of embankments, 3 does not seem unanswerable, for if
these bulwarks were once broken down, the deposits on the
depressed surface would increase all the more rapidly, and the
stream might in a few years make amends for what, during thou-
sands of years, it had been prevented from accomplishing. But
it may be justly objected against the above calculation that the
thickness of the Nile mud since 1361 B.C. cannot serve as a
reliable standard, as the plains through which the river flows
have by no means an even surface. Horner himself observes that
when the Nile reaches the 24-6!! mark at Pegel on the Island
of Rhoda, it varies in depth from 20' to less than an inch, so
great are the inequalities of the ground. 3 1 Hence it follows that
the mud strata must increase far more rapidly in the depressions
than on the elevated spots, and that if the Egyptians, as may be
conjectured, erected their stone Rameses on an eminence in close
proximity to a depression, the later increment of Nile mud can
have raised the surface but slowly. Few, in defiance of this,
will venture to dispute that this potsherd from a depth of thirty-
nine feet must be at least 4000 years older than the monument
of Rameses the Great
Horner, Phil. Trans., vol. cxliii. p. 56.
10 Sir Charles Lyell, Antiquity of Man, p. 38*
n Horner in Pliilos. Trans., voL cxlviii. p. 56.
THE PHYSICAL CHARACTERS OF THE RACES
OF MANKIND.
THE PHYSICAL CHARACTERS OF THE
RACES OF MANKIND.
L THE PROPORTIONS OF THE SKULL.
IT is universally admitted that domestic animals by careful select-
tion transmit all parental peculiarities to their offspring. In the
same manner a human tribe, scanty in number, which in old times
separated itself from the rest of mankind by migration, remaining
for thousands of years in a remote region of the world, was, as
it were, constrained by circumstances to preserve the purity of
its breed, thus necessarily developing the family features of the
first emigrants into racial characteristics. But the purity of the
acquired type was preserved only as long as the seclusion lasted.
As the single tribes and families before and even after their
adoption of agriculture were constantly in a state of migration,
one variety mingling with the other, some of the distinctive
characters were necessarily obliterated by intercrossing ; for the
infertility of crosses between human varieties cannot be proved.
At most therefore we must hope to meet with even moderately
well-defined races only in those cases in which, either by the
remoteness of their abode, or the precepts of caste, a separation
from other varieties has been maintained during long periods;
everywhere else they will merge into one another. It may be
shown that no one physical characteristic belongs exclusively to
any single race, but that each may be found in a transit onal
48 Physical Characters.
state in other races. Hence ethnological description must deal
with many distinctive marks, and must not despise any, however
much they may vary in degree. In seeking characteristics of the
human frame, such as serve to mark difference of race, we instinc-
tively look in the first place to the shape of the head, the seat of
our highest functions. The industry and ingenuity of modern
anatomists have therefore developed a new branch of science
devoted to the bones of the skull. A death's head, as it is
vulgarly called, is a skilfully arranged case, narrower and smaller
in the head of a child, more capacious in adults. It must
therefore expand until a certain age, and cease to grow only in
mature years. The separate bones of the brain-case, where their
edges come in contact, are usually joined only by sutures with
serrated notches, so that no insuperable impediment opposes the
continued growth. A premature consolidation of the cranial
bones must, on the contrary, prevent the full development of the
brain ; hence, if an obliteration of the sutures is observed in
youthful crania, these heads are abortive formations. Now, as
science is bound to compare only normal phenomena, it follows
that we must exclude the measurements of all skulls of which
the sutures are prematurely effaced or, what amounts to the
same, become anchylosed. One of the plates of the skull,
*>., the frontal bone, consists originally of two halves, a right and
a left, which in apes become completely anchylosed after birth,
in children in the second year. In many cases, however,
they never close, and as in that case the frontal suture, being a
prolongation of the sagittal suture, bisects the coronal suture at
right angles, the course of the sutures forms a cross, whence
skulls in which the frontal suture is open are termed in German,
Kreuz-kopfe. These also, as the representatives of a peculiar
form to be compared only with each other, must be excluded
from our list of measurements. The disjunction of the frontal
suture in no way injures the normal functions of the brain; rather,
as it admits of its growth forwards to a later age, the skulls with
open frontal sutures combine greater width of brow with greater
capacity, so that it has even been conjectured that the average
efficiency of man's intellectual power would be raised if the per-
manent disjunction of this suture were to become the prevailing
Cross-heads.
49
character of the normal cranium. In connection with the fre-
quency of cross-heads, Hermann Welcker has furnished us with
the following statistics :
Skulls
Proportion
Nationalities,
With Without
an open Frontal Suture.
of Cross-heads to
ordinary Skulls.
Germans of Halle
70
497
7'i
Inhabitants ot Petersburg ...
70
1023
14-6
Other Caucasians
H
129
9-2
Mongols
7
96
i37
Malays ... ,
5
87
17-4
Negroes
i
S 2
52
Americans
I
53
53
Other observers are of opinion that skulls belonging to the
diluvial period more rarely exhibit this favourable character. 1
But if the forehead remains open, the sagittal suture generally
closes later, and we are to a certain extent justified in supposing
that an endeavour on the part of the brain to find room may be
the cause of this phenomenon, 2 yet we ought not to forget that
frontal bones with open sutures also occur occasionally in idiots. 3
But, on the other hand, the full development of the brain may be
impeded by the premature anchylosis of the bones if it proceeds
in such a manner as to overcome the counter-pressure.* In
the less gifted races the anterior, in the more highly gifted the
posterior sutures are said to be earliest obliterated. 5 In the
skulls of negroes, Pruner Bey thought he had perceived a prema-
ture closure of the frontal suture, followed by the anchylosis of
the sagittal and of the middle portion of the coronal sutures,
while the lambdoidal suture at the summit remained open
the longest. Occasionally even the basilosphenoidal suture does
not completely unite, while even in adults the incisive suture
Canestrini. See Darwin's Descent of Man, vol. i. p. 125.
Hermann Welcker, Wachsthum und Bau des menschlichen Schadels,
PP
97-102. Leipsic, 1862.
Virchow, Entwickelung des Schadelgrundes, p. 87. Berlin, 1857.
Virchow, I.e. p. 13.
Gratiolet See Quatrefages, Rapport, p. 302.
5O Physical Characters.
may still be distinguished. 6 But the value of such remarks can
be established only by the statistical average of a large number of
observations, and these can only be obtained by long-continued
accumulation. For the present the only result is that skulls with
prematurely or abnormally closed sutures must be excluded from
the measurements and not compared with the others.
The sexual distinctions of crania are yet more perplexing.
Welcker believed that in German skulls of which the sex was
known, the female cranium was intermediate between the infantine
and the male in all points susceptible of measurement Our
anatomists have therefore endeavoured to discover indications
by which the sex of the skull may be determined. Craniological
statistics have already shown that in highly civilized nations all
secondary sexual distinctions are far more strongly developed
than in those families of mankind which have remained in a state
of barbarism. In the former the male brain-case is perceptibly
more capacious than the female. On the other hand, it remains
undecided whether the female cranium is narrower than the male.
While Welcker found the cranium of women to be in nearly all
races more dolichocephalous than those of men, Weisbach on the
other hand obtained an average of 82-5 in Austrian women,
and perceives a slight tendency to brachycephalism.7 On the
other hand the inferior height of the cranium in the female sex
has been pointed out by Alexander Ecker, who also attempts
to recognize the female skull by the somewhat sudden transition
from the flat crown to the vertical line of the forehead. 8 Greater
delicacy in the osseous prominences, diminished length of face
combined with the greater size of the orbicular cavities, and
inferior width of the lower jaw, are likewise supposed to distinguish
the female cranium. Nevertheless, we are far from being able
to determine with certainty the sex of an unknown skull. Several
years ago, the English craniologist, Barnard Davis, wrote tc
A. Ecker that he had been compelled by the presence of the re-
ceived sexual characters to pronounce a certain Bengalese skull to
Pruner Bey, Memoire sur les Negres, pp. 328, 329. 1861
f Archiv fur Anthropologie, voL iii. p. 6 1. Brunswick, 1868.
Ibid, voL L p. 85. 1866.
Sexual Differences. 5 1
be that of a man, and yet he knew positively that it belonged
to a woman. 9 The sex of skulls taken from old tombs cannot
therefore be determined with certainty by their structure. Hence
Virchow says, in his work on the ancient northern skulls at
Copenhagen, " I do not in all cases feel competent to distin-
guish, definitely, between male and female crania, and I have
therefore determined not to enter into an inquiry of this sort, that
I may avoid arbitrary and doubtful divisions." I0 His and Riiti-
meyer in the same spirit observe, " We have not made a division
of crania according to sex. Sexual distinctions based on mere
appearance are too apt to lead to gratuitous assertions to be in any
way trustworthy." Barnard Davis also states with respect to the
catalogue of his craniological collection, 11 "The sex was deter-
mined by the appearance, and follows no infallible rules ; so that
mistakes may easily have occurred." I2 Strict science, however, still
demands a classification of skulls according to sex, in which the
classes shall be no more comparable with one another than are two
completely different species. Future collectors should therefore
make every exertion to ascertain the sex of each skull at the site
of its discovery. If ancient skulls, of which the sex is undecided,
are thrown together, it may occur that two types or intermediate
forms representing not two nationalities, but merely the sexes of
a single nationality, may be based on the measurements. There
is, moreover, a danger that if we accept the average of the sum
of both sexes as types of the race, the average differences will
be much smaller in amount than if men alone were compared
with men.
The proportions of the human skull have recently been deter-
mined even to the minutest details, so that the number of dimen-
sions measured in a single skull has increased to i39- 13 When we
note this diligence and zeal, we may still hope that some acute
observer may sooner or later succeed in detecting in some
9 Archiv fur Anthropologie, vol. ii. p. 25. 1867.
10 Ibid. vol. iv. p. 61.
11 Crania Helvetica, p. 8. Basle, 1864.
12 Thesaurus Craniorum, p. 15. London, 1867.
18 See the three tables for twenty skulls of gipsies supplied by Isidor Koper-
nicki to the Archiv fur Anthropologie, vol. v. p. 320.
52 Physical Characters.
apparently unimportant proportional relations a key to the solu-
tion of this difficulty. Perhaps it may yet be discovered by what
increase of the individual bones the form of the head is deter-
mined, 1 * and for this reason the length of the individual sutures
should be most carefully registered in all statistics. But the ethno-
logy of our day must dispense with these preliminary labours to
future knowledge, and must be content with the distinctions
already established.
Unfortunately, there is no universal system of measurement.
In England and in France they set to work differently, while in
Germany scarcely two craniologists follow the same method. "The
object of the ordinary as well as of the scientific observer," says
Virchow, 1 * "is to detect a definite connection between the shape of
the cranium, the conformation of the face, and the structure of
the brain." l6 Each will turn his attention to the measurement of
those points in which he hopes to recognize this connection. But
until such a connection is actually discovered we must content
ourselves solely with measurements of the capacity. Retzius
was the first who taught us to distinguish long and broad crania
(dolichocephalic and brachycephalic) by comparison of diameters
of length and breadth, although he did not distinguish accu-
rately between the two forms. Even in obtaining the diameters
of the skull, different methods are adopted, for the thickness of
the cranial bones is very variable. If we apply a measure to
the surface of a vertical section of a skull wall, we shall generally
find the thickness of the bone plates to be from two to five milli-
metres. These variations do not affect the measurements as
they would raise the longitudinal as much as the lateral diameters.
But in other parts, and especially when we have to look for the
longest axis of the skull, the frontal bone parts into a double
(an external and an internal) osseous plate, and encloses cavities
of considerable size. In the occiput, again, the internal and ex-
ternal layers are forced asunder by spongy capsules, and in the
several cases the skull attains a thickness of 20 and 15 milli-
metres or more. Now, as these internal inflations of the bones
14 Virchow, Entwickelung des Schadelgrundes, p. 81. Berlin, 1857.
11 Ibid. p. 9. " Ibid. p. 81.
Index of Breadth. 5 3
have assuredly no relation to the functions of the brain, and
vary greatly in different members of the same family, and moreover
increase with age, in determining the longitudinal diameter it
does not seem right to place the points of the compass just over
those bony enlargements. Barnard Davis therefore measures from
the forehead (glabella) to the most prominent point of the occiput.
Welcker, like him, places one point of the compasses on the fore-
head, but the other about an inch above the point of the occiput.
Both thus avoid the places where the bones of the brain-case
are most enlarged. After all, perhaps the most accurate plan,
although at first sight it appears the roughest, would be to take
the greatest axis in whatever place it may be found, for the
development of the frontal sinuses, unimportant as it may other-
wise be, certainly conduces to lengthen the cranium, while the
amount of this elongation can be found with the aid of com-
passes. But as every system of measurement is justifiable, and
none has hitherto acquired universal acceptance, we must for the
present follow those craniologists who have furnished the greatest
number of measurements susceptible of mutual comparison ; these
are Barnard Davis and Hermann Welcker.^ If we prefer the
results gained by the latter, we do so with a reservation. The
breadth of the skull is now measured at no fixed anatomical point,
but search is made for the point at which the skull is broadest.
Welcker, on the contrary, measures the breadth in a plane which,
passing through the occipital foramen, divides the cranium into an
anterior and a posterior half. Now, as all crania which are not
perfectly oval, or, in other words, the great majority of crania,
widen behind this plane of section, Welcker' s measurements make
all skulls appear on an average two per cent, more elongated than
they seem to the eye.
The longitudinal diameter is rated as 100, and the lateral
diameter is expressed in a percentage of these units. This per-
centage itself is termed the index of breadth. Completely
circular skulls, of which the index of breadth amounts to 100,
and even more than 100, occur both in North America and
among the Peruvians and the Chibcha of New Granada ; they
17 Comp. Appendixes A and B.
54 Physical Characters.
owe their form, however, to an artificial pressure of the skull, and
must, therefore, be excluded from all comparisons. Otherwise
complete roundness is most nearly attained by a skull from
Tartary, of which 977 is the index of breadth ; with this Huxley
contrasts a head from New Zealand, though it is perhaps of
Australian origin, of 62-9 as the narrowest of all known skulls. 18
EXTREME FORMS OF CRANIA ACCORDING TO HUXLEY.
(Norma verticularis.}
Fig. I. Skull of an Inhabitant Fig 2. Skull from New Zealand,
of Tartary.
Nevertheless, Barnard Davis possesses a so-called Celtic skull
which, with a longitudinal axis of 8'2 inches, a width of only 4-9,
has an index of only 58. J 9 The indexes of breadth, therefore,
fluctuate between 58 and 98, if we take the most extreme cases
into consideration. But the average is only between 67 and about
85. In this scale of nineteen notes all the average proportional
breadths of human skulls are included.
Welcker believes 20 that the index of breadth fluctuates from
74-78 in nations which in point of numbers include one-half of man-
kind, and these he terms " orthocephali ; " they are better named
" Huxley, On two Extreme Forms of the Human Skull. Archiv fur Anthro-
pologie, vol. i. p. 346. 1866.
" Thesaurus Craniorum, p. 63.
* In his craniological communications to the Archiv fur Anthropologie,
voL i. p. 346.
Variability of Proportions. 55
by Broca "mesocephali." If the index sinks below 74, we speak
of " dolichocephal," narrow or long skulls, and if it reaches 79
or more, of "brachycephali," broad or short skulls. Statistics have
now proved that a medium form of skull prevails in the majority
of inhabitants of a given region, so that the further the grades of
deviation are removed from the medium form, the more rapidly
does the number of skulls diminish by which these grades are
represented. This is exactly what every one will expect who con-
siders specific and racial characters as something variable, who
recognizes in animated nature only individuals, and who assumes
with Goethe that species exist only in the school-books of sys-
tematists. Even the average proportions of the skull vary within
the limits of individual races. The dimensions which Welcker has
found in the Malay nations, are especially surprising. We will first
notice only the index of breadth, and setting aside the highly
dolichocephalic skulls (68) of the inhabitants of the Carolinas,
because as Micronesians they are not free from suspicion of mixed
blood, we find the Maori of New Zealand, with an index of
73, still on the verge of dolichocephalism. Next in the scale of
mesocephalism are the skulls of the Marquesas islanders (74), the
Tahitians (75), the inhabitants of Chatham Island (76), the Kanakas
of the Sandwich archipelago (77). On the large islands between
Australia and Asia we find the Dyaks of Borneo with 75, the
Balinese with 76, the Amboynese with 77, and skulls from
Sumatra with 77, and from Mancassar with 78, given as their
index. To these mesocephali must be added, as brachycephali, the
Javans and Buginese with 79, the Menadorese with 80, and the
Madurese with 82.
Of the nineteen gradations of breadth the skulls of the Malay
family occupy no less than nine, from 73 to 82. It cannot be
said in this case that the Malay skulls present mongrel forms,
for surrounded as they are by dolichocephali, they cannot owe
their brachycephalism to intercrossing. But if they had originally
been brachycephalic this would have been preeminently dis-
played in the Dyaks, for they must be regarded as the purest
representatives of the old Malay type. The results of measurement
thus compel us to acknowledge that the relative proportions of the
skull vary considerably within the same race. It is now believed
56 Physical Characters.
that all the Polynesians distributed themselves over the South Seas,
from the Samoa or Navigators' group, in three directions. These
migrations commenced at least 3000 years ago. The Samoans
themselves have remained free from any foreign mixture, and the
islands to which the emigrants repaired were totally uninhabited.
Here, therefore, we have before us facts which could not have
been better arranged for an anthropological experiment. Here we
may carefully ascertain by measurement what alterations have taken
place in cranial proportions in the course of 3000 years, as the
results of emigration and isolation. It is true we have already
founded some statements on Welcker's measurements ; but the
number of skulls at his disposal is not sufficient to establish
reliable averages, and, moreover, he has no indexes from the two
most important groups of islands. Samoan and Tongan skulls
are the most essential, for they probably represent the original
dimensions of the Polynesian type, and next, skulls from the
Paumota islands, or Low Archipelago. These latter coral islands
were an extremely unfavourable abode, so that on its atolls the
Polynesian race must have greatly deteriorated from the social
elevation which it occupied at the time of the migration. The
interest with which anthropologists look forward to consignments
of skulls or cranial measurements from the Paumotas may there-
fore be conceived. Barnard Davis, who had a larger number of
Polynesian skulls at his disposal, arrived at similar results, although
he found smaller fluctuations. According to him, the Maori,
with an index of 75, are most inclined to dolichocephalism,
while the Javans (82) appear still more brachy cephalic than the
Madurese (81).
Experiences in Germany have been eminently peculiar, but they
confirm the statements we have already made in speaking of the
condition of the Malay race. Retzius reckoned the Germans
among the dolichocephali, although he subsequently ascertained
that other proportions preponderated in Southern Germany. He
formed his first opinion because it was chiefly the northern repre-
sentatives of the Teutonic family that he examined. In Swedes
the index of breadth averages 75-2, in the Dutch 75-3, and ac-
cording to another Dutch table, in the English 76, in Danes and
Icelanders 76*1. As mesocephalism commences with an index
Teutonic Skulls. 57
of breadth of 74, and ceases at an index of 79, the Teutons of
Northern Europe are rather dolichocephalic than brachycephalic.
German skulls, on the other hand, give the following figures :
in Hanover 767, in the neighbourhood of Jena 76-9, in Holstein
77-2, at Bonn and Cologne 77-4, in Hesse 79-2, in Suabia 79'3, 21
in Bavaria 7 9 '8. Lower Franconia 80, in Breisgau 8o - i. To explain
this increasing index of breadth in Southern Germany, our first im-
pulse might lead us to ascribe it to an intermixture with the Celts,
but that the Celts have not a very strong tendency to brachy-
cephalism ; the French, for example, are represented by no more
than 7 9 '5, and the Irish by only 73*4. In Scotland, where we
ought to find a mixture of Teutons and Celts, the index stands
only at 75*9.
If we must give up the Celts we must think of the Sclavonians.
With them we find very considerable indexes, such as 78-8 in the
Servians, 79*1 in the people of Little Russia, 79-4 in the Poles, 80
in the Roumanians, 80 *i in Russians, 80 '4 in the Ruthenians, 81 in
the Slovaks, 82 in the Croats, and 82-1 in the Czechs, these latter
being therefore the most brachycephalic of all the Sclavonians.
Now an intermixture with the Sclavonians might well explain
brachycephalism in Thuringia, but not in South-western Germany,
and, above all, not among the Teutonic Swiss, where the index
rises to 8i'4. 22 Moreover, the German Austrians, who are sur-
rounded on all sides by Sclavonians, ought to be more brachy-
cephalic than the Germans. But the average index of the Germans
is 787, and that of the German Austrians 78'8, 2 3 consequently, the
difference is much smaller than the liability to error in the measure-
ments. We thus arrive at the conclusion that the Teutonic skull
is highly variable, and that in Germany it perceptibly tends towards
brachycephalism as it passes from north to south, and especially
to the south-west
fl Schiller's skull had an index of 82.
w Weisbach found the index of breadth to be 8l'l in German Austria, 83*6
in the Czechs. As he measures the skull at the widest part, the divergence of
his figures from those of Welcker is fully explained. Archiv fur Anthropologie,
vol. ii. 293.
83 His attributes to the skulls of the German Swiss (Disentistypus) an index of
breadth of 86-5, of height of 81 '8. His u. Riitimeyer, Crania Helvetica, p. II.
58 Physical Characters.
If we are to make further progress in craniology, the indexes of
European populations must first be ascertained in greater numbers.
With respect to Italians, we are indebted to Luigi Calori of
Bologna for work of this description. He designates skulls with
indexes of breadth from 74 to 80 as orthocephali (for which, how-
ever, we will substitute mesocephali), those with higher figures as
broad, and those below 74 as narrow skulls. He examined no less
than 2442 Italian skulls, exclusive of female specimens, and found
1665 brachycephalic, with an average index of 84 among them.
The other 777, on the contrary, gave an average of 77. In Italy,
as in Germany, broad and narrow skulls are locally intermingled.
Of 100 Bolognese skulls of both sexes, 79 were broad, 16 medium,
and only 5 narrow. Of 852 heads from Emilia, 733 ranked as
broad, no as medium, and 9 as narrow skulls. Again, among 254
heads from Venetia, Lombardy, and the Italian Tyrol, 230
exhibited the broad, 23 the medium, and only i the narrow form.
On the Adriatic shores, south of Bologna, out of 377 skulls, 265
were broad, 105 medium, and 7 narrow. Crossing the Apennines,
out of 213 Tuscan skulls, on the contrary, only 134 are brachy-,
59 meso-, and 20 dolichocephalic. In the former Papal States,
out of 200 skulls, only 52 belong to the brachy-, 100 on the other
hand to the meso-, and 48 to the dolichocephalic type. Finally,
out of 356 Neapolitans, 131 were reckoned among the broad, 162
among the medium, and 63 among the narrow skulls. From this
it is evident that the northern Italians belong to the highly brachy-
cephalic nations, but that towards the south of the peninsula,
the skulls become elongated, and the medium form finally pre-
dominates. 24 Here again a variation of the indexes is displayed,
corresponding with changes of locality. Nothing else, however,
could be expected, since all modern investigations impress upon
us that all physical characters are liable to great fluctuations, that
living beings in general are not developed in accordance with
rigid primaeval types, but undergo constant transformation. Above
all, we cannot expect persistency of type in the human species, in
which the greater number of races are capable of fertile crosses.
It is scarcely necessary to observe that the racial derivation of
** Journal of the Anthropological Institute, vol. L p. no. London, 1872.
Cranial Characters unreliable. 59
any skull can never be inferred from its index of breadth. The
narrowest Sclavonian skull, 72*8, might, from its index, be taken
for a negro skull, for individual negro skulls go as far as 7 7 '8, but
negro skulls below 72 cannot be confounded with Sclavonian
skulls. Among 237 German skulls, only one has an index as low
as 69, falling nearly to the average of the negroes, 66, so that
negro skulls below 69 can never be mistaken for German.
Statistical averages, when used with caution, have hitherto
only confirmed what had already been made known by other
means. All Egyptologists are agreed that the old type of the
monuments has been preserved in the Fellaheen and Copts. The
index of breadth, 71-4, agrees exactly with that of the Egyptian
mummies. Even if Fallmerayer's extreme views are not accepted,
the modern Greeks must yet be regarded as much mixed with
Sclavonian blood, and the index shows us that the modern
Hellenes with 77-1, have become considerably more brachy-
cephalic than the ancient Greeks with 75. The same result
was to be expected in Italy, where we find the ancient Romans
recorded at 74.
As a caution that cranial characters alone are not to be relied
upon, we will mention that Barnard Davis thought it necessary to
divide the Eskimo into three races, according to the degree in
which the pyramidal form of the skull was more or less highly
developed. He designates the Greenlanders as the purest, the
eastern Americans as the medium form, while the western Ameri
cans are completely divergent from the normal type. That the
Eskimo of the arctic regions are of one and the same race is
an inadmissible opinion, however frequently they may have been
confounded by travellers, or whatever may be the evidence
afforded by their language. 25 Their physical divergencies are
self-evident. Now, a great expert in northern archaeology has
recently proved that the Eskimo did not settle in Greenland till
after the middle of the fourteenth century, 26 and Barnard Davis
might, moreover, have learnt from Captain Hall's descriptions
* Thesaurus Craniorum, p. 224.
19 Konrad Maurer in der zweiten deutschen Nordpolarfahr, L 234. Leipzic,
1873.
60 Physical Characters.
that Eskimo mothers apply lateral pressure to the skulls of their
newly born children, and draw over them a tight-fitting leather
cap to produce the desired pyramidal form. 2 ?
Cranial measurements are as yet deficient from the want of a
sufficient number of observations, which can be only increased
by a continued augmentation of our collection of racial skulls,
In this respect the greatest dispatch is urgently recommended,
now that so many and various races are intermingling before our
eyes.
Of the same importance as the transverse diameter is the height
of the skull. For the purpose of determining it, Welcker placed
one point of his calipers on the anterior margin of the occipital
foramen, the other on the apex of the head, at the intersection of
the planes which divide the skull into a right and left, and at the
same time into an anterior and posterior half.? 8 Here also the
result of the measurement is expressed in the hundredth parts of
the longitudinal diameter, and it is termed the index of height.
By means of an instructive arrangement of Welcker, 2 9 we perceive
that on the average the height increases in inverse ratio to the
breadth, so that narrow skulls are, generally speaking, high, and
broad skulls flat ; in other words, that in dolichocephali the index
of height exceeds the index of breadth, and in brachycephali
does not equal it, so that a smaller lateral extension is compen-
sated by an increase in height. This ratio is however neither
constant nor equal. The variation in the index of height is far
smaller than that of breadth ; it fluctuates between 70-2 and 82-4
for the index of height of 86*8 in the ancient Peruvians is sus-
pected of artificial origin. Moreover, we find nations in which the
index of height is far too small for that of breadth, such as the
Hottentots, who, although dolichocephalic, only attain to an index
of height of 70-2, whereas it ought to be at least three units higher.
fT Life with the Esquimaux, p. 520. 1865.
** Alex. Ecker on the contrary measures first from the anterior and then from
the posterior margins of the occipital foramen and the highest elevation of the
occiput (Crania Germaniae merid. p. 3.) The mean between the two measure-
ments would probably be the " height " most desirable for purposes of classifi-
cation in the interest of ethnology.
" Craniologische Mittheilungen, p. 154.
Index of Height. 6 1
On the other hand, the inhabitants of the island of Madura com-
bine one of the greatest breadths of skull with the largest index of
height, namely, 82-4, whereas we should expect one of about 75.
Cases such as these furnish ethnology with excellent descriptive
terms, enabling us to designate the Hottentots as flat narrow
skulls (patystenocephali), the Malay inhabitants of Madura as high
broad skulls (hypsibrachycephali). The index of breadth represents
the shape of the skull as it appears when the brain-case is inspected
from above, with the eye perpendicular to the central point of the
longitudinal axis (Norma verticalis). The index of height, on the
other hand, represents the view of the skull as seen from the back
(Norma occipitalis). With similar indexes the outlines may, it is
true, be sometimes angular, sometimes curvilinear ; the greatest
widths may occur sometimes in the middle and sometimes further
back. The comparison of the figures of these measurements is
nevertheless the only process which science has hitherto had at
its disposal, while the selection of types by the eye would lead
to artificial and arbitrary definitions.
II. THE HUMAN BRAIN.
WHEN we separate the parts of a dissected head we acknow-
ledge that we hold in our hands nothing but the shell of an
exploded cartridge, or the larval husk from which the winged
imago has escaped. We also understand that all cranial forms
possess only an artificial value, and tell us nothing respecting the
several grades of mental power contained within a dolichocephalic
or brachycephalic bony covering. Artificial malformations of
the brain-case by pressure of the infantine head, such as took
place in the nations of olden times, and such as still occur
among countless inhabitants of America, and is even the custom
of foolish mothers in the north of France, 1 although perhaps not
completely harmless, have not perceptibly impeded the healthy
functions of the artificially remoulded apparatus of thought.
The brain, the noblest of our organs, varies in point of weight,
1 Ausland, 1866, p. 1095. Delineations of Artificial Compressions of the Skull.
62 The Human Brain.
from two or three to four pounds, while we find the brain of the
elephant to be from 8-10 Ibs., of the whale from 4-5 Ibs., of a
narwhal 18 feet in length 2 Ibs. 15 oz., of a dolphin 7 feet long
2 1 Ibs. "Who could venture," observes a celebrated French
physiologist, "to infer from the bulk of brain, the nature and
power of a human being or even of an animal ? " Who, we might
add, can judge by the weight whether a church clock or a pocket
chronometer will keep the most accurate time? Yet both are merely
the work of our own hands. Neither does man take the highest
place in the relative weight of brain as compared to the total
weight of the body, for although the brain of the whale is only
33*00, that of the elephant sijo~> of the dog 3^0, while that of man
is from ^ to *}$ of the weight of the body, yet we are surpassed
by the song-birds, among which the weight of the brain reaches
3^f, by the titmouse and the sparrow, in which it reaches respec-
tively ^z and ]jV, and by the American apes, in which it amounts
to from 2*5 to 1*3- of the weight of the body. 3
Hence if the rank of the brain is to correspond to man's high
rank in creation, we must look for differences other than those of
weight The human cerebrum, which can alone be considered the
seat and organ of intellectual power, consists of an internal white
substance traversed by delicate fibres, which is regarded as the
conducting apparatus and focus of nervous action ; and secondly,
of an external grey covering in which granules, spherical forms,
and ganglia may be recognized, and which is held to be, if not the
originator, at least the seat of the psychical functions. The more
profusely convoluted is the surface, and the more furrowed it
appears, the more does the outer covering or grey substance
increase in superficies.
We also know that more or less extensive disease of this outer
layer is capable of destroying the higher functions of the mind,
especially of co-ordinate thought. It was therefore obviously per-
missible to recognize the abundance of convolutions as a sign
of the superior rank of the brain, particularly as the elephant,
the most intelligent of all animals, affords a good example of a
2 Th. Bisehoff in the Naturwissenschaftlichen Vortragen Miinchener
Gslehrten, p. 139. Munich, 1858.
Weight of Brain. 63
brain deeply furrowed by multiform convolutions. The primary
distribution of the furrows, observes A. Ecker, seems to be
generally symmetrical, and asymmetry is prevalent only in the
the secondary furrows ; so that greater symmetry in the furrows
and convolutions may be regarded as the expression of arrested
development, especially as the brain of idiots displays this
character. 3 On the other hand, Rudolph Wagner points out that
the brain of the dog, when compared with the complex system of
convolutions of the unintelligent sheep, exhibits an extraordinary
poverty, and that the brains of our great mathematicians, Gauss and
Dirichlet, were without any peculiar folds,* although among the
most richly endowed of any that he has seen in point of depth and
multiformity of the furrows, especially in the frontal regions.
Huxley was able to pour 55-3 cubic inches of water into the
brain-case of a woman of sound mental powers, and 34! cubic
inches into the most capacious cranium of a gorilla ;S but it
should first have been ascertained whether the brains of men and
apes are so strictly analogous as to justify this comparison in point
of size. Unfortunately, investigations respecting the embryonic
brain of the ape are still very meagre. Von Bischoff has neverthe-
less announced his conviction that although the human brain
possesses no important furrow and no important convolution
which is not represented in the orang, yet the human brain by
no means exhibits a mere advance, and the brain of the orang
an arrest of growth, but that they each take a different course of
evolution, developing in different directions, and at no time coin-
8 Archiv far Anthrop. vol. iii. p. 221.
4 Wagner, Wendungen der Hemispharen, pp. 6, 7, and 24.
5 He reckons 252*5 gr. ot brain = to I cubic inch of water (Man's Place
in Nature). Carl Vogt (Archiv fur Anthropologie, vol. iii. 186) more precisely
estimates the average capacities of the interior of the skulls of the higher apes
In the Orang and Pongo ...
,, Chimpanzee and Chego
Males.
Females.
Cubic cer
448
417
500
timetres.
378
370
423
64 The Human Brain.
ciding with one another. This is, as yet, merely the conviction
of a scholar highly esteemed by his compeers, but at the same
time it corresponds with our expectations. It is a common
experience that diseases still latent in the parents at the time
of procreation, and only breaking out at a much later period,
are nevertheless transmitted to their children, to make their
appearance in them also only at a mature age. Hence, if even
the causes of future disturbances are hereditary, specific, generic
and ordinal differences must be still more so. It is therefore
impossible to free one's self of the idea that even at the first
awakening of life, the morphological end is preordained for the
human germ as well as for that of the ape. Their development
may be compared with two lines of rails which long run side
by side on the same track, and finally separate right and left
in different curves. Bischoff moreover admits that by reason
of their great morphological proximity, it requires the closest
examination to recognize differences between the brains of man
and of the orang, the chimpanzee and the gorilla. Relying on
Rolleston's measurements, Bischoff considers that the hemispheres
of the human cerebrum are specially distinguished from those
of the apes by their superior height To ascribe little importance
to differences in quantity, is to overlook the fact that in chemical
compounds the quality of the combinations is dependent on the
quantity that by the addition of a single atom of oxygen, sulphur-
ous acid is converted into- sulphuric acid, that a numerical
increase in frequency transforms dark into luminous vibrations,
that is to say, changes the temperature which excites the visual
nerves; and that even in numbers slight changes of quantity
lead to differences of great importance. 6 In the obscurity
which still prevails as to the relations of the several portions
* The relative difference in quantity between the numbers
0,99999999
1,00000000
is very slight ; yet the first possesses the property of diminishing to infinity
when persistently raised to higher powers, while by the same process the third
increases to infinity, and the middle one remains constant at every power.
Microcephali. 65
of the brain to the functions of the intellectual powers, the con-
jecture is still permissible that the higher psychical functions
may be connected with an externally insignificant accretion of
the brain.
' Again, it is usually held that unimpaired intellectual faculties
exist in man only when the weight of brain exceeds a minimum
limit which varies according to sex and race. Quatrefages wanted
to fix the weight of brain in Europeans at 1113 grams for
males, and 977 grams for females. 7 Carl Vogt assumes only
1000 grams in the first case, and 900 grams in the second; 8
while H. von Luschka pronounced 1000 grams to be the minimum
weight of a brain of unimpaired efficiency. 9 Weighed in a fresh
condition, he found the brain of a microcephalic woman only 30,
and of a man even 20 Loth, 10 or about 10 oz. With the exception
of the elongated form of the brain-case, and a great projection of
the jaws, there is nothing of an animal character in the skull of
these unhappy beings, for Virchow has decisively contradicted
Carl Vogt's assertion that the position of the occipital foramen is
abnormal. The same observation applies to the conditions of the
basisphenoid bone, which of course ought to be compared in adult
microcephali and adult apes of a high order, not between adult
microcephali and young apes. 11 Carl Vogt had ventured to
compare the skulls of these abortive human beings with the skulls
of apes. According to his tables the capacity of the brain-case
amounted to 622 cubic centimetres in one idiot, to 460 in another;
while that of a male gorilla reached 500 cubic centimetres. 12 Rely-
ing on these researches, he supposed himself to have perceived in
these human malformations a reversion or, in the language of the
Darwinian theory, an atavism, which, by the reappearance of ances-
tral characters of remote times, affords testimony of the animal
T Rapport sur les progres de 1'Anthropologie, p. 324.
8 Vorlesungen liber den Menschen, vol. i. p. 103.
9 Dritte Versammlung der Deutschen Gesellsch., p. 17.
10 At the time this was written 32 Loth= I German Ib. = 1*1023 English
lb., but by the new regulations there are but 30 Loth in the German Ib.
11 Menschen und Affenschadel, p. 31.
18 Memoires sur les Microcephales, in the Mem. de 1'Institut National
Genevois, vol. ix. p. 54.
66 The Human Brain.
derivation of our forefathers. But at the third meeting of the
German Anthropological Society, all the specialists remonstrated
against this interpretation of the facts. With almost an identity of
expression the microcephali were recognized as human creatures
which, by reason of morbid arrest of development, were rendered
incapable of development, and in no way as intermediate links filling
the chasm which separates man from the creatures most resembling
him in the animal world. That reproductive powers are wanting
in idiots, is enough to prove that the ancestors of man never
occupied a microcephalous grade that no part of the world was
in past ages peopled with Cretin s. J 3
The human brain must therefore be compared only with other
human brains. This is approximately accomplished by measuring
the capacity of crania of various races of mankind. Water is not
generally used, because it necessitates the closing of the numerous
apertures in the bones. Lime or plaster of Paris can be used
only after transverse sections have been made, that is to say, only
in damaged skulls, and afford no really comparable results, as these
materials have different specific weights; these substances have
therefore been abandoned, even by those who previously recom-
mended them. 1 * The brain capsule is now filled either with millet
seed or small shot, and the contents are then poured into a
metrical gauge. Sand is sometimes used, but with very unreliable
results. Wyman, in the fourth volume of the Anthropological
Record, states that the capacity of one skull, which was measured
with sand eight times, appeared to vary between 1290 and 1350
cubic millimetres ; when measured with shot the variation was
only between 1200 and 1205. By these means we ascertain
the capacity of the brain-capsule in different races. Lucae's
measurements tend to show that the broadest negro skull does
not reach the average of the Germans, nor the best Australian
skull the average of the negro, and also that the individual fluctu-
11 Comp. the speeches of Von Luschka, Virchow, Ecker, Schaaffhausen, and
Jager, in the account of the third meeting of the German Anthropological
Society, pp. 16-25 ; and also H. Schule, in the Archiv fiir Anthropologie,
vol. v. p. 444-446. 1872.
14 Lucae, Morphologic der Racenschadel, ii. p. 45. 1864.
Weight of Brain in Various Races. 67
ations increase with the rise of the numbers. 1 * Broca's results
seem to confirm these. Assuming 100 as the average capacity of
the Australian skull, he estimates that of the negro at ni'6, and
of the Teuton at i24'8. 16 The suspiciously high averages at which
Barnard Davis arrived, based on the richest of all collections, do
not seem so unfavourable to those human races which we regard
as low. 1 ? He found the capacity of the cranium to be in
Cubic Inches.
Cubic Centimetres.
Europeans ... ...
Americans ... ...
92-1
89-0
1835
1774
Asiatics
887
1768
Africans
86-2
1718
Australians
817
1628
In addition to these averages derived from numerous individual
estimates, it is advisable to glance at the fluctuations. Thus
Morton, among skulls of all races, found one minimum specimen of
63 cubic inches, and one maximum of 114 internal capacity. 18
But Barnard Davis has in his possession an ancient Roman skull
of only 62 cubic inches, and an Irish specimen of 121*6. Another
Irish skull in the Bateman Museum even reaches 124*2 cubic
inches. J 9 Even within the same family of nations the greatest
differences may occur, for some Tuscan skulls are far behind the
11 Lucae, Morphologic der Racenschadel, ii. p. 45. 1854. (These
capacities were taken with millet seed).
Number of Skulls.
Minimum.
Maximum.
Average.
13 German
6 Chinese
5 Negroes
5 Australians
1300
1400
1190
i"5
Cubic Centimetres.
1725
1575
1505
1300
I53I-6
1482-5
1344
1 1 86
w Broca, cited by Quatrefages, Rapport, p. 306.
17 Thesaurus Craniorum, p. 360.
18 Huxley, Man's Place in Nature, p. 77.
19 Thesaurus Cranionun, pp. 65 and 360.
68 The Human Brain.
narrowest Australian specimens in point of internal capacity. In
a Florentine servant maid, 23 years of age, Paolo Mantegazza
found only 1046 cubic centimetres, but in an adult Florentine
man 1727 cubic centimetres, and in a supposed Etruscan warrior
even 1750 cubic centimetres. 20
If the smaller average capacity of the cranium is causally
connected with arrested intellectual development, we might expect
that the skulls of ancient Europeans would be of smaller size than
those of their descendants : many facts point this way. Broca
thinks that he has found an increasing capacity in the crania
of modern Parisians (1482-1484 cubic centimetres) contrasted
with those of the i2th century (1426 cubic centimetres). 21 Skulls
of ancient Greeks recently exhumed at Athens, especially those of
a wealthy lady of the Macedonian period, Glykera by name, with
only 1150 cubic centimetres, and of a man 1280 cubic centi-
metres, both favour this opinion. 22 On the other hand, His and
Riitimeyer have given, as an average for their Disentis type,
to which belong three-fourths of the modern Swiss, 1377 cubic
centimetres; for the Hohberg type, nominally ancient Romans,
1437 cubic centimetres, and for the Sion head, which corresponds
with the skulls of the lake dwellings, 1558 cubic centimetres
\ m * i y). According to this computation the Swiss population
max. looo/
must have lost considerably in cranial capacity ; 2 3 but as this is
hardly credible, the fact ought to serve as a warning against
measurements of skulls taken from graves.
The investigation of these dimensions is obviously a means
of inferring, at least approximatively, the size of the brain. On
the weight of this organ we for a long time possessed only an
introductory work by Rudolf Wagner. Unfortunately, the majority
of the 964 skulls examined were derived from individuals of
unsound mind, and ought therefore to have been excluded from
* Archivio per 1'antropologia, vol. i. p. 53 et seq. Firenze, 187 r.
11 Broca as cited by Carl Vogt, Vorlesungen iiber den Menschen, vol. i.
pp. 105-108.
11 See Virchow*s account in the Verhandlungen der Berliner anthropol.
Gesellschaft, p. I74et seq. 1811.
w Crania Helvetica, p. 44. Basle, 1864.
Size of the Brain.
the comparison. Again, the estimates of weight were taken from
various anatomists, who do not appear to have adopted the
same method of procedure. It was also to be regretted that the
bodily dimensions of the corpses examined were only occasion-
ally stated. As a weight of 1861 grams was found in Cuvier, and
in Lord Byron (though this is founded on equivocal statements)
1807 grams, a high weight seemed to be accompanied by high intel-
lectual endowments. Yet among eminent scholars of Gottingen,
such as Dirichlet (1520 gr.), the great Gauss (1492 gr.), the
pathologist Fuchs (1499 gr.), the philologist Hermann (1386 gr.),
and the mineralogist Haussmann (1225 gr.), the weights sank to
the general average, and even far below it. 2 * As the only perma-
nent result of this first attempt, it may be noticed that Wagner
found the average weight of the female brain to be lighter than
that of the male. This fact was strictly corroborated by Weisbach
as regards the German and Sclavonian populations of Austria.
Calori, moreover, relying on a large number of estimates of
weight, taken from Italian specimens, has found that the female
brain is lighter by 150-200 grams. The capacity of the skull
is likewise different in the two sexes according to the following
statistics arranged by Weisbach. *s
CAPACITY OF THE FEMALE AS COMPARED WITH THE MALE
CRANIUM, THE LATTER = I OOO.
Observer.
Observer.
In Negroes
Hindoos
984
944
B. Davis.
H
In Marquesas
Islanders
[ 902 .
.. B. Davis.
Negroes
932
Tiedemann.
Germans
. 897
Welcker.
Malays
923
Dutch
883
. B. Davis.
Dutch
919
Germans
. 878
. Weisbach.
Irish
912
B. Davis.
Javans
874
. B. Davis.
Kanaks
906
Germans
. 864
. Tiedemann.
Sclavonian
s 903
Weisbach.
English
. 860
. B. Davis.
Germans
.. 838
. Huschke.
84 Rudolf Wagner, Die Wendungen der Hemispharen u. das Hirngewicht,
Gottingen, pp. 32, 33. 1860. In his published letter to Barnard Davis "on
the skull of Dante," Welcker has, however, proved from the estimates given by
Wagner and others, that the brains of 26 men of high intellectual rank
collectively surpass the average weight of brain by 14 per cent. Dante's brain
(1420 gr.) is nevertheless but little above the average of 1360 grams.
K Der Deutsche Weiberschadel. Archiv fur Anthropologie, vol. iii. p. 63,
1868.
70 The Human Brain.
In these estimates it is specially significant that, as in other
physical characters, the differences of sex appear more strongly in
highly civilized nations.
Other surprising revelations were likewise obtained from the
researches made by A. Weisbach, which, although they extended
to only 429 brains of inhabitants of Austria, were exclusively
restricted to persons of sound mind. 26 The total weight was
always first ascertained, and then the several weights of the
cerebrum, of the cerebellum, and the pons varolii. But the
most instructive fact was that the brain attains its greatest weight
between the 2oth and 3oth year of life, and then till the 8oth year
undergoes a diminution which increases to 10 per cent. This
diminution extends simultaneously to all parts of the brain with
the exceptions of the pons varolii, which increases till the 5oth
year. From this we see that brain weights are comparable only
at the same time of life. These researches have also confirmed a
previous conjecture, namely, that the specific gravity of brains is
variable; for the more capacious crania of the Germans con-
tained a smaller weight of brain than other and smaller skulls,
namely
Men.
Capacity of the Skull.
Weight of Brain.
Germans ... ...
Magyars
Sclavonians ...
Cubic Centimetres.
1 50 1 '66
1421-66
I484-55
Grams.
ISH'S
1322-8
I325'2
Thus the capacity of the skull is of more importance in
ethnology than the weight of the brain. We will further add that
the minimum weight (986-5 gr.) of German male skulls was found
in a person of 65 years of age; a minimum of 889-1, female
skulls, in one of 83 years of age.
We owe another discovery to Calori of Bologna, who by
numerous measurements had already performed valuable services
in the cause of science. He gives the weight of the brain in
" Die Gewichts verhaltnisse der Gehirne osterreichischer Volker. Archiv
fur Anthropologie, voL i. p. 190. 1866.
Sexual Differences in Brain Weights. 7 1
Italians of both sexes, but separates the cases according to the
form of the skull.
No. of Cases.
Weight of Brain in Grams.
Total Weight. | Cerebrum.
201 Men ..
72 Women
104 Men ...
44 Women
In brachycephalic Skulls.
1305 "45
1150 1004
In Skulls with an index of breadth below 80.
1282
1136
1122
992
Here we not only again see that the female brain is the lighter,
but it also appears to follow that in both sexes the brachycephali
have heavier brains than the dolichocephali. The lightest brain
in a brachycephalic man of 22 years weighed 1024 grams, in
a dolichocephalic of 34 years 1088 grams, while the minimum
weights in broad and narrow-skulled women were respectively 909
and 918 grams. 2 7
III. THE OSSEOUS FACIAL APPARATUS.
IN the perpendicular section of a skull, even the unpractised eye
at once recognizes the region of the brain-capsule and the facial
apparatus. In man, the latter occupies a relatively much smaller
space, for it is not half so long, nor half so high, and is invariably
narrower than the other. In apes, on the contrary, even in the
highest, the size of the facial bones preponderates, and the animal
expression of the head is chiefly due to the protrusion of the
jaws. 1 A slight tendency to this formation of face in human
races is termed prognathism. Peter Camper was the first who
attempted to measure these structural proportions by means of the
so-called facial angle. He drew a line from the external auditory
passage to the nasal partition, and intersected it by a line from the
front of the closed teeth to the most prominent part of the fore-
37 Journal of the Anthropological Institute, vol. i. p. 117. London, 1872.
1 Peter Camper iiber den naturlichen Unterschied der Gesichtsziige, voL xv.
pp. 17, 21, 22. Berlin, 1792.
72 The Osseous Facial Apparatus.
head. The magnitude of the angle he took as a standard of a
noble expression of countenance. Virchow has justly objected
that this angle must decrease in old people by the development
of the frontal sinuses, as well as by the retreat of the dental
apophysis. 2 But it was yet more unfortunate that Camper should
have selected the nasal partition and the auditory passages as
points on which to lay a so-called horizontal plane of the skull. A
plane of this description has been sought by craniologists almost
as eagerly as the philosopher's stone by the alchemists. This
plane was supposed to lie horizontally through the head when the
latter is poised over its centre of gravity with the least assistance
of the muscles. The direction of the zygomatic arch seemed to
fall in this plane, and the position of the skull was arranged to
correspond with it. But it was soon found that this plane takes
quite a different course in skulls of different races; that the
zygomatic arch cannot always be followed, and that the skull must
be a little raised, sometimes in front, sometimes behind. 3 In this
system the investigator relied on his own artistic feeling, which
may occasionally vary. As H. von Ihering has shown, it has hap-
pened that an anatomist who, venturing on this slippery path, had
repeated his measurements on the same skulls, after an interval
of three years, found differences which amounted to more than
50 per cent.-* Moreover, such angles can be determined only
on outline drawings of skulls. Consequently, science has at last
been enriched by the system of the so-called geometric, or, perhaps
more correctly, orthographic projection of the skull. Lucae, its
inventor, placed the skull in the requisite position upon a firm
support. Upon the skull, and parallel to the support, rested a
glass plate, on which a dioptric instrument with a cross thread was
moved in such a manner, that its optic axis constantly touched the
outlines of the skull. The intersection of the threads was
followed on the glass plate by a pen which registered in ink the
course pursued. s In this way he obtained a picture of the skuD
2 Schadelgrund, p. 119.
Lucae, Morphologic der Racenschadel (1861), I. p. 42, and (1864)
2, p. 31.
4 Archiv fiir Anthropologie, vol. v. p. 396. 1872.
8 Morphologic der Racenschadel, I. pp. 10, II.
Prognathism. 73
as it would be seen from an infinite distance, somewhat as is the
case with the moon seen from the earth ; these drawings are not
merely free from all the defects of perspective vision, but they
admit of measurements by the compasses.
Even less unanimity has been observed in the angular measure-
ments of the facial apparatus than in the estimates of the size of
the brain-capsule. Each anatomist went his own new way re-
gardless of his predecessors, and very often applied the same
appellations to angles which some other had sought at a different
point The results of the various kinds of measurement do not
therefore admit of mutual comparison, and the painful spectacle of
this dark mass of contradictions has drawn upon craniology a con-
tumely perhaps not entirely undeserved, for the inducement to
make increasingly factitious systems of measurement was often not '
so much the endeavour to provide ethnology with useful numerical
formulae as to find in the skulls of various races a corroboration of
morphological theories.
In this state of' things anthropology can but follow Welcker, the
anatomist who has measured the greatest number of skulls ; his
system, although, as he himself admits, imperfect and susceptible
of further improvement, is fortunately the most satisfactory.
Welcker searches for no horizontal plane, but merely determines
the position of certain points in the facial apparatus, and does
this regardless of the frontal bones.
The animal expression of the human countenance is due to
the protrusion of the jawbones, and the degree is best deter-
mined by angular measurements. Virchow, even before Welcker,
pronounced that prognathism, or the snout-like form of the face, is
dependent on the shape of the base of the skull, although he did
not conceive such a dependence as is shown by Welcker's
measurements. The size of the angle at the sella turcica may
be determined by a triangle, of which one side (fig. 3) is equal
to the distance from the root of the nose to the sella turcica,
the second to the distance from the sella to the anterior margin of
the occipital foramen ; the third (b ri) from the latter back to the
root of the nose. This angle of the sella turcica exceeds a
right angle even in man, but in animals it becomes considerably
greater. In the child and the young ape its size, or the degree of
74 The Osseous Facial Apparatus.
flexure of the basisphenoid plate differs but little, that is to say,
it amounts to 141 in the first, and 155 in the second case; but
with increasing age this flexure becomes more acute in the human
being, reaching 134, while in the ape it becomes more obtuse
(174). In this divergent tendency of growth Welcker recognizes
a profound difference between man and beast 6 Yet, since this
angle of the sella is neither visible nor measurable in a com-
plete skull, it possesses a merely theoretical value for our purpose,
arising from the fact that another angle of the face is correlatively
dependent upon it. This angle is situated at the root of the nose,
and is measurable in all skulls by the aid of a triangle, of which the
FIG. 3. Section of the human skull in the direction of the sagittal suture.
, root of nose ; e t sella turcica ; b, anterior margin of the occipital foramen ;
x, point on the super-maxillary bone above the alveoli.
sides correspond with the distances from the root of the nose to
the anterior margin of the occipital foramen (b\ from this to the
insertion of the alveoli (x\ and finally from this back to the root of
the nose. It is obviously the angle at the beginning of the alveoli
which controls the expression of the face, and in proportion to
its magnitude the countenance appears to us ennobled. Weisbach
found this angle to average from 70 to 72 in Amboynese,
Javans, Banjarese, Chinese, and Buginese, 73 in 50 German men,
75 in Northern Italians, 76 in 24 German women, 77 in 28
Bau und Wachsthums des Schadels, pp. 80, 8l.
Mode of Measurement of Prognathism. 75
Czechs. 7 Welcker, however, prefers to determine the position of
the jaw indirectly by means of the angle at the root of the nose
(b n x), because this latter increases with the angle of the sella,
whereas it is the reverse with the angle at the alveoli (b x n\
which decreases while the others increase. The angle at the root
of the nose varies from 60 to 72 in the skulls of different races.
Welcker speaks of a skull in which this angle amounts to 68 or
more as prognathous ; of one in which it remains below 65 as
opistognathous ; of skulls of from 65 to not quite 68 as ortho-
gnathous, for which latter term we shall substitute mesognathous.
An examination of skulls shows that prognathism prevails as a
rule in narrow skulls, while medium and broad skulls are mostly
mesognathous or occasionally opistognathous. This correlation
is not however invariable, for, according to Welcker, Eskimo,
Mexicans, Hottentots, and the Highland Scotch belong to the
mesognathous dolichocephali, while conversely the Sumatrans and
Bashkirs combine an index of breadth of 80 and 82 with progna-
thism of an angle of 69 5' and 67 6'. It seems strange perhaps
that in determining the direction of the jaws, the points of the
compasses are placed above the alveoli and not at once upon the
lower edge of the sockets, or even on the incisor teeth, as the pro-
trusion of the facial apparatus is greatest at these points. But very
many skulls are damaged just at these points, and it would there
fore be necessary to reject them as useless. Again, it is still more
important that the prognathism produced by the oblique position
of the alveoli depends on non-essential directions of growth.
Virchow has shown that the prognathous type of face is in-
consistent with the full development of the brain. 8 This fact is
most significant when we remember that this unpropitious position
of the jaw is confined almost exclusively to nations in which
civilization appears somewhat immature. Only here again it must
be remembered that various forms occur side by side within the
same nations. In England and France cases of prognathism are
not unknown, and in Paris they are said to be tolerably common. 9
7 Weisbach, der deutsche Weiberschadel in the Archiv fiir Anthropologie,
vol. iii. p. 75; 1868. His facial angle is nearly identical with Welcker*s
angle b x n.
* Schadelgrund, p. 121. 9 Quatrefages, Rapport, p. 311.
J6 The Osseous Facial Apparatus.
The Chinese are, moreover, reckoned among the prognathous
nations by many craniologists ; and in Welcker's statistics we even
find the Dutch with an angle of 67 8' at the root of the nose.
With such great variability, the average numbers can only show
the frequency of a certain form of facial apparatus, while the
individual fluctuations serve as links to a higher or a lower type.
The expression of the human countenance is very greatly
affected by the prominence of the zygomatic arch, although this
characteristic is not constant, yet where it occurs in a prepondera-
ting number of cases, we must be content to use it in the descrip-
tion of nations. If a skull be so placed that the eye of the
beholder strikes the centre of the major axis perpendicularly
(norma verticalis), it can be determined with certainty whether the
zygomatic arches project like two handles beyond the outlines of
the skull (phanerozygous), or whether they remain concealed
behind them (cryptozygous skulls) ; in the first case we are able to
say that the cheek-bones are prominent. Much attention has
recently been given to the form of the orbicular cavities in the
osseous face, but these measurements have not hitherto enabled
us to recognize any characteristics available for ethnology. The
osseous frames appear to have no influence on the oblique position
of the opening of the eye, 10 which, although not quite constant as
a characteristic of all nations of a Mongolian cast, must yet find
place in description. The shape of the nose, again, was taken
into account by the older ethnologists. The Papuan is recogniz-
able by the Jewish type of his nose, the Mongols of Northern
Asia by the flatness of this feature. In the inhabitants of Thibet
the bridge of the nose is said to be so low that, seen in profile, it
projects but little beyond the eye-ball, or even disappears behind
it in some muscular individuals. 11
The lower jawbone was formerly neglected by craniologists,
and has only recently been noticed. In proportion as it is pointed
or flattened, the face acquires oval, angular, or square outlines.
But if we look round among our daily companions, we see such a
confusion of types, so many transitions from one to the other, that it
10 Von Schlagintweit, Indian und Hochasien, vol. ii. p. 51.
11 Ibid. vol. ii. p. 48.
Other Facial Characters. 77
would require a vast number of measurements to enable us to
say which of the divers forms is most prevalent. The mouth is
another subject on which much stress has been laid in the descrip-
tion of races. The thick lips of the Central and Southern Africans
are especially opposed to our idea of beauty. The thin lips of
Europeans and their American descendants are, however, a
character which brings them nearer to the apes. But even among
the negroes themselves, this portion of the facial form varies con-
siderably, and although a marked intumescence of the lips may be
generally attributed to them, it implies nothing more than that the
European form of mouth does not occur among them more
frequently than does the negro form among ourselves. Among
the Jews, who for thousands of years have intermarried among
themselves, we find the two extremes side by side, the delicately
chiseled mouth and the intumescent lips.
IV. THE PROPORTIONS OF THE PELVIS AND THE LIMBS.
IF we cast a glance from the head downwards, it is at once
evident that there is a harmony of proportion between the skull
and the female pelvis. But if the number of skulls of different
races was too small to inspire implicit confidence, the stock of
pelvises of various races does not equal the hundredth part of the
skulls. Nevertheless, M. J. Weber has already ventured to dis-
tinguish an European or oval, an American or round, a Mongolian
or square, a Negro or wedge-shaped pelvis. Joulin, on the other
hand, maintained the identity of form of the Mongolian or, more
accurately, the Javan or Papuan pelvis and that of the negro.
Lastly, Pruner Bey believes that no race exists of which the
woman cannot give birth to children of a European or any other
father, that from the same womb proceed children with different
forms of skull, although, according to observations on Javans and
North Americans, parturition is easier when the child is of pure
breed and not a hybrid. 1 Fritsch has recently imported to Europe
a comparatively large number of pelvises of South African nations,
1 Pruner Bey, Etudes sur le Bassin, p. 13. Paris, 1855.
78 Proportions of the Pelvis and the Limbs.
but owing to the inconstancy of characters, he has not ventured to
distinguish types. In the course of his studies he has, however,
made a discovery calculated to cause serious reflection. In
European skeletons, male and female are recognizable with
tolerable certainty by the capaciousness and form of the pelvis.
The pelvis is thus one of the secondary sexual characters. In
the case of Bushmen, on the contrary, the female pelvis might be
mistaken for the male, and the same holds good of Hottentots
and Kaffirs. 2 Should this phenomenon be recognized in other
parts of the world, we should be able to declare that the complete
evolution of sexual differences is accomplished only under the pro-
tection of the higher civilizations.
We owe the most numerous measurements, although exclusively
of female pelvises, to Carl Martin, who for a considerable time
practised as a physician in Brazil, treating negresses as well as
native women and hybrids. He compared the dimensions in the
case of eight Papuans, two aboriginal Americans, eighteen Malays,
four Bushmen, and fifteen negro women, with the averages of
European collections. As far as a result may be deduced from
this small stock of anatomical records, the pelvises may be divided
into those with a circular inlet, as in the aboriginal Americans,
Malays, and Papuans, and those with a transverse-oval inlet, as in
African and European women. The inlet is called round when
the conjugata is as large, or nearly as large, as the other diameter ;
and transverse-oval when it is exceeded more than 10 per cent,
by the transverse and oblique diameters. It may also be said
with more precision that, in European women, the pelvis combines
the greatest capacity and width with an essentially transverse-
oval inlet ; and that the pelvis of the negress, although of similar
shape, is smaller and narrower in other respects. The pelvises
of Bushwomen, corresponding with their small bodily stature, are
smaller than those of any other race, and have an inlet which
is sometimes of an upright oval form. At page 1008 of the 3ist
number of the Literar. Centralblatt, it is stated that the side
bones of the Bushman are relatively longer than the haunch
bones, and are higher than in any other race, so that the pelvis
1 Fritsch, Eingeborne Siidafrika's, pp. 39, 299, 415.
Stature of Different Races. 79
is of animal form in an extreme degree. The Malay pelvises are
narrow, the inlet round, or not unfrequently uprightly oval. In size
the pelvis of aboriginal American women closely approach the
European form, but differ from it in their circular entrance. Lastly,
the Papuan pelvis, although tolerably round, yet approaches the
transverse-oval form. 3
Turning to the dimensions of the body, we must not expect
that they will afford us any invariable marks of distinction between
the various human families. Most of the observations directed to
this end were obtained during the late civil war in the United
States. The measurements extended to 1,104,841 men. It first
became evident from these large numbers that growth visibly
diminished in the 2oth year, yet continued slowly till the 24th in
all those who were drafted into the military service in the North
American States ; indeed, growth in native Americans does not
completely cease till the 3oth year. 4 It was also a curious fact
that the inhabitants of the Western States, such as Kentucky and
Tennessee, surpassed the natives of the East, and still more the
Canadians, Scotch, Irish, English, and Germans in their bodily
dimensions.*
Average size.
Kentucky and Tennessee 176-62 Centim.
Ohio and Indiana ^73^9
Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin I 74'9 I
New England I73'53
New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey ... 173*00
It is uncertain whether a fuller development of the body by
hard work on virgin territories may be cited as the cause, or the
fact that it is usually men of high stature and superior physical
power who decide on emigration, while the more weakly prefer
to stay at home; and that this form of segregation is reflected
in this average of many individual cases. But as the native
Americans surpass the Scotch, Irish, English, and German immi-
grants in bodily dimensions, there can be no doubt that the
* Monatschrift fur Geburtskunde, xxviii. i. p. 23-58.
4 Gould, Investigations in the Military and Anthropological Statistics of
American Soldiers, p. 108. New York, 1869.
* Gould, p. 125.
80 Proportions of the Pelvis and the Limbs.
descendants of the European emigrants have perceptibly increased
in stature in the United States within a short period. It is the
more conceivable that this effect is caused by the change of
locality, as the aboriginal inhabitants are likewise remarkable
for their size, and in them also the arrest of growth takes place
only in the thirtieth year; at least five hundred of the Iroquois
who were measured, were on an average a trifle taller than the
Americans of the United States in the same recruiting districts. 6
That good and abundant food promotes bodily size is shown by the
universally more portly figures of the Polynesian chiefs in the South
Sea Islands. 7 Similarly among the Kaffirs, six men of a chieftain's
family yielded an average of 1830 mm. or no mm. more than
is otherwise found among the Bantu negroes of Southern Africa,
The strikingly low stature of the Bushmen on the southern edge
of the Kalahari may likewise be attributed to bad nourishment,
for Chapman found their stature greater in the north, where game
is more plentiful; the Koi-Koin, or Hottentots, their kindred
by consanguinity, perhaps surpass them in height merely because
they are shepherds and not hunters like the Bushmen. Yet food
and the nature of the abode can by no means account for all
differences, otherwise the Kaffirs could not in their turn outstrip
the Hottentots, though both gain their livelihood in like manner
and in the same region, Gustav Fritsch 8 determined the follow-
ing averages :
Men. Bodily Dimensions.
55 Bantu Negroes 1718 Mm.
10 Koi-Koin ., ... 1604
6 Bushmen 1444
Difference of stature is therefore to a certain extent attributable
to parentage, and so far bodily dimensions may be used as a
distinctive mark in the description of nations. Yet we have no
averages derived from a great number of statistics; while measure-
ments even of the same race are extremely various. With regard
6 Gould, Investigations, pp. 151, 152.
9 Darwin, Descent of Man, vol. i. p. 115.
8 Eingeborne Sudafrika's, pp. 17, 277, 397.
Stature of Different Races. 81
to the Maori of New Zealand, for instance, we find the following
statements : 9
Observers. Height in Mm.
Thomson ... 1695*4
Scherzer and Schwarz ... ... ... *757"6
Garnot and Lesson 1813
Wilkes 1904
Of these, Thomson's averages obtained from 147 measurements
are probably most trustworthy. 10 The average dimensions may
also increase or diminish within the same race, owing to separation
during thousands of -years, migrations to great distances, and
altered habits of life ; for, notwithstanding the fluctuations of the
figures, it is impossible to doubt that the Asiatic Malays belong
to the small nations, while the Polynesian Malays are preeminent
for their stature. 11
ASIATIC MALAYS.
Observers. Height in Mm.
Crawford .^ Javans r 549'4
Scherzer and Schwarz ,, 1679
Keppel Dyaks *574'8
Mtiller Timorese 1586
Scherzer and Schwarz ... Madurese 1625
Sundanese ... ... 1646
,> Buginese ... ... 1653-9
POLYNESIAN MALAYS.
Wilkes... , Sandwich Islanders 1676*4
Gaimard 1755
Wilkes Marquesas Islanders 1689
Marchand 1786
Batare 1800
Garnot and Lesson Tahitians 1786
Wilkes 1803-3
La Perouse Navigator Islanders ... ... 1895
Wilkes ... 1930-4
In every family of mankind popular report speaks of certain
persons of unusual size as giants. Statements respecting such
9 Weisbach, Anthropol. Theil der Novara-Reise, p. 217.
10 Gould, Investigations, p. 146. " Weisbach.
5
82 Proportions of the Pelvis and the Limbs.
extreme cases are however of no ethnological value. 12 It is more
noteworthy that almost every circumnavigator of the world has
contradicted the old anthropological fictions spread by Pigafetta
the companion of Magalhaes, as to the superhuman size of the
Patagonians. It is true these South American families belong to
the nations of high stature, as is shown by the following measure-
ments :
Height of
Observers. the Patagonians.
D'Orbigny 1730 Mm.
1780
D'Urville 1732
Wilson 1803-4
yet the Polynesians are in no way inferior to them in stature. The
lofty volcanic islands of the South Sea and the two continents
of America are in truth the regions in which the human race has
locally attained the highest stature. X 3
The lowest stature in man may fall to surprisingly low figures
in single cases, for dwarfs of 920 mm. (3 ft. o'22 11268 in.) and
even 750 mm. (2 ft. 6'5 280925 in.) are described as perfectly well
formed. 1 *
But here again ethnology can make use only of averages
derived from large numbers. The Bushmen of South Africa have
hitherto been considered the smallest of men ; their height having
been stated by Barrow as 1300 mm., although Knox estimated
them at 1372 mm., and the accurate Fritsch at 1444 mm. 1 * Du
Chaillu found the same dwarfish proportions in the Obongos in
Equatorial Africa, who resemble the Bushmen in other characters. 16
lf According to Gould (Investigations), in every million of men measured for
military service there are :
47 above 2007 Mm.
22 2032
II 2057
7 above 2083 Mm.
6 2108
2 2134
" According to Gould (Investigations, p. 152), of 500 Iroquois, 159 men of
31 years and upwards reached a height of 68 '6 inches.
14 Gould, p. 153.
16 Weisbach, p. 216. Fritsch, Eingeborne Sudafrika's, p. 397.
' Ashango Land, p. 319. The average stature of six women was 4ft. 8$ in.
Or 1420 mm.
Sexual Differences of Stature.
Again, the Acka, seen by the traveller Schweinfurth in the region
of the Gazelle Nile, are somewhat similar, although chey attain
the height of 1500 mm. 1 ? It is a significant fact that the polai
nations of both the Old and the New World must be added to
this list of tropical families. The statements made by Pauw,
giving 1300 mm. (4 ft. 3*182027 in.) as the average stature of the
Eskimo, are, it is true, totally discredited by other iPrsasurements
now before us, />.
HEIGHT OF THE ESKIMO.
Observer.
Locality in which the
observation was made.
Mm.
En# fret inches.
Beechey
,, ... ...
Chappel
Melville Island
Boothia Sound ...
Kotzebue Sound
Savage Island
1659
1689
1714
1676
r,f<. 5-23514061
.rjft. 4-41526431
5ft. 7-38479248
5ft. 5-97644404
1380 mm. (4 ft. 6*18094862 in.) is also certaimy less than the
average of the Laplanders; 18 still both these nations are universally
reckoned by travellers among the diminutive races of mankind.
At all events we may confidently assert that human families
remarkable for their small size exist in every latitude.
Hitherto we have taken the size of the men only into consider-
ation, but we have now to note that a lower stature is one of
the secondary characters of the female sex. Among women the
average size fluctuates within much narrower limits, namely, from
1395 mm. (4ft. 677151047 in.) to 1662 mm. (5 ft. 5-32625298 in.) 1 ?
The measurements which have already been made also show that
the difference of size in the two sexes almost disappears among
the diminutive nations. 20 Thus Fritsch found 1448 mm. (4 ft.
8*57690392 in.) to be the average of five Bush women, or 4 mm.
more than in the case of men, and this is corroborated by the
statements of Weisbach. Accordingly, it is the male sex which is
17 Petermann's Geograph. Mittheilungen, pp. 139-150. 1871.
18 According to Tenon as cited by Gould (Investigations), p. 144, and
Weisbach, p. 216.
19 Weisbach.
20 Fritsch, Eingeborne Sudafrika's, p. 398.
84 Proportions of the Pelvis and the Limbs.
specially contemplated in speaking of tall or short nations. ax The
average stature of the male sex we shall take to be from 1600 mm.
(5 ft. 2-993264 in.) to 1700 mm. (5 ft. 6-930343 in.), the medium
height of the female sex at 1525 mm. (5 ft. 0*04045475 in.) to
1575 mm. (5 ft. 1-96899425 in.), and according to this standard we
shall separate mankind into the short, medium, and tall families.
Venturing to express some conjectures concerning the causes of
variations in stature, we would point out that this mass of measure-
ments of recruits made during the American war, show that large
bodily dimensions are dependent on a prolonged period of growth.
This we conceive to be shortened in the case of women by
the earlier maturity of their sex. It is also probable that the full
development of the body is impeded by precocious marriages,
which, as we shall see, occur among the polar nations and the
Bushmen.
Numerous measurements are alone capable of enlightening us
as to what proportions the individual parts and members of the
human frame attain in different districts. Quetelet thought that
the human type in Belgium harmonized with the estimates derived
from the works of Grecian sculptors. 22 But it appears that the
ancient artists did not blindly follow an invariable rule, just as in
later times great masters, such as Leonardo da Vinci and Albert
Diirer, did not agree in their notions of so-called symmetry. A
Belgian painter, moreover, is wont to study drawing so constantly
from the great masterpieces of antiquity that their proportions
become at last impressed upon him as strictly imperative. He
will often hire or reject a female model for his studies from nature
according as to whether she approaches or departs from the desired
ideal. Hence, if in ten of the female models employed by the
sculptors or painters of Brussels, the average proportions of indi-
vidual parts of the body approximated very closely to the like
11 Beechey as cited by Weisbach gives the following measurements of
Eskimo :
Me. Women.
Melville Island 1659 mm. ... 1536.6 mm.
Savage Island 1679 ... 1549.3
Boothia Sound 1689 ... 1571.3
" Anthropometrie, p. 86. Brussels, 1870.
Proportions of the Upper and Lower Limbs. 85
averages in antique statues, Quetelet ought not to have inferred an
identity in the Belgian and ancient Greek types, but rather to have
admired the quick eyea of the Belgian artists, which were able with
unerring glance to eliminate from among the candidates for this
profession such as differed too much from the recognized ideal.
The height of the head, which with many artists constitutes the
standard of measurement, varies, as we will here note, with the
dimensions of the body. Taking the perpendicular height of the
skull as the unit, the stature, according to Welcker's estimate, is
in new-born infants as 5 : 6, in boys of eight years of age 8 : 4, in
short men it is as 1 1 : 9, in men of average stature 12 : i, in tall men
13 : 2, so that tall people have, relatively, the smallest heads. 2 3
The proportions of the human limbs cannot be expressed unless
the height of the body be taken as the standard. During the
voyage of the frigate Novara, Von Scherzer and Schwarz extended
their measurements of living men to the minutest details. The
length of lower and upper limbs must always appear of the greatest
importance. The part of the leg below the thigh is usually so
related to the thigh that greater shortness of the former is com-
pensated by increased length of the latter. This lower part of the
leg is always longer than the thigh. If the latter be estimated at
1000, we find that in a native of Stewart's Island the lower leg 1
reaches 1238, and in New Zealanders may, in exceptional cases,
sink below 1000, even to 965. But it appears that the native of
Stewart's Island, if we reckon the height of the body at 1000,
has a very short thigh of 198 mm. (7 '8 134 1642 in.), the New
Zealander a very long one of 229 mm. 2 * (9 '02491101 in.) The
length of the leg also varies considerably. In the Chinese it
may be only the o a 444th part of the height of the body, and in
Bushmen it may be the 0*51 5th.
But the proportions of the upper limbs are much more important,
as their comparative shortness forms a character which separates
man from the animals which most resemble him. Carl Vogt has
expressed this relation by stating that the orang, in an erect
posture, is able to touch its ankles, the gorilla the middle of the
Bau und Wachsthum des Schadels, p. 31.
* 4 Weisbach, Reise der Fregatte Novara, part ii. p. 255. Anthropologie.
86 Proportions of the Pelvis and the Limbs.
tibia, the chimpanzee the knee, with the tips of their fingers;
whereas man can scarcely reach as far as the middle of the thigh. 2 *
In the recruits for the American war, special attention was paid to
this particular proportion of the human frame, and measurements
were made of the interval between the middle finger in a stiff
military attitude, and the upper edge of the knee-cap. In white
men, American and European, the average amounted to 5"c>36, 26 in
the negroes of the Free States 3^298, or somewhat more than in
the negroes of the Slave States (2' '832) ; while in the latter, the
variations were so great that, in individual cases, the tips of the
fingers actually rested on the edge of the knee-cap.
DISTANCE FROM THE FINGER-TIPS TO THE UPPER EDGE OF
THE KNEE-CAP.
No. of Measurements.
Medium.
Minimum.
Maximum.
2020 Pure-bred Negroes
863 Hybrids
2" 88
4" 13
-o"5
+ 0"2
7" 6
7"2
It is also a curious fact that habits of life are capable of affecting
these variations, for in the case of 1146 sailors the average of this
distance was somewhat greater than in landsmen.
DISTANCE FROM THE FINGER-TIPS TO THE UPPER EDGE OF
THE KNEE-CAP.
New England.
New York, New Jersey,
Pennsylvania.
England.
Ireland.
Soldiers
Sailors ...
*
5 57
4" 92
I" 06
4/ >
5" 55
f 8
6" 07
Difference ...
"64
i"i4
"65
"99
Thus the sailors' arms were shorter and their legs longer than
those of the recruits who offered themselves for service in the
86 Vorlesungen iiber den Menschen, voL i. p. 193.
* Gould, Investigations, p. 279.
Influence of the Profession on the Proportions. 87
field. According to the average of the different States, the
length of the arm varied in American whites and Europeans from
0-429 of the height of the body (Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois), to
b'44i (Scandinavia). 2 7 Pure-bred negroes of the Slave States
(0-452) displayed a relatively greater length of arm than the
negroes of the Free States (0*447), a proportion occurring also
in mulattoes (0-445 an d 0-460). The value of averages taken
from large numbers is again palpable, for we here perceive far
slighter fluctuations than other racial measurements would have
led us to expect. According to Weisbach, 28 we find the arms of
the Germans reckoned at 0*469 of the length of the body, that of
the Sclavonians at 0*467, of the Roumanians at 0*452, in a native
of Stewart's Island at 0-511, and in a Sulu Malay, measured by
Wilkes, at 0*409. With such an amount of individual fluctuation,
no characteristics, reliable in the delineation of races, can be
deduced from existing statements, until we multiply our measure-
ments of the different human families at least a hundred-fold.
Finally, the relative length of the fore-arm, as compared with
the upper-arm, was statistically ascertained by measurements of the
body taken during the voyage of the frigate Novara round the
world. In the case of the orang, the result was a proportion of
877:1000. Precisely the same ratio was found in the Madurese.
In the Roumanians the fore-arm even reaches a relative length of
883, and in the Sclavonians of at least 868. The proportions of
Australians, Sundanese, and negroes also are nearly those of the
orang; those of German men differ most from these (835) ; while
the proportions sink as low as 822 in German women. 2 9 Once
more we must deplore the scanty supply of measurements ; yet
from those which we already have we find that the proportions of
the human limbs vary considerably in the nations of the same
race, and again individually in the nations themselves ; that even
habits of life may influence growth, so that difference of dimen
sions in the structure of the limbs must be declared inconstant
87 Gould, Investigations, pp. 298, 299.
* Weisbach, p. 251. " Ibid, pp. 242, 243.
The Skin and Hair of Mankind.
V. THE SKIN AND HAIR OF MANKIND.
THE old geographers believed duskiness of skin to increase in
proportion to the nearness of the equator, and that the latitude of
a people's abode may be inferred from their colour. 1 No ex-
perience within the territory then known contradicted this dogma.
In the North dwelt fair, in Southern Europe and the north of
Africa light-brown nations, on the Upper Nile negroes, and in
India dusky people. More correct views were attained only when
the Spaniards encountered people of a swarthy tint in every latitude
of the New World, some lighter, some darker, according to the
locality, but in no way corresponding to their equatorial position.
Among the Abipones of Paraguay the hair was so fair, especially
among the women, that in European costume they might have been
mistaken for European women, while the Puelchas and Aucas,
whose territory lay ten degrees of latitude further from the equator,
were of a much darker hue. 2 It was even noticed that exactly in
the most northerly parts of the Old World, the brown Laplanders,
Voguls, and Ostiaks lived nearer the pole than the fair-haired
nations.
Microscopic research as yet only teaches us that the human skin
consists of two layers, of which the external one is designated
the outer skin (epidermis), the inner one, the true skin (cutis).
The outer skin again consists of two parts, namely, the upper
transparent cuticle (stratum corneum), and the lower stratum
mucosum or Malpighian tissue (rete Malpighi). The true skin
(cutis) and the outer layer of the cuticle are recognized as
homogeneous in all families of mankind, and it is only in the
Malpighian tissue, enclosed between them, that the cells contain-
ing the finely granulated colouring matter arc seen. According
as these pigment cells are limited to the lower surface of the
Malpighian tissue, or are more and more massed together, in rare
cases are extending upwards into the cuticle, so does the darkness
1 Pliny, vi. 22.
f Dobrizhoffer, Geschichte der Abiponer, vol. ii. p. 18. Vienna, 1783.
Colour. 89
of the complexion proportionately increase. Certain parts of the
body are coloured in all human races, such as the nipple, which,
moreover, becomes darker during pregnancy. 3 Freckles, moles, and
claret-marks are also exactly analogous to the skin of the negro. 4
The negro child is not born black, but of a colour almost like
that of European children. Pruner Bey describes the colour as
reddish tinged with nut brown, and adds that the full colouring
makes its appearance in the first year in the Soudan, but in Lower
Egypt only in the third year.s Camper also saw a negro child
which was reddish at birth, but became coloured first on the
margin of the nails, on the third day in the sexual parts, and
during the fifth and sixth days over the whole body. 6 The eyes
of negro infants are blue at first, their hair chestnut, and crimped
only at the ends.? Among the Pimos, or Pimas, in the north-west
of Mexico, as well as among the Australians, infants are fair or
dirty yellow at birth, but after a few days resemble their parents
in the darkness of their skin. 8 The Prince of Neuwied was
informed that the Botocudo children are born yellow, but soon
turn brown,9 although he inconsistently extols the fairness of the
adults. The children of mulattoes and mulatto women are said
to come into the world with black patches, especially in the region
of the reproductive organs. On the colour of the skin depends
the odour of the effluvia. Especially obnoxious are the strongly
ammoniacal, rancid, goat-like exhalations of the negro, 10 which,
8 Blumenbach mentions a young woman who, during pregnancy, became as
black as a negress. A similar case of melanism was observed by Dr. Guyetant.
Quatrefages, Unite de 1'espece humaine, p. 65. Paris, 1861.
4 Flourens as cited by Waitz, Anthropologie, vol. i. p. 113.
5 Pruner Bey, Memoire sur les Negres, p. 327.
8 Waitz, vol. i. p. 114. 7 Darwin, Descent of Man, vol. ii. p. 318.
8 Waitz, Anthropologie. In Latham (Varieties), on the other hand, we find
it asserted that at Hawai (Sandwich Islands) the Polynesian children are born
completely black, vol. i w -. p. 202, vol. vi. p. 713.
9 Reise nach Brasilien. The Jesuit Lafitau says very decidedly that the
children of the North American Redskins "are born white like our own"
(Moeurs des Sauvages ameriquains, vol. i. p. 104. Paris, 1724).
10 Bacmeister, Reise nach Brasilien, vol. i. p. 433. Berlin, 1853. It is said
that the skins of Arabians returning from Africa emit a noxious smell, which
is only lost in course of time ; and in corpulent South Europeans, in a feverish
condition, an almost negro-like exhalation is said to be developed.
9O The Skin and Hair of Mankind.
wafted over the ocean by currents of air, used to give notice of the
distant approach of a slave-ship. We, too, are recognizable by the
gases we emit, or the dog would not be able to follow the track
of his master. The nations of the New World are distinguished
from the Europeans by their odour, while the Creoles even have
expressions for the slight effluvia of the Americans (catinca), and
for the exceptionally strong and repulsive smell of the Araucanians
(soreno)."
It is only in the absence of other and more constant distinctive
marks of the various human families that we venture to employ
the colour of the skin for such a purpose, for the degree of dark-
ness, and even the tone, varies in every race, and often even
in the members of a single horde. Even in Europe, we meet
with people of fair or dark complexion. The former is more
common in the north, the latter in the south. There are many
fair Italians, Spaniards, and Portuguese ; while, on the other hand,
dark complexions are not rare in England. The Celts of Gaul
are described by the old geographers of the imperial age as a
fair race of men ; so that, as the epithet is no longer applicable to
the French of the present day, we may conclude that characters
of this sort may alter in comparatively short periods. Among the
Wakilema of Eastern Africa, German travellers noticed a light
negro colour with a tinge of blue in some individuals, but others
surpassing mulattoes in fairness, although there were no grounds
for suspecting an intermixture.
It is undeniable that latitude does affect the colouring of the
skin in some degree, though in a manner as yet unascertained.
We find the deepest shade of black only in the neighbourhood
of the equator, in Africa, India, and New Guinea. The natives
in the vicinity of Moreton Bay, in Australia, were as dark as any
negro, while ten degrees southwards copper colour became more
common. 12 Among the members of the Mediterranean race, the
Abyssinians are very dark ; among the Indo-European, the gipsies
and Brahminical Hindoos are the darkest of all. In the latter, an
admixture with the aboriginal inhabitants might be conjectured ;
11 Waitz, Anthropologie, vol. i. pp. 114, 1 1 8.
u Ibid, vol. i. p. 52.
Cause of the Colour of the Skin. 9 1
yet Graul was able to distinguish a man of high caste, *>., an
Indian of Aryan origin from the Tamuls, by the almost European
fairness of his skin.^ That it is not the rays of the sun which
produce the darkening of the complexion is evident from the fact
that, in coloured men, the covered portions of the body are
equally dark. But if a higher temperature were the cause, we
should find darker skins in all lowland than in elevated regions.
This hypothesis is indeed somewhat confirmed by a comparison
between the inhabitants of Bengal and the hill people of the
Himalayas, who are much fairer, and the same is observable in
the inhabitants of the mountain plains of Enarea and Kaffa in
Abyssinia. Other observers in the very same regions have, how-
ever, found the inhabitants of the valleys the fairest. 14 Munzinger
adds that the sultry shore of the Red Sea is occupied by fair
people, and the mountain districts by dark people. 15 Still more
conclusive is the fact that, of all the aborigines of America, in
whom no suspicion of admixture is possible, the Aymara, who
occupy plateaux of the same altitude as the summits of the
Bernese Oberland, are most remarkable for their black-brown
colour, which is deepest precisely in the coldest tracts. 16 Other
observers imagined the skin to be darkest in places where a hot
temperature is combined with an atmosphere highly saturated
with moisture. Livingstone thinks damp heat is the cause of the
deep colouring in South Africa. 1 ? The dark Aymara in the dry,
cold land of Peru and Bolivia, bear witness against this con-
jecture, while the Yuracara, whose very name indicates a pale
countenance, occupy the eastern slopes of the South American
Cordilleras, which are constantly dripping with moisture. 18
Still we must always bear in mind that a European who lives
long in the East Indies is obliged to adapt himself to an alteration
in his customary physiological functions. The difference in colour
between arterial and venous blood is strikingly diminished in
w Reise nach Ostindien, vol. iv. pp. 151, 152. Leipzic, 1855.
14 Quatrefages, Rapport, p. 155. ls Ausland, p. 954. 1869.
16 Von Tschudi, Reisen durch Siidamerika, vol. v. p. 212.
17 Missionary Journeys in South Africa, vol. i. p. 378.
w Danvin, Descent of Man, vol. ii. 347.
92 The Skin and Hair of Mankind.
Europeans in tropical countries, because, owing to a feebler pro-
cess of combustion, the absorption of oxygen is smaller. 1 ? On the
other hand, the biliary secretions become more active in hot
countries. So that by overwork of an organ destined for compara-
tive repose, namely, of the liver, in a native of high latitudes,
of the lungs, in a native of the tropics, the former frequently
falls a victim to bilious fevers in the hot climate so uncongenial to
him, while the latter when transferred to cold regions frequently
perishes of consumption. 20 A European who has survived the
change, loses his rosy complexion under the tropics. It is even
recorded that an English gentleman, Macnaughton by name,
who long lived the life of a native in the jungle of Southern
India acquired, even on the clothed portions of his body, a skin
as brown as that of a Brahmin. 21 A negro boy, brought from
Bagirmi to Germany by Gerhard Rohlfs, changed his colour after
a residence of two years, from " deep black to light brown." 22 If
an increased secretion of bile influences the accumulation of pig-
ment cells in the mucous layer of the lower skin, the darkness of
the Lapps and Finns may be ascribed to their uncleanliness, the
impure air of their dwellings, and their unwholesome food, since
these also affect the biliary secretions. 2 3
It had long been known that negro races enjoy complete health
in Equatorial Africa, while Europeans are quickly carried off by
coast fevers. In America the yellow fever spares the negroes and
even the mulattoes. Now, if there were a causal connection
between the darkness of the skin and immunity from local diseases,
it would be evident that on the first colonization of fever districts
those individuals who were already brown or who became swarthy,
would readily overcome the perils of the situation, while those
who were paler would be earlier swept away, and in consequence
of this elimination a darkening of the skin might gradually become
19 J. R. Mayer, Die Mechanik der Warme, p. 97. Stuttgart, 1867.
20 Bastian in Zeitschrift fiir Ethnologic, part i. 1869.
12 Pruner Bey, Questions relatives a 1'Anthropologie, p. 5. Paris, 1864.
w Zeitschrift fur Ethnologic, p. 255. 1871. Other instances of negroes
becoming lighter are given by Waitz on the authority of Blumenbach.
Anthrop. i. 60.
M Richard Owen, Anatomy of Vertebrates, vol. iii. p. 615*
Hair as a Mark of Race. 93
^
hereditary. 2 * This is a mere conjecture as yet incapable of proof,
but possessing the single advantage of being the only attempt at
an explanation. It must be added, however, that Dr. Nachtigal
reports that the black natives of the Soudan succumbed to the
marsh fever after the inundations in Kuka as rapidly as the foreign
immigrants. 25
Among the preeminently hereditary physical characteristics of
man is his covering of hair. It is true the colour of the hair is
variable, even in individuals, since it arises from a pigment, the
disappearance of which produces the whiteness of old age. Red
hair occurs in almost all parts of the world, except America.
Dumont d'Urville 26 says he saw it even among Australians. It is
not uncommon among Finnish tribes, nor among the Berbers of
Northern Africa. In Morocco there are even some of the latter
with light eyes and fair hair, 2 7 while even Scylax knew of the
Gyzantis in the Lesser Syrtis as fair Libyans. 28 According to
Manetho, the Egyptian queen Nitokris, who belonged to the sixth
dynasty, was distinguished for her fair complexion, rosy cheeks,
and light hair. 2 9 Fair hair is also traceable in mummies of the
Guanches, the extinct inhabitants of the Canary Islands, who were
a branch of the Berbers. 3 Even among the Monbuttoos, on the
Uelle', Schweinfurth saw many fair negroes of a grayish tinge. 31
Of the Federal soldiers in the American civil war, 5 per cent, of
the Spaniards and Portuguese, and 5 1 per cent, of the Scandina-
vians, had red, or some sort of light hair.3 2 These shades of
hair occasionally appear among Armenians, Semitic Syrians, and
Jews, and in hybrids of European and native Peruvians about
Moyobamba.33 Hence, although we must not entirely overlook
u From an address by Dr. Wells before the Royal Society in 1813,
Darwin, Origin of Species, p. 3 ; and Descent of Man, vol. i. p. 214.
25 Zeitschrift fur Erdkunde, vol. vi. p. 335. Berlin, 1871.
26 Voyage de 1'Astrolabe, p. 404.
27 G. Rohlf's Erster Aufenthalt in Marokko, p. 60. Bremen, 1873.
28 Scylax Peri plus, cap. no. Geogr. Graeci Minores, ed M tiller, i. p. 88.
29 Lauth, Aegyptische Reisebriefe, p. 1335. Allgem. Zeitung, 1873.
30 Peschel, Zeitalter der Entdeckungen, p. 54.
31 Zeitschrift fur Ethnologic, vol. v. p. 15. Berlin, 1873.
K Gould, Investigations in Military and Anthropological Statistics, p. 193.
w Raymondi's Geografia del Peru in the Globus, vol. xxi. p. 300.
94 The Skin and Hair of Mankind.
the colour of the hair, in describing nations, it is certainly a very
inconstant character. The form of the hair is of far greater
importance. Neighbouring nations may sometimes be easily
separated from one another by this character, although it is im-
possible to draw an invariable line. The aborigines of America,
without exception, have stiff, coarse hair ; the Papuan is distin-
guished by his crown of hair from the Australian, whose hair,
although frizzly, does not unite in tufts. The character of the hair, \
and especially that of the hair of the head, may be described as
smooth or straight, as curly or gracefully waved, as frizzly, or finally
as tufted. The causes of the crimping and twisting are manifold ;
one is, the size of the diameter, for the finer the hair, the more
readily is it affected by the causes of crimping ; since the human
hair is never as soft as sheep's wool, no genuine wool like that of
animals is found on man. But for our purpose, the form of the trans-
verse section is of greater importance ; this is sometimes circular,
sometimes elliptically compressed, so that hair may vary from the
form of a cylinder to that of a doubly convex band. Although
considerable variations occur in individual representatives of a
race, yet Pruner Bey hoped to make use of the averages of size,
as a serviceable means for the classification of human races. If
the greater diameter of the section is taken at 100, the flatter the
hair, the lower will be the number expressing the short diameter.
The most perfectly cylindrical form, with a short diameter of 95,
occurs in the South Americans, while the mummies of the Aymara
in Peru have an average diameter of 89. The Mongols, in whom
the compression fluctuates between 81 and 91, approach nearest to
the inhabitants of the New World in this point. In the Papuans
of New Guinea, the smaller diameter of the hair is shorter than
in any other people, varying from 26 to 56 in extreme cases, with
a mean of 34. This is another point of difference between the
Australians, who have an index of 67 and 75, and the Papuans. It
is also significant that the Hottentots nearly agree with the
Papuans, for in them the smaller diameter is as low as from 55 to
50.3* Yet sharp distinctions cannot be drawn by this means, but
** Pruner Bey, De la Chevelure, p. 15. Paris, 1863. Goette on the other
hand found only a small diameter among the Afandy.
Character of the Hair. 95
we learn that with greater flatness of the hair, especially if com-
bined with greater fineness, the tendency to become curly and
frizzly is considerably increased.
It is necessary to distinguish between frizzly hair and the
fascicular agglomeration of many hairs into separate ropes, which
have not been inaptly compared to the matted locks about the
ears of a thorough-bred poodle. Both Dr. Maklucho Maclay and
Dr. A. B. Meyer say that the hair of the Papuans is as evenly
distributed on the scalp as in the case of Europeans ; the latter
adds that it is only when the hair is not combed that it becomes
matted into tufts. This tuft-like combination is aided by an
external cement, that is to say, by the secretion of grease and
tallow.35 By their tufted locks it is possible actually to distinguish
the separate branches of the Papuan race from Malay and Austra-
lian tribes. This character is far less trustworthy in South Africa.
There the tufted growth of hair is most distinctly marked in the
Hottentots, in the Bushmen who resemble them in bodily structure,
and in some scattered tribes in the interior of Africa, extending to
the neighbourhood of the equator. The agglomeration of the hair
into separate tufts was supposed to be visible in heads recently
shorn, which, to quote a prosaic but accurate remark of Barrow's,
look and feel like a worn-out blacking-brush. The coarseness of
this hair, however, prevents its comparison with sheep's wool. Un-
fortunately, neither is this character quite peculiar to one family
of nations, for according to Gustav Fritsch, the hair of the South
African Bantu negroes is matted, though in a slighter degree, into
small tufts.3 6 This growth of hair occurs not only in the Ama^osa
Kaffirs, 37 in whom there is probably some admixture of blood, as
they have adopted some of the clicking sounds of the Hottentot
language, but is also often plainly perceptible, and is indeed nevei
entirely absent, in the Betschuans who live more in the interior.
Hence, owing to its gradual transitions, this character affords no
means of sharply separating nations into classes. Frizzly hair,
which marks African negroes and Australians, is distinguishable
85 Goette, Das Haar des Buschweibes, p. 34. Tubingen, 1867.
$fl Fritsch, Die Eingebornen Siidafrika's, pp. 15, 16, 275, 276.
87 Fritsch, Atlas, plates xi.-xx.
96 The Skin and Hair of Mankind.
from the matted form by the absence of tufts, and from the curly
hair by its shortness, its strong spiral twist, and a longitudinal
division which separates the hair into two flat bands. 3 8 Without
this last character, if the .hair be coarser and more cylindrical, we
get a slighter curvature of the masses of hair such as we see in the
curls of Europeans and Semites. Finally the coarsest and roundest
hair is a persistent character of the American Indians and their
kindred in Northern and Eastern Asia. Where a mixture has
taken place between the frizzly-haired Africans and the coarse and
straight-haired American Indians, the hair preserves its crispness
but increases in length and rigidity. In these Cafusos, as such
hybrids are called in Brazil, a profusion of hair standing up from
the head is developed, which gives them a deceptive resemblance
to the Papuans. 39 The hair of the latter probably surpasses that
of all other nations, in point of thickness of growth. In length
of hair on the head, the hunting tribes of North America are
unrivalled. 4 That of the men of the Blackfeet, and of the Sioux
or Dacotas, reaches nearly to the heels, and in one Crowhead it
actually attained a length of 10 ft. 7 in.* 1
The hairy covering of other parts of the body is more or less
abundant, but is sometimes wanting in both sexes. The covering
most rarely disappears about the parts of generation. Its scanti-
ness or entire absence in North Asiatic Mongols, in American and
Malay families, as well as in Hottentots and Bushmen, afford some
of the most persistent and best authenticated racial characters,
only it must be added that the natural baldness of the body is
artificially exaggerated by the careful extraction of single hairs.
The beard is either wanting or is extremly limited in all nations
with stiff coarse hair, namely, in American Indians, Northern and
Eastern Asiatics, as well as in Malays. It is scantily developed
in Hottentots ; it appears more abundantly and more frequently
in negroes of Central and Southern Africa. In all those races,
M Goette.
89 On the origin of the name Cafuz, see Martius, Ethnographic, vol. i. p. 150.
In Guayana they are called Cabocles, or Capucres. Appun in the Ausland,
1872, p. 967.
40 Pruner Bey, Chevelure, p. 4.
41 Catlin, North American Indians, vol. i. p. 49.
Variability in the Amount of the Hair. 97
whiskers are not to be found, or only as a rarity. The Australians
may easily be distinguished from their Malay and Polynesian
neighbours by their scanty beards, while a profusion of beard
distinguishes the Papuans. A luxuriant growth of hair on the
body is one of the distinctive marks of the Semitic as well as
of the Indo-European families. In Southern Europeans, especi-
ally in Portuguese and Spaniards, this character is most strongly
developed. Beyond all the nations in the world the Ainos, the
inhabitants of Jezo, Saghalien, and the Kuriles have had the
reputation, since the visit of La Perouse, of possessing an almost
animal-like covering of hair on the upper part of the body/ 2
Recent observers have considerably modified this exaggeration,
and it appears that the Ainos could not even be compared with
European sailors. Wilhelm Heine found the beards of the Ainos
only five or six inches long, the chest and neck were bald, and
only in a single individual were seen a few tufts of hair on the
above-named parts. ^ Nevertheless, even this moderate degree of
hairiness in the neighbourhood of such beardless people as the
Japanese and Chinese, is perplexing when we try to place the
Ainos in our division of races, for we are obliged to reckon the
appearance of hair on the body among the most persistent dis-
tinctive marks of human races. Although among 2129 mulattoes
and negroes of the 25th Army Corps who, at the time of the
American civil war, were observed by physicians while bathing,
only 9 proved to be quite hairless, while 21 on the other hand
exhibited the highest degree, and two-thirds were on the average
as hairy as white soldiers,** we must not infer that the exchange
41 La Perouse (Voyage autour du Monde, vol. iii. p. 125. Paris, 1798)
contents himself with asserting that among the inhabitants of Saghalien in the
Bay of Crillon, an amount of beard and hair on the arms and neck, such as is
rare in Europeans, is with them the rule.
43 W. Heine, China, Japan, and Ochotzk. H. O. Brandt, German Consul
in Japan, expressed himself in accordance with the statements of W. Heine
at the sitting of the Anthropological Society of Berlin, held December i6th,
1871. (Compare their Verhandlungen, p. 27. Berlin, 1872.) In the Narrative
of the Expedition under Comm. M. C. Parry (Washington, 1856), vol. i. p. 454,
by Francis L. Hawks, mention is made only of the strong growth of beard and
great hairiness of the legs in the Ainos in the vicinity of Hakodadi.
44 Gould, Investigations, pp. 568, 569.
98 The Skin and Hair of Mankind.
of an African home for the New World has occasioned the
growth of the hair of the body. This is perhaps the place in
which to refute the mistaken idea that negroes belong to the
smooth-skinned nations. Their beard, it is true, is not so fully
developed as in the Mediterranean nations, but it is more abun-
dant than in the Koi-Koin (Hottentots), and incomparably more
so than in the Mongoloid families of the Old and New World.
Even whiskers are not entirely absent, as some people have
maintained, and in some tribes the chests of the men are always
overgrown with hair, and in others occasionally.
In summing up, we must needs confess that neither the shape
of the skull nor any other portion of the skeleton has afforded
distinguishing marks of the human races ; that the colour of the
skin likewise displays only various gradations of darkness, and that
the hair alone comes to the aid of our systematic attempts, and
even this not always, and never with sufficient decisiveness. Who,
then, can presume to talk of the immutability of racial types ? To
base a classification of the human race on the character of the
hair only, as Haeckel has done, was a hazardous venture, and
could but end as all other artificial systems have ended. In the
separation of the Koi-Koin from the Bantu negroes, this system
has led to errors, and the combination of Australians, as a so-
called straight-haired people, with the Mongols is due to ignorance
of facts.
*' Comp. the Barolong negro in Fritsch's Atlas (Eingeborne Siidafrika's), and
the description of the Kissama negro given by Hamilton in the Journal of the
Anthropol. Institute, vol. i, p. 187. London, 1872.
LINGUISTIC CHARACTERS.
LINGUISTIC CHARACTERS.
I. THE EVOLUTIONARY HISTORY OF HUMAN LANGUAGE.
IF speech be but the means of communicating emotions or inten-
tions to other beings, even invertebrate animals possess faculties
of the same nature. We see insects, such as ants, which live in
so-called communities, carrying out elaborately preconcerted war-
like undertakings and attacks. A beetle which, in rolling the
ball of dung enclosing its egg, has allowed it to slip into a hole,
from which it is unable to extricate it, flies away, to return in a
short time with a number of assistants sufficient to push the ball
up the sides of the declivity by co-operation of labour. These
creatures must, therefore, unquestionably possess some means of
communicating with each other concerning this combination. It
requires no long observation of our song-birds to distinguish the
different tones by which they warn their young of danger, or call
them to feed, or by which they attract each other to pair. These
animals, therefore, have at their control a certain number of
signals, which are quite adequate to procure for them some few of
the wants of their life, and these signals, as far as we can at present
guess, have been acquired and inherited in the same manner as
were their instincts. The need of communication is almost more
various and urgent in the dog than in any other animal. We fully
understand his bark, whether it signifies pleasure, dissatisfaction,
a warning of danger, a definite wish, or a declaration of hostility.
The dog does not use his voice only, but snarls and gnashes his
teeth. With some justice the bark of the dog has been described
iO2 Linguistic Characters.
as an animal's first attempt to speak. 1 But this talent was acquired
by intercourse with talkative man, for European dogs, deposited
on solitary islands, lost the habit of barking, and produced a dumb
posterity, which reacquired the use of the vocal apparatus only
after renewed association with mankind.
Human speech, however, is distinguished from the sounds of
intelligence used by animals, not only by a greater range of com-
munications, but also by the power of proclaiming not only
perceptions, but cognitions which lie beyond the mental faculties
of animals. If the bark of the dog be the first attempt at speech,
we may add that the attempt is as yet a failure. The animal has
not even got so far as to appropriate a call to any particular person.
As soon as the child is so far matured as consciously to call its
father or mother, its first attempt to speak has been completely
successful. An animal can never communicate such simple cog-
nitions as are implied in the words light, warm, sweet, hard, sharp,
blue, red.
As history and experience daily teach us that languages alter,
and at the same time increase in compass ; that their formation,
therefore, never stands still, and that these transformations and
additions are certainly derived from ourselves, it ought never to
have been disputed that man was the creator of his own language.
Yet an endeavour has been made to ascribe the first beginning
to a supernatural process. But if human speech be regarded as
the only difference which, as it were, at once divides us from
our fellow-beings in the animal world, our mental faculties are
degraded, and this chasm is narrowed by those who maintain that
man did not evolve his noblest distinction by his own resources.
If this denial is due to morbid bigotry, we need but call to mind
that the Scriptures themselves emphatically describe speech as
man's own creation (Gen. ii. 19, 20).
Whoever wishes to obtain a clear conception of the first
beginnings of human language, must first take warning that all
comparisons of existing vocabularies mislead him. If we only
trace back for a few centuries the names of towns and countries,
we shall see how, in the course of time, they have been
1 C. Geiger, Ursprung der Sprache, p. 190.
Mutability of Language. 103
deceptively metamorphosed beyond recognition. A. Bacmeister
tells us that Wildenschwerdt was originally Wilhelmswerd ; Wald-
see (Wiirtemberg) is corrupted from Walchsee, Oehringen from
Oringau, Welzheim from Walinzin, Holzbach from Herolds-
bach. Only 300 years ago Martin Luther could still write that
"Gott thue nichts als schlechtes, und das Evangelium sei eine
kindische Lehre " God does nothing but what is bad, and the
Gospel is a childish doctrine.' 2 But at that time schlecht (bad)
meant something schlichtes (smooth, honest, upright), as in the
idiom " recht und schlecht " (upright and downright), and
kindisch (childish) something kindliches (child-like). It is with
no malicious significance that in the south of Germany every male
child is termed a Bube, while in the north this expression now
signifies only a reprobate ; just as in English the word knave,
corresponding to Knabe (boy), has acquired an unfavourable inter-
pretation. We thus learn the important lesson that the mean-
ing by no means adheres firmly to a phonetic combination, but
that even in allied languages it is imperceptibly withdrawn, and
even transferred to other phonetic groups.
The fact that the idea is thus independent of its phonetic ex-
pression, refutes the assertion so often made, that we think only in
inwardly spoken language. On the contrary, thought without the
aid of language accompanies nearly all our every-day acts. The
musician also constructs his creations with a rhythmical succes-
sion of sounds ; the painter selects colour to express his thoughts
or his frame of mind, the sculptor selects the human form, the
architect lines and surfaces, the geometrician limitations of space,
the mathematician expressions of quantity. Were language, on
the contrary, the strict and necessary phonetic embodiment of
thought, thought would everywhere be expressed in the sounds.
We must, therefore, regard the connection of a certain meaning
with certain phonetic combinations as something merely transitory.
Philologists who have traced back the development of the Indo-
European languages as far as records make it possible, were
ultimately able to collect a number of roots which we must con-
2 L. Geiger, pp. 64, 72.
IO4 Linguistic CJiaracters.
sider as the oldest philological material obtainable. 3 Yet we
have no positive evidence that these roots were the primordial
elements ; we may rather assume that they also had undergone
phonetic transformation before they reached us. Some nations,
it is true, have the power of preserving phonetic combinations
longer and more accurately, while others deal less steadily with
the apparatus for the expression of ideas ; still it may be asserted
generally, that the stability of a language increases with the number
of speakers, and at the same time with the more perfect organi-
zation of society. The extraordinary number of languages in
North America is closely connected with the restless habits of the
wandering hunting tribes. Where, on the contrary, well-organized
societies existed, as in ancient Peru, the predominant Ketshua
language prevailed over more than twenty degrees of latitude.
It has been explained by earlier writers that the belief in an
existence after death accelerated the metamorphosis of language.
The names of the departed were not mentioned for fear of sum-
moning the ghost of the person mentioned. Many nations do not
even dare to utter the real name of their deity, and something of
the sort is enjoined in the third Sinaitic commandment. When
the black small-pox broke out among the Dyaks of Borneo, every
one fled in terror to the solitudes of the forest. No one ventured
to call the disease by its name, but it was spoken of as the "jungle
leaves," or "Datu" (chieftain), or people simply said, "is /^gone ?"*
But as, amongst most half-developed nations, proper names are
compounded of words in daily use, new expressions must be in-
vented to replace them.
When King Pomare died at Tahiti, the word>? (night) vanished
from the language. The same custom is, or was, observed by the
Papuans of New Guinea, the Australians, and Tasmanians, the
Masai of Eastern Africa, the Samoyeds, and the Fuegians. The
influence of this habit on the metamorphosis of language must
not, however, to be over-estimated, for when a new generation has
3 Steinthal, Psychologic und Sprachwissenschaft, vol. i. pp. 54, 361. Berlin,
1871. Whitney, Language and the Study of Language, pp. 413-420.
London, 1867.
4 Spenser St John, Far East, voL i. pp. 61, 62. London, 1862.
Causes of the Mutability of Language. 105
grown up which does not know or fear the deceased, 5 it may
revert to the old word \ or where the prohibition only extends to
one horde, and the forbidden word survives in another, it may
be reintroduced by intermarriages. Nor must it be supposed
that new syllables are invented, but merely that new words are
concocted out of the existing ingredients of the language.
Among the Abipones on the western shore of the river Paraguay,
in South America, the old women are entrusted with the business
of creating the new appellations. On account of deaths which
had occurred, they changed the name of the tiger (jaguar) three
times in seven years, and finally into lapriretrae, the " speckled "
or " variegated.'/ 6
Language is exposed to far greater risk of metamorphosis among
tribes which roam over thinly populated hunting-grounds in small
bands, or sometimes in single families. The requirements of daily
life constrain every member of a large society to speak distinctly
that he may be understood by all. Ill-trained children often
invent syllables which for a time are tolerated in the household,
and would become permanently established if they were not re-
jected in general intercourse as unknown coin. But these bad
habits of children find a parallel in the customs of men among
the Brazilian hunters, whose single tribes, on account of the rapid
development of dialects, not only become incomprehensible to
their kindred of the same language, but each obstinately adheres to
his peculiar pronunciation. Martius, the traveller, complained that
among his escort, although they belonged to the same horde, each
clung to small dialectic differences of accent and inflection. His
companions understood him as he understood his companions. 7
For this reason the syllables naturally change with great rapidity.
It is easy to conceive the gradual growth of languages, when
once the great leap was accomplished, by which the communi-
cation of an idea, or even of a want, was expressed by the
5 Pallas (Voyage dans 1' Empire de Russie) expressly says that the Samoyeds
at first most scrupulously avoid the name of a deceased person, but afterwards
give it to a grandson or great grandson, to recall the memory of the departed.
* Dobrizhoffer, Geschichte der Abiponer, vol. ii. pp. 235, 361.
* Ausland, p. 891. 1869. Verbally communicated by the traveller.
6
io6 Linguistic Characters.
speaker by any particular sound and understood by a fellow-
creature. This first step, however, is still enveloped in profound
obscurity, for the connection of a particular idea with % a sound
of the human voice depends on a compact between the speaker
and the hearer ; 8 but it is hard to see how this compact or agree-
ment as to the first word could be concluded when there were as
yet no means of communication. According to the oldest con-
jecture, the process was one of phonetic representation, for by the
selection of imitative sounds the attention of the listener was
directed to some object of sensory perception. As all languages
are rich in sonorous forms which, as it were, give a musical
representation of that which they are intended to express, the first
commencement was supposed to have been onomatopoeic experi-
ment. In consequence of the rapidity of phonetic changes, it
was very easy for the opponents of this opinion to refute the
hypothesis by observing that the older forms of the present imita-
tive words bear no traces of phonetic representations.
We may easily be deceived by the German word rollen (roll),
particularly if we think of rolling thunder, into a belief that it is an
attempt to represent the noise. Nevertheless L. Geiger easily traced
this verb, through the French rouler, the Latin rotulari, to rota
(wheel), in which the sonorous imitation is totally absent. Yet this
ingenious analyzer of languages overlooked the important circum-
stance that, in its transfer to the German language, a word must
have arisen out of rouler sounding something like ruhlen. The fact
that rollen (roll) was formed out of ruhlen, betrays an endeavour
to give the word onomatopoeic force, and at the same time to make
it more intelligible by an alteration of sound. But as geologists
infer that the changes of form such as are now taking place on and
in our planet, took place from the first in like manner, we may
presume, from the still undiminished love of phonetic representa-
tion, that the same propensity must have operated also in the first
beginnings of linguistic evolution. Max Miiller has tried to dis-
credit this explanation with the contemptuous epithet of "bow-
wow theory," because at the first creation of language the cow
would be called moo and the dog bow-wow, in imitation of their
Ursprung der Sprache, p. 27.
"Bow-wow Theory." 107
lowing and barking. But he himself endeavours to explain the
process by the aid of mysticism. Each material body, such as
glass or a bell, he says, has its own peculiar resonance, and thus
thought has, as it were, constrained the vocal apparatus to produce
appropriate vibrations. In allusion to the sound of the bell,
Max Miiller's explanation has therefore been ridiculed by others
as the " ding-dong theory."
In recent times the tendency has been in favour of the older
view. A. Pott, the philologist, collected the various local ex-
pressions for thunder from every part of the world, and found that
the majority of nations endeavour to render the sensation of this
noisy phenomenon by an echo in the expression.? Tylor has
shown that families of mankind in distant regions of the world
employ the same syllables for noisy movements in other instances.
The explosion of gases under high pressure, everything that is
violently blown, is designated by Malays, Australians, Africans,
Asiatics, and Europeans with sounds very nearly approaching poo
otpuff. Again, the name for ox, /3o9, bos, bou, bo, recurs among
Hottentots and Chinese. 10 Neither must it be overlooked that
our children in their first attempts to speak are apt to imitate
with their vocal organs any sound they hear, and designate animals
almost exclusively by the sounds which they emit. The circle of
perceptions that may be expressed by the phonetic representation
is however limited to events connected with the production of
sounds, for no such representation is possible of that which is
perceived by sight or the sense of touch.
The first beginnings of speech were supposed to be enriched by
the spontaneous action of our vocal organs on occasions of strong
internal excitement The cry of joy and of horror still exists
even in civilized nations. At birth we bring a cry with us into
the world, for the infant's first sign of life consists in an exercise
of its vocal organs. The cry is intelligible to us all without either
instruction or practice ; nay, during the first months of" life, crying
fully suffices for the announcement of the various requirements.
Zeitschrift fur Volkerpsychologie und Sprachwissenschaft, voL ii. p. 359.
Berlin, 1865.
10 Primitive Culture, voL i. p. 209.
ro8 Linguistic Characters.
Without the existence of any intention to speak, crying is under-
stood, and for a time, even for a long time, children employ
crying as a means of making themselves intelligible, and very
soon learn to do so consciously and intentionally. At the time of
the origin of language, the screams of adults may for a long time
have represented speech in like manner, especially as shrill sounds
are still preserved as exclamations. Only it must be remembered
that our ah and oh cannot be referred to the age of the first
origin of language, for exclamations such as these, in all appearance
spontaneously wrung from the agonized feelings, have frequently
been unmasked and shown to be abbreviated words or even
idioms. The English zounds originated from by God's wounds,
and alas from oh me lasso. The negro of Western Africa ex-
claims in terror or surprise, Afdmd, mama, and the Indian of New
California, And. Both signify mother, so that, like children, they
call the guardian of their youth to their assistance. 12 The only
important fact is that these phonetic outbursts cannot even yet
be dispensed with in any civilized language. The language of
animals is entirely composed of similar explosive sounds emitted
by the vocal organs, and to suppose that man in every age ex-
pressed his inward emotions pain, joy, fear, surprise, aversion
by signals such as these, needs reflection only and not proof. *3
Accentuation is as an important auxiliary. Our yes and our no
admit of a series of pronunciation by which the inquirer or petitioner
may plainly hear whether the acquiescence or assent be willing or
reluctant, the denial vacillating or decided, and generally in what
frame of mind the utterances are made. The meaning of the
German word pfui, when quietly pronounced, might remain com-
pletely unknown to any one not acquainted with German, but if
uttered with the full emphasis of abhorrence, even a Fuegian
would be able to guess that this syllable expressed the reverse of
assent Accentuation, which is intuitive and not acquired, and on
the other hand not intentional but spontaneous, might materi-
ally assist mutual comprehension in the earliest stage of the con-
11 Whitney, Language and the Study of Language, p. 277.
19 Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. i. p. 202.
' Steinthal (Pyschologie und Sprachwissenschaft, p. 376. Berlin, 1871),
regards interjections as reflex sounds.
Accent and Gesture. 109
struction of language. It is assuredly not accidental that it is
precisely the formless monosyllabic languages which ^t ill employ
accentuation as an important auxiliary in the discrimination of
like-sounding roots.
Pantomimic action and gesticulation did for the eye what
accentuation did for the ear. So-called savages, without instruc-
tion, unconsciously, or at least only half consciously, exercise
the art which, by laborious practice before the looking-glass, our
actors are obliged to acquire afresh. The Bushmen, observes
Lichtenstein, communicate with each other more by gesticulation
than by speech. 1 * There are, however, a number of bodily move-
ments of this description of which the sense is by no means
identically interpreted by all families of mankind, it is even
questioned whether, in every part of the world, clenching the fist
is to be recognized as a threat, or stamping the foot as an
explosion of anger. Among the Bantu negroes a popular public
orator is rewarded with hisses.
Many gestures have acquired their meaning only by mutual
agreement. The Turks and others assent by a shake of the head,
and reply in the negative with a nod. In ancient Greece a
petitioner was repelled by throwing back the head (avaveveiv)
in Southern Italy the back of the hand is laid upon the chest and
the fingers are waved at the person addressed, as a summons to
approach. *$ And yet in every human being there is a latent power
of making himself intelligible by signs. All navigators who have
set foot upon a strange shore have communicated with the
inhabitants by this means, and have succeeded in obtaining water
or food. All over the world mankind has adopted the same
pantomimic representation for the expression of their thoughts.
The deaf and dumb were the inventors of their own language,
which leads us to the beautiful thesis that even without vocal
organs mankind would have attained the means of rendering them-
selves intelligible. The greater number of their signs, especially
such as consist in drawing outlines in the air, are intelligible
14 Reisen im siidlichen Afrika, vol. ii. p. 82. Berlin, i8ll.
" Kleinpaul, Zur Theorie der Gebardensprache. Zeitschrift fur Volker-
psychoiogie, vol. ii. p. 362. Berlin, 1869.
r io Linguistic Characters.
without further explanation, so that we may say that the deaf
and dumb make use of the very same gesticulations which were
customary in the pantomimic intercourse of the Indians from
Hudson's Bay to the Gulf of Mexico. Thus by means of his usual
signs a deaf and dumb Englishman was able to make himself
understood by some Laplanders at a show. Finally, it is said
(though the statement is subject to grave doubts) that the unfortu-
nate Laura Bridgeman, a blind deaf-mute, cut off from all external
instruction, used the ordinary pantomimic movements. 16
Thus at the period of the first development of speech, there
were a number of expedients for the communication of thought,
while at the same time, as man is of all creatures the most sociably
disposed, necessity urged him in some way or other to make
himself intelligible to his neighbour. Yet it is still difficult to
explain the first attempt at speech. A purpose of communicating
an idea to another person by means of the vocal organs must not
be assumed, for that would imply a consciousness on the part of
the speaker that a sound would serve to communicate an idea.
Even if the first speaker had connected a particular sound with a
particular idea, yet as any sound may be connected with any idea,
he had no prospect of being understood. 1 ? Any elucidation of
this obscure process would be inconceivable, had not each of us
been at one time obliged to work himself up from a speechless
condition. In speech, each child is obliged to repeat the ex-
periments of mankind, only that in his course of development a
great number of intermediate stages are passed over by the aid of
instructors. The awakening of the power to comprehend speech,
and the creation of speech, may therefore be observed anew in
every child. L. Geiger rashly asserts that no new words can
be invented. Young America ought to have taught him the
contrary. The party name Locofoco, the name of a secret
society Kluklux, the sectarian name Mormon, are arbitrary inven-
tions. Schurlemurle, as a beverage of mixed wines is named in
Wiirzburg, and picnic, can scarcely be derived from older ex-
pressions. Any one who has watched children must be astonished
18 Tylor, Early History of Mankind, pp. 21, 44, 69, 86.
IT Steinthal, Psychologic und Sprachwissenschaft, pp. 84, 370. Berlin, 1871.
" Mama and Papa" III
at the doubt whether articulate sounds can be combined into new
groups. 18 In South Africa the inhabitants of barren districts quit
their settlements for a time, leaving the children under the care of
a few aged people. The young ones forthwith begin to make a
language of their own ; the more lively are followed by the less
developed, so that in the course of a single generation the nature
of a language may be altered in this manner. Two words which
are echoed in every language were created by children, and are
created anew by every child, namely, the sounds papa and mamma.
The elementary sound ma or pa is by no means an attempt to
speak, but merely an exercise of the vocal organs proceeding from
an inward physical impulse without purpose or consciousness, in
no way better or higher than the twit-twit of our chaffinches. But
as long as man has wandered on this earth, parental love in
blissful delusion has misunderstood the child as if a call had been
intended, as if the child were yearning for its father or its mother.
That these first exercises of the vocal organs determined the
sound of the future word, whereas the interpretation of the parents
determined the meaning, is shown by the fact that, in a certain
number of languages, the sound ba stands for father, and ma for
mother, while in an equal number the converse is the case. 1 ?
Other childish words for mother are aithei (Gothic) and atia
(Sanscrit), the latter applying also to the elder sister. Atta exists
also in Latin and in Greek, and also in Gothic, as an endear-
ment for father, whence comes also the term aette for grandfather
in German dialects. The lisping child has to pass 20 through
various stages in the comprehension of language ; for it must first
learn by experience that when it cries ba or ma the parents
approach or that pleasure is given to those present ; the sound is
then for the first time purposely uttered by the child, and it is
not till much later, and not without the aid of the parents, that
one sound is used as a call for the father and the other for the
mother. Months and even years pass by before it dawns upon
the perception that mama and papa are not proper names, but
* Max Miiller, Science of Language, vol. ii. p. 54.
19 A list of names for father and mother in every part of the world is to
be found in d'Orbigny, 1'Homme americain, p. 79.
20 Bacmeister in the Allgem. Zeitung. 1871.
112 Linguistic Characters.
that with all children they are the designations of their nurses
and guardians. Only at a later age does the child further discover
that these names are given to its progenitors, and their full and
true purport is understood even by adults only when they have
experienced the joys and anxieties of parenthood. The course
of development in tender years is thus approximately, if not com-
pletely, similar to the first attempts to speak made by our race.
The richness of a language is always determined by the need
for communication ; and we must suppose this to have been
very small in the earliest evolutionary stages of our race. The
English boast of a vocabulary of 100,000 words, but their field-
labourers are said to be satisfied with 400. A clergyman in a
Friesland island states that he could reckon no more in the
case of a workman of his parish. As Kleinpaul 21 informs us, a
man of average education has from 3000 to 4000 different words at
his disposal, a great orator 10,000, while in the institutions of the
deaf and dumb, at Berlin, no less than 5000 signs are employed.
That the number of expressions increases with the need for ex-
pression is shown by the numerical terms, which among barbarous
nations seldom extend beyond 20. Alexander von Humboldt
was the first to trace the origin of numerical groups of 5, 10,
and 20 units to the number of the parts on the hands and feet,
so that with six-fingered hands we should have arrived at the duo-
decimal system. 22 Exceptions exist, however, especially in the Aus-
tralian family, which make use of only two numerical terms ; thus
for i is said netat ; for 2 naes ; for 3 naes-netat ; for 4 naes-naes ;
for 5 naes-naes-netat ; for 6 naes-naes-naes. 25 Other Australian
dialects have an independent expression for three, and in one
linguistic region of those parts, the numerical terms reach as far
as 15 or 2O. 24 Orton maintains that the Zaparos on the Napo
river in Ecuador can count only up to three, but express higher
numbers by raising the fingers ; 2 s and the Prince of Wied 26
11 Zeitschrift fur Volkerspsychologie und Sprachwissenschaft, vol. vi. p. 354.
Berlin, 1869.
88 Life of A. von Humboldt, edited by Carl Bruhns, vol. iii. p. 9.
83 Latham, Opuscula, p. 228, 2 * Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. L p. 220.
86 James Orton, The Andes and the Amazon, p. 170. 1870.
26 Reise nach Brasilien, vol. ii. p. 41. Frankfort, 1825.
Vocabularies. 1 1 3
declares the same of the Botocudos. Closer research might,
however, reveal more favourable facts respecting most of the
nations mentioned, for it also has been disputed that numerical
terms above three exist among the Abipones. In reality, how-
ever, they say, instead of four, " ostriches' toes ; " for five they
use two expressions, for ten they say " fingers of two hands," for
twenty, "fingers and toes on hands and feet," 2 ? We ourselves
have no expression for ten thousand such as exists in Greek,
nor for a hundred thousand (lak), or for ten millions (kror),
such as exist in Hindostanee, the richest language of the world in
expressions for high numbers, reaching as far as 5 1 figures, owing
to the fact that these terms were employed in many ways by
the Sankhja philosophers and the Buddhists in their numerical
juggleries. The word million was unknown to the nations of the
classical age, while the term milliard has come into circulation
only in this century.
A comparison of languages of scantily developed races shows
that the perception of specific differences arose much earlier
than the recognition of generic characters. Savage hunting
tribes have names for the beaver, wolf, and bear, but none for
animal. 28 The Tasmanian languages are wanting in expressions
for tree, fish, and bird ; but there is no lack of appellations for
the individual species. 2 9 The same may be said of the North
American Indians, for in the Chocta language, while there are
names for the white, red, and black oak, there is none for the
genus oak. When we take nourishment, whether it be soup,
bread, meat, vegetables, or porridge, we always use the word
eat, but the Hurons vary the expression according to the
nature of the food. 3 The Eskimo again, have particular expres-
sions for fishing, depending on the implements employed.3 1 The
27 Dobrizhoffer, Geschichte der Abiponer, vol. ii. p. 202.
28 Greek has also no word for animal in so far as faov includes man, for which
reason the song, " Mensch und Thiere schliefen feste " (men and animals were
sleeping fast), cannot be translated into Greek. Steinthal, Zeitschrift fur
Volkeq)sychologie, vol. vi. p. 480. 1869.
29 Lubbock, Prehistoric Times, p. 466.
* Charlevoix, Nouvelle France, vol. iii. p. 197. Paris, 1744.
11 Latham, Varieties of Man, p. 376.
Linguistic Characters.
Malays distinguish between red, blue, green, and white, but they
have no word for colour. The Tasmanians have no adjectives,
so that they say " stone-like " instead of hard ; " moon-like "
instead of round ; " long-legged " instead of high.
Languages are variously provided with sounds. The Arabs are
destitute of the clicking sounds of the Hottentots, and we are
deficient in many Arabic consonants, but the greatest paucity is
found in the South Seas. The Polynesians have only ten con-
sonants at their disposal, f, k, 1, m, n, ng, p, s, t, v, and even these
exist in full purity and completeness only at Fakaafo and
Vaitupu,3 2 while the inhabitants of the Tupuai group to the south
of Tahiti have preserved only eight, m, n, ng, p, r, t, v, and one
with a marked guttural sound. 33 A like paucity of sounds has
arisen in the Sandwich Islands by deterioration, and is not
primitive and simple, for other Polynesian languages, which
have remained richer in consonants, have preserved the more
archaic forms. If with this be connected the fact, that the
enunciation of the Bushman language, especially owing to its
clicking sounds, imposes the greatest exertions on the vocal
organs, we might be induced to conclude that in the primordial
attempts at speech a greater stock of sounds was brought into
use. 34 Still there are scholars who maintain the opposite,35 so that
a universally valid rule must not as yet be laid down.
II. THE STRUCTURE OF HUMAN LANGUAGE.
THE foreign languages, whether ancient or modern, which we
Europeans study during our school years, all possess a greater or
less number of grammatical forms, by the help of which a definite
function in the sentence is allotted to the radical sounds. This
83 See Gabelentz, Die melanesischen Sprachen in the transactions of the
phil. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaft, p. 253. Leipzic, 1861.
33 Hale, Ethnography, p. 142.
M W. H. J. Bleek, Ueber den Ursprung der Sprache, p. 53. Weimar,
1868.
M Whitney, Language and the Study of Language, p. 467 : "The tendency
of phonetic change is always towards the increase of the alphabet."
Monosyllabic Languages. 115
gives rise to the delusion that every language must admit of the
formation of substantive, pronoun, verb, preposition, and conjunc-
tion by means of appended syllables or sounds. The novice meets
with his first surprise in the Semitic languages which, although not
deficient in forms, employ unwonted means of effecting their defi-
nitions of meaning. An examination of the African and Northern
Asiatic languages discloses the yet more surprising fact, that in
these not only the gender but the verb disappears. But we fall
into incredulous perplexity on learning that languages exist which
have not risen even to the formation of words, especially when
it is added, that a highly civilized people with a language of this
description have composed works exhibiting profound knowledge
of the world, and stories of artistic polish and great subtlety. Yet
there is the best evidence to show that all languages have pro-
ceeded from such rude beginnings.
All monosyllabic languages are destitute of those phonetic or
syllabic suffixes which elsewhere mark noun, adjective, or verb, and
still more of those which distinguish the subject of a transaction
from its object; for as yet there are no words at all, but only roots.
We would however at once warn the uninitiated not to mistake the
monosyllabic sounds of German and English with the radicals of
true monosyllabic languages. We can certainly construct long
sentences with monosyllabic words, as for instance, Der Mann
ging auf die Jagd, und schoss ein Reh, etc. (The man went out
to hunt and shot a deer), but in this example gin-g and Jag-d are
only apparently monosyllables, and schoss accidentally so. English,
to a far greater extent than German, has declined towards a rigidly
monosyllabic condition by dint of phonetic decay and abrasion,
though it has preserved the clear distinction of the grammatical
categories x and only in a few cases, such as butter, oil, pepper,
cudgel, the hearer or reader has to guess from the context whether
the substantive or the verb is intended. 2
The Chinese language dispenses with all grammatical distinc-
tions of meaning. It is destitute of all inflections, of all dis-
tinctions between substantive and verb, and of verbal structure
1 Whitney, Language and the Study of Language, p. 264.
8 Tylor, Early History of Mankind, p. 80.
1 1 6 The Structure of Human Language.
of any description. The syllable sin may signify honour, honour-
able, to be honourable, to act honourably, and even to trust.
What it means in any given case is decided by its position
in the sentence and the context. 3 By the contact of root with
root the meaning is denned, and thus the sense is conveyed
to the hearer as by verbal structure. In English also synonyms
are sometimes multiplied for the sake of clearness, as in path-
way, or classificatory suffixes are appended as in maple-tree.*
In German, too, we say Hai-fish, Tannenbaum, Elenthier, (dog-
fish, fir-tree, moose-deer). These examples are, however, only
remotely analogous, for, strictly speaking, combinations of words
ought not to be compared with the grouping of roots. In Latin
no special arrangement of words is prescribed in the structure
of a sentence, and the position of the parts of speech is left
to the artistic feeling of the speaker; Chinese, on the contrary,
follows the strictest precepts in regard to syntax. Roots which
are to serve for a closer definition (attributes), whether as adjec-
tive or genitives, must precede the subject or verb which they
are to define. Supplements (objects) must follow that which is
to be supplemented (the verb.) The grouping of two roots is
naturally, in countless cases, liable to ambiguity. If tschung
(faith) and kyiln (prince) are combined, a European might be
in doubt whether the good faith of the prince or the loyalty of
the subject be intended. But in all such cases custom has long
ago firmly fixed the sense in which alone such a group is valid ;
as the Chinese recognizes only the duty of subjects, this group
signifies loyalty. The Chinese groups of roots often consist
of several parts. For difference of opinion the Chinese say, I
east, thou west, ni tung, wo si; and for conversing, thou asking,
I answering, ni wen, wo ta. Weight is called light-heavy, khing
tschung, and distance far-near, ywan kin. In German we have
a similar form of word in hell-dunkel (light-dark, i.e., twilight) ;
pianoforte ; in Spanish, we find calofrio (warm-cold) for fever, and
3 Steinthal, Characteristik der hauptsachlichste Typen des Sprachbauesj
p. 117. Berlin, 1860. Where other authorities are not cited, the present
chapter has been borrowed from this invaluable book.
4 Whitney, Study of Language, p. 335.
The Chinese Language. 117
altibajo (high-low) for depression, s As they have no word for
virtue, the Chinese say loyalty, respect for parents, temperance,
. justice, tschun, hyau, tsye, t\ thus enumerating what they regard as
the highest duties of a Chinaman. In all such combinations of
roots the sequence is invariably prescribed. Neither can any one
speaking by means of roots, as do the Chinese, say simply read or
eat, but he must say read book, or eat rice.
Even in Chinese there are feeble beginnings of a formation of
words. All roots indeed preserve their independence, yet there
are some by the addition of which other roots are raised to the
value of substantives. Of this sort is thau, head, so that according
to its position tschi may signify show or ringer, but tschi-thau
always means finger. Again, the root tsz, signifying son, is
applied as a diminutive, so that from tau, sword, tau-tsz, sword-
son, is formed, signifying knife. In the enumeration of objects a
descriptive designation is always added, much as we say in
German, ein Laib Brot (a loaf of bread), ein Blatt Papier (a sheet
of paper), ein Bund Heu (a truss of hay), eine Elle Leinwand
(a yard of linen). A Chinaman, enumerating idols, learned men,
or officials, affixes the predicates, honours, dignities, jewels, to the
number mentioned. 6 The sex of animals is indicated by the
addition of two roots, which in this connection confer the sense
of man or of mother. The plural is formed in Chinese by the
addition of roots signifying many or all.
The rules of syntax are thus sufficient to give perfect clearness
to a language consisting entirely of monosyllabic roots. The
Chinese may therefore claim to have supplied every requisite for
the interchange of thought by these simple means. Nevertheless,
of all languages of the world, Chinese is in the lowest stage of
development. It burdens the memory with the recollection of an
immense number of combinations of radicals on which custom
' Tober, Psych. Bedeutung der Wortzusammensetzungen, in Zeitschrift fiir
Volkerpsychologie, vol. v. p. 209. 1868.
6 The Mexicans and Malays always append to the number the word stone,
the Javans grain, the Niasmalaysj^-^^. In these languages therefore it is not
customary to say three chickens, four children, five swords, but three stones
chickens, four grains children, five fruits swords. Tylor, Early History of
Mankind, p. 208.
1 1 8 The Structure of Human Language.
alone has bestowed an unalterable signification, and thereby need-
lessly enhances the difficulty of acquiring the language. We are
therefore at a loss to comprehend how a man of such sagacity
as Steinthal could reckon it among his inflected languages, for
he himself admits that, " If morphological structure be alone con-
sidered, the order would necessarily be different. Chinese in
particular, which now occupies such a high position, would then
be transferred to the lowest." ? Steinthal would think little of a
zoologist if he were to rank the highly endowed ant among the
vertebrata because it is psychologically superior to the lancelet.
Yet his classification is of this sort. Among the Siamese and
Burmese, the southern neighbours of the Chinese, we also find
purely monosyllabic languages. Yet they already surpass the
Chinese in the number of roots which are applied to the defini-
tion of meaning. Their rules of syntax prescribe that in Siamese
the auxiliary root precedes, while in Burmese it follows the prin-
cipal root. 8 By the addition of these roots, substantives and verbs,
active as well as passive, are differentiated. We may presume
that if these two languages are left to develop undisturbed, the
formation of words will be effected in one preeminently by means
of prefixes, in the other by means of suffixes.
In the Malay languages, geographically connected with the
Burmese and Siamese, the syllables which define the sense are
sometimes placed before, and sometimes, though less frequently,
after the principal root. A great chasm separates them from the
types hitherto described, for they contain polysyllabic roots. But
no part of speech is as yet strictly differentiated, so that the same
root or group of roots is capable of executing the functions of
a substantive, an adjective, a word expressive of action, or even of
a preposition. There are no syllables by the addition of which
gender, case, number, tense, mood, and person can be expressed.
Pronouns only, demonstrative particles, and a few prepositions,
already perform their special grammatical duties. Personal pro-
nouns alone are susceptible of a sort of plural definition by com-
bination with numerical expressions ; this gives rise to a dual and
a plural, both of which forms may also be used either inclusively
7 Typen des Sprachbaues, p. 328. 8 Steinthal, p. 145.
Suffix Languages. 119
or exclusively, as the person or persons addressed are or are not
to be involved. Genuine verbs are totally wanting; they are
-replaced by substantives expressing an action, much as if we
were to render the idea, "I walk to the east," by the words, " my
walk to the east." Thus in the Dyak language the prefix ba
means, to be affected by something. From ttroh, sleep, arises
batiroh, to sleep ; from kahovut, cover, bakahovul, covered ; hence
id batiroh bakahavut, literally, he with sleep with cover, repre-
sents the idea, he sleeps covered.
A characteristic of these languages is the frequent use of such
repetitions and reduplication as, in older stages of development,
occurred also in highly advanced languages. In Latin a vestige of
such word formations has been preserved in quisquis, and similar
traces of past ages in dedit and peperit. The Malay languages
moreover distinguish simple repetitions, in which the accent
remains unaltered, from reduplication, in which the anterior word
loses the accent. By repetition they express multiplication,
augmentation, or duration; by reduplication enfeeblement or
instability is implied, so that tenddtendd signifies often, thtdd
tenda, on the contrary, to stop from time to time. 9 This poverty
in expedients for the definition of meaning does not, however,
exclude a wealth of expressions. In Malay there are no less
than twenty sounds expressive of the idea of striking, according
to whether it be with thin or thick wood, gently, downwards,
upwards, horizontally, with the hand, the palm, the fist, a club,
a sharp edge, a flat surface, with one thing against another,
with a hammer, or driven in like a nail.
Scattered over the north of Asia and Europe in five large
groups, the Tungiis, Mongolian, Turkish, Samoyed, and Finnish,
we find a linguistic structure strictly limited to the addition of
suffixes. The grammatical functions of each word in the sentence
are pretty sharply defined by means of these appendages. The
suffix sit signifies a person occupied with the subject of the pre-
ceding root. From ati, wares, the Yakut constructs ati-sit,
merchant; from ayi, creation, ayi-sit, creator. An action is
signified by the addition of tr, and therefore, from tial, wind,
Steinthal, Sprachtypen. Whitney, Study of Language, p. 319.
r 20 The Structure of Human Language.
arises tialir, to blow. This grouping of roots is unlimited, and,
to recall an example often employed, the Osmanli is able to
express in a single word the idea of incapable of being induced
to love one another, by the group sev-isch-dir-il-emc. Inflected
languages also admit, however, of an extraordinary accumulation
of defining 'particles ; for instance, the following series occurs in
English, true, tru-th, truth-ful, truthful-ness, un-truthfulness. The
simplicity of the system of adding suffixes, the prospect of express-
ing a complex idea in a single group of syllables, may at first
appear seductive, yet such languages have never succeeded in
forming a verb, but rest contented with naming the subject of the
action (nomina verbi), which almost answers to such expressions of
ours as the living (nomen presentis), the deceased (nomen perfect!),
the imprisoned, the sender. 10 In Turkish the construction is
dog-mak, to beat
dog-ur, a beater
dog-ur-um, a beating 1 = 1 beat
dog-ur-lar, beating they= they beat."
The languages spoken by the Ural-Altaic nations illustrate the
process of verbal construction. The structure of their language
is confined to the agglutination of syllables. Something similar
still occurs even in languages in which fusions are otherwise
habitual. If two syllables are joined without alteration, and
without losing their independent meaning, they are but loosely
agglutinated. If we divide such words as note-worthy, care-less,
trace-able, into their two halves, the substantive and the defining
suffix can each exist alone. The Ural-Altaic languages, in
common with all merely agglutinative languages, are confined to
constructions such as these. But where these roots were long
employed chiefly as definitions of meaning, and were no longer
used independently, but solely as auxiliaries, their original and
independent signification was presently forgotten and a higher
degree of integration of linguistic structure was already attained.
This case is represented in English by formations such as virtu-
10 Steinthal, Sprachtypen, p. 193.
11 Whitney, Study of Language, p. 319.
Ural- A Ita ic Languages. 121
cus y bare-ly y in- distinct. The suffixes ous and ly, and the affix in,
can no longer stand independently in our language, but have
.forfeited their liberty, since their original form and their old
signification have been removed beyond ken. A third case is
conceivable; namely, that, in consequence of agglutination, the
defining root has effected a phonetic modification in the principal
root, and both combinations are fused in such a manner that
neither can any longer exist independently, as in such formations
as scholar.
A germ of phonetic modification is already latent in the Ural-
Altaic languages, though it is only due to a desire for euphony
(Vocalharmonie). The eight vowels of these languages are
divided into heavy and light, hard and soft, and by the custom of
the language the same or some other particular vowel must be
contained in the succeeding suffix-root. Thus in the Yakut
language, the plural suffix-root consists of the syllable / r, but
which vowel is to be inserted between / and r is determined by
the vowel of the principal root, so that the formula is a-xa-lar^ the
fathers, oyp-lor, the children, dsd-ldr, the bears. This musical
attempt may in the course of time effect the complete fusion of
the suffix with the principal root. The fact is significant that in
another linguistic province, namely, among the Dravida group or
non-Aryan inhabitants of Southern India, we likewise find laws of
euphony, but acting in the reverse direction. There the vowel of
the defining syllable is dominant, and compels the vowel of the
principal root into harmony with itself. The words katti, knife,
and pultj tiger, are transformed by the suffix lu, indicating the
plural, not into katti-lu 2&.& puli-lu, but into kattulu, the knives, and
pululu, the tigers. 12 Whereas the Ural-Altaic languages always
place the defining roots after the principal root, and are, therefore,
reckoned as suffixing languages, we find in the whole of South
Africa, as far as the equator, with the sole exception of the
languages of the Hottentots and Bushmen, closely allied languages,
which all place the defining syllable before the principal root, but yet
do not exclude the use of suffixes. Southwards from Delagoa Bay,
on the east coast, we find rivers bearing the names of Um-komanzi,
18 F. Muller, Reise der Fregatte Novara. Language, p. 8l.
122 The Structure of Human Language.
Um-zuti, Um-kusi, Um-volosi, Um-hlutane, Um-lazi, Um-gababa,
Um-kamazi, Um-tenta, and so on.*3 It might, therefore, be in-
ferred that the prefix um signifies water, as does the suffix ach in
German names, such as Bacharach, Aichach, Stockach, Lorrach,
Elzach. Yet there are South African names for mountains and
places, which are preceded by the syllable um. Names of tribes
are formed by the prefix ma, Ma-tabele, Ma-sai, Ma-kua, Ma-ravi,
Ma-kololo, or by the double prefix a-ma, as Ama-xosa, Ama-pondo,
Ama-tonga, Ama-zulu, for which we might substitute the people of
the chief Xosa, Pondo, Tonga, Zulu. Perhaps, at a period not
very remote, there was a chief of the name of Suto, the eponym
of the Ba-suto ; each individual was called a Ma-suto, their territory
Le-suto, and their language Se-suto. This example indicates the
definitions implied by the prefixes Ba, Ma, Le, and Se. Where
these series of prefixes have been maintained in their full integrity
we find sixteen, or perhaps eighteen, of which the greater number
indicate either the plural or the singular exclusively. Only two of
these syllables unequivocally distinguish natural differences, namely,
Mu and Ba, of which both represent persons, one in the singular,
the other in the plural ; possibly Mu formerly signified person, Ba
people. 14 Each substantive and each expression of activity (we
can hardly say verb), is provided with an antecedent syllable, so
that a prefix thus becomes an ingredient of the word, as insepar-
able as is the suffix in the older branches of the Aryan family of
languages. 15 We may confidently assert that the prefixes were
once independent words, but their significations are now unknown
to the existing generation, and in this case the linguistic integra-
tion has advanced so far that certain phonetic combinations are
applied exclusively to grammatical purposes. The employment of
prefixes requires, among other things, that the same syllable should
be affixed to the adjective as to the substantive. Were Latin a
13 Bacmeister in the Ausland, p. 577. 1871.
14 W. H. Bleek, Comparative Grammar of South African Languages, p. 95.
1869.
18 Whitney, Study of Language, p. 345. 1867. In the Suto languages they
say ba-ntu (men), ba-otle (all), ba-molemo (good), ba-lefatse (the world), ba-ratoa
(the beloved), which means, in the world, all good men aie beloved (Casalis,
Les Basoutos, p. 339. Paris, 1859).
Incorporative Languages. 123
prefixing language, instead of vin-um bon-um, it would run um-vin
um-bon. In Zulu tyi signifies stone, and bi ugly, / is the indefi-
nite article, and // the indispensable representative prefix. Thus
arises i-li-tyii-li-bi, an ugly stone. Even the genitive is expressed
by the prefix of the nominative, and in Zulu the woman's dish is
called i-si-tya s-o-m-fazi, and the food of the woman u-ku-dhla
kw-o-m-fazi. S-o-m-fazi and kw-o-m-fazi are the genitives of
u-m-fazi, woman, and harmonize with the prefix of the substan-
tive. 16 South African languages, however, employ suffixes also
in the construction of highly compound words. ??
We find a different linguistic structure among the American
nations, with the exception of the Eskimo. Wilhelm von
Humboldt has termed their system " incorporative," because the
structure of the sentence may be entirely supplanted by the
structure of the word. The aborigines of America are able to
build up a complex idea into a single word. In the Cherokee
language wi-ni- taw-ti-ge-gi-na-li-skaw-liing-ta-naw-ne-le-ti-se-sti is
equivalent to "they will by this time have come to an end of
their declarations (of favour) to you and me." 18 Even in those
American languages which allow only a moderate use of " incor-
poration," the object is always placed between the subject and
the verb. Moreover, some syllables of the inserted words are
suppressed, and the phonetic combination, thus mutilated, remains
intelligible only in its context. In the Delaware language, from
opik, white, and assuun, stone, is formed opposuun, or white stone,
by which silver is meant. 1 ? Although it is not an invariable law
that among highly civilized nations we find also highly developed
languages, for we have just observed the contrary among the
Chinese, while conversely from the Hottentot language we shall
presently learn that a highly developed language does not always
imply a correspondingly high civilization, yet a highly developed
18 Bleek in the Journal of the Anthrop. Institute, vol. i. p. 71. London, 1872.
17 From bona, to see, arises isi-bono, the object seen, isi-boniso, vision, bon-akala,
to appear, isi-bonakala, appearance, isi-bonakaliso, revelation. F. M tiller, Reise
der Fregatte Novara, vol. iii. p. 112.
18 Whitney, Study of Language, p. 349.
19 Schoolcraft, cited by Tylor, Early History of Mankind, p. 273.
124 The Structure of Human Language.
language leads us to expect to find a more matured social con-
stitution in its territory. In America, the most highly civilized
people, the ancient Mexicans, spoke the most developed language,
Nahuatl. The name alone, by its termination //, indicates an
advance. The Ural-Altaic languages were still quite incapable
of any true word-construction when substantives were already
recognizable by the termination // in ancient Mexican. In com-
position, the word teo-tl, God, loses the appended consonants,
as in teo-calli, God's house or temple, and in teo-tlaltolli, God's
word. These examples also show that not all Nahuatl sub-
stantives have the suffix tL Ancient Mexican, in common with
all American languages, is incorporative, inserting the object
between the subject and the verb, so that from schotschi4l, flower,
and ni-temoa, I seek, is formed ni-schotschi-temoa, I seek flowers ;
but another arrangement of the sentence is also used, in which
only the pronoun it (k\ or somebody (te), or something (tla\ is
intercalated between subject and verb, while the object is placed
last. From m\ I, k, it, miktta, to kill, se, one, totolin, chicken, the
Nahuatl forms ni-k-miktia se lotolin, I it kill a chicken. The exces-
sive tendency to incorporation is thus again checked. Plurals
which occur only in the case of living things (in which category
the stars are included), are expressed by the addition of the
suffixes me and tin, as itschka-tl, sheep, itschka-me, sheep (in the
plural), or ta-tli, father, to-tin, fathers. Nor is there any lack of
ingenuity in the formation of words ; from ome, two, and yolli,
heart, arises otr.eyolloa, to doubt ; from nakastli, ear, and tsatsi, to
scream, nakatsatsa-tl, in whose ear one must scream a deaf
person. 20
In the prefix languages of the South African negroes um-tu
signifies a man, um-fazi, a woman, um-ti, a tree. The same prefix,
therefore, serves for obj ects which ought to be viewed as masculine,
feminine, and neuter. When the substantive is once distinguished
from the verb by perceptible phonetic terminations, the gender
of the substantive can also be distinguished. We have hitherto
been dealing only with languages which do not distinguish gram-
matical genders, but we shall now turn to those which express
Steinthal, Characteristik, p. 203.
Prefix L anguages. 125
differences of sex. 21 The important influence which this improve-
ment in language has had on the formation of myths can only
,be explained further on ; at present we will merely remark that
the requirements of a grammatical gender induced a keener obser-
vation of external objects. Traces of a distinction of gender,
at least in the pronoun for the third person, may be found
in Tarawa, 22 the language spoken on the Gilbert or Kingsmill
Islands ; others in South America among the Abipones, 2 3 the
Arowaks, and the Maypures, 2 * and in Khasi, the language of the
Khasians of Assam. 2 s In Africa the languages of the Hottentots,
the Hausa negroes, and the ancient Egyptians, are remarkable
for their twofold grammatical gender. The distinction of the
sexes is the most important advance in the linguistic structure
of the latter highly civilized people. In other respects the roots
in ancient Egyptian are mainly monosyllabic, and many of them
may be used as substantive, verb, and adjective, as in Chinese.
The same syllable denotes to write, a writing, and a writer, while
another may mean to live, alive, or life. Some roots, however,
serve exclusively as substantive or verb. A prefixed article, which
is, however, only loosely attached, marks the substantive, but there
is as yet no declension, prefixed prepositions acting as substitutes.
In the formation of the verb, pronouns are loosely attached to the
radical, but tense and mood are expressed by prefixing auxiliary
words. But as these pronominal suffixes may also be appended to
substantives, and in that case indicate possession, the separation of
the verb from the substantive is not yet fully effected. Ran-i may
be translated, I name, or my name ; while literally it signifies my
naming. 26 In many of its verbal constructions this language is as
S1 In the Algonkin language also a distinction is made between animate
and inanimate objects, but among the former are reckoned the sun, the moon,
the stars, thunder and lightning, sacrificial stones, eagles' feathers, tobacco,
pipes, drums, and wampums. Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. i. p. 274.
22 Horatio Hale, United States Exploration Expedition, Ethnography.
Philadelphia, p. 441. 1846.
23 Dobrizh offer, Geschichte der Abiponer, vol. ii. p. 200-206.
24 Bleek, Journal of the Anthropological Institute, voL L p. 93.
25 Bleek, p. 67.
Whitney, Study of Language, p. 342.
126 The Structure of Human Language.
ill-developed as, and sometimes more ambiguous than Chinese,
which ensures perspicuity by its strict rules of syntax. But it
stands higher than Chinese, inasmuch as the defining suffixes have
entirely lost their independence as well as their original form and
import, having for the most part been reduced to a few consonants
by dint of contraction and curtailment, so that they now serve
only for grammatical purposes. 2 7
There is a wide chasm between the best developed of the lower
languages and those of the Semitic and Aryan families. In
these the defining element is mostly firmly welded together with
the principal root. The root is completely lost in the substantive
and the verb, and a real inflection and a real transformation have
arisen, though they are effected in totally different ways by
Aryans and Semites. The Semitic languages of. Western Asia
are recognizable by the' circumstance that their radicals always
exhibit three consonants, although the third is often scantily or
abortively represented. Vowels affecting the definition are inter-
posed before, between, or after these consonants. As Steinthal
happily expresses it, the consonant is the substance of the thought
while the vowel invests it with its shape. The former might be
compared to the block of marble, the latter to the sculptor.
This may be illustrated by an example frequently employed. For
everything that refers to the shedding of human blood Arabic
applies the triple group of consonants, q-t-l. Thence are formed :
qatala he kills
qutila he was killed
qutilu ... the)> were killed
uqtul to kill
qatil killing
iqtal to cause killing
quatl ... ... murder
qitl enemy
qutl ... murderous
In the verb the middle vowel bestows a transitive or intran-
sitive signification; by the vowel of the first syllable of the
radical the active (a) is distinguished from the passive (u), and the
vowel of the last consonant denotes the mood, u expressing the
8T Whitney, Study of Language, p. 343.
Semitic Languages. 127
indicative, a the subjunctive, while in the imperative, which
conveys a demand, the vowel totally disappears. The other trans-
- formations of the verb are effected by prefixes and suffixes, which
also have a phonetic influence on the vowels of the syllables
to which they are prefixed or appended. Terminal syllables dis-
tinguish singular and plural as well as the three cases, nominative,
genitive, and accusative.
We may well wonder at the manner in which, in the construc-
tion of the Semitic languages, the human intellect has been able
to bestow a symbolical meaning on the sounds produced by the
organs of speech, and, as it were, inspire this apparatus for the
interchange of ideas. The evolutionary history of this process
is as yet entirely obscure, for there are not even any conjectures
as to the earlier stages which have been surmounted in the
formation of language.
An equal or, as many think, a higher rank is occupied by
the Indo-Germanic or Aryan languages akin to Sanscrit. Their
superiority over the Semitic group may be primarily founded on
their recognition of three instead of two genders, or rather of
sexual and sexless objects. But this superiority has been again
partially lost in the course of time. With few exceptions modern
English still distinguishes gender only in men and animals. In
the German language also, as Steinthal remarks, the good times
are past in which zweene was still said for two men, zwo for two
women, zwei for two children, or for a man and woman. Arme-
nian ignores all distinction of gender. 28 It is more significant
that Aryan languages alone possess a verb to be, which is wanting
even in Semitic languages, so that the latter cannot express the
idea of the graciousness of God by the words God is gracious,
but are obliged to say, God the gracious, or God, he the gracious,
so that in such languages it would be impossible to maintain
"cogito, ergo sum."
The evolutionary history of this group of languages is much
more easily seen than in those of the Semitic family. All inquiries
tend to show that in the dark times of past ages our forefathers
effected their interchange of ideas by means of a comparatively
** Mordtmann, Allgem. Zeitung, p. 6374. 1871.
128 The Structure of Human Language.
small number of monosyllabic roots, and that their language was
then in the same stage as is now Chinese. Yet the separation
of the pronominal roots took place so early that many observers
regard it as primordial. 2 9 Jacob Grimm's idea, that the stock
of the root tu is reducible to the conception of being great, of
growing, so that du properly signifies magnitude, and in a manner
represents the titles of modern days, such as your grace, is sup-
ported by Kleinpaul with the observation that from civility the
Chinese abases himself and, instead of / have, uses the expressions
servant has, slave has, blockhead has.** The formation of words
originally took place by the agglutination of the defining root at
the end, while prefixes were only very sparingly employed, and
this chiefly in negatives with un, as in w^grateful, or a as in
atheism; also by antecedent prepositions, such as forecast, out-
spread, overthrow,* 1 finally, by the prefixed a or a of the so-called
augment in the primitive past tense. German has many prefixes
of which the original meaning has become unintelligible, such as
foschreiben (to Ascribe), <rrgriinden (to fathom), ^rfleischen (to
lacerate), zwkaufen (to sell), etc. The original meaning of these
auxiliary words has long been forgotten, and they are therefore
serviceable only as defining syllables, or before the principal root.
But in modern times a deterioration of morphological structure
has taken place, especially in Germanic languages. When the in-
flectional terminations had been worn down beyond recognition,
linguistic structure, as a compensation for significant afhxes and
reduplications, seized on a medium for the definition of meaning
which had previously been only casual and incidental, namely,
the metamorphosis of vowels. The conversion of a o u into a o u
was employed in the formation of the plural and the subjunctive
(vater, vater ; mutter, mutter ; konnte, konnte ; truge, triige). By
modifications (as in English woman, women), various functions
were fulfilled, especially in marking the time, in expressions refer-
ring to actions hebe, hob, Abhub (lift, lifted, leavings) ; gebe,
gab, gibst (give, gave, givest) ; graben, Grube (dig, ditch). The
* Whitney, Study of Language, p. 261.
80 Zeitschrift fur Volkerpsychologie, p. 363. 1869.
$1 Whitney, Study of Language, pp. 256, 257.
A cquirement of L anguage. 129
German language thus acquired the use of a metamorphosis of
vowels very like that in the Semitic; possibly the Semitic lan-
guages owe their symbolical use of vowels to the same cause.
III. LANGUAGE AS A MEANS OF ETHNOLOGICAL
CLASSIFICATION.
IN order to separate the manifold phenomena of the human race
and to arrange them in groups, we require persistent and distinc-
tive characters. Hence, if languages are constantly modified, so
that not only the meaning of certain phonetic combinations is
altered within a suspiciously short period, but even the structure of
the languages may be changed, we can scarcely hope to employ
language as a means of classification. We know that before the
Roman dominion the inhabitants of France spoke a Celtic lan-
guage, and exchanged it later for a new Latin tongue. The
inhabitants of Germany eastwards of the Elbe belonged, some two
thousand years ago, to the Sclavonian family. On the other hand,
the inhabitants of Iceland and Norway spoke the same language
eight hundred years ago. In Iceland it has been preserved almost
without alteration, whereas in Norway it has been developed into
Danish. Even if, in this case, we supposed that these metamor-
phoses took place within a group of languages which were primor-
dially related, and that the transition was thus exceptionally easy,
we must remember that English is spoken by the descendants of
Africans, who were brought as slaves to the United States, and
that Spanish is spoken by many of the aborigines of America.
Were we therefore to classify nations according to language only,
we should be obliged to place negroes in the same division with
English, and pure-bred Indians with the descendants of Roumanian
Europeans.
Hence, before we infer any sort of relationship from identity or
similarity of language, we must ascertain as an historical fact that
the identity of language has not been produced by the require-
ments of social intercourse. Even where we need not suspect
this, language must be regarded as a distinctive mark only of
the second order. Community of language in tribes and races
r
1 30 Language as a Means of Classification.
merely proves that, in some past age, the various members of the
same linguistic group inhabited a common home, and maintained
a close intercourse with one another. This, however, is all that
we require ; for as all races of mankind generate fertile hybrids
with one another, residence in a common home is sufficient to
produce a new mongrel race, even from stray portions of the
human family physically unlike. But here again the considera-
tion arises, that a common home may be inhabited by two physi-
cally distinct races united by a predominant language, and yet
little or no admixture of blood may have taken place. We see
these cases realized in the United States and in India, where
admixture of blood only rarely occurs between white and coloured
people, or between Aryans of high and natives of low caste. This
consideration should be kept in view, though these instances
are solitary. The aversion of the English and Germans to inter-
marriage with negroes is not shared to the same extent by Semites
and Hamites, nor, among Europeans, by Spaniards, Portuguese,
and French. This feeling of caste only restrains nations of very
high culture from an admixture of blood with nations of a very
low order. In the newer races of mankind nothing of the sort
is to be apprehended. Moreover, as structure of language requires
long periods for its development, during which the families with
a common language maintain the closest intercourse of ideas,
common descent or continued affinity may be inferred in the
case of nations connected by a community of verbal structure and
parts of speech. No one who has studied the subject any longer
doubts that the so-called Indo-Europeans, the Semites, the Bantu
nations of South Africa, all derive the rudiments of their languages
from intercourse in a common home, where they used a common
vocabulary. Yet no comparison of the bodily characters of
Icelanders, of Hindoos of high caste, of the natives of Mada-
gascar and Easter Island, would have suggested to us that they
were all descendants of ancestors inhabiting a common home
and intermarrying. But having observed every rule of critical
caution, none but those who have formed exaggerated ideas of
the persistency of physical characters will neglect language as a
means of classification, or make light of the results of the philo-
logical researches of the present day. But where a comparison
Connection of Characters with Language. 131
of languages gives results inconsistent with the racial characters,
we necessarily suspect an admixture of blood. Hence, we have
no hesitation in reckoning the inhabitants of Kashgar among
the Turkish hybrid nations, for by their facial type they would
otherwise be classed among the Indo-Germans. We must assume
that the conquering Turkish-speaking race mingled to such a
degree with the subjugated Tadshiks of Iranian stock, that their
original bodily characters were entirely obliterated.
Linguistic relations, founded on a community of defining aux-
iliary syllables, are recognized without dispute by all philologists.
Those cases in which the similarity depends only on conformity of
structure, are more suspicious and more liable to objection. But
even in these relationship is admitted, at least with regard to the
aborigines of America. Their common use of the "incorporative"
system has induced all philologists to regard them as members
of a single family of mankind, and to separate them from the
Eskimo, who form their words by means of suffixes, especially as
there are no distinct bodily characteristics which would suggest
a real separation in the former. The association of the Ural-
Altaic nations, in which the community of the various groups
depends only on the type of linguistic structure, and its restriction
to the suffix as its morphological element, is far more doubtful.
Yet even in this instance we may assume a derivation from a
common home, because the special character of their rules of
euphony at least is peculiar to them ; and we may conjecture
that if the records of their language reached back some thousands
instead of hundreds of years, as is the case, a closer kinship
might probably be discovered, and, lastly, because their bodily
structure favours this association. On the other hand, it seems
inadmissible to elevate the Ural-Altaic groups into a Turanian
family, and to assimilate with them the Dravida languages of the
aboriginal Indians because they likewise observe laws of euphony
in the formation of words. Since these laws differ from those
of the Ural-Altaic languages, and also because their physical
characters render it imperative, we shall treat these South Indian
people as a separate branch of the human family.
THE INDUSTRIAL, SOCIAL, AND RELIGIOUS
STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT.
THE INDUSTRIAL, SOCIAL, AND RELIGIOUS
STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT.
I. THE PRIMITIVE CONDITION OF THE HUMAN RACE.
AT lie time when Europeans were astounded at the condition of
the do-called savage nations, as shown by the trans-oceanic dis-
coveries of ancient and modern times, many imaginative people
supposed the human species, on its first appearance, to have
been endowed with the highest perfections, bodily, intellectual,
and moral, and ascribed the absence of these advantages in the
coloured inhabitants of forests and islands to a culpable degra-
dation from that golden condition. In refutation of these now
harmless errors, it is sufficient to refer to the change of opinion
undergone by such a student of the subject as Herr von Martius.
At the meeting of German naturalists at Freiburg, in 1838, he
still asserted that, " Every day that I spent among the Indians of
Brazil increased my conviction that at one time they had been
quite different, and that in the course of obscure centuries, mani-
fold catastrophes had overtaken them and reduced them to the
peculiarly deteriorated and stationary condition in which I found
them." Before thirty years had elapsed, we hear from his lips the
following words respecting the same people : " As yet no evidence
is before us that the barbarous state of these regions at that
period was secondary, that it was preceded by one of higher
civilization, that this resort of ephemeral, unstable hordes was
ever occupied by a civilized people." x Nor do those other views
1 Ethnographic.
136 Stages of Development.
survive which, at the end of the last century, were entertained by
travellers who, like George Forster, filled with dreams worthy of
Rousseau, envied the people of the South Seas as a fortunate race,
in a state of nature, and not yet deprived of the ideal condition
of man by the follies of civilized life. Only the night before the
savages killed him, Lamanon, the companion of La Pe'rouse,
maintained, in conversation with his comrades, that savages
were far better than civilized people. 2 The physical beauty so
frequently extolled in the unrestrained children of nature is
generally wanting in the photographic portraits which now reach
us in such abundance. Even where it actually exists, unmarred
by the disfigurements inflicted by misguided taste, cleanliness,
the best attention to the human body, is often lacking. The
hair is in disorder and the teeth uncleaned. We expect to find
certain vices only in highly cultured but deteriorated nations, as
among the Greeks and in imperial Rome, yet any one who is but
slightly versed in the older Spanish records of American tribes, is
well aware that the latter knew of refinements of vice which never
occurred either to the Romans when Tiberius dwelt at Capri, or
to the Byzantines when Theodora, afterwards the consort of the
Emperor Justinian, roamed about with strolling players.3 We may
add, that nearly all these people were acquainted with poisons
which destroy the human embryo, and that they were used with
wanton recklessness. * This dark side of the life of uncivilized
nations has induced barbarous and inhuman settlers in trans-
oceanic regions to assume a right to cultivate as their own the
inheritance of the aborigines, and to extol the murder -of races as
a triumph of civilization.
2 Schaafhausen, Archiv fur Anthropologie. In the same spirit Heifer wrote
in his journal before he was murdered by the Andamans, " These are the much
dreaded savages ! They are timid children of nature, happy as long as no
harm is done to them." Joh. Wilh. Heifer's Reisen in Vorderasien und
Indien. Leipzic, 1873.
* Vespucci, Quattuor Navigations, passim. Of this in the case of the Aleutes
see Erman, Zeitsch. fur Ethnologic (1871), of the Tshuktshi see Wrangel,
Reise in Siberien, of the Itelmes see Steller, Kamschatka.
4 A list of the nations in which this vice is tolerated was recently given in
the Archiv fur Anthropologie. Brunswick, 1872.
The Supposed Animal Condition. 137
Other writers, led away by Darwinian dogmas, fancied they
had discovered populations which had, as it were, remained in a
former animal condition for the instruction of our times. Thus, in
the words of a History of Creation, in the taste now prevalent, "in
Southern Asia and the east of Africa, men live in hordes, mostly
climbing trees and eating fruit, unacquainted with fire, and using
no weapons but stones and clubs after the manner of the higher
apes." It can be shown that these statements are derived from the
writings of a learned scholar of Bonn, on the condition of savage
nations,* the facts of which are based either on the depositions of
an African slave of the Doko tribe, a dwarfish people in the South
of Shoa, 6 or on the assertions of Bengalese planters 7 or perhaps on
the observation of a sporting adventurer, that a mother and daughter,
and at another time a man and woman, were found in India in a
semi-animal condition. 8 On the other hand, not only have neither
nations nor even hordes in an ape-like condition ever been
encountered by any trustworthy traveller of modern times, but even
those races which in the first superficial descriptions were ranked
far below our own grade of civilization, have on nearer acquaint-
ance been placed much nearer the civilized nations. No portion
of the human race has yet been discovered which does not possess
a more or less rich vocabulary, rules of language, artificially
pointed weapons and various implements, as well as the art of
kindling fire.
Sir John Lubbock asserts in his book on Prehistoric Times, that
certain inhabitants of the Pacific Islands have no acquaintance
with fire. We are sorry to find this asserted also of the aborigines
of Van Diemen's Land, for Sir John need only have opened the
record of Abel Tasman 9 to ascertain that even the first discoverer
saw columns of smoke rising in the interior of the island. With
as little justice Lubbock asserts that the inhabitants of Fakaafo
were unacquainted with fire. This island belongs to the Union
* Archiv fur Anthropologie. * Krapf, Reisen in Ostafrika.
7 G. Pouchet, The Plurality of the Human Race. 1864.
Ausland. 1860.
9 Burney, Discoveries. The Tasmanians moreover possessed a tradition
respecting the derivation of fire. See Tylor, Early History of Mankind,
p. 301. See also Lubbock, Prehistoric Times, p. 453.
i 38 Stages of Development.
group, and is situated in the north of the Samoan Archipelago,
the inhabitants of which have been named navigators on account
of their nautical skill and extensive voyages, so that they would
long ago have conveyed fire and the art of kindling it to their
neighbours at Fakaafo, if these had been without it For any one
else it would have been warning enough, that in the dialect of
Fakaafo the word for fire occurs which, according to the various
dialects of the Malay language, is pronounced apt, afi, aht. Sir
John Lubbock, on the contrary, evades this by the supposition
that, as in the allied Maori language, the word may stand only for
light and heat. As the only foundation for his assertion he appeals
to the famous American navigator Wilkes, who noticed the absence
of cinders in every part of Fakaafo, and therefore conjectured
that the aborigines consumed their food in a raw condition. The
great work of his companion, Horatio Hale, on the languages of
the South Seas, appeared only a year after the publication of
Wilkes's discoveries. This excellent anthropologist testified not
only that a word for fire existed on this island, but, in order to
refute Wilkes's mistake, he expressly remarks that, on the evening
before their embarkation, he and his companions saw a column
of smoke rising from Fakaafo. 11 We may therefore confidently
maintain the proposition that no human family unacquainted with
fire has yet been found. 12
Fire is an instructive and powerful auxiliary of man. It is a
means that has no substitute for producing those modifications of
matter, without which our most important articles of food would
be unfit for consumption. With the aid of fire, trunks of trees
were first, and are still, hollowed out into canoes. Fire alone
scares away the fierce beasts of prey of the forest and desert the
African lion, the Asiatic tiger, the American jaguar. By fire
w According to the vocabulary in Mariner's Tonga Islands, lolo-afi signifies to
rub fire, and tolonga the grooved wood in which it is rubbed.
11 United States Exploring Expedition ; Ethnography. Philadelphia, 1846.
11 The death of the author prevents an appeal to him to alter this passage, in
which he certainly misrepresents Sir John Lubbock, who sums up his remarks
on this subject with the words: " The fact, if established, would be most im-
portant ; but it cannot be said to be satisfactorily proved that there is at
present, or has been within historical times, any race of men entirely ignorant
of fire." See Prehistoric Times, pp. 453, 454. London, 1865.
Discovery of Fire. 139
primitive man hardened his rude weapons and the points of his
wooden spears. In the absence of trained dogs, prairie fires serve
. to drive the game into the hands of the hunting tribes of Australia
and South Africa. Traces of charred wood and ashes are found
in the caves of Perigord, 13 and with yet greater significance in
the source of the Schussen, among implements of reindeer's horn,
which belong to the glacial period of Northern Europe. x *
If we now consider from what source man originally obtained
fire, the first thought will probably be that he received it as a gift
from on high by means of a flash of lightning, which set fire to a
tree. But before man could render himself master of fire as a
useful auxiliary, he must first have had a knowledge of all the
purposes to which man alone is able to adapt it. The conser-
vation of fire must therefore have been preceded by familiar
handling of it. If we may draw an inference from the observations
of those who have watched nations in a semi-natural condition, we
may add that primitive man would have fled in terror from the
spectacle of the blazing tree whenever a kindling flash darted
from the threatening cloud. The most probable conjecture is,
therefore, that it was in the vicinity of volcanic lava streams that
man first and permanently became acquainted with the benefits
of fire. 15 Alexander von Humboldt reports that twenty years
after the eruption of Jorullo, shavings could still be kindled in
the fissures of the Hornitos, or dwarf -craters. 16 Thus throughout
the life of a whole generation this lava mass offered continual
opportunities of obtaining fire. At the bottom of many craters, as
in the volcanoes of Hawai, and in the so-called Hell of Masaye,
the glowing lava has seethed for ages without intermission.
Again, in some few districts there are numbers of so-called
mud-volcanoes, or vents, emitting inflammable gas, namely, car-
buretled hydrogen. We refer to phenomena of this descrip-
tion in the United States, in China and Italy, but especially
to the perpetual fires of the peninsula of Absheron near Baku,
on the Caspian Sea, which day and night, summer and winter,
throw up blasts of flaming gas from fifteen to twenty feet in
18 See above, p. 36. M Ibid. p. 39.
15 Darwin, Descent of Man, voL i. p. 53.. M Kosmos.
140 Stages of Development.
height, 1 ? to which pious Parsees make pilgrimages from Gujerat
and Moultan in order to behold the presence of their fire-god.
A period must, however, have occurred in prehistoric times
when the flaming stream of gas was extinguished, the lava stream
grew cold, and man must have contemplated the artificial pro-
duction of fire. The realization of this problem, a great event in
the history of our civilization, was subsequently accounted for by
the myth of Prometheus, who stole fire from the king of gods.
As this legend still" endure's as a national possession among the
Ossets, or Irons, in the Caucasus, and the language of this hill
tribe is of the Indo-Germanic family, it must have existed before
the later dispersion of the Aryan races ; but as in the glacial
period fire was artificially produced at the source of the Schussen,
far from any volcanic phenomena, we must not look to this myth
for the traces of an historical event. On this point we may
even appeal to ^Eschylus who, in the now lost conclusion of his
trilogy, makes Prometheus say that he has lain in fetters for thirty
thousand years, 18 so that he also refers the theft of fire to a period
far beyond the limits of man's memory.
The most primitive method of kindling fire has been retained
by the Polynesians. A stick is rubbed obliquely up and down
the groove of a stationary piece of wood until it begins to glow.
Chamisso found fire-implements of this sort on the Sandwich
Islands, and in the Radak group of Micronesia, 1 ? and they are
common to the other Polynesians in Tahiti, New Zealand, the
Samoan and Tongan groups, 20 and even in New Caledonia. 21 Less
muscular exertion was required by the fire-drills. The earliest
contrivance of this kind is described by the Spaniards as in use
in the Antilles and the shores of South America. Two pieces
of wood were tied together, between which was jammed a
pointed stick, which was revolved until fire was kindled 22 It
was soon discovered, however, that a single piece of wood was
17 Naumann, Geognosie, vol. i.
w Westphal, Prolegomenen zu Aeschylus Tragodien. Leipzic, 1869.
19 O. von Kotzebue's Entdeckungsreisen, vol. iii. Weimar, 1821,
Tylor, Early History of Mankind, p. 303.
11 Knoblauch in the Ausland. 1866.
** Oviedo, Historia general de las Indias, lib. vL
Fire- Drills. 141
sufficient for a framework, if a cavity was previously made for the
reception of the fire-drill. This apparatus, one of the oldest
inventions of our race, reappears in all parts of the world. We
recognize it in well-known sculptures of the ancient Mexicans, 2 3 it
is still used by the Indians of Guayana, 2 * and by the Botocudos
of Brazil, 2 * while in South Africa it is used by the Bushmen, 26
Kaffirs, and Hottentots, 2 7 by the Veddahs in Ceylon, 28 and by the
aborigines of Australia. 2 9 It must not be supposed that success
in kindling fire is easy. The labour is so fatiguing that among the
Botocudos at Belmont, several individuals were in the habit of
relieving each other in the work of turning the drill. 3
Theophilus Hahn records the same of the Kaffirs^ 1 although
they live in extremely dry regions. Hermann von Schlagintweit,
in his excursions in the Himalayas, first noticed a fire apparatus
of this sort among the Leptsha, which was peculiar in that the
framework was made of hard, and the drill of soft wood. He also
adds that the labour is very fatiguing, and that as the air is highly
saturated with moisture, success is very uncertain. 3 2
When we realize the fact that the difficulty of kindling fire by
friction is so great that even in such a dry region as South Africa,
several persons take part in the fatiguing labour, the artificial
production of fire presupposes a mutual understanding between
the participators, from which fact we may .draw the forcible and
incontrovertible inference that language must have preceded
the artificial preparation of fire ; hence that the Suabians of the
glacial period already mentioned must have been in possession
of such a language, and that the psychical chasm separating man
from animals even then existed. Yet the greatest interest attaches
itself to the question whether the artificial production of fire was
M Recently again figured by O. Caspari, Die Urgeschichte der Menschheit
Leipzic, 1873.
84 C. F. Appun in the Ausland. 1872.
25 J. J. von Tschudi, Reisen durch Siidamerika. Leipzig, 1860.
w Fritsch, Eingeborne Sudafrika's.
27 Kolben's Vorgeb. d. G. Hoffnung.
89 Emeison Tennent, Ceylon, vol. ii. w A. Lortsch in the Ausland, 1866.
80 The Prince of Wied, Reise nach Brasilien, vol. ii. p. 18.
81 Globus. Sept. 1871. M Reisen in Indien und Hochasien.
142 Stages of Development.
an invention, or only a discovery. Was some powerful thinker
of primitive ages led to argue that as heat was generated by
friction, fire might be obtained by a very great increase in degree
of frictional heat? In that case the truth had dawned upon his
mind that luminous heat is distinguished from latent heat only in
its amount, and in the effect on the optic nerves, and his attempt
to kindle a fire by friction would have received Nature's assent to
an inquiry correctly propounded. In acuteness of intellect, such
a Prometheus of the glacial period would have been in no way
behind a Copernicus or a Kepler, a Champollion or a Grotefend,
a Kirchhoff or a Faraday; we could be certain that the highest
grade of intellectual power, manifesting itself now and again in
individuals, is no greater in our day than it was in classical or
biblical antiquity, and in those times no greater than in the
glacial period. When we reflect thus we must remember that
mediaeval scholastics believed a diminution to have taken place
of the powers of the human comprehension, so that even in the
sphere of the exact sciences the mighty intellects of Greeks and
Romans were regarded as unattainable prototypes. At the present
time the Chinese, whose mental development has recently been
very inactive, are persuaded that the intellectual powers of their
thinkers of past ages far exceeded the present standard. The
hypothesis of an increase or a diminution of human powers of
comprehension varies, therefore, with the self-appreciation, or the
absence of self-appreciation, of individual periods, so that at the
present time, when, owing to the highly integrated state of society,
every intellectual luminary, methodically fostered, is far more
readily enabled to diffuse his splendour, we are inclined to assume
that human sagacity is now in its meridian.
But mindful of the golden rule, that inferences must be made
only from the known to the unknown, we confess that the first
stages of civilization of our species are still far too obscure to
invalidate the conjecture that a fortunate accident revealed the
possibility of generating fire by means of friction. Yet we cannot
suppose with Adalbert Kuhn, that a dry tendril, whirled round
by a storm in the hollow of a branch, was ignited. We even
doubt the physical possibility of the assertion of the Voguls of
the Ural mountains, that a broken tree rubbing against a neigh-
Fire- Drills. 143
bouring stem until it ignites, can cause a conflagration of the
forest. As the same mode of producing fire and the same kind-
ling apparatus have been found among all nations of both
hemispheres, the accidental discovery must have resulted from
an attempt to drill a hole : we meet with pierced implements
though only of horn even among the relics of the inhabitants
of Europe of the glacial period. Yet as one individual must have
become exhausted before fire was kindled, and as the heat would
be expended during each interruption, the fact that the drilling
was continued without a pause still remains without explanation.
But the list of possibilities cannot be exhausted, so that we cannot
yet hope to understand the sequence of events in ages so remote.
The old frictional apparatus, uncertain in its result, and requiring
for its management two workmen at the least, attained its highest
development when it was discovered that the drill might be set
in motion by a string caused to wind itself on and off. This
invention spread over North America to the Sioux, or Dahcotas, 33
as well as to the Iroquois. 34 The Aleutians still more ingeniously
sunk the point of the drill into the tinder, and held the upper end
fast in their teeth by a mouthpiece made of bone. Chamisso saw
tinder set on fire in a few seconds when the string was pulled
quickly. 35 All oriental nations made use of the same apparatus in
ancient times. Even Pliny speaks of rubbing fire as of a well-
known fact. 36 According to Adalbert Kuhn, the Brahminical
Hindoos, by means of a string winding itself on and off, used to
make a stick, called Pramantha, rotate between two pieces of
wood, named Arani. This philologist leaves us to decide whether
the name of Prometheus is to be derived from Pramdtha, theft,
or from the drill Pramantha, and at the same time reminds us
that the Thurians formerly worshipped a Zeus Promantheus.
However this may be, the ancient Greeks produced fire in the
same manner as the Indians of the time of the Vedas. 3 ? Their
pyreia or fire implements consisted of two parts, a base, named
M Tylor, Early History of Mankind, p. 343.
* 4 Waitz, Anthropologie, vol. iii.
* 5 O. von Kotzebue's Reisen. Weimar, 1841.
M Hist. nat. lib. ii. cap. 3, humani ignes . . . attrita inter se ligna.
17 A, Kuhn, Die Herabkunft des Feuers. Berlin, 1859.
144 Stages of Development.
eschara, of soft wood, ivy by preference, and the trypanon, answer-
ing to the drill, made of laurel wood.3 8 This mode of kindling
fire was retained till quite recently in Germany, for popular super-
stition attributed miraculous power to a fire generated by this
ancient method. The English word wildfire also refers to the
kindling of fire by the friction of wood. In Germany a cylinder
of oak was revolved by a rope in the space between two oaken
beams, in order to generate the so-called Nothfeuer (need-fire),
which was supposed to avert epidemics. At Edessa, in Hanover,
even in the year 1828, such a need-fire was kindled on the out-
break of the quinsy among the pigs, and the murrain among the
cows. 39 In other nations of the Indo-Germanic family, it was
necessary that every fire with claims to sanctity should be kindled
by friction. If the fire in the Temple of Vesta at Rome was
allowed to die out by the neglect of a priestess, a new flame was
kindled, not by flint and steel, though this had long been in use,
but by friction on a consecrated board/ At the beginning of
each of their short centuries, fire was rekindled by friction by the
ancient Mexicans ; in the same spirit the Suaheli extinguished their
fire on the first day of the year, and kindled a new one with the
fire-drill/ 1 In Europe the striking of sparks from hard stones,
with or without steel, is of post- Homeric antiquity; Pliny pre-
serves for us the name of a supposed inventor/ 2
As no people has yet been discovered in a fireless condition,
the term savage is inapplicable, and has arisen from an erroneous
view. Nor should we speak of the children of nature ; we must
at least term them half-civilized nations, for the natural condition
of mankind is too distant for our observation, or even for our con-
ception. Let us rather picture to ourselves some one who had
never seen a rose, coming by chance upon a rose-bush in full bear-
ing ; side by side with the ripening fruit, he would see withered
* Theophrastus, Hist, plantarum. v. 9.
38 Kuhn, Herabkunft des Feuers.
40 Hermann G611, Die Geheimnisse der Vesta. Ausland, 1870.
41 Steere in the Journal of the Anthropol. Institute, vol. i.
48 The greater part of the above was published by the author in the Austrian
Zeitschrift fur Kunst und Wissenschaft. 1872.
Veddahs and Mincopies. 145
flowers, blossoms in every stage of development, opening and
closed buds, shoots with swelling nodes, and, finally, new eyes
nestling in the axils of the leaves. If he carefully traces the
giadual transitions, the history of the plant's life lies unfolded
before him. Past, present, and future do not here follow one
another, but exist side by side. Looking only to the sequences
of the various stages, it may be asserted, paradoxical as it sounds,
that the fruit is younger than the rose, the rose younger than the
bud ; for the fruit followed the blossom, and the flowers were
preceded by the swelling of the bud, as yet hardly distinguishable
from the leaves, just as in a morphological sense it may be said that
the boy is an older phenomenon than the aged man. Nor must
we expect to find nations still in a budding condition, although
it is possible to pronounce in which race of mankind the oldest
or, rather, the most primitive condition may still be observed. The
lowest grades of civilization have hitherto been usually sought
among the Hottentots and Bushmen of Southern Africa, among
the Veddahs of Ceylon, the Mincopies of the Andamans, the
Australians and the kindred Tasmanians, and, finally, among
the Eskimo, the Fuegians, and the Botocudos of Brazil. With
the exception of the last, we find all the people enumerated
either at the extreme margin of continents, and mainly on their
southern extremities, or on remote islands or island continents ; it
is doubtful whether, as feeble tribes, they have been driven to the
outskirts of continents, or whether, having prematurely separated
themselves from other races of mankind, they could no longer be
reached by the increasing blessings of civilization, or perhaps,
owing to the diminution of their own numbers, were unable
even to preserve those advantages of culture which they had
formerly acquired. But it is only the misapprehension of the
unlearned that could rank nations of such high intellectual powers
as the Hottentots and Eskimo with these still primitive people.
Whether the Australians and Tasmanians rank among the lowest
human beings will be sufficiently shown in a later chapter
devoted to these people. But the other nations previously men-
tioned have risen considerably in our estimation on nearer
acquaintance.
The Bushmen, or San, have hitherto been regarded as the link
146 Tke Stages of Development.
connecting monkeys with men. And I willingly admit that, in
1852, I saw Bushmen in London whose animal appearance
might well have cured any one of the beautiful delusion that all
men were made in the image of God. But Livingstone soofi
afterwards warned his countrymen not to believe that the piteous
objects exhibited were genuine types of an African race, since
ugly individuals were alone selected and brought to Europe to
gratify curiosity. 42 It is only in the desert of Kalahari that the
race of Bushmen has degenerated to a dwarfish size. Livingstone
and Chapman describe some of those further north, near Lake
Ngami, as well-grown and handsome men. Their demeanour
and appearance exhibit the self-respect characteristic of all races
living in unrestricted liberty." Although naked, the strictest
modesty prevails among them, and the delicacy with which they
woo a maiden, as well as the circumstance that their marriages
are made only from affection, places them high above many other
nations. Chapman relates with emotion his surprise, when out
of gratitude for his having given them a share of his game, some
Bushmen presented him one morning with a cup of water, the
most costly gift in those thirsty regions. 4 $ It is also noteworthy
that these lowly people find pleasure in artistic experiments.
With great firmness of hand they have painted the cliffs from
the Cape to beyond the Orange River with figures of men and
animals in red, brown, white, and black colours, or etched them in
light tints on a dark ground ; the copies which we possess justify
the assertion that the outlines appear more true to nature than
those of many of the Egyptian monuments. & Lichtenstein con-
tends that Bushmen have a conception of a supreme Being,47 but
later travellers suppose them to believe in a male and female
deity, 48 and they certainly maintain priests or sorcerers. w As it
Missionary Journeys in Southern Africa, vol. i. p. 64.
Travels into the Interior of South Africa. 1868.
G. Fritsch, Drei Jahre in Siidafrika.
Chapman, Travels into the Interior of South Africa.
G. Fritsch, Die Eingebomen Siidafrika's.
Reisen im siidlichen Afrika.
Waitz, Anthropologie, voL ii. p. 346.
Fritsch, Eingeborne.
Veddahs and Mincopies. 147
is proverbial among them that death is merely a sleep, it is almost
a matter of course that they pray to the deceased as Livingstone
ascertained. Intemperance and dirt are the only vices laid to
their charge.
Another primitive people is to be found in the gloomy forests
of Ceylon. There dwell the Veddahs, now said to be reduced
to 8000 heads, a nearly naked hunting tribe, whose language is
supposed to be Cingalese uncontaminated by Sanskrit or Pali.
Their skulls are narrow (index of breadth 66 to 78) but always of
considerable height, tolerably mesognathous, and with the cheek-
bones but little prominent. 5 They traffic with their neighbours
in dumb show, exchanging ivory and wax for implements and
utensils such as were used in the iron age. They do not reject
the most disgusting food, such as putrid meat, but on the
other hand bind themselves by dietary laws, never touching vic-
tuals prepared by a Kandyan from fear of losing caste, for strangely
enough they claim a higher rank for their race, and their claim is
admitted by their neighbours. When they are described as wor-
shippers of the devil, this implies that they endeavour to appease
the powers of evil by their worship. Their hunting grounds are
distributed among the families and are regarded strictly as pro-
perty.* 1 In the midst of polygamous nations, the Veddahs are
remarkable for marrying only one wife, and among them it is
considered that death alone can part man and wife. 52
As of the Veddahs so of the Mincopies, the inhabitants of the
Andaman Islands, we possess but scanty information, although
for nearly twenty years past the English have been in the habit
of transporting their Indian criminals to this archipelago. As
there is no lack of four-footed game on these islands, hunting is
a common means of procuring food among the aborigines, who
are dreaded by their enemies as good marksmen. S3 They make
nets admirably adapted for catching fish,54 and are yet more
famous for the graceful lines of their canoes, which are made
40 Barnard Davis, Thesaurus Craniorum, p. 132.
M Sir Emerson Tennent, Ceylon, vol. ii. pp. 439-451.
82 Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. i. p. 51. Lubbock, Prehistoric Times, p. 344.
** Frederic Mouat, Andaman Islanders, p. 321. 1863.
* Ibid. p. 326.
148 The Stages of Development.
of trunks of trees scooped out until the sides are no thicker
than those of a wooden band-box. ss They venture far out to sea
in these canoes to spear fish by torchlight As their language
has not yet been thoroughly investigated, it would be quite pre-
mature to deny that they have any religious feelings. Their
mutual intercourse is courteous and genial, and the affection
between parents and children is peculiarly tender. They have
been classed among the inferior races on account of their nudity,
and probably also because they have always offered armed
opposition to any attempts to land upon their shores.
The inhabitants of the Straits of Magellan, a region of constant
damp and comparative cold, have always been described as the
scarecrows of mankind. The people ethnographically most nearly
allied to them are the Araucanians; we must regard them as a
physically feeble tribe which could only find refuge from more
powerful oppressors in the inhospitable district of Terra del
Fuego. Two inventions, which are peculiar to these people, prove
that, although the lowest of mankind, they are not destitute of all
intelligence. As will be shown when We speak of the nautical
skill of shore-dwelling populations, the Fuegians are the only
South Americans who undertake voyages in hollow trunks of
trees, from Ecuador to Cape Horn, and from Cape Horn to far
beyond La Plata, They constantly keep a fire in these canoes,
to which circumstance they and their country owe the name given
to them by Europeans. In air so highly saturated with moisture,
it is very difficult to set fire to wood. The fire-drill would most
likely be useless, and therefore the inhabitants of the Islands of
Magellan are among the few races of mankind who strike sparks
from iron pyrites and catch them on tinder, s 6 In breeding their
sporting dogs they pay attention to the rules of cross-breeding. 57
Sad to say, they kill the old women rather than the dogs in periods
45 Frederick Mouat, Andaman Islanders, p. 316.
* W. Parker Snow, Off Tierra del Fuego, vol. ii. p. 360. 1857. Perhaps,
however, they may have borrowed this invention from the Patagonians, who
use flint and steel like Europeans. Musters in the Journal of the Anthropo-
logical Institute, vol. L
" Darwin, Variations of Plants and Animals under Domestication, vol. ii.
p. 207.
Fuegians and Botocudos. 149
of famine, alleging that the dogs catch sea-otters, and that the
old women do not.* 8 Charles Darwin also says, "I was inces-
santly struck, whilst living with the Fuegians on board the
Beagle, with the many little traits of character showing how similar
their minds are to ours." & Fitzroy ascribes to them a belief in a
just deity, who sends adversity as a punishment for delinquencies. 60
Perhaps the Brazilian Botocudos, of all the inhabitants of the
world, are most nearly in the primitive state. Although they
do not live at the southern extremity of a continent, their native
country is inhospitable, and was the last of the coast districts of
Brazil to be colonized by Europeans. The Botocudos live in
complete nudity and disfigure themselves by inserting wooden
plugs in their lips and cheeks, from which habit they have received
their name, which is derived from the Portuguese botoqtie (stopper) ;
they call themselves Engkerakmung. They gain their livelihood
by the arrow, and with a forethought rare in other tribes, wrap a
cord round their left hands as a protection against the recoil
of the string. They live in the age of the polished but unpierced
stone implements, build huts, sleep on matting, cook in earthen-
ware vessels, and are said to worship the moon as the author of
creation. 61 The use of their hunting-grounds is permitted only to
the proprietors, and poaching is avenged in single combats not
unlike duels. 62 To provide communication in their territory,
suspension bridges are constructed with the stems of climbing
plants (9ipo). 63 Let us add that their language possesses an ex-
pression for blushing, 6 * and that they enliven their feasts with
songs, which are however rude and deficient in imagination. In
the second half of the seventeenth century the Engkerakmung were
still so powerful that they were able to destroy three landing-places,
totally expelling the Portuguese from the province of Porto Seguro,
a deed which they could never have accomplished had there not
been some national feeling binding all the various tribes together.
But their greatest achievement has yet to be related ; the Nakenuk,
88 Darwin, Journal of Researches.
49 Descent of Man, vol. i. p. 232.
60 W. P. Snow.
81 Prince of Vied, Reise nach Brasilien.
" Ibid. M Ibid. M Ibid.
150 The Stages of Development.
one of their tribes, presented themselves regularly on September
6th, for three successive years, at a Brazilian settlement, to be
entertained, according to agreement, at an annual carousal ; they
must, therefore, have adopted some means of calculating time. 6 *
Possibly we are altogether mistaken in considering the races
just described to be lower than all others. Their languages
are very imperfectly known, and until these have been investi-
gated, it is impossible for anybody to understand their mental
conceptions. It has always been passing travellers who have
drawn the most doleful pictures of so-called savages, and especially
have asserted the poverty of their language. This, for instance,
had been the fate of the Carib language until Alexander von
Humboldt declared that "it combines wealth, grace, strength,
and gentleness. It has expressions for abstract ideas, for Futurity,
Eternity, and Existence, and enough numerical terms to express
all possible combinations of our numerals." 66
As the tribes above mentioned live by hunting or fishing, and
reside mainly on islands, they will, before long, become extinct.
We do not mean to imply that pastoral tribes will not also die
out, as is the certain fate of the Hottentots and all the nomads
of Northern Siberia. The North American hunting tribes, in the
territory of the Hudson's Bay Company, have continued to thrive
under the protection of favourable laws, but now that the privileges
of the Company have been abolished, these tribes will probably
meet with the general fate. The opening of the great western
railroads to California will greatly accelerate the extinction of the
Bison tribes and the other remnants of the Indian race, and the
next century will not find any Redskins in the United States, or
at most as domesticated curiosities they may drag on a miserable
existence for a few years. This process by which the beings of
a past age pass away ought to be no mystery to us.
Above all, the idea of sanguinary suppression must not be enter-
tained. The Spaniards are very frequently reproached for special
barbarity. We have no intention of denying that they were deeply
5 J. J. von Tschudi, Reisen durch SUdamerika. 1860.
66 Alex, von Humboldt, Eine wissenschaftliche Biographic. Herausgegeben
von Karl Bruhns. 1872.
Extinction of Barbarous Nations. 151
stained with Indian blood, but this was caused by greed and not
by cruelty; the extermination was always lamented, and an attempt
to counteract it was made by lenient though powerless laws. The
transatlantic history of Spain has no case comparable in iniquity
to the act of the Portuguese in Brazil, who deposited the clothes
of scarlet-fever or small-pox patients on the hunting-grounds of the
natives, in order to spread the pestilence among them ; 6 7 and of
the North Americans who used strychnine to poison the wells
which the Redskins were in the habit of visiting in the deserts of
Utah ; ^ of the wives of Australian settlers, who, in times of famine,
mixed arsenic with the meal which they gave to starving natives ; 6 9
or, finally, of the English colonists in Tasmania, who shot the
natives when they had no better food for their dogs. 7 Yet
neither cruelty nor oppression have anywhere entirely extirpated a
human race, nor have even new diseases, including the small-pox,
annihilated nations ; still less is it due to the brandy epidemic :
a far more powerful angel of destruction now acts on races once
joyous and happy, and this is, weariness of life. The unfortunate
inhabitants of the Antilles killed themselves wholesale by mutual
agreement, partly by poison and partly by the halter. 7 1 A mis-
sionary at Oaxaca told the Spanish historian Zurita, that whole
tribes of the Chontals and Mijes had agreed to renounce all
intercourse with their wives or to destroy the unborn progeny by
poison. ? 2 The true cause of the extinction of so many various
races of mankind is that no new generation springs up among
them. It is the decrease of births in the Sandwich Islands 73 and
Tahiti which is bringing about the disappearance of the tribes.
The inhabitants of Taio-Hae, an island of the Mendana group,
67 Prince of Vied, Reise nach Brasilien, vol. ii. p. 64. Tschudi, Reisen
durch Siidamerika.
68 R. Burton, The City of the Saints, p. 576. 1862.
69 Waitz (Gerland), Anthropologie, vol. vi. Eyre, Central Australia, voL ii.
p. 175. 1845.
ro Bonwick, The Last of the Tasmanians, p. 50. 1870.
71 Las Casas, Hist, de las Indias.
72 Zurita, Chefs de la Nouvelle Espagne.
78 In the first census in the Sandwich Islands in 1832, 130,315 individuals
were counted, in 1853 they had diminished to 73,138, and in 1872 to 49,044.
Globus, June, 1873.
152 The Stages of Development.
diminished from 400 to 250 inhabitants in the course of three
years, during which period only three or four births took place. 74
Certain misunderstood instances help to explain this fact. A
young Botocudo boy was brought up by a Brazilian family at Bahia,
attended the schools and the university, obtained a medical
diploma, and for a time practised as a physician at Bahia. Pro-
found melancholy had always been the chief feature of his
character. One day he disappeared, and years afterwards his
adopted parents received intelligence that he had discarded
clothes and education, and was roaming about the forests with
his tribe. 75 A similar case was witnessed by Dobrizhoffer among
the Abipones ; and he also relates the story of a Spanish lady
who, with her children, fell into the hands of this warlike tribe,
and remained with them till a ransom was obtained. Her son
Raymond and her daughter, who had grown up among the Red-
skins, entirely refused to return. ? 6 The late Admiral Fitzroy
brought a Fuegian to England, where he was christened and
brought up under the name of Jemmy Button, and was for a
time made much of as a pet in good society. He was taken
back to his native country in the expedition in which Charles
Darwin went round the world. On his return to his own home,
Jemmy Button, who in Europe had always worn gloves and
polished boots,77 at once became a naked, unwashed, unkempt
Fuegian, as he had formerly been, and in 1855 no longer differed
from his fellows. 7 8 Another well-known case of this sort is that of
an Australian named Bungari, who was educated at Sydney, where
he gained prizes at the college, and spoke Latin well, but who
afterwards escaped from civilization into the bush, and declared
that education had been of no use but to make him conscious of
his misery. 7 9 The hydrographer Neumayer also relates that,
having lost his way on the Lower Murray in 1861, he was taken by
T4 Quatrefages, Rapport.
T J. J. von Tschudi, Reisen in Sudamerika.
Te Geschichte der Abiponer. Wien, 1783.
TT C. Darwin, Journal of Researches, p. 207.
Tt Philipps, The Missionary of Ticrra del Fuego, 1861 ; and Parker Snow,
Off Tierra del Fuego, vol. ii. p. 29.
* Bonwick, The Last of the Tasmanians, p. 359.
Extinction of Barbarous Nations. 153
the natives to a naked black man, who noted in his pocket-book,
in faultless English, the names of the most important localities
'through which he was to pass on his return. This literary Aus-
tralian, who was at that time twenty-four years of age, had been
educated at a missionary school in Adelaide. 80
Unsympathetic anthropologists have endeavoured to prove by
such cases as these that men of a different colour from their own
belong to other species. These examples show principally that
the measure of mental capacity is not unequally distributed, but
we are also surprised to see that the so-called savage prefers a life
of freedom to all the advantages and conveniences of civilization.
The difficulty of accustoming hunting tribes to a sedentary life, is
not that they are incapable of living in our way, but that they choose
to live in their own way. They look upon all labour as degrading,
and on hunting as the only dignified and manly occupation. 81
" The black man does not work," say the Australians, " for he is of
high birth." 82 When the English and Dutch colonists settled on
the eastern shores of the United States, a native was here and there
observed watching from an elevation how the farmer followed his
plough, not in order to learn his secret, but first to gaze in wonder,
and then to turn away in pity, as if he silently thought, with the
Latin poet, that life could not possibly be worth more than the
pleasures which render it desirable (non propter vitam vivendi
perdere causas). That this is the final impression of the native
we may perceive from another trait. The Red Indians of North
America imagine the next world to be a continuation of the present
existence. The Great Spirit, as they hope, will transplant them to
regions abounding in game. 8 ^ Thus the warlike Maori of New
Zealand imagine life after death as a constant series of skirmishes
and battles in which the blessed are always victorious. Our
Germanic forefathers cherished the same hopes. The life of the
* Neumayer, at the meeting of the Anthropological Society at Berlin, April
I5th, 1871.
81 According to Charlevoix this is the case with the Algonkins and Iroquois
(Nouvelle France. 1744). They show great industry, however, in the pre-
paration of their hunting and fishing tackle.
82 White fellows work, not black fellows ; black fellow gentleman." Hale,
United States Exploring Expedition ; Ethnography, p. 109.
M Charlevoix, Nouvelle France. 1744.
154 The Stages of Development.
uncivilized man appears to him so full of enjoyment that he can
think of another life only as an enhancement of the same. Now
let us ask ourselves whether we should be satisfied with an. en-
hancement of our present existence ; whether an artisan would like
to imagine the life after death as a cotton mill a mile in length.
Or can we suppose that a Londoner, who goes into the country a
very few times during the year, and some years not at all, could
imagine the next world to be an exaggerated London ? We must
therefore conclude that in the lowest social grades the sense of
physical ease is far greater, the appreciation of life far smaller ;
that the so-called savage prefers to renounce existence rather than
undergo the burdens of civilization. Had the home of the ancient
Teutons, as Tacitus describes them, been in North America, they
would in all likelihood have succumbed, after the discovery by
Europeans, to the same fatality which has destroyed the Algonkins
and the " Five Nations." The transition from hunting to careful
husbandry must be slowly effected during several generations, or
the extinction of the race is inevitable. We therefore see that
those natives of the New World who had already reached a higher
grade of civilization, such as the natives of Mexico, Yucatan,
Central America, Ecuador, Peru, and Chili, not only do not die
out, but that now, after about three hundred years, are again
becoming the dominant races in their own country, although in a
less advanced state of civilization.
When comparing hunting tribes with literary nations, there is
one circumstance which we ought never to forget. We are all
slaves of society, laboriously tutored from our youth upwards to
perform the work of a wheel, or often enough of a mere peg or
a screw, in the machinery of civil life. Freedom is enjoyed only
by the Botocudo, the Australian, or the Eskimo. We never feel
the loss of natural liberty, for it is impossible to lose what has
never been possessed. But, lest these words should be deemed a
lamentation over a lost Paradise, we will add that on the other
hand civilized man enjoys one liberty which coloured hunting
tribes may well envy him, namely, intellectual liberty. It has
frequently been asked whether all savages have religious feelings.
No ethnologist will put this question. He knows that the nearer
the state of nature, the greater is the belief in Nature. The sway
Wild Nutritive Plants. 155
of the incredible is nowhere stronger than in the mind of the so-
called savage, who trembles all his life before the creations of his
own imagination. A choice was offered to our species ; we were
free either to become slaves in an organized society, but to be
free from the terrors of imagination, or, disencumbered of all
social bonds, to range as lords over wide hunting-grounds, but to
be scared by every frivolous and ugly dream, and to remain the
prey of a childish fear of spectres.
n. FOOD AND ITS PREPARATION.
WHEN first considering the primitive development of the human
race, we regarded it as self-evident that the scene of its first growth
must have been in a region where daily food is freely offered for
the mere trouble of taking it. This is the case only in the tropics,
so that it was impossible to conceive that sacred garden in which
our first parents were as yet free from the cares of providing sus-
tenance, except as adorned with the feathered crowns of palm
trees. There are even now small communities which are allowed
to reap where they have not sown, and to gather where they have
not planted. In the region of the sago palm in the Sea of Banda,
Malays and Papuans find supplies of food always awaiting them.
In many coral groups of the South Seas and the Indian Ocean,
the meals throughout the whole course of the year consist only
of cocoa-nuts, or, at most, fishing occasionally supplies a change.
The whole family of palms in general is the readiest foster-mother
of mankind. Among the trees cultivated by the natives in the
tropical parts of South America, is the Guilelma speriosa, which
bears the pupunhas, resembling the apricot or the egg-plum. It
must have been cultivated from time immemorial, and propagated
by grafts, as the originally hard stone has been reduced to fibres or
entirely changed into pulp. 1 The forests on the Amazon are like
a neglected orchard, in which the Brazilian chestnut (Bertholletia
excelsa) ripens its almond-like seeds, and the cocoa, the pine-apple,
the Sapodilla plum (Achras sapotd}, the Avocado pear (Persea,
1 Martius, Ethnographic.
156 Pood and its Preparation.
gratissima) grow wild, as well as many berries, and plum and
cherry-like fruits; the Miriti (Mauritia flexuosd) also furnishes
palm wine and food. Here, then, food is constantly supplied,
and in abundant variety. 2 In Central Africa the doom palm
(Hyphaena thebaica\ differing from all other palm trees in having a
branched stem, annually bears above two hundred nutritious nuts
as large as oranges. 3 By the side of this palm, the date, in the
oases of the Sahara, affords sustenance not only to the rider but
also to his horse. It is true that it no longer grows wild anywhere,
and to secure a harvest the blossoms of the male tree must be
artificially placed in connection with those of the female plant
The bread-fruit tree has been transplanted by the Polynesians
from its home in the Moluccas and the Philippines, across the
South Seas. During eight successive months of the year it ripens
fruits as large as melons, which, when buried in the earth, may be
preserved in an edible condition during the other four months. 4 This
latter custom is however not universal, for the younger Pritchard
observes, 5 that the yams ripen in the six months during which
the bread-fruit is failing or altogether absent; yams, however,
certainly presuppose some degree of cultivation. According to
J. R. Foster's calculation, twenty-seven bread-fruit trees, which
would about cover an English acre with their shade, are sufficient
for the support, during the eight months of fruit-bearing, of from
ten to twelve people. If we knew with certainty the original
habitat of the pisang or plantain, which three times a year bears
from seventy to eighty pounds of fruit in clusters, and according
to an often-cited calculation of A. von Humboldt, 6 yields on an
equal surface of ground fifty times as much nourishment as wheat,
we should be inclined to believe that the first appearance of our
race was under the picturesque shade of the tattered oar-like
leaves of the Musaceae. Outside the tropics, however, there are
also dense thickets of trees, showering edible and easily preserved
fruits on men who shun labour. The Mezquite forests in North
* Martius and P. Gumilla, Orinoco.
* Sir Samuel Baker in the Proceedings of the Royal Geogr. Society. 1866.
4 Charles Martins, From Spitzbergen to the Sahara.
5 Polynesian Reminiscences. 1866.
* Bemerkungen auf einer Reise um das Welt 1783.
Wild Nutritive Plants. 157
America cover .the ground to the depth of an inch with fallen
pods, which are not only greedily devoured by horses and mules,
but from which an acid beverage is prepared for man's consump-
tion, while in Mexico the beans are said to be ground and baked
into bread. It is at any rate certain that these seeds of the
Algarrobia or Prosopis glandulosa are carefully packed in baskets
and stored by the Mohave tribes on the Western Colorado, to
serve as a resource in case of the failure of other and more favoured
fruits. 7 Pods like those of these acacias of the dry western parts
of North America, are produced in the Pampas of La Plata by the
Prosopis horrida. The present inhabitants call the fruit St. John's
bread (algarroba), but except in name it has nothing in common
with the pods of the Ceratonia siliqua of the south of Europe.
The fruit is picked up twice a year by the Abipones, and eaten
either raw or mixed with water, and converted by fermentation
into a vinous beverage. 8
Although the supplies of food hitherto enumerated belong
chiefly to the plains, the mountain sides are not totally destitute.
In the Cordilleras of Chili the araucarias, which there take the
place of our conifers, produce spherical fruits, which are as large as
a man's head, and which contain from two to three hundred nuts,
each of which is twice the size of an almond, and when roasted
fresh resembles a chestnut in flavour. As two hundred of these
nuts are sufficient for a day's food for the greatest eater, eighteen
araucarias are sufficient for a year's sustenance. 9 But we need
not go to the Andes of Antuco for such instances. The pine
forests of Southern Europe might also be cited ; nay, even in the
stone-pine of our mountains, which rarely grows at an altitude of
less than four thousand feet, we ourselves possess a tree yielding
food and growing wild. The fact may be mentioned here that
the potato was found wild in the highlands of Chili ; and that in
Peru the quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa) grows at an altitude equal
to Mont Blanc; without this plant it is hard to believe that a
dense population on Lake Titicaca could have built the famous
temple dedicated to the worship of the sun.
T Mollhausen, Tagebuch. 8 Dobrizhoffer, Geschichte der Abiponer.
8 Poppig, Reisen.
158 Food and its Preparation.
Although the native habitats of our cereals are still unknown,
there yet exist in boggy marshes wild graniferous plants which
have hitherto escaped cultivation. In North America the natives
collected, and still collect, the ears of the marsh millet (Zizania
aquaticd). The banks of the pools, back-waters, and igarapes
(side streams), of the Rio Negro in Brazil are covered with wild
rice (Oryza subulata\ the ripe grains of which the colonist as he
passes in his boat has only to strip off. 11 Quite recently Schwein-
furth 12 has mentioned another species of rice (Oryza punctatci),
which at the rainy season makes its appearance in all the pools in
the Bongo country, in the neighbourhood of the Gazelle river, and
which, though not collected by the negroes of that district, is
considered a pleasant article of food by the Baggara Arabs and
also at Darfur. Even the arid plains of Kalahari produce many
edible roots, bulbs, beans, juicy fruits, and the esculent maguli,
the milky juice of which allays thirst X 3
The examples given by no means exhaust the list of the escu-
lent plants of the desert. Those who have studied the subject
will be able to add many others, or some will even be surprised
that we have overlooked important instances. Yet enough has
been said for our purpose. Nor is our enumeration of different
sorts of food intended to uphold the idea that man in his earliest
stages of development depended solely on the vegetable kingdom
for his nutriment, and, like Brahmins and Buddhists, passed over
the animal kingdom with holy awe. Vegetable products claim
precedence because man is fitted for a vegetable diet, both by
his dentition and digestive system, so that hunger must have
driven him to change his mode of nourishment. But even animals
which are classed among graminivora by comparative anatomists
do not adhere rigidly to the diet allotted to them. As the apes
of the New World are exactly analogous "to man in dental
structure, which is the point with which we are here primarily
concerned, it is a significant fact that a similar abnormal mode of
10 The Acclimatization Society of Berlin has since 1870 undertaken the culti-
vation of Indian rice, and, as it appears, successfully. Ausland, 1872.
11 Von Martius, Ethnographic, vol. i. p. 679.
12 Im Herzen von Afrika.
" Chapman's Travels into the Interior of South Africa, voL ii. p. 297. 1868.
Pantophagy. 159
subsistence has been observed in them also. Thus, according
-to Otto Kersten's 1 * description, baboons gather leaves and leaf
buds, blossoms and half-ripe fruit, dig up bulbs and roots, but also
pursue such animals as they are able to overpower. They turn
over stones in order to find the insects on the lower side. Pupae
of ants and butterflies, larvae of beetles, smooth-skinned cater-
pillars, flies, and spiders are welcome prey. They are also most
inveterate birds-nesters, devouring the eggs and nestlings of any
but the largest birds ; nay, they catch the fledglings and seize
mice, devouring them with manifest satisfaction. Not unlike the
description of these baboons are the remarks of Alfred Lortsch
on the Australians, who not only eat marsupials, but all sorts of
birds, even carrion kites, eels, fish of every kind, bats, flying
foxes, frogs, lizards, snakes, and worms. 1 * We have lately seen
a similar list given by Schweinfurth, who says of the Bongo or
Dor negroes, that they allow no animal food, with the exception
of dogs and men, to escape them ; they take rats, snakes, carrion
kites, hyaenas, fat land scorpions, winged ants, and caterpillars. 16
F. Appun says of the Indians of British Guiana, that " Game
and fish constitute their chief food, but they do not despise rats,
monkeys, alligators, frogs, worms, caterpillars, ants, larvae, and
beetles." x ? The disgust caused by any article of consumption is
merely conventional, or arises from fear of the unknown. Nor are
civilized Europeans justified in shuddering at the Chinese for
considering swallows' nests and trepang (Holothnrid) as great
delicacies, or because in Arabia a flight of. locusts is greeted as a
feast given by God, when they themseelvs do not shrink from
the trail of snipe, nor from lobsters and crayfish, although the
latter, as water scavengers, act both as grave-digger and grave.
Hence, in picturing to ourselves the mode of subsistence in use
among the original stock of our race before the institution of
husbandry, and even before the adoption of hunting, we must
not suppose that vegetable fare alone appeased their hunger, but
that everything was seized that seemed fit to eat. Turning first to
14 Reisen des Baron von der Decker in Ostafrika;
u Ausland. 1866.
M Globus, Bd. xxii. No. 5. 7 Ausland. 1872.
r6o Food and its Preparation.
the sea-side at every season of the year, we may gather edible
shell-fish from the shoals, and even from the bottom of the sea,
as well as snails in considerable quantities. The accumulations
of shells of edible molluscs, which extend in heaps along the
shores of the Danish islands, and are known to archaeologists
under the name of kitchen-middens, consist of the shells of four
species of molluscs found in the Baltic, which formed the suste-
nance of the inhabitants of the shores from the palaeolithic to the
neolithic age. 18 As soon as attention was directed to these
remains, similar accumulations were recognized in Scotland, the
United States, Brazil, and Australia.
The capture of fish without the use of fishing apparatus,
either net or line, is an every-day occupation in Kamtshatka.
Fifteen miles in the interior of this peninsula, Kennan X 9 found
the sluggish streams polluted by the bodies of dead and putrifying
salmon. He saw fish of this species from 1 8 to 20 inches long,
laboriously wending their way upwards in brooks scarcely deep
enough to cover their backs with water, so that they could be
taken out with the hand. In Cambodia, where fishing-tackle is
not used, Adolf Bastian 20 observed that the natives let the water
of the river Tasavai into a canal, dammed it up, and then drained
it off again, in order to catch in their hands the fish which had
entered during the interval. A Chinaman at Calumpit, in the
island of Luzon, was seen by F. Jager 2I to do exactly the same
thing. Poisoning the water, as it is practised in South America,
presupposes more reflection and more protracted observation of
nature. The process in use in Guiana has been elaborately
described by F. Appun, 22 who saw the Cambodian system of
damming and draining in use among the Indians of that district.
It would evidently be a hopeless undertaking to point to any
one region of the earth as that which, by a constant supply to
meet daily needs, was best adapted for the home of our first ances-
tors before they were strengthened by thought and practice ; on
the contrary, innumerable districts of both continents of our
See above, p. 40. lf Tent Life in Siberia. 1871.
20 Volker Ostasiens. Jena, 1868.
fl Reisen in den Philippinen, p. 74. Berlin, 1873. ** Ausland. 1870.
Cannibalism. 161
planet were fully adapted for the reception of man. The facts
which we have put together may, however, free us from the old
mistake of supposing that the spread of our race from one centre
of creation to remote continents, could only have taken place
under more mature conditions. Of food, at least, there can have
been no want : the profusion, greater in some localities than ' in
others, and the narrow regions to which palatable articles of food
were originally confined, may have contributed much to entice
tribes which had roamed abroad and had discovered these new
sources of food, to settle in the uttermost corners of the world.
Throughout historic and such prehistoric times as are susceptible
of investigation, nations have constantly been in a state of migra-
tion, adhesion to the soil being peculiar to highly advanced states
of society.
We must not here entirely omit to mention a custom unworthy
of the human race. 2 ^ While it seldom occurs that animals devour
their own species, we meet with cannibalism in nearly every part of
the world. In some cases, this horrible custom is less depraved,
in that it is founded on the lamentable superstition that the
estimable qualities of the person devoured are thus absorbed. At
the time of the Taiping insurrection, an English merchant at
Shanghai met his servant in the street, carrying home the heart
of a rebel, with the avowed intention of eating it to increase his
own courage. 24 Sometimes it is not the sensual appetite but the
desire for revenge which prompts this most dishonourable mode
of interment for the fallen enemy. Occasionally the deity himself
is made to take part in the transaction, when human sacrifice is
followed by a revolting feast on human flesh, as was the custom
in ancient Mexico. 23 On the other hand, it is quite inadmissible
to justify cannibalism by a plea of physical compulsion, as if our
bodily welfare urgently depended on an alternation of animal
M Richard Andree has lately published a work on the spread of cannibalism
in the Transactions of the Ethnological Association of Leipsic, from which it
appears that this vice is more common among the Australians than was sup-
posed. A distinction should be made between cannibals by taste and those
who are so from superstition.
24 Tylor, Early History of Mankind, p. 167.
** Prescott, Conquest of Mexico, vol. i. p. 78.
162 Food and its Preparation.
and vegetable food, for in India more than a hundred million
people are satisfied with a vegetable diet. It is usual to quote
the case of the Maori who on their arrival in New Zealand found
no terrestrial quadruped there, and driven by an uncontrollable
natural impulse, were forced to eat human flesh. 2 * But canni-
balism is common to all other Polynesians. It has been proved
to exist on the Marquesas Islands, the Hawai group, Tahiti, and
elsewhere, where pigs and dogs are bred for the sake of their
flesh, so that the Maori must assuredly have been polluted by this
disgusting vice before they z6 separated from their kindred tribes.
Moreover, even nations which were in the habit of breeding cattle,
such as the Immithlanga, a Zulu tribe in South Africa, were not
free from this abomination, 2 ? and among their kindred, the Basuto,
it was only suppressed by the chief Moshesch. 28 It would be a
mistake to regard this as a vice peculiar to the so-called inferior and
less responsible nations. The Australians, although they cannot
be entirely exculpated, are yet not habitual cannibals. As far as
we know, neither Hottentots nor Bushmen have ever been sus-
pected, but there can be no doubt of the cannibalism of the
Botocudos. The detestable custom is most frequently encoun-
tered exactly among those nations and groups of nations which
are distinguished from their neighbours by their abilities and more
mature social condition, such as the ancient Mexicans, who have
already been mentioned. Papuans in general, including the in-
habitants of New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, the New
Hebrides, New Caledonia, and the Fiji group, are cannibals by
taste, and yet as a race we must rank them as high or even higher
ts The same might be said of the inhabitants of Rapa-nui, near Easter Island.
Revue maritime et coloniale, tome xxxv.
86 While alluding to the fact taht cannibalism was suppressed on the Western
Paumotu Islands by the Tahitians, Meinicke conjectures that the latter were
free from this vice,, but Gerland (Waitz, Anthropologie) has given evidence of
the contrary.
* 7 Waitz, Anthropologie.
* Casalis, Les Bassoutos. 1859. Among the cave -cannibals were two
Betschuan tribes, the Ba-fukeng, or Ba-brukeng, and the Ma-katla, as well as
two Kaffir tribes, the Ba-makakana and the Ba-matlapatlapa. Their hiding-
place was in the vicinity of Thaba-Bosigo, near the source of the Caledon river.
Anthropological Review. April, 1869.
Antiqidty of Cannibalism. 163
than the Polynesians. Among the Asiatic Malays, the Batta of.
Sumatra are so advanced as to have framed an alphabet of their
>own, although after the Indian model. 2 9 The statement made
by a Dutch governor of Padang to Bickmore 3 the traveller,
respecting the supposed recent origin of cannibalism, is a legend
invented by the Batta themselves, for they were cannibals as early
as Nicolo Conti's time, 31 and even in the days of Marco Polo; 32
nay, if the island of Ramni of the old Arabian records has been
rightly indentified as Sumatra, the Batta disgraced the dignity of
the human race by this vice a thousand years ago. 33 In Equatorial
Africa we find two tribes equally degraded, namely, the Fans of
the West Coast, described first by Du Chaillu and afterwards by
Burton, as remarkable for their work in iron and generally for their
high degree of intelligence, 34 and the Niamniam, or Sandeh, in the
region of the Gazelle Nile, who excel their neighbours in civiliza-
tion, both of which tribes are cannibals according to Petherick and
Piaggia. Finally, Schweinfurth brought to Europe the first account
of their southerly neighbours on the Uelle, the light-coloured Mon-
buttoos, whose semi-civilization is very wonderful when compared
with the primitive condition of the Nile tribes ; yet there can be
no doubt of their cannibalism. An old experience was confirmed
by their case, namely, that the consumption of dogs' flesh generally
accompanies, and is the first step to, cannibalism. 35 Schaaff-
hausen 36 maintains that even Europeans within this century have
not abstained from human flesh, but we must leave him to
answer for the trustworthiness of his authority. In the last siege
of Messina, the flesh of the captured soldiers is said to have been
" Waitz, Anthropologie.
* Reisen im ostindischen Archipel. Jena, 1869.
11 In the only correct version of Poggio, recently published by Fr. Kunstmann
(Indien im 15 Jahrhundert. Munich, 1863), his words are : "In ejus insulae
(namely, Sumatra), quam dicunt Bathech parte anthropophagi habitant."
* 2 Lab. iii. cap. ii.
83 Peschel, Gesch. d. Erdkunde.
** Winwood Reade (Savage Africa, 1863) speaks of the Fans as an extremely
civil and amiable race. According to Zucchelli (Missione di Congo. Venezia,
1712), the Congo negroes are also cannibals.
15 Im Herzen von Afrika, vol. i. p. 442, and vol. ii. p. 98.
* Archiv fur Anthropologie. 1870,
164 Food and its Preparation.
sold on the Giudecca, and that of the Swiss at a higher price than
that of the Neapolitans.
From all these facts, we learn that cannibalism does not pervade
entire groups of nations, with the exceptions of the Papuan and
the Polynesian, but occurs only in very isolated cases in Africa
and America, while it is almost entirely absent in Asia, and in
Europe belongs to past ages of uncertain date. The supposition
that all human societies in their more barbarous stages have been
guilty of this vice, and have overcome it, is incapable of proof,
especially as it has lately been acknowledged that legends of
cannibalism have easily spread from one nation to another, so
that their local occurrence by no means proves anthropophagy in
prehistoric times. It was also assumed with unjustifiable haste that
where human sacrifices were customary, human flesh had previously
been eaten, as if nothing had been laid upon the altars of the gods
which was not esteemed as valuable food by those who brought
the offering. Cannibalism was never associated with the numerous
human sacrifices in Khondistan. As may be ascertained from
Campbell's minute descriptions, they were offered to the deified
Earth in order to obtain the boon of a productive harvest. Sacri-
fice of women and of domestic slaves on the tombs of the deceased
is certainly quite unconnected with anthropophagous habits.
Thus the Ada, or " great custom," of Dahomey is founded solely
on a belief in immortality. Hundreds of men perish at the grave
of a king, victims to the delusion that their spirits will follow and
aid the departed, or convey to him the latest tidings from this
world. 37 For thousands of years the Hindoos have abstained
from all animal food, and yet at the great festivals of Juggernaut,
these people, in a paroxysm of religious frenzy, were wont to cast
themselves by dozens under the wheels of the idol's car in volun-
tary self-sacrifice. Because Abraham bound his son on an altar
of wood, it does not follow that before Abraham's time the
Hebrews were cannibals, nor that the Romans had once been in
the habit of eating their fellow-creatures, because Pliny 3 8 mentions
that an edict against human sacrifices was published at Rome in
U.c. 357. We may therefore assume that here and there, not only
91 Ausland, p. 407. 1861. " Hist. nat. xxx. 3, 4.
Effects of Food. 165
barbarous, but even superior races of mankind yielded to the
horrible temptation, and that cannibalism has assuredly not been
a disease inevitable in the evolution of our species.
It is extremely difficult to prove the effect exercised by diet on
the civilization of individual nations. All that we can confidently
assert is that insufficient or unsuitable fare has always been
followed by physical and mental deterioration. In the prolific
hunting-grounds of Australia, travellers have found vigorous and
well-made people, instead of such shrivelled deformities as are
seen on the west coast. It is only in the deserts of Kalahari that
the Bushmen are small and emaciated.
As to the choice of diet, we can only repeat a general and
well-known rule. Food abounding in carbon is more eagerly
seized in cold than in warmer climates. The arctic circle would
be uninhabitable to the Hindoo without a change in his dietary
rules, as on the other hand it would be difficult for the Eskimo
transported to India to devour enormous quantities of raw seal's
blubber. If we add Moritz Wagner's accurate observation, 39 that
in Southern Asia, and in Central and Southern America, wherever
there is a want of animal food, vegetables are largely consumed,
and that where rice constitutes the daily food, fishing is zealously
pursued, we shall have given all .the information which can be
looked upon as certain. On the other hand, it is not proved that
bodily strength, physical courage, and acuteness of intellect, are
not as possible with vegetable as with animal diet. Of all the
Polynesians, if we except the inhabitants of solitary islands, the
Maori of New Zealand were the only people who did not fatten
either pigs or dogs, and unless it be assumed that their occasional
repasts on human flesh may have supplied this deficiency, it must
be admitted that, on a diet of fish and roots, they have become
the most powerful, courageous, and warlike race of their family of
nations, and the one which has made most advance in the social
arts.
Probably each of us has at some time had personal experience
of the effects of alcohols and narcotics, and has perhaps observed
that a moderate use of wine is capable of raising us above the
88 Allgemeine Zeitung. 1871.
1 66 Food and its . Preparation.
prbsaic state of our every-day life. With many the excitement
produced by tea or coffee is still more powerful. When we feel
ourselves thus strengthened, it seems as if we were able to see
more clearly and to argue more acutely. Ideas previously eagerly
but unsuccessfully sought now crowd upon us in rapid succession,
and new truths seem to be within our grasp. This would seem to
show, perhaps, that the movements evoked by our mental functions
have been accelerated by narcotics, or their length of vibration
increased. Mental progress must perhaps have become perceptibly
more rapid in human society since the discovery of these magic
potions.
Let us be warned by the errors of Buckle, who, lured on
by deceptive facts of this description, deceived himself and a
willingly deluded multitude into a belief that it is possible to
explain the course of the history of the most highly civilized
nations by the chemical constituents of their food. The rapid
rate of intellectual progress in our days is primarily due to the
adjustments of modern society, which furnishes science with many
more disciples, and these all better prepared than formerly. The
greatest inventions of mankind, hieroglyphic and phonetic writing,
the division of time, weights and measures, the positional value of
figures, are older than the acquaintance with narcotics, and to
wine alone could 'we ascribe any share in this service. The
Mosaic conception of God, the Zoroastrian dualism, Christianity
and Islam, Indian legends and philosophies, have all arisen with-
out the aid of narcotics. During the age of Chinese invention,
that is to say, during the first three dynasties, tea was unknown
in China. Copernicus devised his system, Galileo confirmed it,
and Kepler proved it by his laws, without coffee and without
knowing its very name. Hence it is more prudent not to enter
upon the obscure inquiry as to the excitability of our intellectual
faculties by means of stimulants.
Of equal importance with food is its preparation. The con-
sumption of raw flesh and fat is habitual only among the Eskimo,
although it occurs exceptionally elsewhere. Among other people
glowing embers and a wooden spit are generally employed for
roasting. The rinds of gourds, or the shells of nuts, mostly serve
as drinking vessels, and among Bushmen occasionally the eggs of
Stone Cooking. 167
the ostrich. Their neighbours, the Betchuans and Kaffirs, plait
baskets so closely that liquids are retained in them. 4 Unservice-
able as wooden vessels may seem for boiling water, human sagacity
hit upon the expedient of making stones red hot, and then drop-
ping them into water in such wooden vessel. In this manner
cooking was first carried on. A yet simpler method is pursued
by a tribe of Red Indians in the north of the prairies. They line
a hole made in the ground with the skin of the slaughtered game,
pour water upon it, and heat the water with red-hot stones, hence
the Ojibwas called these tribes the Assiniboins, or stone-cookers. 41
Since commerce has supplied them with earthenware vessels and
cauldrons, this primitive mode of dressing meat has been practised
only on festive occasions. 42 Beyond the Rocky Mountains, the
Ahts of Vancouver's Island, 43 as well as the Tshinuks of Oregon,
use heated stones and wooden vessels for cooking, 44 and the
Kolushs further to the north occasionally employ their canoes
as kettles for boiling large fish. The Kamtskadals also cook by
means of heated stones dropped into wooden troughs. 4 $ Even
in Europe, as Linnaeus records, cooking with stones had been
retained in Finnish East Bothland as a remnant of remote past
ages. 46 Tylor has ascertained that heated stones were used in
Ireland for wanning milk even in the year 1600, and that in the
Hebrides in the sixteenth century meat was still cooked in the
skin of the animal. w This last method was customary in the wood-
less southern steppes of Russia at the time of Herodotus. He says
that the Scyths used the bones as fuel, and the skin of the animal
as a vessel in which the meat and water was placed during the
process of cooking. 48 The Polynesians, who had no earthenware
utensils, prepared their food in pits lined with leaves, on which the
40 Casalis, Les Bassoutos. Paris, 1859. T. G. Wood, Natural History of
Man ; Africa, p. 63.
41 Catlin, Indianer Nordamerika's. Leipzic, 1851.
42 The Patagouians do the same when on their hunting expeditions, although
at home they use iron kettles. Musters, Journal of Anthrop. Institute. 1872.
48 Ausland. 1868.
44 Waitz, Anthropologie, vol. iii. p. 336.
45 G. W. Steller, Kamtschatka. 1774.
49 Linnaeus, quoted by Tylor, Early History of Mankind, p. 270.
4T Tylor, Primitive Culture, p. 272. Herod, lib. iv. cap. 6l.
r 68 Food and its Preparation.
animal or vegetable food was placed with some heated stones ; the
holes were then filled up with leaves and covered over with earth.
From all this we get a clear idea of the mode of dressing food
implied, when it is said of a people that they cook with stones, or
that they possess no earthen vessels.
Mankind may have discovered how to manufacture earthen
vessels in various ways. Sir John Lubbock points out that
Captain Cook saw stones surrounded with a rim of clay in use
among the Aleutians on Unalashka ; but this might be an imi-
tation of European vessels with which the islanders had already
become acquainted through Russian sailors. The practice of the
Australians on the Lower Murray river, of puddling holes in the
earth with clay, and cooking food in them, might perhaps have
led an inventive mind to the manufacture of earthen vessels. But
the process is better explained by the account of the French
sailor Gonneville, who, in 1504, landed on a South Atlantic coast,
probably in Brazil. 49 He describes certain wooden vessels in use
among the natives (in whom D'Avezac fancies that he recognizes
Brazilian Carijo), enveloped in a coating of clay as a protection
from the fire.s If by chance the wooden bowl separated itself
from the covering of clay, an earthen vessel would remain. In
examining the site of an old pottery manufactory of the Red
Indians on the Cahokia, which falls into the Mississippi below St.
Louis, Carl Rau discovered half-finished vessels, that is to say,
baskets of rushes or willow, lined inside with clay. When the
vessel was baked the fire naturally consumed the external cover-
ing. Half-finished vessels from the Southern States show that
the rinds of gourds instead of baskets were lined with clay.s 1
Hence the art of making pottery was independently invented
in America and in the Old World, in centres of civilization
unknown to us. From this centre it may have spread over the
whole of Africa, with the sole exception of the Bushman district,
but not to the extreme north-east of Asia, and not across Bern-ing's
Straits. That the Europeans of prehistoric times also originally
** Pierre Margry, Les Navigations frangaises. 1867.
* D'Avezac, Voyage du Capitaine de Gonneville. 1869.
11 Carl Rau in the Archiv fur Anthropologie, voL iii.
Earthenware Vessels. 169
lined basket-work with clay, may be inferred from the decorations
of vessels of the stone age. These decorations consist merely
of rows of marks made with the finger nail, as if to represent
the traces left by the basket work.* 2 When some bold individual
began to shape the clay by hand, his earthen vessels were perhaps
regarded as not genuine, or of inferior quality, as they had not
originated in the time-honoured fashion; in order to meet these
doubts he may have counterfeited the impressions of the rushes
with his nail. In South America even the Botocudos possess
earthen vessels, as do all the natives with the exception of a few
tribes of the Pampas. s 3 Nor are they wanting among the Papuans;
but they do not exist among the Polynesians and Australians.
All races use their cutting implements to divide the meat into
large pieces, in which operation barbarous nations generally exhibit
great anatomical dexterity. Forks, which, as we shall see, were
unknown in Northern Europe only a few centuries ago, 54 are, as a
rule, found only in nations of mature civilization, but they are in
use among the Papuans of the Fiji Islands. 55 The mussel shell
suggested the first idea of the spoon, and still performs its func-
tions on the Atlantic shores of Morocco, s 6 On the White Nile the
Bari negroes eat their meal porridge with wooden spoons, and the
Kitsh negroes with the shells of fresh- water mussels. 57 In Southern
Africa the Hottentots use spoons made of mother-of-pearl or of
tortoiseshell ; s 8 among the Bantu negroes these utensils are
artistically carved out of wood and adorned with figures of
animals. 5 ? Chop-sticks, after the Chinese fashion, and cooking
spoons are in use among the Papuans of New Guinea. 60
62 G. Klemm, Allgemeine Culturgeschichte. 1843.
M D'Orbigny, 1'Homme americain.
54 Little is known about the use of forks in Europe. Tylor has ascertained
that in Ruysbroek's time (1253) forks were in use among the Mongols as well
as in the west. (Early History of Mankind, p. 22).
55 Williams, Fiji, vol. i. p. 212.
86 Gerhard Rohlfs, Erster Aufenthalt in Marokko. 1873.
67 W. von Harnier, Reise am obern Nil.
68 Kolben's Reise an das Vorgeb. d. G. Hoffnung.
18 Casalis, Les Bassoutos. Paris, 1859.
w Otto Finsch, New Guinea, 1865 ; and Nieuw Guinea, ethnographisch en
natuurkundig onderzocht, uitgegeven door hetv. Kon Institut vor taal-land-en
volkenkunde. Amsterdam, 1862.
170 Food and its Preparation.
Alexander von Humboldt observes that the uncivilized natives of
South America, who, like caterpillars, are restricted to one species
of vegetable food, on a change of abode with difficulty accom-
modate themselves to any other diet, and generally sicken in con-
sequence. The alternation of the seasons in temperate quarters
of the world, he continues, enabled man to obtain, and accus-
tomed him to digest, various substances, while at the same time
he acquired greater freedom in the choice of his abode. 61 Hence
the preparation of food gains great importance in ethnology : it is
an interesting fact that at Tongataboo, one of the Friendly Islands,
by skilful variation in the dressing, forty different dishes are pre-
pared from the few indigenous edible plants. 62 Future observers
ought always to note carefully whether the natives eat salt with
their provisions. This is not done, for instance, by either the
Papuans 6 3 or many Malay nations, 6 * nor by the Hottentots in
South Africa. 6 * In the districts of the Soudan negroes there is no
rock salt, but it is brought from the Sahara by caravans. The
negroes living between the Gambia and the Niger suck pieces of
salt as eagerly as our children suck sugar-plums. It is there said
of rich people that they eat salt at their meals. 66 Zucchelli, the
missionary, describes the process of evaporating sea-water in use
among the natives on the coast of Congo; but it is uncertain
whether this mode of obtaining salt was in use before the settle-
ment of the Portuguese. 6 ? In South America the nations of the
coast of Brazil adopted this new article of food in imitation of
Europeans, and very quickly recognized its value. The Pata-
gonians consume a large quantity of salt which they procure
without trouble from the natural brine-pits of their own country. 68
Even at the time of their discovery the people on the coast of
the Caribbean Sea used salt as money in their commercial trans-
actions. This salt was in the brick like shape in which they
61 Handschriften. Eigene Gedanken. w Quatrefages, Rapport
Otto Finsch, New Guinea.
Waitz, Anthropologie, vol. v. p. 129.
Kolbe, Reise an das Vorgeb. d. G. Hoffnung.
Mungo Park, Reise ins Innere Afrika's. Berlin, 1799.
Zucchelli, Relazioni del viaggio e missione di Congo. 1712.
Musters in the Journal of the Anthrop. Institute, voL i.
Modesty. 171
obtained it from the natural salt-pans on the peninsula of
Araya. 6 ^ Saltpetre procured from vegetable ashes is used as a
substitute for salt on the Orinoco. 70 P. Charlevoix? 1 expressly
remarks that the Algonkin and Iroquois nations were not in the
habit of salting their food. On the other hand, during de Soto's
hazardous expeditions, the Indians of the present Southern States
of North America were supplied with salt from the province of
Cayas by native merchants.
III. CLOTHING AND SHELTER.
WHEREVER European seafarers saw the inhabitants of newly
discovered shores in a state of nudity, they at once concluded
that these natives were in the lowest grade of human development.
Nor is it only among highly civilized nations that a covering for
the naked body is looked upon as the first step upwards from a
so-called savage state. The missionary Williams relates that a
shaman or priest of Somosomo, one of the Fiji Islands, who, like
all his countrymen, was satisfied with a masi or scanty hip-cloth, on
hearing a description of the naked inhabitants of New Caledonia
and of their idols, exclaimed contemptuously, "Not have a masi
and yet pretend to have gods ! " But the more familiar we have
become with foreign customs by means of thorough research, the
more frequently have we found that nudity is not incompatible with
modesty, and, above all, that in different nations modesty enjoins
the veiling now of one, now of another portion of the body.
Were a pious Mussulman of Ferghana to be present at our balls,
and see the bare shoulders of our wives and daughters, and the
semi-embraces of our round dances, he would silently wonder at
the long-suffering of Allah, who had not long ago poured fire
and brimstone on this sinful and shameless generation. Before
the appearance of the Prophet the veiling of women was not
customary in the East. Countess Pauline Nostiz abashed the
ladies in the royal harem of Mascat by approaching them without
69 Peter Martyr, De orbe novo, Dec. i. cap. 8.
T * Gumilla, El Orinoco ilustrado. 1741. 71 Nouvelle France.
172 Clothing and Shelter.
a wire mask. There, not even the mother sees her daughter,
with uncovered face after the twelfth year, but, on the other hand,
the transparent garments allow the body and limbs to be clearly
seen. 1 Karsten Niebuhr says that women who, while bathing at
Basra on the Euphrates and in a bath at Constantinople, were
surprised by men covered their faces only. 2 Similarly the
Fellaheen women in Egypt uncover themselves unabashed before
men, provided that their faces remained veiled. 3 The Arab
women, says George Ebers, will, without embarrassment, allow
foot, leg, and bosom to be seen, but, on the other hand, it is
reckoned even more indecorous to uncover the back of the head
than the face, though even that is carefully concealed by every
respectable woman.* The oldest Christian community were of a
like opinion, for the apostle commanded women to veil their hair
during their devotions. 5 Strangely enough the Hottentot women
also wear a cloth like a cap upon their heads, and many cannot
be induced to remove it. 6 In nations of the Malay race, modesty
takes another form. The traveller Jagor told the author that
while he was drawing a little naked girl at Samar, one of the
Philippine Islands, the mother angrily interrupted them, and
obliged the child to put on a shirt, of a length which, according
to our notions of propriety, might as well have been dispensed
with ; 7 still it covered the most essential part according to the
manners of the country, namely, the navel. Among the inhabi-
tants of Navigators' Island also it is considered the greatest dis-
grace for this part of the body to be visible. 8 In China a woman
is considered immodest if she shows her artificially distorted foot
to a man ; it is even improper to speak of it, and in decent
pictures it is always concealed under the dress. 9 Longobard
women also considered themselves mortally disgraced if men 'saw
Joh. Wilh. Heifer's Reisen in Vorderasien und Indien. 1873.
Reisebeschreibung nach Arabien. Kopenhagen, 1774.
Waitz, Anthropologie, vol. i. p. 359.
Durch Gosen zum Sinai. 1873.
I Cor. xi. 5-6. Fritsch, Eingeborne SUdafrika's.
Representation of the child in Jagor's Reisen in den Philippine!!.
Waitz, Anthropologie, vol. i. p. 359.
Wilh. Strieker im Archiv fur Anthropologie. 1870.
Modesty. 1 73
their legs from the feet to the knees. 10 With these strange freaks
'of the sense of modesty we may compare the fact that we, on the
contrary, regard uncovering as a token of respect. Thus we take
off our hats as a salutation in the street, at church, and gene-
rally in every covered place. The English officials in India always
require every native, of whatever caste, to lay aside their shoes
before entering the audience chamber.
Thus habit and custom decide what is permissible and what is
offensive, and not until an opinion has become established does
any neglect of it become a reprehensible act. Nudity prevails
among both sexes of the Australians, the Andaman islanders,
sundry tribes on the White Nile, the red negroes of the Soudan,
and the Bushmen, all of which tribes have as yet no sense of
shame. The Guanches, or old inhabitants of the Canary Islands,
those at least of Gomera and Palma, may be a.dded to this list. 11
The inhabitants of the Bahama Islands, the Lesser Antilles, and
a number of coast tribes in the present Venezuela and Guiana,
to whom the name of Caribs is often incorrectly given, are
described by their first discoverers, the Spaniards, as completely
naked. In the time of Eschwege and Martius, the number of
naked Brazilians, such as the Pijris, Patachos, and Coroados was
much greater than at present, when the Botocudos alone have
riot adopted any clothing. 12
The supposition that the sense of modesty arises earlier in the
female sex than in the male is entirely erroneous, for there are
many races of which the men alone wear clothes. The mission-
aries on the Orinoco assured A. von Humboldt,^ that the women
show far less sense of modesty than the men. Among the Obbo "
negroes east of the outlet of Baker's great Nile lake, the only
covering of the women is a bunch of leaves, whereas the men
wear an apron of skins. 14 In the interesting kingdom of the Mon-
buttoo negroes, on the Uelle, the men wear a garment of bark
w Chron. Salernit, cited by Pertz, Monumenta. Hamover.
11 Kunstmann, Afrika vor den Entdeckungen der Portugesien. 1853.
11 As to the clothing of the Coroados at the present day, see Bunneister,
Reise nach Brasilien. 1853.
" Reisen in die Aequinoctialgegenden. Stuttgart, l86a
14 Baker, Albert Nyanza, vol. i. p 273.
f/4 Clothing and Shelter.
which reaches from the breast to the knees, while their wives
merely fasten pieces of banana leaves no larger than the hand to
their girdles. j s Speke found that extreme strictness in the matter
of decency of clothing prevailed at the court of Mtesa, King of
Uganda. Although the apprehensions of his friend Rumanika
were unfounded, that admission to this country would be denied
to him and Grant because they wore trousers only and not flow-
ing garments after the Arab fashion, it afterwards transpired that
the king punished with death every man who appeared in his
presence with only an inch of his leg uncovered, while at the
same time the service of the house was performed by completely
naked women. 16 The Arabian traveller, Ibn Batoutah, declares
that it is only when unclothed that women, even if they are prin-
cesses, may approach the king of the Mandingo state of Melli. 1 ?
Livingstone was received by the Queen of the Balonde negroes,
in South Africa, when she was in a state of complete nudity, and
the women of the neighbouring Kissama negroes appear in the
same condition on festive occasions. l8 In half-clothed races the
covering is assumed only on reaching adolescence, and it is an ex-
ceptional case, which moreover requires confirmation, if it is true
that the Australian women go naked only after their marriage.^
Fair-skinned nations feel the need of clothing far more keenly
than dark ones. The Africans are fully conscious of the advantages
of their dark skin. 20 We remember reading a statement of Adolf
Bastian, that when he was bathing near some brown-skinned
Asiatics, his own white skin appeared to him abnormal and by no
means beautiful. Von Maltzan also says " Nudity was never dis-
pleasing to me if the skin was black, but in fair people it is always
repulsive." 2I In like manner, F. Jagor describes his coachman at
Singapore, a black Kling from the coast of Coromandel, whose
14 G. Schweinfurth, The Heart of Africa, vol. ii. p. no.
16 Speke, Sources of the Nile, vol. i. p. 262.
17 Voyage d'Ibn BjHoutah. Paris, 1858.
18 Livingstone, Missionary Journeys, vol. i. p. 315. Hamilton, in the
Journal of the Anthropological Institute, vol. i.
19 Dumont d'Urville, Voyage de 1' Astrolabe. 1830.
20 Darwin, Descent of Man, voL ii. pp. 381, 383.
" Globus. 1872.
Tattooing. 175
dress consisted simply of a turban and a waistcloth, adding signifi-
cantly, he did not look indecent, for dark colour almost removes
the impression of nudity. 22 By the majority of American Indians
clothes are replaced by skin painting. Where this is the case,
shame is felt by women and men if they are seen unpainted.
A. von Humboldt, to whom we owe this observation, adds that
on the Orinoco the extreme of poverty is expressed by saying,
" The man is so wretched that he cannot paint his half body." 2 3
Tattooing, which is another substitute for raiment, consists of
drawings on the body, produced either by the injection of coloured
pigments under the skin, or by the artificial formation of raised
scars. That it actually takes away from the impression of nu-
dity is declared by all who have seen fully tattooed Albanese.
Tattooing may still be seen in every quarter of the world with
the exception of Europe. In the South Sea Islands it not only
serves as ornament where it extends to covered portions of the
body, and where the etched drawings represent emblems of the
deities, but has a religious signification.
That clothing frequently serves only for personal adornment or
is worn as a protection from cold, is proved by the case of the
well-clad Maori of New Zealand, who have no notion of decency. 2 *
This applies to the highly civilized Japanese, among whom the
bathing of both sexes in common, in enclosed areas as well as in
the open air, has only recently been prohibited by the authorities. 2 *
The Eskimo, who in the winter are enveloped to the face in furs,
nevertheless, according to Kane's strongly expressed description,
completely lay aside their garments in their subterranean dwellings,
and the demeanour of the wife of Hans the Eskimo, on board
Hayes's ship, plainly shows that she had no idea of decency.
G. G. Winkler 26 found that .even the Christian and thoroughly
conventional population of Iceland had not yet arrived at the
perception which the scriptural parents of the human species had
already acquired in the Garden of Eden.
These facts ought to render us extremely cautious in estimating
Reiseskizzen. ** Reisen in den Aequinoctialgegenden.
14 "Waltz, Anthropologie, vol. i. p. 357.
u Wilhelm Heine, Japan. w Iceland, p. 107.
176 Clothing and Shelter.
the moral worth of a people by its standard of bodily covering.
But although, as we have shown, chastity and morality are quite
independent of the absence or vividness of sexual modesty, yet in
every nation, the awakening of this latter feeling is a mark of
progress. Before the idea of covering himself dawned on any
human being, he must have discriminated between the beautiful
and the ugly. For clothing we are therefore indebted to the
earliest aesthetic emotions experienced by the human species, and
in so far as reverence for the beautiful has an ennobling effect
upon us, these emotions promoted the education of mankind.
Correlatively with the decline of rigid morals at ancient Rome,
arose a contempt for the maxims of propriety. The desire for
clothing is first awakened by the -consciousness of a higher dignity,
which urges man to endeavour to increase the separation between
himself and animals. It is not mere vanity endeavouring, it may
be, to hide the loss of youthful charms, for at a much earlier
period a wish is felt to throw a veil over, so to speak, unmerited
degradations imposed upon us by the constitution of our animal
body, and the desire arises to appear before others as if we were as
pure and pleasant to the sight as the lilies of the Gospel. Not-
withstanding all the strange freaks of the sense of modesty which
we have just recounted, the majority of people have known exactly
what most required covering. The sensitiveness of the women
of ancient Lydia is known from the narrative of the wife of
Candaules, as given by Herodotus ; 2 ? and how carefully the
modesty ot the female sex is guarded by the Mandanas in North
America, is told by Catlin. 28 Among the semi-Papuan inhabitants
of the Palawan Islands, the women have an unlimited privilege of
striking, fining, or, if it be done on the spot, killing every man
who makes his way into their bathing-places. 2 9
We find traces of clothing as far back as the so-called reindeer
period of Europe. Bone needles were discovered in the caves of
Perigord ; and a similar discovery in the stratum of relics of civiliz-
ation in the source of the Schussen, shows tjiat the inhabitants of
Suabia knew how to sew even in the glacial period. But in both
** Lib. L cap. 8-12. ** Die Indianer Nordamerika's.
89 Karl Semper, Die Palauinseln. 1873.
Materials of Clothing. 177
cases, the occurrence of lumps of vermilion pigment points to the
co-existence of skin painting.
The material of clothing always depended on the food of each
race. Thus among hunters and shepherds the skins of slaughtered
animals were used. But it is instructive to notice that human
invention has devised the same expedients in widely distant places,
as we have already shown. The simplest form of dress consists of
leaves or twigs stuck into a girdle. In other places reeds or rushes
are strung upon the girdle as is done by the Papuan women of
New Guinea and the Pelew Islands. As it was necessary to
renew these rushes too frequently, they were replaced by bands of
bass or strips of leather ; this was the origin of the fringed girdle
worn by the females of the Mohave tribes and their neighbours
on the Colorado in North America, by the Fijians in the South
Sea, where it is called Liku, by the New Caledonians, and the
Kaffirs. The Tapa is exclusively Polynesian; this, as is well
known, is the bark of the paper mulberry tree (Broussonetia
papyri/era) beaten to make it soft. Where refinement had begun
and higher pretensions had arisen, the plaiting of baskets and mats
led to weaving. When the Polynesian Maori migrated to New
Zealand they brought with them the secret of the manufacture
of mats. In their new abode they found an excellent fibrous
material in the leafy tufts of the Phormium tenax, or New Zealand
flax, and they invented for themselves the art of preparing and
manufacturing a sort of linen. The use of cotton has been dis-
covered in both worlds, for the natives of America independently
discovered the process of twisting the threads which they found
at home, and of converting these threads into a tissue. Cotton
was also indigenous in ancient Egypt and was woven into stuffs. 30
Still the preference for linen kept it completely in the back-
ground. Cotton was naturalized from the earliest ages even in
Syria. The English word cotton is derived from keton which, with
small variations in the vowels, signifies cotton in all Semitic
languages, and is still kutn in modern Arabic. 31 Phoenician
80 G. Ebers, Durch Gosen zum Sinai.
11 H. Brandes, Antike Namen der Baumwolle. 5th Jahrsbericht der Ver.
fur Erdkunde. Leipzic, 1866.
9
178 Clothing and Shelter.
sailors therefore conveyed not linen but cotton fabrics under the
name of Kitonet, or Ketonet, to the Grecian ports, and from this
term arose words such as XTWI/ and KiOw. The word linum (flax)
originally vaguely used in Latin and Greek, passed, with little
alteration from its Latin form, to the Basque, Celtic, and Germanic
languages 3 2 and thus appears to have spread from South-eastern
to Northern and Western Europe. If spindle wheels have been
found in the Danish middens, and if the weaver's bench already
stood in the lake dwellings of Switzerland,^ the art of spinning
and weaving must have originated at an age so remote that it
can no longer be decided which tribe or which race was the
first discoverer. Hemp is certainly an acquisition for which
civilization is indebted to the so-called barbarous nations. The
cultivation of hemp was found by Herodotus even among the
Medo-Persic Scyths.34
A. Bacmeister confidently maintained that Hemd, Hut, ffaube,
Schuhe, Rock, and Hosen (shirt, hat, cap, shoes, coat, trousers),
are primordial words in the German language. 35 It is noteworthy
that the use of trousers first spread from Northern Europe to the
classical shores of the Mediterranean and then over the whole
world. But even this article of dress has been invented in various
places. All Northern Asiatics wear trousers, and have worn them
in the most remote ages of which we have any knowledge. Even
if we suppose that in their emigration to America the Eskimo
brought this novelty with them from their western home, we yet
find the same garment in use among the Red Indians in the
northern parts of the New World. The American aborigines
had one small advantage over the old civilized nations, in that
they were already in the habit of manufacturing an excellent
covering for the foot; these were not sandals, but half-boots or
mocassins. It is remarkable that the Patagonians, in the extreme
south of the New World, also use mocassins, whereas they are
unknown in Central America and the other parts of South
* Von Hehn, Kulturpflanzen und Hausthiere.
See above, and Wilhelm Baer, Der vorgeschichtliche Mensch.
* Lib. iv. cap. 74.
* Ausland, 1871. Hand is certainly derived from (/uarior.
Foot Coverings.
America. It was among the barbarians that the Romans first
saw shoes ; the idols of the old Egyptians are also barefooted.
Shoes and sandals were also entirely wanting in Babylon, where,
however, to judge from the cylindrical seal of King Uruch
(2326 B.C.), great luxury in dress must have been customary. 3 6
Barefooted nations are still everywhere to be found in low lati-
tudes, whereas in regions of perpetual snow, where it freezes, or
where the ground is greatly chilled by radiation, the necessity of
protection for the feet must soon suggest itself. In Africa, sandals
are used by the Mandingo negroes of Musardo,37 and, strange to
say, by the otherwise naked Ban negroes of the White Nile, 38
the Kissama in Angola, 39 the Kaffirs 4 as well as by other Bantu
negroes, and by the Hottentots. 41
As many animals, and even inferior animals, provide themselves
with an artificial protection against the vicissitudes of the weather,
and no race of mankind has been found without a shelter of some
sort, the instinct of building must be as old as our race itself. It
is in caves that we meet with the first traces of our ancestors, but
we must not therefore infer that these natural refuges, which
exist moreover only in rocky districts and especially in calcareous
mountains, were the earliest dwelling-places of man, or first sug-
gested the idea of constructing artificial shelter. When the Bush-
men are away from their caves during their excursions, they
cover themselves with sand whenever they spend the night in
the open air, or weave a shelter of branches and brushwood
for themselves in the thicket. In the temperate season the Aus-
tralians shelter themselves from the wind by screens of foliage,
but at other times they stretch pieces of bark, often 12 feet
in length, and from 8 to 10 feet wide, over a dome-shaped frame-
work something like a tent. 42 A similar summer tent of birch
86 G. Rawlinson, Great Monarchies, vol. i. p. 107.
8T Anderson's Journey to Musardo, in the Transactions of the Geographical
Society of Vienna. 1871.
38 W. von Harnier's Reisen am obern Nil.
89 Hamilton, Journal of the Anthropological Institute, voL i.
40 G. Fritsch, Eingeborne Siidafrika's.
41 Kolbe, Kap der Guten Hoffnung.
48 Dumont d'Urville, Voyage de 1' Astrolabe.
180 Clothing and Shelter.
bark sewn together, is sufficient for the Ostiaks of Siberia. +3
Charlevoix, the Jesuit, describes the shelter of many hunting
tribes in Canada as being but little superior. **
In the extreme north of the Old and New World, beyond the
limit of trees, or where the stems of the trees are not of the
requisite thickness, and also on the treeless steppes, bark walls
are replaced by hides of animals. Thus the leathern tent ot
Lapland ^ is used throughout Siberia and as far as the prairies
of the United States to the 35th degree of latitude.* 6 It disappears
in Equatorial and Southern America only to reappear among the
Patagonians, who cover a framework of stakes with the hides of
the Guanaco sewn together.*? The felt tent, an invention of the
Ural-Altaic nations, is doubtless of high antiquity. From Central
Asia it has spread in the direction of the monsoon, and within the
zone of the trade winds, over the Sahara, and to the wooded
districts of Central Africa, but it is transformed on the way into
an airy tent of a woven fabric, and rendered architectural in the
Arabian style with its domes and slender shafts, the latter of
which are represented by the tent-poles.
In the lofty forests of tropical America the itinerant hunting
tribes are sheltered from the rain by a sloping roof of the oar-
shaped leaves of palms and other trees, laid like scales one above
the other. When nations finally become stationary they are at
first satisfied with a quadrangular or circular framework of poles,
bound together with basket-work or strips of bark. A pointed
or dome-shaped roof covered with leaves, tufts of grass, or bundles
of rushes, completes the simplest form of hut Whole tribes fre-
quently live in a single cloister-like structure, within which a cell
is allotted to each family. Dumont d'Urville describes two such
buildings of the Arfaki of New Guinea, which together accom
modated 150 people, and on the Utanete river in the same region
4 * Pallas, Voyages. Paris, 1793.
44 Nouvelle France.
44 See the representation of Lapp summer tents given by J. A. Frijs in
the Glcbus. 1873.
45 Mollhausen, vom Mississipi nach der SUdsee.
4T Musters, Journal of the Anthropological Institute, voL i. p. 197.
Primitive Dwellings. 181
there are similar structures.-* 8 At Borneo, Spenser St. John
saw a Dyak building 534 feet in length.^ Similar rows of cells
are also customary among the Ostiaks,s but the most extensive of
these wooden structures are inhabited by the Haidahs on Queen
Charlotte's Island in North America, and by the Colquiths on
Vancouver's Island, for they accommodate from two to three
hundred people, and in Nootka Sound even eight hundred.* 1 The
bark huts of the Indians in the east of the present United States,
as described by Charlevoix, are not so thickly populated, but yet
contain several families. 52 Even in South America such common
dwellings occur. Wallace found them on the Uaupes (Rio Negro)
among the tribe of the same name, as far as latitude 75 and
longitude us . 53
In Australia and the South Seas plastic earth is never used to
thicken wicker walls. Building with sun-dried bricks or adobes
is peculiar to the dry highlands and lowlands of New Mexico,
Mexico, and Central America, while Central Africa again has its
earthen huts, the walls of which are formed of stamped clay, on
which a straw roof is placed. Stone architecture at first attempted
only^the humblest undertakings, for the difficulty of erecting
perpendicular walls with mere fragments of stone was insuperable.
In Central America, as in Mesopotamia, ancient temple structures
consisted of pyramids in steps. The earliest attempts at such
works of art may have resembled the simple terraces, or Morai, of
the Polynesian Islands, but they attained their fullest development
in the smooth Pyramids of Egypt. It was in dry, treeless regions
that the inhabitants were first compelled to build walls, by the
necessity of finding a substitute to replace the beams which could
not be procured. Architecture is therefore nearly four thousand-
years older in Egypt than in India, where the earliest works of
the kind were the rock temples, in which, however, the roofs were
supported by trunks of iron-wood (Sideroxylon), while according
to Fergusson's researches, self-supporting stone structures were
48 Otto Finsch, New Guinea. 48 Life in the far East
60 Pallas, Voyages. Paris, 1793.
51 Waltz, Anthropologie, vol. iii. p. 332-
M Nouvelle France.
M Martius, Ethnographic.
1 82 Clothing and Shelter.
only introduced under King Asoka, in the middle of the third
century before Christ. To pierce the walls for light and air, as
well as afford access to the inhabitants themselves, was a severe
problem to human ingenuity. This was at last done by placing
the stones so as to project one beyond the other, like inverted
steps, until the highest stones approached each other so nearly
that the aperture could be bridged over by a broad stone laid
transversely on the top. The temple gates, which are wider at
the sill than at the top, show that the art among the Egyptians
and Greeks must for a time have remained stationary at this point,
for even when, at a later period, the art of stone-masonry had so
far advanced that it was possible to construct rectangular en-
trances, the primitive form was retained either from old affection
or artistic taste. In ancient Babylon spurious vaults converging
obliquely, and false arches, were made in like manner, namely,
by projecting layers of bricks. 54
These timid attempts serve to make us recognize the full merit
of the invention of the stone self-supporting arch. In the Old
World the Assyrians were probably the first to adopt this ex-
pedient, and the Romans the first to advance from the construc-
tion of door and window arches to that of vaults and domes. To
justify this digression into the history of art, we need only state
that these facts are of importance in estimating the intellectual
rank of American peoples. On the Puna, the plateaux of the
Cordilleras, we find stone huts and stone tombs ss in the district of
Inca-Peruvian civilization. Humboldt s 6 made sketches of arched
vaults in the Palace of the Ataohuallpa, at Caxamarca, while further
to the south, vaulted buildings and round arches at Tiahuanaco,
as well as in the Temple of the Sun at Cuzco, have also been
described by Desjardins and J. J. von Tschudi.57
No small credit is due to the Eskimo for the tunnel-like stone
** Rawlinson, Monarchies of the Ancient World, vol. i. p. 86.
84 Clement Markham, Proceedings of the Royal Geogr. Society, voL xv.
1871.
66 Alexander von Humboldt, Eine wissenschaftliche Biographic, ed. Karl
Bruhns. 1872.
T F. von Hellwald im Ausland, No. 41. 1871.
The Distribution of Weapons. 183
vaulting of the entrances to their huts, and of the huts them
selves, s 8 The idea suggested itself more readily to them than to
the denizens of more temperate zones, for they had long been in
the habit of piling up snow grottoes, and of constructing domed
huts with blocks
iv. WEAPONS.
IF we follow the course of any of the old Spanish, Dutch, or
English discoverers who preceded Captain Cook on a voyage across
the South Seas, we are greatly puzzled if we attempt to assign the
names accepted in modern geography to any of the islands which
they saw. Even if the calculations of latitude are correct within
half a degree, the error of the longitude given may on the other
hand increase twentyfold, so that we must search about among
countless islands which all look alike, for they are either mere coral
reefs, or are recent or ancient volcanoes. Our task would thus be
hopeless were we not able to ascertain the longitude by two indica-
tions. When the discoverer sailing westwards describes nations
with crowns of hair, this must be close to the iSoth meridian of
Greenwich, for the twin islands, Hoorne and Alofa, are the most
easterly points reached by the Papuans, to whom this character
exclusively belongs. Again, when we read that the traveller was
greeted by the natives on land or water with volleys of arrows, we
may conclude that this was in the neighbourhood of New Guinea.
The Polynesian races of the South Seas have never opposed
Europeans by means of bows and arrows, and, strange as it may
sound, the reason of their not doing so is purely geological. If
any one attempted to explain this circumstance by stating that the
Polynesians, like other Malay nations, were unacquainted with
these missiles, because the bow was not invented when they
abandoned Southern Asia for their homes in the Pacific, we should
tell him that the bow and arrow is a boy's plaything on
Nukufetaw, in the Ellice group, and even much further east, at
48 Waitz, Anthropologie, vol. iii. p. 306.
59 Chas. F. Hall, Life with the Esquimaux, p. 461.
1 84 Weapons.
Tahiti. 1 These missiles were known to the Malay Polynesians at
the commencement of their migrations, and it was only at a later
period that they fell into disuse. It is just the same with the
Papuans, in whose original home, New Guinea, bows and arrows
are never laid aside by the men, although these weapons are
totally wanting among the kindred inhabitants of New Caledonia.
On the other hand, the Fijians, a race with crowns of hair, like
those of the Papuans of New Guinea, certainly brought bows and
arrows to their island, but they now use them only for throwing
burning missiles into fortified places, or they leave them to the
women who are thus able to assist in the defence of their stock-
ades. The favourite weapons of the men are the club and the
spear. 2 The Tongans relearned to use bows and arrows from
their neighbours on the Fiji Islands. 3
It is easy to see why bows and arrows were forgotten on the
South Sea Islands. The management of these weapons requires
great skill and constant practice. Where they are in use among
savage nations, travellers inform us that even the boys practise
shooting with miniature implements. In the hands of an expert,
the bow is far more effective in the chase than our fire-arms, for
it kills in silence. An arrow which has missed its mark falls
unobserved, so that the marksman can aim two or three missiles
without alarming the game. We need not wonder therefore that
the traveller Marcou met hunters in New Mexico, with white skin,
and of Spanish descent, who had laid aside their guns and taken
to the Indian weapons, which they considered better adapted for
the chase. 4 As a further confirmation, Reinhold Hensel records
that the Coroados of Brazil refused to exchange their bows and
arrows for fire-arms, as, on account of their noisy report, their
weight, the loss of time in loading, and the difficulty of procuring
ammunition, the latter were ill suited for hunting in tropical forests.*
But excellence in the use of this instrument requires incessant
practice, a condition which among savage nations will only be ful-
Waitz, Anthropologie der Naturvolker.
Thomas Williams, Y\}\ and the Fijians.
Mariner, Tonga Islands. Edinburgh, 1827.
Lartet and Christy, Reliquiae Aquitanicae.
Zeitschrift fur Ethnologic. 1869.
Bows and Arrows. 185
filled by those who live on the produce of the chase. The first
rude implements of man originally served all purposes. The
hunter seized his missiles to repel an enemy ; and the stone axe of
the savage, which felled the tree, also split the skull of an oppo-
nent in the fray. Hence, the oldest, the truest, and the noblest
implement of war is the sword, which can never have been used
indifferently for war and handicraft. 6 We may here observe that,
so far as we yet know, the invention of swords in Europe dates
only from the bronze age, whereas we shall presently find a case
in another part of the world in which there were swords elsewhere,
even in the stone age.
Bows and arrows necessarily disappear entirely wherever the
chase is no longer a means of livelihood, or where hunting is
impossible. As we pass in an easterly, northerly, or south-
easterly direction from New Guinea, hunting ceases, for, with the
exception of bats, tame pigs, dogs, and rats, all the islands are
destitute of mammals. Hence the interest excited some years
ago by the discovery by Haast of a wild mammal, although an
aquatic one, namely, an otter, on the southern island of New
Zealand. That there should be no mammalia on these islands is
simply accounted for by their origin ; for coral islands arise only
where polyps build up wall-like reefs of their calcareous branches
on the shallow surfaces of submerged continents. The only other
islands are volcanic structures, originally formed below the sea,
and then gradually upheaved above the surface by eruptions.
These islands, New- Zealand included, have never, at least since
the tertiary period, been connected with any continent, so that
no mammals incapable of flying or swimming were able to reach
them. Hence it is that the disappearance of bows and arrows is
due to their geological origin.
That this is the true and ultimate reason is substantiated in
another locality. In the West Indies we have before us, not small
and narrow coral structures, but large areas, such as Cuba, Haiti,
Jamaica, and Porto Rico. But, with the exception of Cuba, even
these spacious islands were destitute of any large mammals ; for,
at the time of the Spaniards' arrival, there were, besides bats, only
* &, the sword of the bronze age, which was intended for striking only.
r86 Weapons.
five species of small rodents, of which the largest was but slightly
bigger than a rat. These islands, the remains of larger tracts of
country, must have lost their connection with the nearest continent,
which is South America, in the early part of the tertiary period.
North America was at that time far more distant ; for the penin-
sula of Florida is a recent and still incomplete creation of the
coral animal. As hunting was impossible on these islands, the
inhabitants did not use bows and arrows, though all the tribes of
the adjacent continent carry these weapons. For the sake of
accuracy it must be added that, on the Antilles, on the eastern
shore of Haiti, the eastern half of Porto Rico, and in the Wind-
ward Islands, there were people who wielded these weapons with
dexterity. But these were new-comers, the Caribs, who, being
better sailors than any other American tribes, invaded the peaceful
inhabitants of the Antilles in their own abode, slew the men, and
carried off the women as captives, from which circumstances there
arose among them separate languages for men and women, unless
we accept the other explanation, that, as among the Kaffirs,
husband and wife speak different languages, because the wife may
suffer no word to pass her lips which occurs in the name of any
man allied to her by marriage. As these Caribs came from the
continent, where they lived on the produce of the chase, we can
easily understand that when they spread to the Antilles they
had not completely laid aside the bow and arrow.
The blow pipe is another characteristic weapon for shooting,
which is used by the Malay tribes in Borneo, and also on the
continent of Asia by the Malayo-Chinese Laoti on the Mekong,
as well as by the Orang-kubits 7 and the Semangs of the peninsula
of Malacca. 8 The Papuans of New Guinea may also have
borrowed it from the Malays.? But the blow pipe was not in-
vented in South-eastern Asia only, for we find it also in the hands
of the Indians on the Amazon, whose aim is certain at a distance
of 250 feet. 10 The blow pipe has the same advantage over other
weapons as a breechloader has, and a practised hand can despatch
1 Peschel, Zeitalter der Entdeckungen.
8 Mouat, Travels in Indo-China, Cambodia, and Laos. 1864. F. Jagor,
Singapore, Malacca, Java. Berlin, 1866.
9 Waitz (Gerland) Anthropologie, vol. vi. p. 599- 10 Martius, Ethnographic.
Arrow Poisons. 187
several projectiles in the space of a minute. The small slender
darts escape the notice of the victim still more easily than the
arrow, and the marksman may continue to fire his missiles from
his concealment until the object is struck. As the projectile force
is derived from the muscles of the thorax, the strength of the per-
cussion is very slight. To produce a deadly^ effect it is therefore
requisite for the dart to be poisoned. Hence the poison itself is
the weapon and the missile merely the vehicle. On the Malay
islands this purpose is served by the Ipo, or the juice of the upas
tree (Antiaris toxicaria), which produces very malignant but rarely
mortal wounds. At least Dr. Mohnike maintains that a consider-
able number of arrows are required to produce tetanic rigidity in
an old orang-outang. 11 On the other hand Spenser St. John asserts
that in a conflict in Borneo with the Kanowit Dyaks, in 1859, the
English lost thirty of their men by small and scarcely perceptible
wounds made by the poisoned darts ; I2 and Lieutenant Crespigny
saw a native of Borneo die in two hours after being wounded in
this way in the calf of the leg and in the shoulder.^ Similar
effects were produced by a poisonous unguent used by the warlike
and bloodthirsty inhabitants of the shores of the Caribbean Sea.
According to the accounts of the old Spanish navigators, the death
of the wounded took place somewhat tardily, amid delirium and
agonies of suffering, frequently only after the lapse of twenty-
four hours. They state that the poison was made of the juice of
the manchineel tree (Hippomane mancinella), mixed with snakes'
poison ; z * but their assertions are all very obscure and questionable.
We are better informed as to the most terrible of all poisons,
namely, the urari, curare', or woorali, of the Indians of the river
Amazon.^ and of Guyana. Neither Lacondamine nor Spix and
11 Ausland, vol. xlv. 1872. u Far East, vol i. p. 46.
w Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, vol. xvi. 1872.
14 Oviedo, Historia general y natural de las Indias, lib. xxvii. cap. 3.
16 This dreaded poison is prepared on the river Amazon by the tribes living
neai the sources of its northern affluent, between Rio Negro and Japura (Bates,
The Naturalist on the Amazon, vol. ii. p. 238. London, 1863). The Indians
on the Napo river procure the urari from the Tecunas ; and the return voyage
of the boats occupies no less than three months. In their own country the poison
is weighed against silver (James Orton, The Andes and the Amazon. 1870.)
1 88 Weapons.
Martius witnessed the preparation of this arrow poison. Alex-
ander von Humboldt was the first to penetrate into a manufactory
of this poison on the Orinoco, and bring samples of curare back
to Europe. But it was the younger Schomburgh at Pirara" who
first assisted at the preparation of the unguent. 16 The urari, as he
calls it, was made of various vegetable substances, but the actual
poison is the bark and alburnum of the Strychnos toxifera. In
small warm-blooded animals the smallest wound is followed by
instant death, and even larger animals stagger and collapse.
Humboldt even declares that the earth-eating Otomaks kill their
antagonists by the pressure of their poisoned thumb nails. x ?
Samples of urari, or curare, were brought to Paris about ten years
ago, and were there employed in experiments by the celebrated
physiologist, Claude Bernard. 18 It then became apparent that the
poison operates only if it is able to mingle with the blood. The
cessation of nervous power in muscular movements then com-
mences, but ultimately the action of lungs and heart is stopped,
and death results quite painlessly from the greatest conceivable
degree of lassitude, like the stopping of a pendulum when the
clockwork has run down. When the poison is fresh even animals
as large as the tapir collapse after a few steps.
The practice of poisoning missiles is also common in Africa,
According to the records of the Portuguese discoverers, the
Jolofers in Guinea, as well as the negroes of Rio Grande, formerly
poisoned their arrows. X 9 The Mandingo negroes did the same in
the days of Mungo Park, 20 and, according to Benjamin Anderson,
it is even now done by the Mandingoes at Musardo. 21 On the
White Nile the Moro negroes, who live near 5 north latitude, 22
as well as the Bari negroes, are said to anoint their arrows with
the poison of snakes or plants. 2 3 Du Chaillu says that the Fan
16 Richard Schomburgh, Reisen in Guayana. 1847.
17 Ansichten der Natur.
" Revue des Deux Mondes. 1864.
" Peschel, Zeitalter der Entdeckungen.
* Mungo Park, Reisen im innern von Afrika. Berlin, 1799^
fl Globus, vol. xx. 1871.
M Petherick, Central Africa. 1869.
18 W. von Harnier Reise am obern NiL
Curare. 189
negroes in South Africa do the same. 2 * Ladislaus Magyar 2 5 relates
that the southern neighbours of the Kimbunda in Bine, poison the
points of their spears. Livingstone speaks of kombi, a poison made
from a species of Strophanthus by the people living on the Shird,
and of another arrow poison used on Lake Nyassa ; he also states
that the Bushmen of Kalahari procure a poison for their missiles
from the entrails of a small caterpillar named Nga. 26 Theophilus
Hahn, on the other hand, asserts that the Bushmen obtain the
poison for their arrows used for hunting from the bulbs of Hczman-
thus toxicarius; but for their weapons of war from the poison
glands of snakes and the juice of a kind of spurge (Euphorbia
candelabrum)?'' Kolbe saw Hottentots anoint their arrows with
the poison of the hooded snake. 28 Pliny speaks of the Arabian
pirates in troglodyte Africa, that is to say, on the southern shores
of the Red Sea, as poisoners of arrows. Another Arabic race, the
Bhortans of the Himalayas, completes the list. 2 9
The nations enumerated are all within the tropical, or at least
within the subtropical, zone. The whole of North America is free
from this evil practice, which, according to Moritz Wagner, has its
most northerly limit in the New World at the Isthmus of Darien,
and at Choco on the Atrato.3 The single exception yet known
to us is the case of the Ceres, or Seris, of the Bay of California,
who make use of these hateful weapons.3 1 The use of the blow
pipe in South America has been already noticed ; we will now
only add, on the authority of Dobrizhoffer, that the Chiquitos in
Paraguay anointed their darts with a poison so fatal that, if the
least blood was shed, the smallest injury produced death in the
course of a few hours.
But it would be a mistake to suppose that this means of inflict-
24 Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial Africa. 1861.
85 Reisen.
28 Livingstone, Zambesi, p. 466. A representation of this larva is given in
Wood's Natural History of Man.
27 Th. Hahn in the Globus. 1870. G. Fritsch, Eingeborne Siidafrika's.
28 Vollstand, Beschreibung des Vorgebirges der guten Hoffnung. 1719.
w H. von Schlagintweit, Indien und Hochasien.
Naturwissenschaftliche Reisen. 1869.
Waitz, Anthropologie der Naturvolker.
Weapons.
ing death is peculiar to sultry or warm regions. Chinese writers
mention the poisoning of weapons as practised by a Tungus tribe
in the third century A.D., and by the Mongols in the fifth century. 3 2
Even now it is practised by the bearded Aino33 at Saghalia
and the Kuriles; in Steller's time the Itelmes of Kamtshatka
used monkshood (Aconitum napellus)^ for the same purpose, and
even the inhabitants of the Aleutian Islands knew and used a
poison for their darts. 35
We read of these treacherous instruments of death in classical
antiquity. Horace mentions them in his odes.3 6 Ovid accuses
the Pontic nations in the vicinity of his place of exile of the
practice of this crime. 37 Pliny gives an antidote for poisoned
wounds, and blames the depth to which human nature has de-
scended in adding the effects of a serpent's bite to the sharpness
of iron.3 3 Even the Celts of Gaul made occasional use of this
expedient, 39 as did the Saracens in the war of Granada in 1484.4
This custom had therefore spread through every region of the
world, with the exceptions of Australia and the Polynesian
Islands, where bows and arrows do not exist. We have dwelt
longer than usual on this subject, which we were the first to
review, 41 because the suppression of this crime affords one of
the rare instances in which man's social instinct has not only
raised the level of his morality, but has induced him to strive
towards still further improvement ; for the crude impulse of self-
preservation would certainly warrant the use of poisoned weapons.
A passage in Homer shows that some nations even then began
to be ashamed of such unworthy means of defence. Odysseus
wants to purchase a deadly arrow-poison from Ilos at Ephyra,
who, however, refuses it to him from fear of the eternal gods. 42
** Alex. Castren, Ethnol. Vorlesungen, p. 26.
M Herr von Brandt, Berlin Anthropological Society's Transactions. 1872.
34 Kamtschatka. 1774.
* Waitz, Anthropologie, vol. iii. p. 316. i6 Lib. i. 22.
* T Tristium, lib. iii. Eleg. x. v. 62. ** Hist. nat. lib. xx. 81.
* Forbiger, Handbuch der alten Geographic.
40 Hernando de Pulgar, Cronica. Valencia, 1780.
41 Ausland. On the Influence of Local Conditions on some Weapons. 1870.
4f Odyss. I. 260. Ephyra must be either in Epirus, or in some island of
the Argolic bay.
Slings. 191
The reason of this refusal suggests why poisoned arrows are used
only in the tropics and their vicinity, for the barbarous races of
jthose parts are not troubled about the wrath of the eternal
gods.
Another projectile apparatus, the sling, can occur only where
there are stones, which are not everywhere to be found. The
Amazon and its huge tributaries pass at once from the slopes of
the Cordilleras through a flat table-like plain, with a scarcely
perceptible fall, throughout which no shingle is to be found, for
a fathom of loam covers the finely triturated clay or marl. 43 If
all parts of the world had resembled these South American
plains, mankind could never have advanced to the stone age,
but must have remained at a stage of wood and horn. It is
obvious that slings could not be used in the forest country of the
Amazon. In North America we find slings only among the
Eskimo. They are very common, on the contrary, in the South
Sea Islands, among the inhabitants of the Marianne Islands, 44 on
the Samoa group, 4 * in Tahiti and the Sandwich Islands. 46 The
Papuans of the Fiji group and New Caledonia use them. 4 ? On
these islands the sling was also habitually used to knock cocoa-
nuts down from the trees. It is less evident why the Guanches,
the extinct inhabitants of the Canary islands, employed this
weapon ; it may be that they brought their slings from their earlier
home in Northern Africa. The best slingers of classical times
were also islanders, from the Balearic group. 48 The sling does
not occur in the Soudan, or only rarely, but it is very common
among the nations of biblical history. Among the Hebrews the
slingers of the tribe of Benjamin were famed for fighting with
either hand, and could sling stones at a hair's breadth and not
miss. 4 9 It was by slinging a stone against a gigantic Philistine
that the royal dynasty was founded in Judah. Stony pastures,
48 Ed. Poppig, Chile, Peru und der Amazonenstrom.
44 Waitz, Anthropologie, vol. v. p. 30.
44 Fr. Miiller, Reise der Fregatte' Novara ; Anthropologie, vol. iii. p. 39.
** Heinr. Zimmermann, Reise urn die Welt mit Capt Cook. 1781.
4T F. Knoblauch. Ausland, 1866.
48 Forbiger, Handbuch der alten Geographic.
49 Judges xx. 15, 16.
192 Weapons.
such as extend throughout Palestine, provoke practice with the
sling, especially as all shepherds are in the habit of throwing,
partly for the defence of their animals, and partly to punish either
their dogs or stray members of the flock. Adolph von Wrede
saw formal practices in shooting at a mark, and throwing stones,
among the Bedouins of Hadhramaut in Arabia. s The sling has
become a national and favourite weapon in South America. While
the hunting tribes of the wooded plains to the east of the Andes are
armed only with the bow, the sling is used both for the chase and
for war in the land of the Incas, by the civilized Quichua and
Aymara nations, on the treeless plateau of the Cordilleras called
the Puna. All the nations of the South American Andes use the
sling as far southwards as Cape Horn, where the Fuegians use it in
hunting the llama or, rather, the guanaco. The Patagonians of the
steppes in the south and west of the Argentine Republic are allied
by race to the nations of the Andes. Here slings, and the art of
using them, have reached their highest development. The stones,
which are rounded and held by a leather band, are swung above
the head. This is the origin of the bolas, a casting-line with balls. 51
In the course of time the casting-line was even used without any
stone; the Gauchos, or half-bred shepherds of the Argentines,
still fling their lasso with such dexterity that they use it for de-
fence in preference to a gun.s 2 The ordinary sling was superseded
by the line and balls in ancient Egypt. In the hunting scenes de-
picted on the monuments, is a huntsman of the age of the
Pharaohs whirling a line with balls round the hind legs of a
buffalo. 53 It need not be rashly inferred from this that the
Patagonians are descended from the ancient Egyptians, or that
Egyptians straying from the Phoenician fleet which sailed round
Africa under Pharaoh Nika had perhaps reached South America.
Wrede's Reisen im Hadhramaut.
51 On the use of the bolas among the Quichua nations in Peru, comp.
Markham, Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society vol. xv. Meeting
of July loth, 1871.
M Von Tschudi, Reisen in Sudamerika. That the lasso was employed by
the allies in the war against the Paraguayans, comp. Ausland and Max von
Versen, Reisen in America. Breslau, 1872.
* Wilkinson, Ancient Egyptians, voL iii., and in Lepsius' Monuments.
Effects of Agriculture on Weapons. 193
This is rather one of the innumerable instances in which the
same implements have been independently invented by nations
remote from and perfectly alien to one another.
As yet we have only traced the connection between the nature
of certain regions and the weapons used in them; but we will
now turn to a more important view of the subject. Just as
comparative anatomy has raised the Latin proverb, that from the
claw the lion may be known, into a scientific truth, so is ethnology
able to infer accurately the grade of a nation's civilization from its
arms. Density of population proportionate to space is the first
essential of all high social conditions, for this alone admits of
a division of labour. From the census and the extent of land
occupied by the Redskins of the United States in 1825, it was
calculated that hunting tribes require for their maintenance if
square miles per head, whereas in a district in some ways not
dissimilar, namely, in Belgium, 320 persons live in one square
mile. 54
Prosperous agriculture alone renders density of population
possible. But a husbandman cannot wield arms which require
constant practice and unusual dexterity. He will rather guard his
body from the missiles of hunters by a covering of wadding, as
in America, or with leather or metal. Moreover, abandoning that
desultory fighting which has much in common with hunting, he
and his fellows will combine into bands. In America we may see
this innovation adopted by all civilized nations. The Mexicans
and Yucatecs not only possessed defensive weapons, but also
wielded the sword of the stone period, made of wood, and provided
with a groove, into which separate sharp flakes of obsidian were
inserted to form a blade. All the Nahuatl nations of Central
America would have remained at a very low stage had they net
found obsidian or iztli in the lava of their volcanoes. This
mineral may be said to require but one dexterous stroke of
the hammer to cause it to fly into knife blades, which are so sharp
that long after the conquest the Spaniards allowed native barbers
to shave them with such flakes. The Inca-Peruvians had wooden
helmets, padded doublets, copper swords, battle-axes, spears, and
M Sir John Lubbock, Prehistoric Times, p. 582.
1 94 Weapons.
lances, 55 as well as flags, which are the best evidence of the
existence of a system of tactics even at that time.
These transitions must have required long periods. Nomadic
tribes did not suddenly lay aside their hunting implements.
Husbandmen and herdsmen fought in the Trojan war. Hence in
the ranks of the Achaians only two or three experts carried bows
and arrows ; and in the Odyssey, when Penelope cunningly chal-
lenges her suitors to a shooting-match, it appears that they are no
longer able to manage such an old-fashioned weapon. Similar
changes are now observable in Africa. We find clubs, lances,
and shields among all the cattle-breeding negroes on the White
Nile, as well as among tht Shillooks and Nuers,s6 wn ile we find
bows and arrows among the Kitsh, Dshur, Moro, and Niam-
niam negroes, who still hunt. Schweinfurth found an exception
among the remarkable Monbuttoos on the Uelle', who used shield
and spear as well as bow and arrows, but he expressly adds that
such a combination is very rare in negro countries. 57 The true
Kaffirs, says Theophilus Hahn,S7 never use the bow and arrow,
but fight in companies of 600 to 1000 men. Chaka, the great
king of the Zulus, even abolished the five or six casting spears
of the old accoutrement, and substituted a short lance for
thrusting, and long shields, under the protection of which his
warriors charged their enemies, striking them in the body with
the short weapon. The Hottentots and Bushmen, who are akin
to each other, belong to a perfectly distinct family. The Hot-
tentots are shepherds, the Bushmen hunters ; with rare exceptions,
the former no longer use the bow and arrow, which is the sole
weapon of the Bushmen. The Celts of Gaul, and our own fore-
fathers, had ceased to be archers in the time of Caesar and
Tacitus.
To say nothing of the Chinese, it might be urged as an
objection to this view that innumerable archers are depicted on
65 Prescott, Conquest of Peru, vol. i. p. 67, et seq.
86 Petherick, Central Africa, vol. i. pp. 98, 120, 319.
87 Im Herzen von Afrika, vol. ii. p. 115. 1874.
u Globus, vol. xx. 1871.
89 At least bows and arrows were only occasionally used by the Celts of
Gaul. Strabo, Geogr. lib. iv. cap. 4.
Specialization of Weapons. 195
the ^Egyptian monuments and on the sculptures of Chorsabad,
Nineveh, and Babylon. But the Old Testament explains why
these ancient civilized nations adhered to the old weapons of the
chase. The victory gained by the Philistines over King Saul was
attributed to their body of archers, and David, although the best
slingsman of his nation, made the children of Judah practise
archery again in order to neutralize their disadvantage, and from
this time forward the art was not neglected. Again, the wars
which were then waged in Western Asia centred principally round
cities ; but as the walls of cities were already flanked by towers, a
missile like the arrow, effective from a distance, was indispensable
for covering both the siege works and the besiegers themselves.
Even in the Roman order of battle we find a body of archers with
special duties in the fight, although the real weapons of the legions
were only the sword and the javelin. 60 It was mentioned above,
that the Fiji islanders still use bows and arrows in the sieges of
fortified villages, as well as in the defence of their stockades.
But in all these cases it is no longer the same implement as the
weapon of the herdsman, indeed we might almost say it has become
a scientific instrument. The monuments of the old biblical nations
all show the warriors in array. The division of labour has
already begun, and war is carried on either by a trained militia or
by a caste, not with the implements of daily labour, but with
specialized weapons. But when war is systematically practised,
the nature of the locality exercises less and less influence over the
choice of weapons ; in modern civilized nations it is scarcely trace-
able. Even now, however, the people of the Cossack steppes or
the Hungarian pusztas are incapable of excelling as sharpshooters,
nor are mountaineers fit material for light cavalry.
V. BOATS AND NAVIGATION.
ALTHOUGH the nautical powers of nations are among the last to
reach maturity, they yet produce the most important results on the
history of human society, for, however highly we estimate the
creations of any people in the sphere of arts, however highly we
80 Mommsen, History of Rome.
196 Boats and Navigation.
value its scientific knowledge or its religious institutions, yet jvhen
we consider merely the physical history of our world, we see that
the work of a single bold and persevering navigator surpasses all
others in its effects. When we speak of a strange world of nature
and of strange countries on our globe, we do so in allusion to the
strange plants and the strange animals peculiar to them. But if
there had been no geographical obstacles to the spread of animals
and plants, all climatic zones would have exhibited the same forms
of animated life. The seas have been the most effectual barriers,
yet the seamen who connected the Old and the New World
removed them, and thus deprived America of the character of a
separate region. Since its discovery, America has been invaded
not only by Europeans, but at the same time by all the cultivated
plants and domestic animals of Europe by wheat, rye, oats, and
barley, by cattle, horses, and sheep; and these vegetable and
animal immigrants have proved so powerful that in a short time
they have changed the aspect of whole regions, and even altered
the climate by converting the wooded wilderness into sunny,
arable land. This adds interest to the inquiry as to whether
America might not have been discovered from some other part of
our world, or whether the Americans themselves might not have
discovered the Old World; and also what conditions in that
hemisphere favoured such a chance As these questions can be
answered only by the help of historical comparison, we must turn
to those regions in which seafaring nations have reached the
highest development. The great rivers of the Old World have
not encouraged nautical dexterity in the inhabitants of their
shores, and the same may be said of America. Looking at the
map of the valleys of the Mississippi, the Amazon, or the La
Plata, we are impressed with the idea of an incalculable capability
for civilization ; we seem to see their waters covered with laden
vessels and their densely peopled banks studded with towns ; yet
the history of our own country tells us that it was not until the
days of the Romans that rivers became a requisite for the founda-
tion of cities, and that it is only since the employment of steam that
they have acquired their present value as a means of communica-
tion. It is true that in ancient times great works of civilization
were caused by the presence of rivers, as by the Nile and the
Rivers and Inland Seas. 197
twin rivers of Mesopotamia, but in both instances they mainly
served for the irrigation of plains in dry countries. A favourable
rainy season would have compensated for the Euphrates and the
Tigris, and formed a substitute even for the waters of the Nile,
though not for its mud. But the aborigines of America were by
no means in a condition in which their vast network of rivers could
have served to spread civilization. Broad and deep rivers are rather
barriers and impediments in the first beginnings of society, as, for
example," even in Caesar's day the Rhine quite separated the Celts
and the Teutons. The smaller and more tranquil currents are
more fitted for the hunter in his bark canoe, and for the fisherman
who has only to poison their waters in order to obtain his prey.
It is for these reasons that no advance in the civilization of the
wild tribes of the Mississippi district warns us of our approach
towards its waters, while the neighbourhood of the Amazon is only
slightly better.
This is the case also with the great chain of inland seas in
North America, for the hunting tribes inhabiting their shores were
in no way superior to the rest ; nor need we look for nautical skill
on other inland waters. In Asia, neither the Lakes Balkash,
Baikal, or Aral, nor even the Caspian Sea, influenced the inhabi-
tants of their shores to seamanship. On Alpine lakes, except
where better lines have been introduced by English amateurs,
we might till lately have found, and indeed we still find, boats of
the most inferior and unsuitable build which have resisted all
improvement during thousands of years. It is not on rivers or
inland seas that we must look for the nations which connect
country with country but on coasts. The words of the Eleusinian
mysteries, " To the sea, ye Mystae 1" apply with unusual force to
the history of civilization.
Among the nations conspicuous in antiquity for their nautical
enterprises were the Phoenicians and the inhabitants of the soutu
' coast of Arabia. Profitable transmarine products are the strongest
inducements to the first attempts to abandon the shore. Cyprus,
the " Copper Island," attracted the Phoenicians in this way ;
the Arabians were tempted by the neighbouring coasts of Africa.
The coasts of Syria, and of Yemen, Hadhramaut, and Oman in
Arabia, extend in a more or less straight line. Beyond the narrow
198 Boats and Navigation.
strip of coast the land rises, and from this elevation stretches the
so-called deserts. On coasts such as these not only is the water
generally the quickest, and often the sole means of communication
between inhabited places, but the land and sea winds are so
regular as to ensure an easy passage. As the population of the
narrow coast-line becomes more dense, fishing must contribute
more and more to subsistence, and if it be not sufficient some
portion of the increased population must roam beyond the sea.
It was thus that the Phoenicians passed over to Cyprus, from
Cyprus to Crete, from Crete to Carthage, to Spain, and even to
Senegal. In this way also the inhabitants of Southern Arabia
sailed along the east coast of Africa now called Ajan, but known
to the Greeks as Azania, and probably in ancient times reached
Kilva at the entrance of the Mozambique Channel. From ship-
owners from Aden, Claudius Ptolemaeus derived his knowledge
not of these coasts only, but also of the great Nile lakes which
then, as now, were visited by Arabian merchants from what is now
Zanzibar. 1 Arabian colonies subsequently spread from Hadhra-
maut and Oman to the shore of Africa as far as Sofala, a distance
to a coasting vessel equal to that from a Phoenician port to the
Columns of Hercules. 2
If in the New World we seek coasts of similar formation,
with a narrow strip of shore, backed by rising mountains, and
with comparatively dense populations, we can find the Phoenicians
of America only on the western coast of South America, from the
boundary of Chili northwards, to the shore of Ecuador. It is
well known that the greater portion of these shores never receive
a drop of rain ; but during the wet season mists prevail, producing
a transient growth of plants on the sands and shifting dunes. It
is only on the banks of the small coast streamlets, which rush
down the sides of the Cordilleras, that agriculture is capable of
supporting the population. Here we should expect to find that
fishery and coast navigation had been developed. Unfortunately,
there are no islands near the mainland to entice the natives to
sea, for the Galapogos Islands are at a greater distance from the
1 Ptolemseus, Geogr. lib. i. cap. 17.
* Peschel, Geschichte der Erdkunde.
Primitive Sea Traffic. 199
nearest point of land than Cape St. Vincent is from Madeira.
Nor is there any evidence that these were visited in ancient times,
and our nearer acquaintance with them dates only from the four-
teenth century. The shores of the former Inca-Peruvian kingdom
are moreover destitute of trunks of trees fit to be hollowed out
into canoes.
Yet along this very coast there existed a sea traffic, of a kind
occurring only in few other places in the New World prior to its
discovery. When Pizarro, sailing in 1526 from Panama, under
the guidance of the pilot Bartolomeo Ruiz, reached the Bay of
San Mateo on the shore of the present Ecuador, to the north-east
of Cape San Francisco, traders of Inca-Peru fell into his hands,
who were conveying jewellery and cloth of llama wool from Tum-
bez. Their vessel was a mere raft, on which a coasting voyage of
about four hundred miles had been accomplished. No want of
skill or ingenuity, but the absence of timber fit for shipbuilding^
compelled the inhabitants of the coast to construct such clumsy
vessels, with which, however, they even now undertake voyages of
eight hundred miles, from Guayaquil to Lima (Callao). The natives
of the desert of Atacama, where trees are yet more scarce, do not
use even rafts for fishing, but employ a pole with an inflated skin/
The raft from Tumbez, seized by the Spaniards, was moved by
a sail and steered by a helm. At the time of the discovery, sails
were very rarely employed by the aborigines of America, s so that
such an advance on the part of the Peruvians ranks among the
highest nautical achievements of the New World.
In the Old World it is not only on coasts, such as those of
Syria and Southern Arabia, that we find sea-going people. Nor-
way, beyond all other countries, has bred the most daring seamen,
who in the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries, while yet unac-
quainted with the mariner's compass, made their way to Iceland,
* D'Orbigny, L'Homme americain. 1839.
4 J. J. von Tschudi, Reisen durch Siidamerika. Lesson, Voyage autour
du Monde. 1839.
5 Prescott, usually so accurate, terms (Conquest of Pern) the Peruvian sailors'
raft, "the only instance of this higher kind of navigation among the Ameri-
can Indians." We shall see with what justice.
2oo Boats and Navigation.
Labrador, Greenland, and the present States of New England. In
Norway the severity of the climate has broken up the coast into
islands and fiords. 6 A rugged and disintegrated coast, with a sea
as rough and yet as productive as the Northern Ocean, is the best
school for seamen. The passage between Norway and the Shet-
land Islands 7 was made even in Pliny's time : a longer distance
than from any island in the Mediterranean to the nearest point of
the mainland. As we must regard coasts with fiords and a fringe
of islands as an excellent school of navigation, when we again
examine the New World we shall find that a coast formation of
this description exists there only on the Pacific Ocean, where it
extends along the island-fringed shores of British and of what
was formerly Russian America, from Vancouver's Island to
Behring's Sea, and in the south, from the boundary of Chili to
Terra del Fuego.
In the latter region we again see that the achievements of the
inhabitants do not invariably correspond with the advantages of
the abode, unless the inhabitants themselves are of a disposition
to make the best use of the favourable circumstances surrounding
them. The southern extremity of America, which is rent and
cleft in every direction into islands and ravine-like sounds, where
glaciers stretch down to the edge of the sea, while parrots fly
about, and even colibri do not dread the snow storms, the home
of evergreen fuchsias, of impenetrable forests, must, one would
think, be inhabited only by sea going tribes. As to the descent
of the present inhabitants of Terra del Fuego, ethnographers can
only repeat the words of d'Orbigny, 8 namely, that their language
approximates in sound to that of the Patagonians and Puelchians,
but to the Araucanian in structure. We need not inquire whether
the inhabitants of Terra del Fuego and the islands of Magellan
are derived from the Patagonian or Araucanian nations, especially
as the two are closely allied, and some genuine Patagonians are
certainly to be found among the Fuegians. The Patagonians
are hunters and do not possess even the simplest raft only fit
to cross a river. The Araucanians are also hunters, although
Peschel, Neue Probleme. T Hist nat lib, iv. cap. 30.
8 L'Homme amdricain.
Fuegians* 201
they inhabit mountains instead of grassy plains. We look in
vain for bark canoes on all the great rivers of the pampas or
Steppes. Formerly the hide of an ox was turned up at the
edges and bound together at the corners with thongs so as to
resemble a flat open box. Goods were conveyed across rivers
in such a pelota, as these leathern rafts were termed. The
native of the steppes yoked himself by a thong to the front of
the ox-hide, and dragged it after him, swimming from shore to
shore. 9 At the time of the discovery of America, no nation, from
La Plata to Cape Horn, or from Cape Horn along the west
coast of South America to Panama, had conceived the idea
of constructing any vessel other than a raft ; consequently the
manufacture of canoes must have been invented independently
on the waters of Magellan, by the Pesherah of Bougainville, or
Fuegians, as they are now called. Yet the formation of this coast
has always given rise to special customs and skill. At the
Chonos Islands rude rafts are alone in use. 10 The Fuegians,
again, with whom Captain Wilkes had dealings, possessed only
canoes of bark stretched upon a frame and sewed together, and
which required continued bailing out. Better craft were seen in
other parts, and Cordova even praises their mode of caulking,
and mentions canoes at Cape Providence which were cut out of
the trunks of trees. In looking at these feeble attempts of the
Fuegians, we ' must remember that they were merely beginners in
boat-building, for, as Araucanians or Patagonians, they previously
lived the life of hunters on the mainland, as we may infer with
great certainty from the fact that they possess slings, which are
otherwise rarely found among maritime tribes, and can render
them but little service. But the Fuegians still hunt a little, as
herds of guanacos exist on Navarin and on other islands of the
Straits of Magellan. We may therefore safely conclude that the
Fuegians are a feeble horde of hunters, who being driven from
their hunting-grounds by more powerful neighbours, were finally
compelled to hazard a passage to the nearest island on the coast,
and to apply themselves to the pursuit of marine animals. Seals
9 Dobrizboffer, Gescbicbte der Abiponer, vol. ii. p. 150.
10 United States Exploring Expedition, voL i. p. 124.
10
2O2 Boats and Navigation.
of many species were once unusually numerous in Terra del
Fuego, but the destruction caused by ruthless seal hunters has
compelled the Fuegians, who, like so many other natives, are dying
out, to content themselves with Crustacea and fish.
Although but the rudiments of sea-craft have been developed in
the Patagonian fiords, in the north, on the contrary, from Van-
couver's Island to the Aleutian Islands, there are many small
tribes of Redskins, with distinct languages, who represent the north-
men of the New World, inasmuch as they inhabit a coast similar
in formation to that of Norway, and are not easily surpassed in
their own hemisphere as bold seamen. The slender structure and
the pointed and really apt lines of the boats in the Nootka Sound
have recently been praised by Catlin the artist : there are canoes
there of fifty-three feet in length, and large enough for a hundred
men. It is noticeable that south of the Juan de Fuca Straits,
where the coast loses it fiord-like character, as far as the boundary
of ancient Peru, only the rudest boats are used by the aborigines,
while conversely from Nootka Sound northwards, the nearer we
approach the continent of Asia, the more skilful is the construc-
tion of boats, and their management the more admirable. Even
among the islands of what was formerly Russian America, inhabited
by the Thlinkites, there are hunting boats of the true Eskimo
build ; these baidars, as they are there called, are intended only
for a single person, and have closed decks, so that but one seat is
left, which the boatman covers closely with his apron. These con-
trivances have been imitated as far as was suitable in Europe.
The coast tribes from the Straits of Juan de Fuca to the Aleutian
Islands are quite distinct from the so-called red hunting tribes to the
east of the Rocky Mountains. It is uncertain whether they emi-
grated from Northern Asia in ancient times, or, having borrowed
their nautical skill from their Asiatic neighbours, they spread a
knowledge of it as far as Vancouver's Island. Both views seem
to be admissible, and all that is certain is that the advance was
confined to the fiords.
It is immaterial to us whether Asiatic people or only Asiatic
culture spread along the north-west coast of America as far as the
Straits of Juan de Fuca, for both were facilitated by the shape
of the northern part of America, which is very significant In
Inhabitants of Fiords. 203
Australia, the peninsula of Carpentaria (Cape York), stretching
towards New Guinea, still made intercourse with the Old World
possible. We may perhaps succeed in convincing ethnologists that
this tongue of land was, geographically speaking, the means of
again raising the social condition of the Australian aborigines.
The north-west of America possesses an analogous limb in the
peninsula of Alaska, which stretches like an arm towards Northern
Asia, while the chain of Aleutian Islands is suspended like a string
of beads towards the outstretched arm, forming an interrupted
passage to Kamtshatka. If predestination were conceivable, we
should say that this was the preordained pathway for a union
between the civilizations of the Old and the New World. If
America had not been discovered in 1492 under the Spanish flag,
and if Europe had reached its degree of maturity of 1492 only
half a century later, a civilized Asiatic nation, that is to say, the
Japanese, would have anticipated us, by way of the Caspian Sea,
in the discovery of America. We do not in the least mean to
imply that Japanese navigators would have been wafted across
the Pacific as they were in 1832 and 1833 to the Sandwich Islands,
and to America itself in the neighbourhood of the Straits of Juan
de Fuca, for history knows of no instance in which advantageous
relations with unknown regions were due to the discoveries of
castaways or shipwrecked sailors." We are rather arguing from
the fact that the Japanese visited the Kuriles, occupying the
southern islands before any Europeans had done so, and that no
less than three times, in 1697, 1710, and 1729, did tidings come
to Russia that Japanese trading vessels had penetrated as far as
Kamtshatka, so that if the Russians had not anticipated them,
they, as the Russians eventually were, would have been led on
11 The voyage of Bjarne Herjulfson might be quoted against us. Sailing in
the year A.D. 1000 for Greenland, he missed his course and discovered America,
probably Labrador. But this accidental acquaintance of the Northmen with
America in no degree affected the history of civilization. The case of the
Portuguese, Cabral, might also be quoted, who, on his second voyage to the
East Indies, discovered Brazil. But that the successors of Vasco da Gama must
sooner or later have come in sight of South America on their voyages to the
Cape of Good Hope, depended in no way on accident, but was a physical
necessity brought about by the trade winds prevailing on the Atlantic.
2O4 Boats and Navigation.
by the fur trade from the Kuriles to the Aleutians, and thence to
America in the course of a century.
Islands lying near a coast are especially favourable to the de-
velopment of seamanship. Thus the proximity of Elba, and of
Corsica to Elba, attracted the Etruscans on to the Mediterranean
before the time of the Romans. Austria still mans her fleet with
excellent sailors from the island-bound Dalmatian coast, and
Genoa owed her former greatness not merely to the size of her
natural harbour, but to the circumstance that, in clear weather,
Corsica, which to the Ligurian fishing-boats is the first goal of a
longer voyage, is visible from the Riviera. The British Isles in
former centuries attracted various nations in succession, each sur-
passing the other in seamanship. Before the Northmen, Danes
and Saxons, even the Celts, ventured out into the Atlantic; for
we know that the Northmen who first landed on Iceland found
Irish antiquities of Christian times there, indicating a previous
settlement of pious Celtic anchorites.
Large portions of continents which have become detached from
the mainland by the subsidence of the intervening land, become
groups of islands in shallow seas. We meet with this phenomenon,
in the Old World, between Southern Asia and Australia, which
were formerly bound together until the land connecting them was
dissolved into the Sunda, 12 Banda, and Molucca Islands. From
these the Malays, a race eminent for seamanship, have ranged over
the ocean to a distance exceeding half the circumference of the
earth, spreading in the Pacific as far north as the Hawai or Sand-
wich Islands, to Easter Island on the east, and southwards to
New Zealand, while in the Indian Ocean they have spread to
Madagascar. Where Asia approaches so near to Europe that
the basin of the Mediterranean is narrowed into the Dardanelles,
the Grecian archipelago is the remnant of a former connection
of the two continents. These islands trained a people surpassed
in nautical skill but by the Phrenicians of all the nations of
antiquity. Their colonies and markets extended in time over
both the basins of the Mediterranean, in the.Euxine as far as the
mouth of the .Don, and through the Red Sea as far as the East
11 Peschel, Neue Probleme der vergleichende Erdkunde.
Islanders. 205
Indies. A similar dissolution into islands is traceable on a smaller
scale between the mainlands of North Germany and Scandinavia,
Which is the home of the Danes, who contributed to British blood,
and hence may claim a share in the nautical fame of the greatest
maritime power of Europe. The Dutch also inhabit a region of
islands which originated by subsidence, and did not exist at the
time when the British Isles still formed part of the continent of
Northern Europe.
In those regions of the New World which owe their configura-
tion to a like cause, we may, therefore, expect to find a similar
development of the inhabitants. But from physical comparisons
elsewhere made, it appeared that the archipelago of the so-called
North-west Passage must also be regarded as the remnant of a
former connection between the small continent of Greenland and
the continent of North America ; and further, that where North
and South America approach each other, on the Atlantic shores of
the shallow Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, the Antilles
still exist as the residue of a former connection. Hence, if the
development of human civilization depends on favourable local
configuration, we ought to find the highest degree of nautical skill
in the American Polar Sea, and in the two gulfs of Central
America, which in the New World supply the place of the Medi-
terranean, once so highly favoured. Nor do these expectations
altogether mislead us.
Archipelagoes have, however, frequently served as asylums for
weak or decrepit beings, for whom the struggle for life on the
continents has become too fierce, and who could only continue
to exist where the sea protected them from their more hardy
oppressors. Both the Lesser and the Great Antilles, as well as the
Bahamas, were inhabited prior to 1492 by a gentle and extremely
unwarlike race of men, whom Von Martius has named Taini.
The few remnants of their language that have been preserved,
chiefly names of places, do not afford any certain testimony of
their origin, yet it has recently been assumed that they were
related to the Arowaks of South America, who still inhabit the
Guayanas. These people made no long voyages ; at the most,
those who lived in the south of Hayti ventured occasionally to
2o6 Boats and Navigation.
Jamaica, or the inhabitants of Jamaica to Hayti.*3 But in 1492
they had already been partially driven from their islands by the
Caribs, a race extraordinarily gifted, both physically and intellec-
tually, whom we must not condemn too severely for their complete
nudity, their inclination to piracy, their craving after human flesh,
and the poisoning of their arrows. The Caribs of these islands,
whose language was a dialect of that of the Caribs of the mainland,
had even then conquered the so-called Lesser Antilles, occupied
the eastern half of Porto Rico, and extended their kidnapping
excursions into Hayti, where some of their adventurers had
Tounded monarchies, and the older comers had taken posses-
sion of the country on the eastern shore. Their ships of war, or
pirogues, were forty feet in length, and broad enough to afford
room for a Spanish cask (pipa) lying crossways. They carried fifty
seamen, and were moved either by cotton sails or by oars plied
to a time set by a singer. They must not be blamed for their
piracy, for Thucydides tells us how the Greeks owed their maritime
power to the same trade. Piracy is in fact one of the evils
inseparable from the development of national intercourse ; hence
maritime customs have remained extremely barbarous even up to
our own century. Many of the renowned English circumnavigators
and discoverers of the i6th and iyth centuries were also pirates;
nay, the Dutch West Indian Company was able to pay fabulous
profits to its shareholders only because their ships pursued the
Spanish galleons. The customs of war at that time certainly en-
nobled piracy.
Just as the Caribs became pirates where the Antilles approach
nearest to the South American continent, so we also find a very
hignly civilized people, namely, the Yucatecs, at the spot were
Cuba approaches the shores of Central America. Here there is,
indeed, no piracy, but Columbus, when on his fourth voyage, steer-
ing from Bay Islands towards the coast of Honduras, met with a
trading vessel from Yucatan, which, if it kept along shore, had to
traverse at least 400 miles before reaching the nearest native port.
It was eight feet wide and as large as " a galley," and was pro-
u The largest boats of the Antilles were built in Jamaica j these were 96 feet
in length, and eight feet in width. Bernaldez, Reyes CatoL
Islanders. 207
vided with a roof of palm leaves for the protection of the
merchandize, which consisted of woven fabrics and articles of
clothing, wooden swords with obsidian blades, brass and earthen-
ware utensils ; in other words, manufactures which the merchants
had exchanged for a cargo of cocoa. They were seen to stoop and
gather up with care every fallen bean, for even then these seeds,
or "almonds," as the discoverers called them, served instead
of small coins in Mexico and in Yucatan, to which they were
laboriously brought from Honduras. The Yucatecs must also
have made occasional visits to Cuba, for on the ist and 2Qth of
November Columbus notes in his log, that he found a piece of
silver and a cake of beeswax among the natives of Cuba, both of
which articles could have come there only by way of Yucatan.
It is unfortunately impossible to state positively whether sails
were even then used by the Maya races. x *
The archipelago between North America and Greenland would
be peculiarly fitted for the development of maritime skill did not
its sea, fast bound by the arctic winter, leave the passage by water
open only during a few weeks in the year. Nevertheless the
Eskimo, one of the most sea-going nations of the world, have
spread themselves over this very region. In another place we
shall give a more detailed account of their achievements.
Our task is accomplished if we have succeeded in showing that
both in the Old and the New World the analogous formations of coast
.nave promoted the nautical achievements of their inhabitants in a
similar manner ; and that in America it is only in very limited and
specially favoured tracts that we find rude germs of navigation.
All who know the stories of the voyages in the Pacific, from
the times of Schouten and Le Maire to that of Wilkes, or even
14 Don Fernando Colombo, describing in the biography of his father
(Vita del Almirante) the Yucatan galley on the coast of Honduras, makes no
mention of a sail. On the other hand, Bernal Diaz, an eye-witness, relates
that when Francisco Fernandez di Cordova, in 1517, first discovered Yucatan,
near Cape Catoche, five large boats containing forty or fifty people approached
with oars and sails a ramo y vela (Histor. verladera). In Herrera the
words are cinco canoas con gente, que iban al remo, that is to to say, with oars.
In Oviedo and Peter Martyr also there is no confirmation of Bernal Diaz's
statement.
208 Boats and Navigation.
of later discoveries, are accustomed to regard boats, full of inquisi-
tive and importunate native crowds, as always present round the
European vessels off those shores ; nay, in certain favourable
places in the South Sea, even where land is not in sight, the
sails made of matting of Polynesian natives may be seen passing
in the distance. In the records of the discoverer of America, on
the contrary, instances in which Europeans meet with natives on
the sea even near land are extremely rare. We have already cited
the most notable cases. The comparatively small advance of the
American natives in the arts of sailing and paddling may perhaps
be ascribed to the absence of a Mediterranean Sea or of a coast
formation such as that of our North Sea. Yet in all respects the
human race has developed far more slowly in America than in
the Old World. If we sum up the industrial feats of the great
civilized nations of America, the Mexicans and the Peruvians of
the time of the Incas, as if they had been found side by side
instead of apart, the two together would still not present such
a picture of a civilization as we see in Egypt under the fourth
dynasty, the earliest of which we possess monuments. In other
words, the American race, even in the districts of its highest
development, had not attained a maturity in the year 1492 equal
to that of the highest local civilization of the Old World three
thousand years before Christ. But let us imagine that in the year
3000 B.C., discoverers from America had come to Europe in
decked sailing vessels and with the compass in their hands, they
would scarcely have found the waters on the northern shores
of our continent occupied by better seamen than the Eskimo
and the Kolushs, or Thlinkites, of North America, and in the
Mediterranean they would probably not yet have encountered
Phrenician ships of Tarshish, but perhaps trading galleys, such as
went from Yucatan to Honduras, or ships such as the Caribbean
sailing pirogues, and manned by the pirates of Asia Minor of
whom Thucydides speaks in his first book.
Primitive Trade. 209
VI. THE INFLUENCE OF COMMERCE ON THE LOCAL
DISTRIBUTION OF NATIONS.
IT is not easy to overestimate the advantages arising from the
interchange of local products. The merchant spreads abroad not
only his goods, but with them, samples of art, inventions, know-
ledge, morals, customs, and poetry ; and his footsteps are usually
followed by the missionary. Of these facts we shall say no more, but
we will rather show the extent to which valuable products of dif-
ferent regions have affected the distribution of nations and languages.
Let us first note that commerce already existed in those ages in
which we find the earliest signs of our race. It must have been
by barter that the cave-dwellers of Pe'rigord, of the reindeer period,
obtained rock crystals, Atlantic shells, and the horns of the Polish
Saiga antelope. 1 The obsidian blades which are occasionally met
with in ancient graves to the east of the Mississippi, must have
reached the places where they are now discovered by barter either
from Mexico or from the Snake River, an affluent of the Columbia
to the west of the Rocky Mountains. 2 We must not imagine that
the so-called Redskins of the Union had no intercourse but that
of murderous feuds. Merchant boats passed along the great
rivers, and transit duties were taken by the chiefs. 3 In South
America, curare, the arrow poison, the preparation of which was
understood only by a few hordes, formed a valuable article of
commerce among the Indians of the Amazon, so that people
living near the Napo were obliged to make canoe voyages of
three months' duration in order to procure it* Even where bands
of hawkers and pedlars did not wander through the country,
goods were bartered betwixt horde and horde, and such a
system of intercourse might extend throughout an entire quarter
of the world. English wares deposited at Mombas, on the eastern
side of South Africa, have been recognized at Mogador, on the
west coast of Northern Africa. s Since from these circumstances
See above, p. 37.
Carl Rau, Archiv fur Anthropologie. 1871.
Lafitau, Moeurs des sauvages ameriquains. Paris, 1724.
Von Martius, Ethnographic, vol. i. p. 504, and above, p. 187.
Waitz, Anthropologie, vol. ii. p. 101.
2io The Influence of Commerce on Nations.
we may assume that commerce has existed in all ages, and among
all inhabitants of the world, the circumstances of modern times
serve to throw light on the dark ages of ethnology.
When, in the year 1492, three Spanish vessels were sailing west-
wards, striving to reach the distant lands of the Atlantic, a sort of
council of war was held on board the Santa Maria, on the yth
of October, between the two chiefs of the enterprise, Christopher
Columbus and Martin Alonzo Pinzon. Until then a direct west-
ward course had been held, the squadron lay between latitudes
25 and 26, so that in four or five days the trade-wind would
have carried it either to the most northern of the Bahamas or to
Florida. The elder, Pinzon, nevertheless insisted on directing
the course to the south-west, assigning no other reason than the
inspiration of his heart (el corazon me da). From no conviction,
but from conciliatory motives, the discoverer of the New World
actually allowed the course to be altered 45 for a few days, so that
on Friday, October i ith, the coral island of Guanahani was sighted.
The great Alexander von Humboldt has stated that had this
change of course not taken place, the ships would have arrived at
Florida, and the Spaniards would have peopled the United States
instead of Central America, so that but for the inspiration of
Martin Pinzon's heart, the New World would now have had quite
different ethnographical features. 6
But in reality it made no difference at what point America was
first sighted, for even before the discovery the region to be occu-
pied by the Spanish colonists was tolerably well defined by the
distribution of the precious rnetals. For as soon as Columbus
saw the golden ornaments in the ears and noses of the harm-
less Lucayans, he endeavoured to ascertain by signs whence
the precious metal had been procured He felt his way from
island to island as far as Cuba, going first towards the north-
west, and when this direction did not satisfy him, turning towards
the south-east till he came to Hayti. Here, from whence gold
had been spread over the Antilles, he founded his first settle-
ment. Much has been written of the Spanish thirst for gold, but
had they not followed the traces of gold, transatlantic colonies
8 Kosmos, vol. ii. 1847.
Gold. 211
could not have arisen so early as the end of the fifteenth
century. All agricultural colonies which the French and English
attempted to found on the shores of the United States in the
sixteenth century, literally perished by starvation. Cut off from
their own country, where division of labour was already practised,
the settlers, when they had exhausted the outfit brought with
them from the Old World, necessarily fell back into the same
grade of civilization as the red aborigines, unless constant fresh
supplies were conveyed to them from their old home. Such
supplies required high remuneration, as the voyage to the New
World still involved great perils. The consignments could not be
paid for in cereals, for these were not yet worth the cost of freight.
It was the discovery of tobacco, an article of commerce worth the
cost of carriage to Europe which, in the beginning of the seven-
teenth century, made Virginia, the first purely agricultural colony
of the New World, flourish. It is therefore primarily owing to
tobacco, and perhaps to the fur trade, that the present society of
North America is of Anglo-Saxon origin. That Canada was once
purely French, and is still half French, is due to another natural
product. Round about Newfoundland lie incredibly rich cod
fisheries, the produce of which, even in the beginning of the six-
teenth century, repaid the cost of carriage across the Atlantic ; for
even in the middle ages it was brought from Iceland. Fishermen
from the north of France, who gave their name to Cape Breton,
have visited Newfoundland annually ever since 1503. From these
well-known waters Jacques Cartier then discovered the St. Law-
rence, and, following in his track, the French reached Canada.
A valuable article of export is required to enable a first settle-
ment to strike root : but if it has once obtained a footing, it grows
like the mustard seed of the Gospel. The Spaniards in no way
interfered .with the French and English colonists in the United
States as long as the two latter did not venture dangerously near
their southern possessions. They had no reason to disturb the
pious Puritans. The present domains of the United States bear
upon the charts of the Spanish discoverers, the legend, worthless
territories (tierras de ningun provecho), because they produced
no gold. All must therefore acknowledge that it was quite
indifferent to the history of civilization whether the Spanish ships
212 The Influence of Commerce on Nations.
did or did not bear off from the west to the south-west on October
7th, 1492. The Spaniards went in pursuit of gold, and when they
had stripped a district of its treasure they abandoned it again, as
was the case in the Isthmus of Darien \ but colonies of planters
first grew up on tropical islands, where the cultivation of sugar
by means of negro slaves yielded profits. It is certain that
America became Spanish and has remained Spanish in all such
districts as produce gold and silver, and that it is only later
settlements that have taken root in regions where tropical agri-
culture or profitable cattle-breeding might be carried on.
It is strange that the Spaniards knew the richest gold district
of the New World for two hundred and fifty years without suspect-
ing its treasures. California was theirs ; there their missionaries
preached, there their soldiers kept watch in castles (presidios)
over the rapacious Comantshes and Apatshes, yet not one among
them guessed that they were in the midst of the El Dorado
which they had so long sought in vain. Yet they may find
some comfort in the fact that the Russians also held California
for a time, and vacated it only a few years before the name of this
country served as a trumpet-call to draw all the adventurers of
both worlds to the Sacramento. Had the gold of California been
discovered at the close of the sixteenth century, then, indeed,
the course of the world's history might have taken another
direction. California and Australia are the best witnesses at the
present day, that the local distribution of nations depends on
the existence in larger or smaller quantities of tempting treasures
on or in the soil. Gold alone prompted the national emigra-
tions to the Pacific Ocean.
Australia was affected as was California. An old map lately
found in the British Museum has unexpectedly shown that the
Portuguese visited a northern point of this continent in the year
1 60 1. 7 After them the Dutch frequently reached the western and
northern coasts, and on two occasions, the southern shore ; hence
this part of the world is still often called New Holland. Yet
these regions were to them what the United States were to the
7 P. H. Major, Discovery of Australia by the Portuguese in 1601.
London, 1861,
The Fur Trade. 213
Spaniards in the sixteenth century worthless territories. The
English regarded their discoveries on the east coast of Australia
in the same manner when, at the end of the last century, they
degraded them to a place of exile for their convicts. Thus
Australia continued to be neglected by Portuguese, Dutch, and
English, until the cry of gold was raised, when a new period of
immigration instantly dawned.
About five years ago we heard that the Russians had sold
Alaska to the United States. But how did the Russians come
to Alaska ? Did they go by the Baltic or the White Sea, round
Cape Horn, or the Cape of Good Hope ? Certainly not j they
passed over the Ural mountains in the year 1577 to the Ob,
not because their own country had become too small for them,
but in the hope of great gains in the far East. As the Spaniards
stripped the Caziques of the New World of their rings and anklets,
so did the Cossacks, as the invaders of Siberia were named, with
the valuable furs which they found in the possession of the chiefs
of the hunting tribes. The thirst for plunder urged them with
incredible rapidity eastward; and even in 1639 they had reached
the shores of the Sea of Okhotsk. In Behring's Sea they found
the most highly prized of all furs, that of the sea-otters, which
in Steller's time were extremely numerous, but are now dying
out, if not already extinct. Of course it was constantly necessary
to seek for new and virgin hunting-grounds, and thus the Russian
fur merchants reached the New World, where they founded New
Archangel at Sitka. Up to the recent advance of the Russians
across the steppes of Kirghiz, it may be said that the extension
of their power in Northern Asia has been coextensive with the
distribution of the animals yielding fur.
Although we have hitherto seen the destiny of great regions
and great nations determined by the occurrence of valuable
commodities of the mineral and animal kingdoms, yet many
vegetable products have had a similar effect ; this was especially
the case in the earlier times when the present skill in packing
and naturalizing of plants had not been acquired. Thus it was
the desire for the treasures of the East Indies which first led the
Portuguese on the African shore of the Atlantic to venture south-
wards. India (which name at that time included the whole ol
214 The Influence of Commerce on Nations.
Southern Asia as well as China and Japan) was erroneously con-
sidered a metalliferous country, although it is really much poorer
in gold and silver than Africa itself. But the jewels of Ceylon
and of the future Golconda, the pearl banks in the Gulf of
Manaar, in the Persian Gulf, and in the Red Sea, were realities ;
and in addition to these there were various costly spices and valued
drugs. The well-known fact that the various spices, medicinal and
aromatic plants, were distributed within very narrow regions, pro-
duced great effects. Pepper, which at that time ranked from a
mercantile point of view as the first of spices, could be procured
only from the Malabar coast, India, or from the island of Sumatra,
The nutmeg was as yet confined to the islands of the Sea of
Banda ; cloves were found only on five small volcanic islands near
the Island of Gelolo, which are, properly speaking, the Moluccas.
True, camphor was and still is to be obtained only in two small
districts one in Sumatra and the other in Borneo. The Portu-
guese were thus obliged to sail to the limits of the then known
world before they reached the original habitats of these vegetable
treasures. It may appear strange that such baits were requisite to
allure the Dutch after the Portuguese, and after the Dutch the
French and the English, to Southern Asia, but the spread of
civilization is in a great measure due to the fact that these trea-
sures were so capriciously distributed, and existed in such small
quantities, for otherwise Europeans would not even yet have
spread over the whole globe. The Portuguese were in all the
original habitats of the spices, that is to say, on the west, but not
on the east coast of Hindustan, in the great commercial centres of
the Malays, and on the spice islands of the extreme east of Asia.
The cause of their settlement in Brazil is told by the very
name of this empire. In 1493 tne Pope had distributed the
globe between the Spaniards and the Portuguese, and on the
western boundary of the latter, or under the "first meridian," as it
was termed, lay a large portion of the South American territory,
which, after the discovery, and for a long time subsequently, was
named the " Land of the Holy Cross ;" but it was called Brazil, or
The Land of Logwood, after the first and most important consign-
ment that it was able to send home, for it was only much later
that gold and diamonds were obtained behind the mountains on
Spice and Slave Trade. 215
the coast. Africa, hardly less than Australia, has also been
looked upon as hardly civilized. Karl Ritter accounted for the
inferior grade of its inhabitants by the absence of indentations of
its shores in proportion to its circumference. It is indeed very
boldly formed ; it is destitute of peninsulas, and its bays, such
as the Gulfs of Sidra and Khabs, are but slight indentations, or
are merely formed by some angle of the coast, as is the Gulf of
Guinea or the shores of the Red Sea and the Somali coast ; but
even the Red Sea is so difficult of navigation that, in comparison
with other coast indentations, it offers very slight advantages
for communication. Had great rivers, like the Mississippi, the
Amazon, or the La Plata, in America, rendered Africa accessible,
civilization could have made its way more rapidly into the in-
terior, as is shown by the fact that the shores of the Nile were the
site of a very mature, and probably the earliest, civilization. But
in addition to the impediments to the spread of civilization which
we have already mentioned, the land was almost entirely destitute
of treasures such as might tempt foreign colonists. Gold is only
found near the sources of the Senegal and Niger, and in a few
streams on the Guinea coast, formerly also at Sofala in East
Africa, and now in some districts of Kaffirland, but everywhere
in very small quantities; so that Africa, possessing no golden
fleece, has never attracted Argonauts : it contains no districts
equal in mineral wealth to Peru, Mexico, California, or even to
Minas Geraes. Hence, even at the present day, the African
colonies of the Portuguese, French, English, and Dutch have
remained poor and insignificant in comparison with the settle-
ments in South America.
The Cape districts alone have developed prosperously since the
time of trans-oceanic emigrations, first as a place of call on the
road to India, and subsequently as agricultural colonies. Without
metals, without spices, and without drugs, or any vegetable trea-
sures, Africa remained free from conquerors, but also untouched
by civilization ; sad to relate, for three thousand years she was
fain to pay for European baubles and intoxicating liquors with
her own children. The slave trade was thus, not justified, but in
a measure explained by the want of any important article of
export But though the slave trade connects the interior with the
216 The Influence of Commerce on Nations.
coast, it does not convey a higher civilization from the coast to
the interior. At last, after the lapse of ages, a treasure has been
discovered in our own days even in Africa, which within a
moderate period will be the means of revealing the long-preserved
secrets of this continent. This is not a product of the mineral nor
of the vegetable kingdom, but the tusks of the elephant. Ivory
hunters roam about South Africa in all directions on the track of
Livingstone, and they are followed by missionaries, merchants,
and the earliest settlers. The region lying to the east and west of
the White Nile has been explored, and is annually traversed by
Italian ivory hunters, who are obliged to penetrate further every
year, leaving exhausted hunting-grounds behind them.
Although the examples hitherto given have been derived from
modern history, we might also quote from ancient times the early
appearance of the Phoenicians, or their descendants, the Cartha-
ginians, in Spain, where they were retained by the quarrying of
silver ore. In the early stages of development tin promoted civili-
zation even more than silver, for without tin bronze cannot
be produced. But tin is found in but few places, and many even
of these were completely unknown in ancient times. History
proves that tin was not obtained from the Erzgebergs until the
middle ages, and it still seems doubtful whether tin from Crete
or the trans-Caucasian tin from Georgia reached the Mediter-
ranean. In Pliny's time, however, Spanish tin from Gallicia was
an article of Roman commerce. In Gaul tin was washed on the
Aurence, and ancient tin mines have also been discovered in
Limousin, in the department of the Loire Inferieure and in Mor-
bihan. 8 So skilful were the Celts in metallurgy that the Romans
first learnt from them the art of tinning utensils. Celtic miners
worked the most important of the ancient quarries on the Scilly
Islands and in Cornwall. It must not be supposed that Phoeni-
cian travellers communicated their skill in mining and smelting
to the old inhabitants of Brittany, or that they even discovered
the veins of tin ore. Never before the days of Abel Tasman
were voyages to unknown regions made without a special aim.
The seafarers invariably had some object in view; they always
8 Rougemont, Die Bronzezeit. 1869.
Metals and Amber. 217
endeavoured to reach the emporium or the original source of the
treasures of commerce. Hence, if Carthaginian or Phoenician
vessels ever reached the west coast of France or entered the
Channel, they must have been in quest of known sources of tin ;
consequently this metal must already have been excavated, and
must have reached the Mediterranean by land in the course
of traffic. That such land traffic existed is proved by the early
foundation and the prosperity of Marseilles ; moreover, the lumps
of tin ore which have been found among the Swiss relics of the
bronze age, mus't have reached Helvetia by an inland commerce,
and could have reached Marseilles as easily as Switzerland. It
was also owing to. the presence of tin that the Celts of Gaul and
Britain were of far higher social development than the Teutons
of the time of Caesar. The Romans found an excellent system of
husbandry in use among the ancient Britons, in which the yield was
increased by the use of marl as a mineral manure. The Britons
also used artistic war implements of their own invention, namely,
the scythe cars. The possession of an article of export so indis-
pensable, and the fact that tin was in such great request in the age
of bronze, was in itself the means of promoting civilization, for
commerce at a very early period brought the Britons into contact
with the Mediterranean nations, and aided in hastening the
maturity of their condition.
The inhabitants of the coast of the North Sea, and still more of
the Baltic, possessed an analogous property in amber. At a very
early period amber must have reached the shores of the Mediter-
ranean, although perhaps it was at first only bartered from tribe to
tribe. Even if the conquering Romans had not appeared at the
mouths of the Ems and Weser, and if Drusus had not even then
pushed on his ships to the northern point of Jutland, amber alone
would certainly have been able to attract the civilization of the
Mediterranean to the north; for even in Nero's time (A.D. 56) a
Roman knight undertook a journey, for the purpose of exploring
the continent, across the Carpathian mountains to the amber
districts of East Prussia, and returned with a supply of the precious
commodity to the metropolis of the world. It is doubtless to
amber that the early civilization of which we find traces on the
shores of the Baltic is due, for the numerous "finds " of Greek and
218 The Influence of Commerce on Nations.
Roman coins as well as of bronze instruments are owing to the
presence of this substance; as these metal implements probably
served the native artists as models and patterns, it is perhaps to
amber that the advanced condition of the bronze age in the north
of Europe is due.
We thus see how much we owe to the rare and precious products
of the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms, as the means by
which human culture was spread, and as the baits which attracted
national migrations, and we perceive that the regions which were
fortunate enough to possess such treasures were the first to be drawn
into the sphere of a higher culture : the direction in which civiliza-
tion has moved has frequently been prescribed by this influence.
We have but a very slight knowledge of the laws which direct the
distribution of mineral treasures ; the treasures of the animal and
vegetable kingdoms, on the contrary, are, it is true, restricted to
limited climatic zones, but their local abundance, rarity, or total
absence within the zones in which they might occur, is not so much
a question of law as of history, for it appears to depend on the
locality in which the species first occurred, and also on the power
of migration of the species, and on the geographical impediments
which obstructed their extension.
VII. MARRIAGE AND PATERNAL AUTHORITY.
THE generation of successors, which is the first and highest
purpose of marriage, can only be effected after the commencement
of sexual maturity, which is reached somewhat earlier in the female
sex than in the male : in Northern Europe it is about the fourteenth
and seventeenth year, in Southern Europe somewhat sooner. In
warm countries the recognized characters appear at an earlier
age ; in Egypt in boys of twelve to fifteen, and in girls from eleven
to fourteen years of age. 1 Klunzinger, who recently described
the marriage of one of these childish couples in Upper Egypt, states
that boys of from fifteen to eighteen years of age marry girls of
1 Hartmann, Nillander.
Age of Marriage. 319
twelve to fourteen years, and adds significantly that in these
marriages, which we should deem so premature, no evil conse-
quences appear to affect the fecundity. 2 In Northern Persia the
tokens of fertility appear in the female sex during the
thirteenth year, and in Southern Persia even as early as the ninth
and tenth years. 3 In the Philippines twelve years is prescribed
as the legal age for the female sex, but Jagor found the marriage of
a girl of nine years and ten months entered in the church registrar
of Polangui.4 Among the negroes of South Africa marriage is
also entered upon precociously, but it is difficult to determine the
exact times, as the inhabitants are too careless to be in the habit
of accurately fixing their age by dates. Among the Hottentots
Kolbe saw mothers of thirteen years of age.s The Australians give
their daughters to husbands in their twelfth year and often earlier. 6
But it appears still doubtful whether this apparent marriage is not
a preliminary ceremony of betrothal which is followed by the real
marriage at a later period. 7
These facts, but few of which are new, will not surprise any one
who has studied the subject; nor is it a new fact that the poW
nations also acquire the power of reproduction at an early age.
As yet this has been remarked with especial reference to the
Eskimo; but Adolf Erman has recently stated that on the
Aleutian island of Atcha, marriage is contracted by the boy as
soon as he can manage the baidar ; by the girl as soon as she can
sew quickly ; in both cases in the tenth year. 8 No physiological
explanation has yet been given of the fact that the period of
immaturity is curtailed in inverse proportion to the approximation
to the equator or the polar circle. Probably the latitude of the
abode has no reference to this phenomenon; it may more probably
Ausland, No. xl. 1871. 8 Polak, Persian.
Reisen in den Philippinen.
Vorgebirge der Guten Hoffhung.
Eyre, Central Australia, vol. ii. p. 319.
On the age of marriage in different races of mankind, compare the
exhaustive work of Dr. Ploss, Jahresbericht des Leipz. Vereins fur Erdkunde.
1872.
Zeitschrift fur Ethnologic. 1871.
Catlin, The North American Indians, p. 89.
22O Marriage and Paternal Authority.
have some connection with the darkness of the skin, for in other
North American tribes the girls marry in their twelfth or fourteenth
year, and occasionally as early as the eleventh. 9 The Patagonians
in the south, on the contrary, are immature till the sixteenth year. 10
Beauty fades earlier when the natural desire is early aroused,
so that by the thirtieth and often by the twenty-fifth year all the
beauty of the female is gone. Tacitus was right in ascribing
the prolonged youth of our forefathers to their late marriages. 11
So that we must recognize the postponement of marriage, either
by habit or by law, as a great advance in the self-education of
nations. In ancient Peru, the establishment of a household was
only permitted to men in the twenty-fourth and to women in
the eighteenth year. 12 The austere Abipones, who possessed the
southern half of the Gran Chaco on the River Paraguay, also
tolerated marriage only at a mature age.
We must not omit to mention that a great many races of
mankind are quite indifferent to juvenile unchastity, and only
impose strict conduct on their women after marriage. Yet it is
unjustifiable to infer indifference to sexual purity from the want
of a verbal expression to distinguish the maiden from the wife,
as Lichtenstein ventured to do in the case of the Bushmen,^
whereas Chapman extols their modest behaviour, and adds that
marriages are made among them only from inclination. Even
the Abipones have no word for maiden, '* and yet Dobrizhoffer
invariably eulogizes their austere morals and chastity. This
deficiency of language may, on the other hand, bear an un-
favourable interpretation among the Comantshes, who are in the
habit of ceding their wives to their guests. j s We find this ob-
jectionable practice again among the Aleutians, 16 who are in other
ways also notorious for their unnatural excesses, among the Eskimo,
10 Musters, Among the Patagonians.
11 Sera juvenum Venus, eoque inexhausta pubertas, nee virgines festinantur,
Germ. cap. 20.
11 Prescott, Conquest of Peru, voL i. p. 113.
11 Reisen im siidlichen Afrika.
14 Dobrizhoffer, Geschichte der Abiponer, voL ii. p. 2I&
" Waitz, Anthropologie, voL iv.
16 Ibid. voL iii.
Polygamy and Polyandry. 221
and, lastly, Adolf Erman relates that he found the same custom in
nis travels through Kamtshatka. 1 ?
The most profound instance of depravity of this sort is the
so-called three-quarter marriages which occur in Nubia among
the Hassiniyeh Arabs, among whom married women have free
disposal of themselves on every fourth day. 18 History teaches us
that all highly civilized nations have carefully guarded conjugal
purity and chastity in general, and also, on the other hand, that
every relaxation of morals has been closely followed by the dis-
integration of society.
We need hardly recall the fact that marriages are called poly-
gamous when the man shares his household with several wives,
and polyandric when the wife belongs simultaneously to several
husbands. Polygamy extends throughout Africa; it was also
permitted to nearly all Asiatic nations, but in America, on the
contrary, it is very rare. The census has hitherto shown that the
numbers of the two sexes are equally balanced, and the excess of
one over the other is generally very slight. The greatest trust-
worthy difference of numbers occurs among the European Jews,
among whom male births greatly preponderate. 1 ? Although,
according to the statements of travellers, among the Ladinos, or
hybrids of Europeans with the aboriginal inhabitants of Central
America, the number of girls is half as much again as that of boys,
and in Yucatan, according to Stephens, is twice as great, and at
Cochabamba is supposed to be fivefold, 20 yet these statements are
17 Marco Polo records the same respecting the oasis of Kamul (Hamil) in
Gobi. There however, as well as in the oasis of Fezzan, also touched at by the
caravans, this immoral habit is based on mercenary motives. A. Erman, Reise
Um die Erde.
18 Ausland.
M According to Waitz, and also Darwin, Descent of Man, voL i. p. 301 :
BIRTHS IN JEWISH FAMILIES.
Boys. Girls.
In Prussia ... ... ... 113 ... ... 100
Breslau ... ... 114 ... ... IOO
Berlin ... ... ... 208 (?) ... ... IOO
Leghorn ... ... 120 ... ... IOO
Livonia ... ... ... I2O ... ... IOO
80 Waitz, Anthropologie, voL L
222 Marriage and Paternal Authority.
not based on actual calculations, and are therefore of little scientific
value. Campbell, a thoroughly trustworthy observer, asserted on
the other hand that boys and girls are born in equal numbers in
the Siamese harem. T 9 This refutes the theory so often put forward,
that polygamy causes female births to predominate, polyandry
the male ; so that Nature as it were adapts herself to the matri-
monial laws prevalent in different localities. The experiences of
breeders of animals also contradict this hypothesis, for in the
case of racehorses, greyhounds, and Cochin China fowls, the equal
balance of the sexes in the births is undisturbed by the strict
polygamy which prevails. 20 German statistics, however, afford
good evidence of the preponderance of boys at the first birth. 21
But as social beings, we are subject to a moral order, and this
is decidedly unfavourable to polygamy. The history of oriental
dynasties teaches us that the brief duration of the governing races
is always to be traced to the intrigues of ambitious wives ; that
the ennobling sentiment of brotherly love is totally wanting
there, and that every son of a royal house is apt to hate his half-
brother as his most inveterate enemy. Even in ordinary families
envy and jealousy estrange the children of different mothers.
Polyandry is less widely spread ; it must not be confounded
with the community of wives of the military castes to whom celi-
bacy was prescribed as a vow of the order, such as the Naiars of
Malabar, 22 and formerly certain Cossacks. 2 3 The true form of
19 Darwin, Descent of Man, vol. i. p. 268,
80 Ibid. voL i. pp. 304-306 :
BIRTHS.
Number of Cases. Male. Female.
25,560 Racehorses ... ... 997 ... ... loo
6,878 Greyhounds ... no'l ... 100
Of looi Cochin China chickens hatched, there were 487 cocks and 5 14 hens.
81 Welcker, Bau und Wachsthum des Schadels. According to the birth
registers of Halle, in the case of first births there were 1 14 boys to every 100
girls, and in the genealogical pocket calendar of German princely families,
there were 116 male births to 100 female, while in the total births of Germany
the numerical proportion is 106 : 100.
w Grauf, Ostindien.
* C von Kessel, Ausland, No. xxxvii. 1872.
Incest. 223
polyandry occurs among the nations connecting Asiatics and
Americans, namely, the Eskimo, the Aleutians, the Koniaks, and
the Kolushs, 24 among whom the sexual relations are abnormal in
other ways. In America the Iroquois and certain tribes on the
Orinoco are also accused of polyandry by Sir John Lubbock. It
is also said to have been found in the South Seas, among the
Maori of New Zealand, and on several small islands. It occurs
more frequently in Southern India, among individual tribes of the
Nilgherri hills, among whom custom allows all the brothers as they
grow up to become the husbands of the eldest brother's wife;
and, conversely, the younger sisters of the wife become the wives
of this conjugal community. The aborigines of Great Britain, in
the time of Caesar, had the same habit. 2 s Community of wives
is limited to brothers and other relations in Thibet, where this
unnatural habit is attributed to motives of economy. 26 Poverty is
also the cause of the occasional occurrence of polyandry among
the Herero of South America. 2 7
The origin of the custom of avoiding marriages among blood
relations is one of the most obscure but instructive problems of
ethnology. Recent experience enables us to infer that such ad-
mixture of blood is injurious, for if both husband and wife suffer
from the same bodily defects, they will transmit it in an enhanced
form to their progeny. Deafness, short sight, sterility, idiocy, and
mental derangements make their appearance early, or break out
with violence, in the children of parents who have transmitted the
germs of these diseases. 28
24 Waitz, Anthropologie, vol. iii.
15 De bello gallico, lib. v. cap. xiv.
M Von Schlagintweit, Indian.
* T G. Fritsch, Die Eingebornen Sudafrika's, p. 227.
28 Even this hypothesis is not free from all doubt. In the community of
Batz, 3300 inhabitants, situated on a peninsula to the north of the mouth of
the Loire, and where the emptying of natural saltpans is the only occupation,
intermarriages among relations have been customary from time immemorial.
Thus in the year 1865 no less than fifteen ecclesiastical dispensations for mar-
riages between cousins were procured. Voisin, who spent a whole month
there, did not find, as the result of forty marriages between blood relations, re-
specting which he collected complete pedigrees, a single case of the diseases
which usually threaten such alliances. Anthropological Review, voL vi.
London, 1868.
224 Marriage and Paternal Authority.
But this knowledge, which can only be gained by lengthened
observation, is unattainable by unsettled and childishly heedless
races, so that it is exactly among such that a horror of incest is
developed most strongly. According to this theory, we should
most especially avoid marriage with a sister, who, as regards
blood, is the same as ourselves, and stands as near again to us
as mother or daughter, with whose organism our own only half
agrees as to descent ; yet this particular marriage was prescribed
to the Inca of the kingdom of Peru, 2 ? nor could the Pharoah of
Egypt select a more fitting consort than his own sister. 3 In
ancient Persia marriage with a sister or a mother was not merely
allowed, but the intermarriage of relations was looked upon as a
meritorious act, 31 and it is known that the Greeks, at least, allowed
marriage with half-sisters even if they did not actually approve of
them.3 2 While these highly civilized nations did not recoil from
such alliances, the less civilized felt a terror of them which was
probably salutary : it is quite exceptional that the Veddahs of
Ceylon allow the brother to espouse his younger sister. 33 It is
less surprising that every form of incest is considered permissible 34
among the Aleutians and Koniaks, and probably among other
nations on the shores of Behring's Straits, for they are all notorious
for their licentiousness.
The Australians, on the contrary, adhered strictly to the rule
that no man was allowed to marry a woman who even bore the
same family name as himself. 35 Marriages among people of the
same surname were also strictly avoided among the Samoyeds
and Ostiaks.3 6 The Hurons and Iroquois tolerated no marriages
between relations. 37 The Kolushs, who are divided into the two
branches of the Crows and the Wolves, forbid all marriages
M Garcilasso, Commentaries reales. Only in default of a sister were the
other female relations taken in succession,
80 Ebers, Durch Gosen zum Sinai.
81 Duncker, Gesch. d. Alterthums.
82 Martin Haug, Allgem. Zeitung. 1872.
83 Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. i. p. 51.
84 Von Langsdorff, Reise urn die Welt.
85 Captain Gray as quoted by Eyre, Central Australia, vol. ii. p. 330.
** Castren, Vorlesungen. * 7 Charlevoix, Nouvelle France, vol. iiL
Wife-stealing. 225
between members of the same tribe. 38 In the same spirit the
Arowaks of South America permit no espousals within their own
clans ; 3 9 and in their carefully kept pedigrees it is the rule that the
children belong to the tribe of the mother. We may cite instances
from Africa also. The Hottentots punish incest with death; and
among the Kaffirs loss of property is the penalty of marriage with
the most distant relations, although they permit of a double
marriage with two sisters.* The Fan negroes, in the west of
Equatorial Africa, although they are notorious cannibals, regard
marriages between those of the slightest consanguinity as a crime,
invariably obtaining their wives from another tribe. 4I The Batta
of Sumatra, who are also cannibalistic, punish marriages between
members of the same horde with the death of both the guilty
parties/ 2 Among the Hindoos the prohibition extends to the
sixth degree of relationship ; and with them also identity of name
is regarded as a sufficient impediment to marriage. 43 The same is
the case with the Chinese, 44 who, as a nation, call themselves Pih-
sing, or the hundred families. Nevertheless, in modern times,
there are four hundred family names which are inherited not
from the mother but, as in Europe, from the father. An American
missionary of the name of Talmadge knew a village of 5000
inhabitants who nearly all bore the same surname, and are there-
fore unable to form alliances among themselves. 45 Traces of
these wide-reaching ideas of incest have been preserved among
the nations which practice wife-stealing, for as the different tribes
were usually separated by enmity, forcible abduction was the only
means of effecting a marriage. Hence ethnographists betray an
imperfect knowledge of the subject when they speak of this custom
as practised by the Australians as a barbarism, although the Aus-
tralian women regard this ancient practice not as maltreatment,
" Waitz, Anthropologie, vol. iii
w Martius, Ethnologic, voL L
40 Ausland. 1859.
41 Du Chaillu, Ashango Land, p. 427.
48 Tylor, Early History of, Mankind, p. 359.
4 * Colebrooke, Essays on the Religion and Philosophy of the Hindus.
44 Hue, Das chinesische Reich.
45 Morgan, Systems of Consanguinity.
226 Marriage and Paternal Authority.
but as a homage, and it is a favourite game of their boys and
girls.* 6 The same custom prevailed among the extinct Tasma-
nians/7 among the Papuans of New Guinea, the Fiji Islands/ 8 the
Aino on the Kurile Islands/9 and among the Fuegians.* Every
Ostiak or SamoyedjS 1 every Lapp, even in the present day, must
by-craft or force seize a girl of another tribe, as was formerly the
habit of the Finns (Suomi).s 2 Ethnologists will agree with us in
interpreting Livy's account of the rape of the Sabines as a faint
tradition of an ancient Roman custom, by which they were pro-
hibited from marrying within the tribal community. In later and
quieter times wife-stealing survived only as part of the wedding
festivities. One evening in Khondistan, Campbell saw a lad who
was carrying on his shoulder a burden wrapped in a scarlet cloth,
pursued by a crowd of women and girls, pelting him with stones,
bits of bamboo, and other missiles. It turned out afterwards that
the victim was on his wedding journey, and was carrying his
young wife in the scarlet wrapper, while the whole affair was only
intended as a representation of the pursuit of a wife-stealer.53 In
its last stage the capture becomes a mere game between the bride-
groom and the bride, of which the result is always prearranged ;
yet it is said that among the Maori, a girl who, on such an occa-
sion, has an earnest desire to escape, is able to evade an unwelcome
suitor. 54 Kennan, who witnessed a similar wedding game among
the Koriaks, affirms that the bride must always give a tacit consent
to her own capture. Even in Europe a feigned attack is often
enacted as a marriage ceremony. Among the Slovaks the bride-
groom and his companions actually arm themselves to approach
the bride's house, which is closed as if awaiting a siege, ss In old
49 Dumont d'Urville, Voyage de 1' Astrolabe, voL L
47 Waitz (Gerland), Anthropologie, voL vi
48 Williams, Ausland. 1859.
49 Mittheilungen der Wiener geog. Gesellschaft. 1872.
* W. Parker Snow, Off Tierra del Fuego, vol. ii. p. 359.
41 Castren, Vorlesungen.
" J. A. Frijs, Wanderungen in der drei Lapplandern. Globus, 1872.
Campbell, Khondistan.
44 Waitz, Anthropologie, voL i.
45 Klun, Die Slovenen. Ausland, 1872.
The Marriage Market. 227
Bavaria the custom of abduction still continues as a marriage
sport, termed " Brautlauf " (bridal run), which in old northern was
called "Quanfang" (wife capture).5 6 Among the Patagonians, with
whom Musters spent some time, purchase-money is secretly paid
to the parents, while the bride herself is suddenly stolen. 57
Where too great consanguinity is not avoided, and wife-stealing
is not encouraged, the suitor was obliged to purchase the bride
from the parents; the woman then becomes the property of the
husband, and may be left by him to a legal successor. Among
the Caribs of Venezuela, s 8 and in equatorial West Africa, the
eldest son inherits all the wives of his deceased father, with the
sole exception of his own mother. & Schweinfurth asserts the
same of Munza, the sovereign of the remarkable kingdom of the
Monbuttoos on the Uelle. 60 On the Gold Coast the vacant throne
was occupied by the prince who gained possession of the paternal
harem before the other brothers. 61 This throws light on certain
incidents in the Old Testament history. Absalom took posses-
sion of his father's wives in the sight of all Jerusalem, in order
to proclaim to the whole people that he had expelled David from
the throne. 62 In the same spirit Solomon orders the execution
of Adonijah, because he begged to have Abishag, David's last
favourite, as his wife, thus betraying designs upon the throne,
Where the purchase of the bride is still a reality, as among the
Kaffirs, comparatively high prices are paid, 6 3 nor is the inclination
of the chosen bride at all consulted. Among more advanced
people, on the contrary, as, for instance, the Abipones and the Pata-
gonians, the purchase becomes invalid or is cancelled if the girl
refuses her assent. 6 * Marriage was originally a purchase among
the Germans, the suitor paying over the price to the individual
56 Sepp, Die Schimmelkirchen. Alleg. Zeitung, 1873.
87 Ausland. 1872.
68 Gumilla, El Orinoco ilustrado. Madrid, 1741.
Du Chaillu, Ashango Land, p. 427.
60 In the Heart of Africa.
61 Bosman, Guinese Goud-Tand-en Slavekust
* 2 Sam. xvi. 22.
63 Gustav Fritsch, Die Eingebornen Siidafrikas.
64 Dobrizhoffer, Gesch. der Abiponer. Musters, Unter den PatagonfertL
228 Marriage and Paternal Authority.
in whose power the maiden or the widow chanced to be, to the
father, brother, or guardian. 6 s As the wife thus fell under the
guardianship (vormundschaft) of the husband, this legal act was
also termed a mundkauf. Again, in Iceland and in Norway the
wife was purchased; 66 and the English, as late as 1549, in their
marriage ritual, preserved traces of this ancient legal procedure. 67
It is a long-known fact that in ancient Rome the ceremonial form
of marriage contract (confarreatio) was customary only among
patricians, while the plebeians effected their marriages by a
merely formal purchase (coemptio). Where Islam prevails the
wife must even now be bought. 68 Manu's law, which abolished the
customary bridal gift of a yoke of oxen, indicates a great refine-
ment and softening of manners. 6 9 The bridegroom is instead
welcomed as a guest in the house of his father-in-law on the
wedding day, and receives the bride with the forms usual in the
case of ceremonial gifts. 7 Divorce is open to the husband at
his own will wherever polygamy prevails.
Sir John Lubbock has ventured to maintain that in the primi-
tive state mankind did not live together connubially, but that the
women of a tribe were the common property of all the men.
For this barbarous idea he has also invented a barbarous word,
for he speaks of this condition as " hetarism." He recognizes
traces of it even now in Australia, appealing to statements made
by John Eyre.? 1 He could certainly have no better testimony,
for Eyre is inspired with such sympathy for these perishing races,
that he would certainly not have recorded unfavourable facts
concerning them, either maliciously or recklessly. He does say
that the Australians with whom he became acquainted did not
value conjugal fidelity in their women ; but his statements refer
" J. Grimm, Deutsche Rechtsalterthiimer. 1854.
M Paul Laband in Zeitschrift fur Volkerpsychologie. 1865.
6T Friedberg, Das Recht der Eheschliessung In the Netherlands, in Spain,
according to West Gothic law, and in Longobard kw, traces of the purchase
of brides still exist
w Warnkonig, Juristische Encyclopedic.
Duncker, Geschichte des Alterthums.
70 Colebrooke, Essays on the Religion and Philosophy of the Hindus*
n Central Australia. 1845.
Hetarism. 229
only to the tribes in the vicinity of the Murray River, who were
already in frequent intercourse with European settlers. Such
intercourse has nearly everywhere corrupted the manners of the
natives. The supposed habit of hetarism is moreover contra-
dicted by Eyre's own statement,? 2 that paternal authority is entirely
unlimited, and, on the other hand, by the traits which he gives
of the passionate tenderness of fathers for their children. Other
observers attribute jealousy in a special degree to the Australian
men, and it is asserted that they take bloody vengeance on the
adulterer. 73 Neumayer, moreover, who spent many nights among
the natives, never noticed any breach of propriety or morality. 74
When we remember that, from a horror of consanguinity, the
Australians marry only women with a different family name, the
hetaristic state appears very unlikely, and we may regard the
facts communicated by Eyre as a local degeneration of manners,
confined to the southern portion of the continent, where there
really are tribes in which the husband's brothers call the wife by
a like name.75
The hypothesis that at a remote age marriage was unknown
to the human race is hardly credible. Even among animals we
sometimes find a strict pairing, that is to say, among monkeys, 76
predatory animals, ungulates, ruminants, and among son& birds,
chickens, and birds of prey. Darwin has also disputed the pro-
bability of a community of wives among prehistoric man, on the
grounds that the males of many mammals are extremely jealous,
and are furnished with weapons with which to fight for the
possession of the females. The Veddahs of Ceylon, whom we
should expect to find most primitive, have, as we have already
seen, a beautiful proverb that death alone can part man and wife. 77
In the fact that the chase, which is the most primitive means
n Central Australia. 1845. Tf Waitz (Garland), Anthropologie, vol. vi.
74 Zeitschrift fur Ethnologic. 1871.
75 Waitz (Gerland), Anthropologie, vol. vi.
76 In Borneo, between the Padass and the Papar, Lieut. C. de Crespigny
came upon a family of Mias (Orang-outang), consisting of the male, female,
and two young ones of different ages. Their connection must therefore have
lasted some time. Proceedings of the Royal Geogr. Society, vol. xvi.
77 Darwin, Descent of Man, vol. ii. p. 318,
230 Marriage and Paternal Authority.
of obtaining a subsistence, is rarely followed by women, we find a
reason why the rearing of children could succeed only when both
the father and mother supported them in their tender years. The
statistics furnished by modern society show, in the case of illegiti-
mate children who are provided for by a mother only, and by her
insufficiently, that the mortality is far greater than among legiti-
mate children brought up in the parental house.
An American scholar, Lewis Morgan, has recently published an
excellent work on the terms used to express relationships in no
less than 139 different languages, chiefly American, but also in-
cluding Asiatic, Malay, and European tongues. & By this new
scientific expedient Morgan thinks it possible to raise in a slight
degree the veil which shrouds the sexual life of dim past ages.
Among the Mongoloid people of Asia, among the Dravidas of
India, among the aborigines of America, and the nations of the
Malay family, we find a system of names for blood relationships
entirely differing from our own. The descendants of a common
ancestor or ancestors, if they are of the same generation, give
each other the name of brother or sister ; they call all male
members of the previous generation fathers, and of the following
one, sons. A man will therefore designate as his brothers, not
only all the sons of his father, but also all the sons of his father's
brother, and all the grandsons of his great uncle. He will address
as his sons not only his own children, but all the sons of his
brothers, all the grandsons of his father's brother, and all the great
grandsons of his great uncle. The children of his sister, on the
contrary, he speaks of as his nephews or nieces ; the brothers of
his mother as uncles. Conversely, a woman will address as
mother, not only her parent, but also her mother's sisters, as well
as the daughters of her grandmother's sisters. All the children
of her sister, all the grandchildren of her mother's sister, all the
great grandchildren of her grandmother's sister, she calls her
children ; the children of her brother, on the contrary, are her
nephews and nieces. 79 But we must not forget that in all these
* Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity in the Human Family. 1871.
w Lafitau describes carefully this system among the Iroquois and Hurons.
Mceurs des sauvages ameriquains. 1724.
Terms expressive of Relationship. 231
languages no proper terms exist for brother or sister, but specific
words must be used for the elder and younger brother, for elder
and younger sister. Even Hungarian has no proper name for
brother and sister, but must have recourse to circumlocution. 80
The great majority of nations made less distinction in speech
between various degrees of consanguinity than between the dif-
ferent generations, and between the various ages in the gene-
rations indicated. This simplest form of things, as it prevails
among the Iroquois and Seneca, as well as among the Tamuls,
was susceptible of various refinements and modifications, so that
this branch of knowledge has thrown a new light on to the mental
relationships of the several races of kindred. It is a pity that this
American scholar believes himself to have discovered, in this un-
usual method of viewing the degrees of kindred, traces of past
times in which marriage was unknown. He, too, supposes that
hetarism was once habitual, and that a state occurred later, in
which the sons of one mother lived in common with all their
sisters. The duty enjoined on the Hebrew brother-in-law, of
raising offspring to his brother's widow, may perhaps be regarded
as an inheritance from these early ages, for we have found this
ordinance amongst a great number of other nations, to which we
must add the negroes of the Gold Coast. 81 On the other hand,
we should remember that the patriarch Jacob leads home
two sisters one after the other, and that, as we stated above, 82
in Southern India marriages are concluded between a number
of brothers and several sisters. Among the Kanaks of the
Hawai Islands it was customary, under the name of Pinalua,
for brothers to have their wives in common, and sisters their
husbands. 8 3 We can scarcely venture, however, to designate
these peculiar customs as invariable preliminary stages of actual
marriage ; we should rather, perhaps, regard them as local varia-
tions. That at any time and in any place the children of the
same mother have propagated themselves sexually, for any long
w Steinthal, in the Zeitschrift fur Volkerpsychologie.
81 Bosnian, Guinese Goudkust. Utrecht, 1704.
83 See above, p. 22.
88 Morgan, Systems of Consanguinity.
232 Marriage and Paternal Authority.
period, has been rendered especially incredible, since it has been
established that even in the case of organisms devoid of blood,
such as the plants, reciprocal fertilization of the descendants of the
same parents is to a great extent impossible. The theory gains
no weight from the fact that Malay, Asiatic, and American Mon-
goloid nations, the Dravida of India, and some few negroes, in
their speech distinguish peculiar relationships, for there cannot
possibly be any allusion to sexual procreation when a man calls the
great grandson of his great uncle his son, or when a woman speaks
of the great granddaughter of her great aunt as her daughter. It
is also noteworthy that of the eighty American languages examined
by Morgan, two only have no specific expressions by which the
woman designates the brother of her husband, and the husband
of her sister, as her brothers-in-law, 8 * so that in the great majority
of cases no community of wives among brothers, and no com-
munity of husbands among sisters existed. It is precisely nations
in the most primitive stage which have the greatest abhorrence
of incestuous marriages. Neither could community of wives nor
polyandry exist in those races among whom the couvade, or
paternal child-bed, was customary. 8 s Moreover, when we consider
that all the languages in which the titles, father, brother, son, are
attributed to the various members of the family according to
whether they are descended from a common ancestor in a nearer,
equal, or more remote degree, have proper names to distinguish
the elder or younger brother, or father's brother, and the elder or
younger sister, or mother's sister, it is evident that it is not the
degree of consanguinity that is denoted, but the succession of the
generations and the rank in the family, because these grades
involve important consequences in domestic intercourse, such as
the superior dignity of the elders, and yet more probably, more or
less imperative duties of " vendetta." It is also a well-known fact
that the aborigines of the present United States carried on san-
guinary wars, and concluded formal treaties, to decide which nation
was to bestow upon the other the title of grandfather, uncle, or
elder brother. In other places the descendants of a common
ancestor or ancestors formed a corporation reciprocally bound to
Morgan, Systems of Consanguinity. M See above, p. 223.
Ideas of Consanguinity. 233
one another. Among the negroes of the Gold Coast, when a
culprit was condemned to pay a fine which he was unable to raise,
the father and the uncle, or other relations, were liable, and if
necessary were sold as slaves. 86 In the same way, on the Palawan
Islands, each head of a family, who is also the eldest, was held
accountable for his kinsmen. 8 ?
At present the progenitor almost everywhere has paternal power
over his descendants ; while among the more barbarous people he
generally exercises over the wife the rights of a proprietor. Yet
there are many nations in which all family rights are derived from
the mother. Bosnian affirms of the natives of the Gold Coast,
that all children take their position from the mother, whoever the
father may be. They are considered free or slaves, according as
the mother was free or a slave. 88 The same usage existed among
the ancient Lycians, who took their names not from their father
but from their mother. 8 9 In the same manner the Australians
always inherit family name and caste from the maternal side. 9
The habit is common also to the Fijians,? 1 the Maori of New
Zealand, and the Micronesians of the Marshall Archipelago,
among whom nobility or rank is inherited from the mother.9 2 The
same principle is observed where the young husband enters the
house of his father-in-law and passes into his family. This occurs
among the Dyaks of Borneo, and it is very significant that there
the father-in-law is more highly revered than the actual father. 93
Likewise, among the Itelmes of Kamtshatka, the husband belongs
to the Ostrog of his wife. 94 These family institutions were also
widely spread in America. In Guayana the child followed the
M Bosnian, Guinese Goud-Tand-en Slavenkust. 1704. Winwood Reade,
Savage Africa. 1863.
87 C. Semper, Palau-inseln.
88 Guinese Goud-Tand-en Slavenkust.
89 Herodotus, lib. i. cap. 173.
M Waitz (Gerland), Anthropologie, vol. vi. There are some other instances
in A. Bastian, Rechtsverhaltnisse. 1872.
91 Ausland. 1859.
91 D. G. Monrad, Das alte Neuseeland. 1871. Journal des Museum
Godeffroy. 1873.
83 Spenser St. John, Life in the Far East. 1862.
84 G. Steller, Kamtschatka.
234 Marriage and Paternal Authority.
mother in all social respects, so that the offspring of a Macushi
Indian woman and a Wapishiana would be considered to belong
to the Macushi tribe. 95 These views of rights were yet more
decidedly marked among the Iroquois and Hurons of North
America, The relationship to the father was regarded as very
slight, and the children were dependent on the mother. 9 6 She
alone possessed the right of adoption to supply the place left
vacant when a son had been murdered. Hence the women
decided whether the prisoners of war should die at the martyr's
stake or be received "into the tribe. 97 They were even honoured
with the right of decision as to war or peace, as the former
might give opportunity of gaining prisoners of war; this was
not, however, done in earnest, for in reality they were kept
from all knowledge of important political enterprises. 9 s Though
the young husband during the first years of his marriage owed
his parents-in-law certain services, the wife, on the other hand,
was bound to work in the fields of her parents-in-law, and to
provide their household with wood. 99 The clear conception of
such domestic institutions as these has been by no means aided
by the fact that the Jesuit Lafitau applied to them the word
" guneocracy," used by Strabo, 100 as if at any time, or in any
place, however barbarous, women ruled in the house, and the
men were under their control. J. J. Bachofen has indeed written
a comprehensive work to spread the scarcely credible opinion
that, in the earliest stages of human society, the mothers were
considered the heads of the family, as if the so-called children of
nature had recognized, not the right of the strongest, but the right
of the weakest Bachofen was only able to prove his assertion by
adducing ancients myths, on which he put a forced interpretation.
He holds the existence of female supremacy to be sufficiently
established by the fact that, in ancient Egypt, the men occupied
the weaver's stool ; and, regardless of the exhaustive researches of
M Appun, in the Ausland. 1872.
96 Charlevoix, Nouvelle France.
" Ibid. * Ibid.
Lafitau, Moeurs des sauvages. 1724*
** Strabo, Geogr., lib. iii.
Heir ship of Nephews. 235
Martius, he yet maintains that the Amazonian communities of
South America existed outside the imagination of Spanish explorers.
The custom that the children belong to the mother in all social
respects does not necessarily indicate that the paternity was
regarded as uncertain, but that the bodily relation to the mother
was held to be incomparably stronger, just as, until quite recent
times, physiologists have adhered to the opinion, that in the genera-
tion of offspring the function of the father must be considered quite
subordinate. The strange ideas of procreation which are held by
the so-called savages, are illustrated by the superstition of the
Saliva Indians on the Orinoco, that every woman who gives birth
to twins must necessarily have been guilty of adultery. 101 The view
of the subject to which we have alluded explains the occurrences
of the heirship of nephews, that is to say, the right of inheriting
from the brother of the mother to the exclusion of his own off-
spring. Thus among the Tuaregs the dignity of chief is always
transferred to the sister's sons. 102 On the Gold Coast the son in-
herited from his maternal uncle, the daughter from the mother's
sister, I0 3 and even now the throne of Ashanti does not pass to the
next heir of the body, but to the son of the brother or sister. I0 4
Heirship of nephews was also found by Livingstone among the
Kebrabasa negroes on the Zambesi. I0 5 In the Antilles, the sister's
children, as the nearest relations, at least excluded the brother's
children from the succession. 106 The heirship of nephews is also
customary in America among the Kolushs and other coast tribes
in the north-west, I0 ? among the Montagnais in Labrador, 108
and also among the Hurons and Iroquois. IQ 9 This social insti-
tution was formerly far more widely diffused and perhaps pre-
vailed in all those nations in which the children followed the
tribe of the mother. When Europeans, in Africa and America,
101 Jos. Gumilla, El Orinoco ilustrado. 1741.
102 Bulletin de la Soc. de Geogr. Paris, 1863.
108 Bosman, Guinese Goud-Kust. 1704.
104 Win wood Reade, Savage Africa, p. 43. 108 Zambesi, p. 162.
io Oviedo, Historia general, lib. v. cap. 3,
lor \Vaitz, Anthropologie, vol. iii.
108 Youle Hind, Labrador. 1863.
109 Charlevoix, Nouvelle France.
236 Marriage and Paternal Authority.
inquired into the cause of this family arrangement, they were
invariably answered that no doubt could exist as to the relation-
ship to the sister's children, whereas that on the father's side might
be questioned. This certainly sounds as if conjugal fidelity was
wanting, and as if very loose morals had prevailed ; yet it is
more probably due to an erroneous apprehension of the physiology
of paternity, as the heirship of nephews occurs among so many
nations of the strictest morality, such as the Kolushs above men-
tioned. Winwood Reade, who draws unfavourable pictures of the
negroes of Western Africa, yet says that, notwithstanding the fact
that the nephew is regarded as heir both in Dahomey and among
the Adiya of Fernando Po, the first or, at any rate, the second
commission of adultery is punished by death ; nay, he even admits
that in West Africa, if a girl disgraces her family by a false step,
expulsion from the tribal community ensues. 110 The heirship of
nephews is also habitual among nations such as the Iroquois and
Hurons, who are examples of severe self-restraint. Young couples
were obliged to live together as brother and sister for an entire year
to prove that higher motives than the gratification of sensual pleasure
had brought them together. 111 Joseph Gumilla says similarly of
the Red Indians, " They are all highly sensitive to the infidelity
of their wives, though the Caribs alone inflict exemplary punish-
ment upon them ; the whole community aiding to slaughter the
guilty individuals in public." At another time he mentions an
Indian woman who poisoned herself that she might not break her
marriage vow. Uncertainty with regard to paternity cannot have
led to the heirship of nephews in those races which observe the
custom of the male child-bed. 112 Hence, until strong evidence is
adduced, preference of the sister's children before the actual
bodily heir, and the reverence for the mother's brother, ought not
to be regarded as a sign of conjugal immorality.
As no other suitable place may be found, we must be allowed
here to add that kissing is not everywhere the custom. Darwin
110 Savage Africa, pp. 48-61. 1863.
111 Lafitau, Mceurs des sauvages. Charlevoix, Nouvelle France.
111 El Orinoco ilustrado. 1741. There were, however, even gross breaches
of conjugal fidelity.
Kissing. 237
has already informed us that in the South Seas this expression of
affection is unknown to the Maori of New Zealand, the Tahitians,
the Papuans, and the Australians, and also, in America, to the
Eskimo and Fuegians."3 Win wood Reade terrified a negro girl
by kissing her, for in Western Africa sifch caresses are not usual ;
Bayard Taylor likewise found among the Lapp women a decided
aversion to this form of contact. It is of course impossible in
the case of all those nations which slit open the lips and insert
small pieces of wood, such as the tribes on the coast of Behring's
Sea, the Kolushs, 'the Botocudos of Brazil, and the negroes of
Central and Southern Africa.
VIII. THE GERMS OF POLITICAL LIFE.
THE germs of civil life exist in the family. The Chinese, more
than any other people, have strengthened this tie ; among them
reverence for parents is developed into a kind of religious worship.
One of the most sacred duties which unites the members of the
family is the " vendetta," an institution not entirely deserving of
our abhorrence, for we ought to respect it as the first attempt
at legal protection. In past ages all the nations of the world
observed this duty, which has been retained to our own days in
Corsica and Albania. Confucius imposed upon a son the duty of
carrying arms until he had taken and slain his father's murderer.
The extinct Tasmanians also regarded such vengeance as a duty. 1
In like manner among their kinsmen, the Australians, all the
members of a tribe were responsible for every sanguinary act
committed by any of their number. 2 Martius describes this
custom as common to all nations of Brazil, and notices it also
among the Macushi and Arowaks of Guayana.3 Among the
Fijians the duty of vengeance was transmitted from father to son,
and from the latter to the nearest relations.* This duty of defence
113 This caress is despised by the Marquesas Islanders (see Langsdorff, Reise
urn die Welt), and probably by all Polynesians j perhaps all nations among
whom the Malay kiss is customary.
1 Waitz, Anthropologie, voLvi. 8 Ibid. voL vi
8 Ethnographic, vol. i.
4 H. Greffrath, in the Zeitschrift fur Ethnologic, 1871.
238 The Germs of Political Life.
serves a useful purpose, even if the chastising hand does not over-
take the malefactor himself, but falls only on one who belongs to
the same confederation.
It may seem strange that the sympathy of the ethnologist should
be enlisted in favour of this doctrine of duty, but the following
event, which happened in Arabia, will be sufficient explanation.
In the year 1863, an Italian named Guarmani was sent to Nedshd
by the Emperor Napoleon to buy thoroughbred horses. In the
beginning of March, 1864, as he was wandering about with the
Eeni Ehtebe, a horde of Bedouins, they were attacked by their
enemy, Emir Abdallah Ibn Feisal ibn Sa'wd. The conflict lasted
several days, until at last an unexpected ally came to the aid of the
Beni Ehtebe. Among the auxiliaries of the Emir were the Beni
Kahtan who, during the successive days of hostilities, from the 9th
to the 1 4th of March, had constantly skirmished with the Beni
Ehtebe, but at the same time remained at a prudent distance.
When the victors examined the field of battle they did not find
among the slain a single individual of the Kahtans, whose entire
party had seized the first available opportunity to fly. When we
remember that the law of vengeance requires an accurate account
not only of all deaths but of all bodily injuries, it is significant
that, on the other hand, none of the Beni Ehtebe ascribed his
wounds to any of the Beni Kahtan. s The Kahtan horde had
always lived in peace with the Ehtebe, and had only followed the
Emir to the battle on compulsion. In this instance, in which these
two tribes by mutual consent had only pretended to fight, the law
of vengeance showed its beneficial influence, for if any wounds
had been inflicted, they would have given rise to a series of acts
of violence descending to distant generations. We thus see that
the "vendetta" was a protection to life. Hence, if an Arab kills
his own relation no avenger pursues him, for he has injured him-
self, nor does the murder of an outlaw or one expelled from his
tribe involve consequences of any kind. 6 Where vengeance is
Guarmani, Itineraire au Neged septentrional, in the Bulletin de la Societe
Geogr. Paris, 1865.
6 Von Maltzan, Sittenschilderungen aus Svidarabien, vol. xxi, p. 123.
Globus, 1872.
Vendetta. 239
regarded as a duty, he who does not execute it is regarded with
contempt. 7 As retribution has thus been developed into an affair
of honour, it is very difficult for these sanguinary feuds to end.
They are most easily ended by the equalization of the number of
deaths and wounds on both sides. The balance in any other
case must be made up in money's worth. The Aneze Bedouins
require for the life of a freeman, fifty female camels, a dromedary,
a mare, a black slave, a coat of mail and a gun ; 8 some tribes
demand money to the value of ^50, and others only half as
much.
As manners become gentler, compensation in money's worth
becomes the practice, and 4ience is developed the custom of
weregild, or blood-money. Wherever such penalties were imposed,
the "vendetta" formerly prevailed. In Guinea, in Bosnian's 9
days, that is, in the beginning of the eighteenth century, the
death of every freeman was atoned for by heavy fines, which were
paid to the relations. In Siam, contrary to our ideas of justice,
a smaller sum is paid for the killing of an old man than for that
of men in the prime of life. I0 The old Germans paid the were-
gild partly to the family of the slaughtered person, partly to the
community. 11 Among the Kaffirs justice has so far advanced
that the fines are paid to the chief instead of to the injured
parties, as if the wrong had been inflicted on the society or the
person who represents it. They justify the fact that the
kinsmen are left without compensation, by the beautiful saying,
that one cannot eat one's own blood. J 3 The " vendetta " de-
mands an equivalent retribution, according to the scriptural words,
T Among the Kuki, a tribe in Southern Asia, the kinsmen of a man killed
by a tiger looked upon themselves as dishonoured until they had slain a tiger.
Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. i. p. 282.
Burckhardt, Notes on the Bedouins. London, 1830.
9 Guinese Goud-Tand-en Slavekust.
10 Brossard de Corbigny, in the Revue maritime et coloniale, torn, xxxiii.
11 Tacitus, Germ. cap. 12. Pars multae regi, vel civitati, pars ipsi, qui
vindicatur, vel propinquis ejus absolvitur. Comp. J. Grimm, Deutsche Recht-
alterthumer, and G. Geib, Lehrbuch des deutschen Strafrechtes. Leipzic,
1861.
18 Fritsch, Eingeborne Sudafrika, p. 97.
u Maclean, Kafir Laws and Customs. Mount Coke, 1858.
240 The Germs of Political Life.
an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a life for a life. The
Roman system of penal justice was also founded on this con-
ception. At the time of the laws of the Twelve Tables, retribu-
tion was still exacted, at least for severe bodily injuries, unless
the person wronged preferred a compromise. 1 *
In every part of the world where man has taken possession
of a thing either for use or pleasure, he has considered himself its
proprietor. Even animals exhibit some apprehension of the
rights of possession ; birds seem to feel this in regard to the nest
which they have built. A monkey which was in the Zoological
Gardens in London, and which had weak jaws, made use of a
stone to open nuts, always hiding it in the straw after using it,
nor would he allow it to be touched by any other monkey. *5
The Pomeranian dogs of our carters watch the goods of their
masters, and evidently behave as guardians of the property.
Appun, who spent many years among the natives of Guayana,
assures us that the property of the individual is held sacred by
the other inhabitants of his hut. 16 At a very early stage the
conception of rights of property even in immovable objects arises.
Hunting tribes always regard the hunting-ground as the property
of the tribe collectively. The Brazilians avail themselves of rivers,
waterfalls, mountains, rocks, and trees, as boundary marks. T ? A
fight between two hordes of the Botocudos, at which the Prince
of Wied was present, was the consequence of an invasion by
one tribe of the hunting-ground of another tribe. 18 Among the
Australians, whom ethnology was wont to look down upon as
the most degraded people, property in soil and territory was
strictly respected. Benilong, a native of New South Wales, had
inherited Goat Island from his father, and intended to leave it
to a friend. *9 Divisions of the inheritance during the lifetime of
the owner occur among them, and the rights of the proprietor
14 Si membrum rupit, ni cum eo pacit, talio esto ; Table VIII. H. E.
Dirksen, Ueoersicht der Zwolftafel-Fragmente.
15 Darwin, Descent of Man, vol. i. p. 44.
" Ausland. 1872.
17 Martius, Ethnographic, vol. i.
1 Reise nach Brasilien. 1820.
lf Dumont d'Urville, Voyage de 1* Astrolabe.
Ownership of Land. 241
were so rigidly respected that no one was allowed to fell trees or
kindle fire on the territory of another without his leave. A state of
society in which ownership is not recognized is therefore unknown.
Where stationary populations have fields under cultivation, the
boundaries of the land are carefully and clearly marked out.
Boundary stones are to be seen on the northern Nicobar Islands,
which are densely peopled, while there are none in the southern
islands, in which there is still sufficient space. 20 Among the old
inhabitants of Cumand on the Caribbean Sea, the Spaniards saw
the field marked off by cotton strings, and to tamper with these
was looked upon as a crime. 21 The inhabitants of the Vene-
zuelan shores regarded theft as the most reprehensible offence,
and punished it by a cruel death. 22 It is a most arbitrary act on
the part of a despotic government when, in districts so densely
peopled as British and Malayan India, the Crown exalts itself into
the sole proprietor of soil and territory, farming out the land to
the subjects. The same state institution existed in ancient
China. 2 3 In Peru, during the time of the Incas, private property
was impossible, for a strict community of goods prevailed, or
rather, there was one sole proprietor, the Son of the Sun, who
through his officials imposed the statute-service on his subjects,
and divided amongst them all the produce of their labour.
Nor was this system confined to Peru ; the Caziques of the
Antilles 2 * and the chiefs of the Otomaks in the modern Vene-
zuela used it also. Where a divine origin is ascribed to the chiefs,
and they are regarded as superior beings, property can only be
held by them. Among the true Polynesians, and the hybrid
Polynesian nations, all that the prince touches or treads upon
becomes taboo, or not lawful for any one to touch. The trouble-
some precautions to which the chiefs were obliged to submit in
order to avoid the unwished-for consequences of the law have
often been told ; how, for example, they are carried across tracts
of land to prevent tabooing them.
20 Waitz, Anthropologie, vol. i. p. 440.
11 Petrus Martyr, De orbe novo, Dec. viii. cap. 6.
** Gomara, Historia de las Indias, cap. 28, 68.
** Plath, Gesetz und Recht im alten China.
M Peschel, Zeitalter der Entdeckungen.
242 The Germs of Political Life
The organization of the national life is most closely dependent
on the mode of gaining a livelihood. Where man associates with
his fellow-men, a governing authority springs up. The loosest of
all social bonds are those of the nomadic hunting tribes of Brazil,
which consist of a few families or often of only one. But even
these have their hunting-grounds to protect, and require a leader,
at least in times of war. Among all hunters and fishermen the
power of the chiefs is very limited, and often not even hereditary.
The Indians of North America, the Australians, the Bushmen, and
the Eskimo, allow their chiefs very slight authority : for hunting
and fishing are the employments in which the individual least
requires the aid of his fellows. " In an ant's nest," exclaims
Peter Gumilla, 2 * with reference to the Indians of the Orinoco,
" there is more order and authority than in the nations concerning
which I have been writing." Another Jesuit, Charlevoix, 26 judges
more favourably of the North American Indians. " Without any
visible ruler," he says, " they enjoy all the advantages of a well-
regulated government."
Pastoral tribes are usually found under patriarchal leaders, for
the flocks generally belong to a single master who is served by
the other members of his tribe in the capacity of domestics, or
by former flock-owners once independent and subsequently im-
poverished. In the northern parts of the Old World, as well as
in Southern Africa, great national migrations are nearly if not
quite peculiar to pastoral life ; the history of America, on the
contrary, tells only of the invasions of barbarous hunting tribes
into the civilized territories of prosperous populations. That entire
nations should desert their former dwellings, press onwards, and
wander over vast regions of the world, is inconceivable, unless
they are accompanied by flocks yielding the requisite sustenance
on the march. Cattle-breeding on steppes necessitates a change
of abode. When nations become stationary, and husbandry com-
mences, the desire for slave labour at once arises. Hunters who
support themselves and their families only by constant exertion,
can find no employment for bondsmen in their household. It is
different even where fishing is practised, for in that case we some-
** El Orinoco ilustrado. ** Nouvelle France.
Caste. 243
times find slavery, as on the north-west coast of America, among
the Koniaks and Kolushs, and among the Ahts of Vancouver's
Island 27 who, we may remark in passing, cut the hair of their
bondsmen. Sooner or later slavery invariably leads to despotism,
for he who possesses the greatest number of slaves is apt to use
them to oppress the weaker. Slavery prevails throughout the
whole of Central Africa, and therefore, whichever way we look
in those regions, we see nothing but despotisms growing up on
the ruins of other despotisms.
By the distinction of freemen from bondsmen, society becomes
organized into ranks : an order of nobility is found even among
negroes, although but rarely, as on the Gold Coast or in Congo. 28
The same occurs where a conquering race subjugates an alien
nation. Physical characters are then usually regarded as tokens of
superior descent ; indeed, the Indian expression for caste, varna,
is equivalent to colour, ^ alluding to the colour of the skin. When
the kings of Spain raised a native American to the nobility, the
formula was "that he might henceforth consider himself as a
white man." It is difficult to explain how distinctions according
to descent arise in hunting tribes. Yet among the Australians
there are three castes which allow no intermarriages, 3 although
it has nowhere been observed that any members of a tribe en-
joyed a preference over the others. Our information concerning
the supposed order of nobility among these races is still very
imperfect. 3 1 If it is confined to the Coburg peninsula in the north, 3 2
it is probably due to an immigration from the islands to the north.
For among the Malays, as well as among their kinsmen the Poly-
nesians, there is an order of nobility which is generally subdivided
into many grades. 33 Among the Tongans Mariner found, besides
27 Waitz, Anthropologie, vol. iii. and Sproat in the Anthropological Review.
1868. Even among the Botocudos, slaves made prisoners in war are said to
have been seen. Prinz zu Neuwied, Reise nach Brasilien.
2 * Antonio Zucchella, Missione di Congo, ix. 1712.
** Adalbert Kuhn in Weber's Indischen Studien.
w Earl, in the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, vol. xvi
81 Reise in der Fregatte Novara, Anthropologie.
8 Waitz (Gerland) Anthropologie, vol. vi.
18 For instance, in the district of Holontal, in the Northern Celebes. Ricdel,
Zeitschrift fur Ethnologic. 1871.
244 The Germs of Political Life.
the princes, a higher and lower nobility, and two classes of
plebeians. 34 Aristocratic privileges and the institutions of caste
are rampant also among the Papuan- Polynesian hybrid nations
as well as among the inhabitants of the Fiji group or the Palau
Islands. As we possess very inadequate information respecting
the true Papuans of New Guinea, and the power of the chiefs is
described as very dubious, and as the New Caledonians (who are,
however, probably not pure bred) seem to recognize no distinc-
tions of rank, save the dignity of the chief, it is probably due to
Polynesian influence alone that so many Papuan hybrid races have
organized themselves into castes.
In America we find aristocracy of birth among the Kolushs on
the coast of Alaska, and among their neighbours the Haidahs of
Queen Charlotte's Island. In both these places families bear the
figures of animals as crests. 35 Among the more southerly tribes
on the north-west coast of America, those of noble birth were dis-
tinguishable by the artificial flattening of the head, for this mark,
as we have seen, was conferred only on the free-born. 3 6 The
Iroquois made no differences of rank ; the Algonkins and their
southern neighbours, on the contrary, separated themselves into
nobles, commons, and slaves.37 In South America the Peruvian
children of the sun founded a twofold nobility in their empire;
for, in addition to the numerous Incas or descendants of the
blood royal,3 8 they established the curacas, or local chiefs, in the
vanquished provinces, and these were allowed to pierce their ears
like the children of the Sun. 39 Among the Guarani tribes and
the Abipones there is also a marked distinction between people
of high and low descent. Old women, as Dobrizhoffer relates,
whose wealth consisted solely in the wrinkles of their faces,
boasted loudly that they were not descended from plebeian
84 Tonga Islands. Edinburgh, 1827.
M Waitz, Anthropologie, vol. iii. Ausland, 1868.
See above, p. 21.
* T Lafitau, Moeurs des sauvages ameriquains. 1724.
* Clements Markham is of opinion that the title of Inca was originally given
not only to the ruling house, but to all the tribal heads of the Inca nation.
Journal of Royal Geographical Society, vol. xli.
" Garcilasso, Commentaries, lib. L cap. xxi
The Search for the Cause. 245
parents. In conversing with nobles, the syllables in or en were
appended to all verbs and nouns, according to whether the
person addressed was a man or woman.-*
IX. THE RELIGIOUS EMOTIONS OF UNCIVILIZED NATIONS.
IN all stages of civilization, and among all races of mankind,
religious emotions are always roused by the same inward impulse,
the necessity of discerning a cause or an author for every phe-
nomenon and event. Those nations which have remained child-
like combine with this an incapacity of conceiving the objects of
sensory perception as inanimate. We shall shortly show that they
attribute voluntary acts and human sensibility even to stones and
rocks. The Dyaks of Borneo ascribe a psychical nature, called
semungat, or semungi, not only to animals but even to plants. They
regard unhealthiness in a plant as a temporary absence of its
invisible ego, and when the rice perishes, its soul is said to have
flown away. 1 When Philips the missionary complained of the
heat on a sultry day to a young Fuegian, the boy anxiously ex-
claimed, "Do not call the sun hot or it will hide itself, and the
wind will blow cold." 2 As the objects of the visible world are
conceived as animated, volitional, and emotional, they may be
deemed the originators of those misfortunes of which the true
cause is unknown. The process of thought which results in these
feelings among uncivilized races in intellectual obscurity is clearly
illustrated by a frequently quoted anecdote given by the African
traveller, Lichtenstein.3 The chief of the Ama%osa, a Kaffir tribe,
had given orders that a piece should be broken off a stranded
anchor. Soon afterwards the man died by whom the order had
been carried out, and as the Kaffirs, in common with many other
nations in all parts of the world, ascribe the death of every man
to supernatural causes, the injured anchor from that time received
* Geschichte der Abiponer. 1783.
1 Spenser St. John, Life in the Far East, vol. i. p. 176. 1862.
* Ausland. 1861.
Reisen im sudlichen Africa. Berlin, i8ll.
246 Religious Emotions of Uncivilized Nations.
marks of veneration from the Ama^osa. The Australians of New
South Wales think it a crime to whistle in the vicinity of rocks,
for, as they told Dumont d'Urville, some of their tribe who once
whistled at the foot of a precipice were therefore killed by falling
blocks of stone. 4 The proverb that avalanches are loosened by
the sound of the bells on the mules' backs is certainly not founded
on experience, but points to some old superstition of the same
type as the Australian instance already given. We may here mention
that the Wuka or Papuan hill people of New Guinea take theii
oaths near a high mountain, under the impression that it will fall
upon them in case of perjury, s Near the Attar river in Pegu, about
forty years before the visit of the Countess Nostiz, 6 a huge thingan
tree, which was to be cut down and made into a war canoe, in its
fall chanced to kill more than a hundred people ; the spot was at
once regarded as bewitched, and a chapel for the Nat, or wood
spirit, was erected on the stump of the tree. The King of
Coomassie having died in 1698, and his bitter enemy, the Dutch
superintendent of the Fort of Elmina, soon afterwards following
him to the grave, the negroes who worship their dead as divine
beings, looked upon the death of the latter as the work of their
prince who had gone before him. 7 In all these cases we easily
detect the weakness in the intellectual powers by which the
temporal sequence of events is deemed necessarily to imply
causal connection. Thus the Itelmes of Kamtshatka worshipped
the water wagtails as the authors of spring, because a more
propitious season set in at the time of their arrival : 8 a similar
logical fallacy is indicated by the old proverb that " one swallow
does not make summer." It was invariably the originators of
alarming or desired events which attracted religious veneration.
A native Mexican historian 9 tells us that the renowned king
4 It is remarkable that on the Tonga Islands all whistling is avoided as being
disrespectful to the gods. Mariner's Tonga Islands.
O. Finsch, Neu-Guinea.
Heifer, Reisen in Vorderasien und Indien. Leipzic, 1873.
Bosman, Guinese Goud-Kust 1704.
G. Steller, Kamtschatka.
Ixtlilxochitl, Histoire des Chichimeques. Prescott, Conquest of Mexico,
voL i. p. 194.
Fetish Worship. 247
Tezcucos Netzahualcoyotzin worshipped an unknown god under
the name of Cause of Causes. This craving after an invisible
author or cause is the inducement to attribute a divine control over
the destinies of mankind to lifeless objects, which are, however,
regarded as animated. This is the obvious explanation of the
origin of fetishism.
Every object that attracts the glance of the savage, who espies
a ghost in every corner, may become in his eyes the abode of a
deity. Fragments of plants, snake-skins, feathers, claws, shells,
stone pipes, living beings, whole species of animals, in short,
whatever first presents itself to the mind of the Red Indian,
excited by long fasting, he thenceforth recognizes and worships as
his guardian spirit. 10 The selection of the objects worshipped is
however important, for by neglecting the commonplace for the
sublime, it may transform fetishism into the belief in a supreme
and morally perfect Being. Man remains ignoble only so long
as his worship is given to portable objects, for these, together with
their supposed divine power, are liable to become the property
of a possessor. The services of these guardian spirits are then
enjoyed by an owner. Laban, when he missed his household
gods, pursued the patriarch Jacob ; and Rachel, who had stolen
them, was able by her cunning to conceal them from his search.
Long subsequent to the Mosaic legislation, down to David's times,
the Hebrews kept their Seraphim or Penates in their houses. 11
Even where the intellect has attained the purest conception' of
God, the heart still clings tenaciously to the old objects of its
childish veneration : no nation has ) r et completely purified itself
from superstition, that is to say, from the remnants of earlier
religious notions.
Sekedshket, who built cities in Turkistan in the hazy past ages,
received several fetishes as part of the dowry of his Chinese wife ;
and idol fairs were occasionally held in Bokhara. 12 When the
fetish belongs to the movable properties or, as it were, to the
household of the master, it is punished for its supposed obduracy
10 Charlevoix, Nouvelle France.
11 i Sam. xix. 13-19, and Ewald, Israelitische Geschichte.
w Vambery, History of Bokhara.
248 Religious Emotions of Uncivilized Nations.
or malignity whenever it does not grant the wishes of the
supplicant. When a misfortune befalls the Ostiak, he throws
his idol on the ground, beats and ill-uses it, or breaks it to
pieces. J 3 About twenty years ago, Rastus, the last pagan Lapp
in Europe, on some occasion deprived his divine bauta stone of
its customary offering of brandy. When shortly afterwards two of
his reindeer were killed by lightning, he angrily threw the pieces
of the dismembered animals to his idol, exclaiming, " Take that
which thou hast slain;" he then immediately embraced Chris-
tianity. 1 * Before every great enterprise the negro of Guinea, if no
old and tried fetish is at hand, selects a new one ; whatever his
eye falls upon as he leaves his house, be it a dog, a cat, or
any other creature, he takes as his deity and offers sacrifices to
it on the spot. If the enterprise succeeds the credit of the
fetish is increased; if it fails, the fetish returns to its former
position. x s
In all parts of the world stones have attracted the devotion
of man. It is not surprising that worship was often offered to
meteorolites which, falling red hot, penetrated into the ground.
A stone which fell near Chicomoztotl, or the Seven Caves, an
important spot in the mythological topography of the ancient
Mexicans, was worshipped by them as the son of the divine couple,
Ometeuctli and Omecihuatl. 16 The black stone, the chief object
of worship of Mohammedans in Mecca, is said to have shone
brightly at first, but very soon to have turned black on account
of the sinfulness of mankind. T ? It is undoubtedly a remnant of
the fetish worship of the pre-Islam Arabs, as is also the stone
now built into the Mosque of Omar at Jerusalem, which carried
the prophet heavenwards and then fell down, or rather still
hovers in the air. 18 Owing to other conceptions easily interpreted,
phallic-shaped stones, which are perhaps single pillars left stand-
ing out of a row of basalt columns, are worshipped in the Fiji
" Pallas, Voyages. 1793.
14 Globus. January, 1873.
15 Bosnian, Guinese Goud-Tand-en Slaveknst,
M J. G. MUller, Americanische Urreligionen.
17 Sepp, in the Allgem. Zeitung. 1872.
18 Baierlein, Nach und aus Indian.
Stone Worship. 249
Islands. *9 Only recently Theodor Kirchhoff was shown a frag-
ment of rock in Oregon to which the Umpkwa Indians are wont
to make pilgrimages. The prophets of Israel and the devout
kings of Judah contended incessantly against the worship of the
"high places," which were probably tall, pointed stones sym-
bolical of the Most Holy. 20 Even Jacob anointed the stone
at Bethel on which he had rested. In Celtic Europe we find
stone circles as places for worship, and also trilithic cromlechs
or stone tables, which served either as places of sacrifice or for
the faithful to crawl through. Even in A.D. 567 a Council at
Tours was obliged to threaten excommunication against stone
worship; and in England similar interdicts were issued in the
seventh century by Theodoric, Archbishop of Canterbury, in the
tenth by King Edgar, and again in the eleventh by Canute. 21 This
error is more pardonable in our eyes when the objects worshipped
are the mountains' crests. 22 We do not allude to the consecration
of particular summits, such as Olympus, as the seat of the epic
deities, or of Sinai as the mountain of legislation, although with
reference to the latter we will observe that, on the heights of
Serbals, there is a stone circle which the Bedouins only enter
without their shoes. There is also one on which they lay gifts
on the adjacent Jebel Munadshat, called by the Arabs " the
mountain of the dialogue" (that, namely, of Moses with Jehovah). 2 3
The veneration of footprints, such as that of the god Tezcatlipoca
which the ancient Mexicans showed at Quauhtitlan, 2 * or that of
Tiitii at Samoa, in the group of Navigator's Islands, 2 * and, finally,
the footprint of Buddha on Adam's Peak at Ceylon, does not
belong to this category, but is a form of relic worship. On the
other hand, we may mention the Shaman stone of the Mongolian
Burats, a rock on the peninsula of Olchon on Lake Baikal,
and the mountain of Tyrma, or Tirmak, on which the Guanches,
19 Williams, Fiji and the Fijians.
* Ewald, History of the Children of Israel.
81 Sir John Lubbock, Origin of Civilization, p. 209,
23 Ruppell, Reise in Abyssinien.
** G. Ebers, Durch Gosen zum Sinai,
** J. G. Miiller, Urreligionen.
w Tylor, Early History of Mankind, p. 143.
12
2 jo Religious Emotions of Uncivilized Nations.
the aborigines of the Canary Islands, took their most solemn
oaths, and from which enthusiasts voluntarily cast themselves as
sacrifices. 26 Pausanias found stone worship established among
the inhabitants of Phara, and on another occasion states that in
old times all Greeks worshipped stones instead of images, 2 ?
adding that they gave them the names of the different forces
of nature; but it is doubtful whether this was a genuine stone
worship, or only the remains of one that was genuine.
There is perhaps something alien to the German mind in stone
worship, but the old pagan blood which is in us makes us more
sympathetic on hearing that trees or groves were regarded as deities,
or the abodes of deities : even now we understand the emotions
of our forefathers when St. Boniface felled the Saxon oak. The
murmur of the quiet wood, the roar of the forest during a storm,
the crashing and creaking of the timber, the apparent struggle of a
leafless tree with its gnarled branches rent by the storm, give us
the impression of standing face to face with an animated being,
and only too readily do we give way to the illusion of the actual
presence of the supersensual powers. Tree worship formerly
extended over all the world. On Loch Siant, in the Isle of Skye,
there is even now an oak wood of such sanctity that no twig
may be broken. 28 Wherever a solitary cedar springs up in a forest
of fir trees, or there is a clump of seven larches, the Samoyed
approaches the spot with awe. The Ostiak deems a tree sacred on
which an eagle has built its nest for several successive years. 2 ^ No
twig of the groves of the Mundakhol, a Dravida tribe in India,
may be injured.3 On the other side of Jordan trees may still be
seen from which are suspended sacrificial gifts, especially tresses
of hair.3 1 On his march to Sardis in Lydia, Xeixes adorned a
sacred plane tree with ornaments of gold, and left a guardian to
protect it.3* In Africa, again, the huge monkey bread-trees, or
* Peschel, Zeitalter der Entdeckungen. * 7 Pausanias, vii
* Sir John Lubbock, Origin of Civilization, p. 192,
* Castren, Vorlesungen. Pallas, Voyages.
80 Zeitschrift fur Ethnologic. 1871.
81 Wolff in the Ausland. 1872.
** Herodotus, lib. vii. cap. 31.
Tree Worship. 251
Adansonia, receive the offerings of the devout. Adolf Bastian
observed the same custom in Burmah.33 Tylor speaks of a sacred
cypress worshipped in this manner in Mexico ; Mollhausen of an
oak on the western Colorado ; and at the outlet of Lake Superior
stands the great ash tree to which the Red Indians bring offer-
ings, as they do to the solitary Wallitschu tree on the pampas
near Patagones {Carmen) , visited by Darwin. 34 Other instances
are the grove of Dodona, the Homeric plane-tree at Aulis, of
which Pausanias 35 saw the remains ; the veneration accorded
to the pepal (Ficus religiosa) and the Indian fig-tree (F. indica)
by the Brahminical Hindoos and the Buddhists ; the sacred
aspen of the Kirghiz,3 6 the pear-tree lately felled in the Walser
Feld, and the great ash Yggdrafil of our myths. A different
form of tree worship is connected with the sojourn of holy
personages, as was the case with the grove of Mamre because
Abraham dwelt there, or the sycamore at Matarieh, under the
shadow of which the Madonna is said to have rested in the
flight to Egypt. The meaning of tree worship varies with the species
of gift which is offered. The Arabs, who in pagan times offered
sacrifices to trees, hanging their weapons on them,37 regarded
the trees as the seat of a god, or even as a god itself. Where, on
the other hand, as Mungo Park saw 38 in the Mandingo country,
the trees are laden with rags and shreds, Bosman39 had already
observed that in Guinea the sacred groves and trees were more
assiduously visited in times of pestilence. Tylor mentions the
existence in Europe of a superstition that a disease may be taken
from the house of the sick person with a piece of his property, and
conveyed to some other object a tree or, better still, to another
man. In Southern Europe young girls frequently offer to sell
nosegays to the travellers which come from the house of a sick
88 Zeitschrift fur Volkerpsychologie u. Sprachwissenschaft. 1868. Bowers,
Bhamo Expedition. Berlin, 1871.
84 Journal of Researches, p. 68. 1845.
18 Pausanias, lib. ix.
86 Noschel, Reise in die Kirgisen Steppe.
87 L. Krehl, Die Religionen der vorislamitischen Arabcr,
38 Reisen im Innern von Afrika. 1799.
M Guinese Goud-Tand-en Slavekust.
252 Religious Emotions of Uncivilized Nations.
person. 1 * The author remembers being carefully warned in his
boyhood never to pick up a flower lying on the road, " for one
cannot tell what disease the person may have who threw it
away." It must be understood that this prohibition extended only
to flowers. The Suaheli in Eastern Africa offer food to the demons
of disease : they do not eat it themselves, but place it in some
footpath that a passer-by may consume it, and thus take the pesti-
lence upon himself. 41
Of all animals serpents have been most frequently worshipped.
Snake worship, or the Naga religion, has spread most widely in
India, as is testified by names of places such as Nagapoor, Widsha-
nagara, and Baghanagara. Even now the cobras or hooded-
snakes are publicly worshipped by the Brahmins at the Feast of
Nagapanshmi. Moses in a weak moment allowed the brazen
serpent to be made, which was afterwards transported to Jerusalem
with other sacred objects, and was . only removed from the
Temple in 720 B.C. by the pious King Hezekiah. Even within
the limits of Christianity we find the sect of the Ophites, who
continued or renewed snake worship, unless the greater part of
what is imputed to them is untrue/ 2 The worship of serpents
still continues in full vigour in the negro kingdom of Dahomey, 4 3
and has spread with slavery to the New World, where it is said to
have recently taken firm foot in Hayti.
Besides the world-wide veneration for wells, and for mineral springs
in particular, running water has been regarded as divine, especially
by the Hindoos. On the magnificent mountain heights where the
Ganges and the Jumna issue from glaciers, and in the plains over
the pool which forms the source of the Nerbudda, sanctuaries
and places of pilgrimage have been erected. 44 Bathing in the
holy rivers is supposed to have a sanctifying influence ; there are
devout Hindoos who carry the water of the Ganges from Benares
to Ramesseram, near the southern point of India, to wash their
* Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. it p. 150.
41 Journal of the Anthropological Institute, voL L
** Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. ii. p. 243.
48 Bosman, Guinese Goud-Kust.
44 H. von Schlagintweit, Indian und Hochasien.
Worship of the Sun. 253
native idols,** although the distance is little less than that between
Madrid and Berlin. The ancient Persians also regarded running
water as sacred; but in contrast to the Hindoos they endeavoured
to guard it from pollution, so that the erection of bridges, which
put a stop to wading through the rivers, was considered a work
of piety. 46 Although even the divinities of the ocean were not
quite secure against the chastisements of barbarians, for a Persian
king flogged the Hellespont with rods, 47 yet a better state of
things dawned when men raised their eyes to seek the unknown
Creator in the starry skies. The worship of sun, moon, and
constellations, which is common among the Mongolian nations
of Northern Asia, has spread from thence over both parts of
America. Although religious emotions appear in human societies
far earlier than the distinction between good and evil, and there-
fore have nothing to do with the subsequent laws of morality, yet
as soon as intercourse between the members of the same confede-
ration is regulated by strictly observed customs, human institutions
are believed to be derived from the commands of the Deity, and
from this time religion becomes the most effectual means of
education and improvement. 48 In the endeavour to glorify the
morality of the Deity, the religious impulse unconsciously advances
the refinement of human society. When the conception of the
fetish is extended to all visible objects, the sun, as the symbol
of all that is pure and bright, seems capable of exerting the
greatest influence in exalting the dignity of human intercourse.
We refer especially to the government of the Peruvian Incas, who
claimed descent from the day-star, and by means of conquest
extended their strict laws and an admirable semi-civilization from
Quito to Chili. But even the Apatsh points to the sun, and
says to the white man, " Do you not believe that this deity sees
45 K. Graul, Reise nach Ostindien.
46 Duncker, Geschichte des Alterthums. 1853.
47 Herodotus, lib. vii. cap. 35.
48 Fritz Schultze similarly says (Fetischismus. 1871) : " The fact that the
savage is so absolutely under the dominion of his Mokisso (fetish) and of his
oath, constitutes an important educational element of fetishism. The savage
imposes duties on himself he controls himself."
254 Religious Emotions of Uncivilized Nations.
our actions, and chastises us if they are wicked ? " 49 A Huron
woman hearing the perfections of God extolled by a Christian
priest, exclaimed, " I had always pictured to myself our Areskui "
(by which she meant the sun and the Great Spirit) " as of the
nature which you ascribe to your God." 50
As the sun is not merely a visible object, but is also a source of
the forces of nature, sun worship leads to the adoration of pheno-
mena only indirectly perceptible by their effects. This advanced
form of the demand for causality marks a great and happy chapter
in the history of the evolutions of every nation that has attained to
it. Tree worship sooner or later necessitated the experience that
the decay caused by old age or, even earlier, by the devastations
of wood-eating parasites, or by a stroke of lightning, destroyed the
plant-god. In the last case especially, it was evident that humbler
and perishable powers are controlled by still higher forces. Nations
worshipping the forces of nature must necessarily have reached
a higher intellectual maturity, for divine interposition is traced
only in those phenomena of the material world, natural causes
of which are as yet inconceivable to the human understanding ;
hence there must have been a previous attempt at explanation,
whereas thoughtless minds make no such researches. It is only
in certain agricultural nations that we find the worship of the
forces of nature. To such atmospheric changes are of supreme
importance, for on these depend superfluity or want. The deifica-
tion of Force, that is, of something imperceptible to the senses,
can be maintained in its purity only in a priestly caste or as an
esoteric doctrine; but the uninitiated, who did not understand
the meaning of the enigmatical language of the worship of nature,
and received the allegories as literal realities, necessarily invested
the invisible with flesh and blood. From an adjective applied
to Force arose a proper name for the Deity; from the name
again originated a conception of a Being, which was thought of as
male or female in accordance with the grammatical gender of the
customary appellation ; the imagination, once thus called into play,
added fresh dreams to this romance of things divine. It is at
49 Froebel as quoted by Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. i. p. 286.
50 Lafitau, Moeurs des sauvages ameriquains, vol. L p. 127.
Worship of the Forces of Nature. 255
once evident that the type of the language greatly influenced these
creations. Hence languages which make a distinction of gram-
matical gender, such as those of the Aryan, Semitic, and Hamitic
nations, are especially adapted for the fabrication of myths. Yet
the functions of language must not be over-estimated, for we find
myths of gods and goddesses among nations such as the Polyne-
sians and the people of Central America, whose grammar is
destitute of genders. Thus even Bleek s 1 has made the mistake of
looking for the worship of ancestors only in nations using the
prefix-pronominal languages, although it exists among the Chinese
whose language has no grammatical forms.
Delbriick has ingeniously employed the heroic fable of Hippo-
lytus and Phaedra to illustrate the manner in which language, as
it were, automatically evolves myths. It had originally no other
foundation than the phenomena visible in the evening sky from
the first appearance of the crescent until the disc of the moon has
become full. We may venture briefly to repeat his explanation.
Any Greek scholar can perceive that the name Hippolytus
indicates one who drives with loose or unharnessed horses. In
the world of poetry this is done by the sun-god alone. The
moon, on the other hand, is glorified as Phaedra, the lustrous or
brilliant, for the great majority of nations have thought of the
sun as masculine and the moon as feminine, and only a few,
among which are the Germans and the Hottentots, have reversed
these genders. It is well known that on every succeeding day the
crescent moon is retarded by a considerable span behind the sun
as it hastens on its western course. After twelve days at most, the
sun is just sinking as the full moon rises on the opposite side of
the horizon. Thus the waxing moon apparently pursues the sun,
but is unable to catch up the quicker traveller. But, according to
the growing myth, Hippolytus is flying from Phaedra. Now, when
a generation grew up which applied other adjectives to the sun
and moon, and who had forgotten the original signification of Hippo-
lytus and Phaedra, although a proverb was perhaps still preserved
concerning Hippolytus flying before the pursuit of Phaedra, the
question might well arise, why should Hippolytus fly from Phaedra
w Ueber den Ursprung der Sprache,
256 Religious Emotions of Uncivilized Nations.
if, as her name suggests, she shines in all the beauty of her sex ?
In this stage of the conception, as Delbriick adds, the legend
was completed by the notion that perhaps Phaedra was the step-
mother of Hippolytus. When the myth had once acquired this
form, it was woven into the story of the house of Theseus, forming
an admirable subject for a tragedy. Euripides, Racine, and his
translator, Schiller, would probably have been surprised had it
been shown them that their heroes were the sun and moon.
Perhaps it may be said that it was unnecessary to suppose fear of
incest as a motive for the flight of Hippolytus from Phaedra : it
would have been more natural to suppose that he already loved
some other maiden ; hence it is very remarkable that other nations
give exactly the same interpretations to these natural phenomena.
The Khasia in North-western India relate that at every fresh change
the moon is inflamed with love for his stepmother the sun, who
throws ashes in his face as a mark of abhorrence, and that for
this reason the moon's disc is spotted. s 2 The Eskimo say that
the sun, which they regard as feminine, smears the face of her
brother, the moon, with soot when he presses his love upon her.
The inhabitants of the Isthmus of Darien also maintain that
the so-called "man in the moon" was guilty of incest with his
sister. S3
The action of myth-making must in the course of time, especially
while writing was not in use, have entirely obscured the original
meaning of any form of nature worship, so that it was at last
necessary to deify the same power under another name, only to
reinvest it with an anthropomorphous shape. This is probably
the reason that among Aryan nations so many deities play the
same part, and that the functions of the atmosphere in particular
are represented under so many forms. But every system of gods
indicates a craving for a Supreme Being to whom all other powers
must sooner or later be subordinate. For instance, it is impos-
sible that a people undergoing intellectual development should
persevere in worshipping the sun, for soon or later there must
arise the doubt which was expressed by the Inca Huayna Capac
'* Hooker, Himalayan Journals, vol. ii. p. 276.
a David Cranz, Historic von Gronland. Petrus Martyr, De orbe novo.
Worship of the Heavens. 257
( + 1525 A. D.), 54 namely, that the day-star cannot possibly be the
creator of all things, for the progress of life proceeds without
interruption during the night. This case again corroborates our
proposition that all religious emotions proceed only from the
desire for acquaintance with the Creator, and that the worship of a
deity is extinguished the instant that it ceases to satisfy the re-
quirement of causality. The divinity of the sun was not so long
or so successfully tenable as that of the changeless, self-moving
heavens, which were always regarded as masculine in contrast
to the feminine fertile earth. The heavens and the earth were
worshipped by the Hurons, and are still worshipped by the
Chinese. Sky worship occurs also among the negroes of the west
coast of Africa, ss The Latins employed the same word for God
and the heavens ; 56 an d that the heavens and the Supreme
Deity were one, in ancient times, amongst the Germans also, may
be inferred from the pagan idioms, " Heaven help you ! " or
" Heaven preserve this child." 57 Even in ancient Mexico we per-
ceive that a multiplicity of gods makes a classification according
to rank necessary, and that this involuntarily tends towards a
monotheistic conception. In the celebrated admonitions of an
Aztec mother to her daughter, reference is made to a single God,
" who sees every secret fault." 58 Sahagun, who preserved this
remarkable contribution to moral history, has indeed been accused
of colouring ancient Mexican paganism with Christian views ; but
Waitz has justly defended the trustworthiness of his account, saying
that Spanish priests were more disposed to give adverse represen-
tations of the pre-Christian state of the Americans as the work of
the devil than to say too much in their favour.
If the value of religion 'be estimated solely by its effects as a
means of education, the worship of the forces of nature is capable
of raising human society to high grades. Among nations of
austere morals we also find austere deities and the conception of
a just regulation of the world, whereas, in the other case, liber-
54 A. von Humboldt, Ansichten der Natur.
55 Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. i. p. 321.
5 * Sub divo or sub dio was equivalent to " under the open skies."
? " Der Himmel behiite dich " and "der Himmel erhalte dir dieses Kind."
* Sahagun. See Prescott's Conquest of Mexico, vol. iii. p. 424.
258 Religious Emotions of Uncivilized Nations.
tinism and vice are perceptible in the creations of religion, which
are invariably related to the moral level of the social condition, as
are the dark lines in a spectroscopic image to the source of light.
The Polynesian Tongans, or Friendly Islanders, firmly believe
that their gods approve of a life of virtue and resent vice, so that
the guardian spirits watch over men only so long as they behave
honourably, and at once abandon the reprobate. 59 But worship
of the forces of nature is of little permanent service in the social
education of nations. When the object contemplated as divine
has once been invested in the imagination with human traits,
the representative arts are nearly always employed at the very
first fabrication of the myths ; and however the sculptor or painter
may exalt the human form in his representation of the deity, in
the eyes of the multitude, eager for objects of veneration, the
material image immediately becomes an idol performing miracles,
and, as a movable chattel, becomes the property of a com-
munity, and, by the folly of the majority, ultimately sinks into a
fetish.
Religious veneration takes another direction when it involves
belief in a future life. This belief has been found almost without
exception among the aborigines of America as well as among the
Polynesians, Papuans, and Australians, among the greater number
of Asiatics, among the ancient inhabitants of Europe, and all the
Hamites of Northern Africa from the Nile to the Canaries. When
direct evidence is wanting, belief in immortality may be inferred
from the mode of burying the dead. If we had no better infor-
mation as to the notions of the Egyptians respecting a future life,
we could still clearly recognize their expectations in the circum-
stance that- they provided their mummies with wheat in order to
supply them with seed-corn after the resurrection. In the same
way the ancient Babylonians evinced a hope of another world by
placing date stones in their tombs ; * the same remark applies to
the people dwelling on the shores of the Caribbean Sea, who place
maize seeds in the hands of their dead. The sacrifice of human
beings at the graves of chiefs or kings, such as that prescribed by
>
* Mariner, Tonga Islands.
60 Rawlinson, The Five Great Monarchies.
Ideas of Immortality. 259
the Adah, or " great custom," testifies a belief in immortality in
Dahomey, and the strangling of the wives at the death of a prince
affords like evidence of a similar belief in the Fiji Islands. Again,
if we knew no further details as to the opinions of the intel-
lectually gifted Hottentots, formerly so greatly underrated, 61 it
would be enough that, previous to burial, they place the body of
the deceased in the same position which it once occupied as an
embryo in the mother's womb. The meaning of this significant
custom is that the dead will mature in the darkness of the earth
in preparation for a new birth. As uncivilized nations, as we
have seen, regard all objects as animated, they do not restrict
the future life to human beings. The Itelmes of Kamtshatka
believed in a renewal of all creatures, " down to the smallest fly."
The Jesuits Acosta, Lafitau, and Charlevoix assert that the Inca-
Peruvians, 62 the Iroquois, and other North Americans imagined,
exactly after the fashion of the Platonic visions, the existence in
the invisible world of a sort of prototype or essence for every living
being, 6 3 The Fijians go still further, for they not only believe in a
paradise for men and animals, but they hope that every cocoa-nut
will there be made anew.
It is only among negroes that a denial of immortality has yet
l>een found. " Can a dead man come out of his grave unless
he is dug up ? " said the chief Commoro in the Latuka country
to the east of the White Nile, when Sir Samuel Baker in vain
attempted by cross questions to force him to acknowledge his
belief in a future. The first idea of immortality has probably
been always evoked by the apparitions of dreams. As long as a
negro dreams of a dead person, fear is inspired by his memory ;
the spirit which has apparently come back demands food, and
holds out threats of misfortunes to those still on earth, but
the memory of a grandfather has long been extinguished and
excites no further uneasiness. If, in Equatorial Africa, says Du
Chaillu, inquiries are made after a person long since deceased,
11 Kolbe, Vorgebirge der guten Hoffnung.
82 Clements Markham, Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, vol. xli.
" Lafitau, Mceurs des sauvages, p. 360. Charlevoix, Nouvelle Prance.
Also Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol ii. p. 245.
260 Religious Emotions of Uncivilized Nations.
the answer is that it is all over with him. 6 * One of the current
sayings then is, that at death all is past It is possible that in
the last case the witness quoted had not succeeded in gaining
the confidence of the negro. Sproat, an excellent ethnologist,
who had nearly fallen into errors such as we suspect in the case
of Du Chaillu, very strikingly observes : " A traveller must have
lived among savages for years as one of themselves before his
opinion of their intellectual condition is of any value." 65 In
Central and Southern Africa especially the idea of immortality is
the source of great uneasiness. The negroes of the Gold Coast
sacrifice slaves at a burial that they may serve the deceased in
the other world. 66 In the Congo land Winwood Reade &7 assures
us that a son killed his mother merely because he expected that
as a glorified spirit she would render him more powerful assist-
ance. Wherever the Bantu languages are spoken, that is to say,
throughout Southern Africa, the souls of deceased parents are
invoked for aid. 68 Rebmann has noted down a prayer of this
sort from the lips of a negro in the Tshagga country on the
East Coast ; and another of the Kaffirs in Natal to a deceased
chief runs literally : " O Mossd, son of Motlanka, look upon us !
Thou, whose breath (fume'e?) is seen by every one, turn thine
eyes upon us this day and shield us. Thou our god ! " ^ The
Bushmen also prayed in Livingstone's presence at the grave of an
ancestor. 7 As divine descent is attributed to the chiefs in Poly-
nesia, it is not surprising that sanctuaries are erected to them after
their death, as Mariner frequently relates of the Tongans. It is
due to Polynesian influences that at Tanna, an island of the New
Hebrides, the deceased chiefs are thanked for the blessings of the
harvest 7 1
Permanent worship of the dead has been very appropriately
94 Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial Africa.
64 Anthropological Review, vol. vi. 1868.
" Bosman, Guinese Goud-Tand-en Slavekust j and Tyler, Primitive Cul-
ture, vol. ii. p. 116.
67 Savage Africa.
* Krapf, Reisen in OstafrikfU
* Casaiis, Les Basoutos. * South Africa.
n Turner, quoted by Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. ii p. 114.
Ancestor Worship. 261
described as ancestor worship. Thus the Caribs of the West
India Islands saw their immortal heroes in the constellations.
Worship of the dead has been developed with peculiar strength
among the Chinese, who built special temples for the deceased
emperors. When their moral philosopher, Confucius, was canon-
ized, he received the first sacrifice from the hand of an emperor in
194 B.C., and in A.D. 57 festivals were established, and sanctuaries
erected in his honour. Hero worship is also apt to be extended
to founders of religions, and thus Buddhism has been gradually
alienated from its original purity and has degenerated into relic
worship. T 2 Even Napoleon III. who, like the old kings of France,
was so eager to play the part of the eldest son of the Church,
paid homage to ancestor worship, if the recently published will
of April i4th, 1875, is genuine. "We must remember," writes
the Emperor, " that those we love look down upon us from
heaven and protect us. It is the soul of my great uncle which
has always guided and supported me. Thus will it be with my
son also if he proves worthy of his name." 73
To the question, whether in any part of the world a nation has
ever been found utterly destitute of religious emotions and ideas,
we will venture to give a decided negative. In every stage of his
mental development man feels a craving to discover an agency
for every phenomenon, and an author for every event. As
long as the powers of the understanding are small a fetish satisfies
the demand for causality, but as the intellectual sagacity of nations
increases, the powers of credence are diminished, and the concep-
tion of God acquires dignity, until it finally becomes the noblest
and highest product of the human mind. Similarly, while the
intellectual faculties are advancing, the first crude attempts to
discover the unknown Creator constantly tend to the rejection of
the first solutions, and ultimately to the hypothesis of a supreme
incomprehensible Being. Yet history and ethnology tell of in-
numerable races of men who never raised themselves to such a
height, and even of many who fell back from the nobler notions
which they had acquired into gross errors of the understanding,
71 Justi in the Ausland. 1871.
* Alleg. Zeitung. 1873.
262 . Religious Emotions of Uncivilized Nations.
which they have oeen unable to shake off for hundreds, nay, for
thousands of years. These superstitions we shall speak of as
Shamanism, and we will attempt to examine their origin,
X. SHAMANISM.
WHEN in future we speak of Shamanism, this word must be under-
stood in a comprehensive sense to include magic and ritualism
of every description. The name itself originated from a corrup-
tion of Cramana, as the Buddhist anchorites and penitents are
called in India. The term Shaman, however, has been hitherto
applied only to the magicians of Northern Asiatic races. Their
functions consist chiefly in working cures by magic, for among all
barbarous nations, in present and past times, sickness and death
are ascribed to witchcraft, 1 which the Shaman has to counteract by
his secret remedies.
In Siberia and both continents of America the magician
usually sucks the part of the body which is paining the invalid,
and then produces from his mouth a thorn, a beetle, a stone, or
some other unexpected object, which he shows to the anxious
bystanders as the cause of the evil which he has detected and
conquered by his intervention. The Shamans among the Dyaks
of Borneo 2 and those in South America on the Orinoco,3 operate
in the same way. A priestess of the Fingo Kaffirs for there are
female operators also who had pretended to extract a number
of magic seeds from the body of the patient, was unmasked by
the wife of a missionary. Previous to the operation she had
swallowed some tobacco leaves as an emetic.-*
Another branch of the business of a Shaman depends on their
power of communicating with the invisible powers, occasionally
1 This is the case among the Australians (Latham, Varieties), the Kutshin
or Loucheux Indians of Hudson's Bay territory (Ausland, 1863), and the
Hottentots (Kolbe, Cap der guten Hoffnung).
* Spenser St. John, Life in the Far East, voL i
* P. Jos. Gumilla, El Orinoco ilustrado.
4 Tylor, Early History of Mankind, p. 355,
Priests and Medicine-men. 263
with departed spirits, and receiving from them revelations as to
the future. On these occasions the performer is able to put him-
self into a state of nervous excitement, in which his mouth foams
and his limbs are convulsed. s Hence Shamans in all parts of the
world like to select, as their pupils, boys of epileptic tendencies. 6
Dwarfs or albinos are preferred by the negroes. ?
The proceedings of the Siberian priests and of the so-called
medicine-men of the North American Indians are so similar,
that the similarity constitutes one of the evidences in favour of
the hypothesis that the New World was peopled by races once
belonging to Northern Asia. The sole difference between the
Siberian Shaman and the North American medicine-man 8 is, that
in his operations the former uses a magic drum, the latter a magic
rattle; both wear fantastically decorated cloaks. The North
American medicine-man reappears in South America under the
names of Piaye, Pia'i, or Paye, and he also carries a magic rattle
(maracca) formed of a hollow gourd filled with hard seeds. 9
Lastly, separated from their fellow-craftsmen by the entire breadth
of the Atlantic, there are the Mganga in South Africa, who carry
neither drum nor rattle, but a magic horn, and who devote them-
selves to the work of calling down the much-desired rain on those
dry countries. 10
As illness is ascribed to the influence of a magician, death also,
even when caused by the debility of old age, is believed to be
due to the operations of evil powers. Hence, in every part of
6 See an example among the Kares in Burmah, in A. Bastian's Volker des
b'stlichen Asien, and with regard to the Kaffirs, comp. Fritsch, Eingeborne
Siidafrika's.
6 It is so among the Tatars on the Southern Yennessei (Globus). Other
examples in F. Schultze, Der Fetischismus.
7 Winwood Reade, Savage Africa, p. 363.
8 Catlin, North American Indians.
9 P. Gumilla, El Orinoco ilustrado^; Dobrizhoffer, Geschichte der Abiponer ;
Appun in the Ausland, No. 29. 1872.
10 Among the Natchez of Louisiana, in America, the Shamans busy them-
selves with conjuring the weather. Charlevoix, Nouvelle France. It L.,.-
been suggested that the word maracd is derived from the Spanish matra, a ,
but, independently of the difference of accentuation, the word maracd exists in
the Tupi language. See Lexicon in Martius' Ethnographic, voL i. p. 513.
264 Shamanism.
the world in which Shamanism has carried on its malpractices,
there is the strange delusion that man might indefinitely prolong
the duration of his bodily existence, were it not curtailed by the
malice of a wizard. This superstition is prevalent not only among
races such as the Australian," though this has been unjustly
ranked too low ; but even the Abipones assured the Jesuit Dobriz-
hoffer, 12 that deaths would cease if the magicians would renounce
their deplorable arts. The Patagonian Casimiro confessed to
Lieutenant Musters *3 that, after the death of his mother, he had
caused a woman to be murdered to whose bad influence he did not
hesitate to attribute this calamity. Let us now pass far away from
the Patagonians to the island of Tanna, one of the New Hebrides
in the South Seas, peopled by Papuans, a race of men having
nothing in common either physically or in language with Northern
Asiatics, Americans, or South Africans. Here, again, Shamans
are to be found. They, too, make it their business to procure
rain, and are believed to be the creators of flies and mosquitoes.
Their special interest for us, however, is their power of inflicting
diseases and death whenever they can procure a Nahak from any
individual. This word properly signifies refuse, but is more
specially applied to neglected remnants of food ; these ought not
to be thrown away but carefully and secretly burnt or buried. If
a Papuan magician finds a banana rind which has been thrown
aside, he rolls it up in bark with a leaf, and when night falls
he sits down by a fire and slowly burns the Nahak. If the
whole is transformed into ashes, the spell has taken effect, and
the person to whom the refuse belonged will certainly die.
But news of the nocturnal deed spreads immediately and rapidly.
Hence, if there is any one in the neighbourhood whose conscience
accuses him of neglecting the remains of his food, or who is
already prostrate with illness, he gets his friends to blow a blast
on the shell trumpet as a sign that the Shaman is to cease his
work of destruction. The next morning money is offered for the
restitution of the Nahak. The missionary Turner x * relates that
11 Eyre, Central Australia, vol. ii. 1845.
lf Dobrizhoffer, Geschichte der Abiponer.
18 Unter den Patagoniern. " Nineteen Years in Polynesia.
Sorcery as the Cause of Death. 265
he was deprived of many a night's rest by the unearthly sounds
of the shell trumpet, for several of these plaintive signals were
sometimes audible in different directions. It is unquestionable
that the Papuan Shamans seriously believe in their own arts, for
whenever one of the craft is overtaken by illness or the fear
of death he also sends out a shell trumpet. It is only against
the illnesses introduced into the island by Europeans that the
natives confess that all counter charms have proved ineffectual.
The Nahak ceremony reappears with little variation on the Mar-
quesas island of Nukahiva, 1 * which is inhabited by pure-bred
Polynesians ; it exists also in the Fiji Islands under the name of
an " act with leaves," l6 and even in Australia the death of a sick
person is considered certain if a malevolent Shaman has burnt the
Pringurru, a sacred piece of bone which is also used for letting
blood. 1 ?
Passing round almost a third part of the world, from Australia
to South Africa, we find that the Kaffir princes, before they go out
to war, raise the courage of their followers by displaying a fragment
of clothing, the shaft of a spear, a snuff-box, or any other property
of their opponents which they have been able to procure. The
court Shaman has a magic liquid ready prepared, in which in the
presence of the assembled community he steeps and dissolves
some portion of the captured treasure. The chief has only to
swallow this draught to possess irresistible power over his antago-
nist. This explains the fact that a Kaffir king, whenever he moves
to a new hut, has the old one carefully swept out, and that, as
Theophilus Hahn relates, an entire kraal (village) has been burnt
down, only to prevent the enemy from obtaining any household
implement by means of which to exercise a spell. 18
Let us dwell a little longer on the unquestionably strange
uniformity of such superstitions. We might perhaps account foi
it by supposing that Papuan and Kaffir races once inhabited a
common home, and then separated by a series of migrations. But
this would imply periods which must be reckoned by thousands oi
years, for the differences between these races are very great, and
15 Langsdorff, Reise urn die Welt.
w According to Williams in the Ausland. 1858.
" Eyre, Central Australia. " Theophilus Hahn in the Globus. 1871,
266 Shamanism.
such alterations take place as slowly as geological processes. Nor
must we satisfy ourselves by fancying that these superstitions are
only due to the yet inexperienced intellects of so-called savages.
It is but lately that the superstition flourished among ourselves
that the parings of nails, and hair which has been cut off, ought
to be carefully destroyed. An Italian scholar, Caroline Coronedi,
has lately stated that even now, at Bologna, combed-out hairs are
carefully burnt, as they are particularly liable to be employed in
the arts of witchcraft. T Tylor even gives full credit to the report
that a witch was burnt in 1860 at Camargo, in Mexico. 20 The
similarity of these superstitions almost forces us against our will
to believe that the intellectual powers of man are a mechanism,
which, under the influence of like excitations, necessarily performs
the same acts.
Of all nations the South African Bantus suffer most from this
mental malady of Shamanism. Whenever a death occurs, inquiries
are made of the Mganga, or local Shaman, as to its author. He
has the credit of possessing superior knowledge. To Shamanism
must also be referred all interpretation of signs, the institution of
oracles, and also the spirit-rapping of modern days. When the seer
indicates a suspected person, a trial by ordeal takes place. Here
we at once encounter a new form of necromancy, for faith in
decision by ordeal is based on the illusion that there is an invisible
regulating power which, when properly interrogated, cannot fail to
declare infallible verdicts. Trial by ordeal is still habitual among
the Dravida races in India, 21 and among Brahminical Hindoos,
and in Southern Arabia it was maintained among our own ancestors
long after the Christian era. 22 In the persecution of witches, the
water ordeal was still in use until the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries. Jacob Grimm thought that the last traces of the super-
stition occur in the modem duel. 2 3 The Papuans of New Guinea
also hold it possible to ascertain the guilt or innocence of an
accused person by the process of immersion, 2 * and a similar
19 Ida von Duringsfeld in the Ausland. 1872.
* Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. i. p. 138.
11 Jellinghaus in the Zeitshcrift fur Ethnologic, vol. iii. 1871.
** Maltzan in the Globus, vol. xxi. 1872.
* Deutsche Rechtsalterthiimer. " Otto Finsch, Neu-Guinea.
Trial by Ordeal. 267
method is employed by the negroes of the Gold Coast. 2 s Other-
wise in South Africa (where it extends from the Atlantic tribes to
the Masai), trial by ordeal generally takes the form of swallowing
a goblet full of Mbundu juice. If the poisonous beverage does
not at once act as an emetic, the guilt of the accused is proved.
When the small-pox broke out on the Rembo in Mayolo (2 south
lat, 11 east long.) in 1865, Du Chaillu saw victims of this Shaman-
istic deception perish by the side of the victims of the pestilence. 26
The judicial trials, accompanied by the torture of the accused,
of the Ama%osa Kaffirs, 2 ? have been strikingly described by Mac-
lean. Belief in the efficacy of the black art is all the more diffi-
cult to eradicate, owing to the fact that the accused sometimes
confesses that he has worked charms. It is beyond question that
such attempts at magic actually take place, for Martius 28 the
traveller caught a revengeful slave in a Brazilian hut in the act of
performing her nocturnal incantations. It is difficult to see how
this vicious practice is to be done away, for although the miracles
of the Shamans frequently fail, this, in the eyes of the prejudiced,
affords no proof of the nullity of the means -employed, but merely
that the medicines or incantations were too weak to counteract
the evil work of some distant Shaman. All observers of foreign
races of mankind unanimously assure us that the wizards them-
selves are among the deceived, and firmly believe in their own
arts. 2 9 The Siberian Shamans, the North American medicine-men,
the Brazilian Piai, the South African Mganga, the Australian and
Papuan magicians, live apart from their tribes, educate their dis-
ciples by fasts and self-mortifications, and only thus reveal to them
the treasures of their occult knowledge.
The ultimate idea of Shamanism, which, under all its numerous
names and guises, is always fundamentally the same, is based on
the superstition that man is able to communicate with the invisible
** Bosman, Guinese Goud-Kust.
* Du Chaillu, Ashango Land, p. 175.
87 Kaffir Laws and Customs. Mount Coke, 1858.
88 Ethnographic, vol. i.
89 So says Dobrizhoffer of the Abipones (Geschichte der Abiponer), and
Mariner (Tonga Islands), of the Polynesian inhabitants of the Friendly
group.
268 Shamanism.
powers, and to force them to obedience. In either case sym-
bolical practices and incantations are employed, and these have
preserved their efficiency because human reason is so weak that
one affirmative instance, ineradicably impressed upon the memory,
completely outweighs nine negative instances, which are speedily
forgotten.
In its highest refinements this self-deception is able to insinuate
itself into the purest minds. It attaches itself to symbolism
and ritualism, and is in operation wherever a definite but not
necessarily inevitable effect is expected from a symbolical act.
When pious people in Protestant countries wish to obtain a
revelation to guide them in the difficulties of life, they open a
psalm book, expecting a divine answer in the first psalm or verse
on which their eye may fall. They thus unconsciously make a
covenant with the God within them that, when interrogated in this
manner and with full faith, he is bound to bestow an answer.
Nothing is more capable of Shamanistic abuse than prayer, for
it becomes a magic spell the instant that the words of the suppli-
cant are supposed to have any sort of influence on the divine will.
That such errors have taken root in some places is easily seen in the
fact that repetitions of prayers are employed in an extreme degree ;
and the Buddhists are so deeply sunk in this self-deception that
they have invented prayer machines, which are revolving cylinders,
on which is rolled a paper with the prayers inscribed upon it
The intention is to outwit the Deity by this apparatus at each
revolution of the cylinder, for he is supposed to accept the prayers
as though spoken. Ingenious Mongols have even set such prayer-
rolls in motion by wind and water-wheels, and thus endeavoured
to gain the rewards of piety.
Sacrifice tends to lead men into yet greater error. The purest
motives, an overflow of gratitude, the avowal of a fault and the
desire for its expiation may lead the believer to the altar. Imper-
ceptibly, and almost inevitably, another aspect of sacrifice intro-
duces itself behind this purer view. The Deity is then regarded
as the recipient, and the donor expects a return for his benefits. 3
* Tylor (Primitive Culture, vol. ii. p. 400) justly calls to mind that in
English, and, we may add, in German, sacrifice signifies a self-inflicted loss.
Prayer and Sacrifice. 269
Thus the Homeric heroes, invoking the aid of their invisible
protectors, reminded them of the many libations which they had
offered up to them.3 1 But the superstition is most evil in its
effects when symbolism is associated with the sacrifice. Nowhere
has self-deception of this sort obtained such complete mastery
over intelligent and even sagacious thinkers as in India ; for the
Brahmins are the chief of all Shamans systematically educated,
refined by depth of thought, and supported by the practice of a
thousand years. Their most powerful charm is the juice of the
Soma plant (Sarcostemma viminale) with which they reinforce their
sacrifices. Like the Mganga, or South African rain-makers, they
summon the desired wet weather ; for only when invigorated by
their sacred rites is the thunder-god Indra able to open the clouds
and extract from them the fertilizing shower. A creative power is
attributed to the sacrifice, for Brahma is supposed to be omni-
present in all offerings. 3 2 According to their doctrine, penances, if
prolonged for an unlimited period, as were those of Vishvamitra,
at last confer such mighty power on the sufferer that the epic gods
fear lest he may destroy both heaven and earth. But as, according
to the Shamanistic hypothesis, by means of prayers and hymns, and
above all by sacrifice, accompanied by effectual symbolical acts,
the gods may be forced to perform the desired services, the logical
conclusion is that penances, prayers, and sacrifices are stronger
than the gods. Thus the Indians obtained the conception ot
Brahma, a spiritual power existing in the ritualistic mysteries and
predominating over the gods. The Brahmins themselves, as the
initiated to whom alone were known the occult meaning and the
efficacy of the practices and sayings, were ultimately obliged to
lay claim to superhuman qualities, and exalt themselves into incar-
nate deities. According to their doctrine, all success depended
on the proper performance of sacrifice. To this act they owed
their rank and prosperity. The sacrifices themselves, simple
at first, became more and more complicated. Before long they
required more than one day, then weeks, months, and years, and
at the same time, by constant quadrupling, the number of offi-
ciating priests rose to sixty-four, according to Martin Haug, who
w Iliad, i. 37-42. M Martin Haug, Alleg. Zeitung. 1873.
2 jo Shamanism.
was the first European to penetrate the deepest secrets of the
Brahmins. 33
If the essence of Shamanism consists in the performance of
some form of sorcery which rules the powers held to be divine,
and extorts from them the fulfilment of a desire, or the disclosure
of future events, it is obviously indifferent whether the method
employed consists in shaking a rattle, in sacrifice, prayers, fast-
ings, penances, or in the interrogation of the entrails of animals
or the flight of birds. All nations have succumbed to this illusion ;
few have entirely shaken it off. It survives in full strength in
America, in Siberia, in Buddhist Asia, in Brahminical India,
under the various forms of the Amulet of the Mahommedans, the
trial by ordeal, the rain-making of the Africans, and the Nahak
tricks of the Papuans. We, ourselves, have only lately abolished
trials for witchcraft. The great Kepler was obliged to return to
his Suabian home in order to rescue his aged mother from death
by fire, with which Protestant Shamanists were threatening her.
From all this it is manifest that the moral education of mankind
by means of religion has nowhere encountered greater dangers
than from Shamanistic delusion. When any symbolical act is
supposed to possess a supernatural effect, the rite is placed, like
Brahma, higher than the deities.
XI. THE DOCTRINE OF BUDDHA.
THE Aryans spread themselves over the Punjaub and the plain
of the Ganges at the expense of a barbarian aboriginal population,
which they excelled in mental endowments and physical beauty.
The possession of these advantages characteristic of the race, led
to the prohibition by Manu's legislation of mixed marriages, and
to the most uncharitable regulations of caste. The priests, as
the initiated, had, as we have seen, exalted the knowledge of the
Shamanistic practices, of prayers and sacrifices, into a power
superior to the qld gods, who were reduced to the subordinate
Martin Haug, Brahmc und die Brahmanen.
Vedanta and Sankhja. 2 7 1
office of guardians of the world. Brahma, in its oldest historical
sense, means prayer, 1 and the Brahmins were originally called the
people who pray. Brahma subsequently appeared, in an anthro-
pomorphic aspect, as the god of prayer, and later still as the
creator of the world. The priest had now the task of distorting
the doctrines of the Vedas by skilful interpretation into conformity
with the tenet of the transmigration of souls, taught by religious
philosophy in the Brahminical books of ritual. 2
Brahma, or the universal soul, was proclaimed to be the only
real existence, while the world perceptible to the senses was
an illusion, the work of Maja, or deception, and unsubstantial as
the image of the moon reflected by calm waters. To see through
this illusion, to proclaim that the world is nothing, to hail
Brahma as the only existence, as Thou, to acknowledge Self as
one with him, implied the liberation of the Ego from the illusions
of the world of the senses, and reabsorption into Brahma. Like
this doctrine of the Vedanta, the Sankhja philosophy looked for
the release of the human soul from its incarceration in the body,
and regarded all objects of perception as illusions, but it ex-
pected liberation not by absorption into the Deity, but by a with-
drawal of the soul into itself, and an alienation from the world of
matter. The great maxim of the Vedanta was, I am the The, I
am Brahma ; the Sankhja school, on the contrary, said, I am not
the The (Nature). 3
The people of India held, and still hold, to the conception of
the indestructibility of the soul. A tendency to melancholy and
weariness of life has existed in them from the earliest times. A
never-ending series of transmigrations of the soul threatened them
at every step. There are very few among ourselves sufficiently
happy to care to begin their own lives anew with their disillusions
and hours of dejection. In the words of the apostle, the creature
groaneth for deliverance. The Hindoo was tortured and op-
pressed by the idea of a perpetual and unavoidable renewal of his
present existence; the eternally revolving wheel could never
1 J. Muir, Sanscrit Texts. London, 1872.
* Duncker, Geschichte des Alterthums.
8 Koppen, Die Religion des Buddha. Berlin, 1857.
272 The Doctrine of Buddha.
stop, and with his imagination disturbed by weird, numerical ex-
pressions, he looked out into an eternity, the horizon of which
receded with each step which he himself took. Even the highest
castes yearned for deliverance of the soul, but to the oppressed
eternal existence seemed eternal torture.
According to the traditions handed down, Siddhartha, the son
of Cuddhodana, king of Kapilavastu, of the tribe of Gautama and
the house of Sakja, appeared in the sixth century B.C., bringing
a hope of salvation to the Indian people.* The sight of bodily
evils, of sickness, age, and death, caused him to meditate how
man could escape the misery of earthly existence. The doctrines
of the Brahminical school did not satisfy him. He recognized
the powerlessness of prayer, sacrifice, and penance. Even this
destruction of Shamanistic errors would give him a high rank
among the founders of religion. But it was not only to the
initiated and as a mystery that he declared his doctrine, but, in
complete contrast to the Brahminical system, he preached publicly
and in the language of the people : 5 it was not to select castes,
but to mankind in general that he addressed himself. Buddhism
was at no time restricted to one nation, but has remained open
to the whole world to the present day. Sdkjamuni, which was
the nickname given to the founder of a new religion, proclaimed,
on the contrary, that his doctrine was a law of grace for all. 6
The beautiful legend of his favourite scholar Ananda, closely
resembling the story of the woman of Samaria, mentioned in the
fourth Gospel, is well known. He asks for a draught from a
girl of Chandala, who is drawing water, and when she hesitates,
fearing she might contaminate him by her touch, he says, " My
sister, I do not ask what is thy caste or thy descent, I beg for
water if thou canst give it me." ^ Another of the stories of Christ
was foreshadowed in the legend of the poor man, who filled the
alms-box of Buddha with a handful of flowers, though the rich
could not accomplish it with ten thousand bushels ; and again, by
the story of the lamps which kings and chancellors had lighted in
4 Chr. Lassen, Indische Alterthumskunde.
' Bournouf, Introduction au Buddhisme indien. 1844.
Ibid, T Ibid,
Life of Buddha. 273
honour of Buddha and which were extinguished, while the one
brought by the poor woman burnt alone all through the night 8
Buddha's life, as we know it, was somewhat monotonous. By
the renunciation of worldly power and the pleasures of the senses,
bearing his alms-box in his hand, the Indian prince proved the
sincerity of his doctrine of duty. He lived to an advanced age,
and saw his ancestral city of Kapilavastu devastated by the
enemy of his house. With Ananda he wandered in the starlight
among the still smoking ruins, and stepping over the corpses of
the slain, and the bodies of mutilated maidens in the streets,
administered consolation to the dying. -From thence he en-
deavoured to drag himself also to Kuginagara, a distance of seventy
miles, but, unable to reach the town, sank down under a gala tree
not far from it, overcome by violent thirst. The death struggle
soon set in, and he expired with the words, " Nothing is
durable." 9
The salvation contemplated by Buddha refers solely to the
superstition of the transmigration of souls ; salvation can therefore
be found in this doctrine only by those who share in this super-
stition. Transmigration always results from criminality in a pre-
vious existence, so that sin is the origin of all earthly misery. By
its adhesion to existence and its craving for it at death, the soul
is forced into a new sphere. For on the extinction of life nothing
remains of the soul but the sum of its good and evil works, and of
the latter a new birth is the normal consequence. 10
The Buddhist view of the world, as it was taught by Sdkjamuni
himself, or perhaps only by his disciples, seems almost due to
mental malady. Life itself appeared as the greatest of burdens,
and to escape from its renewal, " to break through the eggshell,"
to escape the necessity of perpetual transmigrations, seemed
salvation in the highest degree. The fundamental idea of
Buddhism was comprised in the so-called four truths : that our
misery is derived from existence ; that this misery arises only from
8 Koppen, Die Religion des Buddha,
9 O. Palladius, Das Leben Buddha's. Arbeiten der russ Gesandtschaft zu
Peking. Berlin, 1858.
10 Koppen, Die Religion des Buddha,
13
274 Th* Doctrine of Buddha.
continued connection with the world of the senses ; that by
shaking off this connection release from existence is obtained ;
and, lastly, that there is a way to such a release. This way to the
heights of Buddhism requires self-denial and unresisting absorp-
tion in one's self. The last and highest state which the righteous
can attain is called Nirvana, though it has always been disputed
whether Nirvana can be called a state. Buddha himself reached
the Nirvana by degrees. First, he experienced the sensation of
liberation from sin, next, he destroyed the satisfaction of this
feeling by a longing for the highest goal, then this longing was
also reduced to complete indifference, with which however was
mingled a satisfaction with the indifference itself. But this satis-
faction was to disappear likewise, and happiness, pain, and
memory were to be lost in infinite space or nothingness ; but in
nothingness he still preserved the consciousness of nothingness ;
finally, this also was extinguished in complete repose, undisturbed
either by nothingness or by anything other than nothingness. The
Nirvana, or highest goal of Buddhism, as to the meaning of which
the various sects are not agreed, was therefore originally and
literally an extinction, a total annihilation which precluded any
new birth. Hence the northern or neo-Buddhists went so far as
to consider thought itself the root of ignorance, the admission of
an idea as an obscuration of the intellect, and they looked for
liberation from ignorance in the absence of thought."
The moral doctrine of Buddha was thoroughly pure and chaste,
in many ways harmonizing with the Christian system. First
stands the prohibition against killing any living thing. This led
to the abolition of capital punishment in India, at least, at the
period at which Buddhism held the reins of government, but
at the same time it prevented the extermination of predatory and
parasitic animals. Respect for property, conjugal fidelity, truthful-
ness, avoidance of calumny, insult, or contempt, resistance of
all covetous and envious emotions, of anger and vengeance, are
enjoined on all believers. As in Christianity, the highest duty
of the Buddhist is love to one's neighbours, but this term extends
to all creatures, so that the erection and maintenance of refuges
11 Fr. Spiegel on Wassiljiew's Researches. Ausland, 1860.
Morality of Buddhism. 275
and hospitals for animals are regarded as good works, equal to
the institution of almshouses for needy men. Self-conquest,
says an old proverb, is the best of all conquests. 12 Mankind is
to be trained to gentleness, mercy, and consideration, and Bud-
dhism itself set a good example of religious toleration, and by
scarcely ever disgracing itself by the persecution of those who
held different opinions.^ The humility which was also to distin-
guish the priests was in contrast to the arrogance of the Brahmins.
It is therefore hard to over-estimate the favourable effects of
Buddhism in the softening of manners. The religion has been
extolled for having educated mankind without having recourse to
the conception of a deity, without prayer, without bribes or threats
of another world, and yet in spite of this gained four hundred
millions of votaries. The Buddhists had apparently shaken off
the gods, or rather the gods were degraded into the willing auxili-
aries of Buddha, at whose wish, even if unexpressed, they were
supposed eagerly to assemble. But as their Shamanistic know-
ledge of wisdom, prayers, and the power of rites and penances,
placed the Brahmins above the gods, so Buddha, by his virtuous
life and by the strength of his devotion, acquired a nature far
above that of the Vedic gods : he worked miracles and saw into
the past and the future. 14 The distressed may therefore confidently
cry to him ; he will listen to the mariner and rescue him from the
storm. x s Buddhism, in the form it necessarily assumed -before it
was accepted by four hundred millions, is not recognized by
ethnology as an ethical atheism, but merely as ancestor or hero
worship. Soon after the death of the founder, and not without the
instigation of his disciples, began a relic worship, which may be
described as a reversion to fetishism. The ashes of the deceased
were distributed between eight cities, and over these relics arose
sanctuaries to which pilgrimages were made. 16 As Buddha, before
12 Koppen, Religion des Buddha.
18 Comp. the rock inscriptions of King A9ka with regard to tolerance.
Max M tiller, Essays. Leipzic, 1869.
14 Bournouf, Introduction.
18 Ibid.
16 Stanislas Julien, Histoire de la vie de Hiouen-thsang. Paris, 1853.
Lassen in d. Alterthiimer.
276 The Doctrine of Buddha.
his glorification, had passed through previous careers, not only
as man, but also in various animal forms, in many temples even
hairs, feathers, or bones were worshipped as having been derived
from the animal bodies which he had formerly abandoned. 1 ? Not
only the founder himself, but a host of sanctified Bodhisattvds
received homage, so that we see the highly revered Chinese pilgrim
Hiouen-thsang visiting the images of these patron saints, and in
devout rapture imploring oracular signs in answer to his questions
asked with due rites. 18 Prayer, that is to say, Shamanistic invoca-
tion, was certainly alien to the mind of Sakjamuni or Gautama, but
it was in the midst of his four hundred million votaries that
rosaries and prayer cylinders were invented. It sounds strange
that enthusiastic admirers extol Buddhism because it holds out
neither bribes nor threats. In the eyes of Buddhism this world is
itself a purgatory, a wheel that has revolved from eternity; and
birth into the blissful regions of the gods or into the horrors of
hell, the unclean body of the animal, or, lastly, into lower or higher
castes, enticed or terrified the righteous or the sinner. The
Buddhist doctrine has not disdained using the fear of an infallible
retribution as a means of discipline.
Nor has Buddhism done anything to cure the natives of India
of the superstition of the transmigration of souls ; on the contrary,
it maintained this dogma, and has even infected other nations with
it as with a disease. It did not upset the distinctions of caste,
but allowed them a social existence, although it showed a preference
for the oppressed and despised in its promises of a speedy deliver-
ance. Its boasted tolerance towards other religions is moreover
of doubtful "value, for it did nothing to raise alien notions of
the Deity from their debased condition. Buddhism retained the
Vedist heaven of the gods, and was contented to leave untouched
the love of Shamanistic sorcery of the Mongolian tribes. Purer
and riper conceptions can only gain the mastery by expelling the
less pure and the less ripe. The estimate of the adherents of
Gautama's doctrine as four hundred millions, includes the whole
Chinese people, who, though worshipping heaven and earth as well
1T TyJor, Primitive Culture, vol. i. p. 408.
" Stanislas Julien, Histoire de la vie de Houen-thsang. Paris, 1853.
Present Distribution of Buddhism. 277
as the dead, yet venerate Confucius as a moral legislator, and
have in fact accepted from Buddhism only the figure of Buddha,
adding one more false god to other false gods. I 9
The Buddhist doctrine was not preached to an elect people but
to all mankind, and its history is like that of Christianity among
the Jews; for it enjoyed many centuries of undisputed sovereignty,
and was then extinguished among the natives of India, or has
at least been expelled from the continent, and is now to be
found only in Ceylon. In the west, in Kabool, Taberistan and
Kurdistan, Buddhism has been driven out by the sword of Islam.
At an early period it was divided into a northern and a southern
school. Ceylon, Burmah, Siam, and the Malayo-Chinese countries
in general, belong to the southern and older school, the- writings
of which, composed in Pali, were in all probability established at
the third Buddhist council in the third century B.C. In Java,
where Buddhism had successfully expelled Brahminism, it suc-
cumbed to Islam in the fifteenth century. The writings of the
northern school which, although in Sanscrit, are more modern,
only received their final form at the fourth council, about the time
of the birth of Christ. New Buddhism is adopted in Nepaul and
other Himalayan districts, in Thibet by the Mongolian tribes, and
in China and Japan. The first missionary is said to have reached
China as early as 217 B.C.; but it was not till A.D. 65 that the
emperor Ming-ti established the doctrines of Gautama as an
authorized religion. 20 The new believers worship a large number
of Bodhisattvas, beings who, though only a grade lower than
Buddha, and equally able to enter into the Nirvana, yet through
compassion, and to obtain the deliverance of their fellow-men,
renounce this privilege in order to assist pious souls who call on
them in prayer. Since the time of the Mongol emperors, the
head of the church of Thibet, who resides at Ldsa, is held to be
an incarnation of the Bodhisattva Padmapdni. His title, Dalai
Lama, or Ocean-Lama, 21 first originated in the fifteenth century,
when the northern church was divided on the question of the
10 Max Muller, Essays. 20 Ibid.
fl Thibetan bla-ma, superior, from bla, above. Friedrich Muller, Reise der
Fregatte Novara ; Anthropologie.
The Dualistic Religions.
celibacy of the priesthood. The supreme head of those who
permit the marriage of the priests lives at Taschilhiinpo, under the
title of Bogda Lama. This Lama is also considered to be the
incarnation of a Bodhisattva, namely, of Amita"bha, or, in Thibetan,
Odpagmed, and he bears the title of Pan-tshen-rin-po-tshe. 22
The two heads of the church are now reconciled, and with true
Buddhist tolerance each sends his benediction to the other.
XII. THE DUALISTIC RELIGIONS.
MAN views in its relation to himself every phenomenon which
he encounters, and hence regards as animated whatever disturbs
his comfort, whether it is heat or cold, drought, hunger, pain,
disease, or death. An inexperienced mind can hardly conceive
that good and evil proceed from the same hand. In history, as
in creation, we see contradictions which are hard to reconcile
with the hypothesis of a benevolent and just system of the world.
The same God who created the sublime firmament with its
glorious luminaries, the beautiful earth, the flower, the dewdrop
with its resplendent colours, the innocent eye of the child, filled
his own world with fever, with poison, with vermin, with war, with
barbarous cruelty in the animal kingdom, in which it commonly
happens that one animal is incapable of development without
torturing and destroying another, devouring its very intestines.
Long and difficult is the progress to the conception of a Leibnitz,
that, with all its dark sides, the world perceptible to the senses
is not only the best according to human standards, but the best
of all possible worlds T Men of undisciplined intellect never
attain to the perception that evil is but a limitation of the pleasures
of existence, and, insatiable in enjoyment, they ask why the joys
of life should be in any way hindered, limited, or ended. Still
less do they see that even bodily pain is usually nothing else
than an unasked but true warner against dangers, the approach of
which threatens our lives or our health.
M Von Schlagintweit, Indien und Hochasien, vol. ii. p. 86.
1 Tentam Theodic. Pars ii.
Tke Powers of Good and Evil. 2 79
Unable to trace comfort and discomfort to a single source, all
races of mankind in the earlier phases of intellectual development
have employed the expedient of assigning these opposite effects
to invisible beings, and have fancied themselves surrounded and
watched by a host of mischief-makers as well as by benevolent
protectors. As soon as this work of the imagination was accom-
plished, mankind was able to pass through various phases of im-
provement. In the first and lowest stage a reconciliation with the
invisible tormentor is attempted. In a hymn of the Madagascans,
Zamhor and Niang are addressed as creators of the world ; and
it is added that no prayers are offered to Zamhor, as the good
God does not require them. 2 Among the Africans of Congo 3 and
the Hottentots'* we find worship of the evil combined with the
neglect of the good Spirit. The negroes of the Slave Coast say
God is so glorious and so great that he does not trouble himself
about the base human world. 5 In America precisely the same
ideas prevail among the Patagonians, for they also worship only
the malicious Gualitschu. 6 DobrizhorTer described the Abipones,
"who served only the gods of darkness, as worshippers of the
devil. 7 Appun, 8 who gives the names of the good and bad spirits
recognized by the Arowak, Warrau, Arecuna, Macuschi, Carib,
and Atorai tribes of Guayana, adds that the Creator himself is
deemed such an infinitely exalted being, that he does not con-
cern himself with individuals. Among the Botocudos the sun
and moon represent the two natures of the Godhead. 9 The
ancient Egyptians assigned the parts of their dualism to Hesiri
(Osiris) and Set; the Chaldeans to the planets, Jupiter and
Venus being the propitious, Saturn and Mars the pernicious
stars ; the vacillating Mercury always adhered to the rulers for
the time being of the astrological heavens. The worship of the
horrible Siva may also be regarded as an attempt at conciliation,
Roskoff, Geschichte des Teufels, vol. i. p. 47.
Winwoode Reade, Savage Africa, p. 250.
Kolbe, Cap der guten Hoffnung.
Bosnian, Guinese Goud-Kust. 1704.
Musters, Among the Patagonians.
Geschichte der Abiponer. 8 Ausland, 1872.
Von Martius, Ethnographic, vol. i. p. 327.
280 The Diialistic Religions.
and a so-called devil worship has continued to exist in Western
Asia among the Yesidi, in the midst of purer religions which have
obtained the mastery everywhere else. A great moral improvement
must have taken place in man before he offered his homage to
the well-disposed divinity, for he is then no longer influenced by
fear, but by an impulse of gratitude. To our surprise, it is in this
stage that we find the Australians of New South Wales, who offer
their sacrifices not to the malignant Potoyan, but to a good power
under the name of Koyan. 10 With regard to many Indian tribes
in the neighbourhood of the Orinoco, who believed in a bad spirit
under various appellations, Father Gumilla " states positively that
that they paid him no honours.
Although races intellectually immature describe the disposition
of the invisible powers as good or bad, they do not mean to dis-
tinguish between moral and immoral. Good and bad is nothing
more than agreeable and disagreeable. The answer of the Bushman
is sufficiently well known, who, in reply to the Christian mis-
sionary, gave as an instance of a bad action that some one should
steal his wife, and, as an instance of a good one, that he should
steal some one else's wife. 12 But as a gregarious being, man very
soon perceives and understands in lapse of time, with increasing
keenness, that social life imposes upon him duties to his neigh-
bour. Even in the lowest stage the infraction of social enactments
is looked upon as an offence. But the social laws are only
recorded in the customs of the horde, the tribe, or the nation.
The employment of the vendetta is certainly a moral action wher-
ever it has not been replaced by better institutions. The Bra-
zilian Tupinamba hope that the virtuous will be gathered to their
fathers in the happy gardens of the other world ; but by virtue
they mean brave defence of the property of the tribe, slaying many
foes, and devouring the slain. X 3 Moral commandments only attain
their highest perfection when their relation is extended to the
whole of mankind, when the rights of man are respected in foreign
* Dumont d'Urville, Voyage de T Astrolabe. " El Orinoco ilustrado.
lf Waitz, Anthropologie, vol. i.
" Lery, quoted by Tylor, vol, ii. p. 86.
Morality connected with Religion. 281
nations, and the duties of man are fulfilled towards alien races.
Whatever may be his distance from this goal, which though
recognized by Christianity is still unreached in the Christian
world, man is everywhere tempted to value his own pleasure
and advantage more highly than the social commandment laid
upon him. But in proportion as the moral conceptions amplify
the conception of the Deity, so does religion operate as the most
powerful lever of improvement : the invisible author of existence
appears as the legislator, and as the judge of right and wrong.
The Eranians in Persia were the first to connect religion with
morality.
Search among their antiquities has invariably indicated that
the Persian and Indian Aryans, at a date not yet determined,
inhabited a common home, and shared the same religious concep-
tions. They imagined the invisible world to be filled with beings
exercising an influence over the destiny of mankind, and these
beings they named Deva and Ahura. Whether a religious division
took place in consequence of the separation, or the separation in
consequence of a religious division, the Eranians afterwards re-
garded the Ahura as benevolent, the Deva (in modern Persian, div,
English, devil) as inimical powers. Conversely, among the Indian
Aryans the Deva (Latin, deus) are considered the beneficent, and
the Eranian Ahura evil powers. 1 *
Among the Eranians there was a consecrated caste, called
Soschianto in the oldest sacred writings, in ancient times exactly
corresponding to the Indian Atharva, for both consisted of priests
of fire. 15 In Media the Magi, whose name first occurs in the
inscriptions of Darius, performed the functions of the Soschianto
and Atharva. 16 They wore white raiment, refrained from animal
food, arid worshipped the forces of nature personified, or the
highest forms of fetish, the sun (Mithra), the moon, the stars, the
earth, running water, and especially fire. Among these priests rose
14 In the oldest portions of the Rigveda Samhita, the expression Asura is still
used in a good and elevated sense. Martin Haug, Religion of the Parsees.
15 From the latter is derived the Atharva Veda. Atharva means pro-
vided with fire.
16 Fr. Spiegel, Das Leben Zarathustra's. 1867.
282 The Dualistic Religions.
the founder of a religion, Zoroaster, or more correctly Zarathustra. 17
He is first mentioned in Greek literature about 470 B.C. by
Xanthus the Lydian, who dates his appearance at hundreds or
thousands of years before Xerxes. He is certainly of very high
antiquity. 18 Difficulties also occur in assigning the place of his
birth, and although it is generally said to have been Ragha or
the present Rai near Teheran, it must be added that he subse-
quently lived m Bactria, and that it was probably there that his
doctrine first cook root. 1 ?
Zarathustra proclaimed that among the many benevolent Ahura
there was a Mazdao, or creator of the world, 20 who rewarded
good and evil. This supreme being combined in itself a white or
holy (tfento mainyus) and a dark or evil spirit (angro mamyus),
so that the division into Ormazd and Ahriman did not form a
part of the pure doctrine of Zoroaster ; 2I according to his tenets,
both good and evil proceeded from the same creative power. In
an old hymn in the Parsee liturgy, the soul of Nature is repre-
sented as appearing before God, and complaining that the world
is devastated by the oppression of the evil one. It also begs for
the creation of a being powerful enough to release it for ever from
its affliction. But it did not seem good to God to exempt mortals
from the conflict with the evil one, which tends to fortify the
power of good with which they were endowed. But, at the request
of the soul of Nature, he showed it the prototype of Zarathustra,
by whose appearance the champions of good should receive such
support that the victory of light would be secured for ever. 22
But this more profound doctrine became obscured in the
Ir The name is translated variously by Windischmann (Zoroastrische
Studien), by Fr. Spiegel (Leben Zarathustra's), and by Martin Haug, who
explains it as the title of a high priest, and gives the founder the name of
Spitama.
M M. Haug (Lecture on the Original Speech of Zoroaster) does not think it
permissible to place it earlier than 2300 B.C. Rapp, on the contrary, has
adduced many reasons for fixing the period between the eleventh and thirteenth
centuries B.C.
19 Rapp has skilfully set forth the evidence in favour of Bactra.
* Haug, Religion of the Parsees. 81 Ibid.
w Ferdinand Justi in the Ausland. 1871.
Zoroaster. 283
course of time. The light side and the dark side of the Divine
will were separated. Since then the lords of light and of dark-
ness struggle for the victory which is, however, decided from the
beginning. Ormazd alone knows of the existence of Ahriman,
and has three thousand years in which to form an army of im-
mortal fellow-helpers before the latter moves. When Ahriman
at length rises to the conflict, he encounters a well-prepared
antagonist. The struggle lasts three thousand years without a de-
cision. Only in the next and final period of three thousand years
is Ahriman reduced to impotence. 2 3 In this conflict mortal man
is to partake ; he is to choose between light and darkness, to
conduce to the victory of the Good by the influence of his works,
and not increase Ahriman's prospect of success by bad actions.
It was certainly not easy to invent anything more influential in
fostering the better impulses of man than the promise of being
regarded by God himself as a contributor to the victory. Con-
nected with this was the doctrine of the resurrection from the
dead, a genuinely Zoroastrian dogma, of which the earliest notice
reached the West at the end of the fourth century B.C., through
Theopompos. 24 The dead were supposed to rise to an eternal
life in bodies needing no change of substance, casting no shadow,
and requiring no sustenance. For three days after the last dying
breath the soul still hovers near its bodily shell. But at the fourth
dawn an angel of death drags it to the bridge of the soul-catcher
(Tshinvat Peretu) and before the judge Straoscha, who tests
the good and bad works in the balance. The righteous man is
met with celestial greetings by an embodiment of his virtuous
life in the form of a maiden in the full beauty of youth, slim and
broad-bosomed, with white arms and noble countenance. To the
godless the embodiment of his conduct appears as an ill-favoured
girl, the sight of whom recalls to his remembrance all his lies and
acts of injustice. According to the verdict, the soul either passes
over the bridge to the sphere of hymns of praise (garo demdna) or
is cast down by evil spirits into the gulf of destruction.
Similar ideas respecting the trial of the soul after death are
diffused over the whole world. We need not dwell on the judg-
28 Wendischmann, Zoroastr. Studien. ** Ibid.
284 The Dualistic Religions.
ment of the dead as conceived by the Egyptians, as it is suffi-
ciently well known. But according to the creed of the Badagas
in Tamul India, the souls are obliged to pass by a column of fire
which consumes the sinful, and it is only after perils that they
reach the land of the blessed by a bridge of rope. 2 * Jesuit mis-
sionaries record that the Hurons believe that the souls of the
departed are obliged to pass over the river of death on the trunk
of a tree ; during the passage many are seized and thrown over
by the guardian of the bridge, or by a dog. 26 Tylor, who has
sedulously collected other examples of the myth of the bridge of
the soul, found it also in an old English dirge, in which the words
" The brig of dread no brader than a thread " occur. 2 7
The striking Eranian conception of a moral dispensation of
the world did not prevent the continuance of an old fetishistic
superstition, which was, however, skilfully reconciled with the
fundamental idea of the Mazdayasna, or the doctrine of Zoroaster.
Thus Mithra, or the sun, was adored as the eye of Ormazd,
although created by himself. The Shamanistic drinking of the
Haoma likewise preserved its magic influence. But, above all, fire
is even now worshipped as the son of Ormazd ; hence no confla-
gration may be extinguished save with earth ; no light blown out,
for every breath is a pollution, for which reason the priests in their
sacred functions and other Parsees while engaged in prayer cover
their mouths. Fire is contaminated by cooking and smith's work,
and the moral law of the Parsees everywhere insists on cleanliness.
Running water enjoys the same protection from pollution. For
this reason it was meritorious to build bridges in order to obviate
wading through the rivers. As the dead could neither be burnt
nor thrown into the water, nor can the equally sacred earth be
defiled by them, the bodies were exposed as a prey to birds in
circular places, surrounded by walls, which were called Towers of
Silence*
11 Baierlein, Nach und aus Indien.
* Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. ii. p. 92.
91 Early History of Mankind, p. 451.
In Media also corpses were not laid in the ground before they had been
covered over with melted wax ; or they were buried, as in the royal vaults at
Persepolis, when the flesh had been stripped from the bones. That Cyrus,
Zoroastrian Morality. 285
Among the followers of Zarathustra the notion of sin was very
variable, for it might consist in an oifence against Shamanistic
precepts, in other words, in contamination, or else in an action
morally reprehensible. Of the latter sort, lying was regarded as
a heavy disgrace, 2 9 deceit as worse than robbery. Theft was a
crime, if only because it is done in secret ; to lend money seemed
culpable, because it was liable to result in the deception of the
creditor^ The moral law of Parseeism insisted and still insists
on probity and purity ; even to our own times no other religious
organization has enjoyed an equal degree of respect from those of
other creeds. The first Gospel also makes kindly mention of the
Magi who came from the East.
XIII. THE MONOTHEISM OF ISRAEL.
NOTHING is more significant in the moral history of the human
race than the development of a monotheistic conception of God.
In the legends and narratives so ingenuously and undoubtingly
related in the Old Testament, we may see, as in an entirely correct
mirror, the slow ripening of this conception, which was so often in
danger of annihilation. Because in early childhood we all imbibed
the truth that the Holy and Eternal must be indivisible, we over-
look the difficulties which necessarily encountered the diffusion of
this idea when it was novel, hesitatingly and vaguely held by few,
and rejected by the majority for the sake of other and older con-
ceptions. Before reaching a belief in the Divine unity, a people
must have passed through long periods of intellectual and moral
development, for, as Tylor 1 truly remarks, monotheism has never
been met with in a tribe of so-called savages. Implicit reliance
who was a fire-worshipper, should have condemned Croesus to the stake is
scarcely credible ; it would be less incredible that the Lydian king wanted to
burn his god Sandon (F. Justi). Rapp, on the contrary, supposes that the
funeral practices above mentioned were not customary in Western Eran, but
were peculiar to the East alone.
** Herodotus, i. 138.
* Duncker, Gesch. des Alterthums.
1 Primitive Culture, vol. ii. p. 333.
286 The Monotheism of Israel.
can, however, be bestowed on biblical history only from the date
at which the people of Israel adopted the art of writing, that is,
from the time of the exodus from Egypt, or not much before. 2
In their earlier days" the Hebrews made use of other names than
Jahveh for the Supreme Being, and it is a suspicious fact that
one of these (Elohim) is in the plural form, and that in swearing a
solemn oath three Gods were successively addressed. 3 It has
already been mentioned that household gods (seraphim) still
received worship even in David's time. 4 Shortly before the
Babylonian captivity, Josiah ordered the destruction of two altars
of sacred stones before the gates of Jerusalem.* The Scriptures
themselves expressly testify that in the earliest ages the Jews did
not adhere to the pure religion of God. Hence, if the Egyptians
worshipped a Supreme Being under the name of / am that I am, 6
the conjecture is not entirely to be rejected, that Moses, being
initiated into the mysteries of the Egyptian worship, was the first
to attain monotheistic views ; yet, owing to the obscurity which
surrounds the early history of the people of Israel, an assertion
such as this can neither be strictly proved nor strictly refuted.
But it seems hardly credible that a single mind, however ardent
and highly gifted, could have converted an entire nation com-
pletely unprepared for such a change to a totally novel interpreta-
tion of the world. The conception of an indivisible God must, in
common with all processes of this world, have been of slow
development. In the Old Testament story we frequently see this
conception' on the point of extinction, or obscured like the sun by
a passing cloud on a gloomy day. Even Moses was not unshaken,
or he would never have set up the brazen serpent in the desert as
a protection against the snakes in the peninsula of Sinai. This
fetish was only destroyed by the devout King Hezekiah, at a
time when a far purer and clearer conception of God had become
general. Traces of Shamanism are also retained in the trial by
ordeal in accusations of adultery. The suspected woman is to
* The mention of signet rings in Joseph's time (Gen. xxxviii. 18, 25) would
point to a somewhat earlier date.
3 With Gen. xxxi. 53, comp. Ewald, Israelitische Geschichte, vol. i. p. 371.
4 See above. Ewald, vol. in. p. 757.
G. Ebers, Durch Gosen zum Sinai,
Polytheistic Rudiments. 287
drink water in which has been soaked a paper inscribed with
curses, 7 just as the Mohammedan priests of the present day pre-
tend to cure sick people with water in which written texts of the
Koran have been washed. 8 That women also attempted to con-
jure up the dead is proved by Saul's secret visit to the witch of
Endor : even in Josiah's time an oracle which existed at Jerusalem
was held in much esteem. Immediately after Joshua's death a
deplorable license had taken possession of the public mind, and
Jahveh worship was polluted with human sacrifices, which were
continued in use up to the time of the kings.9 In old days Jahveh
was considered only as the shield of the Hebrew race exclusively,
as a tutelary spirit of greater powers than the deities of the hostile
tribes. 10 Thus Jephthah sends word by his messenger to the
king of the children of Ammon : " Wilt thou not possess that
which Chemosh thy god giveth thee to possess ? So whomsoever
the Lord our God shall drive out from before us, them will we
possess." 11 Jahveh's power was even considered to be locally
restricted, for God undertook to "go down into Egypt" with
Jacob. 12 The sensuous view was sometimes carried so far that the
forces of nature are regarded as vital manifestations of God, and
the conception of God is almost reduced to a monotheistic worship
of nature. The extreme beauty of the language employed must
not obscure the significance of the fact that an audible voice was
perceived in the thunder, and the cold or warm breath of Jahveh
in frost and thaw. z 3 Undoubtedly, the limitations to our intel-
lectual faculties always compel us to reinvest the incomprehensible
essence of God with the nature of man ; even the Gospels speak
of the paternal emotions of God ; but it is a different thing when
we are constantly aware that we are using anthropomorphic terms,
in default of truer, just as even in the exact sciences we are not
7 Numbers v. 19.
8 The way in which Shamanistic notions had taken root may be seen from
Job vi. 6-10.
9 No sophistry can diminish the shock to humanity which we experience in
reading the narrative of Jepthah's daughter (Judges xi). Respecting the human
sacrifices under Saul and David, comp. I Sam. xiv. 23, 45, and 2 Sam. xxi. 6.
10 Exod. xv. n, and xviii. n. n Judges xi. 24.
18 Gen. xlvi. 4. Job xxxvii. and xxxviii.
288 The Monotheism of Israel.
always able to avoid figurative expressions. But when the Bible
represents Jahveh as being gratified by the savour of sacrifices, 14 it
uses language such as Homer would have used. The conception
of the Jahveh to whom Moses on Mount Sinai is obliged to recall
the promises given, and who, infirm of purpose, withdraws his
threats, J 5 is childish, and therefore destitute of sublimity. Here,
again, we are reminded of scenes such as were enacted on
Olympus in the epic periods of the Greeks. Even the dress of
the priests with its ornaments and embroidery is traced back to
Divine ordinances, 16 and we are sorry to read that Jahveh sug-
gested and abetted the embezzlement of vessels of gold and silver
borrowed by the Israelites. 1 ? The conception of the Supreme
Being remained long thus meagre, corrupt, and human in its
weakness.
The deep significance of the history of Israel consists in this :
that by its experiences and sufferings this nation was driven to
a conception of God, ever increasing in profundity and purity.
Of all the nations of antiquity the Jews alone possess a history
which strives to recognize the control of a moral dispensation of
the world in earthly events. It was written in exile l8 in a sorrow-
ful mood, where the priesthood no longer existed, so that no
hierarchical craft came into play, as has sometimes been supposed.
The preceding period of the kings had given the experience that
religious license was nearly always followed by worldly ruin, but
the Scriptures did not conceal the fact that pious rulers sometimes
fell into adversity, or fortune smiled favourably on recreants to the
end. By their misfortunes during the time of the kings, the Jews
acquired their firm trust in God. "With the Assyrians," exclaims
Hezekiah, according to the Scriptures, "is an arm of flesh, but
with us is the Lord our God to help us, and to fight our battles." x ?
Thus Eliphaz admonishes the despairing Job how many that
" plow iniquity and sow wickedness " are consumed by the blast
14 Lev. i. 9. " Exod. xxxii. 9-14.
16 Exod. xxviii. 33, 34. 1T Exod. xi. 2.
u According to Ewald (History of Israel), the Book of Kings was written
in the middle of the Babylonian captivity.
" 2 Chron. xxxii 7, 8.
Influence of the Prophets. 289
of God. 30 The Jews had distinctly recognized that the strength
of a nation can only be founded on a firm reliance on the moral
dispensation of the world. From their own history they had
derived the lesson that they had always been victorious as long as
morality prevailed amongst them, and that departure from the
law resulted in their being carried away into captivity. 21 The
consolation and light which they derived in the hour of their
affliction from this knowledge is echoed in the verses of the psalm,
" Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will
fear no evil, for Thou art with me."
There are individual traits which show that before, during, and
after their exile, in their religious views they discarded their former
childlike crudeness. Ezekiel no longer recognizes the God of the
Old Testament who never forgave, but always revenged the sins of
the forefathers on the third and fourth generations. " The father
shall not bear the iniquity of the son, nor the son the iniquity of
the father." Even the man overburdened with sin, if he turns
away from his sins in true repentance may hope for forgiveness,
"for,", as the prophet represents the Lord saying, " Have I any
pleasure at all that the wicked should die ? and not that he should
return from his ways and live ? " In a psalm ascribed to David, 22
compassion as of a father is promised to all who fear God. The
maxim of the son of Sirach that 2 3 we must forgive our neighbour
before asking forgiveness for ourselves is among the foreshadow-
ings of Christianity. The Israelites were indebted to the prophets
for their liberation from Shamanistic errors. As we have already
noticed the dangers with which all sacrificial worship threatens
the moral tendencies of the religious emotions, we will recall the
much-admired warning of Isaiah, 2 * "Your country is desolate,
your cities are burned with fire : your land, strangers devour it
in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.
And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as
a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. Except
the Lord of Hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we
should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like upon
20 Job iv. 7-9. M Ezech. xviii. 20. w Psalm ciii. 13.
* Ecclesiasticus xxviii. 2. M Isaiah i. 7.
290 The Monotheism of Israel.
Gomorrah. 2 s Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom;
give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. To
what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith
the Lord : I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of
fed beasts ; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs,
or of he goats. When ye come to appear before me, who hath
required this at your hand, to tread my courts ? Bring no more
vain oblations ; incense is an abomination unto me ; the new moons
and the sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with ;
it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and
your appointed feasts, my soul hateth : they are a trouble unto
me ; I am weary to bear them. And when ye spread forth your
hands, I will hide mine eyes from you : yea, when ye make many
prayers, I will not hear ; your hands are full of blood. Wash you,
make you clean ; put away the evil of your doings from before
mine eyes ; cease to do evil ; learn to do well ; seek judgment,
relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.
Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord : though
your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow ', though
they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."
Even Samuel is represented as saying that Jahveh is better
pleased with obedience than sacrifice. 26 The prophets explicitly
denied that sacrifice in any way binds the Deity as in a sort of
reciprocal covenant, and guarded against the error that the
slightest coercion was exercised upon the Divine will by any kind
of ritual. As soon as inward moral purity and the avoidance of
social crimes are insisted upon as a Divine law, the province of
ethics coincides with that of religion. When strict and righteous
conduct is regarded as the proof of reverence for the Supreme
Being, the exaltation of the Divine will induces man to strive,
consciously or unconsciously, to raise the value of his own
existence by the fulfilment of higher duties.
The conceptions of God himself become more and more re-
25 On this passage Steinthal observes, " The transition from the comparison
of misfortune to the equality in wickedness of Judah and Sodom has always
appeared to me of such overwhelming force, that I doubt whether in all
rhetorical literature there is another such striking passage. "
* I Sam. xv. 22, and Ewald Hist of Israel Psalm li. 18, 19.
Enlightenment in Exile. 291
moved from crude sensuousness. It was as a nomad that Jahveh
went down to Egypt with Jacob, but on the other hand we read
that no one can escape from the omnipresent God of the Psalmist,
even "with the wings of the morning." 2 ? God, unlimited in space,
is also recognized as eternal. He is conceived of as existing
before the visible world of matter ; nor do human ideas of time
affect one to whom "a thousand years are as one day, or as a
watch in the night."
Thus, without observation, and not suddenly but by gradual
transitions, a constantly new and newer God is revealed, purer and
more moral, corresponding to the purer and more moral views to
which the Jewish people were matured, when they had been
educated to greatness and purified by sore trials.
The Scriptures lie open to every one, and in them we can pass
through in history what the Hebrews experienced in their own
persons.
As the monotheism taught by the prophets was a true gain, it
necessarily proved its worth in the hour of unspeakable calamity,
when the inhabitants of Judea were led into captivity at Babylon,
as the ten tribes had previously been by the Assyrians. Of Zion
and the temple there remained only the bare walls, and a garrison
was quartered in the desolate spot to warn away any who might
come to perform their secret devotions in the sacred places. The
future was completely dark ; there gleamed no ray of the most
distant hope that this once strong and envied people, who were
now dispersed and scattered over the great kingdom of Babylon,
should ever be reunited. When, to use the words of their singer,
they wept by the waters of Babylon, and hung their harps upon
the willow trees, because they could not sing the Lord's song in
a strange land, their deeply troubled minds answered their self-
inquiries as to the future with the cruel words, "All is over." It
was over with Judah and Zion even as the kingdom of the ten
tribes had already passed away.
When the period of their kings, during which they ruled from
the sea to the desert, had passed away with it's terrible conclusion
like a vanished dream, and when fully restored to consciousness,
91 Psalm cxxxix. 9.
2 92 The Monotheism of Israel.
they found themsel es transported into the midst of the Asiatic
marvels of Babylon and surrounded by sensual pleasures, where
it was possible for any one of them to stifle his yearnings after his
home in rocky Palestine, by abandoning himself to the enjoyable
realities of the moment to the varied luxuries and revelries of the
voluptuous capital beneath the groves of the Euphrates, and to
the superfluity of artificially irrigated gardens. This was done by
the greater number : they employed their exile in earning a better
livelihood, and perhaps thought it a fortunate dispensation that
they had been delivered from the poverty-stricken monotony of
their former lives. Had all accommodated themselves to. their
new position in a manner so spiritless and worldly-wise, nothing
would now have remained of Judaism but the name of a people
in cuneiform writing, which modern erudition would decipher as
hebr or something similar : one name more among the other
meaningless names.
But the uncorrupt nucleus of the Jewish nation did not forget, but
transmitted to the following and succeeding generation the yearn-
ings after the places where its higher emotions had been imparted
to it The exiles closely observing their new masters, seeing a
nation stronger and more wisely governed, favoured by nature
and enriched by skill and technical dexterity, yet degrading itself
daily by the absurdities of idolatry, acknowledged to themselves
that they still remained the chosen people. To us, who are able
to survey the subsequent course of history, the exile seems most
like the curve of a parabola round its focus. Judaism had not
ended, for the very thing to which it owed its highest value, the
conception of the unity of God, was destined merely to alter the
direction of its course to a higher enlightenment. Misfortune did
not harden the Jews, but when they ate their own bread with tears
they were softened towards all the suffering that they beheld around
them. Each of us who has striven to obtain clear ideas, has
attained some explanation of the world, which is not merely the
sum of what he has discerned for himself or gained from the
experience of others, but of all that has happened to him or before
him. The historical adventures of a nation greatly affect such
results as the creation of a religion of its own, the adoption of a
strange one or the maintenance of an adopted one. Emmanuel
Immortality of the Soul. 293
Deutsch 28 was thus enabled to show that even in the earlier
writings of the Talmud, the same tendency to gentleness and
humanity appear, which rendered Christianity preeminently the
ideal religion of the heavy-laden, and whence for more than
eighteen centuries it has derived its best strength. These Tal-
mudical passages belong to the period of the Babylonian captivity,
the time of woe and oppression, and it is to this purifying school
of misfortune that the tone of justice and softness, of tenderness
and charity to others is due.
XFV. THE DOCTRINES OF CHRISTIANITY.
THE Hebrews who had known the cosmical views and the theistic
conceptions of the Eranians more or less correctly before the cap-
tivities, but learned them with full accuracy during the captivity
itself, could not remain entirely unaffected by this mental contact
and impregnation. To this we must primarily ascribe the fact that
in scattered portions of the Old Testament, an incarnate instigator
of evil suddenly appears, although the already vigorous conception
of the unity of God does not allow conception of the devil as an
Ahriman equal in rank to the Deity, but only as the minister of the
Lord and an instrument in his designs. 1 But far more important
in its effects than the acquisition of Satan, of which little use is
made, was the acquaintance with the Eranian opinions of the
immortality of the soul as well as the doctrines of the resurrection
of the dead, and of a judgment of their course of life. These
ideas were originally so alien to the Israelites that in the time of
Christ the Sadducees 2 still rejected a future life as contrary to the
28 Quarterly Review, October, 1867.
1 Ewald (Hist, of Israel) attributes the book of Job to the time of the last
kings of Judah, but he also shows that the knowledge of the Zarathustrian
dogmas made itself felt in the religious conceptions of the Hebrews in the loth,
and more plainly in the 8th century, especially in the more liberal apprehension
of the opposition betwixt good and evil. As to the few passages in the Old
Testament besides Job, in which Satan appears, comp. Roskoff, Geschichte
des Teufels.
8 Matt. xxiL 23.
I
294 The Doctrines of Christianity.
Scriptures. Even to the disciples the doctrine was so new that
they questioned what the rising from the dead should mean.
Many passages in the Old Testament actually deny every hope of
another world. The righteous is rewarded with promise of a long
life and a numerous offspring, or else actual worldly abundance
in garner and cellar is held out as a recompense for religious
reverence and strict worship. " What profit is there in my blood
when I go down to the pit?" cries the Psalmist to the Lord.
" Shall the dust praise Thee ? shall it declare Thy truth ?" In Job
we find the entirely desponding expression that there is hope of a
tree if it be cut down that it may sprout again, but that when the
sons of men lie down they shall not be raised out of their sleep. 3
The conclusion of this dramatic poem is unsatisfactory. The
glimpse which we should have expected into a world of glory
does not open on the trials of the sufferer, but Job is restored
to health, supplied anew with flocks and progeny, and dies full
of years. The Old Testament, indeed, speaks repeatedly of an
abode of the dead, which in our translation is termed hell, but
which must not be regarded as a place of moral atonement,
but as Job portrays it, as a dark region full of everlasting terrors.
Moreover, this Sheol, which corresponds to the Hades of the
Greeks, is nowhere mentioned in the legislative ordinances of the
Old Testament. The germs of other and more elevated views
appear only in the later portions. The consolatory doctrine is
taught that man was God's idea, and therefore had existed from
the beginning. As this doctrine is otherwise to be found only in
books of less consideration, it is an important fact that it occurs in
Jeremiah also (i. 4). If another beautiful chapter in the Book of
Wisdom, in which the expectation of a Nirvana is rejected as a
doctrine of the wicked, is not received on account of its apocryphal
origin, on the other hand, we have the doctrine of the preexistence
of man, as God's idea, in Psalm cxxxix., which Ewald ascribes to
Zerubbabel.-t In the Proverbs s the same view is expressed in
1 Job xiv. 7-12.
4 The doctrine of the preexistence of man before birth is, according to
Schrader, of Assyrio- Babylonian origin.
Prov. viii. 22-31.
Doctrine of Preexistence. 295
poetic words, and by elevated similes, which sound like a fore-
shadowing of our modern cosmogonic science. "The Lord,"
it is said, " possessed me from the beginning of his way, before
his works of old. I was set up .... or ever the earth was.
When there were no depths .... when there were no fountains
abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before
the hills was I brought forth. While as yet he had not made the
earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world.
When he prepared the heavens I was there : when he set a com-
pass upon the face of the depth : when he established the clouds
above : when he strengthened the fountains of the deep : when he
gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his
commandment : when he appointed the foundations of the earth :
then I was by him .... rejoicing always before him."
From these passages we learn that a well- calculated scheme of
creation was assumed, in which individuals were already taken into
consideration. But, as God's idea, man must also continue to exist
to all eternity. Before briefly stating what is the main distinction
by which ethnology separates the essential nature of the Christian
doctrine from the religious impulses of other times, or of paganism,
we must first emphasize the fact that the embodiment of the
forces of nature in God which is found in the Old Testament, 6 is
set aside by the maxim that God must be contemplated as a
spiritual being. 7 The Gospels, indeed, attribute anthropomorphic
language to the founder of their faith, inasmuch as God is spoken
of as a father, but this is vindicated by the limits of the human
intellect. We are incapable of imagining a spirit for that which
we choose to call by that name always resembles a thinking being
like ourselves inseparable from the functions of an organism. As
long as we remain men, we shall always be forced to imagine the
Divine in human form, but this is accompanied in the Gospels
by a restriction of language. If God is to be addressed as
Father we are told to apply to God alone the paternal name thus
consecrated. 8
8 Job xxxvii., xxxviii. T John iv. 24, irvtvpa. & e6s-
Matt, xxiii. 9, ital Trarcpa ^ Ka\fffr)re vp.St> 6ri TJJS -y^r fls ydp fort* 6
fa-nip V/J.W, 6 eV TQIS ovpavols.
296 The Doctrines of Christianity.
But there is one doctrine in particular which makes its appear-
ance first and solely in Christianity, namely, the hypothesis of a
benevolent Providence. To speak after the manner of Leibnitz,
the plan of the best possible creation has been thought out to the
smallest detail, to the number of hairs on the head of man, and
the existence of the weakest creatures. 9 In proportion as the
recognition of such an idea is established, Shamanism of all sorts,
the most dangerous error of mankind, is set aside. Although
human reflection may perhaps overcome the grosser attempts to
assume a feigned power over the course of nature by means of
incantation and sorcery, there nevertheless remains much longer a
reliance on symbolical actions, sacrifice, abstinence, penance, and
prayer. The Indian Brahmins, as we have seen, by ingenious
self-deceptions, deluded themselves into the belief that they, as
possessors of such means, acquired a Divine nature. Although it
was during the captivity that prayer first gained importance and
power among the Hebrews, 10 even Zechariah was obliged to
bid them beware of the enforced fasting and mourning by which
they fancied they could alter the counsels of God. The true
Christian, while assuming the existence of a benevolent Providence,
must not require any Divine interference with the normal course of
natural events. The Founder of our religion even distinctly for-
bade supplications for earthly objects, for before the request was
offered provision was already made for all the real wants of man."
This necessary corollary of the doctrine of a benevolent Provi-
dence distinguished Christianity from all other religious creations.
Christianity does not promise the realization of any wish, however
small, intense, or pure. It is therefore impossible to stray further
from the original and pure religion than when, on the supposition
that earthly desires no longer reach the heavenly Father, a num-
ber of polytheistic intermediate beings are invented as intercessors,
and by this circuitous course a reversion is made to Shamanistic
prayer.
The form of prayer which Christ taught to his disciples is nothing
Matt. x. 29, 30. M Ewald, Hist, of Israel, vol. v. p. 23.
11 Matt vi. 8, oT5 ykp & var^p vp.S)V wv xpeiav ?x T *pb T0 " fy*** s curijcrcu
rirfe
The Lord's Prayer. 297
more than an injunction to observe, as in a mirror, the moral and
religious state of our ego at the moment, to fortify ourselves in
holiness by the thought of God, by the desire that the kingdom
of Christian opinions may penetrate into our minds, as well as
by the remembrance that whatever may befall us is the will of
a benevolent Providence. It brings home to us the warning to
forgive those who may have done us wrong, 12 and, finally, the
petition that the Christian faith may not be shaken, and that doubt
may be more and more thrust out The only earthly sound in
this prayer is the petition for daily bread, if indeed this be not an
exhortation that gratitude is due for every day that is vouchsafed
to us. The Lord's Prayer requires extreme concentration of
thought if its purport is not to pass through the human mind
without result. But so ineradicable are Shamanistic tendencies,
that, notwithstanding the Founder's warning against thoughtless
repetitions I3 which immediately precedes the teaching of the Lord's
Prayer, as the Paternoster in an unknown tongue, it has for many
centuries been, not expressed in prayer, but in Buddhist fashion, x *
repeated by the counting of the beads of a rosary.
The essential point of this prayer, or self-communing, is the so-
called third petition, which patiently and gratefully welcomes all
that may be decreed for man in this world and the next, as the
enactment of a benevolent Providence. Even severe strokes of
destiny may turn to inward advantage, since, setting aside the cases
in which they harden and embitter, they raise the mind into that
disposition of gentleness and forgiveness which renders it most
susceptible to Christian truth. The consolation of the new doc-
trine was not for the sound and strong, but for broken hearts. 1 *
But the self-training of the moral man has to begin with the dis-
11 In a similar sense it is said by Jesus the son of Sirach, " Forgive thy
neighbour the hurt that he hath done unto thee, so shall thy sins also be
forgiven when thou prayest."
18 Matt. vi. 7, fj.^1 &a.TTo\oyf)ffT)T, fcairep of eOviicol- Soitovfft y&p, fat cv rfj
iro\v\oyi( auToov flffa.KovffQ'hcroi'Tai. .
14 As the analogous Buddhist prayer-mills have already been mentioned, we
will add that even among the ancient Eranians prayer was prescribed to be
repeated 100 and 1000 times. Duncker, Gesch. der Alterthums.
" Luke v. 31.
14
298 The Doctrines of Christianity.
cernment of his own faults. Forbearance towards fellow-creatures,
conflict with one's own hardness of heart and uncharitableness,
are the constantly reiterated precepts of the Gospels. The
ordinances of the Old Testament were not upset but enhanced
and refined. Not murder only, but all animosity ; not adultery,
but every culpable desire, were to be suppressed. No merit was to
be assumed for recompensing love by love, for that was done by
the heathen also, but, like God, who makes the sun to shine upon
the just and the unjust, to return curses with blessings, hatred
with benefit, insults with intercessions, was enjoined on Christians
as a new code of duty. 16 The subjugation, of human nature is
everywhere required as a striving towards the kingdom of heaven,
and an ennoblement of earthly society is enjoined. To the young
man who wishes to bury his father, the Founder replies, " Let the
dead bury their dead," x ? as if every one to whom his own salva-
tion is not the chief concern were a living shadow. Parental and
filial or fraternal affection, which is only enlarged self-love, is to
be extended to all mankind. 18
In human society, social rights necessitate their own obser-
vance. The progress of our race depends on a complete organ-
ization of work and functions which is inconceivable without
strict observance of the rights of others. When the sense of truth
and justice is blunted all society goes to ruin. This inexor-
able moral law ensures the social training of our race. But the
Christian aspires to something higher than the refinement of the
social instinct of mankind. Kennan, the traveller, praises the
compassionateness of the Koriaks ; he never saw a child receive
a blow, he never heard a hard word spoken to a woman; but
those enfeebled by age or hopelessly ill are speared with great
dexterity ; the father or mother is usually killed by the son, for the
stern necessities of the nomadic life do not allow the migratory
community to be burdened by the decrepit, and the social instinct
places the general welfare above pity for the individual. If we
acknowledge that maxims such as these are incompatible with
the Christian code of duty, we admit that our morality rises above
" Matt. v. 44-46. " Ibid. viii. 22.
M Ibid. x. 37. Mark iii. 33.
Morality. 299
and occasionally opposes the social instinct. Our care of those
diseased in mind may be regarded as prudential egotism, for no
one can foretell whether he may not derive benefit from this social
.protection. But we also provide for human malformations, such
as cretins and idiots. Assuredly it would be more for the benefit
of society to abandon such beings to their fate, and to apply the
the expenditure required for their care to more profitable purposes.
In not doing so we satisfy a sense of duty which cannot be traced
to our social instinct. 1 ? Negro slavery and many systems of
bondage were justified by the supposition that the bondsmen
required discipline, that is, compulsion to labour ; that they throve
much better under pressure, and that a great part of their services
was lost to the world after their liberation. Nevertheless, every
noble mind, abhorring coercion of every kind, would deem these
sordid advantages too dearly purchased. But we owe this sen-
sitiveness of conscience to the teachings of the Gospel implanted
in us in youth.
When Christianity is charged with its persecutions of heretics,
its inquisitions, its religious wars, the reproach applies only to
those who transformed the doctrines of gentleness into the reverse.
There has never been any dispute as to the morality of Chris-
tianity, but only as to the dogmas as established by the decisions
of councils. Christ himself combated the party which assumed
to represent orthodox Judaism : he who declared the Sabbath to
be made for man, and who has left behind him the words so
crushing to dogmatists, " In vain do ye worship me, teaching for
doctrines the commandment of men."
The contemners of the doctrines of the Gospel in our times
generally overlook the circumstance that all philanthropic efforts
have found their strongest auxiliary in the Christian teaching.
The abolition of negro slavery was already contemplated, but the
accordance of equal rights for all in public life was more warmly
advocated by the Christian sense of duty. We owe our present
l> Among the ancient Mexicans, cretins were also taken care of (Oviedo,
Historia general), but this was certainly from superstitious fear or as a fancy,
just as in the Fiji Islands the chiefs were wont to maintain cripples for their
own amusement.
300 The Doctrines of Christianity.
care for the poor to the command to feed the hungry, and to
clothe the naked. 20 Many other points which may perplex us in
the doctrines of the Gospels may perhaps be founded on a mis-
apprehension on the part of the disciples ; the sense of the words
spoken in Syriac may have suffered more or less in the translation
into Greek, or the obscurity of the metaphors may still be cleared
up on better acquaintance with the East, as has been the, case with
the camel and the eye of the needle. 21 It is due to misrepre-
sentations that Christianity is sometimes regarded as less en-
lightened than Buddhism, which is said to have gained four
hundred millions of adherents without proclaiming either, a
recompense for good works or a punishment for bad actions. We
have already described the true state of the case. The Buddhism
of the four hundred millions is destitute neither of a glorious
heaven nor of a hell with imaginative tortures. Even in its
primitive purity the transmigration of souls acted as a terror to the
transgressors of its commandments, for the son of Asoka was
barbarously blinded only because, according to Buddhist inter-
pretation, in a former existence he had put out the eyes of
hundreds of gazelles. aa
XV. ISLAM.
BEFORE the appearance of their prophet the tribes of the Arabian
peninsula were still in the shackles of fetishism. They wor-
shipped stones, rocks, trees, and images, and also the sun, moon,
and constellations. 1 Mohammed himself confesses that in his
20 Mark viL J. Mdrriv 5^ ae&ovral fie, SiSdffKovrcs 5i$a<nca\las eWctA/tara
21 The lamented Lady Duff Gordon writes (Letters from Egypt) : "Yester-
day I saw a camel go through the eye of a needle, z.e., the low-arched door of
an enclosure. He must kneel and bow his head to creep through, and thus the
rich man must humble himself."
In the oases of Southern Algeria, the small doors near the great gates in the
walls are also called the eye of the needle (F. Desor, Aus Sahara und Atlas).
M Bournouf, Introduction a 1'histoire du Buddhisme.
1 L. Krehl, Religion der vorislamischen Araber. Leipzic, 1863.
Mohammed. 301
youth he adored the gods of his fathers. The meteoric stone in
the Ka'aba at Mecca had long been the object of pilgrimages in
connection with which fairs were held, and in order not to deprive
his native city of this source of profit, Mohammed condescended
to incorporate the worship of this stone into his religious system.
The existence of invisible and supernatural beings, jins and angels,
was also believed, and endeavours were made to obtain their
good-will by worship. Even in very early times the Bedouins
acknowledged a creator of the heavens and a ruler of the world
under the denomination of Allah, a name derived from the verb
Idh, which signifies trembling and shining. 2 On other grounds its
relationship to the Hebrew El, or Eloah, and with Alahah, the old
Arabic name for the sun, is also conjectured. 3 A future life was
denied, so that it was Mohammed's doctrine of resurrection which
especially repelled the higher classes of his countrymen.*
The prophet, who was left an orphan at an early age, and was
in his youth obliged to adopt the humble occupation of a sheep
and goat-herd, improved his position in life by marrying at twenty-
four a rich widow at least fourteen years older than himself. He
suffered all his life from hysterical attacks, and for that reason
alone would have been regarded by the races of Africa, Northern
Asia, and America as a powerful Shaman. Like all such, he
also firmly believed that his revelations were extraneous, and that
a higher power spoke by him. When in advancing years his
enthusiasm gradually subsided, and practice gave him the power
of evoking at will convulsive ecstasies, which were so great as to
produce foaming at the mouth, he delivered revelations for the
most trivial purposes. Before bringing home his eighth wife, she
required that her marriage should be decreed by the word of
God, which was given at her demand.* Having sworn to another
of his wives to reject a Coptic lady whom he loved, but afterwards
repenting of his promise, he procured a revelation from God assur-
ing him that such oaths to women were not obligatory. 6 Thus the
A. Sprenger, Das Leben des Mohammed, vol. i. p. 250.
Von Kremer, Herrschende Ideen des Islam, p. 3.
A. Sprenger, Das Leben des Mohammed, vol. i. p. 358.
Der Koran, Sura xvi.
For instance, see Von Kremer, Ideen des Islam, pp. 80, 8 1.
3O2 Islam.
youth, self-deceived by Shamanism, was at an older age transformed
into a crafty impostor. To reconcile the miracle of revelation
with reality, it was supposed that the will of God was made known
to the Prophet only in its purport, and that time was required to
clothe the meaning in that poetical prose which soon so deeply
affected the minds of the believers, that pious Moslems, on unex-
pectedly hearing the menaces of a verse of the Koran, repeatedly
fell down unconscious from mere terror, and are even said to have
died in consequence. 7 Mohammed, as a proof of the Divine
nature of his inspirations, advised the sceptics, if they believed
the Koran was devised by him alone, to try to write even one or
two Suras like his. 8
The Koran itself contains one hundred and fourteen psalms or
Suras, differing in length from a single verse to the dimensions of
a sermon. Narratives of judicial punishments taken from biblical
and ancient Arabic legends, are mixed up, as in a heap devoid of
order, with social ordinances and the actual Divine revelations.
By arranging them according to the date of their origin we can
gain an insight into the growth and development of the new faith,
which is merely a recoining of Jewish and Christian thoughts.
The predecessors of the Prophet among the Arabs were the
Hanyfes, who worshipped a creator and expected a resurrection
of the dead, followed by a judgment of moral acts. Mohammed
called himself a Hanyfe, and Abraham the founder of Hanyfism,
which in his mouth meant a purified monotheism, which is well
called Islam, a significant word which implies direct opposition
to atheism as well as poly theism. 9 The Prophet was profoundly
influenced by the dogmas of the Ebronite Jewish Christians at
Jerusalem and Pella, who recognized only the first Gospel as
genuine, and rejected the doctrines of the incarnation and re-
demption. 10 Mohammed himself visited Jerusalem more than
once ; he honoured Christ and his sister, as he deemed the Holy
Ghost, and even the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary
was included in his dogmas." The Prophet at first attempted
7 Von Kremer, Ideen des Islam. Koran, Sura x.
9 Sprenger, Das Leben des Mohammed, vol. i. p. 72.
10 Ibid. vol. L p. 22. " Koran, Sura xxi.
Influence of Christianity on Mohammed. 303
to found a Jewish Christian community among the Arabs. But as
he was probably never able to read, it often happened that he
made erroneous appeals to the Old Testament and the Gospels.
When he was reproached with such mistakes, he took refuge
in the evasion which has from that time been maintained by
all Moslems, that the revelations in the Old and New Testa-
ments are of Divine origin, but from vile and interested motives
had been so distorted and corrupted by Jews and Christians,
that it was necessary that they should be revealed again to the
Prophet, fresh and unfalsified. " To thee, Mohammed," it is said
in the fifth Sura, " we have given the book of truth, which con-
firms the law of Moses and the Gospel. Had God so willed it,
he would have made of you, ye peoples, one nation, but he has
separated you by different laws in order to try the obedience of
each to the law which is revealed to him." 12 Later, however,
there was no more question of such tolerance and equality. On
the i6th of January, 624, the Prophet decreed an alteration of the
Kibla, or direction in which prayers were to be said; the face
was previously turned towards Jerusalem, but henceforth it was to
be directed towards Mecca, although, as if to quiet his own con-
science, the Prophet adds in the same Sura which inculcates this
ordinance " Direct your prayer where you will, God is there, for
God is omnipresent and omniscient. JJl 3 Against Christian dogmas,
and especially against the doctrine of the Trinity, he directed the
1 1 2th Sura, which contains the entire creed of the Moslem, and is
to be repeated at the most sacred moment of the pilgrimage, while
kissing the black stone of the Ka'aba. It runs, " Speak ! God is
one ! The eternal God ! He does not beget, he is not begotten !
No creature is like unto him ! "
The moral decrees enacted by the Prophet on the strength of
his Divine mission, were arranged in imitation of the Sinaitic laws,
in the following two series, each of five precepts : i. To acknow-
ledge no other gods but God; 2. to show respect to parents;
3. not to kill children on account of dread of starvation ; 4. to pre-
serve chastity; 5. to protect the life of others except where justice
demands the contrary. To this first series are attached as injunc-
11 See Koran, Sura cxi, ll Sura xx.-xxiv.
304 Islam.
tions ; 6. inviolability of the property of orphans ; 7. just weights
and measures ; 8. no overburdening of slaves ; 9. impartiality of
judges ; 10. sacredness of oaths and of the covenant with God. 14
The Mosaic law certainly surpasses this decalogue in point of
simplicity. The Prophet obviously racked his brains in order to
reach the normal number, and after all inserted mere police regu-
lations. The consecration of the Sabbath was not ordained :
Mohammed maintained that it was imposed upon the Jews only
on account of their perversity, because they persevered in the cele-
bration of the Saturday, and not as Moses wished of the Friday. T S
The authorization of four lawful wives and an unlimited number
of female slaves betrays the weakness of the Prophet, who set no
bounds to his own love of pleasure. But it would be unjust to
regard polygamy as the essential contrast between Islam and
our own religion. Long before Christianity, monogamy was the
law among many nations, and still is so among pagan races ;
moreover, in the earliest times it was possible while belonging to
the Christian Church to have several wives. In common with all
nations in a low state of civilization, the Arabs in the time of their
heathenism had imposed upon themselves highly complicated
dietary prohibitions. The Prophet limited these interdicts to the
flesh of swine, of hunted animals, and of blood. 16
To procure credence for his revelations, the Prophet en-
deavoured to alarm his followers by the threats of the resurrection
and a day of judgment. In this the fiery force of his poetic
language was of service, and he neglected no opportunity of
recalling the judgments already accomplished in biblical and
ancient Arabic legends. On the other hand, in wearisome reitera-
tion, he promised the believers and the righteous an Elysium,
according to the popular taste a shady garden with bubbling
fountains, delicious fruits, luxurious couches, and a race of houris
who united every charm that could eternally satisfy eternal desire.
It is true the Koran contains passages which reduce these en-
trancing descriptions to the level of metaphors adapted to human
comprehension, *7 that others represent the contemplation of the
14 See Koran, Sura vL " Sura xvi
Sura vi w Sura U>
The Koran. 305
glory of God as the reward of the righteous, 18 but the extra-
ordinary attraction of Islam was based on the literal interpretation
of these sensuous promises; later traditions have taken care to
satiate the greedy expectations of the faithful with fabulous de-
lineations of this paradise. J 9
The most objectionable doctrine in the Koran is the denial of
free-will in man. The destiny of each person is predetermined
and recorded, so that the course of life is related to this record
as the acting is to the text of a dramatic poem. 20 Damnation is
decreed for those on whom it falls by an irrevocable counsel of
God ; for, continues the Koran, had Allah so willed it, all men
would have believed, but without His will no soul would attain to
faith. 21 The doctrine of predestination was always maintained by
the orthodox, and although the more liberal sects clearly recog-
nized the incompatibility of preordination and punishment with
Divine justice and mercy, and held milder views, the weak-minded
mass of believers adhered to the letter. On account of this
doctrine no priesthood could ever gain ascendancy in the society
of Islam, for there was nothing to bind or to loose. Moreover,
the Caliphs and their successors were always at the head of the
faithful. 22
In addition to the Koran, the Sunna, or book of customs and
legal practice, wherever it does not stand in contradiction with
revelation, has full authority, and contains ordinances on social
and criminal matters, as well as precepts with regard to food and
apparel. In addition to this, legal force is imputed to the
Record, or Hadyth, which contains such traditional utterances of
the Prophet as can be traced back through good witnesses to
himself. 2 3
In Persia these legal authorities were not recognized, and hence
arose a division among the faithful into the Sunnites, adherents
of the Sunna, and the apostates, or Shyites.
18 See Koran, Sura Ixxv.
19 Comp. the description of Paradise in M. Wolffs Mohammedanische
Eschatologie. 1872.
20 Sprenger, Das Leben des Mohammed, vol. ii. p. 307.
51 Koran, Sura x., also Ixxvi. Kremer, Ideen des Islam, p. 9.
M Ibid. p. 280. 23 Sprenger, Das Leben des Mohammed, vol. Hi. p. 77.
306 Islam.
Shortly after its establishment Islam overran Egypt and Northern
Africa; at the beginning of the eighth century it passed over
the Straits of Gibraltar, and maintained itself in Western Europe
until the fall of Granada, in 1492. In the same century in
which it was driven back from Spain to Africa, it succeeded in
gaining a footing in Southern Europe in the eastern peninsula,
and in 1453 it obtained the dominion over the straits which divide
our quarter of the world from Asia Minor.
In the beginning of the eighth century the Arabs pushed their
conquests into the territory of the Indus, but their principalities
of Mooltan and Mansora soon fell off from the Chalifate. Arab
communities existed in all the towns on the coast of Malabar,
though Islam was then merely tolerated in those regions. It was
was only in the year A.D. 1000 that it obtained a firm footing in
India among the Ghazuwids, 5 * and under Baber, the founder of
the kingdom of the Great Moguls, the chief power in the peninsula
fell into the hands of Mohammedan princes. In Sumatra the
doctrine of the Prophet first became predominant in 1206 in the
kingdom of Atschin, and in the kingdom of Malacca shortly after
its foundation in the year 1253, while in Java it did not sup-
plant Buddhism until after the fall of the state of Madschapahit,
in 1478. It reached the island of Celebes in 1512, yet the
Buginese were still vainly resisting its spread even in 1640.
Islam still continues its progress eastwards. Its furthest limit in
that direction is a small mosque at Dobo in the Aru Islands, a
dependency of New Guinea. 2 s But in New Guinea itself there are
many new converts among the Papuans. 26
In Africa the doctrine of the Prophet was first naturalized in the
Mediterranean districts. It made its way across the desert into
Bornou between 1086 and 1097, but early in the same century it
had spread to the great kingdom of Sonrhay, on the middle Niger,
and in the beginning of the thirteenth century it extended to the
rulers of Melli on the Upper Niger. 2 ? It reached Wadai, Darfur,
94 Reinaud, Geographic d'Aboulfeda. Introduction.
* Wallace, Malay Archipelago, vol. ii. p. 276.
* Otto Finsch, Neu-Guinea.
w Heinrich Earth, Nord- und Centralafrika.
Spread of Islam. 307
and Kordofan only in the beginning and the middle of the seven-
teenth century. 28 Whether the Tuareg were formerly Christians,
as Earth conjectures, requires further confirmation, and, again,
whether in the former kingdom of Ghana, lying westwards of
Timbuctoo, Christianity succumbed to Islam only in 1075, and
in Nubia, where according to reliable records it still prevailed in
the first half of the fourteenth century. 2 9 Even at present Islam
is slowly expelling Christianity from Abyssinia. Within our times
the Fellatah have carried it to Adamaua, far into the interior of
pagan Africa, The doctrine of the Prophet imposes no change
of habits on the Africans. The negro who embraces Islam is
assured that he rises higher, and by reason of his purer doctrine is
nearer to God than the Christians. Lastly, in Africa the promulga-
lots of the doctrine of the Prophet are poor and unpaid, whereas the
missionaries, although they preach contempt for riches, surround
themselves with profusion. In the opinion of a clear-sighted
observer, these are the reasons why the Christian religion gives
way to Islam among the negroes. 30 This doctrine has recently
been victorious in China. It had early been diffused there ; partly
by way of Kashgar and the fertile districts on the southern slopes
of the Thianshan, partly by sea, following the great mercantile
routes to the places on the coast, until towards the end of the
ninth century, on the downfall of the Thang dynasty, a persecution
of foreigners and the extermination of the Mohammedans took
place. 31 A short time ago a governor established himself at
Talifu, in the south-west of the Celestial Kingdom, among the
Mohammedan Chinese, and seized a portion of the province of
Yunnen. The English who had entered into commercial trans-
actions with this infant state by way of Burmah, were full of
praise of the honesty and morality of the Panthays, as these new
adherents of Islam were named. 32 According to more recent
accounts the Chinese again destroyed this new creation in 1872.
* Waitz, Anthropologie.
n Fr. Kunstmann, Afrika vor den Entdeckungen der Portugiesien. 1853,
80 Gerhard Rohlfs in Ausland. 1870.
11 Peschel, Geschichte der Erdkunde.
w A. Bowers, Bhamo Expedition. 1871.
308 The Zone of the Founders of Religions.
XVI. THE ZONE OF THE FOUNDERS OF RELIGIONS.
" KNOWLEDGE of the natural characters of different regions of
the world," sa>s Von Humboldt, in one of the most profound
passages of his Physiognomy of Plants, " is an essential part of the
history of the human race and of its culture. For although the
beginning of this culture is not determined by physical influences
alone, yet its direction and the national character, the gloomy or
cheerful temper of mankind, depend largely on climatic conditions.
The sky of Greece had great influence on its inhabitants ! The
colonists in the beautiful and favoured districts between the
Euphrates, the Halys, and the Egean Sea began early to recog-
nize moral loveliness and tender feelings. When Europe had
sunk back into barbarism, and religious enthusiasm had suddenly
brought the sacred East into prominence, our forefathers again
brought home from those genial valleys more gentle manners.
The poetry of the Greeks and the ruder songs of the primitive
people of the north mainly owe their peculiar character to the
forms of the plants and animals, to the mountain valleys which
surrounded the poet, and to the air which he breathed. Turning
only to familiar objects, we all feel different emotions in the dark
shade of beech-trees, on hills crowned with scattered fir-trees, or
on the grassy plain where the wind rustles through the trembling
foliage of the birch. These plants of our native land severally
evoke in our minds melancholy, elevating, or gladsome images.
The influence of the physical upon the moral world, the myste-
rious interaction of the sensible and of that which lies beyond
the senses, endows the study of nature, when raised to higher
points of view, with a peculiar charm which is as yet too little
recognized."
It would be a pleasant task carefully to trace the' inward con-
nection betwixt the greatest events in human society and the
scenes in which they occurred. No one could better help us in
our preparation for such researches than Buckle, according to
whom, nothing is simpler and more intelligible than the reaction
of the place of abode upon the mental phenomena. Where nature
terrifies man by portentous objects of alarm, the imagination
Influence of Locality on Character. 309
is more fully developed than the intellect, and belief in miracles
is most luxuriant "Italy, Spain, and Portugal," says Buckle,
" are, of all countries in Europe, most frequently visited by earth-
quakes; earthquakes intimidate the mind of man, consequently
the belief in the interference of supersensual powers with the
physical order of the world has been more stubbornly main-
tained among the inhabitants of Southern Europe than in other
parts." The terrible catastrophe which befel Lisbon more than a
hundred years ago, although it stands alone in magnitude, may in
some degree justify us in considering Portugal among the countries
in which earthquakes most frequently occur, but Spain, although
not entirely exempt, is not a country either specially or even
severely visited by earthquakes. Japan, which so often trembles
under the trident of Poseidon, is peopled by a cheerful race of
men, given to tricks and jests, and heedless on subjects of
religion. Russia, again, is almost entirely free from earthquakes,
yet Italy has long been cleansed from a system of exorcism such
as still prevails in the Greek Church.
" In the tropics," Buckle continues, " nature appears still more
violent and terrible in contrast with human pusillanimity, and
hence among the inhabitants of India the imagination is preemi-
nently peopled with illusions. There," he says, " obstacles of every
sort were so numerous, so alarming, and apparently so inexplicable,
that the difficulties of life could only be solved by constantly
appealing to the direct agency of supernatural causes. There
the terrified imagination beheld such visions of horror as Civa, or
his consort Durga-Kali, the palms of whose hands were constantly
reddened with fresh blood, and whose necks were adorned with a
string of human skulls." z
As Indian culture was especially developed in Hindostan
proper, that is to say, in the district of the Ganges, exclusive of
Bengal, nature, according to Buckle's views, ought there above all
to have filled the minds of the population with sensations of fear
and awe. Earthquakes do not occur, indeed, but they are re-
placed by terrific hurricanes. The Bay of Bengal is certainly the
source of those cyclones or circular storms which have visited
1 History of Civilization.
310 The Zone of the Founders of Religions.
Calcutta twice within the last few years. The range of these
scourges is however confined to the coast, and their devastations
never extend beyond the limits of Bengal. The Himalayas are
also supposed by Buckle to have exercised an intimidating effect,
but they are either invisible from the thickly populated districts,
or appear only as a beautiful boundary on the northern horizon.
When Buckle spoke of pestilences invading tropical Asia with
specially destructive footsteps, he was thinking only of the cholera
which just at the time he wrote was making a fresh progress
through Europe. But our quarter of the world was visited in
former times by the black death and the plague destroying angels
which might well be compared with the relatively modern epide-
mic of India, so that the temperate zone was no more exempt than
the tropics. Strangely enough Buckle does not even mention the
most fatal evil genius of India, namely, famine, the most active
of gravediggers, which even now, when rains fail and rivers run
low, occasionally causes greater destruction than any pestilences or
cyclones, and transforms densely populated districts into deserts ;
this happened in 1770, at the beginning of the British rule, when
ten out of five-and-twenty millions of Bengalese perished in con-
sequence of a failure of the crops. If the dangers and anxieties
inherent in a place of abode exercise a control such as Buckle
attributes to them over the dispositions of the people, the Dutch
ought to be far more credulous than the Belgians. Constantly,
but more especially at the time of the syzygies of the moon, they
are threatened by an adversary as pitiless as the earthquake,
namely, the sea, which they, inhabiting a territory below the level
of the sea, have robbed of its rightful property. This power,
though expelled, has frequently avenged itself, as, for instance,
when the Zuyder Zee and the Dollart were filled by a sudden
inroad, and all the villages with their inhabitants were swallowed
up. Lastly, in every nation sailors and miners ought to be more
superstitious than any other craftsmen, for they are peculiarly
exposed to freaks of the forces of nature quite beyond calculation,
yet no one has ever stated that this is the case in any perceptible
degree.
Hence we must admit that the greater perils of life in any place
of abode have not been the cause of an excessive development
Influence of Food on Character. 3 1 1
of the imagination. Even Alexander von Humboldt's beautiful
saying in regard to the reaction of the Grecian sky on the
Hellenic temperament is unconvincing. If one spot on earth
deserves the name of paradise rather than another, it is assuredly
Mexico, with its lakes, its splendid vegetation, its distant scenery,
rendered beautiful by snowy volcanoes, its perpetually bright
weather, and its bracing mountain air. But it is under these
delightful skies that the gloomy disposition of the natives of
Anahuac has evolved all the horrors of a dark and bloody
worship.
Let us, then, rather attempt to ascertain whether the habitual
food of the nation stands in causal connection with the phenomena
of their temperament. Hindostan, the abode of Brahminism, and
Central China, the home of Confucius, are almost equally ex-
posed to sun, and are covered by a similar vegetation. Nature,
as Buckle was obliged to admit, is in both places equally great
and almost equally terrible ; this may at least be strictly asserted
of Southern China, and yet in the Celestial Empire imagination
has taken quite another direction than in India, or rather, it has
scarcely taken any direction at all. The Chinese eat everything,
even Holothurians, or sea-cucumbers (Trepang), the very sight
of which makes those who are unaccustomed to them shudder.
Orthodox Hindoos of high caste, on the contrary, abhor every kind
of animal food. But it was not always so. In the time of the
Vedas the consumption of animal food was not yet prohibited,
and at the same time the Vedic religion was not darkened by the
creation of bloodthirsty deities, nor filled with horrors and terrors
as in later times. The depression of spirits, the inclination towards
the prodigious and grotesque, the weariness of life, the dread of
an endless series of transmigrations, first began to develop among
the Hindoos simultaneously with the transition to a purely vege-
table diet. Probably every one knows by personal experience
that our mental functions are dependent upon nutriment; for
the genuine unconscious sleep, which is profound and refreshing,
flies from us when the stomach is heavily overloaded. But hunger
also, like all other cravings, even if partially satisfied, exercises
control over the imagination. This biological fact was and still
is the origin of the rigid fastings prescribed by religions so widely
312 The Zone of the Founders of Religions.
different, and made use of by Shamans in every quarter of the
world, when they wish to enter into communication with the
invisible powers. As often as the usual order of nutriment is
interrupted or even disturbed, as soon as it ceases to be regular,
the imagination acquires unusual power, and in this shaken or
enfeebled condition is more susceptible to that which it ascribes
to supersensual operations.
Here, then, we fancy that we have at last found the key that
gives us an insight into the control exercised by physical laws in
the province of mental phenomena. But turn again to Buckle,
although it will this time be not as a counsellor but as a
warning. "As regards the daily food," he observes, "the date
is in Africa what rice is in the fertile districts of Asia. The
date palm is indigenous in all countries from the Tigris to
the Atlantic, and it provides millions of human beings with
daily sustenance both in Arabia and nearly the whole of North
Africa." He adds, moreover, that in various places even camels
are fed with dates, which is only exceptionally the case, and then
proceeds to say that rice contains an unusual amount of. starch,
namely, between 83 and 85 per cent., and that dates possess
precisely the same nutritious substances, with the single difference
that the starch is already converted into sugar. In his opinion
this observation is a revelation, for in India, as in Egypt, he
beholds the people, devoid of all will, yielding themselves com-
pletely to the priesthood. -Only those who have not observed the
effects of wine and other alcoholic beverages, or of tea, coffee,
tobacco, and narcotic substances in general, either on themselves
or others, will deny that the nature of the food reacts upon the
mental powers of man, that the temperament evoked by different
sorts is different. But we are still far from having ascertained
anything in regard to the permanent effects of daily food, espe-
cially as the human stomach has to a great degree the power of
accommodating itself to various food substances, so that with use
even narcotics lose much of their effect. Lastly, Buckle deceives
himself and the credulous reader when he states that the old
Egyptians were date-eaters. We are far from disputing that they
knew and cultivated date palms, for we should be at once met
by an appeal to their ancient monuments, which bring their daily
Date Eaters. 313
life before us as in a picture book. But we deny that the date
was a constant or even an important article of food ; on the con-
trary, we maintain that it was only an auxiliary or supplementary
food of the Pharaonic people. 2 Buckle can hardly suppose that
the Joseph of Bible history gathered up dates into the royal
garners during the seven years of plenty. Nor can he imagine that
during the seven years of scarcity Jacob sent his sons to Egypt to
buy dates. When, in the days of Moses, Divine plagues were
inflicted upon Egypt a hailstorm destroyed, not the date groves,
but the barley and the flax, and spared the other crops, which had
had not yet sprung up. The date is the daily food only in the
date oases of Arabia, and to a much greater extent in those of
North Africa, in Fezzan, and Southern Algeria, that is to say, on
the edge and in the midst of the Sahara; there it trains up
independent and warlike desert tribes which have not the most
remote mental relationship to the rice-eating Hindoos, but are of
a completely different character.
Indirectly we can ascertain that religious creations are in no
way dependent on the kind of nourishment used by the popula-
tion. These same Hindoos, whose unbridled fancy created
during the epic times the most atrocious deities, were also the
greatest story-makers that ever existed. It has long been known
that the series of stories, which is of Indian origin, reached the
West under the title of the Thousand and One Nights through
the Arabs, and that besides this collection there are whole series
of narratives which are sometimes put into the mouth of a skele-
ton, or of a clever parrot, or a wooden image which has suddenly
come to life. Buckle recognizes in the numerical exaggera-
tions of the Hindoos, with their countless ages of the world,
and even in their language, which possesses an expression for
a number of fifty-one places, a servile reverence for remote
antiquity; we are more inclined to discern in this a predisposition
for arithmetic, for the same people who played so eagerly with
quantitative conceptions, benefited human culture by the contri-
* The merit of the Arab conquerors in first instituting and diffusing the
cultivation of dates in Egypt is an acknowledged fact H. Stephan, Das
heutige Aegypten. 1872.
3 1 4 The Zone of the Founders of Religions.
bution of an educational instrument second only to the invention
of written characters, namely, the art of indicating the value of
the numbers by their position, or, as we are wont carelessly to
express ourselves, the invention of Arabic numeration. We are by
no means the first to point out the obvious fact that the creation
of religious and of profane fictions are merely to be regarded as
different manifestations of the same intellectual capacity. Nations
possessed of epic and dramatic creative powers, and those which
are fond of building, painting, and sculpture, have also the faculty
and the impulse requisite to people an Olympus with varied
figures, which are either cheerful or gloomy according to the pre-
dominant disposition of their authors. But it may easily be shown
that^the creation of fictions is not confined to the rice-eating
Hindoos. Fictions and legends of striking power have been
collected from the scanty population of Iceland. There grain no
longer ripens, and shrubs alone will grow ; one single mulberry-
tree, standing in a sheltered situation at Akreyri, is proudly
exhibited by the natives as the tree of the island. The people live
only on animal food, the produce of cattle-breeding and fishing.
Even were it admitted that many of the beautiful legends were
only preserved by the Icelanders, and were derived from their
old northern home, it is certain that a great number were in-
vented in Iceland itself; even had they originated in Norway,
cattle-breeding and fishery decidedly predominated there also,
and in former times far more than now. Hence we perceive
that the activity of the imagination is quite independent of
whether the daily aliment consists exclusively of vegetable or
animal substances.
It would appear from this that there is no apparent connection
between the greater precariousness of life at any given place of
abode, or between the national food and the local religious crea-
tions. But we may, perhaps, find something serviceable where
we should least expect it, among the old Arabian geographers.
Although they were disciples of the Alexandrian Greeks, and
familiar with the Ptolemaic division into degrees, in their popular
expositions of their science they nevertheless distributed the earth
into climates, or, as we are wont to express it, into climatic zones.
These zones were not always of the same breadth, but were about
Arabian Geographers. 315
seven degrees, more or less. Each zone was supposed to possess
certain products, animal, vegetable, and mineral, in special per-
fection; even towards the close of the Middle Ages, our schoolmen
believed that black men were to be found only on or close to the
equator, and that gold and precious stones never occur beyond
the limits of the second zone. In the language of this sys-
tematic error, Shemseddin,3 who was named after his native city
of Demeschqi (Damascus), stated that people of light colour and
high intellectual endowments are limited to the third and fourth
climates, or between 29 and 33 49' north latitude, and that in
these zones were born all great founders of religion, philosophers,
and scholars, himself included. This zone begins a little to the
south of the parallel of Mecca (21 21') a great deal to the south
of the parallel of Kapilavastu (27), the birthplace of Buddha
Gautama ; on the other hand, its northern margin does not in-
clude Rai (Raghes) near Teheran, and still less Balch (Bactra).
As we have already mentioned it was in one of these towns that
Zoroaster was born. Yet there is some truth in the observation of
the Arabian geographers, that the founders of the higher and still
existing religions, Zoroaster, Moses, Buddha, Christ, and Moham-
med belong to the subtropical zone. For the birthplace of the
latest of the prophets alone falls within the tropics, though only
by about seventy-four miles. We make no mention of Confucius,
not on account of the high latitude of his birthplace in the dis-
trict of Yentshau, in the province of Shantung, but because we
should degrade the other founders of religion were we to reckon
the Chinese moralist among their numbers.
The fact that the zone of religious founders does not lie
within temperate latitudes, might be explained by the suppo-
sition, that it was only in the presence of advanced intellectual
development that mankind was able to add a yet higher dignity
to human existence by allegiance to ideal objects, and that it was
exactly in the subtropical climates that the most ancient social
organizations had flourished. But even when civilization in its
advance had passed outside the tropics, subtropical Asia still
remained the fruitful parent of religions. Christianity did not
Nouvelles annales des voyages, 6eme serie, voL vi. 1860.
3 1 6 The Zone of the Founders of Religions.
make its appearance in the over-refined European empire of the
Romans, but in Palestine. Islam came into existence six hundred
years later, not in Byzantium, but in Arabia. In the cold of
the temperate zone, man has always been obliged to struggle hard
for his existence, working more than praying, so that the burden
of the day's labour constantly withheld him from deep inward
meditation. In warm countries, on the contrary, where Nature
facilitates the acquisition of the necessaries of life, and the
sultry hours of mid-day prohibit any bodily exertions, oppor-
tunities for mental absorption are far more abundant.
The place of abode is not however quite without influence on
the direction taken by religious thought. The three monotheistic
doctrines, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, originated with the Semitic
nations, yet the tendency of the race was not exclusively to mono-
theism, for other Semites, such as the Phoenicians, Chaldeans, and
Assyrians, took other courses, while even among the Jews reversions
to polytheism were frequent, and in Egypt especially the people
of God sank completely into idolatry. The perpetual reappear-
ance of monotheism received powerful support from the surround-
ing scenes of nature.
All who have been in the desert extol its beneficent influence
on the health and spirits. Aloys Sprenger declares that the air
of the desert invigorated him more than that of the high Alps or
of the Himalayas, and in a letter to the author he says : " The
desert has impressed the Arabs with their remarkable historical
character. In the boundless plains, the imagination which guides
the youth of men is filled with images quite different from those
suggested by forest country. The thoughts thus acquired are
rather noble than numerous; out of his own consciousness of
power man evolves for himself a yet bolder personality a per-
sonal God by whom he is guided in his wanderings." Lastly, in
nomadic life, it frequently happens that a herdsman roams about
in solitude for weeks, tortured by hunger and thirst. Even the
healthiest then suffers from illusions of the senses. In this state it
often occurs that the forsaken wanderer hears voices speaking and
calling to him ; hence in Arabic there is a special word H&tif for
voices of this sort. In Africa, again, Ragl t derived from Radschol,
the man, signifies such anthropomorphous ocular illusions.
Desert Influences. 317
Every traveller who has crossed the deserts of Arabia and Asia
Minor speaks enthusiastically of their beauties ; all praise their
atmosphere and brightness, and tell of a feeling of invigoration
and a perceptible increase of intellectual elasticity ; hence between
the arched heavens and the unbounded expanse of plain a mono-
theistic frame of mind necessarily steals upon the children of the
desert. The confusion of the Egyptian pantheon, the beautiful
images of stone, the sacred animals, and human figures with
emblematic heads and symbols, were not forgotten by Moses, the
priest of Heliopolis, until he fled to Sinai, the oldest rock known
to geology, and which, according to Oscar Fraas, is still uncovered
by the smallest particle of any more recent formation, seeming
as if it had never been submerged beneath the sea, had never risen
up, never moved. Here in the wilderness it was necessary that
the old Jewish race, with its Egyptian paganism, should be buried,
before monotheism as a result of the thoughts and sights of
the desert, could rise and strengthen itself in a new race. In
other parts of the Scriptures the healthy influence of the desert is
likewise testified. The zealous Elijah retired into the desert;
John the Baptist also preached in the desert of Jordan, clad as a
Bedouin, in a raiment of camel's hair, and living on locusts and wild
honey. Christ also prepared himself for his career by passing
forty days and forty nights in the desert. Lastly, Mohammed,
although born in a city, imbibed the milk of a Bedouin foster-
mother, lived for a long time as a shepherd, and in his caravan
journeys crossed the deserts between his own country and Pales-
tine. The pilgrimages to Mecca, although far more ancient than
Islam, are of no little service in strengthening the faith, inasmuch as
they are preceded by a journey across the desert. But even inde-
pendently of this, the followers of the Prophet live in the vicinity
of deserts, for the doctrine of Mohammed has spread almost ex-
clusively in the zone of Eastern Monsoons, and only in very late
times extended into Africa as far as the Soudan. In India it was
unable to extend beyond very narrow limits, and that only with
political assistance.
This is probably all that can be accurately ascertained in regard
to the influence of the nature of the country on the tendency
of the religious feeling of the population. The desert contributes
3 1 8 The Zone of the Founders of Religions.
materially to awaking monotheism, because, from the dryness
and clearness of its atmosphere, it does not expose the senses
to all the attractive phantoms of forest scenery, the sunbeams as
they play through the openings in the trees on the trembling and
shining leaves, the marvellous forms of the gnarled branches,
creeping roots, and storm-stricken trunks; the creaking and sigh-
ing, the whispering and roaring, the hissing and rustling, and all
the voices and sounds in wood and forest, amid which the
illusion of an invisible animation is so apt to overcome us.
Neither do curling mists sweep and steal over the desert as on
damp meadow lands. These cloud forms, as they rise over the
forests of New Guinea, are venerated by the nations of Doreh as
visible manifestation of their good spirit Narvojd It may therefore
be asserted that with the extermination of the forests, not only is
the climate of the locality altered, but poetry and paganism have
also been struck with the axe. But if a sunny land is favourable
to monotheistic emotions, yet at the same time every religious
creation is but an expression of the mental endowments of the
race. The Semites never possessed any genuinely epic literature,
and their dramatic literature was extremely scanty, for they were
destitute of the Aryan capacity for framing such productions. It
would be an error to trace all the intellectual productions of
nations to previous physical conditions alone. They are assuredly
subject to a normal course of development, and are nothing more
than the necessary expression of a series of causes. But the
historical destinies of the nations are certainly among these causes.
" It is an old maxim," says Delbriick, 1 " that it is in the expe-
riences of life that each individual finds or loses his God."
1 Zeitschrift fUr Volkerpsychologie uud Sprachwissenschaft, voL iii.
THE RACES OF MANKIND.
THE RACES OF MANKIND.
IN an earlier chapter we found that in any one race all the phy-
sical characters, such as the shape of the skull, the proportions
of the limbs, and the colour of the skin, vary materially that even
the character of the hair must not be considered a persistently
distinctive mark, and hence that, in the classification of the human
species into groups or races, all the predominant characteristics
must be taken into consideration. Though the limits of such
groups are often easy, they are more often very difficult to define.
We must not draw them where the common characteristics of one
group merge by slight gradations into the common characteristics
of another group, for on historical authority such gradations must
be traced to intermarriage, and would be represented by hybrids.
On this principle we shall be obliged to separate mankind into
seven groups, races, sub-species, or species, whichever expression
may be preferred. The first includes the inhabitants of Australia
and Tasmania ; the second, the Papuans of New Guinea and the
adjacent islands ; the third, the Mongoloid nations, among which
we reckon not only the Asiatics of the Continent, but also the
Malayo-Polynesians and the aborigines of America; the fourth,
the Dravida of Western India of non-Aryan origin ; the fifth, the
Hottentots and Bushmen ; the sixth, the Negroes ; the last con-
sists of the Mediterranean nations, answering to the Caucasians of
Blumenbach. The vindication both of the separations and asso-
ciations of this system of seven groups must be reserved for the
chapters which treat of each respectively. Moreover, we hold it
to be the duty of ethnology to estimate the social, moral, and
15
322 The Races of Mankind.
intellectual development of the individual races. The maturity of
the different social conditions of mankind does not, however,
accurately correspond to the various endowments of races, but
depends also on the advantageous or disadvantageous nature of
the place of abode ; so that the reaction of this on the history of
the civilization of each group of mankind must be considered.
I THE AUSTRALIANS.
THE physical characters of the inhabitants of the continent of
Australia, of the islands on the coast, and of Tasmania, separate
these into a distinct group. With skulls of which the average
index of breadth is 71, and the index of height is 73, they belong to
the high dolichocephals ; they are both prognathous and phanero-
zygmatic. The nose is narrow at the root, widening greatly below,
but does not curve as does that of the Papuans. The mouth is
wide and unshapely. The third upper molar tooth has usually
three roots, a formation which is of rare occurrence among
Europeans. 1 The body is thickly covered with hair ; the hairs,
which are black, and in section are distinctly elliptical, stand out
round the head, forming a shaggy crown ; but being weaker than
those of the Papuans, they are frizzly, and have a tendency to
become matted. In the peninsula of Coburg straight hair and
obliquely set eyes are also to be met with, but these characters
are due to intermixture with the Malay trepang-fishers who visit
that part. Many of the natives of that district even speak the
Macassar language ; 2 rock inscriptions in Buginese or Macasssar
characters also prove the presence of Malays. 3 The colour of the
skin is always dark, sometimes black; sometimes, on the south
and south-east coast, light copper red.* In all these points the
Tasmanians exactly resembled the Australians, except that the
1 Latham, Varieties of Man.
f Earl, Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, voL xvi. 1846. This
explains the anomalous Australian institution of nobility mentioned in a former
chapter.
Waitz (Gerland), Anthropologie, voL vi. Ibid.
Australians and Papuans. 323
growth of their hair was more Papuan in character, that is to say,
more tufted, s The few skulls that have been measured show a
greater width as well as height, namely, 74 in both cases. 6 The
way in which they reached the island has puzzled many, for the
Tasmanians are erroneously supposed to have had no boats.
They had however raft-like canoes ; ? nor was any great skill
required for a migration of Australians across Bass's Straits, which
are studded with islands. The proof that such voyages were made
is to be found in the circumstance that the Tasmanians bore
scars on their skin of the same form as those of the Australians. 8
Their island was colonized by Europeans in the year 1803. The
last native died in 1869. The true history of their remorseless
extermination has been told by an inhabitant of Tasmania. 9
The nearest of kin to the Australians and Tasmanians are not
the African negroes, and still less the aborigines of Western India,
but the Papuans. Yet, in addition to physical differences, they
are distinguished from them by the structure of their language,
for the Australians employ no prefixes, denning the meaning of
the root by suffixes. A few faint resemblances in the pronouns
of the Australian and South Indian or Dravida languages, have
induced Bleek, on very insufficient grounds, to infer a linguistic
kinship between these peoples. 10 In the Australian languages the
words, which are polysyllabic, begin with a consonant and end
with a vowel or semi-vowel. 11 But, according to vocabulary, the
Australian languages are separable into countless subdivisions. It
is therefore more remarkable that the same family names are found
in West and South Australia and in Carpentaria. 12 Although many
Australian dialects are poor in numerical expressions, it is not the
case that the natives were unable to distinguish larger numbers,
for they use eighteen different terms for children, according to
8 See some instructive copies from photographs in Mantegazza's Archivio
per 1'Antropologia. 1871.
6 B. Davies, Thesaurus Craniorum, pp. 272, 358.
7 Waitz, Anthropologie, vol. vi. 8 Ibid.
9 James Bonwick, The Last of the Tasmanians.
10 Journal of the Anthropological Institute. 1872.
11 Fr. Miiller, Allegemeine Ethnographic.
18 Grey, quoted by Eyre, Central Australia, voL ii. p. 329.
324
The Australians.
whether the child designated is the first to the ninth-born boy,
or the first to the ninth-born daughter. X 3
Before discussing their intellectual and social condition, it will
be well to glance at their place of abode. Nowhere can the
retarded development of mankind be more readily accounted for
by the unfavourable configuration of the country than in Australia.
Situated in a remote region of the globe, and too small to con-
stitute a world of its own, Australia was so much undervalued that,
until quite recently, no civilization had approached it. It was the
last of all the continents to be discovered. Of all the discoveries
it was the longest neglected, that is to say, for full two hundred
years ; and when it was first colonized by Europeans, it was thought
only fit for a place of banishment for the outcasts of society. Its
coast line is, with the exception of that of Africa, more circular
than that of any other part of the world ; in other words, its cir-
cumference bears the smallest proportion to its superficies. Its only
two projections are the peninsula of Carpentaria, or Cape York,
and the island of Tasmania, which, as we have stated elsewhere, is
a partially submerged tongue of the continent, and very poorly
represents the pointed projections of the other southern continents
of South Africa and South America. Yet, however inadequate
these projections may appear, one at least, Cape York, has exer-
cised a great influence as the only path by which, till quite
recently, Australia maintained any intercourse with higher civiliza-
tions. For Cape York is connected with New Guinea by a chain
of lofty rocky islands ; and as we must look upon Australia as
originally uninhabited, and upon its present dusky population as
the results of an immigration at a period immeasurably remote, the
passage by Torres Straits must have been the most convenient
route for tribes with little inclination for sea voyages. It is even
possible that the Australians made their way from New Guinea to
their present home on dry land ; for along the chain of islands the
depth of the sea in Torres Straits is nowhere more than ten fathoms
(60 feet), 1 -* and the bottom may easily have sunk as much as this
since the appearance of man, for in Sardinia, sixty metres above
" Journal of the Anthropological Institute. 1872.
14 Jukes, Voyage of H.M.S. Fly.
The Importance of Cape York. 325
the sea, potsherds have been found mixed with marine testacea
and mud in a fossil state.
The vocabularies collected by the scientific expedition under
Captain Blackwood prove, moreover, that the tribes at Cape York
speak a language allied to that of the inhabitants of the islands
in the Endeavour Straits, of the Murray Islands, and likewise of
Masid and Errub, all of which lie to the east of the entrance to
Torres Straits. 15 Thus, if we follow the track of the language we
are led on almost to the coast of New Guinea. The Papuans,
who inhabit these islands, are distinguished from the Australians
by such distinct racial characters that, as Jardine has observed, a
practised eye can easily discern among the Australians of Cape
York the huge figures of individual emigrants from New Guinea ;
nevertheless, from these migrations, which take place even now,
and from the above-mentioned traces of affinity of language, we
see that there has always been communication between New
Guinea and Cape York ; these facts are the only indications
of the road by which the first human beings may have reached
the Australian continent. This at once justifies us in attributing
historical importance to the peninsula of Cape York, the only
medium by which the continent of Australia in some degree
maintains its now very broken connection with the Old World.
It was only by this same channel, by which it received its first
human inhabitants, that, till recently, it received a few products
of a rude civilization. For, notwithstanding their bloodthirstiness
and cannibalism, the Papuans of New Guinea are in comparison
to the Australians a refined people, whose spacious dwellings
appear like stately palaces beside the leaf huts of the Australians.
Some of them have already rendered the tribes of Cape York
familiar with the use of the bow and arrow, which considerably in-
creases the certainty of their aim. To the Papuans also is due the
great improvement in shipbuilding that has taken place, for the
old bark canoes are now supplanted by long pirogues with out-
riggers, after the Papuan model ; and, lastly, the first rudiments of
husbandry have spread from New Guinea to the islands northward
of Cape York, although these are limited to the planting of tubers
" Latham, Opuscula, p. 234,
326 The Australians.
and other edible roots. 16 So that if Europeans had appeared in
the Indian Ocean some five hundred years later, and had the Aus-
tralians longer enjoyed their insular repose, the influence of the
Papuan tribes might very easily have raised the inhabitants of this
continent to a state which would have placed them on a level
with the nobler hunting tribes of South America.
According to the conjecture of one of our greatest authorities
on Australia, the elevation of the surface of the sea by only a
few hundred feet would be sufficient to resolve this continent into
clusters of numerous islands, for the mountainous districts which
mainly lie on the margin round the central plains are in many
places separated by depressed tracts of low country. 1 ? There
are, however, some plateaux in the heart of the country. 18
So far as we are as yet acquainted with Australia, its most
striking feature is the absence of lofty mountain chains, and con-
sequently of great rivers. Thus its remote position on the globe,
and its deficiency of projections and indentations of outline, are
combined with a want of variety in its elevation. Unfortunately,
also, its greatest elevations, the so-called Alps, which reach an
altitude of 7000 feet, are situated in the most remote corner of
the continent, while the only great river system, of which some
thousand miles have proved navigable for steamers, lies on the
side most distant from the civilized regions of the Old World.
The highest mountains of Australia, or, we might rather say, the
eastern slopes of the continent, resembling in form the Ghauts
of India, are moreover directly hurtful to the continent, for the
lofty coasts of the east intercept the damp monsoon, forcing it
to deposit its rain on their slopes, so that it reaches the plateaux
considerably exhausted and able to bring them only a very small
amount of moisture. J 9 If in place of this range a high chain of
mountains had risen on the western margin of the continent, as
in South America, while the eastern margin, on the contrary,
M Jardin, Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, vol. xxxvi. 1866.
IT Meinecke, Australien, in Petermann's Mittheilungen. Gotha, 1871.
lf Comp. Forest's Observations in the Interior of West Australia; Peter-
mann's Mittheilungen. Gotha, 1871.
9 The coast rivers therefore do great damage by these inundations, as in
1867, when the Hawkesbury suddenly rose 62' above its average level.
Physical Characters of Australia. 327
was flat or moderately undulating, a river, if not so magnificent
as the Amazon, yet of the size of the Orinoco, would have been
developed, and the natives of its shores might perhaps have
reached the grade of the Brazilian hunting tribes.
By the exploration of about two-thirds of the surface of Aus-
tralia, the old delusion has been exploded that the interior is
entirely occupied by a desert void of vegetation. If Australia
really possesses a Sahara, it must be a very limited one, confined
to the centre of the western arm of the continent. All the other
districts enjoy a short but violent rainy season. In the centre of
the continent Mackinlay 20 found himself stopped, if not seriously
endangered, by floods ; for on nearly half the horizon nothing but
an unbounded surface of water was to be seen> from which pro-
jected only the tallest trees and a few island-like elevations of
ground. J. M. Gilmore experienced the .same in the extreme west
of Queensland. 21 This sudden discharge of moisture from the
atmosphere is followed by an equally sudden evaporation, so that
a few weeks after the inundations the soil is again parched with
drought. In consequence of this irregular distribution of moisture,
the known part of Australia 22 consists mainly of grass land, with
park-like woods or trees bordering the rivers, although great tracts
of brushwood are frequent. This would not in itself have been
prejudicial to the development of human society had it not been
combined with the unpropitious geological structure of Australia.
The appearance of the tertiary strata has as yet been noticed
in two places only. The rocks are either crystalline or their
strata belong to the earliest ages, seldom more recent than the
carboniferous period, and are scarcely ever as old as the variegated
sandstone. This implies in other words that this portion of the
globe has never been submerged since the secondary and tertiary
periods, but has been exposed without regeneration or reparation
to all the depredations of the atmosphere, and has thus lost more
20 Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, vol. xxxiii.
21 Petermann's Mittheilungen. 1872.
22 A shepherd, John Ross by name, states that he has discovered at 24 30'
S. lat. and 137 E. long., not only rich pastures, but also standing and running
water extending about 240 miles, and adapted for steam navigation, &c. Sir R.
Murchison in the Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society. 1871.
328 The Australians.
and more of the charms of its original form. 2 3 The highest part of
its mountainous formations of the primary and secondary period
must have been worn down by long-continued disintegration and
aqueous action, and thus have been levelled towards the general
surface. Even this would not have been so injurious had not the
communication by land which existed between Australia and the
great mainland of the Old World also been interrupted. But the
isolation of Australia took place at an immature period, namely,
when the development of the fauna had advanced only to the
stage of marsupials and rodents, and not as far as the ungulates.
While in the Old World the continued struggle for existence
secured improved animal forms by a progressive advancement, to
which those of the archaic marsupial character were obliged
almost completely to give way, the struggle in Australia was con-
fined within much narrower limits, and hence, with slight altera-
tions, its animal creation remained stationary at the point which
it had reached when the isolation first took place. The most
ancient continent of the world shelters the oldest mammalian
forms. First we notice the absence of carnivora, for the dingo,
or Australian dog, probably immigrated only with man, although
it is now found wild in hunting-packs. Even if, as might be con-
jectured from the discoveries of their remains in ancient bone-caves,
they entered Australia before mankind, this occurred, neverthe-
less, within a recent geological period. As powerful antagonists,
beasts of prey exercise a favourable effect on the education of
mankind, so that their absence forms one of the disadvantages
of the place of abode. The absence of ungulates is yet more
to be regretted, for it at once barred man from the possibility
of raising himself to the highest grade of civilization. With the
exception of the dog, probably no Australian animal has allowed
itself to be tamed ; a certain degree of intelligence seems to be
requisite when an animal is to be received into the society of
man as his supporter or assistant, and the deficiency of intellect
in marsupials renders them unfit for this purpose. As we all
know, Australia is especially adapted for the breeding of sheep,
cattle, horses, and camels, but these creatures, which are so
w Hochstetter in Petermann's Mittheilungen. 1859.
The Struggle for Existence in Australia. 329
important to civilization, were unable to reach this continent
which was unconnected with the Old World. It may, therefore, be
truly said of Australia that it is an island without the advantages
of an island climate, a country of productive steppes without the
ungulates of the steppes, a land of insular tranquillity, or, in
other words, of a languid struggle for existence, and an asylum
for animal and vegetable forms of past ages. But if we correctly
understand the processes of animated nature, quiet involves stag-
nation, for the mammalian forms of Australia seem like living
fossils when compared with those of the Old World. When the
first ship "landed animals from the Old World, the seclusion of
Australia was over and it ceased to be an island, for a bridge,
although only a flying one, again united it with the Old World ;
then the prematurely interrupted struggle for existence was
renewed, but it was now between creatures armed and adapted
for fighting and others unused to strife : it was inevitable that the
last surviving and superseded forms of past ages should succumb,
that the Australian fauna should find a place in palaeontological
books, and the kangaroo hunter disappear with the kangaroo.
This has ever been the course of Nature ; always eager in pursuit
of novelty, it acknowledges only the right of the strongest, and
the strongest must always be something new ; were the newer the
weaker, it would be suppressed almost before it came into being.
European travellers landing in Australia have always met with
natives or their traces. Where one explorer perchance fancied that
he was passing through a desert, on the same spot the next comer
found himself surrounded with blacks. In the remarkable lake
district which Sturt assumed to be an uninhabited region, Mac
Kinlay in his journey across the continent in 1861, 62, was sur-
prised by the density of the population ; the latter in turn found
no natives between 26 and 22 south latitude, though almost at
the same time MacDouall Stuart, in his second journey through
Australia, found himself, six degrees more to the east, in the midst
of natives, just as he was crossing the tropics in the exact centre of
Australia, on the 3rd of March. On the 5th of January, 1861,
shortly before reaching the tropics, Burke and Wills also perceived
f resh traces of natives whom they actually met further to the north.
Leaving the inhabitants of the peninsula of Carpentaria out of
33O The Australians.
consideration, we find the tribes of the mainland in very different
stages of civilization, and differing also very materially in physical
respects. Hitherto the piteous objects at King George's Sound,
in the south-west corner of the continent, of which Dumont
d'Urville procured drawings, have been generally regarded as
samples of Australian humanity. We were wont to imagine them
emaciated skeletons, with narrow pelvises even in the women,
meagre feeble limbs, and swollen bellies ; but according to all
explorers the type improves towards the interior. In the lake
district, at the north-east limit of South Australia, MacKinlay found
the handsomest tribes that he had seen on the continent. Lands-
borough in April, 1862, in 23 south latitude, on the Thompson
River, far from the coast, and Stuart in the north, met with natives
whom they agree in describing as fine and powerful men. The
settlers on the shores of Queensland also say that the natives of
that district are well-built and strong-limbed. The social develop-
ment visibly deteriorates both from north to south and from
east to west; that is to say, in proportion to the distance from
Cape York, the chief point which has served to connect Australia
with the Old World, the customary mode of life of the natives
becomes more and more degraded. For example, before the
introduction of the Papuan pirogue the tribes of the peninsula
of Carpentaria had long possessed boats, although the best speci-
mens were not better than the bark canoes of the Red Indians
of North America. On the east coast of Queensland, observers
on board H.M.S. Fly were unable to discover any such canoes
south of Rockingham Bay, (18 south lat) 2 * In Botany Bay,
Cook found that the natives had pieces of bark which served as
boats, and the tribes on the Murray were no better provided. 2 s
In the neighbourhood of Port Essington, on the north coast, the
people used rude floats, and Ferd. Miiller who, with Gregory,
discovered the Victoria River and Sturt's Creek, also observed
among the tribes of the interior only floats of two or three trunks,
which, for fear of alligators, were used in crossing. Lastly,
Gregory's ship Dolphin, when lying behind Dampier Island, on
* Jukes, Voyage of H.M.S. Fly.
** George French Angas, Australia and New Zealand.
Dwellings and Clothing. 331
the north coast (1861), was visited by natives who used trunks
of trees in their natural form instead of boats. The Australians
of the south coast have not been met with on the sea. James
Browne 2<5 assures us that the West Australians of Swan River are
not only destitute of any boats, but are even unable to swim.
At K^ing George's Sound the natives have only leaves for roofs ;
they spread a covering of leaves over curved stakes, the ends of
which are inserted in the ground. In New South Wales, Queens-
land, and on the shores of the Bay of Carpentaria, the curved
bark of a tree placed on the ground serves as a protection from
the weather for a single person, or several pieces of bark spread
upon a framework of stakes gives shelter to several. Thus the
Australian builds no permanent dwelling, but lives as a roving
hunter in a tent made of leaves or bark. Yet in West Australia
there are wooden huts and spacious buildings in the peninsula of
Coburg, and others with two storeys in the Cape York district. 2 ?
In the two latter cases, however, the favourable influence of
Malays and Papuans may be inferred.
The Australians when first discovered were living in the age of
unpierced stone implements. Their arms and hunting weapons
were projectiles, the most important being the spear, of which the
point was either hardened in the fire for hunting purposes, or
provided with barbed hooks for harpooning fish, or armed with
sharp flints or shells for fighting purposes. The boomerang is
found among all the tribes of the north, west, south, and east
coasts, with the exception of the inhabitants of Cape York and a
few tribes on the Lower Murray. Shields for defensive purposes
are used by all the tribes both on the coast and in the interior,
except in West Australia. The people of the east coast manu-
facture lines and hooks for fishing, the latter being made of birds'
claws or mussel shells, while on the west coast nets are used
for fishing purposes. 28 The wish to cover the body as a matter of
sentiment is as yet unfelt in Australia, but on the west, south,
and east coasts, cape-like cloaks, made of the skins of animals, are
* Petermann's Mittheilungen. 1856.
31 Waitz (Gerland), Anthropplogie, vol. vi.
88 Lubbock, Prehistoric Times, p. 430.
332 The Australians.
thrown round the shoulders as a protection against bad weather.
Many tribes also fasten straps round their loins, which are drawn
tighter in times of scarcity in order to diminish the feeling of
emptiness. An attempt at clothing is first met with at Cape
York, where the influence of the Papuans is evident. 2 ? The
monuments and works of art of the Australians consist almost
solely of decorations of burying-places, and of hollow boat-like
coffins, which latter do not occur only on the east coast, for one
containing the body of a child was noticed by MacDouall Stuart
on May i2th, 1861, in the Ashburton mountains, in the northern
half of Australia, and is described by him as the most artistic
native production he had seen. There are also figures of men
and animals drawn in chalk and ochre on the rocks of the Vic-
toria River, which were observed by Gregory and Miiller3 in
1856, as well as still more remarkable etchings, an inch in depth,
on the rocks of the east coast ; in those, for instance, at Camp
Cove, near Sydney, rude outlines of men and animals may be
discerned. The women of the tribes on the Murray, and in New
South Wales, showed great dexterity in plaiting baskets of rushes.
In the previous enumeration of weapons, we purposely omitted to
mention the wummera, or throwing-stick, an invention common to
all Australian tribes without exception, and indicates much greater
intelligence than the boomerang, which, although more surprising
on account of the eccentricity of its flight, is always an uncertain
missile, the discovery of which was probably the result of acci-
dent. The throwing-stick fastened to the palm of the hand, or
held by the three last fingers, and provided at the fore end with a
diagonal groove in which the spear is laid, doubles the throwing
power of the human arm. If it be imagined, says Jukes, that the
forefinger is the same length as the throwing-stick, and that while
the spear is held with the thumb and middle finger, the last joint
of the forefinger is bent round the end of the spear, this explains
the increase given by the throwing-stick to the initial velocity of
the spear. 3 1 Unfortunately, it cannot be positively ascertained
that the Australians did not borrow this invention, for the New
* Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, vol. xxxii. 1862.
" Ausland. 1859. " Voyage of H. M.S. Fly.
Language and Habits. 333
Caledonians also use a throwing-sling, although not the throwing-
stick. A similar plan is followed in other places : by the Aleutians
and their neighbours the Eskimo, and was used by the ancient
Mexicans. 3 2
The fact that the intelligence of the Australians is by no means
contemptible has only been recognized since we have gained an
insight into their languages. If the profusion of forms briefly
expressing minute relations were to decide the rank of a language,
we and all the nations of Western Europe might envy the miser-
able tribes of King George's Sound, for their language possesses
four more case-terminations than Latin, and a dual as well as
singular and plural. The verb is as rich in tenses as Latin, and
has also terminations for the dual, and three genders for the third
person; in addition to active and passive, it has reflective,
reciprocal, determinative, and continuative forms. In point of
structure of language, the highly cultured Polynesians, and even
the ancient Chinese, must yield to the inventive Australians. We
also find among them attempts at poetry and the names of
renowned poets. Although their songs are rude they nevertheless
contain expressions which no longer occur in daily intercourse. 33
They have, moreover, many pretty and picturesque names for the
constellations. They regard the Milky Way as a reflection of the
River Darling, in the waters of which their dead are fishing, and
the Clouds of Magellan as two old witches, transfixed to the sky
for their crimes. 34 The most surprising fact is that they have names
for eight different winds. They are peculiarly inventive in expres-
sions of courtesy, which they both require and bestow freely in
conversation.
We have already stated that a great dread of incest prevails
amongst them, and that wife-stealing is therefore customary ; that
they hold the duties of " vendetta " sacred, recognize property in
immovable objects, and inherit the family name from the mother.
Even in such a condition as .that of the Australians, society is
M O. Langsdorff, Reise um die Welt. David Cranz, Historic von Gron-
land. Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. i. p. 69.
38 Reise der Fregatte Novara, Fr. Miiller.
84 Waitz (Gerland), Anthropologie, vol. vi.
334 The Australians.
regulated by various institutions. The Australian languages are
indeed said to be without an expression for chieftain, 35 and we
look in vain among the western tribes for anything that might
even in a broad sense be termed a priesthood. In New South
Wales and in Queensland, which are the most highly civilized
districts of Australia, we find on the other hand the Koradshi,
who have so far discarded the vulgar terror of the dark that
they will spend a night on the graves of dead men. By their
Shamanistic arts they are likewise able to give comfort and
reassure sick people, and they also know how to apply slight
palliatives, blood-letting among others. It is a curious fact that
among the wretched people of the west coast, the inviolability
of ambassadors is respected till the gaping wound by which such
a messenger is marked is completely healed. 36 Experience in
Queensland and New South Wales shows that the modern
Australians were quite capable of rising to a higher condition,
for in those parts many learnt to speak English with fluency and
correctness, became skilful and bold riders, and as shepherds
were preferred to Europeans, on account of their adroitness in the
bush, and also because it was found possible to train them into
efficient guards for the more remote runs.
That their condition has hardly improved is partly due to
the isolation of their native land, which impeded any contact
with other nations. Hence the inhabitants of Cape York were
first influenced by Papuan immigrants, and they in their turn
influenced for good their southern neighbours; for instance, on
the east coast, according to Angas, all the new popular songs,
and the dances which accompany them, have been propagated
from the north in a southerly direction. 37 But the degraded con-
dition of the Australians is principally due to their ignorance of
agriculture, while they are not strictly maritime people like the
Fuegians and the Eskimo. They were thus obliged to content
themselves with the produce of the chase, with the fish and shell-
fish which they were able to obtain on the seacoast and the banks
M H. Wilkes, United States Exploring Expedition, vol. ii. p. 186.
M Browne in Petermann's Mittheilungen. 1856.
91 Australia and New Zealand, vol. ii.
Food. 335
of the rivers, and with the nutriment afforded by wild roots.
While thus dependent on chance from day to day, man does
not as yet recoil from cold-blooded animals, such as caterpillars,
lizards, ants, and worms. As hunters destitute of bows and
arrows, even the throwing-stick would not have ensured them
against frequent times of scarcity had they not made great use of
prairie fires. But the chase itself necessitated frequent change of
abode. When the pools left by the last rainy season began to dry
up, the natives were obliged to leave their hunting grounds and
repair to the well-known spots where water still remained in
deep pools. Thus it may perhaps be the steppe-like nature of
the country which has kept the natives from agriculture in any
form.
Recent explorers who, though hardy and meritorious, were
usually uneducated men, have frequently stated that Australian
grass consists of oat and barley grass. It would be natural to
suppose that in such an extensive and sunny region of steppes
some wild species of cereals should exist, 3 8 and this is actually the
case, and in relatively, if not absolutely, greater variety than in
America. Thus in the marshes near Sturt's Creek and on the
Victoria, Ferdinand Miiller, the botanist, found wild rice, which
the natives ground between two stones, and the edible seeds ol
a wild cereal of the genus Pannicum, or millet, and occasionally
in North-western Australia a species of wild oat. On April 28th,
1 86 1, MacDouall Stuart, in his second attempt to cross the con
tinent, discovered at Tomkinson Creek a species of corn resem-
bling wheat, except that the grains were smaller and the straw much
tougher. In the autumn of 1861, when staying near the remark
able lake district between 28 and 26 south latitude somewha!
to the east of the longitude of Adelaide, MacKinlay noticed a
leguminous vetch-like plant growing on the lands covered by the
floods of the rainy season. The natives swept up the fallen seeds,
cleaned them by winnowing, ground them to flour, and baked them
into flat cakes. It is probable from the same seed that the tribes
on Cooper Creek made the Nardu bread, with which they for a
time prolonged the lives of those unfortunate men, Burke and Wills,
88 Landsborough, Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, voL xxxiii.
336 The Australians.
who were the first persons to cross the continent of Australia, on
their return from Cape York. Howitt, who there rescued King,
their last surviving companion, describes (Cooper's Creek, Sept.
ist, 1861), the plant which probably produces the Nardu seeds
as resembling clover in foliage, but covered with a silvery down,
which envelops the seeds also while fresh. When the weed dies,
the seeds, which are flat and almost oval, literally cover the ground,
and when they have been separated from the sand, they are crushed
by the natives and made into bread. 39
These facts are of great importance, as proving that the manu-
facture of flour and the baking of bread are older than agriculture.
Various reasons may be adduced to show how it happened that
the natives never thought of multiplying these useful products
by artificial cultivation, thus supplying themselves with provisions,
diminishing their dependence on the produce of the chase, freeing
themselves from the necessity for wandering, and consequently
rendering it possible to rear a more numerous posterity. Aus-
tralia, especially in the tropical parts, possesses a great variety of
fruit trees, so that scarcely any explorers return without bringing
home some new or nominally new discovery of this description.
Even bananas are said to grow wild in the Carpentaria country,
and in the north, Ferdinand Miiller came upon a grape-bearing
creeper vhich he considers identical with our vine. In the south,
the so-called Hottentot fig, which is the fruit of a species ot
mesembryanthemum, is a natural article of food. The adoption
of agriculture by the Australian people was, however, delayed less
by the fruits, which remain in an edible condition only for a short
time, than by edible roots, which, unlike the cereals, required no
careful preservation. The peninsula of Carpentaria produces the
true yam (Dioscorea Carpentaria), while the south yields the
roots of the sorrel, an oxalis, and the grass-tree, which is a
species of Xanthorhea. The root of the latter is dug up by the
women with pointed sticks, and is always kept as the last resource
in case of failure of the chase. On the Swan River, on the west
coast, kangaroos are so plentiful in places, that when the natives
were promised ninepence a head for them, they brought in such
w Petermann's Mittheilungen. 1862.
Food. 337
a number that the settlers fed their pigs with them. The late
James Morill, who lived for seventeen years among the coast
tribes of Queensland, near Cape Bowling Green, also states that
food was plentiful. It may be said that Australian society was
not yet ripe for the transition to agriculture, that is to say, was
not sufficiently dense, for the population is estimated at not more
than 200,000, by many at only 60,000, for which the hunting
grounds were more than adequate.
Yet the digging up of roots is so troublesome, and the food so
little nutritious, that it appears strange that as, by the abundant
growth of the cereals enumerated, Nature had so clearly shown
them the method and the advantages of agriculture, the Australians
should never have thought of putting seeds into the ground. It
is only because habit has blunted our apprehension of the
extraordinary, that we fail to perceive that an unusual degree of
intelligence is implied by the first scattering of seed in the
expectation of a result. The ancient Greeks, who were nearer to
the first movements of human civilization than we are, and from
whom the great first steps were not hidden, regarded a purposive
invention of agriculture as beyond the intellectual powers of man,
and therefore ascribed it to a deity, just as the Egyptians, amongst
other honours, gave to their Osiris the credit of having taught
mankind the art of sowing seed. The first cultivation of plants,
even if practised only by migratory hordes in their summer
quarters, contains the germ of all future progress, for man then
ceases to depend on the chance of finding a supply of natural
roots. When his strength is not perpetually exhausted by the
exertion of hunting, man has time left for the invention of
improvements. The high degree of intelligence often met with
in hunting tribes is quite absorbed by the chase itself, as it is
constantly and keenly directed to the observation of the nature
of both the game and the hunting ground. The chase is also
fatiguing to the body, so that in default of some other mode of
gaining a maintenance, intellectual development, which always
requires physical repose, is out of the question.
338 The Papuans of Australia and Asia.
IL THE PAPUANS OF AUSTRALIA AND ASIA.
THE Papuans of Australia include the inhabitants of New Guinea,
the Pelew Islands, Tombara (New Ireland), Birara, the Solomon
group, the New Hebrides, New Caledonia, with the adjacent
Loyalty Islands, and lastly of the Fiji archipelago. The dis-
tinctive characters of their race are preserved in the greatest
purity in New Guinea, although even there, especially in the
western half, intermixtures with the Asiatic Malays have recently
taken place. In the other islands mentioned, the Polynesians
have intruded themselves among the older populations, and
have materially influenced the language and manners, but their
influence upon the physical characters has been much less, so
that the inhabitants of the Pelew and Fiji groups, as well as of
New Caledonia, may be unhesitatingly reckoned among the Papuan
race. In the Carolines and Mariannes, or Ladrones, Polynesian
and Papuan blood is intermingled, but the former preponderates,
so that, as hybrids, these so-called Micronesians are more correctly
placed in the next group of nations.
The most distinctive mark of the Australian Papuans is their
peculiarly flattened, abundant, and long hair, which grows in tufts
and surrounds the head like a periwig, or a crown, eight inches
high, which is however probably much aided by constant care
and the aid of a three-pronged comb. 1 This tufted matting of the
hairs is also common to the Hottentots, whose hair does not
however grown so long or so thick; perhaps close miscroscopic
comparison would show different causes for the tendency. The
Papuans are also distinguished from the aborigines of the Cape
by the abundant growth of their beard, and by their general
hairiness. 2 The skin of all Papuans is dark, almost black in New
Caledonia, brown or chocolate colour in New Guinea, blue-black
at Fiji, this peculiar colour being due to the growth of a light-
1 See illustration in Wallace's Malay Archipelago, vol. ii. p. 306.
* Nieuw Guinea ethnographisch en natuurkundig onderzocht en beschreven.
Amsterdam, 1862.
Physical Characters. 339
coloured down upon the skin. 3 Welcker's measurements show
that the New Caledonians have an index of breadth of 70, an
index of height of 77 ; in other Papuans the numbers are 73 for
the one and 75 for the other, which show that the form of the
skull is narrow and high. This agrees with the results obtained
by Barnard Davis in the cases of the inhabitants of the Solomon
Islands, the New Hebrides, and New Caledonia; he found 72 as
the index of breadth and 76-79 of height. The Papuans must
therefore also be ranked as dolichocephals. The jaws are prog-
nathous, although not to so great a degree as occurs in extreme
cases among negroes. The lips are fleshy and somewhat in-
tumescent. The broad nose is hooked, giving the countenance
the Jewish cast noticed by all observers. It is noticeable in
the inhabitants of New Caledonia and of Annatom in the New
Hebrides, 4 in the Fijians, and in the inhabitants of Errub and
Darnley Islands,* of the north coast of New Guinea near Dorey, 6
of the south coast on the River Utanata,? and, lastly, of the
Pelew Islands. 8 We gather from descriptions that the Papuans,
independent of local variations, are of medium stature, or at least
certainly not tall.
Wallace considers the inhabitants of the islands on the coast
of New Guinea, such as Waigiou and Mysol, and likewise of the
Aru and Ke groups, as well as those of Larat and Timor-Laut, to
be pure Papuans, while we find on the more westerly islands, on
the Molucca group, including Halmahera, the Banda Islands, the
eastern half of Floris, as well as on Chandana and all the islands
to the east of it, the remains of an aboriginal population, once
belonging to the Papuan race, but now much mixed with Malay
blood. It is far more difficult to determine the race of the
aboriginal population of the Philippines and those islands which
on geological grounds must be assigned to Asia and not to
3 Waitz (Gerland), Anthropologie, vol. vi.
4 Waitz (Gerland), vol. vi. 5 Jukes, Voyage of H. M.S. Fly
6 Wallace, Malay Archipelago, vol. ii. p. 305.
7 Natuurlijke geschiedenes der nederlansdche overzeesche bezlttingen. Land
en volkenkunde door Salomon Mliller.
8 Karl Semper, Die Palau-Inseln. Leipzic, 1873.
340 The Papuans of Australia and Asia.
Australia. 9 We shall not adopt the ordinary names of Melane-
sians, Alfurs, Harafurs, Negritos or Australian negroes, for all these
appellations have been so loosely used that their application has
become ambiguous. 10 For instance, certain Alfurs on the island
of Celebes are described as having physical characters which
clearly show that they are Malays ; and it has become customary
in the Dutch settlements to describe as Alfurs any so-called
savages, even when they are undoubtedly of Malay origin, as in
the case of the Batta of Sumatra, and of the Dyaks of Borneo."
We therefore prefer to call the remnants of the aboriginal popu-
lation of these islands Asiatic Papuans. To these belong the Aeta
of the Philippines, who have preserved their racial characters in
full purity ; but this applies only to the few bands en the north-
eastern shore of Luzon. In Petermann's Mittheilungen for 1876,
Dr. Meyer proves that the so-called Negritos of the Philippines
are pure Papuans. Karl Semper found their average stature to
be 4 feet 7 inches in the case of men, and 4 feet 4 inches in that
of women. In common with the Australian Papuans, they have
woolly crimped crowns of lustreless hair and flat noses widening
below. Their skin is not black, as the Malay name of Aeta
would lead us to expect, but of a dark copper-colour. The lips
are a little intumescent, and the jaws slightly prognathous. These
hunting tribes, unlike Malays, use bows and arrows. 12
If we may judge from a photograph copied by Jagor,^ the
Negritos of Mariveles, and the Negritos of the north of Luzon
might be classed as Aeta. At present we should be justified in
classing this aboriginal people, which has now been supplanted
and nearly extirpated by the Malays, with the Australian Papuans.
We assign to them the value of a subdivision, but it is as a pre-
caution, for we require more accurate researches than have yet
been made to enable us finally to decide as to the position of
their race. Several skulls which reached Berlin through Schetelig
On the natural Iftnits of Asia and Australia, see Peschel's " Neue
Probleme dei- vergleich. Erdkunde,"p. 26. Leipsic, 1869.
" Waitz, Anthropologie, vol. v.
11 Riedel in Zeitschrift fur Elhnologie. 1871.
12 Karl Semper, Die Philippinen. 1866. w Reisen in der Philippines
Negritos and Mincopies. 341
as those of Negritos of the island of Luzon, had, according to
Virchow's measurements, a relative breadth of 80*8 to 90*6, with
a relative height of 77^6 to 8 2 '3. They were therefore brachy-
cephalic, of small height, prognathism, chiefty due to the position
of the alveoli, was strongly marked in them, and the zygomatic
arches were very prominent. The skulls were too greatly brachy-
cephalic not to render us doubtful as to their relationship with
the Papuans of Australia. It is quite possible that the form of
these heads was of artificial origin, as Virchow strongly suspects.
Moreover, Karl Semper states that the skulls in question all came
from the mountains of Mariveles in the neighbourhood of Manila,
the population of which has long ago lost its purity by inter-
mixture. 14 Scattered remnants of a former aboriginal population
of Papuan race were also seen by Wallace at Sohoe (Sohu) and
Galela on Halmahera. They have the Papuan crown of hair, are
bearded, and are hairy on the body, but are at the same time
as fair as the Malays. x s
Lastly, far to the westward are the Mincopies l6 of the Andaman
Islands, a small race of men resembling the Papuans in the
growth of their hair. As they shave their heads quite smooth with
shells or the fragments of broken glass which are occasionally
washed upon the shore, this statement may appear somewhat
strange, *7 yet the tufted matting of the hair was observed on
Mincopie prisoners at Moulmein, by A. Fytche, who describes
their skin as " sooty, not black," and notes the total absence of
beard. 18 Those who depend exclusively on the character of the
hair may regard the Mincopie as the western advanced post of
the Papuan race, and must suppose that the latter, at some remote
period, spread from the mainland of Southern Asia eastwards to
the Australian Ocean. Z 9 This would be as good as proved, if,
on account of their abundant beards and frizzly hair, accom-
panied, according to Logan's description, by a brown or black
complexion, we may class the Semangs of the peninsula of
14 Die Palau-Inseln. " Malay Archipelago.
16 See above for a description of their manners, p. 147.
1T Heifer, in a description of a Mincopie in his journal, says : " His hair,
shorn on both sides, formed a curly comb of wool."
18 Petermann's Mittheilungen. 1862. w Waitz, Anthropologie, voL v.
342 The Papuans of A ustralia and Asia.
Malacca, who are a diminutive race of men, physically and intel-
lectually feeble, and now in process of extinction, with the Asiatic
Papuans. Latham, who has investigated their language, classes
them with the Negritos, which according to him implies relation-
ship with the Aetas, and he scarcely admits that they bear any
resemblance to the Andamanese, but places them unhesitatingly
in the Malay group. 20
The languages of the Australian Papuans make use of roots
of one or more syllables, and effect the definition of meaning
by prefixes and suffixes, of which the primary signification has
generally disappeared. Herr von d. Gabelentz, who examined
and compared the languages of ten Papuan islands, discovered,
amid all other differences in the vocabularies, an agreement in
the mode of word structure. Besides this, a relationship with the
Polynesian languages was everywhere shown; at any rate, the
personal pronouns were analogous, and also several adverbs of
place and a large number of prefixes. Among the latter is faka,
which appears in all Papuan and Polynesian languages only as a
prefix, but in Fiji may still be used as an independent word or as
a suffix. 21 The investigation led to the general conclusion that
the Papuan languages have more in common with the Polynesian
than could arise from merely borrowing from one another. These
unquestionable facts involve a great problem, for from the agree-
ment of the languages a common origin was inferred in the case
of two races which are very distinctly separated by their physical
characters. But the results obtained by Herr von d. Gabelentz
admit of another interpretation. The vocabularies which he
examined were collected in the Fiji group, on the New Hebridean
islands of Annatom, Tanna, Erromango, and Mallikolo, on Marre'
and Lifu in the Loyalty group, on the adjacent island of New
Caledonia, and lastly in Bauro (San Christoval) and Guadacanar
of the Salomon group. Intermixture with Polynesians in all these
islands has been proved, in consequence of which the Papuans
have adopted Polynesian customs and manners. A fuller examin-
" Opuscula. London, 1860.
11 Von d. Gabelentz uber die melanesischen Sprachen in the transactions of
the philoloL histor. Classe der Kgl. Sachsgesellsch. der Wissenschaften. 1861.
New Guinea. 343
ation of the Papuan languages of New Guinea than any which,
as we believe, has yet been made, can alone explain the linguistic
relationship.
The Papuan of New Guinea is clearly distinguished from the
reserved and cautious Malay by his noisy, talkative, petulant, and
inquisitive nature, and by his constant restlessness. The Papuans
of New Guinea, the Fiji group, and New Caledonia, cook in
earthen vessels, which are never found among Polynesians. The
inventive powers of the Fijians are shown by their habit of dyeing
and stamping their clothing material made of bark (Tapa), with
gaudy patterns, like those of chintz, by means of carved wooden
stamps or stencil-plates of banana leaves. The people of Hum-
boldt's Bay in New Guinea, when the Dutch sailors gave them
paper and pencil, which they could certainly never have seen
before, drew fishes and birds with a firm hand. 22 Wallace gives
great weight to the fact that the Papuan decorates his house, his
boat, and his utensils with carvings, and thus exhibits an artistic
impulse of which the Malay race is almost entirely deficient. 2 3
But this latter is certainly only true of the Asiatic Malays, and in
this case it may be ascribed to the circumstance that the trades
and arts of semi-civilization were neglected and extinguished after a
lengthened commercial intercourse with nations of superior refine-
ment. The Polynesian Malays, on the contrary, greatly excel all
Papuans in artistic carvings and tatooings. These latter, as their
wide distribution over the sea shows, ventured upon the ocean
early and perhaps earlier than the Malays, but have since then
been far outstripped by the latter in nautical skill. The Papuans
use unpierced stone implements, 24 though in the west of New
Guinea the knowledge of iron ore and the art of smelting has
become general. From the fact that bellows with tubes and pumps
of Malay type 2 s are used in the latter process, we may infer that
this advance came from the West.
After the age of maturity the women always wear the liku, or
88 Nieuw Guinea ethnographisch onderzoocht. 1862.
88 Malay Archipelago, vol. ii. p. 447.
84 J. G. Wood, Natural History of Man.
85 O. Finch, Neu-Guinea.
344 The Papuans of Australia and Asia.
fringed girdle; among the men a cloth above the loins is cus-
tomary, but on secluded shores and islands, a piece of bamboo,
a rolled up leaf, a gourd, or a shell is considered sufficient for
purposes of decency. 26 Complete nudity in men is rare, but is
said to occur in New Ireland. 2 7 Bows and arrows as hunting
weapons are found only in New Guinea and its immediate vicinity.
Captain Cook observed from a distance on the south coast of this
island a tube in the hands .of the natives, who placed it as if for
taking aim, after which a cloud seemed to issue from its mouth. If
a report had been heard at the same time we should have had to
suppose that the Papuans used fire-arms. But, according to
Salomon M tiller, a fine dust is blown from the tube, and signals
are made by the direction of the cloud. 28
The Papuans live on the produce of such agriculture as the
cultivation of trees. They possess only seedless varieties of the
bread-fruit tree, so that they must have borrowed it from other
nations. 2 9 Their fields and gardens are fenced. The New
Caledonians build water conduits of great length to irrigate
these. 30 They have no pigs, which with dogs are otherwise
universal among the Papuans, and are their only domestic animals.
This race has deeply degraded itself by cannibalism, which
prevails in New Guinea, New Caledonia, the Fiji Islands, and
probably in other parts inhabited by this race.
Otherwise the Papuans of New Guinea and the smaller islands
are praised for their chastity and morality, their respect for
parents, and their brotherly affection.3 1 In the New Hebrides
old people are buried alive, but it is probably, as in the Fiji
Islands, at their own desire. The belief in a future life is strong ;
and as the state in which man abandons this world is believed to
be his condition in the next, premature death is preferred to total
debilitation. The horrible scenes which Williams describes at
Peschel, Zeitalter der Entdeckungen, pp. 321, 454. Prince of Wied,
Reise nach Brasilien, vol. i. p. 377.
87 Pere Lesson, Voyage autour du Monde. Paris, 1839.
1 Natuurlijke Geschiedenis der nederlandsche overzeesche bezittingen
Land en Volkenkunde. 1839.
w Waitz (Gerland), Anthropologie, voL vL
" Knoblauch, Ausland, 1866. " O. Finch, Neu-Guinea.
Papuan Habits. 345
the burying of a living Fiji chief, whose wives were strangled at
the same time, are not unfavourably explained by this superstition ;
indeed the custom which is found in the Loyalty Islands of
killing the mother or aunt of a loved dead child that it may not
be quite forsaken in the other world, is almost pathetic. 3 2 With
this is closely connected the worship of the dead, whose skulls
are set up as household gods, invoked for signs, and appealed to
for assistance in difficult undertakings. This custom cannot have
been borrowed from the Polynesians, as it has been observed among
the Papuans of New Guinea. In the latter place are found large,
high, empty buildings, erected on piles, which are used as temples or
places of devotion. 33 The Papuans hold dualistic opinions, for they
hurl all manner of imprecations at an evil being called Manuvel,
while they offer worship and sacrifice only to the good guardian
spirit, under the name of Narvoje.34 There are no professional
Shamans among the nations of pure race, but each individual
studies to interpret the future. The innocence of persons accused
is tested by ordeal, either by boiling water or by prolonged
immersion. In New Guinea, and wherever Polynesian visitors
have not introduced their customs and social tenets, freedom and
equality prevail, and the power of the chiefs is therefore nominal.
The Papuan race has attained its highest intellectual and social
development in the Fiji Islands, where, owing to frequent inter-
course with the Tongans, it has very readily adopted Polynesian
inventions and institutions. Among these are the drinking of
Yakona, or Kava, the division into guilds or castes, and, lastly, the
institution of taboo, which the chiefs have carefully fostered as
a means of increasing their power. It is only necessary to trail
their garments over the fields in order to consecrate to their own
use all the produce which they had touched. The chiefs of
Mbengga, an island off the south coast of Great Fiji, bore the title
of Gali-cuva-ki-lagi, or "subject to Heaven alone." The small
island despots were in constant strife, and their history is in many
points comparable with that of the Peloponnesian war. A kind
83 Fiji and the Fijians.
88 Waitz (Gerland), Anthropologie, vol. vL
84 O. Finsch, Neu- Guinea.
16
346 The Papuans of Australia and Asia.
of diplomatic corps existed at the various courts, and was familiar
with political arts.3S When embassies were sent, sticks and nets
were used to aid the memory. This seems a first attempt at
symbolical embodiment of thought, and a proof of a need for
writing. In the Pelew Islands strings with knots and loops serve
for the exchange of news, or to authorize any commission en-
trusted to a third person. In the local dialect they are called
rust, and it is a significant fact that this word is now applied also
to the letters of Europeans.3 6 The Fijians are polite and polished
in their conversation : according to Williams, their languages con-
tain expressions which exactly correspond to the French Monsieur
and Madame.*? Even in presence of Europeans they retain a
strong feeling of national pride, which to us seems like ignorant
conceit. 3 8
They are extraordinarily rich in mythological fictions, which are
recited in rhythm as well as rhyme, and in magniloquent language.
A European, who told them the stories of the Arabian Nights,
gained a considerable sum of money from his auditors. As in
all Papuans, belief in a future life is so powerful that it leads to
suicide and human sacrifice on the graves of the deceased. As a
matter of course, this is accompanied by a worship of the dead,
in addition to which Ndengei, the creator of the world and of
mankind, is adored under the symbol of a serpent. 39
^Among their industrial inventions is a net, as a protection
against mosquitoes : the neighbouring Polynesians have neither
these nets nor earthen vessels, such as are made by the Fijians
of red or blue clay, and are remarkable for their true and
graceful outlines. Although in shipbuilding they are the pupils
of the Polynesians, yet they manufacture canoes one hundred and
eighteen feet long, and twenty-four feet wide, fit them with masts
of sixty-eight feet in height, and decorate them profusely with
carvings. For these purposes their tools are only unpierced
** Horatio Hale, Ethnography, p. 51.
* Karl Semper, Die Palau-Inselru
17 Williams, Fiji and the Fijians.
* Waitz (Gerland), Anthropologie, vol vi.
Williams, Fiji and the Fijians.
Malays. 347
stone axes, and rat's teeth for the finer sculpture ; brain corals,
and the skin of the sting ray are used as files, and, lastly, pumice-
stone for polishing.
They have advanced so far in the science of war as to fortify
their villages with moats or canals, and to lay in stores of food,
nominally sufficient for four years. Unluckily, they are more in-
clined to cunning than to heroic courage, and they are also
generally accused of craft, falsehood, and inordinate distrust. It is
among this undoubtedly highly gifted and active people that
cannibalism did and does especially prevail.
III. THE MONGOLOID NATIONS.
To this race belong the Polynesian and Asiatic Malays, the people
of South-eastern and Eastern Asia, the inhabitants of Thibet,
some of the hill tribes of the Himalayas, as well as all Northern
Asiatics with their kinsmen in northern Europe, and, lastly, the
aboriginal population of America. Their common characters are
long straight hair, which is cylindrical in section; almost complete
absence of beard and hair on the body; a dark-coloured skin,
varying from a leather-like yellow to deep brown, or sometimes
tending to red; and prominent cheek-bones, generally accom-
panied by an oblique setting of the eyes. Their other characters
occur in so many gradations that the local types pass into one
another, as will be shown in each group. The linguistic characters
alone afford grounds for subdivision.
I. THE MALAY RACE.
The Malay languages are distinguishable by a community of
roots but not of words. This indicates that the members of this
family of nations separated before the structure of the language had
assumed fixed principles. The primitive language itself developed
independently and stood alone in the world. Its defining roots are
sometimes placed before and sometimes after the main word. The
Polynesian dialects are poorer in sounds and have remained more
348 The Mongoloid Nations.
archaic ; the Western or Asiatic dialects are richer, and in them the
morphological and material elements of the groups of roots are
at the same time more closely united by transformations of sound. 1
The home in which this primitive language was developed was
situated in South-eastern Asia, either on the great islands of the
Sunda or on the projection of the continent. From this centre
a portion of the family, now become maritime, swarmed out to-
wards the east, peopling the islands of the South Seas as far as
the Hawai group on the north, and Easter Island on the extreme
east. This branch of the Malays came into frequent contact with
the Papuans, thus giving rise to the hybrids which are called
Micronesians.
The time at which the Polynesian Malays separated from their
Asiatic kinsfolk cannot as yet be even approximately determined.
An able botanist, Berthold Seemann, who was taken from us pre-
maturely, has indeed remarked that the palm wine, which is
obtained from the sheath of the cocoa-nut tree blossom, is called
toddy, or taddy, by the Malays of the Sunda Islands. As this
word is derived from Sanscrit, 2 it would appear to have been the
Brahminical Hindoos who first introduced the important art of
preparing palm wine into the islands of Southern Asia. Now, as
the cocoa-nut palm probably spread from east to west, and occurs in
all tropical islands of the South Seas, as its nuts are the daily food
of the inhabitants of the atolls, or coral groups, and its milk is
often the only means of appeasing thirst, it is hardly credible that
if the Polynesians before their migration knew the secret of pre-
paring palm wine, they should ever have disused it. But as this
beverage was entirely unknown to them at the time of the first
visits of Europeans, their emigration must have taken place before
the arrival in Java of Sanscrit-speaking Indians, hence certainly
before the beginning of the era of the Saka or Salivana, which was
introduced about the year 78 B.C. 3 But this argument points to a
period too recent. The evolution of the varieties of the language
required a far greater lapse of time. We may also add that the
1 Fr. Miiller, Reise der Fregatte Novara ; Anthropologie.
* Berthold Seemann, Dottings on the Roadside, p. 153.
* Crawford, Dictionary of the Indian Islands, p. 137.
Polynesian Malays. 349
art of manufacturing earthen vessels was not yet known to the
Polynesians in their original home at the time of their migration,
for they all cook their food by means of heated stones. On the
other hand, the custom of consecrating persons or things so that
they must not be touched was already established in this original
abode, for traces of the institution of taboo are still preserved in
the form of interdicts in the island of Timor and among the
Dyaks of Borneo.'*
The prevalent eastern monsoons and westward currents offered
no insurmountable obstacles to the eastward diffusion of the
Polynesians from the west, for there are plenty of contrary winds
and counter currents. That these obstacles were formerly much
over-estimated is proved by the map of Tupaia,s a Polynesian who
was familiar with all the island groups between the Marquesas to
the east, and the Fiji archipelago in the west, so that in Captain
Cook's time intercourse from Tahiti must have extended through-
out forty degrees of longitude. Comparison of Polynesian dialects
and the traditions of the natives afford further means of ascer-
taining the order in which the various colonizations succeeded
each other.
The inhabitants of Rapa-nui, or Easter Island, maintain that they
come from Oparo or Rapaiti (27 35' s. lat, 144 20' w. long.), and
therefore, on their voyage to their own country, must have touched
at Pitcairn's Island and abandoned it again, for remains of old
stone structures are still standing there. 6 According to the native
traditions they landed, four hundred in number, under a leader
or king Tu-ku-i-u, or Tocuyo, who is also called Hotu, or Hotu
Motua.7 From the time of their arrival to the present day twenty-
two chiefs have succeeded to the government, so that if the
average duration of each reign is reckoned at twenty years, the
colonization of the island does not date further back than the
4 Waitz (Gerland), Anthropologie. Spenser St. John, Life in the Far
East, vol. i. p. 175.
5 United States Exploring Expedition, 1846, where this map is for the
first time correctly explained by Horatio Hales.
6 Waitz, Anthropologie, vol. v.
7 Palmer, Visit to Easter Island, in the Journal of the Royal Geographical
Society, vol. xL 1870.
350 The Mongoloid Nations.
year A.D. 1400. The tradition will gain in weight if the three
wooden tables of hieroglyphics, which were recently found among
the Easter Islanders and carried off by Europeans, contain the
list of the kings' names, in early attempts at writing. 8
The inhabitants have made hundreds of high but very rude stone
images with human faces, of a very friable trachyte lava, and have
set them up throughout the island, perhaps in memory of the dead. 9
They also built great stone terraces which recall the Morai of the
oLher Polynesians. Lastly, ruins have been found of spacious
buildings of stone slabs, which though now in a dilapidated con-
dition, must have been inhabited within 150 years, for on their
walls are pictures in white, red, and black, representing sheep,
horses, and ships with their rigging, 10 and Roggeween was the
first seafarer to open intercourse with the inhabitants in 1721. On
good grounds it has been conjectured that a civilized people, now
extinct, were in possession of Easter Island before the arrival of
the present Polynesian inhabitants, but as yet these suppositions
have received no confirmation. On the other hand, the present
inhabitants confirm the experience that when a handful of people
stray into an ocean solitude, and live there without the incitement
of intercourse with others, they gradually lose the accomplish-
ments and capacities which they possessed before their separation.
Though the other Polynesians now erect only wooden buildings,
yet the remains of ancient stone edifices have been found on
various islands of the South Seas. 11
Names of islands and of places in the Samoan group (Sevaii,
Upulu, Lefuka), reoccur in the Sandwich Islands in the forms
Hawaii, Upolu, and Lehua. Yet the first settler of the Sandwich
Islands did not come directly from the Samoan group, even if their
original home was there. Islands of the Marquesas archipelago,
such as Noukahiva and Taowatte, are mentioned in their old songs,
Meinicke, in the Zeitschrift fur Erdkunde. 1871.
9 According to the prints in the Revue maritime et coloniale, and photo-
graphs which we have received, these sculptures strongly resemble the well-
known wooden Tiki images of New Zealand.
lf Palmer, Visit to Easter Island in the Journal of the Royal Geographical
Society, vol. xl. 1870.
11 Waitz (Anthropologie, vol. v.) gives a list of these remains.
Migrations. 351
as is also Tahiti. 13 As the dialect of the Kanaks or Hawaians is
closely allied to that of the Marquesas Islanders, Horatio Hale
considers it to have come from the latter, while its legends and
proverbs even point back to Tahiti. X 3 The lists of kings contain
sixty-seven names, but of these at least twenty-two must be rejected
as fabulous, so that, allowing an average of twenty years for each
reign, we must place the colonization of the group in the middle
of the tenth century. '* It was only after the emigration of the
Kanaks that the important discovery was made in Tahiti and in the
Marquesas Islands that bread-fruit may be preserved for a long
time if allowed to ferment, for the practice was unknown in the
Sandwich Islands. 15 Here again we perceive how unfavourably
local separation, which hinders the spread of useful discoveries,
affected remote islands.
The first visitors from over the sea landed considerably earlier
in the Marquesas group, in the dialects of which Tongan and
Tahitian peculiarities reappear, from which circumstance it may
be inferred that it was colonized from the Society and the Friendly
Islands. It was from Vavau, or one of the Friendly Islands, that
the Noukahivian chief Gattanewa, or more correctly Keatanui, led
the first inhabitants to the group which became their home, and
the names of no less than eighty-eight other rulers might be
enumerated. 16 This would take us back to the first centuries of
our era, unless we must make allowance here also for fabulous
personages at the beginning of the list.
There are no traditions respecting the first colonization of the
Low Archipelago ; the local vocabulary contains an extraordinary
number of peculiarities, whereas the syntax agrees with that of
the Tahitian dialect, so that an immigration from the Society
Islands probably took place. 17 The traditions of the Maori of
13 J. J. Jarves, History of the Hawaian or Sandwich Islands. Boston,
1844.
13 Waitz, Anthropologie, vol. v.
14 H. Hale assumes thirty years as the duration of a reign. If this is pre-
ferred the above calculation can be altered.
15 Von Langsdorff, Reise um die Welt.
16 Tylor, Early History of Mankind.
11 Waitz (Gerland), Anthropologie, vol. v.
352 The Mongoloid Nations.
New Zealand are, on the contrary, vivid, for they profess to know
the number and names of their ships, and the points on the
shore at which their forefathers landed. The northern island was
first reached from the east, yet the Maori call their early home
Hawaiki, thus pointing to the Samoan group, although Hawaiki
subsequently came to mean a far off land of bliss, the home
to which departed souls were destined to return. 18 The Maori
did not bring with them the domestic animals of their native
land, yet their language has retained the Polynesian word for
pig, puaka.^ Their forefathers must have known the cocoa-nut
palm, for the Polynesian word for the nut occurs in the Maori
language, although only applied to an implement used in sooth-
saying. 20 The list of the New Zealand chiefs extends backwards
for eighteen or twenty generations, so that scarcely 400 years can
have elapsed since the first colonization. Stragglers are moreover
said to have arrived from Hawaiki about a century ago, and to
have brought the Kumara, or sweet potato, to New Zealand. 21
Earlier or later colonizations of the smaller groups of islands
have been proved; and even if no great weight can be attributed
to the calculations given above, it is certain that the islands of the
Pacific were gradually peopled from Samoa or Navigators' Islands,
and since this may have happened at a period not very remote,
traditions of an immigration have nowhere entirely died out.
The Polynesians fished but did not hunt. 22 They lived also on
the produce of the cocoa-nut groves, the bread-fruit, and a few
tuberous plants, such as the Taro and the sweet potato. The dog
and the pig were their domestic animals, the absence of which
in New Zealand is probably due to the circumstance that during
the long passage the live stock on board the vessels was eaten ;
for in other respects the colonization of new islands was always
well planned. The distribution of land and water in South-
eastern Asia was of itself an inducement to seek for trans-oceanic
" Schirren (Wandersagen der Neu Seelander) and Hochstetter place
Hawaiki in the lower world, 'and allow it only a legendary signification.
Gerland, however, has skilfully vindicated the older opinion of H. Hale.
19 Waitz (Gerland), Anthropologie, voL v.
" Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. i. p. 80.
81 Hale, Ethnographic. See above, p. 184.
Polynesian Habits. 353
abodes, for nowhere else in the world have former continents been
resolved into islands of such various degrees of size. The low
coral reefs are inadequately protected against storms and surf;
atolls are occasionally destroyed, and their inhabitants obliged to
seek a new home. The Polynesians, in common with all Malays,
are clever seamen; they are indebted to their own ingenuity
for the single or double outrigger which secures their narrow
sailing craft from being upset by the rolling waves.
Their manufactures are those of the age of polished but un-
pierced stone implements. The spear and club are the usual
weapons of war. They are without earthen vessels, but cook
their food by means of heated stones. Their dwellings consist
of posts with roofs of leaves, and their clothing of bark of the
paper mulberry tree, although the cotton plant grows wild in the
the islands.
The religious emotions of the Polynesians manifested them-
selves in worship of the forces of nature personified, whose deeds
and conduct, interwoven with geological legends, are as cleverly
and fancifully adorned with myths as is the Greek Olympus. The
Maori of New Zealand, detestable as they are, on account ot
their cannibalism, yet possess beautiful legends of the Creation,
according to which, thought, as the subtlest element, first ger-
minated in the primordial night, and was followed by desire ; or,
according to a different version, thought arose first, then the spirit,
and lastly, matter. 2 3 Beside the forces of nature, the chiefs after
death also received divine honours, 2 and oracles were instituted
at their shrines. The priestly order was well versed in all the
juggleries of Shamanism, but was held in far less respect than
vvere the princes, who boasted of divine descent, and were certain
jfx worship after death. Closely connected with this was their
privilege of tabooing, a right which enabled them by touching a
field to render it unlawful for others to set foot upon it, or to eat
the produce of the harvest. Taboo, however, in some forms,
could be inflicted by those of lower rank. It served also as a pro-
tection to property, and enforced the observance of useful police
23 Waitz (Gerland), Anthropologie, vol. vi.
24 Mariner, Tonga Islands, vol. ii.
354 The Mongoloid Nations.
regulations. *s Any breach of this interdict was unheard of, for
temporal and eternal punishments menaced the reprobate. Un-
conscious infraction of this institution led to sanguinary acts of
vengeance on the part of the nations against the Europeans,
and Captain Cook, although received by the Sandwich Islanders
as a god both before and after his death, perished in expiation
of breach of taboo. The misapprehension of this custom long
blackened the character of the Polynesians. A Maori perhaps
came to the house of a European settler and begged for a drink ;
after refreshing himself he would either break the glass or quietly
carry it off, since it had been consecrated by contact with him,
and was unfitted, therefore, for use by any other individual;
but the person robbed ever after entertained a deep grudge
against New Zealanders in general on account of this supposed
act of base ingratitude. The difficulties caused in daily life by
this strange institution were partly counterbalanced by the fact
that slaves made prisoners in war were free from the regulations
of taboo.
The Polynesian communities were divided into princes, nobles,
and plebeians. The forms of intercourse were adjusted according
to these gradations, and the gratification of aristocratic vanity was
amply provided for by rigid etiquette. In the Society Islands we
moreover find the association of the Arreoi, a confraternity halt
social, half artistic, for the performance of dramatic dances. To
this society, divided into seven grades distinguished by tattoo
marks, belonged princes, nobles, and commons, men as well as
women ; the children of these last were killed as soon as born.
The Arreoi wandered from islancUto island to perform their festal
games, and were everywhere entertained with merrymakings.
They have been justly praised in that, as cultivators of art, they
have diffused higher culture and social polish. 26
The Asiatic Malays, who remained nearer their original home,
are still to be met with in the peninsula of Malacca, or it may be
that they have returned to it again. They inhabit the large islands
now under Dutch rule, the Philippines and even Formosa. It has
** Langsdorff, Reise um die Welt, vol. i.
ta Waitz (Gerland), Anthropologie, vol. vi
Asiatic Malays. 355
long been known that the civilized agricultural inhabitants of the
shores of this last island spoke a Malay language *i but in the
mountains of the interior there is a savage warlike tribe, called
by the Chinese Chinwan, or "barbarous savages." They were
supposed to be akin to the Philippine population. Schetelig,
who first investigated their language, came to the conclusion
that these Chinwans have only borrowed a sixth part of their
vocabulary from their Malay neighbours, from whom they differ
otherwise in language, and are physically closely allied to the
continental people of China. 28
It might have been supposed that the vast tract of the Indian
Ocean, destitute of islands, would have set a limit on the west to
the migratory impulse of the Malays. The similarity of Malagassic
and Malayan words was observed both by Sir Joseph Banks, who
as botanist accompanied Captain Cook on his first voyage, and by
Hervas, the philologist ; but it is only since Wilhelm von Hum-
boldt's researches in the Kawi language that the fact has been
established that, while the islands of Rodriguez, Mauritius, and
Bourbon were found uninhabited at the time of their discovery by
European seafarers, Madagascar was peopled by Malays. 2 9 Traces
of the custom of taboo occur there, for by a Kiady which is a tuft
of grass on the point of an erect pole, the guardians of the fetishes
are able to prevent any intrusion on the part of unconsecrated per-
sons into the holy places. 3 No tradition has been preserved among
the Malagassees themselves, although their immigration may have
been much more recent than the separation of the Polynesians
from their Asiatic kindred. According to Ellis, 3* the Hovas of
Madagascar in smelting iron ore use a sort of bellows with two
bamboo tubes, through which alternately the air is expelled by the
motion of a pump. This ingenious invention occurs nowhere
27 Latham, Opuscula.
28 Schetelig, in the Zeitschrift fur Volkerphysiologie and Sprachwissen-
?c 'aft, vol. v.
-** Banks in Hawksworth, Discoveries in the South Sea, 1773. Hervas
Ca,alogo de las Lengues ; Madrid, 1800. W. von Humboldt, Ueber die
Kawisprache. 1836.
8 * Lieutenant Oliver, Journal of the Anthropological Society. 1 868.
81 Three Visits to Madagascar;
356 The Mongoloid Nations.
else except in the Malay islands ; and Tylor3 2 therefore seems justi-
fied in the impression that the colonization of Madagascar took
place only after the working of iron was practised in the Sunda
Islands. In connection with this circumstance, it is noticeable that
the Hovas breed the zebu, or Indian buffalo, though the indi-
genous cattle of Madagascar are like the African species. 33 If
with this we connect the fact that the inhabitants of the southern
coast of Ceylon and of the Maledives speak the Malay language,
this throws some light on the way by which the ancestors of the
Hovas reached Madagascar.
It is very difficult to estimate rightly the natural capabilities
for social organization of the Asiatic Malays, for they lost their
independence at an early period. First Brahminical and, later,
Buddhist settlers brought to Java 34 Indian learning, Indian
religious arts, and Indian characters, as well as a chronology ; nor
were Sumatra and the peninsula of Malacca unaffected by their
influence. On the extinction of Buddhism the old temples on the
Sunda Islands fell into ruins. Since that time the Malays have
adopted Islam, the precepts of which now constitute the frame-
work of social justice. The oldest events of their written history
point to a kingdom in Sumatra of which Menang-Kabao was the
centre, and whence seafaring adventurers started, nominally in the
year 1160 A.D., to establish themselves at Singapore. From that
time it was mainly the Arabs who imparted their culture to the
nations of the Sunda Islands. The Dyaks of Borneo and the war-
like Batta of Sumatra have alone remained almost untouched by
foreign influences. The former in their self-evolution have scarcely
raised themselves higher than the Polynesians. Until stopped by
Rajah Sir James Brooke, the primitive custom of taking heads
was in force amongst them, a custom probably characteristic of all
Asiatic Malays, for it has recently been observed by Bechtinger in
Formosa 3s and in the fifteenth century it still prevailed among the
M Early History of Mankind, p. 215.
M Lieutenant Oliver, Journal of the Anthropological Society. Schweinfurth
has however shown that the buffalo occurs in every part of the Soudan. In
the Heart of Africa, vol. i. p. 63.
** Friedrich Miiller, Reise der Fregatte Novara, Anthropologic.
M Ausland. 1872.
Habits of Asiatic Malays. 357
Batta in Sumatra. 3 6 The meaning of this strange custom of pro-
curing from anywhere, by force or craft, a head or skull, which was
taken as a precious possession to the grave, is explained by the
popular superstition, that in the abode of the departed the former
owner of the skull would be the slave of its later proprietor. 37 We
have already assigned due credit to the Batta, who are cannibals,
for having invented an alphabet of their own, though it is merely
an imitation of the Indian characters. 38
The Asiatic Malay is reserved, taciturn, obsequious to superiors,
harsh to inferiors, cruel, revengeful, and susceptible to insult, yet,
on the other hand, he is gentle to children, dignified, and polished
in manners. Wallace, who lived for a long time among both
Malays and Papuans, considers the latter to be the more highly
gifted race.
We find the third group of Malays east of the Philippines,
and north of or close upon the equator, in the Marianas, the
Pelew group, the Carolines, as well as on the Ralik, Ra"dik, and
Gilbert Atolls. Recently they have all been given the name of
Micronesians. The inhabitants of these islands are hybrids of
Polynesians and Papuans, but in language, customs, and social
institutions, they are Polynesian. Among the inhabitants of the
Pelew Islands, however, Papuan blood predominates, so that they
should not be classed in the Malay race. But further east, the
type becomes more Polynesian, though eVen at the extreme limit
of the region which they inhabit, the Micronesians are distinguished
from the pure Polynesians by the frizzliness of their hair, while
on approaching Japan oblique setting of the eyes grows more
frequent. 39
Among Asiatic as well as Polynesian Malays, dolichocephals are
very rare ; when they occur, as in the Carolines, they only confirm
the statement that the Micronesians must be regarded as a hybrid
people. The cranial index of breadth in Polynesian, is, however,
perceptibly lower than in the case of Asiatic Malays, hence the
86 Kunstmann, Indian im 15 Jahrhundert.
87 Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. i. p. 452.
88 Junghuhn, Die Battalander, vol. ii.
89 Semper, Die Palau-Inseln. 1873.
358 The Mongoloid Nations.
former rank among the mesocephals, the latter among the brachy.
cephals.-* In both divisions of the Malay family, the height of the
skull is as great or perhaps a little greater than the breadth. 4* Prog-
nathism is moderate in degree, but the zygomatic arches are more
or less prominent. All the nations of this family have a dark but
never a completely black skin ; while among the Asiatic Malays
it is of a dirty yellow hue. The characters which they have in
common with other members of the Mongolian race are black
straight hair on the head, and a scanty growth of beard and of hair
on the body, the latter being, moreover, artificially removed. The
nearer their abode to the continent of Asia, the more frequent is
the oblique setting of the eyes. In this they very closely resemble
the populations of the eastern portions of the Old World. Not
only have they more resemblance to them than to any other races
of mankind, but no distinct line of difference can be drawn
between them, as the types merge into one another. Hence a
Chinese origin has been wrongly ascribed to the inhabitants on the
Nias and Battu islands, on the west coast of Sumatra. 2 Semper,
to account for resemblances in various tribes in the Phillipines
and among the Iraya to the Japanese and Chinese, supposes an
admixture of blood, although he admits that " only in a few cases
some slight historical evidence can be found." Wallace decides
the matter when he writes," " I was much struck when, in the
island of Bali, I saw Chinese traders who had adopted the cos-
tumes of that country, and who could then hardly be distinguished
from Malays, and, on the other hand, I have seen natives of Java
who, as far as physiognomy was concerned, would pass very
well for Chinese." Latham speaks of the physical characters of
the Malays as " truly Indo-Chinese," and in another passage he
says that the Mongolian type is more marked in the Micronesians
than in the Chinese, 46 which can, however, be admitted only in
regard to the inhabitants of the Marianas. We believe, with
* Comp. the tables of Barnard Davis, Thesaurus Craniorum, and above.
41 This character is more conspicuous in Welcker's measurement than iu
B. Davis's, but only because the latter measured the " greatest breadth."
48 Waitz, Anthropologie, vol. v. 4a Die Philippinen.
44 The Malay Archipelago, vol. ii. p. 453.
49 Man and his Migrations. * Varieties of Man.
Classification of Malays. 359
Moritz Wagner, that the shape of skull, the form and colour of the
face, as well as the whole physical constitution of the Malay race,
is so nearly allied to the Mongolian that, in similar apparel, the
two races are hardly distinguishable. We shall therefore not be
contradicted if we class the Malay race among the Mongoloid
nations. Yet their linguistic characters entitle them to a separate
place. We subdivide them into Micronesian hybrid nations and
Polynesians, or, if it be preferred, into Pacific and Asiatic Malays.
The latter are better subdivided again, as by Frederick Miiller,
into i. The inhabitants of the Philippines, termed Tagals and
Bisaya ; 2. the Malays in the restricted sense, as inhabitants of the
peninsula of Malacca, and in Sumatra, the Atchinese, Passumahs,
Rejangs, and Lampongs ; 3. the Sundanese in the west ; 4. the
Javans in the eastern part of Java; 5. the Batta in Sumatra;
6. the Dyaks of Borneo ; 7. the Macassars and Buginese in the
island of Celebes. Lastly, this race includes scattered members
settled in the islands of Formosa, Ceylon, and Madagascar.
!!. SOUTHERN ASIATICS WITH MONOSYLLABIC LANGUAGES.
To this group belong primarily the inhabitants of the eastern
peninsula of India, whom we will speak of as Malayo-Chinese,
rather than by their inappropriate epithet of Indo-Chinese. With
these are allied the people of Thibet and the southern slopes of
the Himalayas on the west, and the Chinese on the north and
north-east. They all have straight, black hair, very little beard 01
hair on the body, a coloured skin, usually of a leather yellow,
and obliquely set eyes. Narrow skulls are extremely rare amongst
them. According to their index of breadth these nations rank in
part among the mesocephals, and in part among the brachy-
cephals. The height of the head is either equal to its breadth, or
not infrequently surpasses it. Prognathism is not universal, and
is always moderate in degree. But very few skulls have been
measured. Even Barnard Davis had at his disposal only twenty-
one Chinese heads of both sexes, a very insufficient number, by
360 Asiatics with Monosyllabic Languages.
means of which to find the average proportions of 350 millions of
human beings scattered over one of the greatest empires of the
world.
Owing to the uniformity of the most important physical cha-
racters of the various races, they can be distinguished only by their
languages. The language of the Bod-dschi, the inhabitants of
Thibet, although strictly monosyllabic, nevertheless possesses
prefixes which are written but not pronounced, 1 thus proposing an
obscure and as yet unsolved problem to comparative philology. 2
Numerous small tribes, whose names we need not enumerate,
inhabit the Himalayas, especially their southern slopes. They
much resemble the Thibetians in physical characters and in
language, but are only partially pure-bred, having usually Indian
blood in them. Among those of pure breed are the Leptscha of
Sikim.3 It must be noted that the nomadic Sifans of the Chinese
provinces of Schensi and Sse-tschuen also belong in language to
the group of Thibet nations.
Another group centres round the Burmese, whose linguistic type
we have already noticed. With them are allied the inhabitants of
Aracan, the Khyeng, in the mountains dividing Aracan from the
Irawaddy, and the small tribes between this last river and the
Brahmaputra. The Thai, or Siamese, form another division ; the
Laos nations in the interior of Siam are separated from these only
by varieties of dialect. The still barbarous Miaotse, or Miautsi, in
the highlands of the southern half of the Chinese empire, who
are there regarded as aborigines, are said also to belong to the
Thai group.* On the other hand, the Anamese in Tonkin and
Cochin China stand alone.
Unconnected with any of the previous groups are the Kares
in Pegu and in southern Burmah, the Mon in the delta of the
Irawaddy, the Khos or aborigines of Camboja, the Tsampa on
the coast to the east of the mouths of the Mekong, who in the
1 The names of the towns Thashilhunpo and Tassisudon are, for example,
written b Kras shis Ihun po, and b Kras shis chhos krong. Von Schlagint-
weit, Indien und Hochasien.
f Whitney, Language and Study of Language.
* Von Schlagintweit.
4 Friedrich Muller, Allgemeine Ethnographic.
The Malay o- Chinese. 36 1
time of Marco Polo had set up a kingdom, the Kwanto, who are
the aborigines of Tonkin, who must not be confounded with the
Anamese, and the Moi, or Myong, in the mountains which sepa
rate the Nukong from Tonkin, s The Kho language in Camboja
and the Mon language in Pegu are said to be much more nearly
allied to each other than to the Thai language, which is spoken in
the intervening country. 6 These smaller tribes are of but little
interest to ethnologists. They are no longer in a primitive con-
dition, and such civilization as they have adopted is of foreign
origin, a graft on a wild stock. This is true even of the greater
states, Burmah, Siam, and Tonkin. For, although in all these three
countries considerable remains have been discovered of handsome
but now mostly ruined edifices, their buildings all bear the stamp
of Indian origin and of the Indian taste which was introduced
with Buddhism. However, they all belong to the post-Christian
period and are of no high antiquity. Tonkin, on the other hand,
received its culture mainly from China, while Siam has in recent
times added Chinese methods of improvement to the Indian ones
which it previously possessed. We may therefore pass quickly
from the Malayo-Chinese in order to dwell longer on the Chinese
as the most civilized nation of the Mongolian race. We have
already pointed out the most important facts in regard to their
language.
Too many of our countrymen know nothing of the Celestial
Empire but the pigtail though this was only adopted by the
Chinese in 1644, and will be laid aside on the fall of the Mandschu
dynasty and the great walls, which are now neither guarded nor
repaired, and of which it is proverbially, though falsely, said that
they were erected to ward off the teachings of the West For
centuries, according to the more cautious, for tens of centuries
according to the more confident, China has remained China with-
out moving forwards or backwards. To disprove this error we
shall assign dates in the enumeration which follows of the innova-
tions which the Chinese, like other nations, have adopted ; from
which dates it will be self-evident that the inhabitants of the
* Friedrich Mliller, Reise der Fregatte Novara ; Anthropologie.
* Latham, Man and his Migrations, p. 195.
362 Asiatics with Monosyllabic Languages.
Celestial Empire have progressively improved their condition
partly by their own ingenuity, partly by the adoption of foreign
ideas.
It is true that until the conquest of Pekin the Chinese spoke of
Europeans as " barbarians " and " devils." We leave the question
as to whether, had we been Chinese, we should not have done the
same, and with justice, to any one who has heard the account
given by a trustworthy and humane American of the barbarities of
Europeans in China. A steamboat, which had undergone repair,?
was to make its trial trip from Shanghai, and the chief people of
the town were invited to attend. Among the guests was our
American witness. The steamer went up the Woosang river, and
sped with full power through the water; a Chinese vessel was
noticed further up so heavily laden with bricks as scarcely to obey
the oars of the four native rowers. The stream being narrow, the
Chinese tried to get out of the way, and worked with all their
might Still the heavy vessel did not move quite aside. The
pilot therefore asked whether the steamer should stop? "No," cried
the captain ; " go on." Pumpelly breathlessly awaited the result.
The bow of the ship struck the brick barge so heavily that it
swung round against the paddle-box. The steamer was shaken
by the collision, but went on merrily. Pumpelly, looking over
the stern, saw nothing of the boat or its crew, but one Chinese
motionless in the water. The pleasure of the party was not
however in the least damped by this interlude, especially when
the officers had satisfactorily ascertained that the paddle-box was
not seriously injured.
Another story may serve as a companion picture. 8 As Pumpelly
was returning from the coal-mining districts in the north, the
people of Tahwei-tschang mobbed him and his companion,
Murray, a distinguished Chinese scholar attached to the English
embassy. A mob is the same all the world over ! The Chinese
crowd amused itself with witticisms on the strange figures, just as
an English or American mob would have diverted itself with a pig-
tailed Chinaman. But after joking for some time, a more angry
feeling arose, and the Celestials flung all manner of repulsive
T Pumpelly, Across America and Asia. Ibid.
The Chinese, 363
missiles at the foreign devils, regardless of the fact that they were
travelling under the protection of three Mandarins. Murray
turned his horse, raised his hand to enjoin silence, and began in
excellent Chinese : " Oh people of Tahwei-tschang, is this the
way you practise hospitality ? Is this the way you obey the pre-
cepts of your philosophers to treat strangers within your walls
tenderly? Have you forgotten the saying of your great master,
Confucius, 'That which I wish another not to do to me, I must
not do to him ? '" In an instant the scene was changed ; the old
Chinese benignly shook their heads, and the boys tried to efface
the remembrance of their former misconduct by civilities. Let
us ask ourselves what an English or American mob would have
done, had a Chinese, in order to escape rude molestation, recited
a text from the Sermon on the Mount.
It may be said of the Chinese more certainly than of any other
nation of the Old World, that their knowledge is almost completely
^eif-evolved. With the exception of vague reports by the historians
?Jid geographers of antiquity respecting a people in the far East
who wove silken materials, the records of Arabian travellers of
th<* latter period of the Abbasides are the first notices we possess
of the social condition of China, which evoked both the surprise
and admiration of their contemporaries. About five hundred years
later the Poli returned from China to Venice, and their statements
regarding the density of population and gigantic towns of the
Celestial Empire sounded so incredible that the youngest of the
travellers, Marco, received the scornful appellation of Messer
Milione (million prater). It has long been acknowledged that the
Venetian gave a faithful and accurate account of what he saw and
heard. When Marco Polo, at the beginning of the fourteenth
century, described the wonderful society in Eastern Asia, there was
in truth much which Europe might envy the Chinese empire, and
little which China could envy Europe as regards social order and
industrial accomplishments.
The silken materials mentioned even by the prophet Ezekiel,?
earned for the Chinese their earliest national name ; and, as Klap-
roth proved long ago, the word for silk in the languages of the
Chapter xvi. 13, and Fr. Spiegel, Ausland. 1867.
364 Asiatics with Monosyllabic Languages.
West is derived from the Chinese. According to their artificial and
hence unreliable chronology, the Chinese had earthen vessels as
early as 2698 B.C. ; but, according to Stanislas Julien, the porce-
lain manufacture was not developed until 185-87 B.C. Although in
the Schuking mention is made of "sweet wine" under Thai-Kang,
between 2 1 88-5 9, 10 it must be remembered that a Chinese captain,
Tschangkhien, only introduced the vine and vine culture into the
middle empire in the year 130 B.C.," and that even at the present
day the Celestials eat the grape but do not press it. The sweet
wine of the Schuking is therefore the produce of fermented rice,
with the addition of a leaven of wheat, whereas the distillation of
brandy became known only under the Mongolian rulers. 12 In
ancient China, that is to say, under the first three dynasties, tea was
neither cultivated nor drunk, for the empire did not as yet extend
to the natural habitat of the Yscha bush in the south. Tea-drinking
is, moreover, said to have been introduced by Buddhist monks,
and is perhaps not older than our era. Paper was also an innova-
tion in China, for its first spread was in A.D. 153, prior to which
time tablets of bamboo were used in its place. Indian ink is still
chiefly made in China, although its quality has deteriorated since
glue made of buffalo's instead of stag's horn has been employed as
the vehicle for the lampblack. Its first invention was between
A.D. 220419. Printing by means of carved wooden tablets was
invented in China in A.D. 593 or 583, and was described in Rad-
schideddin's "Dschemma et tewarikh." Stanislas Julien and Paul
Champion even assert that the art of printing with movable types
was invented in the period King-li (A.D. 1041-49. ) J 3 Of course
it was not in alphabetical letters, but in the abridged syllabic
characters of Chinese writing, on movable pieces of porcelain, which
were put together. This art necessarily fell into disuse again, as
type-printing can only be successfully applied with the use of
alphabetical characters. In a monosyllabic language, such as
10 Tableaux historiques de 1'Asie. 1826.
11 Plath, On the Wild Vine (Vitis amurensis)'iD. Northern China. Ausland,
1869. Comp. Petermann's Mittheilungen. 1869.
lf Hue, Chinesisches Reich.
18 Stanislas Julien and Paul Champion, Industries anciennes et modernes de
I* empire chinois. 1870.
Early Chinese Civilization. 365
Chinese, it was easy to invent a hieroglyphic for each root, but as
the language did not require it, the roots were not divided into
their separate sounds, nor were the sounds symbolized. Of all
the nations of the world the Chinese are the only people who read,
write, and print, without having invented orthography.
The polarity of a freely swinging magnetic needle was known
to the Chinese as early as A.D. 121 ; T * and they certainly made
spectacle-glasses earlier than the people of the West Gunpowder
they also knew long before Europeans, though they used it
only for fireworks. Even now the Chinese do not use money,
that is to say, stamped pieces of precious metals, but employ
scales and weights in all commercial intercourse ; paper-money,
on the contrary, has been in circulation since 119 B.C. The
last two dynasties, the Ming and the Mongolian, fell victims to
the assignat system ; and if the Pekin Gazette should ever bring
us tidings of an over-issue of Mandschu treasury bills, we may
be sure that the last grains in the hour-glass of this dynasty are
running out. 1 * The Chinese are skilful in the use of numbers.
They are not only the inventors of the abacus, but, according to
Sir John Bowring, they use the finger-joints of the left hand as
figures to aid mental calculations to the amount of 99,999, each
successive finger, beginning from the little one, possessing a higher
decimal value. 16 The so-called macadamization of streets is an
extremely ancient invention of the Chinese, which we began to
imitate in 1820. The Greek expression used in the account of
the Last Supper in the Gospel of St. Mark, certainly implies that
Christ and his disciples used their fingers in eating;^ but the
Chinese under the second dynasty, that is to say, more than a
thousand years before our era, made use of chopsticks of bamboo,
and soon after of ivory.
Before giving an account of the antiquity of Chinese culture, we
must commend the Chinese as trustworthy and diligent historians.
Their authentic history reaches back to Yao, or, according to the
14 KJaproth, Lettre sur 1'invention de la boussole. 1834.
15 Klaproth, Sur 1'origine du papier-monnaie in the Journal asiatique.
Pan*, 1822.
16 .A island. 1868.
17 3-jhrnoller, Geschichte der deutschen Kleingewerbe. 1870.
366 Asiatics with Monosyllabic Languages.
usual reckoning, which however allows too long, to the year 2357.
According to Legge, the Chinese chronology is accurate as far
back as 826 B.C. ; Plath, who is not to be suspected of hasty con-
clusions, goes back as far as the year 841. At the commencement
of the third dynasty the dates already vary by eleven years, that is
to say, we must place this event either in 1122 or mi B.C. The
time of the first dynasty and the reigns of Yao or Schiin cannot
be more accurately fixed than as belonging to the nineteenth or
twentieth century before Christ. Hence criticism rejects dates
which go back to two and three thousand years. 18
The Chinese empire has, however, endured for nearly four
thousand years, within which period its development was affected
by a disease exactly similar to that suffered by the German empire
in the middle ages, and in which a decline of imperial power
was followed by the rise of small predatory states, until under the
Thsin the royal power was erected again in greater strength than
ever. When compared with that of the Chinese empire, the dura-
tion of the states created by the Mediterranean races, of the Chal-
dean empire, of the sovereignty of the Assyrians, of the new
Babylon and the monarchy of the Achseminidae, and even of the
Roman empire, appear insignificant ; Egypt alone, with its families
of kings, traceable up to the thirty-ninth century before Christ, is
yet more venerable. But just as nations must have lived in
social order in the valley of the Nile long before the time of
Menes, so was a state of order already in existence before the first
chronicles of the Chinese empire. As early as the reign of Yii,
the founder of the first dynasty, canals were cut. The minister
of public works occupied a high position in the royal council ;
and arable land was taxed at its estimated value. *9 In ancient
China there already existed an active police, a passport system,
toll-keepers, game laws which were in force during the breeding
season, laws to prevent the taking of eggs from the nests of song
" Legge, Chinese Classics. J. Chalmers has demonstrated that in the period
between 2154 and 1718 B.C. no less than sixteen eclipses in the sign of Scorpio
were visible in China, so that it is quite optional which of those eclipses is to
be considered as the one which look place in the reign of Tshung-kang.
10 J. H. Plath, Verfassung und Verwaltung China's unter den dxei crsten
Dynastien.
Age of the Chinese Empire. 367
-birds, and edicts against carrying arms or furious riding in the
streets of towns. If we are to credit a statement made A.D. 282,
China had a population numbering 13,553,923 heads in Yii's
time; but James Legge thinks that all ancient censuses are
valueless calculations by later Chinese scholars. 20 The rule of the
first dynasty was bounded by the great angle formed by the
Hoangho in the province of Schansi, and it was very long before
it extended to the Yiangtse-kiang. It was only in 537 B.C. that
Tschekiang was incorporated ; and since 214 B.C. Southern China
(that is to say, Fokien, Kuang-tung, Kuangsi, Kueitscheu to the
south of the Nanling mountains), was acquired by colonists as
peacably or, in fact, more peacably than, under our own eyes, the
United States have stretched beyond the Mississippi into the
far West. China grew in extent as late as A.D. 1255, when the
Mongols added Yunan ; indeed, the island of Formosa only carne
into possession of the empire in i683. 21 Within the last twenty-
years not only the trans-Amourian district, but large portions of
Mandschuria have been ceded to Russia ; Kashgaria was lost
by a rebellion, and a Mohammedan state has risen in the south
of Yunnan; but we must remember that these losses occurred
during a time of internal disorder. The Mandschu dynasty is evi-
dently enfeebled, and China is preparing for a change of dynasty,
a social malady such as it has already several times suffered and
overcome, always to gain fresh strength under a new race of
sovereigns.
Before we proceed to examine how far the nature of the country
promoted the development of Chinese society, we must first
ascertain the physical and intellectual capacities and the natural
disposition of the people. The great variety of circumstances to
which the Chinese can accustom themselves is especially note-
worthy. Notwithstanding the difference of temperature, this people
thrives equally well at Kiachta or, more correctly, at Maimatschin,
on the boundaries of Siberia, where quicksilver freezes every year
in the thermometer, as in the hot-house warmth of Singapore,
20 Legge, Chinese Classics.
11 J. H. Plath, Verfassung und Verwaltung China's unter den drei ersten
Dynastien.
368 Asiatics with Monosyllabic Languages.
where the nutmeg was cultivated as an article of commerce pre-
vious to the last outbreak of the pestilence. The Chinaman has
all those qualities which, when unchecked, speedily result in over-
population ; he is a kind father, looking for his greatest happiness
in his children, frugal to excess, of exemplary economy, an inde-
fatigable worker, scorning any Sabbath rest, and in trade more
crafty than a Greek. The very children transact business; bar-
gaining and taking pledges are their favourite pastimes. 22
The Chinaman still adheres closely to that first stage in which
the organization of human society begins. Each command
emanates from the paternal lips; obedience is the first sacred
duty of the child, who if he injures his parents is liable to capital
punishment The absolute power of the monarch is based on the
legal maxim that he is the father of his people. The extensive
power of the civic authorities rests mainly on moral respect, for
the standing army of China, consisting only of eight bodies of
Mandschu soldiers, each of 10,000 men, is quite inadequate in
this huge empire. The officers of public security are also ex-
tremely few, so that the Mandarin of a province or a town is
totally destitute of any means of coercion. Our admiration, not
to say our envy, is raised when we see 350 millions undisturbed in
their occupations although a most insignificant sum is expended
on state officials. Such a thing is conceivable only in a society
which has practised school-like discipline for thousands of years,
which bestows no office without a successful examination, where
every privilege must be earned, where there is no hereditary but
only a personal aristocracy. We must, however, bear in mind
the dark side of this parsimony in the expenses of government.
Pumpelly was several times in great danger owing to the total
impotence of the Mandarins in insurrections of civic mobs. Life
and property enjoy only imperfect security in China : pirates
swarm round the coast, and there has scarcely ever been a time
in which rebellion was not raging in some part of the great
empire. The liking for secret societies, which the Chinese carry
with them wherever they go, is the great cause of the civil strifes
which rage everywhere.
w Hue, Das Chinesische Reich.
Confucius. 369
, Chinese family names are of great antiquity. While in Europe
even royal dynasties can hardly trace their founder at a distance
of a thousand years, in China there are descendants of Confucius
who are able not only to trace their descent from this great
philosopher, but who also boast that their ancestor could prove
the existence of his family name as early as 1121 B.C. This
explains the meaning of the contemptuous inquiry which the
Chinese are in the habit of addressing to Europeans : " Have you
got family names too ? " by which they mean, Are they as ancient
as ours ? 2 3
It has already been said that Confucius did not found a religion.
He adhered to the worship of Heaven and Earth as he found it
in the so-called classical books of the ancient empire. At the
time of his birth (551 B.C.) China had been split up into thirteen
larger principalities and a number of predatory states. The
philosopher rose to a position answering to that of mayor of one
of the former, and later to that of Minister of Justice, but
abandoned the service of the state in disgust at the prevailing
system of concubinage, and subsequently, as a state pensioner of
the Duchy of Wei, occupied himself with literary works on the
national antiquities. He lived comfortably but without extrava-
gance, and always travelled in his own carriage. He died calmly,
but with no prayer, at an advanced age, in 478 B.C., without the
comfort of wife or child, recognizing the slightness of the influence
of his teaching, and without hope of better times. When one of
his disciples questioned him as to a future life, he answered in-
directly, " Were I to say that the departed were possessed of con-
sciousness, pious sons might dissipate their fortunes in festivals of
the dead, and were I to deny their consciousness, heartless sons
might leave their fathers unburied." 2 * His moral teaching, which
had for its highest object social utility, was therefore far inferior to
the Buddhist doctrine. To the question of a disciple whether
the duty of man could not be comprised in a single word, he
answered, " Does not retribution do this ? Thou shalt not do
unto others that which thou wilt not that they should do unto
thee." When another disciple desired to know whether injury
23 James Legge, Life of Confucius, p. 55, M Ibid. p. 101.
17
Asiatics with Monosyllabic Languages.
was to be requited with benevolence, the master replied, " Where-
with wilt thou then requite benevolence? Requite injury with
justice, and benevolence with benevolence." 2 * It was in the
same spirit that, as we have already seen, he inculcated the duty
of avenging murder by murder. To escape unwelcome visitors
he often falsely gave himself out to be ill, and on one occasion he
deliberately broke a solemn promise. On being taken to task for
it he quietly said, " The oath was compulsory, and the spirits do
not hear such."
Laotse was the contemporary of Confucius, but his influence
was less. In language which was, as Rdmusat has said, Platonic in
its elevation and obscurity, 26 he taught the existence of a supreme
Being resembling the Logos, as creator of the material world.
The Taoteking, 2 ? book of faith of Laotse and his followers, the
Taosse, is in fact so full of obscurities that even the name of Tao
and of the supreme Being admit of a variety of interpretations.
The moral doctrine of this philosopher was thoroughly pure ; like
Buddhism, it taught gentleness and toleration. But his disciples
and followers, who styled themselves doctors of Reason, soon
brought contempt upon themselves and the Tao doctrine by
despicable Shamanistic tricks, and have since then become the
object of public scorn. 28
A glance at the scene of this peculiar civilization is sufficient to
show that the compact form of the country was neither advanta-
geous nor injurious. The shores and the surrounding seas offer no
inducement to navigation. When we notice that the Chinese are
even at the present day equally bad as sailors and as shipbuilders,
it must not be forgotten that they were originally an inland people,
and that it was only at a late period that their empire extended to
the sea and along the coast. It was not with Chinese, but Indian
and Javan vessels, that Fahian the Buddhist returned to China
from Ceylon and Java, in the beginning of the fifth century. It
was only in A.D. 630 that nutmegs, camphor, aloe wood, carda-
M James Legge, Life of Confucius, p. 101.
* Abel Remusat, Melanges asiatiques, vol. i. p. 91.
** Laotse, Taoteking, Ed. Plaenckner, p. 7.
* Gutzlaff, Geschichte des chinesischen Reiches, p. 75. 1847.
Early History of China. 371
mons, and cloves first reached China by sea, 2 ^ The Chinese did
not know of Sumatra till A.D. 950. The leaden coins which are
found at Singapore belong to this and the next century. 3 The
best refutation of the statement that the Chinese never extended
their voyages beyond Malacca, is to be found in accounts of
Arabian travellers. We know moreover from Marco Polo, that
under Kublha Khan enterprises against Madagascar were already
contemplated, and from Makrisi's statements that in A.D. 1429 a
Chinese vessel, which was unable to dispose of its wares at Aden,
went up the Red Sea as far as the port of Jidda.3 1 But as Chinese
civilization was at its height long before these voyages, we may
safely assert that the form of its coast had but little influence, and
that only at a late period, on the civilization of the Celestial Empire.
The fact that the Chinese territory belongs to the Old World,
is of far greater importance, for thus the best cultivated plants
and the most important domestic animals were either indigenous
or could reach it by transmission from one nation to another.
China was in this respect far better adapted for civilization than
America, not to speak of Australia. Of its valuable products, its
copper and, above all, its tin ore are of most importance. The
veins of this latter metal are widely and scarcely distributed over
the world ; but without tin no bronze can be produced. The know-
ledge of bronze has everywhere preceded that of iron, and has
always initiated a new phase of culture. As the requisite ores
existed in their country itself, we need not hesitate to believe the
Chinese when they date back the working of the metals to the
mythical ages.
The original nucleus of the Chinese community was situated
in a fertile lowland, bordered on the north by the declivities of the
Gobi. The great wall runs along the edge of this declivity. " It
marks," says A. von Humboldt, in a remark on Bunge's travels,
" a natural boundary, in the proper sense of the word, while no
better locality for a political boundary could be chosen." In the
steppes all was dead, but the traveller had but to take one more
** Plath, in the Ausland, p. 1213. 1869.
80 Waitz, Anthropologie, vol. v. p. 119.
81 Et. Quatremere, Memoires sur 1'Egypte, vol. ii. p. 291.
372 Asiatics with Monosyllabic Languages.
step to stand at the edge of the abrupt cliffs of Northern Asia,
and to see the most luxuriant life welcoming him.3 2 As far as
Pumpelly was able to follow the great wall in a westerly direction,
the declivity is broken into promontories and indentations exactly
as if the sea had at one time worn against a steep coast. So that
the eastern provinces of China are recently emerged lowlands, and
their soil is, generally speaking, reckoned extremely fertile.
These advantages of soil were also aided by peculiarly favour-
able meteorological conditions, for the regular fall of abundant
monsoon rains during the early summer, following a warm and dry
spring, quickens vegetation in its period of growth, and thus affords
one of the advantages otherwise peculiar to the tropical zone. 33
Owing to these circumstances, the bamboo, the canes of which are
used for so many domestic purposes, is able to grow in unusually
high latitudes in China. The canals which run through the plains
show that the difficulty of irrigating the country is not great.
Farinaceous plants must always have been abundant in China, 01
they could at least easily have been spread by cultivation. Plath
says that the chief crops of the ancient kingdom consisted of two
grasses "resembling millet (Milium globosum, Panicum verticilatum\
of Holcus sorghum, and above all of wheat. 34 Rice, which is the
principal field produce of the southern half of China, reached the
country only at a late period. It is only in the south, beginning
about the 3oth degree of latitude, that tea and silk are cultivated.
That the Chinese do not obstinately reject importations from
other countries is proved by the fact that they have acquired rye,
oats, and buckwheat from Mongolian or, more probably, from
Turkish tribes, and have adopted the cultivation of maize since
the discovery of America. Peas and beans, cucumbers and
melons, onions and leeks, were cultivated even in the ancient
empire. The most important domestic, animals of the Old World,
such as oxen, sheep, horses, pigs, fowls, and dogs, were there, but
camels, asses, and goats were unknown. Perhaps owing to
Buddhists scruples, the ox is seldom eaten ; and it is remarkable
" Correspondence with Berghaus, vol. ii. p. 30.
* Grisebach, Die Vegetation der Erde, vol. i. p. 489 et seq.
84 Nahrungsweise der alten Chinesen, p. 1212. Ausland, 1869.
Chinese Primitive Culture. 373
that there are no dairies in China. Pigs furnish the principal part
of the animal food consumed ; these, unlike the European breed of
domestic pigs, are descended from the Sus indicus of Pallas, 35 so
that they must have been domesticated by the Chinese themselves.
Animals and plants, suitable for domestication, were therefore
either indigenous or easily made their way into China at an early
period. Yet this, with the conditions favourable to agriculture
which we mentioned above, and the presence of valuable ores,
are the only conditions advantageous to the development of Chinese
culture contributed by the district itself. The geographical
position of the empire was advantageous only in that the Chinese
had thousands of years for peaceful self-evolution before the
danger of disturbance from nations of superior strength arose
They were surrounded by neighbours of like descent, whom, at
an early period, they surpassed in civilization. Invasions of
migratory hordes only briefly interrupted the persistent growth, for
the conqueror, having attained the throne, soon adapted himself
to the intellectual supremacy of those whom he governed.
Mongols and Mandschus founded dynasties, but the only thing
changed in China was the name of the governing dynasty.
Industry and philoprogenitiveness have caused the Chinese
people to increase to more than 350 millions. Social training was
absolutely necessary for a population of such density. All increase
of population on any given surface necessitates further refinement
of the social compact. Without protection of life and property,
without observance of conjugal fidelity, without purity in courts of
justice, a large community is incapable of thriving, but must
necessarily perish by internal decay. The census itself gives
evidence of social refinement, which is always accompanied by
industrial progress. When we have to deal with thousands of
years and millions of human beings, chance, as the father of
invention, certainly plays a great part. It becomes the instructor
of handicraft, and it constantly increases the store of experience.
It was thus inevitable that the Chinese, who two thousand years
before Christ were numbered by millions, should have acquired
a technical skill which is even now more or less startling to us.
85 Von Nathusius, der Schweineschadel, p. 175.
374 Asiatics with Monosyllabic Languages.
But at this point it stopped. It is everywhere noticeable that
the Chinese do not advance beyond a certain grade of intellectual
development. They have independently invented a character of
their own, but only with syllabic and not phonetic symbols ; they
had long been acquainted with the art of engraving, but no longer
used the movable types formerly employed. They had dis-
covered the polarity of the magnetic needle, but had never used
it as a compass ; they were acquainted with the nature of gun-
powder, but had no knowledge of the gun ; 36 they had invented
the abacus, but not the positional value of the figures ; they had
observed astronomical events for thousands of years, but allowed
the division of the zodiac to be introduced from abroad.
Carl Ritter dwells on the idea that the history of culture would
have taken a different direction had it been possible for the
Chinese and the Roman empires to come into closer contact.
Reinaud, the Orientalist, who was for a long time the President of
the Asiatic Society of Paris, tried to prove in his last work that
under the first Roman emperors the impending contact with
China was discussed much as at the present time : a great deal
is superfluously written respecting the collision of the English and
Russian powers in Central Asia. Perhaps the result of a contact
between Roman and Chinese culture has been exaggerated in
imagination. The only result affecting Europe would probably
have been the introduction of the culture of the silkworm a few
centuries earlier.
Such a contact might have reacted more beneficially on China,
Its isolation in the east of Asia, which was formerly favourable
to its aggrandizement, now threatens its future. The expression
used by Adolf Bacmeister with reference to the people of
South Africa, is in this case almost literally applicable : " The
evolution of the original nature of any historical people is very
differently affected if, on the one hand, the nations which it
encounters, with which it has intercourse, and with which it learns
to measure itself, are entirely or nearly such as itself; or, on the
other hand, if its history has caused it to struggle in the arena with
* The Chinese expression for cannon is a foreign word from the West,
Hue, Das chinesische Reich, vol. ii, p. 78.
Estimate of Chinese C^dt^tre. 375
foreign powers, and, constantly strengthening itself by conflicts
with fresh forces, to found, widen, and expend its existence, or
perchance to lose it gloriously."
Our own respect for the achievements of Chinese culture can
hardly be surpassed. Of all highly civilized nations they owe
least to foreign promptings, whereas until the thirteenth century,
we, that is to say, the Europeans, and especially the Northern
Europeans, owed almost everything but our language to the
teaching of other nations. We are the pupils of nations which
now live only in history, but the Chinese were their own teachers.
But comparing the course of our own development with that
of theirs, we see what is wanting to them, and on what our own
greatness depends. Since our intellectual awakening, since we
have come forward as the propagators of the treasures of culture,
we have indefatigably toiled with the sweat on our brows in search
of something, the very existence of which was unsuspected by the
Chinese, and which they would think dear at a platter of rice.
This invisible object we term causality. We have admired the
Chinese for an incalculable number of inventions, and have
appropriated them, but we are not indebted to them for a single
theory or a single glance into the connection or the first causes
of phenomena.
HI. COREANS AND JAPANESE.
In addition to the people discussed in the last chapter, the
inhabitants of the peninsula of Corea and of the Japanese archi-
pelago have the characters of the Mongolian race. The Japanese,
whose index of breadth is 76, are mesocephals, while the height
of their skulls almost equals the breadth. It is only the poly-
syllabic character of their languages which prevents their being
placed in one group with the Chinese and Malayo-Chinese. Their
language is nearer the Altaic type, for they have the same loose
combination of the morphological elements and have other rules
of verbal structure in common. In these fundamental features
the Japanese language corresponds so accurately with the Corean
that the two may have had a common origin, but our present
376 Coreans and Japanese.
knowledge does not enable us to say that this must necessarily be
the case. 1
The Japanese migrated from the continent to their present
abode, and afterwards peopled the Loochoo Islands further to the
south. From Nippon and the southern islands they drove out
the aborigines, in all probability Ainos, who now hold their own
only at Yezo and the Kuriles. Ethnology cannot dwell long on
the Japanese, though they are an intellectually gifted people and
easily assimilate the improvements of foreign civilization.
As long ago as 1860, a steamboat manned and commanded by
Japanese made its way across the Pacific to San Francisco and
back. But their history, even when only partially authentic,
extends only to Zinmu, or into the seventh century B.C., and they
have hitherto always borrowed their civilization from China,
though they have developed for themselves what they have thus
adopted. Thus they invented a phonetic alphabet of forty seven
letters, retaining, however, the Chinese syllabic symbols also.
They have improved and stamped with their own character many
branches of industry originally Chinese, such as the manufacture
of porcelain and the production of steel. Their humour and
waggishness are expressed in their caricatures, which are of great
vivacity, and evince an accurate observation of nature, but are
spoilt by false drawing. They are the only Asiatics who have a
chivalrous and keenly susceptible sense of honour, analogous to
the Spanish Pundonor. In other respects also they approach
more nearly in character to the people of the West than any other
Mongoloid nation : their instinct of cleanliness distinguishes them
most favourably from the Chinese.
The Coreans are also indebted to the Chinese for their present
social condition, while we know nothing of their earlier civilization.
1 Whitney, Language and the Study of Language, p. 329.
Altaians. 377
III. THE MONGOLOID NATIONS IN THE NORTH OF THE
OLD WORLD.
The country from the bay of Okotsk to European Lapland is
inhabited by people who, with the exception of the Russians
who have advanced eastward, live by hunting, fishing, and cattle-
breeding, and who have continually changed their abodes and
intermingled with one another from their earliest historical times.
Conquerors have again and again appeared among them, who
have united these independent hordes and enabled them to act in
concert. With our present knowledge it is impossible to assert or
deny that this vast territory was ever inhabited by various races.
At any rate constant intermixture of blood has obliterated earlier
differences, and hence we find physical characters of every gra-
dation, from those of the pure Mongolian to those of the civilized
inhabitants of the West. This group of nations, which Castren
has named Altaians, is closely allied to the Eastern and Southern
Asiatics. The colour of the skin is yellow or yellowish brown, the
hair of the head cylindrical, stiff, and black ; the beard and hairy
covering of the body is slight or totally wanting ; the eyes are
usually obliquely set, the cheek-bones very prominent, the nose
flattened, the skull extremely broad and low. The purity of the
Mongolian characters of the Northern Asiatics gradually decreases
towards the west. The Samoyeds resemble the Tungus in the
shape of their face; the Ostiaks are like the Finns and Russians. 1
Under these circumstances we must divide this group of man-
kind into five large branches, as was done by Alexander Castren ;
namely, Tungus, true Mongols, Turks, Finns, and Samoyeds.
Fortunately, the structure of the languages of all these nations
agrees completely in its main features. The meaning of the roots
is defined by a second appended root, in other words, always by
suffixes. Prefixes are never employed. These languages have also
many roots in common, though not enough to prove a common
primitive language; it is equally probable that they have been
borrowed. These languages are moreover characterized by more
1 Pallas, Voyages, vol. iv. p. 90 ; H. u. K. Aubel, Ein Polarsommer, p. 258.
37$ Mongoloid Nations of the Old World.
or less strict laws of euphony. In Moschka, however, the harmony
of vowels is not so fully developed as in Turkish or Finnish, or
more probably it has been obliterated by foreign influences. Yet
distinct traces of these phonetic laws have been preserved. 2 Two
consonants never occur at the beginning or end of a word, and
the principal vowel determines the terminal vowel. 3 These re-
markable points of resemblance may perhaps have been developed
at a later period, but the burden of proof lies with those who
maintain this opinion. A common origin is not so certain in the
case of these languages as in that of the Aryan group, and the
wide separation between the Mongolian and Mandschu languages
seems very suspicious to some people. 4 On the other hand, we
must not forget that none of these nations possess any ancient
literature. Were we able to compare the languages in their earlier
form, we should readily ascertain whether we were or were not
justified in uniting them into a whole.
To the Tungus branch of this group belong in the first place
the Mandschu, who conquered the Chinese empire in 1644, and
founded a sovereign dynasty. The other Tungus tribes have
received the name of Orotshongs, or reindeer herdsmen. Some
Tungus call themselves Boji, or men, others again Donki, or
people. The Tungus of the shores of Okotsk are called Lamuts
from lamu, the sea. The Tshapodghirs have penetrated further
to the west than any other Tungus, namely, to between the
Yenesei and Tunguska, while there are other Tungus tribes as
far north as the bay of Chatanga on the Frozen Ocean. It is
impossible to point out any contributions of these nations
towards the civilization of our species, though it is probable that
the Chinese may have learnt from the Tungus some things which
we now attribute to their own invention.
The Mongols are the second branch of Northern Asiatics.
They are sometimes called Tatars, and sometimes, on account of
* A. Ahlquist, Mokscha-mordwinische Grammatik, 14, p. 3. Peters-
burg, 1 86 1.
' A. Castren, Ethnologische Vorlesungen iiber die altaischen Volkei, p. 18.
Petersburg, 1857.
4 Whitney, Language, p. 315 ; compare with this W. Schott in the Abhand-
lungen der Berliner Akademie, pp. 267 and 285. 1869.
Tungus and Mongols. 379
a pun made by St. Louis, Tartars. This term must no longer be
used in ethnological writings, for it has been so often misapplied,
and has become so ambiguous, that we are obliged to infer from the
context, if not actually to guess, whether by Tatars we are to under-
stand Turks or Mongols. The term Mongolian was long of very
vague application in the language of ethnology. We have a double
list of these hordes which were originally called Mongols and those
which were subsequently falsely so termed. 5 History applied this
name to the hordes which invaded the West under Gengis Khan
and his successors, of whom the greater number spoke Turkish.
Ethnologists now reckon but four branches of true Mongols :
the Eastern Mongols, the Kalmucks, the Buriats, and the Hazara
or Aimauq. To the Eastern Mongols the Chinese originally
gave the nickname of Tata, and it was only later, that is, since
the eighth century, that they were called Mungku (Mongols). 6
They inhabit the eastern half of the Gobi, and are divided into
two hordes, the Schara towards the south, and their northern
neighbours the Kalka. These people being destitute of history
we cannot point out any services which they have rendered to
civilization. The next branch, the Kalmucks,? call themselves
the Olots, the peculiar people, or Durban oirad, the four allies.
The names of these hordes are the Dzungar, Turgut, Choshod,
and Turbet. A Kalmuck kingdom was founded in 1671, but it
lasted less than a century, and then fell under the Chinese rule.
The Kalmucks have continued their migrations to within the most
recent times. They first reached European Russia in 1616, and a
portion of them wandered back to China in 1771, amid untold
perils and hardships. Some hordes have also swarmed out across
the southern border of the Gobi. 8
The Buriats are distinguished from the latter only in language.
* F. von Erdmann, Temudschin der Unerschiitterliche, p. 168.
Castren, Vorlesungen, p. 37.
7 This name is sometimes derived from the Turkish word Khalimak, those
left behind ; sometimes from the Mongolian Ghola'imak, fire-horde, or again from
Kalmuck, fiery people. Fiadoff in Journal of Anthr. Institute, vol. iv. p. 401.
* After the fall of the Yuen dynasty a swarm of Kalmucks, made up of
Dzungars, Turguts, and Choshods, migrated to Koko-noor. Howorth in
the Journal of the Anthropological Institute, vol. i. p. 232.
380 Mongoloid Nations of the Old World.
These lived at Lake Baikal and in its vicinity at the time of
Gengis Khan, and with no great opposition subjugated the
Cossacks in 1644. These three Mongolian branches have all
accepted Buddhism, though retaining their Shamanistic juggleries.
They are very phlegmatic, good-humoured people. The appear-
ance in their midst of Gengis Khan, who was destined to raise
himself from a humble origin to be a mighty conqueror, was there-
fore the more extraordinary.
Far removed from the rest of the Mongolian brotherhood are
the Hazara, who lead a nomadic life between Herat and Cabul,
and spoke Mongolian as late as the time of the Sultan Baber.9
Their physiognomy is also so distinctly Mongolian in type, that
travellers have never differed as to their ethnographical position.
The Hazara are divided into western and eastern tribes, of which
the former are Sunnites and the latter Shiites. The western
Hazara are sometimes called Aimauq, but this word is equivalent
to horde, 10 and, as it has been applied to other Mongolian tribes
also, we recommend its future disuse in ethnology.
The Tungus and Mongols are few in number, and many of their
tribes are dying out. The case is quite different with the Turks,
the third branch of the Northern Asiatic group. According to
the old oriental traditions, one of Japhet's eight sons was named
Turk. He dwelt on the Hi and Issikol, and from one of his
descendants sprang the twins Tatar and Mongol. We must
regard legends such as these as attempts at ethnological classifica-
tion, and they show how nearly related the Central Asiatics held
themselves to be. 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 descent. Turcomans, Uzbeks, Nogaians,
and Kirghiz, on the other hand, approximate to the Mongols;
from whom the Buruts and Kiptshaks differ only in the colour of
the face. So says Vambe'ry; but he adds that the grammar of
the Mongolian language is by no means identical with that of the
Turkish, although it has adopted three-fourths of the vocabulary."
9 Fr. Spiegel, Eranische Alterthiimer, vol. i. p. 344.
10 Casiren, Vorlesungen, p. 42. Geschichte Bochara's, voL i. p. 130.
Turks. 381
It is now usual to distinguish the following nationalities of the
Turks : Uighurs, Uzbeks, Osmanlis, Yakuts, Turcomans, Nogaians,
Basians, Kumuks, Karakalpaks, and Kirghiz. In the story of the
journey of the Grecian ambassador Zemarchus, A.D. 569, mention
is made of a Turkish Khan, called by the Byzantines Dissabulos,
and by the Chinese Ti-theu-pu-li, who had set up his court at
Talas, an important commercial town of the middle ages, in the
present Burut territory. 12 This old Turkish kingdom was destroyed
by the Uighurs, or, as they are called by the Chinese, Kaotsche, a
moderately civilized people who have retained traces of Zoroastrian
doctrines, but who were later converted to Buddhism "3 and finally
to Islam. In the fifth century they already wrote and had a litera-
ture of their own ; they inhabited the two slopes of the Thianshan,
part of which they still occupy. Their present western neighbours
are the Uzbeks, a Turkish tribe, named after Uzbek, a chief of
the Golden Horde (1312-1342); these have some Mongolian
blood. This tribe at its first appearance in history inhabited the
northern end of the Caspian Sea, from whence it spread under
the descendants of Timur to the Sir Daria; ** after the sixteenth
century it conquered Turkestan, and it is still the predominant
tribe in the Khanates of Khiva, Bokhara, and Kokand, as well as
in Kashgaria. The Seldschuks, who in A.D. 1030 yet inhabited the
present Turcoman desert, came from the same regions, breaking
in on the west, and afterwards, as Osmanlis, appearing as con-
querors in three quarters of the world.
With some exaggeration it has been said that an Osmarili from
Constantinople can make himself intelligible to a Yakut on the
Lena. But it is certain that the branches of the Turkish language
separated by this enormous distance are strangely alike. The
hardiness of the Yakuts has already been mentioned. The
American traveller Kennan, not only describes them as industrious
people, but adds that of all the aborigines of Siberia they are the
only ones whose numbers do not diminish but increase. Their
12 Menandri, Excerpta de legat. Corpus script. Hist Byzant, ed. Niebuhr,
pars i. pp. 295-302 and pp. 380-384.
13 Stanislas Julien, Journal asiatique, p. 58.
14 Vambery, Geschichte Bochara's, vol. ii. pp. 35, 36.
382 Mongoloid Nations of the Old World.
language, 15 when Erman was in Siberia, had also become the
universal means of communication for travellers and merchants,
for Russians, Tungus, and Buriats, from Irkutsk to Ockotsk, and
from the Frozen Ocean to the Chinese frontier.
The fifth branch above enumerated consists of the Turcomans
in the steppes and deserts to the east of the Caspian, and south
of Lake Aral ; they were dreaded as kidnappers, who, on their ex-
cellent horses, were in the habit of surprising the villages of
Khorassan in earlier times, and infested the shores of Mazenderan
in their pirate boats, until the Russians suppressed this scandalous
trade. They supplied the slave markets in Khiva, Bokhara, and
Kokand, thus causing a constant intercrossing of Turkish and
Eranian blood. This has probably taken place since the oldest
times, for when the Turkish tribes conquered Kashgaria, Fergana,
and Khorassan, they found ancient Persian town populations, the
Tadshiks of modern ethnology, who by earlier travellers were also
called Sarts ; though Robert Shaw had deprecated such a confusion
of terms. The Sarts of Kashgaria have indeed all the physical
characteristics of Eranian descent, but they speak Turkish. Prior
to Shaw, and quite independently, the German traveller, H. von
Schlagintweit had recognized marks of Aryan descent in the town
populations of Kashgaria. 16 Cases such as these, in which the
language and the physical characters of a tribe assign it to
different positions, stand to ethnology in much the same relation
that pseudomorphic phenomena occupied towards mineralogy. If
a crystal is dissolved by percolating water and carried away out of
the matrix, another mineral penetrating into the cavity may fill it
up and appear as a fictitious crystal. Analogously it happens
that nations have adopted the language of an alien race, or,
conversely, the language holds its ground in a country while the
race is gradually altered by an admixture of blood.
The invading hosts which Central Asia from time to time sent
into the West, here and there left behind them fragmentary popu-
lations, which the elevated valleys and tablelands of the Caucasus
sheltered from extermination. Among these remnants of the
11 Reise um die Erde, vol. iii. p. 51.
16 H. von Schlagintweit, Indien und Hochasien, vol. ii. p. 40, and R. Shaw.
Turkish Branches. 383
Turkish group are the Nogaians on the left bank of the Kuban
and the island of Krim ; the Basians on the east and west of
Mount Elburz, in whose misfortunes Freshfield (the first person
who ascended Mount Elburz) has endeavoured to enlist our
sympathies ; and, lastly, the Kumuks in the lower portion and on
the right bank of the Terek, and on the shore of the Caspian Sea.
Another Turkish tribe, the Karakalpaks, or Black-caps, has de-
scended from their former home on the Volga to the lower portion
of the Sir Daria. Lastly, the Kirghiz, that is to say, the three
hordes between the Ural and Lake Balkash, including the Buruts,
are of all Turks most nearly allied to the Mongols in their physical
characters, and by their family names, such as Kyptshak, Argyn,
Naiman, give evidence of Mongolian descent, or at least of inter-
mixture with Mongols. 1 ? According to an interpretation given by
Radloff, their name arose from the circumstance that one of their
hordes was called Kyrk, the forty, and another Jiis (Dschiis) the
hundred. 18 They call themselves Kasaks, or riders.
It is difficult to assign to the Turko-Mongolian nations their
true rank in the history of civilization. It is certain that many of
these tribes have remained nomadic even to the present day, and
will probably disappear without having ever become stationary.
The fairly advanced civilization of the Uzbeks in Kashgaria and
Turkestan, and of the European Osmanlis, might be due to their
admixture with Aryan and semi-Semitic races. But the early
civilization of the old Uighurs and the social capabilities of the
Yakuts, prove that the pure-bred Turkish tribes were also fully
capable of the higher forms of social life. The invention of
leather tents and the manufacture of felt, the breeding of horses
as milch animals, the taming of the sheep with fat tails, and
perhaps of the Bactrian camel, are achievements which are pro-
bably derived from Central Asia and a remote antiquity. Still
it is hard to say to which branch of the Northern Asiatics these
improvements in domestic life are to be ascribed.
The fourth division with which we have next to deal, consists of
the nations of the multiform Finnish group, which is again divided
17 W. Radloff, Turkische Volksliteratur in Siidsibirien, vol. iii. p. 14.
w Zeitschrift fiir Erdkunde, vol. vi. p. 505. 1871.
384 Mongoloid Nations of the Old World.
into four branches, namely, the Ugrian, Bulgarian, Permian, and
the true Finnish. Their original homes were in part more to the
east and south than at present, in the Ural and Altai mountains,
from which circumstance the race is often collectively termed
the Ural- Altaic. 1 ? Under the head of Ugrians, Castren included
the Ostiaks on the right bank of the Ob, the Voguls on the
eastern slopes of the northern Urals, and the Magyars. A hundred
years ago Saijnovics, a travelling companion of Hell, proved that
the latter belonged to the Finnish family, 20 and a comparative
grammar has thrown further light on the position of their lan-
guage. 21 The Bulgarians on the Danube can no longer be placed
in the Bulgarian branch, for according to language and physical
characters, they belong to the Sclavonic family, and have also
completely absorbed into themselves the remnants of the former
Bulgarians of the middle ages. For while the Bulgarians of the
Volga maintained their government until the thirteenth century,
and their nationality until their permanent subjugation by the
Czars of Moscow, the Bulgarians of the Danube forfeited their
language in the tenth and their independence at the beginning
of the eleventh century. 22 The inhabitants of the insulated
Tsherimis, Mordvin, and Tshuvash districts on the Volga, who
are quite surrounded by Russians, are Bulgarians. The name
of the Tsherimis signifies in the Mordva language the Easterns.
The Mordvins again call themselves Mokshans in the east, and
Ersans in the west. Ruybroek called them Moxel, Merdas, and
Merduas ; and Herberstein called them Mordva. A more or less
veiled paganism is found among them, 2 3 and their archaic peculi-
arities attract the attention of ethnologists. The Permian branch
received its name from the Permians, who lived on the waters of
the Kama, in Bjarmaland, as it was called in old Scandinavian.
19 Comp. the travelling maps of Ujfalvy, Migrations des peuples toura-
niens, pp. 120 and 130.
"* Saijnovics wrote a book in 1770, entitled Idioma Ungarorum et Lap-
ponum idem esse.
Sl Michael Weske, Untersuchungen zur vergleichenden Grammatik des
finnischen Sprachstammes. Leipzic, 1872.
w Robert Roesler, Romanische Studien, p. 239.
23 Von Haxthausen, Studien iiber Russland, vol. ii. p. 16.
Finns. 385
Their kinsmen are the Zirianians further north towards the Frozen
-Ocean, and the Votiaks on the north bank of the Viatka, who
however call themselves Udy, or Ut-murt.
The fourth, which is the true Finnish branch, has spread over the
northern and eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, and received from
German neighbours its European appellation which is connected
with Veen, turf or bogs. 2 * They moreover call their country
Suomi, swamp and sea-land, and themselves Suomalaisia. 2 *
There is no longer any doubt that Tacitus and Ptolemy knew
of these people under the name of Fenni and Phinni in or near
their present place of abode. 26 Their dialects distinguish them
into the Suomi on the Gulfs of Finland and Bothnia, the neighbour-
ing Karelians, the Vesps, or North Tshud, on the south-western
shores of Lake Ladoga, the Vods, or South Tshud, to the north-east
of the town of Narva, both in course of extinction, the Krevins
who have died out in Courland since 1846, the Livonians, now
reduced to two thousand individuals, also in Courland on the Gulf
of Riga, and the Ehsts a numerous and compact body. Allied to
these tribes by consanguinity are the Lapps, or Kvans, of Scan-
dinavia and Russia, whose language, in Castren's opinion, was only
two thousand years ago the same as that of the Suomi. These
only migrated to their present place of abode at a late period. 2 ?
The consanguinity of the Finnish group with the nations of
the Mongolian race is most distinctly recognizable in the Voguls,
who resemble the Kalmuks far more than is the case with the
Ostiaks. 28 Carl Vogt recognized the characteristics of the Mongo-
lian race even in the Lapps of Norway, in the narrow slit eyes, hori
zontally set, broad cheek-bones, wide mouth, short nose, and yellow
complexion. 2 9 The Finns of the Baltic have borrowed from their
Teutonic and Slavonic neighbours a number of words for civilized
84 H. Guthe, Die Lande Braunschweig und Hannover, p. 62.
85 Prof. Hjelt in the Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschaft fur Anthro-
pologie, p. 117. 1872. This derivation has recently been contested by
Sjogren, and the proper name of the Finns is provisionally pronounced to
be without explanation.
88 Forbinger, Alte Geographic, vol. iii. p. 1124.
8T Ujfaloy, Migrations des peuples touraniens, pp. 118-120.
Castren, Vorlesungen, p. 128. " C. Vogt, Nord-Fahrt, p. 166.
386 Mongoloid Nations of the Old World.
implements, and with the words the objects also. This gives an
idea of their condition before the acquisition of these. The only
domestic animals which they bred were dogs, horses, and oxen,
and the only cereal which they cultivated was barley. In
summer they lived in leather tents, in winter, like all Polar
nations of the Old World, in semi-subterranean yourts. It is
therefore possible that the Ostiaks and Voguls of the present day
represent the state of their western kindred in olden times. 3
Unfortunately, the history of the language of the Baltic Finns
does not extend beyond the year 1542. But their epic poems,
collected in the Kalevala, certainly belong, at least in their
present form, to a very recent period. While the Mongolian and
Tungus dialects have remained more pure but also poorer, and
the Mandschu has hardly freed itself from monosyllabism, in the
Ugrian group, Magyar and the Finnish of the Baltic have almost
reached the stage of the inflected languages. 3 1
Besides these people the Bashkers, Meshtsheriaks, and Teptiars,
on the European slopes of the Central and Southern Urals, speak
Turkish languages, but are reckoned in the Finnish group on
account of their physical characters, and must therefore be re-
garded as Turco-Finnish hybrid nations.
The fifth branch of the so-called Altaic group of nations, by
the Russians termed Samoyeds, originally came from the Saian
mountains, near the sources of the Yenesei and the Ob. We still
find there the Samoyed Soiots, on the northern slopes of the Saian
chain the Karagasses and Kamassintzi, and to the east of the
Yenesei the Koibals.3 a From these, their southern kinsmen, the
Samoyeds, have spread as breeders of reindeer to the north of
the continent from the White Sea to the Bay of Chatanga. In
ancient Yugria, on both sides of the Sea of Ob, lives the tribe of
Yuraks, and further east the Tawgi. As the same family names
occur among these northern Samoyeds as among the Kamassintzi
of the south, the emigration must have taken place downwards
* Prof. Ahlquist iiber die Culturworter in den westfinnischen Spracheo.
Ausland, 1871. No. 31, p. 741 et seq.
11 Whitney, Language and the Study of Language, p. 320.
" Pallas, Voyages, voL iv. p. 433.
Samoyeds. 387
along the Yenesei. In point of language the Samoyeds are
nearest allied to the Finnish division, and in this to the Bulgarian
branch. Through fear of incest the Samoyeds do not intermarry
with the Ostiaks of the same family names pointing to a near
relationship. 33 It is very possible that in some future classification
of nations the Samoyeds will not be ranked as a separate division
of the Altaian family, but only as a branch of the Finnish. The
term Altaian was originated, as we have observed, by Castren, and
the supposition that even the Finns formerly inhabited the Altai
mountains is based on the fact that names of waters in the
Yenesei district, such as Oja, Yoga, Kolba, mean in Finnish and
Lapp, brook, water, and fishing-water, and that in its upper course
the Yenesei itself is called Kem, which signifies stream in the
Finn language only, where it appears in the form of Kemi and
KymL
V. NORTHERN ASIATICS OF DOUBTFUL POSITION.
This chapter is not a description of a new group of the Mon-
golian family, but a candid confession that the system which we
set forth is given in an incomplete condition, as there are three
distinct tribes which cannot be included in any of the greater
divisions. The first of these are the Ostiaks of the Yenesei, who
have nothing in common with the Ostiaks of the Ob, except their
ill-chosen name. They live on the upper course of the Yenesei
as far as the confluence of the lower Tunguska, first on the left
bank only and afterwards on the right also. Their language, which
has nothing in common with the Ural-Altaic typical tongue, has six
dialects, of which we will name only the Assan, Arinzi, and Kottish,
the latter of which was spoken by only five persons in Castren's
time. These Siberian tribes are now reduced to one thousand in-
dividuals and must inevitably die out, principally owing to the fact
that hunting and fishing are their only means of livelihood. 1 In
their physical constitution the Ostiaks of the Yenesei are, moreover,
w Castren, Vorlesungen, pp. 82, 84, and 107.
1 Latham, Varieties, p. 268. Castren, Vorlesungen, pp. 87, 88.
388 Northern Asiatics of Doubtful Position.
in no way distinguished from their Siberian neighbours, so that
they certainly belong to the Mongolian race, but occupy an
independent position within it.
Both these remarks apply to the Yukagiri, who now live on the
polar sea of Siberia, eastward of the Lena. In 1809, Hedenstrom
found in the islands of New Siberia vestiges of former Yukagiri
settlers who were even then extinct. 2 Their language is altogether
different from that of the Ural-Altaic group.3 They call themselves
Andon domni.
It is far more difficult to define the position of the third race,
which has given itself the name of Aino, or Ainu, the people.
As we have already stated, they were the oldest inhabitants of
the Japanese islands, but are now met with only in Yesso. With
them must be classed the inhabitants of southern Saghalien, of
the Kurile Islands, and the Giliaks on the Lower Amoor-* and in
northern Saghalien. 5 Their language has been pronounced akin
to the Japanese, but without sufficient reason. 6
At the sitting of the Anthropological Society of Berlin, Decem-
ber 1 6th, 1871, Herr von Brandt, the German Consul in Japan,
exhibited photographs of Ainos, the expression of whose faces was
very like that of the Japanese. The inhabitants of the island of
Paramushir at the southern point of Kamtshatka, who speak a
Kurilian dialect, have "obliquely slit eyes" which is one of
the most easily recognizable characters of the Mongolian race. 7
The skulls of these people have almost the same index of breadth
as those of the Japanese, namely, 76-78-8; but their index of
height, 69-76, proves to be considerably lower, though this is
not a very important difference. 8 We are far more puzzled by
1 F. von Wrangell, Reisen langs der Nordkuste von Siberian.
* Whitney, Study of Language, p. 330.
4 Petermann's Mittheilungen, 1857, p. 305 ; 1860, p. 99.
8 Wenjukow maintains on the contrary that the language of the Giliaks is
different from that of the Tongus as well as of the Kurilians, who speak Aino. .
8 Whitney, Study of Language, p. 329.
T According to Russian authorities in the Zeitschrift der Wiener geogr.
Gesellschaft, vol. xv. 12, p. 558. 1872.
Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellsch, fur Anthropologie, pp. 77-29.
1872.
Ostiak and Aino. 389
their luxuriant growth of beard, the bushy, curly hair of the head,
and general hirsuteness,9 which latter, although not more abundant
than in Europeans, is highly significant in the midst of smooth-
skinned races. This peculiarity alone would suffice to separate
the Ainos from other Asiatics as a distinct race, did not all our
information respecting them depend on such scanty and cursory
statements that only later and better-instructed ethnologists will be
able to decide as to their position. It is not quite impossible
that they may be related to the Ae'ta, for the Asiatic Papuans
may have spread across the Loochoo Islands to the Kuriles. We
do not make this conjecture with any confidence, but only in order
that the dialects of the Ae'ta may be compared with the Aino
languages. It is only when this investigation has led to some
result, whether affirmative or negative, that their true position can
be more satisfactorily assigned to the Aino.
vi. THE BEHRING'S NATIONS.
Under this head we include a number of North Asiatic and
American tribes which, for the most part, either inhabit the shores
of Behring's Straits or have migrated, like the Eskimo, from its
shores to Greenland. The name of Hyperborean Mongols, which
Latham employed, is inapplicable to this group, as we mean it to
include nations as far as the Straits of Juan de Fuca. Only some
of these tribes are united by a common type of language. The
physical characters are more satisfactory, for they form a transition
from the Mongol-like Siberians to the aborigines of America. This
transition justifies our intention of not separating the Americans
as a distinct race, but of connecting them with the Mongolian
Asiatics. All the people named have reddish or brownish dark-
coloured skin, stiff cylindrical hair, and, with one exception, no
beard, and scarcely any hair on the rest of the body.
(a) Itelmes, or Kamtskadals, These characters together with
their narrow slit eyes caused George Steller to describe the
9 Blakiston, Journey in Yezo, in the Journal of the Royal Geographical
Society, voL xlii. p. 80.
39O The Behrings Nations.
Itelmes, or Kamtskadals, as of decidedly Mongoloid appearance. 1
The words of their language are found by the separable combina-
tion of roots ; and if Kennan is correct in his assertion that they
use prefixes, they are distinguished by this from the Ural-Altaians
as well as from the Eskimo. 2 They live chiefly by fishing; the
dog, which they harness to sledges, is their domestic animal. In
comparison with other Behring's nations, they are very unskilful
sailors. Their only social institution was the duty of " vendetta "
in the inhabitants of an Ostrog. The husband belonged to the
family of his parents-in-law. Shamanism was in full force, though
there was no actual caste of sorcerers, but each individual conjured
the spirits at his own peril. Belief in a future life led frequently
to suicide : fathers allowed themselves to be strangled by their
children or were thrown to the dogs. It was supposed that the
poor would be recompensed for their sufferings in the present
world by superfluity in the next.3 The musical talents of the
Itelmes are of a very high order, for they have even composed
part songs.-* Steller saw dances and dramatic representations,
which usually consisted of comic imitations of their foreign
visitors. Adolph Erman praises their honesty, gentleness, and
"innate refinement of manners." 5 Much that he tells us of their
self-sacrificing hospitality is touching, and Kennan has recently
experienced the same. In Steller's time water was their only
beverage, so that the decoction made from the fly agaric can
only have become customary at a later period.
(b) Koriaks and TshuktshL Steller says of the Koriaks who
live on the Sea of Okotsk and as far north as Kamtshatka, that in
stature, face, hair, and the deep tones in which they speak, they
are as like the Itelmes as " one egg is to another." 6 This can
1 Steller, Kamtschatka, p. 298.
* Latham (Varieties, p. 274) asserts, without giving evidence, that the
Kamtskadal language has some community in the vocabulary with Corean and
Japanese. This is probably only in words of civilization which have been
borrowed in intercourse.
* Steller, Kamtschatka, pp. 277, 294, 270, 271.
4 Ibid. p. 332.
* Reise um die Erde, vol. iii. p. 422.
9 Kamtschatka, p. 251.
Itelmes, Koriaks, and Tshuktshi. 391
only be true of the fishing population on the coast, for the Koriaks
of the interior, who live a patriarchal life in tents on the produce
of their herds of reindeer, are described as people of more than
average height ; they are therefore taller than the Itelmes, whom
they do not resemble either in hospitality or in obliging and kindly
treatment of strangers. In their physical characters, Kennan
describes these tribes as of North American type. 7 Unlike most
of the Behring's nations, they are untainted by erotic vices, and
are at the same time jealous husbands. Unfortunately, they are
only too fond of intoxicating themselves with the decoction of fly
agarics, which, in spite of the strict prohibition of the Russian
government, is brought to them by unconscientious merchants.
The old people of this tribe and of the Tshuktshi 8 allow their
own children to kill them with lances, presumably believing that
man will enter on a new life at the exact age at which he left the
world, and that it is therefore better not to empty the cup to the
dregs.
The Tuski, or Tshuktshi, are as closely related to the Itelmes in
language as are Spaniards to Portuguese. They live in almost entire
liberty on the coasts of the Behring's Straits breeding reindeer,
and on the shores of the Frozen Ocean as fishermen. They are
sometimes termed Reindeer Tshuktshi to distinguish them from
the Namollo, with whom they were formerly combined. They are
powerful men, able to walk lightly under burdens of 200 Ibs. A
Tshuktshi boy, whom Colonel Buckley took from Plover Bay to
San Francisco, was always supposed to be a Chinese ; the same
mistake has been frequently made about two native Aleutian sailors
in a town in which Chinese and Japanese are to be met with in
every street.9 In conclusion, the Tuski sail on the Behring's Straits
in leathern boats with a framework of whalebone, and make use of
a sail, probably in imitation of European ships. They tie inflated
sealskins to the outside of the boats to guard against capsizing,
after the manner of Polynesian outriggers.
(c) The Namollo and the Eskimo. Quite at the north-eastern
corner of Asia, on Behring's Straits, and along the Frozen
7 Tent Life in Siberia, pp. 117 and 218;
Whymper, Alaska, p. 98. Ibid. p. 273.
392 The Behr ing's Nations.
Ocean, the Tshuktshi border on the Namollo, with whom they
were formerly confused. They differ little from their neighbours
in manners and habits. Liitke I0 noticed their well-marked Mon-
golian features, prominent cheek-bones, small noses, and frequently
obliquely set eyes. We also know that the Namollo language is
allied to the Eskimo." Chamisso, who had an opportunity of
comparing the Namollo of the Gulf of St. Lawrence with the
Eskimo in Kotzebue Sound, observes that the population of the
north-east point of Asia as well as all Americans from Behring's
Straits to the Eskimo of Baffin's Bay, belong to " the same race of
men, with a conspicuously Mongolian form of face." 12 The Eskimo,
whose name is derived from Esquimantsic in the Abenaki lan-
guage, or from Ashkimeg in the Ojibwa dialect, which, in both
cases, means " eaters of raw meat," J 3 call themselves In-nu-it, a
plural form of in-nu, the man. Their words are always formed by
means of suffixes,^ and so far the method is the same as in the Ural-
Altaic group, though the most important character, the harmony
of the vowels, is wanting in the Innuit language. Although the
Eskimo language is in no exact sense incorporative, it will soon
be shown that it is a transition between the Ural-Altaic and the
American types. At the time of the visits of the Northmen to
America, that is, about A.D. 1000, the Innuit lived somewhat to
the south on the Atlantic coast ; and at the beginning of last
century they might occasionally be seen in Newfoundland. 15 It was
only in the middle of the fourteenth century that they appeared in
Greenland. l6 Barnard Davis gives as the cranial indices of the
Greenland Eskimo a breadth of 71 and a height of 75, and of
the Eskimo of eastern North America, 70 and 75 for the same
dimensions. But these characters are worthless, for the skull
is artificially shaped. 17 In the case of the western Innuit, among
whom this habit is supposed to be unknown, and who, therefore,
19 Voyage autour du monde, vol. ii. p. 264. 1835.
11 Waitz, Anthropologie, vol. iii. p. 301.
12 Otto von Kotzebue's Entdeckunge Reise, vol. iii. p. 176. 1821.
11 Charlevoix, Nouvelle France, vol. iii. p. 178.
14 Steinthal, Typen des Sprachbaues, p. 220. " Charlevoix.
16 David Cranz, Historie von Gronland, voL L p. 333.
M See above, p. 58.
Namollo and Eskimo. 393
-have skulls of natural form, 75 is the index of breadth, and 77 the
index of height ; hence they are mesocephals in whom the height
is greater than the breadth. 18 In other points the Innuit exactly
resemble the northern Asiatic populations in all physical charac-
ters, especially in skin and hair. The oblique setting of the eyes,
and the broad flat faces, are recognizable even in the Eskimo of
Greenland, X 9 although intermixtures with German blood have
frequently taken place there. The Namollo and Eskimo are not
tall people ; but we have already contradicted the old and erro-
neous statements as to their dwarfish size. 20 Their women are not
prolific, 21 or rather productiveness is considered undesirable, so
that this race also will not escape extinction.
Under the name of Angekoks we find among them genuine
North Asiatic Shamans, who prepare themselves for their magic
cures and incantations by such prolonged solitude and fasting that,
as Cranz ingenuously remarks, "their imagination becomes dis-
ordered." 22 They worship a benevolent creator named Torngarsuk
or Anguta. 2 3 When they hear the praises of an Almighty God
from the mouths of missionaries, many of them imagine that their
Torngarsuk is intended. 2 * Opposed to him stands a baneful female
deity said to be without a name. Not only do they believe in a
future life, but also in a future punishment for malefactors and the
unrighteous. 25 In their legends the Innuit tell of an Arctic para-
dise called Akillnek, and have narratives of travelling adventures,
in which the oriental bird, the roc, is replaced by gigantic sea-
gulls. Among them has also been found the story of the girls
who, when bathing, turn, not into swans which are unknown
but into ducks. Hall, who lived among them so long, says they
are the best-hearted people on the face of the earth. Their intel-
ligence is proved by the fact that they quickly learnt dominoes,
18 Barnard Davis, Thesaurus Craniorum, pp. 219-224.
19 Die zweite deustche Nordpolfahrt, vol. i. p. 135.
80 See above, p. 81.
81 D. Cranz, Historic von Gronland, vol. i. p. 212.
M Ibid, book iii. vol. i. p. 268.
** So called by Hall, Life with the Esquimaux, p. 524.
14 David Cranz, vol. i. pp. 264, 265.
Hall, Life with the Esquimaux, p. 524.
18
394 The Behr ing's Nations.
draughts, and even chess. 26 Leopold von Buch, when travelling in
Arctic Norway, persuaded himself that human society could hope
for no intellectual gains from the inhabitants of those regions
where the full strength of man is consumed in the struggle against
the asperity of nature to procure the bare necessaries of life.
This would apply with far greater force to Polar America. The
Eskimo, it is true, have not inferred the flattening of the earth
from certain disturbances in the moon's course ; they have not
analyzed water into its two component gases, nor have they
founded a universal religion, but, relying on their own strength
and skill, they have entered zones in which day and night are as
long as seasons : they have proved that man can still hold his own
where a nine months' winter turns the land to stone, where no tree
can grow, and where there is not even enough drift wood to serve
for the shaft of a spear. Of the bones of Arctic mammals killed
in the chase, they have laboriously constructed sledges, and put
together spears, which, lashed round with the sinews of animals,
are sufficiently substantial to enable bold hunters to kill the white
bear in close combat. They have found out how to build huts of
snow as quickly as tropical natives build them of branches and
leaves ; nay, they have constructed arched vaults of stone, which
had not occurred to any of the civilized people of Mexico. They
know how to warm their huts with train-oil lamps, and how to
melt snow and ice over them that they may allay their thirst.
They possessed in sledges, which were unknown in other parts of
America, a means of accomplishing land journeys ; to move these
they had harnessed to it draught animals, namely, dogs ; while in
America, the most advanced stage of such art was to be found
only among the Incas of Peru, who use llamas as beasts of
burden, though not as draught animals. It is an achievement in
the history of civilization to have peopled the highest latitudes
of the earth, and the Eskimo performed this unenviable task when
they were themselves still in the stone age. Now, indeed, they
procure iron from the Danes for lance and harpoon points ; but
Northern Greenland had long been inhabited by them before
* H. Rink, Eskimoisk Digtekonst, in For Ide og Virkelighed, p. 222
etseq. Copenhagen, 1870.
Habits of the Eskimo. 395
Europeans ventured to approach it. The first ship which pene-
trated into Baffin's Bay in 1616, under Captain Bylot, opened
a communication with the natives. It was only in 1818 that the
elder Ross, who was the second to enter those latitudes, appeared,
and in his track followed the whale-fishers, who brought with them
the first iron. But the Eskimo tribe which lives on the other side
of Smith's Bay has certainly been settled there for several genera-
tions, perhaps for centuries.
The Eskimo have contributed in no small degree to the increase
of European science by giving their assistance to both the older
and more recent explorers of the North-west Passage. Sir Edward
Parry was indebted to a remarkable Eskimo woman, Iligiuk, for a
map, which led to the discovery of the Fury and Hecla Straits. 2 ?
The Eskimo Hans, who accompanied the celebrated Kane, and-
his successor Hayes, guided the sailor Morton to beyond the
eighty-first latitude, the most northerly point ever reached on the
coast of Greenland. When we follow the records of the older and
newer explorers in the regions of the North-west Passage, and see
their ships shut in by the winter ice, and the Arctic night, which is
to last three or four months, begins, we cannot help fearing that
the European, notwithstanding his control over matter and force,
may be unable to cope with the severity of Nature, and that his
life and liberty must depend on the caprice of the coming season ;
then when the cry resounds on board ship, " The Eskimo have
come ! " it seems as if the portals of the Arctic prison-house were"
opened by a friendly hand. Like assistants in the darkness appear
beings of our species, whose cheerfulness is unaffected by cold and
obscurity, and who contentedly wander and range over regions in
which Nature seems armed with all the horrors of one of the
circles in Dante's hell. 28
We need not say much of their skill on the sea. It is well
known that they have two sorts of vessels ; some large and
capacious, the so-called women's boats (Umiak), in which families
*
27 Captain Lyon's Private Journal, pp. 160 and 226. Hall has made copies
of two Eskimo maps, which could scarcely have been drawn more true to
nature by Europeans.
n Inferno, xxxii. v. 22-30.
396 The Behring's Nations.
travel from place to place, and the men's boats (Kayak), in which
a single hunter goes in search of sea animals. The English and
the Americans of the United States are the ablest judges of the
build and management of boats. Both, however, speak with
admiration, and almost with envy, of the Eskimo who, with his
double paddle and sense of balance worthy of a tight-rope dancer,
makes his Kayak dance over the waves.
The identity of their language with that of the Namollo, their
skill on the sea, their domestication of the dog, their use of the
sledge, the Mongolian type of their faces, their capability for
higher civilization, are sufficient reasons for answering the question,
whether a migration took place from Asia to America or con-
versely from America to Asia, in favour of the former alternative ;
yet such a migration from Asia by way of Behring's Straits must
have occurred at a much later period than the first colonization of
the New World from the Old one.
Akin to the Namollo and the Eskimo both in language and in
blood are the inhabitants of the northern and western portion of
what was formerly Russian America, who have also been called
Alaskan Eskimo. They live on the shores of Behring's Straits,
on the peninsula of Alaska, and the adjoining coast towards the
east, nearly as far as Mount St. Elias. They are divided into
thirteen tribes : the Koniaks, or Konaks, of the island of Kodiak,
the Tshugatshi on Prince William's Sound and the peninsula of
Kenai, and eleven others, the names of which all end in mjuts or
mutes** To the latter belong Whymper's Malemutes who, like all
the rest, are distinguished from the Eskimo and Namollo only by
their dialect. Men of six feet high may be seen among them, so
that the dimensions vary considerably in this race. Trade has
always been carried on between the Behring's nations of Asia and
America. The Tshuktshi pass over to Diomedes Island, and the
Malemutes cross from the extreme north-westerly point of America,
to exchange reindeer's hides for furs. The trade is so brisk that
the clothing of the natives several hundred miles up the Yukon
river consists of Asiatic skins obtained from the Tshuktshi.3
For their names see Waitz, Anthropologie, vol. iii. p. 301.
Whymper, Alaska, p. 149.
Aleutians. 397
- O. von Kotzebue, who sailed along both shores of Behring's Straits
remarks that the inhabitants of St. Lawrence's Island speak the
same language as the tribes on the American coast, and call them
brothers. "Altogether," he says in another passage, "I find
so little difference between these two peoples that I am much
inclined to consider them as derived from the same stock." 3 1
Similarly George Steller states that the inhabitants of Choumagin
Islands, on the south coast of Alaska, are as like the Itelmes of
Kamtshatka as one egg is to another. 3 2 All this goes to prove
that migrations took place from the Old World to the New. On
the other hand, it is not likely that the Eskimo spread from
America to Asia, because of all Americans they have preserved
the greatest resemblance in racial characters to the Mongolian
nations of the Old World, and in historical times their migrations
have always taken place in an easterly direction.
(d) Aleutians. Between the peninsulas of Alaska and Kamt-
shatka lies, in regular curve, a chain of volcanic islands, destitute
of trees and generally enveloped in mist. They are called the
Aleutians, as are their inhabitants. The latter are connected with
the Eskimo only by a number of words common to both, which may
however have been merely interchanged ; in other respects their
language is isolated. 33 They are a Mongolian race 34 whose precocious
marriages we have already mentioned. 3 * All the Behring's nations
are more or less good sailors, but the Aleutians seem to excel even
the Eskimo in dexterity. Their hide canoes for one person are, as
Erman informs us, about 6olbs. in weight, and when occupied by
an Aleutian weighing i4olbs. draw so little water that the section
submerged offers only 0*056 metre's resisting surface. With a
81 Entdeckungsreise in die Slidsee, vol. ii. p. 105, and vol. L p. 159.
81 Steller, Kamtschatka, p. 297.
83 According to the short sketch given by Lutke (Voyage autour du monde,
vol. i. p. 243), in the structure of their words they also use prefixes, which are
totally wanting in the Innuit language.
84 A German traveller (Allgemeine Zeitung, p. 4300. 1873) is induced by
the form of their face to consider them as descended from castaway Japanese.
85 The same erotic views are prevalent among them (Langsdorff, Reise um die
Welt, vol. ii. p. 43 ; W. H. Dale, Alaska, p. 402) as among the Namollo (Lutke,
voL ii. p. 197), the Itelmes (Steller), and the Reindeer Tshuktshi (Wrangel).
398 The Behring's Nations.
canoe of this sort a native accomplished 214*8 kilometres, 01
rather more than 132 miles in 27 \ hours, while a pedestrian could
at most carry a weight of 6olbs. twelve miles in a day, and would
therefore require eleven days to go the same distance. 36 The canoe
enables the Aleutians to rival the speed of the largest marine
animals, and the pursuit of these forms a part of his daily means
of sustenance. 3 ?
(e) Thlinkites and Vancouver Tribes. On the coast south
of Mount St. Elias, and on the islands on the coast as far as
Dixon's Sound, dwell people whom the Russians term Kaliushes,
or Kolushes, but who call themselves Thlinkites, or "men." To
the south of them live the Haidahs of Queen Charlotte's Island.
On the opposite mainland, the Hailtsa, or Hailtsuk, extend from
latitude 53^ to 50. Some tribes, such as the Cowitshin and
Clalam, inhabit not only Vancouver's Island, but also the main-
land on the Frazer River and Puget Sound. It is difficult to
procure skulls from this coast district, nor could they afford us
much instruction, for in Vancouver, as in Oregon, it is the fashion
to disfigure them artificially- and the process is not confined to
mere flattening, but dolichocephalism is artificially produced. 38
The complexion is almost as fair as in Southern Europeans, but
the hair is black and stiff.
Among the Thlinkites and Haidahs 39 a little more beard
occasionally appears than is otherwise the case among Asiatic and
American Mongols. Very prominent cheek-bones, a depressed
base of the nose, and wide, fleshy snub-noses still prevail.* The
Tshinuks who live in Oregon to the south of Puget Sound, and who
flatten the head artificially, still have the obliquely slit Mongoloid
eyes, 41 which on the other hand are wanting in the Haidahs. The
M A. Erman in der Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie, vol. iii. 3, p. 167. 1871.
8T An accurate drawing of the structure of this excellent vessel is given by
Langsdorff, Reise um die Welt, vol. ii. p. 39.
88 Barnard Davis, Thesaurus Craniorum, p. 231.
89 R. Brown in the Reports of the British Association held at Norwich in
1868, p. 133.
40 Also among the Kolushes according to Von Langsdoff, Reise um die Welt,
vol. ii. p. 96.
41 Waitz, Anthropologie, vol. iii. p. 324.
Thlinkites. 399
inhabitants of the coast are not one in language with the people
on the other side of the Rocky Mountains, nor have they even
a common language among themselves. But as the physical
characters do not admit of any separation into different races, and
an observer such as Liitke expressly says, that the inhabitants of
Queen Charlotte's Islands are not to be distinguished in this
respect from the people living on the shores of the Behring's Sea,
it seems best to class them with the inhabitants of the extreme
north-east of Asia, especially as they resemble these in manners
and customs far more than the hunting tribes beyond the Rocky
Mountains. They also are good sailors, and know how to build
vessels of graceful and well-considered lines. However, it is
without doubt the nature of the coast which has evoked and
developed their skill on the sea, and hence we must not ascribe
it to a tendency of the race and therefore infer a common descent.
In the same way the custom of piercing the cheeks or lips and
inserting small plugs, which is common to the coast populations of
America from Kotzebue Sound to Vancouver Island, would at the
most indicate that a close reciprocal intercourse has caused the
spread of this vitiated taste. The American Behring's nations were
acquainted with iron prior to the arrival of the Russians and Cap-
tain Cook's visits to the coast. Provisionally, and until thorough
researches enable us to suggest any thing better, we may suppose
that Japanese, who visited the Kuriles and Kamtshatka before the
Russians, brought to the North iron or iron utensils, which thence
spread to America by the trade between the shores. With the
exception of the Kolushes, whose conjugal morality is praised by
Von Langsdorff,* 2 we find among all the Behring's nations, even
among the Eskimo, erotic vices of the worst description, disregard
of conjugal fidelity, the resignation of wives and sisters in token of
hospitality to a guest, and at the same time precocious marriages. 43
If George Steller was right in ascribing the tendency to such
aberrations to the predominance of fish as the staple food, this
character common to the Behring's nations is attributable to their
place of abode. We find among them all more or less taste for
art, which shows itself in carving. Among the Kolushes every
48 Reise um die Welt, p. 113. See above, p. 397, note %
4oo The Behring's Nations.
large vessel bears the name of some object, generally an animal,
a figure of which adorns the bows. Any peculiarly successful
decorations of this sort are much esteemed and are rewarded
with a slave." Among the Haidah of the Charlotte Islands,
again, the nobles bear copper shields, on which are engraved
crests. 45 They are also very fond of dramatic dances and
theatrical representations, which are performed with masks, as is
the case with the Thlinkites, and even some tribes in Oregon/ 6 as
well as with all the inhabitants of Vancouver's Island, w Social
conditions were far more highly developed among the Thlinkites
and Vancouver tribes than on the other side of the Rocky
Mountains. The houses were stationary, which was necessitated
by the fishery, and were sometimes like barracks. The chiefs
possessed great power; a distinction into nobles and plebeians
had arisen, and slavery existed among the Kolushes, the Haidahs,
and the Vancouver tribes.
VII. THE ABORIGINES OF AMERICA.
If the human species has peopled the world from a single centre
of creation, and if its cradle is not in America, the New World
must have received its first inhabitants from the Old. When they
entered the Western Continent they were certainly still in a very
barbarous stage, although their language possessed the rudiments
of its future character, and although they may have known how
to produce fire, and used bows and arrows. We cannot suppose
that these immigrants made long voyages, but at most that they
crossed Behring's Straits. It is not impossible that the first migra-
tions took place at a time when what is now the channel of
Behring's Straits was occupied by "an isthmus. The climate of
those northern shores must then have been much milder than
at the present day, for no currents from the Frozen Ocean could
have penetrated into the Pacific. That the severance of Asia
44 Lutke, Voyage autour du monde, vol. i. p. 212. W. Dale, Alaska,
pp. 413 and 417.
4i R. Brown, as above. ** Waitz, Anthropologie, voL iii p. 335.
47 Whymper, Alaska, p. 58.
American Immigrations. 401
from America was, geologically speaking, very recent, is shown
by the fact that not only the straits z but the sea which bears the
name of Behring is extraordinarily shallow, so much so indeed
that whalers lie at anchor in the middle of it. 2 But it is always
dangerous to rely on geological events which themselves require
more accurate proof. We therefore prefer to assume that at the
time at which the Asiatics passed over into America, Behring's Straits
already possessed their present character. We must, however,
remember the first question which Gauss the great mathematician
addressed in 1828, at Berlin, to Adalbert von Chamisso the cir-
cumnavigator, namely, whether the coast of America was visible
from any point in Asia, that in such a way the two worlds might
be connected by a triangle. Chamisso was able to answer this
query in the affirmative, 3 so that no accidental discovery need be
supposed, for the Asiatics of Behring's Straits, when they crossed
over to America, saw their goal before their eyes. Luxurious
Europeans, indeed, think it strange that people whom we must
suppose still without any means of protection, could have con-
tinued to exist in a climate so severe. But they forget that the
children of the north are more comfortable in severe weather
than in a milder temperature. " When, in winter mornings," wrote
George Steller, " I was freezing under my featherbed and fur cover-
lets, I saw the Itelmes, and even their little children, lying in their
kuklanka naked and bare half-way down the chest, without cover-
lets or featherbeds, and yet were warmer to the touch than I was."
In another place he adds that the Kamtskadals always place a
large vessel filled with water, which they cool with pieces of ice, by
their side at night, and drain this to the last drop before the break
of day. But the case of the Fuegians is yet more convincing, for
the first immigrants to America were probably as undeveloped as
these people, many of whom endure all weathers in total nudity.
Darwin, who saw a woman in this state, adds, " It was raining
heavily, and the fresh water, together with the spray, trickled
down her body. In another harbour not far distant, a woman
1 Llitke, Voyage autour du monde, vol. ii. p. 209.
3 Whymper, Alaska, p. 94.
8 Chamisso, Gesammelte Werke, vol. i. p. 146.
4-O2 The Aborigines of America.
who was suckling a recently born child came one day alongside
the vessel, and remained there out of mere curiosity, whilst the
sleet fell and thawed on her bosom, and on the skin of her child."
A few pages further on he says again, " We were well clothed,
and though sitting close to the fire were far from too warm ; yet
these naked savages, though further off, were observed, to our great
surprise, to be streaming with perspiration at undergoing such a
roasting."* This is sufficient to convince any one that even for
beings on the level of the Fuegians, a climate such as that of
Behring's Straits would not impede a migration from Asia to
America.
But the proof that the aborigines of America took this road
consists in their Mongoloid characters. In the last chapter it was
shown that the Asiatic and American tribes of Behring's Straits are
so much alike as to be mistaken for one another. In the United
States even adherents of the doctrine of the plurality of the human
species have admitted that all the aborigines of America resemble
each other as much as "full-blooded Jews," and that the Mongo-
lian is the only race with which they can properly be closely
connected.s A, von Humboldt, moreover, attributes to the natives
of Mexico all the Mongolian characters, with the sole exception of
the nose, even the obliquely set eyes, 6 which latter peculiarity he
also ascribes to the Chayma in the north-east of Venezuela.? The
obliquely set eyes and prominent cheek-bones of the inhabitants
of Veragua were noticed by Moritz Wagner, and according to his
description, out of four Bayano Indians from Darien, three had
thoroughly Mongolian features, including the flattened nose. 8
James Orton the traveller was also struck by the likeness of the
Zaparo of the Napo River, east of the Cordilleras of Quito, to
the Chinese. 9 In 1866 an officer of the Sharpshooter, the first
English man-of-war which entered the Parana" River in Brazil,
remarks in almost the same words of the Indians of that district,
A Naturalist's Journey round the World, pp. 213, 22Q,
Morton, Types of Mankind, p. 275.
Essai politique sur la Nouvelle Espagne, vol. i. p. 381.
Reisen in die ^Equinoctialgegenden, vol. ii. p. 13.
Naturwissenschaftliche Reisen, vol. i. pp. 128 and 313.
The Andes and the Amazon, p. 170.
Mongolian Characters. 403
that their features vividly reminded him of the Chinese. 10 Burton
describes the Brazilian natives at the falls of Cachauhy as having
thick, round Kalmuck heads, flat Mongol faces, wide, very promi-
nent cheek-bones, oblique and sometimes narrow-slit Chinese eyes,
and slight moustachios. 11 Another traveller, J. J. von Tschudi,
declares in so many words that he has seen Chinese whom at the
first glance he mistook for Botocudos, and that since then he has
been convinced that the American race ought not to be separated
from the Mongolian. 12 His predecessor, St. Hilaire, 1 ^ noticed
narrow, obliquely set eyes and broad noses among the Malali of
Brazil. Reinhold Hensel, 1 * says of the Coroados that their features
are of Mongoloid type, due especially to the prominence of the
cheek-bones, but that the oblique position of the eyes is not per-
ceptible. Yet the oblique opening of the eye, which forms a
good though not an essential characteristic of the Mongoloid
nations, is said to be characteristic of all the Guarani tribes in
Brazil. x s Even in the extreme south, among the Hiullitches of
Patagonia, King saw a great many with obliquely set eyes. 16
Those writers who separate the Americans as a peculiar race
fail to give distinctive characters, common to them all, which dis-
tinguish them from the Asiatic Mongols. All the tribes have stiff,
long hair, cylindrical in section. The beard and hair of the body
is always scanty or totally absent. 1 ? The colour of the skin varies
considerably, as might be expected in a district of 110 of latitude ;
it ranges from a slight South European darkness of complexion
among the Botocudos to the deepest dye among the Aymara, 18
M Nautical Magazine, vol. xxxvi. p. 564. London, 1867.
11 R. Burton, Highlands of Brazil, vol. ii. p. 403.
18 Reisen durch Sudamerika, vol. ii. p. 299.
18 Voyage au Bresil, vol. i. p. 424.
14 Zeitschrift fur Ethnologic, vol. iii. p. 128. 1869.
14 Orbigny, L'homme americain, p. 62.
16 Latham, Varieties, p. 415.
IT This was remarked even by the Jesuit Charlevoix (Nouvelle France,
vol. iii. p. 311) and Catlin (North American Indians, p. 328) and more recently
by Musters (Among the Patagonians, p. 172). That bearded men appear occa-
sionally among the Comantschs, will surprise no one who knows how many
Spanish women these predatory hordes have carried off into slavery.
18 See above, p. 89.
404 The Aborigines of America.
or to copper red in the Sonor tribes. *9 But no one has tried to
draw limits between races on account of these shades of colour,
especially as they are of every conceivable gradation. American
skulls often have projecting jaws, but, as in the Asiatic Mongols,
prognathism is never very great. Pruner Bey 20 states that the
shape of the American skull is very variable. " The heads of the
Botocudos," he continues, "do not differ essentially from the
Chinese; those of the Toltec nations are like those of the Javanese,
and those of the New Zealanders may be compared with those of
the Redskins." According to Welcker's skull measurements, the
average breadth varies from 74 in Brazilians to 80 in Caribs and
Patagonians. Thus they vary as much as in the Asiatic Mongolian
group. Yet, except in the case of the Araucanians, 21 Barnard
Davis has not ventured to state the proportions of breadth and
height in the case of the aboriginal population of America,
although a considerable number of skulls were at his disposal.
But on both continents the children's heads are shaped by arti
ficial means. This was customary in North America not only
among the Flatheads of Vancouver's Island and Oregon, 22 but
occurred also among the Algonkin tribes in the east of the United
States. 2 3 In the southern continent this practice obtained among
all the civilized nations of the Andes, and hence we find in skulls
of the Muysca, the old inhabitants of Quito and Peru, indices
of breadth as high, and even higher, than 100. . At present, there-
fore, it is impossible to say within what limits the breadth and
height of uninjured American skulls vary ; but the few individual
tribes in which it has been accomplished proved to be meso-
cephalic or brachycephalic, as \vas to be expected, if they belong
to the Mongolian race.
The narrow-slit and often obliquely set eyes, which have been
remarked in individual tribes in both continents as far as the
19 Waitz, Anthropologie, vol. iv. p. 200.
80 Resultats de craniometrie. Mem. de la Societe d' Anthropologie, voL ii,
P- 13-
11 Breadth 80, height 80. Thesaurus Craniorum, | , 357.
M See above, p. 398.
M Hence the French called the tribes with artificially and entirely round
skulls " tfctes de boule." Charlevoix, Nouvelle France, vol. iii. p. 324.
Languages. 405
extreme south, may be regarded as a mark of Mongolian ancestry
(atavism). Although they are not essential marks of all the
nations of Northern Asia, they occur only in the Mongolian
race, for Fritsch has now satisfactorily proved that they do
not occur in Hottentots, and that their limited local appear-
ance in Australia may be attributed to a mixture of Malay
blood. 2 * In only one physical character some American tribes
differ from the Asiatic Mongols. A small snub nose with a low
bridge is typical in the latter ; whereas in the hunting tribes of
the United States, and especially among the chiefs, we meet with
high noses. It is known, moreover, that the Mexicans and other
civilized nations of Central America, represented the faces of
their gods with very prominent noses, so that some few individuals
among these also must have had this marked feature. This
deviation from the Mongol type occurs in South America even
in high latitudes : among the extinct Abipones, as well as among
the Patagonians of the present day, the so-called eagle nose was
and is no rarity. But a peculiarity which appears only locally,
and is not common to all the aborigines of the New World, can
not be regarded as characteristic of race.
A complete separation of the American from the Asiatic Mongols
could only be founded on the internal diversity of the languages.
Yet the greatest divisions in the present system have been based
on physical characters. We will now inquire whether the type of
their languages does not clearly indicate that the Americans, before
their immigration into the New World, were in the same stage
of development as the Ural-Altaic nations. As we have already
seen, the American languages are peculiar in that the structure of
the sentence is merged in the form of the word, on which account
they have been called polysynthetic. If this is true, it has been a
great mistake to attribute an entirely isolated position to the Innuit
language. Like the Ural-Altaic languages, it employs suffixes only
for the definition of meaning, but it is also capable of forming a
complex sentence in a single word ; in other words, it is polysyn-
thetic. The Greenlander uses a single word to express the idea,
84 See above, p. 322.
406 The Aborigines of America.
"he says that you, also, are going in haste to buy a beautiful knife." 2 s
But it is most important to recollect that this loose combination of
roots is not genuine incorporation, for in the American languages
the connected syllables are always curtailed of some sounds.
Steinthal, as we have seen, 26 says that the fullest development of
incorporation is in the Mexican Nahuatl language, which places
the object between the subject and the verb, and resolves all the
three into one whole. But this method is not quite peculiar to
American languages, for it occurs also in the Ural-Altaic family, in
the Ugrian and Bulgarian groups, in the Magyar, Ostiak, Vogul,
and Mordvin languages. In the last of these, and also in the
Moksha dialect, the inflected words and objective personal pro-
nouns are closely interwoven in the Mexican manner. 2 ? This
fact shows us that, in the midst of strictly suffix languages, some
adopted incorporation : we here see the internal relationship of
the American and the Ural-Altaic languages.
There are many inventions, customs, and myths common to
Northern Asiatics and the natives of America. We need not
attach much weight to the fact that the leathern tent occurs on
both continents, for no great thought was required in its invention.
The resemblance in all points of the Siberian Shaman to the North.
American medicine-man is of less importance, from the fact that
the Shamans of other quarters of the world correspond as closely.
It is more significant that the war dances and Shamanistic customs
of the Ostiaks are repeated in a minutely identical form by the
Kolushes. 28 Many of the legends of the Old World have reached
the New. The story of an adventurer who climbs up to heaven by
a high tree, and then lets himself down again, either by a leathern
strap, by a wisp of straw, or by tresses of hair, and sometimes by
the column of smoke from a hut, is told by the Ugrian tribes, 2 9
and by the Athabaskan Dogrib Indians of the extreme north of
M Knife beautiful to buy go haste will likewise thou also he says.
sauig- ik- sini- ariartok- asuar- omar- y- otit- tog- og.
* See above, p. 124.
17 In Moksha palasamak means, thou kissest me, and palaftdrdmak, if thou
wouldst not have kissed me. Ahlquist, Mokscha-mordwinische Grammatik,
p. 60. Petersburg, 1868.
M Adolf Erman, Reise um die Erde, voL L p. 675. " Ahlquist, p. 109.
Legends and Superstitions. 407
America. 30 Legends, however, float like winged seeds over wide
regions, and are therefore of little weight as evidence of common
descent ; still they indicate an ancient intercourse. It is far less
likely that superstitious ideas should have been thus interchanged.
But the Itelmes of Kamtshatka consider it very sinful to take up a
burning stick otherwise than with the fingers, as, for instance, with
the point of a knife; 31 and in the same manner it is forbidden to the
Sioux or, more properly, the Dahcotas, to take glowhig brands or
embers from the fire with an awl or a knife. 3 2 Charlevoix relates
that the tribes on Hudson's Bay show great respect to the bear. 33
When they have killed one of these animals his head is painted
over with great ceremony, and songs of praise are sung in honour
of the victim. Throughout Siberia bears are held in respect. The
Giliaks on the Amoor,34 the Aino,3S the Yenesei Ostiaks,3 6 and
lastly, the true Ostiaks, have the same feeling; these last hang the
skin of the animal on a tree, pay it homage in every way, and beg
the animal's pardon for having killed it. They also swear by the
bear.37 It may be suggested that this similarity of habit is also due
to intercourse at some past period, but if so, it is very suspicious
that useful inventions, such as the manufacture of earthenware,
were not also diffused by this intercourse; but, when first visited
by Europeans, the Itelmes of Kamtshatka, the Aleutians, the
Kolushes, and in part the Assiniboins, cooked only by means of
stones. 3 8
It has never been disputed that, according to their physical
characters, the peoples of America belong to a single race, but there
are also many mental features common to the inhabitants of both
parts of the continent. The similarity of the North American
30 Tylor, Early History of Mankind, p. 443.
81 Steller, Kamtschatka, p. 274.
32 Tylor, Early History of Mankind, p. 354.
83 Nouvelle France, vol. iii. p. 300.
84 Petermann's Geogr. Mittheilungen, p. 305. 1857.
85 Watson in Nature, April 2, 1872, p. 424.
86 Castren, Ethnologische Vorlesungen, p. 88.
87 Pallas, Voyages j Erman (Reise urn die Erde) records precisely the same,
vol. i. p. 670.
* See above, p. 167.
408 The Aborigines of America.
medicine-man and the Shaman of Brazil has already been men-
tioned. 3 9 The remarkable masquerades witnessed by Spix and
Martius, and more recently by Bates, among the Tecuna tribes
on the Amazon,'* we have already found among the Kolushes; 41
they recur again among the Aht of Vancouver's Island/ 2 and the
Moqui Indians of the " seven villages."43 Sexual excesses of the
most detestable description, namely, those associated with the
appearance of man in female attire, were observed by Herr von
Martius among the Guaycuru in the states of La Plata, 44 by the
first Spanish discoverers among the people of the Isthmus of
Darien,45 and by Cabe9a di Vaca 4 6 among the tribes in Louisiana
and Texas, and vices of the same nature are prevalent among all
the Behring's nations, even among the Tshuktshi on the frozen
ocean of Siberia.47 Men in women's clothes occur among the
hunting tribes of the United States, and, strangely enough, among
the old Illinois, who, according to their own traditions, migrated
to their present dwelling-place from the west.4 8 Among the pecu-
liarities of the Red Indians are the customary modes in which
nations address one another, as, for instance, the title of grandfather
which the Delawares have secured to themselves by compact ; and
the Iroquois in the same way imposed upon the subjugated
Hurons the condition that they should in future always be
addressed as younger brothers. 49 The same custom occurs in
Brazil, where the tribes address one another as grandfathers or
uncles. In the legends of the Mexicans and the inhabitants of
the Antilles, living beings are supposed to have first proceeded
* See above, p. 263.
40 Martius, Ethnographic, vol. i. p. 445. Bates, Naturalist on the Amazon,
P- 409-
41 See above, p. 400.
42 Whymper, Alaska, p. 58.
43 Waitz, Anlhropologie, vol. iv. p. 208.
44 Ethnographic, vol. i. p. 75.
45 Gomara, Hist, de las Indias, cap. 68. Petrus Martyr, De orbo novo,
Dec. iii. cap. I.
48 Ramusio, Navigation! e Viaggi, vol. iii. p. 270.
47 See above, p. 397, note * 5 , and p. 399.
4i Charlevoix, Nouvelle France, vol. iii. p. 303.
49 Waitz, Anthropologie, vol. iii. p. 22.
Extent of the New World. 409
from caves, and caves play a similar part in the legends of creation
current among the Tehueltecs. 50 These examples would suffice
to prove a mental relationship between the inhabitants of the two
continents, but in addition to this the resemblance in the structure
of the languages indicates a common derivation.
Let us now cast a glance over the regions inhabited by
Americans. The fact that the people of the Old World had
attained a much greater control over nature than had the deni-
zens of the New, has always been ascribed to the obviously
superior form, and to the division of labour of the West. Yet this
advantage was confined to two districts only of the New World,
namely, Europe with the Asiatic and African shores of the Medi-
terranean, and the south-east portion, where Asia arid Australia are
brought nearer to each other by peninsulas and chains of islands ;
though this portion has never been especially favourably dis-
tinguished by its civilization. It may here be questioned whether
on the whole the New World does not appear more propitiously
organized than the Old. In graceful outline arid slender form
the land of the so-called western hemisphere is far more pleasing
to the eye than the somewhat cumbrous masses of the Old World.
But even if the upright form and apt arrangement of Europe be
considered sufficient to account for the superiority of occidental
civilization over any civilization to be found in America in the
year 1492, this explanation does not meet the fact that China is
capable of a civilization almost equally superior, though there the
advantages of an advantageous arrangement of the land either did
not exist or came into play only when the culture of that country
had long been superior to any civilization in Anahuac, or in the
empire of the Incas of Peru.
The various districts of the Old World must have other advan-
tages in common, by which the education of mankind is far more
powerfully promoted than has been the case in the two Americas.
It is strange that as yet no one has looked for and discovered the
cause of the superiority just where it lies most obviously before
us, namely, in the greater extent. Asia alone is rather larger
than the New World, and as Europe and Africa together are
14 Musters, p. 99.
4io The Aborigines of America.
nearly as large as Asia, it follows that the New World is only
half as large as the Old. A more accurate estimate of the dif-
ference is as follows : SI
OLD WORLD. NEW WORLD.
Square miles. Square miles.
Europe ... 3,700,000 North America ... 8,600,000
Africa ... 12,000,000 South America ... 7,000,000
Total 15,700,000
Asia ... 17,500,000
Total 33,200,000 Total ... 15,600,000
Neglecting for the moment to take into account the way in
which the disposition of this double extent of the Old World differs
from that of the New, we will first ascertain the immediate con-
sequences resulting from the greater extent. In the first place, we
may suppose that in a district of twice as great extent, twice as
many vegetable and animal species may exist. The younger De
Candolle, the best authority on the subject, declared that in the
present incomplete state of botanical statistics, it was impossible
to compare the number of vegetable species in the Old and New
World respectively, but that botanists had good reason to expect
that it would ultimately appear that, on account of the general
direction of its mountains from north to south, America, relatively
to its size, is somewhat richer in vegetable species than the Old
World. This prepares us to acknowledge that America, though
half the size, has more than half the number of vegetable species
of the Old World. But the latter is absolutely the richer of the two.
If it be richer in wild species, it should be richer in culti-
vated plants also. We occasionally have heard it maintained that
the only domesticated plants or animals obtained by the Old
World from the New World are maize, potatoes, the turkey, the
guinea-pig, and the Muscovy duck. We shall, however, soon
perceive that the New World is not so poor as it is apt to be
represented. Confining ourselves to the most important culti-
vated plants, we find in the
51 These figures, though only approximately correct, give a correct view of
the proportionate areas.
Vegetation. 411
OLD WORLD. NEW WORLD.
CEREALS, LEGUMINOUS PLANTS, ETC.
Wheat Maize
Rye Mandioca
Barley Potatoes
Oats Chenopodium Quinoa
Millet Sweet Potatoes
Buckwheat
Negro Millet
Kaffir Corn
Rice
Lentils
Peas Mesquite Tree
Vetches
Beans
Yams Yams ?
Bananas Bananas ?
FRUITS OF THE TEMPERATE ZONES.
Vines Catawba Grapes
Apples
Pears
Plums
Cherries
Apricots
Peaches
Oranges
Figs
Dates
FIBROUS PLANTS.
Cotton Cotton
Flax Agave Americana
Hemp
Mulberry, with the Silkworm
SPICES.
Pepper Vanilla
Ginger Spanish Pepper (Capsicum
anuunm)
Cinnamon
Nutmeg .
Cloves
Sugar Cane ,..^,.^
412 The Aborigines of America.
NARCOTICS.
Tea Paraguay Tea
Coffee Cocoa
Poppy (Opium) Tobacco.
Hemp (Hashish) Coca
Both lists are defective, but were we to enumerate the less
important articles, the only result would be to show yet more
clearly that the cultivated plants of the Old World have been of
more service to mankind than those of the New. We have, more
over, given the New World credit for the yam, although it is
more probable that the eastern part of India is its native country ;
and we have also credited it with the very valuable banana, as
some botanists still maintain that at least a variety which they
distinguish as Musa paradisaica is a native of the New World. In
order to avoid wearying the reader, we have made no comparison
between the fruits of the Old and the New World, and leave it to
others to decide whether the Old or the New World has gained
the most by exchange. Our orchards have not been enriched by
a single contribution from America. This, however, by no means
proves that the New World was naturally not so well provided as
were the eastern continents, for all our fruit-trees in their present
form are the produce of industry, and have been improved by
careful selection and artificial propagation. It is therefore rash to
deny that trees and shrubs may exist in America, whose insipid
wild fruits could be rendered palatable by careful cultivation.
Artificial cultivation has had but little effect on annual plants
propagated by seed ; among these are numerous kinds of cereals,
while America has produced maize alone. As in their common
characters they belong to the grasses, it is important that, accord-
ing to De Candolle's statistical review, the Old World, and
Asia especially, is comparatively richer in grasses than the New,
for whereas in the latter the grasses rarely amount to as much
as 10 per cent, of all the flowering plants in the various districts,
usually only 9, occasionally only 7 per cent, they usually amount
to 10, and often to 12 per cent in the eastern continents.
Among the grasses, the cereals particularly affect sunny stations,
while, as compared with the Old World, much larger regions of
America are overshadowed by forests.
Animals. 413
In the animal kingdom the number of species is yet more
unequal in the two Worlds. To one contemplating for the first
time the domestic animals of both hemispheres ; that is to say,
animals which have been, or which we may suppose might have
been tamed ; the poverty of the New World must be very striking.
There are, in the
OLD WORLD. NEW WORLD.
Reindeer Reindeer
Cattle of various sorts Bison
Camels * f Llamas
Dromedaries J ( Vecunas
p. 5 Peccaries
\ Waterhogs
Elephants Tapirs
Dogs Prairie Dogs
Cats
Sheep
Goats
Horses
Asses
Domestic Fowls j Guinea Fowls
( Turkeys
Geese
Ducks Muscovy Ducks
It should be noticed that of the domestic animals of the New
World, the reindeer, the bison, the turkey, and the Muscovy duck
belong exclusively to North America ; and that the varied services
performed by the domestic animals of the Old World entitle them
to a superior rank. All these are bred, more or less, for the sake
of their flesh ; but, in addition to this, the reindeer, the camel, the
horse, the goat, and the cow, are kept for the sake of the milk
which they produce. We might add the sheep and the ass,
although, in their cases, the milk is only a secondary advantage.
In its llama species America is well provided with wool-bearing
animals ; but we have the sheep, the goat, the camel, and the
dromedary. As beasts of burden and draught the New World
possessed only the llama, though the reindeer and the bison
occur and might also have been domesticated; we, on the other
hand, besides the reindeer and the ox, had the camel, the ass, the
horse, and the elephant, not to mention the dog, which the Eskimo,
414 The Aborigines of America.
at least, have used as a draught animal. The lack of dra ^ht
animals implies the absence of the plough, the sledge, and the
carriage. But as all the animals above enumerated live not ir, the
forest, but in grassy plains bordering on the deserts, or even in the
deserts themselves, and as we may describe the New World as
mainly a forest country, and the Old as mainly a region of steppes,
this accounts for the fact that the eastern hemisphere is richer
in the number of its species of graminivorous mammals; man,
seeking his own advantage, easily selected from among these those
which were capable of feeding and clothing him, carrying his
burdens or doing his work.
All who, since Zimmermann, have turned their attention to the
geographical distribution of animals, have noticed the fact thai the
Old World abounds far more than America in large and powerful
mammals. The largest animal in South America is the tapir ; the
most powerful in the northern continent is the grisly bear. The
New World has none of our larger animals : the elephant, the
rhinoceros, the hippopotamus, the giraffe, and the camel. The
distribution of the other animals in the two hemispheres is equally
significant. These are, in the
OLD WORLD. NEW WORLD.
Lions Pumas
Tigers Ounces
Crocodiles Alligators
Catarrhine Apes, some anthropo- Platyrrhine Apes with pliant
morphous and tailless and prehensile tails
Compared with the lion, the cowardly puma is ignoble. Conti-
nents as small as North or South America could hardly produce
such a splendid forest ranger. The poet in calling the lion
the king of the desert, supplies us with an apt epithet. But the
monarch is entitled to a royal hunting-ground, which even now,
although greatly narrowed, extends through the whole of Africa
and Western Asia, and formerly included European territory too.
The tiger also, the royal tiger, as the magnificent but terrible beast
is justly termed, has a vast range of territory, for he roves from the
Caspian Sea to the Amoor, where the Russians in their advance
some twenty years ago, became aware that his habitat extended as
far as, and even beyond, the fur-bearing animals, while in the south
Struggle for Existence. 4 1 5
he has penetrated to the extreme point of Asia in the peninsula of
Malacca ; he can even swim across an arm of the sea to destroy
hundreds of human beings annually in the island of Singapore.
This animal is represented in the New World only by the blood-
thirsty but smaller and far less courageous ounce, which attacks
man only when driven by necessity.
These contrasts have long been recognized and plainly expressed
in the saying, that the New World is more favourable to vegetable
life, and the Old to animal life. The tall forests of the temperate
zones, as well as the so-called primeval forests of the tropics, pre-
clude the development of a rich fauna, or admit only of one which
is able to climb and live in tree tops. In the dense forests on the
western slopes of the Rocky Mountains, a profound stillness prevails,
according to Lord Milton's description, unbroken by the sound of
any animal. On the other hand, in grass countries, and especially
where, as in the prairies of North America, the forest still appears
in isolated fragments, or scattered as in a park, we find great herds
of bisons, and, in Africa, troops of antelopes and gazelles. The
greater abundance of steppes in the Old World explains the fact
that the animal kingdom of the eastern hemisphere exceeds the
American fauna in number of species and of individuals, but not
that the largest, the strongest, and the cleverest animals all occur
in our portion of the globe. But this, again, is really caused by
the greater extent, inasmuch as its consequence is a more animated
struggle for existence. We ought to regard this struggle not so
much as a necessary evil as a necessary blessing, for it is this which
increases the strength of every creature, and forces enfeebled indi-
viduals or species to make room for the stronger, and which
accurately represents in nature that which in political society is
called open competition, which gives all the prizes to those fore-
most in the press, and mercilessly crushes those who lag behind.
For our purpose we need only notice that in small secluded regions,
for example, in islands, the struggle for existence is soon at an end,
and the balance is undisturbed until some new competitor appears
upon the scene of conflict. This may also be expressed by saying
that the intensity of the struggle for existence increases propor-
tionately with the size of the regions, so that it was far more
energetic in the Old World than in the New, and that as a con-
4i 6 The Aborigines of America.
sequence of this continued pressure forwards, and of a more rapid
adaptation of organisms to present circumstances, the largest,
strongest, and cleverest creatures were necessarily to be found in the
Old World. It is easy to conceive that in a larger space a pause
in the struggle can rarely occur, and then only for a short time.
Long before Darwin, Leopold von Buch ^ had observed : " The
individuals of continental species spread and, with increasing dis-
tance and change of station, develop varieties, which, on account
of the great dissimilarity which they have acquired, are no longer
capable of being crossed with the other varieties, or of being
brought back to the principal type ; these ultimately become
persistent, independent species, which, perhaps by other channels,
come across other varieties equally changed, the two differing
greatly and no longer capable of mixing This is not the
case in islands."
Hence, if on a larger extent of land the struggle for existence is
more intense, because each variety follows rapidly on the heels
of the other, this is the simplest explanation of the fact that the
creatures of the Old World are in advance of those of the New, for
not only is the square mileage of our continents twice as great, but
weight must be given to the fact that America is divided into two
quite distinct battle-grounds into two continents with different
natural kingdoms, each of which has its greatest length from north
to south, instead of stretching like the countries of the Old World
from west to east. The form of the New World seems as if
designed to cover as many latitudes as possible, that of the Old
World as if meant to extend over as many degrees of longitude as
possible within the same latitudes. As most species and genera
of both kingdoms are bounded by certain polar and equatorial
limits (or more correctly by maximum and minimum isothermal
boundaries), a far greater range is obviously open to each in-
dividual species in the Old World than in the New. How con-
siderably the dimensions of the battle-ground is increased in the
Old World by the fact that its main direction is from east to west,
may be seen from the following comparison of proportions under
the same latitudes.
* l Physikal Beschreibung der canarischen Inseln, vol. i. p. 133. 1825,
Effects of the Struggle for Existence. 417
IN NORTH AMERICA. g. g. miles.
In 50 North Lat Parallel of Vancouver's Island and Newfoundland 725
40 Parallel of Philadelphia 575
30 Parallel of New Orleans ... 450
IN THE OLD WORLD.
5 Parallel of the South-west point of England ... 1450
40 ,, Parallel of Naples and Pekin ... 1620
30 ,, Parallel of Cairo 1690
If it is proved that in the larger regions the struggle for existence
is carried on with greater intensity, it follows that the survivors on
the wider scene of conflict must necessarily be superior to the
survivors in the narrow region. For example, if plants of the Old
World were to come unobserved into the New, or were they when
already there to escape from the supervision of man, that is to say,
from gardens into the open, they would supplant the American
species with much more vigour than the American species under
converse circumstances would supplant our vegetation on the
eastern continents ; in other words, European plants, either wild or
escaped from cultivation, would spread in America far more rapidly
than would American plants in Europe or in any part of the Old
World. Experience actually confirms this theory, so that trans-
atlantic botanists have themselves termed America the garden of
European weeds. Appearing first at Buenos Ayres, wild European
plants, such as lucerne, the ladies' thistle, and the teasel, have clothed
the steppes for miles ; the native grasses have been obliged to give
way to our rye-grass species (Lolium perenne and L. multiflord)
and to the Hordeum maximum and H, pratense. In North
America, the small-flowered mullein and the common prunella
have taken complete possession of some parts of the coast. 158
European species and eight from other parts of the world have
made their way into America since 1492, while only thirty-eight
plants have made their way into Europe from all quarters of the
globe.
Every unprejudiced reader will, before this, have recognized
for himself that the irresistible spread of the races of our hemi-
sphere over the New World is exactly analogous to the victorious
progress of our so-called weeds. The struggle for existence was
very active at the time of the great migrations. It is true in-
19
4.18 The Aborigines of America.
vasions by barbarian hordes into the territory of civilized nations
are usually regarded as great calamities to mankind ; but, perhaps,
a little reflection will convince us that most, if not all of them, have
proved beneficial. For the present, let us consider only the last
but one of these great phenomena, namely, the incursion of the
Mongols who, in an incredibly short time, poured down from their
home on the Onun and Kerulen, in the Siberian Dauria, to the
Danube, and whose appearance had a favourable influence upon
Europe, although not equal in degree, yet of the same kind, as
the sudden appearance of the Arabs. Where such struggles for
existence arise, whatever may be their end, our race is eventually
brought to a higher development; for either the older cultured
nations succeed in forming a barrier against the advancing flood,
and they become strengthened in the conflict, or if they succumb
from weakness it must be because the supplanter was more
vigorous than the supplanted. Even though a noble civilization
was thus overthrown and its glories became buried in the soil,
and the plough finally passed over its buried pavements, yet the
victorious barbarian had one advantage over the conquered
Roman, namely, his youth and the prospect of a more glorious
future.
(a) The Hunting Tribes of the Northern Continent. All the
nations of America constitute a single branch of the Mongolian
race, but for the sake of convenience, the inhabitants of the
northern and southern continents are separated, and these are
again distinguished into the so-called hunting tribes and the
civilized nations. Language is the only means of forming a further
and final subdivision. But we must be prepared to find a great
number of languages, for hunting necessitates a system of small
and widely scattered hordes, which, as has been already shown, is
apt to break up the language into dialects which finally become
completely dissimilar. Careful research is, however, able to trace
the common derivation of the many languages. The languages
of North America have been thus treated by Buschmann, on whose
researches Waitz based his classification, which was afterwards
embodied in the form of a map by Otto Delitsch. We need not
therefore burden ourselves with an enumeration of uninteresting
names, but it will be enough to specify the larger groups.
Hunting Tribes of the North. 419
The immediate neighbours of the Eskimo and the other
Behring's nations of the north-west coast, are the Kenai and
Athabaskan groups, which, notwithstanding their great dissimi-
larity, still retain traces of a former affinity of language. The
Kenai, of whom the Yellow Knife or Atna tribe ^ is best known,
live chiefly on the Youcon river. The Athabaskans live further
east, occupying the country between Hudson's Bay and the Rocky
Mountains, about as far as the British boundary extends. Better
known tribes are the Chippeways (different from the Objibeways),
the Coppermine, Dogrib, and Beaver Indians. To this group
belong also the Tlatskanai, Umkwa, and Hoopah, who have
migrated far from their original homes in the north to the neigh-
bourhood of the sea-coast of Oregon. The Athabaskan Navaho
tribe have wandered even further to the south, eastward of the
Colorado, to the highlands of New Mexico ; and even the dreaded
Apatshes, who range from the western Colorado to the Mexican
provinces of Chihuahua and Coahuila, also belong to this group.
Lastly, another Athabaskan tribe, the Lipani, live north of the
mouth of the Rio Grande del Norte, so that this group is dis-
tributed over a district extending from the Arctic circle to the
Gulf of Mexico.
Extending from the Rocky Mountains, near the sources of the
Missouri, but especially in the northern States eastward of the
Mississippi, dwell, or rather dwelt, at the time of the discovery, the
Algonkins. The extreme west of the region over which they are
distributed is occupied by the Blackfeet Indians ; the shores of
Lake Superior by the Objibeways, and the districts south and west
of Hudson's Bay by the Knistinaux, or Crees. To the east of the
Mississippi, and belonging to the Algonkins, were the Leni
Lenappes, who constituted the " five nations " of the Delawares,
which also included the Mohicans. To their language geography
is indebted, among other names, for Massachusetts, Connecticut,
Alleghany, Savannah, Mississippi. Other well-known Algonkin
tribes are the Susquehannoc, Pampticos, Shawanos or Shawnees,
** Properly Ah-tena. Tend, or tinneh, signifies "people," and all the tribal
names have this suffix. Hence the Kenai would be better named the Tend
tribes. W. Dale, Alaska and its Resources, p. 428. Boston, 1870.
420 The Aborigines of America.
Illinois, Sauk, Musquakkee or Foxes, Menomennee or Wild-rice
people.
A third group, the Iroquois of Canada, were surrounded by the
Algonkins. In the year 1700, the tribes of the Senecas, Cayugas,
Onondagos, Oneidas, and Mohawks formed the league of the " five
nations," of which the Tuscaroras became a sixth member in 1712.
The Hurons, or Wyandots, were allied to them in language, but
were, however, in a constant state of warfare with the Iroquois
confederation. They formerly received from the allied tribes the
title of " father," but having been conquered, they were forced to
consent to address the other Iroquois as " elder brothers." By a
treaty made in 1591, the Iroquois were allowed to address the
Delawares only by the title of " uncle," though the latter were
addressed by all other tribes as "grandfather."
The fourth group consists of the Dahcotas, better known by their
nickname of Sioux. They inhabit grassy plains in the territory of
the United States, between the Rocky Mountains and the Missis-
sippi, as far south as Arkansas. The group includes the Assini-
boins, the Winnebagos or Winnepegs, the Iowa Omaha, Osages,
Kansas, Arkansas, Menitarees, the Crows or Upsarokas, and the
Mandanas.
The Pawnees and Riccaras stand alone in and about the Rocky
Mountains, between the upper course of the north fork of the
Platte river and Arkansas. In the south-east of the United States
were the Choctaws and Chikasas, allied in language with the
Muskogees or the union of Creek tribes, of which the noble
Seminoles, whose name signifies " fugitives," were formerly the
oldest member. South and North Carolina were inhabited by
the Cherokee tribes, which are quite distinct in language from
the surrounding tribes. In the same way the former inhabi-
tants of Texas can neither be united into a common group nor
attached to any other groups. Among them were the Keioways,
the Paducas, the Caddos, or Cadodaquius, to which belong the
Tejas, or Texas, and the remarkable Natchez on the Lower
Mississippi.
(b) The Hunting Tribes of South America. On the Southern
Continent a high degree of civilization occurs only on and near
the Andes. Brazil, the Guayana territories, and Venezuela are
Hunting Tribes of the South. 421
entirely occupied by so-called hunting tribes, some of which are
still in the lowest stages of social and intellectual development,
Their languages are even more varied than those of North America,
and no scholar has seriously attempted to reduce this confusion to
order. Old charts professing to show the distribution of language
have given rise to the error that a single language prevails through-
out Brazil, to which the name of lingoa geral (common Indian
language), or Guarani, is given. Von Martius was the first to show
that this Tupi language, although understood by individuals in
every tribe, really prevails only in two districts, remote from one
another, namely, between the Tapajos and the Xingu, both
affluents of the Amazon, and in the province of Chiquitos. Be-
side these, a more dense Tupi population occurs in Paraguay, in
a district on the right bank of the central Parana". Other Tupi
tribes have strayed as far as the Atlantic coast, and only few
provinces of Brazil are without some traces of them. North of the
Amazon, on the contrary, they are totally wanting.
Martius . makes a distinct group of the Lenguas or Tongue
Indians, so called because they pierce the lower lip. By the
Tupi they are called Guaycuru, or runners ; they inhabit the
western bank of the Parana" and Paraguay, and are remarkable for
their rude manners. To other tribes between the sources of the
Parana" and the Madeira, Martius gives the collective name of
Parexis, or Poragi, signifying " highlanders." The enormous
territory drained by the Tocantin is occupied by the Ges, also
called Crans, which means " chiefs," or " sons." Unlike the
Tupi, who sleep in hammocks, they use a low trestle. The Crens,
or Gueras, who are scattered between Parahiba and Rio das
Contas, are allied to them. Cren, like Cran, signifies " the chiefs."
To the Crens belong the Botocudos, the Coroados, the Puris,
and the Malalis. Martius gives the collective name of Guck
or Coco hordes to several Indian tribes in the interior of the
provinces of Bahia, Pernambuco, and Piauhy; as these words,
as titles for a maternal uncle, are common to them all. To
these belong the Indians on the Amazon, who call themselves
Ore Manoas, which means we the Manoas, and the Macusi and
Maypures in Guayana and Venezuela. There are a few national
names in North America, but in Brazil there are only tribal
422 The Aborigines of America.
names, of which Herr von Martius collected no less than 106
on the Rio Negro alone. Consciousness of nationality implies
higher social development and common historical achievements,
which are wanting here. The tribes on the Amazon are but little
better. There we find the warlike Mandrucu, hybrids related to
the Tupis, who are conspicuous for their strict discipline, the use
of trumpet signals in battle, and a regular service of outposts in
times of war. On the Rio Negro live the Miranhas, formerly
cannibals, and otherwise known for the production of excellent
hammocks, each of which costs the labour of six weeks. Where
the Amazon approaches the confines of Peru, we come upon the
Tecunas, whose masquerades have already been mentioned ; and
on the boundaries of Venezuela we find the Uapes, whose spacious
buildings we have noted. Guayana is mainly occupied by two
tribes, who do not, however, occupy separate districts, namely,
the Arowaks, or Flour people, so called because in them we have
to respect the inventors of the art of preparing tapioca, and the
Caribs (since the seventeenth century erroneously called Caraibs),
to whom the Spaniards attributed everything most odious, and
who remained notorious for their barbarity, until the experiences
of A. von Humboldt and the Brothers Schomburgk showed them
to be an uncorrupted race, full of good impulses. 53
The northern and southern continents of America resemble one
another in many great features, and especially in their shape, for
both consist of great triangles, the apices of which are towards the
south. But their vertical structure is also similar, inasmuch as pn
the western shore the Cordilleras rise from the Pacific Ocean, and
plateaux are intercalated between their ridges. As a necessary
consequence of this analogous structure, we find no forests eastward
of the slopes of the Rocky Mountains and the Cordilleras, or in
their " rain shadow," but open steppes, which are called prairies
in North America, savannahs in Central America, llanos in Vene-
zuela, and pampas on the Argentine rivers. It is only to the east of
the steppes that the great forest districts are found stretching over
88 As Richard Schomburgk observes, they do not poison their arrows
although the curare plant (Strychnos toxifera) grows in their territory. Reisen
in Britisch Guiana, vol. ii. p. 429. Leipzic, 1848.
Domestication of Animals. 423
the Atlantic shores of the northern and southern continents. In
the grassy plains of South as well as of North America we look
in vain for the social phenomena which have been everywhere
evoked by corresponding regions in the Old World. We there
note the absence of nations representing the Berber tribes of
Northern Africa, the Bedouins of Arabia, the Turks of Turkestan,
the Mongols of the desert of Gobi, or the Lapps and Samoyeds of
the far north "of America. Neglect of cattle-breeding is often
attributed to the American aborigines, but the assertion is inaccu-
rate, for, strictly speaking, it is only the production of milk which
is totally uncared for. Von Martius states 54 that there is a special
expression in the Tupi language, or lingoa geral, of Brazil, for
the taming wild animals, implying that the animals are to be
induced to lay aside their ferocity. Most natives of Brazil take
pleasure in intercourse with animals. They are in the habit of
attaching monkeys and parrots to themselves, and by feeding the
latter on fish they produce red and yellow feathers when the
plumage is green. Their huts are often like menageries. But in
the history of civilization, the breeding of animals first acquires
much significance when man purposes by this means to provide
for his own future maintenance, and discontinues the habit of
living from hand to mouth on the wild products of nature. On
the Amazon a sufficient number of turtles might be taken to supply
food during the whole year to the inhabitants of the shores, but no
efforts are made to obtain them, except in the dry season when the
animals come to land. For this reason almost every family pos-
sesses a closed tank near its dwelling, in which a number of live
animals are stored for the rainy season, ss Orellana,* 6 the dis-
coverer of the Amazon found these domestic precautions in use
among the natives. Many Brazilian tribes were also formerly, as
they still are, in the habit of breeding guinea-fowls (Grax) for
the sake of their palatable flesh. On the coast of Venezuela, the
Spanish sailors saw domestic animals, which they described as
rabbits, geese, and pigeons. 5 7 In the Antilles the prairie dog
M Ethnographic, vol. i. p. 672. " Bates, Amazon, p. 321.
M Oviedo, Historia general, vol. iv. p. 553.
7 Gomara, Historia de las Indias, cap. 75'
424 The Aborigines of America.
was bred, and in Hayti the guinea-pig. Peccaries and tapirs easily
become accustomed to the proximity of man, and were and are
still often tamed by the Brazilians, but they do not breed in
confinement 58
There is, however, no reliable record that any of the tribes of
the northern continent, east of the Rocky Mountains, always
excepting the Eskimo, were in the habit of breeding animals for
domestic purposes prior to the discovery. Yet North America,
unlike the southern continent, had the advantage of a gregarious
animal which was in every way adapted to encourage a nomadic
life. We mean the buffalo, or bison, which, with the exception
of one small district, does not appear on the western slopes of the
Rocky Mountains, and on the east does not extend very far
beyond the Mississippi. When captured young, the bison allows
itself to be tamed and trained ; and it has also formed a useful
hybrid race with European cattle. As it was neither bred nor
even preserved by the natives, it is obvious that the Redskins are
wanting in the inclination or the patience for taming animals.
The native wild duck was not domesticated until European settlers
did so ; and the turkey, which was a domestic animal in Mexico,
was found only in a wild condition on the territory of the United
States. The northern continent is inhabited by the reindeer
(cariboo), which has been everywhere tamed in the Old World,
but never by the Canadians of the New World. The dog is indeed
found among the tribes of the Hudson's Bay territory as a domestic
animal, and trained for- hunting, but it is probable that it was
domesticated only after the immigration of the Eskimo, who had
seen the dog used as a draught animal in their Asiatic home.
But as the inclination to domesticate animals was naturally very
weak in the North American Indians, there was no conceivable
reason why they should tame the bison, for hunting supplied them
with as much meat and as many skins as they could require.
No nation in America ever thought of using milk as food. The
use of milk belongs entirely to a very late and high stage of de-
velopment in nomadic life. Even at the present day, the great
herds of cattle on the pampas and llanos yield nothing but meat
88 Darwin, Plants and Animals under Domestication, voL ii. p. 150.
The Art of Building. 425
and skins ; indeed, the abundant secretion of milk in cattle takes
place only after prolonged domestication. While in England a
-cow yields forty pints of milk daily, & the Damara in South Africa,
a nomadic people, obtain from their animals at most three pints,
and their cows refuse their milk as soon as the calf is taken from
them. 60 Hence we may infer that the people who first collected
animals into herds did so only for the sake of the flesh, and that
use of the milk began much later, and in consequence of skilful
selection. The steppes and the forest districts of the New World
are, therefore, inhabited only by hunting and agricultural tribes.
In South America there are no traces of building east of the
Andes; but in North America there are dome-shaped tumuli,
round, flat-topped mounds, and circular earthworks ; some of them
contain graves and covered passages. They are very scarce in the
New England States, and are rarely found west of the Mississippi,
but extend from the upper course of the Missouri and the great
lakes to the south on both slopes of the Alleghanies as far as
Florida. These remains are most numerous on the Ohio. , Most
archaeologists have ascribed them to an extinct people of "mound-
builders," whom they suppose to have migrated either from Mexico
to the north-east or from the north-east to Mexico. Had these
monumental edifices been nothing more than an offshoot from
the civilization of Nahuatl the intrenchments would necessarily
become more plentiful in proportion as they approach the high-
lands of Anahuac; but their traces are lost in Texas, where,
as in Chihuahua, according to Cabeza de Vacate reports, 61 dwelt
extremely barbarous and half-starved tribes, who lived on fish,
roots, and the fruit of the prickly pear (Opuntia tuna). The
descriptions given by the Spaniards of the intrenched villages of
the Indians in the former slave states, and Jaques Carder's sketch
of the Iroquois city Hochelaga, 62 the present Montreal, in Canada,
answer sufficiently to the form of these earthworks as we can
* Darwin, Plants and Animals under Domestication, vol. ii. p. 300.
Anderson, Siidwestafrika. Barrow (South Africa) reckons two quarts of
milk to a South African cow.
41 Ramusio ; Navigationi et Viaggi.
* Relation originale de Jaques Cartier, ed. d'Avizac, p. 23. Paris, 1863.
4.26 The Aborigines of America.
imagine them from the numerous ground-plans and sections in
Schoolcraft's comprehensive works on the antiquities of the
United States. We, therefore, fully share the opinion of Samuel
F. Haven, 6 3 who supposes the ancestors of the present Indians
to have been the authors of these erections, and who has shown
that as late as 1800 a mound was erected over the body of an
Omaha chief, and that Lewis and Clarke found many newly made
earthworks on the Upper Missouri. It is true that Europeans
have never actually seen the Red Indian hunters carrying out such
structures as the " walled lake," an artificial reservoir for purposes
of irrigation in Wight County (Iowa), 6 * but, on the other hand,
Charlevoix states that the Iroquois formerly built much more
spacious dwellings, though, like many other half-developed races,
they neglected their old arts after coming into contact with
Europeans. 65 The builders of these mounds and intrenchments
were, therefore, the forefathers of those Redskins who were sup-
planted by the European settlers. Like their descendants, they
lived by the chase, and perhaps remained in the same condition
for some centuries previous to the arrival of the discoverers. 66
But hunting prevents an advance to any high degree of civiliza-
tion, for the moral development of nations is closely dependent
on their mode of sustenance. The earliest and long isolated
central points of human society existed only where population
could easily become dense, as on the Nile and in China ; for it is
only after a certain degree of concentration of the population that
a division of labour is effected, which in many primitive civilizations
is expressed by a distinction into castes. But in a territory which
contains only a certain amount of game, the chase, on the contrary,
can support only a fixed and scanty population. If a tribe multi-
plies beyond the supply of meat afforded by its territory, the men
are urged partly by want, and partly by the consciousness of their
superior numbers, to invade the hunting-grounds of their neigh-
** Archaeology of the United States.
64 Kapp, Vergleichende Erdkunde, 2nd ed. p. 615.
w Nouvelle France, vol. iii. p. 335.
66 The above was published in the Ausland, 1868. It is important that
Tylor, a thoroughly trustworthy observer, has reached the same conclusion.
Primitive Culture, vol. i. p. 57.
Agriculture. 427
hours. The inevitable consequences are feuds, in which the
stronger tribe either extirpates or drives out the weaker, in which
- latter case the weaker must in its turn drive out some other tribe
or perish. Strong hunting tribes may, therefore, spread but cannot
become dense.
The progress of civilization in America, if it had not been
interrupted by the arrival of the Europeans, could only have
taken place if maintenance by agricultural products had more and
more replaced the maintenance by the produce of the chase. As far
as the polar limits of maize, namely, as far as the St. Lawrence and
great lakes, and even further to the north, at least, in the territory
of the Hurons, we find hopeful beginnings of agriculture among the
hunting nations. Everywhere there are traces of husbandry, except
in the Hudson's Bay territories eastward of the Rocky Mountains,
among most of the Athabask tribes, who are, however, far more
barbarous than their more southerly neighbours. Even in the
forest country nature provided some gratuitous articles of food,
namely, in addition to berries and roots, water rice (Zizania
aquatica) on the Canadian lakes and the Upper Mississippi, the
juice of the sugar maple in- the spring, and lastly, the fruit of wild
plums and wild vines. Maize, beans, gourds, and tobacco are
expressly mentioned by Cartier 6 ? as the agricultural produce of
the Canadian Iroquois, near Montreal; and it may be said in
general that, advancing from higher to lower latitudes, agriculture
more and more supplied the wants of the natives. For a period
as long as may have elapsed from the formation . of the first in-
trenchments to the arrival of the Europeans, the Redskins have
remained stationary in the phase in which agriculture, hunting,
and fishing supplement one another. Yet the fact that they
have never advanced to pure agriculture must not betray us
into denying that ' they had any disposition towards a higher
civilization. It is too frequently overlooked that hunting does
develop the intellectual powers of a people, although at the same
time it consumes them. Skill in hunting requires an accurate
knowledge of wild animals and their habits. The Redman pos-
sessed the most thorough acquaintance with his hunting-ground
fr Voyage de Jaques Cartier au Canada en 1534. First journey.
428 The Aborigines of America.
and its stock of game ; he easily succeeded in outwitting even the
most crafty animals, and his keen observations, and his clever
interpretations of the smallest signs of life in the open air, have
always greatly surprised civilized men, whose own senses are so
much less acute. He has never been wanting in sagacity to
unravel the connection and the details of any incident of the forest
from the most insignificant indications, but all the sagacity he
possesses is expended in the pursuit of an animal or an enemy.
There can be no doubt that men of unusual talents have appeared
among these nations as frequently as among ourselves, yet none of
them became founders of religions, philosophers, or regulators of
society, but only famous hunters, fortunate leaders, or admired
orators at tribal meetings. It must also be remembered that
hunting affords supreme enjoyment, and that agriculture has
nothing to offer in compensation for the excitement and delight
of the chase.
In inquiring into the causal connection between the configura-
tion of countries and the degrees of civilization, a reason must be
found for the fact that social instincts are more mature in the
inhabitants of the steppes and forests of North America than in
those of the southern continent. It is a fact that in the latter, all
the tribes of the steppes and forests, with the exception of the
Muras on the Amazon, and a few other tribes, practised agriculture
in addition to hunting and fishing. The produce of their culti-
vation was even more varied than in the north, for in addition
to maize it includes the manioca root, from which a poisonous
juice must be carefully expressed before it becomes edible. The
cultivation of the indigenous palm is also noteworthy. But as
palms are much slower in bearing fruit than annual or biennial
plants, their cultivation shows forethought, and implies abandon-
ment of a roving life. Moreover, it has already been shown that
in some districts the papunha trees (Guildma speciosd) bear only
seedless fruits ; this palm must therefore have been cultivated by
man for a long period, and the seedless variety can have been
propagated only by offsets. But if the South American hunting
tribes rivalled the North Americans in agriculture, and even
excelled them in the culture of trees and domestic animals, they
were entirely outstripped in other achievements.
Mining. 429
The rudest tribes in the Hudson's Bay territory occupy a far
higher position than the Botocudos of Brazil, for example, who
have remained stationary in the lowest phase of civilization to
be found in the New World. In all South America (of course,
always excepting the nations of the Cordilleras), great or complete
nudity, sometimes of one, sometimes of the other, and sometimes
of both sexes, was the rule ; whereas in North America it was only
exceptional. The natives of South America cannot claim supe-
riority on account of the yarn and cotton tissues which they used,
for not only did the native women of Georgia in De Soto's time
wear white clothes made of the alburnum of the mulberry tree, 68 as
the Spaniards thought, but great skill has always been shown there
in the preparation of leather also, and in its manufacture into
clothes, which were richly decorated with feathers, and which are
even now much admired. Another peculiarity which distinguished
the North American tribes, not only from their equals but also from
many civilized nations, was their use of clothing 6 9 for their feet, for
which purpose they employed mocassins, or half-boots. Snow
shoes were, perhaps, not used before the arrival of the Eskimo,
who, probably, first brought this invention from Asia to the New
World. 7
No trace of mining has been met with among the hunting tribes
of South America. Among the natives of the United States, on the
contrary, the discoverers found many copper Ornaments and utensils.
Copper was worked in Alabama and various places east of the
Mississippi, but the most important mines were situated on Lake
Erie. Some archaeologists have somewhat hastily concluded that
this was the seat of a people of very ancient civilization, entirely
distinct from the hunting tribes of modern times. But the achieve-
ments of the old North Americans have always been undervalued.
Even the rude Athabaskan tribes dug for copper, for in the i8th
century they used to bring this ore to Fort Churchill, the most
western station of the Hudson's Bay Company, and it was mainly
* Oviedo, Historia general, vol. i. p. 556.'
99 The Patagonians also use mocassins. Musters, Among the Patagonians,
p, 174 ; Catlin, Rambles, p. 259.
70 Herrera, Historia de las Indias occidentals, Dec. vii. lib. 2, cap. I.
430 The Aborigines of America.
to discover the source of this metal that Samuel Hearne ? x under-
took his expeditions, which resulted in the discovery of the Copper-
mine River and its outflow into the Arctic Sea. The owner of the
mining district on Lake Erie was a chief of the Fond du Lac tribe,
and according to the number of his ancestors that he could name,
his pedigree reached back to the beginning of the i2th century.
A German miner who had been director of one of these mines,
states that the old Redskins loosened the rocks by firing piles of
wood, and by saturating them with water, and from the blocks of
metal obtained they separated pieces with stone hammers, and
shaped them by cutting with flint knives and striking with ham-
mers, " for the ancients were not acquainted with the process of
smelting." This fact has, however, not been proved, at least as to
Lake Superior ; and, on the other hand, it is maintained that cast
copper utensils have occasionally been found. ? 2 There is, therefore,
not the slightest necessity for refusing the credit of these mining
achievements to the ancient Iroquois, in whose territory the famous
copper mines were situated, or for referring them on very doubt-
ful grounds to the Aztecs of Mexico. It is true that obsidian
blades have been found in tombs eastward of the Mississippi,
and even on Lake Ontario, and that this mineral can only have
been procured from Mexico. But these pieces of obsidian are no
better evidence of a migration of the Aztecs than the discovery of
coins with Kufic inscriptions prove a visit of the Arabs to Iceland.
Articles made of nephrite, which must have come from a great
distance, and which dated from the reindeer period, were met with
at Schussenried, and show that even then commerce must have
been widely spread. If a close relation with Aztec culture is to
be inferred from the discovery of obsidian blades in the United
States, we might insist with equal justice on the influence of the
ancient population of Poland on the French of the reindeer period,
because horns of the Saiga antelope were excavated from the caves
of Perigord. 73
n Reise zum Eismeer, pp. 4 and 14. Berlin, 1797.
Tf Rau (Archiv fur Anthropologie, 1871) has however again stated positively
that the ancient inhabitants of the United States were not acquainted with the
art of smelting.
7 * See above, pp. 37 and 209.
Civilization. 43 1
The superiority of the civilization of the hunting tribes of the
northern as compared with those of the southern continent is most
'clearly seen in their social organization. In the north, by com-
parisons of language, ethnographers have succeeded in uniting the
tribes into nations, and in denning the territories occupied by these
nations. In Brazil, Guayana, and Venezuela such a classification
is unattainable, for in these countries, instead of nations there are
merely bands, and artificial names have to be invented for the
groups of hordes allied in language. In North America, on the
contrary, the Algonkin nations lived in compact territories, into
which the Iroquois had intruded on the western slope of the
Alleghanies. These nations make their appearance in history when
already united into confederations declaring war and peace, and
making treaties ; occasionally, although only for a short time all the
hunting tribes were even leagued together in one great alliance
against European oppressors. Certain international ordinances
were likewise observed by all the tribes; as, for example, that
peace should always prevail throughout the sacred territory of the
Red Pipestone.
Lastly, and in our eyes of most importance, we notice among the
North Americans the rudiments of a communication of ideas by
means of symbolic writing. It is true these inscriptions were legible
only to those who knew the meaning of the symbols, and their
reference to a particular event, yet these records served to refresh
the memory. South America, eastward of the Cordilleras, is
destitute of such hopeful indications, and it is therefore indis-
putable that the inhabitants of the northern continent (indepen-
dently of its civilized nations, to whom, however, the same
observation may apply) had attained a far higher civilization
than the inhabitants of South America. It is therefore necessary
to ascertain the extent to which the physical features of the two
countries have caused this unequal distribution of civilization.
All must recognize the great advantage enjoyed by North
America in its closer vicinity of the Old World, so that plants,
animals, and human beings which migrated across Behring's
Straits, spread over the northern continent before reaching the
southern. Just as at a later period the Eskimo immigrated from
Asia, and as skill in traversing the sea spread from Kamtshatka
432 The Aborigines of America.
across the Aleutian Islands and the west coast of North America.
a number of ideas and inventions made their way from Asia to
the tribes of the northern continent. According to our theory
that America was peopled from Asia by way of Behring's Straits,
the northern continent must have been the earlier home of the
Americans, from which South America was discovered as a New
World ; this must have been accomplished by the expulsion of
weaker hordes who were driven from the northern half by stronger
ones. The northern continent, as the earlier inhabited, was also
more densely populated than the southern.
To the east of the Andes of the southern, and of the Cordilleras
of the northern continent, the forest and steppes have not de-
veloped any very perceptible difference between their inhabitants.
At the most it may be said that the Dahcotas, or Sioux, of the North
American prairies, whose places of abode almost exactly coincide
with the range of the bison, appear more barbarous than their
neighbours eastward of the Mississippi, and from Cabeza de Vaca's
experiences, it is quite evident that the aborigines of Texas, as well
of Chihuahua as far as the Pacific watershed, were incomparably
more degraded than even the Dahcotas.
But if we compare the social development of the various hunting
tribes in the northern and southern continents, there is in both
countries a sensible improvement as we approach the shores of the
Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea ; in other words, in South
America, the nations who dwell more to the north, and in North
America, the nations who dwell more to the south, are, on an
average, the most civilized. The most barbarous tribes of South
America, such as the Botocudos, Coroados, Puris, and Lenguas,
all belong to the south of Brazil ; but, on the Amazon, Spix and
Martius met with great advances in the social condition. If we
could fully trust the accounts of the first discoverers under Orel-
lana, the upper course of this great river flowed by many populous
villages, in which there were temples, and idols moving on wheels.
Later visitors have, however, perceived no signs of such things,
and even if they existed, it is not impossible that they belonged to
tribes which had been expelled from the civilized empire of the
Incas. To the north of the Amazon live the gentle Arawaks.
among whom the woman already occupies an honourable posi-
Primitive Civilization. 433
tion,74 and whose priests preserve the history of the tribes for the
instruction of the young. Near them and among them, as far as
the gulf which bears their name, are spread the Caribs, who irri-
gated their fields by artificial water-courses, marked off their plan-
tations with cotton strings, and held fairs, in which salt took the
place of money. Here, therefore, the outward state of human
society constantly improves from south to north.
Conversely, in the northern continent, the southern neighbours
of the rude Athabaskan tribes in the Hudson's Bay territory are
the agricultural Algonkin nations, who live to the north of the
Iroquois ; these latter, again, are favourably distinguished by their
mining works on Lake Erie, and by the careful arrangements of
their fields in Michigan and Indiana, designated by archaeologists
as garden-beds ; to their territory also belong remains of intrenched
villages which are especially frequent and numerous on the Ohio.
On the south, the nearest neighbours of the Iroquois were the so-
called Appalachic nations, of whose condition the first account
was given by Hernando de Soto's freebooting expedition. Among
them the Spaniards came upon temples which seem to have been
something superior to the so-called "medicine huts" of the
northern Redskins. Their chiefs possessed far greater authority
than among the other hunting tribes, and in South Carolina or
Georgia the government was actually in the hands of a woman,
with whom the Spaniards negotiated as with a monarch, a circum-
stance which clearly proves that the chieftancy had become here-
ditary in families, and that the women were no longer employed
as domestic beasts of burden. Among the Seminoles of Florida,
the Spaniards found fixed rafts used as bridges across the lagunes ;
and real bridges ?s are mentioned in the land of Appalache, that
is to say, in Georgia or South Carolina. It is therefore not sur-
prising that remains of old roads have been discovered in Florida,
for the existence of bridges implies a frequent traffic across the
country.
Further westward on the Ohio, the remains of ancient circular
74 Richard Schomburgk, Reisen in Britisch-Guiana, voL i. p. 227 and
voL ii. p. 314.
* Herrera, Indias occidentals.
434 The Aborigines of America.
fortifications of Indian villages lie very closely together. It has
been somewhat hastily inferred that the Ohio valley was thickly
peopled by an agricultural population, who were extirpated by
barbarous hunting tribes before the arrival of Europeans. But
other archaeologists have suggested that simple natives frequently
abandon their abodes, sometimes from superstition, and sometimes
on account of an outbreak of disease.? 6 Hence, although all the
old intrenched villages already discovered were certainly not
inhabited at the same time, it is, nevertheless, manifest that the
present southern states of the American Union were formerly far
more densely peopled than at the time when the European emi-
grants took possession of their territories ; that is to say, as densely
peopled as when visited by the Spaniards under Hernando de
Soto in 1540. At that time there were not only villages but true
towns. Of these the largest seems to have been Mavila, the
present Mobile. It was surrounded by a wooden wall plastered
with clay, and protected by towers, probably mere scaffoldings
with breastworks. Within the wall stood eighty large houses or,
rather, barrack-like edifices, each supposed to have afforded
shelter to one thousand persons, and from the flat roofs or bal-
conies of which missiles were showered down upon the Spaniards.
Hernando de Soto with his advanced guard was obliged to endure
a conflict of nine hours, and the battle was not decided until the
arrival of the main body, then still six hundred strong. The
Spanish accounts speak of 11,000 enemies destroyed by fire and
sword, while the conquerors lost forty-five horses and eighty-three
soldrers, either on the spot or in consequence of their wounds.
Where places so populous as Mavila had already sprung up, there
can have been no hunting life, for tribes living by the chase never
built cities.
If we could thus assure ourselves that the population of both
continents became more dense towards the shores of the American
Mediterranean, that is to say, the double bay of the Gulf of
Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, and that these had half renounced
the hunter's life, we must be persuaded that the favourable
influence of a mild climate upon agricultural pursuits, combined
w P. Gumilla, El Orinoco ilustrado.
The Sonora Tribes. 435
with the vicinity of the sea, facilitated this important transition
to a higher state. Had the arrival of Europeans in the New
World been delayed one or two thousand years, the civilized
people of Mexico and Yucatan might have entered into communi-
cation with the Appalachic and Caribbean nations, and perhaps
civilizations might have grown up in the New World also, com-
parable to those which existed on our Mediterranean about the
time of Herodotus.
(c) The Civilized Nations of North America and their Kinsmen.
In the review of the hunting nations of North America, the
tribes of Oregon, California, New Mexico, and Mexico have been
passed over. Nor do we now propose to give a dry list of names,
which can be better understood on an ethnographical chart. But
we must notice one important result of Buschmann's researches.
He united a large number of New Mexican and North Mexican
languages into a single family, which he named Sonora. He paid
special attention to the phonetic system, the numerals, and the
grammar of the Tarahumara, Tepeguana, Cora, and Cahita lan-
guages.?? All these possess common family features; all have
more or less adopted a vocabulary from the Nahuatl. This is also
the case with the language of the Moqui, who inhabit six of the
famous "seven cities," or villages, north-west of Zufii. Others allied
in language to the Sonora family are the Utahs, Pah Utahs, the
Diggers of California, and the Shoshons, or Snake Indians, which
latter, before their expulsion by the Blackfeet, lived on this side
of the Rocky Mountains, and now reside on the other side, on
the Snake River, to which they have given their name. The
Comantshes, the dreaded robber-tribes of Northern Mexico, also
belong to this group. According to Maillard, they observe a division
of the year into eighteen months of twenty days ; in other words,
they use the Mexican calendar. Buschmann still leaves it doubt-
ful if we are to regard the Sonora languages which, moreover,
differ widely from one another as the further-developed branches
of a single stock, a Nahuatl primordial language ; but it is certain
that they all show traces of close intercourse with the ancient
Mexkans. Nahuatl, the language of the latter, was spoken in full
11 Abhandlungen der Berliner Akademie der Wissenschaften. 1863.
4.36 The Aborigines of America.
purity only in and about the lake district of the Mexican highlands.
But, as is proved by the Aztec names of places, Nahuatl languages
were locally scattered at extraordinary distances. Thus, in the neigh-
bourhood of the South Pacific, they pervaded Guatemala; they
appear with ancient ruined temples in the Mexican style in Hon-
duras, and extend southwards to the Lake of Nicaragua. They cease
entirely at Costa Rica. In the north they are spread over the
whole of the present Mexican empire, with the exception of Coha-
huila. But they reappear in Texas, and end in New California at the
37th degree north latitude ? 8 with the exception of scattered names
which have reached the $oth degree of latitude. It is far inland
in latitude 35, among the present Zufii of New Mexico, that we must %
look for Cibola, or the " Country of the Seven Communities," dis-
covered by Fra Marco, a monk from Nice, and shortly afterwards
(in 1540) visited and described by the Spaniard Francisco Vasquez
de Coronado. He found there small villages with stone houses,
two or three storeys high, built like fortresses without an entrance,
so that the roofs had to be mounted by ladders. The inhabitants
cultivated maize and beans, reared turkeys, clothed themselves in
woven stuffs, of which the threads were spun of some vegetable
fibre that was not cotton, and wore head coverings exactly like
those of the Aztecs of Mexico. 79 The same style of architecture
is yet retained among the so-called Pueblo Indians, and was
last described and depicted by Mollhausen. 80 The language of
the Pueblo Indians is in no degree connected with the Nahuatl.
Somewhat like these buildings were probably the so-called Casas
Grandes, southwards near the Gila and at Chihuahua, respecting
whose inhabitants so much has been written just because as yet
we know nothing about them. Civilized nations lived therefore to
the north of Mexico as far as the 35th degree of latitude.
The partial community of vocabulary of the Nahuatlecs and the
present Snake Indians, induces us to suppose that the former rnay
in ancient times have resembled the Shoshons, for either the
Shoshons turned to the north after their contact with the Nahuat-
w Buschmann, Astekische Ortsnamen. Berlin, 1853.
w Coronado in Ramusio's Navigation! e viaggL
80 Mollhausen, Reise nach der Sudsee.
Toltecs. 437
lees in the south, or else the Nahuatlecs originally lived with the
Shoshons in the north before they emigrated to Mexico. After
the power of their kinsmen," the Toltecs, had fallen, hordes of
barbarians constantly invaded Mexico from the eleventh to the
fourteenth century A.D. Among these were the Nahuatl Tlascal-
tecs, and the Nahuatl Aztecs. Both came from the north, that is
to say, in the last instance, only from the north of the present
Mexico ; still it is enough that their migration was in a southerly
direction. On their first appearance in Mexico, they are said
to have been still very barbarous in comparison with the refined
Toltecs, but this merely proves that they did not bring their
highest civilization with them from their northerly home, but first
developed it in the south, although at the time of the irruption
they had reached a degree of culture about equal to that of the
Casas Grandes on the Gila, or the City Indians of Cibola in
the year 1540.
It is impossible to say, on the other hand, whether it was in the
present Mexico, in Guatemala, in Honduras, or in Nicaragua, that
the Toltecs first took up their abode. No one, however, has
undertaken to prove that it was in Nicaragua, for the Aztec names
of places in that district are probably derived from a later coloni-
zation, which is also the case with Honduras. In Guatemala, the
seat of one of the oldest centres of civilization, in addition to names
of Aztec extraction, there are names of places and local languages
derived from another civilized nation, the Quiche, who are, again,
linguistically allied to the Maya, their neighbours on the peninsula
of Yucatan. At the time of the discovery, the social development
of the Quiche* and the Yucatecs was equal to that of Mexico.
When the Toltecs enriched them with their civilization, they may
already have raised themselves independently to a high grade of
civilization. Contact with people as civilized as the Quiche and
Maya certainly were, must have had a beneficial effect upon the
Nahuatls when they came from the north. It is worth noting that
A.ztec names of places are totally wanting in Yucatan, which pro-
bably indicates that the Maya nations must have equalled the
Nahuatls in the progress of culture, for colonies are always founded
by preference among inferior nations.
In the empire of Mexico itself, besides Nahuatl, entirely different
438 The Aborigines of America.
languages were spoken by the Otomi, the Mixtecs, and Zapotecs,
the Matlaziacs and Tarascs. 81
In South America all the civilized nations live either on the
plateaux between the ridges of the Cordilleras or on the shores
of the Pacific. Thus the empire of the Muysca, or more correctly
of the Chibcha, grew up on the highlands of Bogotd on the right
bank of the M agdalena River. Further south, as far as Chili, but
keeping to the ridges of the plateaux, dwelt nations speaking kindred
languages; namely, the so-called Quichua tribes in Quito and
Peru, and on Lake Titicaca, the Colla, now better known under
the name of Aymara, which has been erroneously attributed to
them. These latter were formerly regarded as the most ancient
civilized nation ; their language was supposed to be the so-called
court language of the Emperors of Peru, 82 and the temples of the
sun on Lake Titicaca were believed to be the earliest buildings of
the civilized races of South America. Now, however, we must
look for their earliest abode in Cuzco itself. The Cara, or inhabi-
tants of Quito, who also spoke a Quichua dialect, were said to
have ascended the River Esmeralda, and to have taken possession
of the plateaux. 8 3 They manufactured artistic works in cast gold, 8 *
and also instruments of bronze, and, like the Peruvians, observed
the beginning of the solstices on pillars of stone visible at a great
distance. 85 Entirely different from the Quichua nations are the
Yunca tribes, who lived near the coast streams on the western
slopes of the Andes, but were split up into locally separate states.
They have left behind them innumerable remains of spacious
buildings of comparatively high art, and they were in the habit of
skillfully irrigating their land. 86 The Incas of Peru, without doubt,
91 Orozco y Berra, in his Geografia de las lenguas de Mexico (1864), has
given a linguistic map of Mexico, the only good feature in the whole book, as the
author openly confesses that he has not philologically examined the languages,
and being also unacquainted with Buschmann's researches, spreads anew errors
long exploded.
2 Thoroughly refuted by Markham, Journal of Royal Geographical Society,
voL xli. 1871.
** Velasco, Histoire du royaume de Quito. Paris, 1840.
M Benzoni, Mondo nuovo. Venice, 1 565.
** Joseph de Acosta, Historic natural y moral de las Indiafi.
* Markham, as above.-
Ancient Mexicans. 439
must have learnt as much from them as they in their turn had to
communicate. 8 ?
At the time of the emperors, the Rio Maule formed the boun-
dary between Peru and Chili. To the south lived the Araucanians
and their kinsmen the Patagonians. In the present Chili these
people called themselves Pehuenches, or the " Westerns ; " from
Valdivia to Terra del Fuego, Huilliches, or the "Southerns;"
in Patagonia, Tehuellsches ; and, lastly, on the pampas between
the Rio Negro and La Plata, Pehuelches, or the " Easterns." The
old Abipones and the present inhabitants of the Gran Chaco, the
desert to the west of the Paraguay, were closely allied to them in
intellect and manners. Both Araucanians and Patagonians in
some degree partook of the benefits of the Inca-Peruvian civiliza-
tion ; 88 at any rate, they resemble the inhabitants of the plateaux
much more than the hunting tribes of Brazil, even if they cannot
be classed among the civilized nations.
To account for the advanced social conditions in ancient Mexico
and in the empire of the Peruvian Incas, many who underrated
the talents of the so-called Redmen, assumed that the best germs
of civilization were carried by chance from the Old World to the
New. Now it was Egyptians from the Platonic island of Atlantis,
or at the time of the circumnavigation of Africa under Neku ;
now it was Carthaginians from the colonies on the coast of
the present Morocco, who were said to have made their way to
Brazil ; now it was Northmen, who in their voyages of discovery
reached the good " wine country " (Virginia) in Central America,
and in the guise of Votan, the name of a hero or an idol of the
Chiapanecs, the old northern Woden was detected ; now it was
said that Malay Polynesians, drifting from the South Sea, landed
on the western shores of America; now it was imagined that
descriptions of some parts of the New World might be recognized
in Chinese records of an eastern land named Fusang. All these
passing guesses were so ill-founded that they were easily refuted,
and never obtained real credit
87 Miguel Cavello Balboa (Histoire du Perou) gives ancient lists of the sove-
reigns of Yucatan, with a sketch of their history.
18 The Quichua terms for the higher numbers had spread as far as the
Pehuelches. D'Orbigny, L'homme americain.
44 o The Aborigines of America.
Yet the possibility must not be disputed that mariners from the
Old World might be cast away in America, for we actually know
of at least one case of this description. In December, 1731, a
bark, manned by five or six men, arrived at Trinidad, which had
been caught in a storm on its passage from Teneriffe with a cargo
of wine to one of the western Canary Islands, and had ultimately
been carried by the trade wind to the West Indies. 8 ? But it
is idle to suppose that one or more individuals are able to convey
the civilization of their own country like freight in the hold of a
ship to distant worlds. Europeans comparing themselves with
Australians are apt to fancy themselves demi-gods in the midst of
beings only semi-human. Each imagines that were he thrown
among a tribe of such savages, he would bestow on them a share
of the blessings of our civilization; that these favoured beings
would honour him as their benefactor and their saviour ; and even
that the appearance of the " bearded man " would be remembered
as a religious legend, and his second coming be awaited as the
dawn of an age of prosperity, just as the Aztecs promised them-
selves a fresh "growth and exaltation of their condition on the
reappearance of Quetzalcoatl. But the real result of such a
case is clearly shown by the fate of James Morill, an unfortunate
sailor who spent seventeen years among Australian tribes. At the
end of these seventeen years the natives led exactly the same life
as before, while Morill ate shell-fish with them, slept like them
under a slight shelter of leaves, had discarded his clothing, almost
entirely forgotten his mother tongue, and he, the demi-god, had
sunk into an Australian. Nor can we take comfort in the suppo-
sition that although a single individual must succumb to this fate,
yet several, a ship's crew for instance, cast away in the New World,
would have effected greater results. History proves the contrary.
In his first voyage Columbus left behind him at Hayti forty
Spaniards well equipped in a small stronghold, amid a good-
humoured and almost defenceless population, and on his return a
few months later he found nothing but corpses and the remains of
a conflagration. The fate of Hernando de Soto and his com-
panions, in his expeditions across the south of the United States,
M P. Gumilla, El Orinoco illustrado.
Mexican Civilization. 441
is even more instructive. When they landed in 1540 they were
well equipped, but they never received any supplies from their
own country. Their horses perished, their firearms became use-
less for want of powder, their daggers rusted and broke, their
clothes and shoes wore out, till finally they marched and fought,
dressed and armed like Indians. It is evident that a high degree
of civilization cannot be transmitted by a small number of indi-
viduals, for progress in culture takes place only in dense popula-
tions and by means of a division of labour, which fits each
individual into a highly complex but most effective organization.
If any one member is separated from this whole, he appears far
more helpless than the child of nature, and for all practical
purposes he is of no more value than is the stray wheel of a
broken watch for telling the time.
The phenomena of American civilization thus originated inde-
pendently and spontaneously, and, what is still more remarkable,
the respective civilizations of the northern and southern con-
tinents developed themselves entirely without reciprocal contact
or aid, for the Mexicans were as little aware of the existence of
the empire of the Incas as were the Peruvians of the splendours
of Tenochtitlan or of Palenque. The geographical knowledge of
the Aztecs extended only to the Lake of Nicaragua, as far as which
their language was spoken, or single bands of colonists had pene-
trated who spoke Nahuatl. On the other hand, according to a
record, which is however of doubtful authority, the Inca Huayna
Capac is said to have received tidings of the appearance of
bearded strangers (under Balboa in 1513) on the western shore
of the Isthmus of Darien. But when we consider that shortly
before the discovery of America the Peruvian Incas had conquered
the empire of Quito (1487), and that no particular difficulties
impeded their further advance, it is possible that a communication
between the civilized nations of South and Central America, and
an interchange of their resources, might have taken place in the
course of the i6th and zyth centuries without the intervention of
the Europeans. The distance between Mexico and Cuzco is about
2900 miles, whereas Babylon, Nineveh, Athens, Sidon, and Tyre
were only from 320 *o 780 miles from Memphis on the Nile;
from this tor greater separation of the two centres of American
20
442 The Aborigines of America.
civilization, we become aware that the division of the New World
into two continents was much more unfavourable to the quick
progress of civilization, even had the inhabitants possessed intel-
lectual powers equal to those of the people of the Old World.
The inland seas, and especially the highland lakes, have exercised
a peculiar power of attraction on the civilized nations of the New
World. Lake Titicaca was formerly, though erroneously, con-
sidered the earliest seat of Quichua civilization, but under the
later Incas it was the seat of the famous manufacture of Cumbi,
the finest llama cloth.9 The temple pyramids of the Toltecs
were reflected in the lakes of Anahuac ; the sanctuaries of the
Chibcha tribes were situated on the Lake of Guatavita, with the
shores of which is connected the legend of the golden personage
(el dorado), who when he bathed washed off the pulverized metal
into its waters. The islands on the Peten Lake in Guatemala were
selected as a residence by the Iztaes in their migration southwards
after the destruction of the empire of Mayapan, in the year 1420; 9 1
and previous to the discovery of the Lake of Nicaragua, a refined
population had become extraordinarily dense on its shores. Hence,
at first sight, there is a great tendency to attribute to inland seas a
peculiarly great influence on the advancement of social conditions.
But on further investigation their influence is seen to be more
limited. South of the 4oth degree north latitude the New World
is singularly destitute of inland seas, and this is especially the case
with South America as compared with Africa, to which it bears
such a close resemblance. It is therefore conceivable that many
civilized tribes halted in their migrations, fascinated by the sight
of a bright expanse of water in the interior of the country. In
the celebrated pass of the Andes, between Valparaiso and the
ruins of Mendoza, of which the splendid scenery was never better
described than by Poppig, is situated a small mountain pool
named by the nations " the eye of the Inca," an expression which
seems to indicate that the so-called Redman was not entirely
insensible to the charms of scenery.9 2 Lakes on elevated plains
* J. Acosta, Hist, natural y moral. Madrid, 1792.
01 Morelet, Reisen in Central America. Jena, 1873.
99 Poppig, Reise in Chile, Peru, etc.
Influence of Plateaux. 443
usually lie in shallow depressions, and round their margins rise
gentle slopes peculiarly fitted for purposes of agriculture. The
lakes themselves supplied food in the shape of fish, and in
Mexico they harbour on their sedgy banks millions of edible
and palatable insects' eggs (Corixa mercenaria), which are baked
into cakes. Populations would therefore be more apt to grow
dense on the shores of these inland seas than in other places,
but it would be a mistake to attribute to them any decisive in-
fluence on the development of the social conditions of the New
World.
The later and rapid growth of the empire of the Incas from
small beginnings, in the course of five centuries at most, or perhaps
of only three, has been very satisfactorily accounted for by Squier.
The germ of the Peruvian empire was developed on the Punos
or bare table-lands, which rise to a height of from ten to sixteen
thousand feet between the double or triple chain of the Andes.
Between the western slopes of these mountains and the Pacific
Ocean stretches a narrow fringe of coast, on which rain never or
rarely falls, and which is moistened by mists during six months
at most. It is only where coast rivers flow from the Andes into
the sea that agriculture and the cultivation of trees is in any way
possible. But the coast rivers are few and far between, while the
intervening spaces are complete deserts. Thus single tribes might
well maintain themselves for a long time, separately and indepen-
dently of one another, but when the first great state arose on the
table-land, the coast populations, which were separate and weak,
were successfully overthrown, and by these acquisitions the power
of the monarchy on the table-land was increased. Where the
rainless fringe of coast terminated to the south, namely, in the
present Chili, the sway of the Incas reached its limits. Towards
the interior it was in like manner unable to descend the eastern
slope of the Andes through the forest district to the plains of the
Amazon, where rude hunting tribes still range in undisturbed
barbarism.
All South American civilization, including that which was not
Peruvian, that of the Chibcha on the plateaux of Bogota* and Tunja,
on the right bank of the Magdalena river, was therefore closely
Connected with considerable mountain heights, and the same
444 The Aborigines of America.
phenomena are repeated, although not so invariably, in North
America. It is very easy, and especially so to us who live in the
temperate zone and avoid torrid regions, to recognize the favourable
influence on the course of civilization of the high plateaux within
the tropics. Their inhabitants, we say, escape the enervating
atmosphere of the sultry lowlands ; they were obliged to provide
clothing and shelter as a protection against the weather; to avoid
starvation, they were early obliged to till the ground and to store pro-
visions, and they were even soon forced to congregate and organize
societies, in order to meet the requirements of their abode with
greater ease. True as all this may sound, it does not account
for the strange fact that nations should voluntarily have sought
out regions in which the difficulties of maintenance were greater.
In the Old World, moreover, civilization was always favoured by
the lowlands. It occurs there at the sea level, by the side of
great rivers, such as the Nile, the Tigris, and the Euphrates. The
Chinese too maintain that their civilization was not developed
until they had descended to the Hoang-ho. When the Brahminical
Aryans entered India they first spread themselves over the plains
of the Ganges ; they did not ascend the slopes of the Himalayas,
but they drove the original inhabitants into the Vindhya mountains
and the jungles of the table-land of Deccan, where they still pro-
pagate their race in accessible deserts, without having changed
their mode of life for perhaps three thousand years. Thus in the
Old World it is everywhere the case that the civilized nations, as
the stronger, seek out the more convenient lowlands and expel the
weaker aborigines into the mountains. This is the case also in all
the islands and peninsulas of Southern Asia, where the Malays have
always taken possession of the coast, while the uncivilized Papuans
were obliged to seek refuge in the hill country of the interior.
Mountains are almost always impediments to civilization. Unlike
plains, they admit of no close assembly of the inhabitants ; they
hinder or stop active intercourse between the scattered communi-
ties, and as we ascend their narrow valleys to the central ridge, it
seems as if we approached, not indeed the end of the world, but
the outer edge of all higher civilization. Table-lands are more
favourable to advance than mountain chains, but yet we must
remember that they have been mounted only by nations which
Influence of Natural Products. 445
have been expelled from the more convenient lowlands by stronger
opponents. It might therefore be imagined that in the higher
strata of air even weakly tribes would be invigorated, yet nowhere
in the history of the Old World can it be shown that civilization
has descended from the heights to the plains. Hence in South
America there must have been peculiar conditions which attracted
civilization to the table-lands. The education of the civilized
natives of South America is due to three natural products of the
Peruvian plateaux, namely, the llama in its various species, the
potato, and the Chinoa bean (Chenopodium Quinoa). The Inca
Garcilasso,93 who has given a detailed description of the state of
civilization in ancient Peru, repeatedly remarks on the extraor-
dinary lack of animal food in those regions. It was only on the
occasions of the great drives of game organized by the Incas that
the lower ranks obtained the flesh of the llama, and then in all
probability merely because it would otherwise have been spoilt.
On other feast days they ate as a delicacy a small mammal
(according to Garcilasso a rabbit), which they carefully reared, but
when this was soon after imported into Spain, it was there thought
so unpalatable as not to be worth the trouble of breeding. In
the rainless coast districts fish was the only animal food. It
was therefore not necessarily the weakly inhabitants who, driven
out by stronger tribes, sought refuge on the Punos of Peru or
Quito, but, on the contrary, bold and spirited men were pro-
bably the first to ascend the chain of the Cordilleras, in order to
hunt and tame the shy llamas on the plateaux. Yet as maize ripens
there only in a few sheltered spots, they would never have been
able to establish dwellings on these lofty heights, or to build noble
temples of the sun on the islands of Lake Titicaca, had not the
potato and the Chinoa bean thriven at altitudes equal to those of
our mountain tops. That Brazilian hunting tribes did not migrate
from the side of the Atlantic to the highlands of Peru, but that on
the contrary the Puno was ascended from the shores of the Pacific,
may be assumed, because we find in the hands of the inhabitants
of the Andes, even as far as Terra del Fuego, a weapon which no
forest hunting tribe ever invented, but which on the other hand is
98 Commentaries reales. Lisboa, 1609.
446 The Aborigines of America.
especially common among shepherds, namely, the sling and its
varieties, the lasso and the bolas, or casting-line.
Before ascertaining to which of the four independent civilized
nations, the Toltec-Mexicah, the Yucatec, that of the Incas of Peru,
or of the Chibcha of Cundinamarca, the highest rank is due, it must
be mentioned that the cultivation of maize was common to all. In
Mexico maguey and cocoa were also cultivated, and, in Peru and
Bogota", the potato, the Chinoa bean, and the coca bush. Arti-
ficial irrigation is found everywhere, but the use of guano as manure
was confined to Peru. The Mexicans bred the turkey, the Peru-
vians trained the llama as a beast of burden. Bridges and cause-
ways were constructed by all the nations above enumerated, but
the high roads of the Peruvians, paved with stones and shaded by
rows of trees, 9 * were unquestionably superior.95 A postal service
was organized both in Mexico and in the empire of the Incas.9 6
None cf the four civilizations were without stone buildings, but
the Peruvians alone constructed arches.97 The Chibcha still lived
in the age of unpierced stone implements. The same may be
said even with regard to the Yucatecs and Mexicans, for although
they were acquainted with copper and bronze, the use of metal
implements was very unusual, for the sharp flakes and knife blades
of obsidian were efficient substitutes. The weapons were the
same among all the four civilized nations, except that the Peru-
vians had not the wooden swords of the other three, while they
alone carried battle-axes and lances with bronze blades. The
northern nations used gold dust enclosed in quills, bars of tin and
copper, and also cocoa beans, as money. The Incas of Peru were
acquainted with weights and scales in their commercial transac-
tions, and the Chibcha even used discs of gold as the medium
of exchange. Were we to continue the list, the result would
tend to show that the Peruvians excelled the Chibcha in many,
M Francisco de Xerez, Conquista del Peru, in Barcia, Historiadores.
* See the description of the Imperial road from Cuzco to Quito in Carate,
Historia del Peru.
* The Chaski, or runners, brought sea fish to the Imperial kitchen at Cuzco
in forty-eight hours, a distance of about 315 miles. Acosta, Hist, natural y
moral.
97 Rivero y Tschudi, Antiguedades peruanas. Vienna, 1851.
Periwian Civilization. 447
and the northern nations in a few points of civilization. But the
latter possessed a calendar of 365^ days, whereas the Peruvians,
were satisfied with observing the sun's rising point (azimuth) at
the time of the solstices by means of stone pillars. The Mexicans
possessed maps from which the Spanish conquerors derived im-
portant information, while the Peruvians only made embossed
plans of towns. The Peruvians were far poorer, inasmuch as,
except hieroglyphics, 9 8 they used only the Quippu, or knot
writing, similar to that of the Chinese in former times,99 or to
that which we have already met with among the Papuans, 100 and
such as existed even among the hunting tribes on the Orinoco,
where, on the commencement of a journey, the husband used to
leave his wife a cord on which were as many knots as the days
of his intended absence, one of which she untied every evening.
These knotted cords also served as an acknowledgement of debt ;
on the payment of each instalment, the creditor unfastened one
of the knots. 101 But Quippu writing is little fitted to preserve
the memory of events and names, for which reason the credibility
of the Inca-Peruvian history is open to considerable doubt. The
Mexicans, on the other hand, possessed a series of characters
expressive of rebus-like syllables, and also a collection of symbols
each representing an idea. The Maya of Yucatan had reached
a still higher grade. Even if they borrowed their calendar from
Mexico, they were the inventors of a phonetic character consisting
of twenty-seven partially homophonous letters and several syllabic
signs. 102
The local distribution of the primitive civilizations in the New
World points to several important conclusions. We saw that in
South as well as in North America the Atlantic side invariably
belonged to these rude hunting tribes, and the western portion
towards the Pacific to the civilized nations. Von Frantzius has
98 Acosta, Historia natural y moral. J. J. von Tschudi has given a sample
of these records in his Reisen durch Slidamerika.
99 Whitney, Language.
100 See above, p. 346.
101 Gumilla, El Orinoco ilustrado.
102 Diego de Landa, Relation des choses de Yucatan, Paris, 1864; and Von
llellwald in the Ausland. 1871.
448 The Aborigines of America.
shown that this is the case in Central America also. Many of our
readers may remember how in the adventurous wanderings the
Spaniard, Cabeza de Vaca, travelling westwards from Texas, as he
passed into the Atlantic watershed, left behind him the miserable
squalor of the Redskite and found himself surrounded by kindly,
well-fed, agricultural nations, to whom he owed his ultimate deliver-
ance. It might, at most, be objected that, contrary to this rule, a
civilized region on the eastern shore of the continent, and belong-
ing geographically to the Atlantic margin, was to be found in Yuca-
tan, but the true eastern margin of the New World in Central
America is probably formed by the Antilles, and it is quite permis-
sible to look upon the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico as
two inland seas, the union of which is prevented by the interposi-
tion of Yucatan a physical formation which is in itself sufficient
to raise this peninsula into a region favoured by rapid increase of
civilization. But the physical reason why the western half of
America exclusively belonged to the civilized nations is to be
looked for in its comparative dryness. A superabundance of rain
discharges itself upon the western coasts of both continents only in
high latitudes, and the existence of dense forests always depends
upon a large quantity of rain. Great unbroken forests, however,
occupied the regions to the east, in Brazil as well as in the United
States.
On the Pacific slopes of America it may further be observed
that the condition of the inhabitants perceptibly improves on
approaching and passing the tropics : a fact which is true even
of the hunting tribes, and corroborated by similar experiences in
the Old World. Warm countries when sufficiently watered will
always most richly repay tillage, and it is only where there is a
considerable profusion of food easily procured that a dense popula-
tion becomes possible. In low latitudes it is not until a certain
control has been obtained over nature by human intelligence and
social organization, that civilization is able to penetrate into the
more inclement regions. It is also an important point that Mexico
is situated where the northern continent abruptly narrows into a
peninsula. Even in a mature state of civilization, and still more
in an earlier stage, nati 
