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THE INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC SERIES
VOLUME
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V
^
THE INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC SERIES
a:^thropology AN INTRODUCTION TO TOE STUDY OF
MAN AND
CIVILIZATION
BY
EDWARD
B.
TYLOR,
yCFUPPS
D. C. L.,
F. R. S.
iwsTrruTio.
FOR
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS
NEW YORK D.
APPLETON AND COMPANY 189G
90M
^_^j^^
T97^ LIBRARY SCRIPPS INSTITUTION OF OCEANOGRAPHY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LA JOLLA. CALIFORNIA
>
H
>" 'R
^-
i
J
In times when subjects of education have multiplied, it may seem at first siglit a hardship to lay on the already heavily-pressed student a that
new
science.
the real effect of Anthropology
But
it
will
be found
rather to lighten
is
In the mountains we
than increase the strain of learning.
see the bearers of heavy burdens contentedly shoulder a
carrying-frame besides, because they find
than compensated
and balancing
Man and
its
weight more
by the convenience of holding together
their load.
Civilization,
So
is
it
with the science
of
which connects into a more manage-
able whole the scattered subjects of an ordinary education.
Much
of the difficulty of learning and teaching
scholar's not seeing clearly
what
its
place
something of
is its
among
what each science or
the purposes of
early history,
and how
life. it
If
lies in
the
art is for,
he knows
arose from the
simpler wants and circumstances of mankind, he finds himself better able to lay
happens, he at the
is
hold of
called on to take
beginning but
it
than when, as too often
up an abstruse subject not
in the middle.
When
he has learnt
something of man's rudest means of conversing by gestures
and
cries,
and thence has been led to see how the higher
PREFACE.
vi
lower methods, he makes a
language than
he had
if
arbitrary rules framed
The
dislike of
pounded by Euklid, the scholar
to
common-sense
and
beginners to geometry
the
fact
plunges
once
at
make
to in
their
into
the
and even the blunders
out the
of savage and barbaric a
list
of
clearer
tribes.
of
dis-
of legal
systems
the reforms,
of years
yet he
,
by seeing how laws
framed to meet the needs It
is
make
needless to
the branches of education in knowledge and
all
one which may not be the
better learnt
for
knowing
there
carpenters
law-student
not
;
practical
relations of
is
art
ex-
things
all
old
struggles,
of thousands
way
his
as
the
So the
intricacies
begin in their simplest forms,
is
first
the
work.
which have grown up through the might have made
doing,
is
where
starting-point,
and spaces
tances
like
not one out of three
that
not being shown
builders began
the
look
perplex rather than to inform.
to
ever really understands what he
due
of
unprepared among
which .unexplained
many
so
fairer start in the science
fallen
grammar,
of
subtleties
on such
are improvements
devices of articulate speech
its
history
and
easier
and
place in
the
general science of Man.
With
this
troduction all
it
aim
to
in view, the present
Antliropology, rather
teaches.
It
matter, out of the or are receiving,
Thus,
does not
volume
than
a
is
deal with strictly
the ordinary higher
in-
of
technical
who have
reach of readers
an
summary
received,
English
education.
except to students trained in anatomy, the minute
modern
researches
as
measurements and the
to like
distinction
would be
of
by
skull
Much
care
races
useless.
PREFACE. has
been taken
branches of the
to
make
the
chapters
sound as
science
more advanced work must be
the
vii
far
on as
the
various
they
go, but
to special students.
left
While the various departments of the science of Man ranging from body to mind,
are extremely multifarious,
from language
to music,
from fire-making to morals, they
whose nature and history every wellare It is much, informed person ought to give some thought. all
matters
to
however, for any single writer to venture to deal even in the
most elementary way with so immense a variety of In sucli a task
subjects.
errors
and
have the right
I
should
imperfections
could not have attempted
it
at
be all
lightly
to
ask that
judged.
friends eminent in various branches of the science, I
have been
My
points.
fessor
Dr.
Pitt-Rivers,
whom
on doubtful and
difficult
acknowledgments are especially due
to Pro-
able to
consult
Sir
Henry Maine,
Mr. Franks, Professor Flower,
Major-General
Huxley and Dr. E.
Birch,
I
but for the help of
Professor
Tuke, Professor W.
A.
Sayce,
Freeman,
Dr.
Beddoe,
Dr.
D.
H.
K. Douglas, Mr. Russell Martineau,
Mr. R. Garnett, Mr. Henry Sweet, Mr. Rudler, and many other friends whom 1 can only thank unnamed. The illustrations of races are engraved from photographic the permission of portraits, many of them taken by Messrs.
Albums
Dammann
of
Huddersfield from their valuable
of Ethnological Photographs. E.
Febtuary, :SSi,
B.
T.
——
CONTENTS. CHAPTER
I.
PAGE
Man, Ancient and Modern
i
—Time required for Development of Races, — of — of Civilization, 13 —Traces of Man in the Stone 25 — Later PeriDd, 26 — Earlier Quaternary or Drift-Period, 29.
Antiquity of Man,
i
i
Languages, 7
Age,
CHAPTER
IL
Man and other Animals
35
— Succession
and Descent of Species, 37 Hands and Feet, 42 Features, 44— Brain, 45— Mind in Lower Animals and
Vertebrate Animals,
35
Apes and Man, comparison of
— Hair, Man,
44
—
Structure, 38
—
47.
CHAPTER HL Races of Mankind Differences of
Features,
ment, 74
56
Race, 56
— Stature
and Proportions, 56
— Skull,
60
62— Colour, 66— Hair, 71— Constitution, 73— Tempera-
— Types
Variation, 84
of Races,
— Race> of
75
— Permanence,
Mankind
classified, 87.
80
— Mixture,
So
— CONTENTS.
CHAPTER
IV. PAGE
Language
114
— Sound-gestures, 120 Natural Language, 122 — Utterances of Animals, 122 — Emotional and Imitative Sounds Language, 124— Change of Sound and Sense, 127 — Other exprcFsion of Sense by Sound, 128 — Children's Words, 128 — Arriculate Language, relation Natural Lan-
Si^n-making,
1
14— Gesture-language,
114
in
to
its
guage, 129
— Origin of Language,
130.
CHAPTER Language
V.
{coniimied)
Articulate Speech, 132
— Real
133
— Growth
of Meanings, 133
— Abstract
Words,
—
and Grammatical Words, 136 Parts of Speech, 138 Analytic Language, 139 Word Combination, 140 Sound-change, 143 Affixes, 142 Synthetic Language, 141 Gender, Roots, 144 Syntax, 146 Government and Concord, 147 135
Sentences, 139
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
149— Development
of Language, 150.
CHAPTER VL Language and Race Adoption and
loss
,
of Language,
152— Ancestral Language,
152
153^
— Ar>an, 156 — Semitic, 159— Ej^yptian, —Tatar or Turanian, 161 — South-Eai-t Asian, 162 — MalayoPolynesian, 163 — Dravidian, 164—African, Bantu, Hot165. 164 — American, 165 — Early Languages Families of Language, 155 Berl)er, &c.,
160
ar:d Race^-,
tentot,
CHAPTER
VII.
Writing
167
— Sound-pictures, 169 — Chinese 172 — Egyptian Writing, 175— Spelling, 178 — Printing, 180.
Picture-writing,
Cuneiform Writing,
168
Writing,
Writing, 1
73
170
— Alphabetic
— CONTENTS.
XI
CIIAI'TER VIII. J"
Arts of Life Development of Instruments, iS3-Club, Hammer, 184 185
— Hatchet,
188
— Sabre,
Knife, 189
— Carpenter's Tools, 192 — thrower, 194 — Bow and Arrow,
— Stone-flake,
— Spear, Dagy;er, Sword, 193
Javelin,
Mis.siles,
195
— Sling,
— Blow tube.
AGE 1S2
lyo
Spear-
Gun, 196
—
—
Mechanical Power, 197 Wheel- Carriage, 198 Hand-mill, 200 Drill, Lathe, 202 Screw, 203 Water-mill, Wiad-mill, 204.
—
—
CHAPTER Arts of Life
IX.
{(ontinued)
Quest of wild food, 206
206
— Hunting,
207
— Trapping,
211
— Fishing,
212
— Agriculture, 214— Implements, 216 — Fields, 218— Cattle, pasturage, 219 — War, 221 — Weapons, 221 — Armour, 2Z2 — Warfare of lower 223 — of higher nations, 225. tribes,
CHAPTER Arts of Life
X.
{continued)
229
— Caver., 229 — Huts, 230—Tents, 231 — Houses, 231 — Stone and Brick Building, 232— Arch, 235 — Development of Architecture, 235 — Dress — Painting skin, 236 — Tattooing, 237 — Deformation of Skull, &c., 240— Ornamenls, 241 — Clothing of Bark, Skin, &c., 244 — Mats, 246 — Spinning, Weaving, 246 — Sewing 249 — Garments, 249 — Navigation — Floats, 252 — Boats, 253
Dwellings
:
:
:
Rafts, 255
—Outriggers, 255 —Paddles
and Oars,
256— Sails,
256
—
Galleys and Ships, 257.
CHAPTER XL Arts of
I-ife {concluded)
260
260— Cookery, 264— Bread, &c., 266— Liquors, 268— Fuel, 270 —Lighting, 272— Vessels, 274— Pottery, 274— Glass, 276— Metals, 277— Bronze and Iron Ages, 278— Barter, 281— Money, 2S2—
Fire,
Commerce,
285.
— CONTENTS.
xil
CHAPTER
XII. PAGE 287
Arts of Pleasure Poetry,
287—Verse and Metre, 288— Alliteration and Rhyme, 289 289— Speech, Melody, Harmony, 290— Musical
Poetic Metaphor,
Instruments,
293 — Dancing, 296 — Drama, 298 — Sculpture — Ancient and Modern Art, 301 — Games, 305.
and
Painting, 300
CHAPTER
XIII. 3^9
Science
— Counting
310— Measuring and Weighing, 316— Geometry, 318— Algebra, 322— Physics, 323— Chemistry, 328— Biology, 329— Astronomy, 332— Geography and Geology, 335 —Methods of Reasoning, 336— Magic, 338,
Science, 309
and Arithmetic,
CHAPTER
XIV.
The Spirit-World Religion of jjjg
Lower
—Transmigration,
Nature
Spirits,
342
Races,
342— Souls, 343— Burial, 347— Future
350
— Divine Ancestors, 351 — Demons,
357— Gods, 358— Worship, 364— Moral
CHAPTER
Life,
352
—
Influenc-,
XV.
History and Mythology
373
373— Poetry, 375— Fact in Fiction, 377— Earliest Poems and Writings, 381— Ancient Chronicle and History, 383— Myths, 387 — Interpretation of Myths, 396— Diffusion of Myths, 397.
Tradition,
CHAPTER XVL Society
'
4°'
401— Family, 402— Morals of Lower Races, 405— Public Opinion and Custom, 408— Moral Progress, 410—Vengeance and Justice, 414— War, 418— Property, 419— Legal Ceremonies, 423— Family Power and Responsibility, 426 — Patriarchal and Military Chiefs, 428— Nations, 432— Social Ranks, 434—
Social
Stages,
Government, 436.
.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE
FIG.
3.
Age (neolithic) implements Earlier Stone Age (paleolithic) flint picks or hatchets Sketch of mammoth from cave of La Madeleine (Lartet and
4.
Sketch of
5.
Skeletons of ajies and
6.
Hand and
7.
Brain of chimpanzee and of
8.
Patagonian and Bushman
5^
9.
Top view
of skulls
61
10.
Side view of skulls
62
11.
a,
12.
Female
13.
African negro
14.
Section of negro skin, mucli magnified (after Killliker)
15.
Sections of hair, highly magnified (after Pruncr)
16.
Race or Population arranged by Stature (Gallon's method)
17.
Race
18.
Caribs
19.
(a)
20.
Malay Mother and Half-caste Daughters
1.
2.
Later Stone
...
Christy)
29
31
man and
horse from cave (Lartet and Chri^ty)
man
(after
/>,
32
.
.
Huxley)
39
man
42
foot of chimpanzee and of
Swaheli;
man
46
Persian
63
64
portraits
65 .
.
66 73
.
or Population arranged by .Stature (Quetelet's method)
76 77
78
Head
of
Kameses H., Ancient Egypt.
Modern Egypt 21. Cafusa
27
Woman 2
(after
Ha'-tmann)
(l>)
Sheikh's son,
79 Si
82
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
xiv
PAGE
FIG.
22.
Cairene
23.
Andaman
24.
Aheta (Negrito), Philippine Islands
90
25.
Melanesians
91
26.
South Australian (man)
27.
South Australian (woman)
28.
Australian (Queensland)
84 Islanders
88
-
.
92 92
women
93
29.
Dravidian hill-man
30.
Kalmuk
31.
G^ildi
32.
Siamese actress
33.
Cochin-Chinese
34.
Coreans
35.
Finn (man)
lOO
36.
Finn (^veman)
loo
37.
Malays
lOl
38.
Malays
loi
103
(after
(after Frjer)
94
Goldsmii)
95
(Amu-)
96 s
97 98 99
39.
Dayaks
40.
Kingsmill Lslander
104
41.
Colorado Indian (North America)
106
42.
Colorado Indian (North America)
107
43. Cauixana Indians (South America)
108
44.
Georgians
IIO
45.
Swedes
Ill
46.
Gypsy
112
47. Picture-writing, rock near 48.
/"a/^r wi7j/^r in
49.
Chinese
Lake Superior
Mexican picture-writing pictures
ancient
and
(after Schoolcraft)
(after
Aubin)
cursive
later
.
forms
.
.
.
169
(after
Endlicher) 50. Chinese
168
170
compound
characters, pictures
and sounds
.
.
.
,
1
71
51.
Egyptian hieroglyphic and hieratic characters compared with
52.
Gunflint-maker's core and flakes (after Evans)
185
53.
Stone Flakes
186
54.
Later Stone
letters of
Phoenician and later alphabets (after
Age
(neolithic) iiiii)lements
De Rouge)
.
176
187
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
xv
FIG.
l-AGE
55.
Earlier Stone
56.
Store
57.
a,
Age
(paljcolithic) flint picLs or
.
.
.
Axe, &c
;
Hindu
i/,
European
Fgyptian falchion
l>,
;
sheath-kiiife
;
t;
;
Roman
c,
Asiatic
culter
;
/,
bill-hook
1S9
5S. a, Stone spear-head (Adiniialty Is);
dagger-blade (England)
bronze dagger
;
<«,
thrown with spear-thrower
Australian speir
60.
Bows
61.
Ancient buUuck- waggon, from
.
stone spear-head or
bronze spear-head (Denmark);
r,
;
l>,
bronze leaf -shaped sword
59.
Smyth)
187
l8i
Egyptian battle-axe sabre
(/,
h .tchets
....
(after
191
Brough
.'
194 196
62. Corn-crusher, Anglesey (after 63. Hebrides
womea
tlie
W.
Antonine Column
.
.
.
201
O. Stanley)
grinding with the quern or hand-mill (after
Pennant)
202
64. a, Australian digging-st'ck
;
/',
Swedish wooden hack
.
.
65. Ancient Egyptian hoe and plough 66.
Natives of Lepers' Island
67.
Hand
(New
woman
69. a, Australian
woman
with
winder
216 217
Hebrides)
239
of Chinese ascetic
68. Botocudo
199
241
lip-
and ear-ornaments
for
hand-twisted cord
242 ;
//,
Egyptian
spinning with the spindle
247
PVom an Aztec
248
70. Girl weaving,
picture
71.
Ancient Nile-boat, from wall-painting, Thebes
72.
Bushman
73.
Ancient Egyptian Potter's Wheel (Beni Hassan)
74.
Ancient Egyptian Glass-blowing (Beni Hassan)
75.
Development of the Harp
diilling fire (after
76. Ancient Egyptian
77.
Mode
78.
Rudimentary
and
25S
Chapman)
262
.... ....
practical
Geometry
277 295
A.ssyrian numeration
of calculation by counters and by figures on Abacus
275
313 .
315
318
ANTHROPOLOGY. CHAPTER
I.
MAN, ANCIENT AND MODERN. Antiquity of Man, A;re, 25
The
I
— Time required for Development of 13 — Traces of Man
^ — of
I.angua'^es,
Civilii-ation,
Races, in
I
— of
the Stone
— Later Period, 26 — Earlier Quaternary or Drift-reriod, 29.
student
who
seeks to understand
how mankind came
ought first to be as they are, the earth, or new-comers on are men whether clearly know Did they appear with their various races old inhabitants. and ways of life ready-made, or were these shaped by the
and
to
to live as they do,
long, slow growth of ages? tion, our first business will
varieties of
men,
In order to answer this quesbe to take a rapid survey of the
their languages, their civilization,
and
their
ancient relics, to see what proofs may thus be had of man's ace in the world. The outline sketch thus drawn will also be useful as an introduction to the fuller examination of
man and First,
ourselves
his
ways of
life
in the chapters
as to the varieties of
which
mankind.
follow.
Let us suppose
standing at the docks in Liverpool or London,
looking at groups
of
men
of
races
most
different
from
ANTHROPOLCGY.
2
There
our own.
the
is
familiar
[chap.
figure of
the
African
negro,
with skin so dark-brown as to be popularly called
black,
and black hair so naturally frizzed as to be called Nor are these the only points in which he is
woolly.
unlike faces
Indeed,
us.
and
friz their
white
the
men who
hair to look like negros
imitation, for the negro features are quite
know when
the
flat
the face
A
jaws.
blacken their
make a very poor distinct we well ;
nose, wide nostrils, thick protruding is
hatter
lips,
and,
seen in profile, the remarkable projecting
would
once notice that the negro's head
at
narrower in proportion than the usual oval of the hats made for Englishmen. It would be possible to tell a negro
is
from a white
man even
feel of his skin,
in the dark by the peculiar satiny and the yet more peculiar smell which no
one who has noticed
ever likely to mistake.
is
it
In the
same docks, among the crews of Eastern steamers, wi observe other well-marked types of man. The Coolie of South India (who is not of Hindu race, but belongs to the so-called hill-tribes,) silky,
wavy
lipped.
and a
hair,
ISIore familiar
marks down by
is
dark-brown of skin, with black.
face wide-nosed, heavy-jawed, fleshyis
tlie
his less than
Chinese,
European
whom
the observer
stature, his jaundice-
yellow skin, and coarse, straight black hair; the special character of his features
is
neatly touched
china-plates and paper-screens which
ofl" on his native show the snub nose,
high cheek-bones, and that curious slanting set of the eyes
which we can imitate by putting a finger near the outer corners of our own eyes and pushing upward. By comparing such a set of races with our own countrymen, we are able to make out the utmost differences of complexion and feature
among mankind.
While doing
so,
it
is
plain that
white men, as we agree to call ourselves, show at least two
main
race-types.
Going on board a merchant-ship from
MAN, ANCIENT AND MODERN.
I.]
3
Copenhagen, we find the crew mostly blue-eyed men of complexion and hair, a remarkable contrast to the Genoese vessel moored alongside, whose sailors show almost fair
swarthy complexions and lustrous black eyes and These two types of man have been well described as the fair-whites and the dark-whites. It is only within modern times that the distinctions among Yet races have been worked out by scientific methods. to a
man
hair.
since early ages, race has attracted notice from
with the
political
its
questions of countryman
conqueror or conquered, freeman or
slave,
connexion
or foreigner,
and
in
conse-
marks have been watched with jealous accuracy. In the Southern United States, till slavery was done away
quence a few
its
years ago, the traces of negro descent were noted
the mixed breeds and down to octaroons, but even where the mixture was so slight that the untrained eye noticed nothing beyond a brunette complexion, the intruder who had ventured to sit down at a public dinner table was called upon to show his hands,
with the utmost nicety.
Not only were
regularly classed as mulattos, quadroons,
and the African
taint detected
by the dark tinge
at
the
root of the finger-nails.
Seeing how striking the broad distinctions of race are, was to be expected that ancient inscriptions and figures should give some view of the races of man as they were it
at the beginning of historical
times.
It
is
so
in
Egypt,
where the oldest writings of the world appear. More than 4,000 years ago we begin to find figures of the Egyptians themselves, in features much the same as in later times. In the sixth dynasty, about 2,000
B.C.,
the celebrated inscrip-
tion of Prince Una makes mention of the A'a/is/, or negroes, who were levied and drilled by ten thousands for the EgypUnder the twelfth dynasty, on the walls of tlie tian army.
ANTHROPOLOGY.
4
[chap.
tomb of Knumhetp, there is represented a procession of Amu, who are seen by their features to be of the race to which Syrians and Hebrews belonged. Especially the wallpaintings of the tombs of the kings at Thebes, of the nine-
teenth dynasty, have preserved coloured portraits of the four great races distinguished by the Egyptians.
These are the red-brown Egyptians themselves, the people of Palestine witli their aquiline profile and brownish complexion, the flat-nosed, thick-lipped African negroes, and the fair-skinned Libyans.
Thus mankind was already divided
into well-marked races,
distinguished by colour and features.
notice
how
these old-world types of
The Ethiopian
recognised. at this
It
of the ancient
day be closely matched.
surprising to
is
man
are
still
to
be
monuments can
Notwithstanding the
many
foreign invasions of Egypt, the mass of the village population
is
true-bred enough for
men
to be easily picked out as
representatives of the times of the Pharaohs. traits
have only
to
be drawn in the
stiff style
ments, with the eye conventionally shown profile face,
full-front
in the
and we have before us the very Egyptians
they depicted themselves in the old days portraits
of
Syrians, Phoenicians, or
from Palestine, whether Hebrews, show the strongly-marked captives
Israelite type of features to
of Europe.
as
when they held
In the same way, the ancient
the Israelites in bondage.
Egyptian
Their por-
of the monu-
Altogether,
be seen
at this day'in every city
the evidence
of ancient monu-
ments, geography and history, goes to prove that the great of mankind are of no recent growth, but were already settled before the beginning of the historical
race-divisions
period.
Since then
comparatively
slight,
their
changes
seem
to
have been
except in the forming of mixed races
by intermarriage.
Hence
it
follows that the historic ages are to be looked
MAN, ANCIENT AND MODERN.
I.]
5
on as but the modern period of man's life on earth. Behind them lies the prehistoric period, when the chief work was done of forming and spreading over the world the races Though there is no scale to measure the of mankind. length of this period by, there are substantial reasons for Looking at an ethnotaking it as a long stretch of time. logical
map, coloured
region,
it is
to
show
w-hat race of
men
inhabits each
plain at a glance that the world was not peopled
by mere chance scattering of nations, a white tribe here and a brown tribe there, with perhaps a black tribe in between. Far from
this,
whole races are spread over vast regions as
though they grew there, and the peculiar type of the race seems more or less connected with the climate it lives in. Especially it is seen that the mass of black races belong to the equatorial regions in Africa
and the Eastern Archi-
pelago, the yellow race to Central and Southern Asia, the white race to temperate Asia and Europe. Some guess may
even be made from the map which district was the primitive centre where each of these races took shape, and whence it Now if, as some have thought, the spread far and wide. Negros, Mongolians, Whites, and other races, were distinct species, each sprung from a separate origin in its own region, then the peopling of the globe might require only a moderate time,
the races having only to spread each from
own
its
But the opinion of modern zoologists, whose birthplace. study of the species and breeds of animals makes them the best judges, is against this view of several origins of man> First, that all tribes of men, from for two principal reasons. the blackest to the whitest, the
most savage to the most
cultured, have such general likeness in the structure of their
bodies and the working of their minds, as
is
easiest
best accounted for by their being descended from a ancestry, howevjr distant.
Second, that
all
the
and
common
human
races,
,
ANTHROPOLOGY.
6
[ciiAr.
notwithstanding their form and colour, appear intermarrying and forming crossed
freely
capable of every
races of
combination, such as the millions of mulattos and mestizos
sprung
New World from the mixture of Europeans, and native Americans this again points to a
in the
Africans,
common
;
ancestry of
We may
the races of man.
all
accept
the theory of the unity of mankind as best agreeing with ordinary experience and scientific research. ever, the
means
As
yet,
how-
are very imperfect of judging what man's
progenitors were like in
body and mind, in times before the and Tatars, and Austra-
forefathers of the present Negros, lians,
had become separated into distinct stocks. Nor is it by what causes these stocks or races passed into different types of skull and limbs, of complexion and It cannot be at present made out how far the peculi-
yet clear their hair.
were inherited by their descendants and became stronger by in-breeding ; how far, when the weak and dull-witted tribes failed in the struggle for land and life, the stronger, braver, and abler tribes survived to leave their types stamped on the nations sprung from them ; how arities of single ancestors
far wliole
migrating tribes underwent bodily alteration through
change of climate, food, and habits, so that the i)eopling of the earth went on together with the growth of fresh races
Whatever share these
fitted for life in its various regions.
causes and others yet more obscure the races of man, as
it
may have had
varying
in
must not be supposed that such differences
between an Englishman and a Gold Coast negro are due
to slight variations of breed.
On
the contrary, they are of
such zoological
importance as to have been compared with
the
between animals which
differences
distinct species, as
forehead, and the polar bear with flattened skull.
naturalists
between the brown bear with
If then
wc
its
its
reckon
rounded
whitish fur and long
arc to go back in thought to a
MAN, ANCIENT AND MODERN.
I.]
7
time when the ancestors of the African, the Australian, the
Mongol, and the Scandinavian, were as yjt one undivided common descent must be so framed
stock, the theory of their
enough and time long enough beyond any known to have
as to allow causes strong to
about changes
bring
far
Looked at in this way, and white men whom we have
taken place during historical ages. the black, brown, yellow,
supposed ourselves examining on the quays, a-e living records of the remote past, every Chinese and Negro bearing in his face
evidence of the antiquity of man.
Next, what has language to earth?
It
appears
that
number about a thousand. first
glance that these
There
the It
of man's age on the
clear,
is
did not
are groups of languages
tell
distinct
all
languages
known
however, at the
spring
up
separately.
which show such close
like-
grammars and dictionaries as proves each group to be descended from one ancestral tongue. Such a group is called a family of languages, and one of the best known of such families may be taken as an example ness in their
of their way of growth.
word
in a ratlier
In ancient times Latin (using the
wide sense) was the language of
Rome and Roman
other Italian districts, and with the spread of the
was carried far and wide, so as to oust the early Undergoing in each land a languages of whole provinces. different course of change, Latin gave rise to the Romance family of languages, of which Italian, Spanish, and French empire
it
are well-known members.
How
to differ after ages of separate
these languages have
life,
we judge by
come
seeing that
from Dieppe cannot make themselves understood in Malaga, nor does a knowledge of French ens.ble us to read Dante. Yet the Romance languages keep the traces of
sailors
their
Roman
origin plainly
French sentences
to
enough
for Italian, Spanish,
and
be taken and every word referred to
ANTHROPOLOGY.
8
something near
Latin, which
in classical
it
[chap.
may be
roughly-
Familiar proverbs are here
treated as the original form.
given as illustrations, with the warning to the reader that,
comparisons are not
for convenience' sake, the
all
carried
out in precise grammatical form.
Italian.
i.e.
Chi
va
(jiii
vadit i.e.
r.n
novo
oggi che una gallina domani.
niiiim
ovum
hodie
meglio
IL
es( 7neliiis
Better
is
va
piano
(jtiid
una
^allhia dc mane.
an e^g to-day than a hen to-mcrrow. sano,
chi
va
sano
va
lontano.
flanum vadit satiiim, qui 7'adit sanum vadit longiim. He who goes gently goes safe, he who gees safe goes far. Spanish.
Quien canta
qutm cantat
He who
i.e.
sus
males
espanta.
suos malos expaz'(fre).
sings frightens
away
his
ills.
va Tor caile de despues se la ca^a de nunca. la a per illam callem de de-ex-post se vadit ad illam casam de nimquam. i.e. By the street of by and by one goes to the house of never.
P'rench.
Un tiens unum tew uc.
One
vaut mieux que
1' deux tu auras. quod duos tu ilium halicre-habes. worth more than two thou-shalt-have-its.
valet melius
lake-it
is
Parler de la corde dans maison la d' un pendu. parabola de illam chordam deintus illam mansionem de unum pend{o). i.e. (Never to) talk of a rope in the house of a hanged man.
It is plain
on the face of such sentences as these, that and French aie in fact transformed Latin,
Italian, Spanish,
their
words having been gradually altered as they descended,
generation after generation, fiuui
tlie
i)arent tongue.
Now
—
—
MAN, ANCIENT AND MODERN.
I.]
9
even if I-atin were lost, philologists would still be able, by comparing tlie set of Romance languages, to infer that such a language must have existed to give rise to them all, though no doubt such a reconstruction of Latin would give but a meagre notion, either of its stock of words or its grammatical inllexions.
This kind of argument by which a
parent-language
discovered from the likeness
descendants,
may be
among
well seen in another set of
lost its
European
Let us suppose ourselves listening to a group of
tongues.
Dutch
is
at first their talk
sailors;
may seem
unintelligible,
but after a while a sharp ear will catch the sound of well known words, and perhaps at last whole sentences like
Kom
these:
Het
Wat
hicr !
zegt
Hoe
gij?
een hei'ige storm, ik ben zeer koiid.
is
Ik weet
nict.
The
is
het zueder?
Js de inaan op
?
spelling of these words, different from
our mode, disguises their resemblance, but as spoken they
come
very near corresponding sentences in English, some-
what old-fashioned or provincial, thus say ye ?
How
is
the weather ?
It
Come
:
is
here !
a heavy storm,
What I be
moon up? I wit not. Now it stands no two languages could have come to be so unless both were descended from one parent tongue-
sore cold.
Js the
to reason that like,
The argument
is
really
the people themselves.
much
As we
like that as to the origin of
say, these
Dutch and English
are beings so nearly alike that they must have descended
from a
common
stock, so
we
say, these
languages are so like
that they must have been derived from a
common
language.
Dutch and English are accordingly said to be closely related to one another, and the language of Friesland Thence proves on examination to be another near relative. it is
which Low-Dutch, or Low-German,
inferred that a parent language or group of dialects,
may be
called the original
must once have been spoken, though
it
is
not actually
:
ANTHROPOLOGY.
lo
to
be found, not happening
to
[chap.
have been
\vrltt_'u
down and
so preserved.
Now it is
easy to see that as ages go on, and the languages
of a family each take their separate course of change,
it
and less possible to show their relationship by comparing whole sentences. Philologists have to depend on less perfect resemblances, but such are sufficient must become
less
when not only words from
the dictionary correspond in the
two languages, but also these are worked up into actual speech by corresponding forms of grammar. Thus when of the Brahmans in India,
Sanskrit, the ancient language
compared with Greek and Latin, Sanskrit verb da expresses the idea
is
its
appears that the
it
to
give,
and makes
present tense by reduplicating and adding a person-affix,
so becoming dadami, nearly as Greek makes didomi from the same root Sanskrit makes a future participle dcUyamanas, corresponding to Greek dosomenos, while Sanskrit
has vox,
T.atia
has
such
datar matches Greek vocis, voceni,
vak, vcicas,
vdc'am,
vociiin,
vacain,
vacas,
analogy
thoroughgoing
doter^^wQX.
voces,
as
this
So
vocibits,
vagbhyas. is
found
where
Sanskrit
AVhcn to
run
through several languages, as Sanskrit, Grejk, and Latin,
no other explanation language gave
from
it
is
rise to
possible but that an ancient parent
them
they having only varied off
all,
in different directions.
\\\ this
way
it is
shown
that
not only are these particular languages related by descent, but that groups of ancient and
modern languages
in
Asia
and Europe, the Lidian group, the Persian group, the Hellenic or Greek group, the Itaiic or Latin group, the Slavonic group to which Russian belongs, the Teutonic group which English is a member of, the Keltic group which Welsh is a member of, are all descendants of one common ancestral language, winch is now theoretically
MAN, ANCIENT AND MODERN.
I.]
called the Aryan, though practically
made
out
Some
languages.
its
nature can only be
a vague way by comparing
in
of these have
li
its
come down
descendant
to us in forms
which are extremely ancient, as antiquity goes in our limited The sacred books of India and Persia have chronology. preserved the Sanskrit and Zend languages, which by their structure
show
to the eye
of the philologist an antiquity
and But had
beyond that of the earliest Greek and Latin inscriptions cuneiform rock-writing of Darius.
old Persian
the
the Aryan languages even in their oldest
become
already
modern
philology to
origin at
all.
its
The
relationship to
of the time that
known
states
was the greatest feat of demonstrate that they had a common
so different that
it
faint likeness by which Welsh still shows Greek and German may give some idea may have elapsed since all three were
developed off from the original Aryan tongue, which
itself
probably ceased to exist long before the historical period began.
Among
the languages of ancient nations, another great
group holds a high
])lace in the world's history.
Semitic family wliich includes the
and
deciphered from
the Assyrian
modern
salihn
a/aikiim,
you,"
millah
and
may
the
the wedge-characters is
matches Hebrew may be shown
it
The Arab
phrases.
still
the
tlie
said s/ialom lacJicm,
often-heard
in
salutes the stranger with
"peace upon you," nearly
Hebrew would have to
is
representative of the family, and the close-
ness with which familiar
This
Phoenician,
Arabic, the language of the Koran,
of Nineveh. great
Hebrew and
as the that
is,
ancient " peace
Arabic exclamation
bis-
be turned into Hebrew, as be-shem hCi-Elohiin,
"in the name of God." So the Hebrew names of persons mentioned in the Bible give the interpretation of many Arabic proper names, as where Ebed-tnciec/i,
ANTHROPOLOGY.
13
[chap.
" servant of the king," who took Jeremiah out of the like that of the khalif Abd-
dungeon, bore a name nearly el-Mc!ik, in
Mohammedan
But no one of these
history.
has any claim
Semitic languages
be
to
the original
of
the family, standing to the others as Latin does to Italian
and French. Arabic,
Hebrew,
All of them, Assyrian, Phoenician, sister-languages, pointing
are
back
parent language which has long disappeared.
to
an
The
earlier
ancient
Egyptian language of the hieroglyphics cannot be classed as a
member
of the Semitic family, though
it
shows points of
resemblance which may indicate some remote connexion.
There are
also
known
to
have existed before 2000
B.C.
two
important languages not belonging to either the Aryan or Semitic family
;
these were the ancient Babylonian and the
As
Chinese.
regions
of the world, such as America,
into
more outlying when they come consist of many
for the languages of
ancient
view they are found likewise to
separate groups or families.
This
slight
glimpse of the earliest
known
state
of lan-
enough to teach the interesting lesson that the main work of language-making was done in the Going back as far as philology can ages before history. guage
in the
take us,
we
world
is
find already existing a
number of language-
and if they ever had any relationship with one another no longer showing Of an it by signs clear enough for our skill to make out. groups, differing in
original
words and
structure,
primitive language of mankind, the most patient
The oldest tppes of language we can reach by working back from known languages sliow no signs of being primitive tongues of mankind. Indeed, research has found no traces.
it
may be
positively asserted that they are not such, but that
ages of growth and decay have mostly obliterated the traces
how each
particular
soimd came
to express
its
particular
MAX, A^•CIE^T AND MODERN.
I.]
13
Man, since the historical period, lias done little in way of absolute new creation of language, for the good reason that his wants were already supplied by the words lie learnt from his fathers, and all h^ had to do when a new idea came to him was to work up old words into some new sliape. Thus the study of languages gives much the same view of man's antiq.iity as has been already gained sense.
the
The
from the study of races.
philologist,
asked
how long
he thinks mankind to have existed, answers that it must have been long enough for human speech to have grown
from
its
beginnings into elaborate languages, and
earliest
have developed into families spread
for these in their turn to far
This immense work had
and wide over the world.
been already accomplished
in
ages before the earliest in-
Babylon, Assyria, Phoinicia, Persia,
scriptions of Egypt,
human speech
Greece, for these show the great families of already in
Next,
whether
existence.
full
we have also
this
to look at culture or civih'zation, to see
shows signs of man having lived and
laboured in ages earlier than the earliest which historical records can
For
tell of.
this jjurposc
it is
needful to under-
stand what has been the general course of
and
institutions.
known to much to lization
the tell
It is
unknown, and
The account which an
give of England as he remembers inventicjns
in since, is
ing from
in
itself
London by
it
in his
people have to
old
how civiman can
schoolboy days,
a valuable lesson.
Thus, when
start-
express train to reach Edinburgh by
travelling to get through in sight of a signal-post
knowledge,
and improvements he has seen come
dinner-time, he thinks of
3
intelligent
all
from their own experience as
develops.
and of the
arts,
a good old rule to work from the
when
it
used to be
two days and
on the
line,
nights.
fair
coach-
Catching
he remembers how such
ANTHROPCLOGY.
14
semaphores
(that
is,
[cHAP.
means
sign-bearers) were then the best
of telegraphing, and stood waving their arms on the
hills
between London and Plymouth, signalling the Admiralty Thinking of the electric telegraph which has messages. superseded them, reminds him that this invention arose out of a discovery made
in his youth as to the connexion between and magnetism. This again suggests other
electricity
modern
scientific discoveries that
have opened to us the which
secrets of the universe, such as the spectrum-analysis
now makes
out with such precision the materials of the stars,
which
is
earth
ever could know.
just
what our fathers were quite certain no
how knowledge
Our informant can
has not only increased,
widely spread than formerly,
could
hardly
labourer's son
now
entitled to
but
is
man on us, too,
far
more
the thriving farmer's son
schooling practically
get is
when
tell
so
of right.
go on to explain to his hearers how, since
good
as
ths
He may
then
his time, the laws
of the land have been improved and better carried out, so that
men
are no longer
hanged
for stealing, that
them, that
life
more
is
done
merely punishing
to reform the criminal classes instead of
and property are safer than in old times. show from his own recollection
Last, but not least, he can that people are
niorally
that public opinion
a shade better than they were,
demands a somewhat higher standard
may be seen in the on cheats and drunkards.
of conduct than in past generations, as sharper disapproval that
now
falls
From such examples of the progress in come in a single country and a single that the world has not been standing arts,
new
thoughts,
institutions,
lifetime,
still
new
it
is
with us, but
rules of
life,
has
clear
new have
been developed out of the older state of things. growth or development in civilization, so rapid our own time, appears to have been going on more or
arisen or
Now in
new
civilization that
this
;
MAN, ANCIENT AND MODERN.
i] less
actively since the early ages
comes
of man.
15
Proof of
this
History, so far as
to us in several different ways.
it
and political institutions beginning in ruder states, and becoming in the course of ages more intelligent, more systematic, more perfectly Not to arranged or organized, to answer their purposes. reaches back, shows
give
many
arts, sciences,
instances of a fact so familiar, the history of
parliamentary government begins with the old-world councils
of the chiefs and tumultuous assemblies of the whole people. history of medicine goes back to the times when epilepsy " seizure " (Greek, epilepsis) was thought to be really the or
The
demon
act of a
O-ir object here
seizing
is
to get
and convulsing the patient. But beyond such ordinary information
of the history books, and to judge what stages civilization Here one valuable passed through in times yet earlier. aid
archaeology, which
is
for instance
shows us the stone
hatchets and other rudj instruments which belonged to early
men, thus proving how low
tribes of
of this is
more
to be
will
be said presently.
had from
survivals
into the thoughts, arts,
in
was
their state of arts
Another useful guide
culture.
Looking closely
and habits of any nation, the student
finds everywhere the remains of older states of things
of which they arose. to
know why so
coat
worn,
is
To
take a
trivial
example,
if
out
we want
quaintly cut a garment as the evening dress-
the explanation
may be found
The
thus.
had once the reasonable purpose of preventing the coat skirts from getting in the way in
cutting
away
at the waist
riding, while the pair of useless buttons
are also relics from
the times
behind the waist
when such buttons
served the purpose of fastening these skirts behind curiously cut collar keeps the
allow of
its
really ;
the
now misplaced notches made
to
being worn turned up or down, the smart facings
represent the old ordinary lining, and the sliam cuffs
now
ANTHROPOLOGY.
i6
made cuffs
[ciiAP.
with a seam round the wrist are survivals from real
when
Thus
the sleeve used to be turned back.
seen that the present ceremonial dress-coat owes
being descended from the old-fashioned practical
liarities to
coat in which a
looks In
is
it
pecu-
its
man
Or
rode and worked.
modern English
life for
proof of the
of the town-crier,
if
one
may find it in who all unknowingly keeps up
quest eight centuries ago, one
Oh yes r^
again,
Norman Conthe " Oh yes !
the old French form of proclamation, " Oyez ! Oyez f" that Hear ye " To what yet more distant periods is, " Hear ye !
!
of civilization such survivals
an example from kindled
fire
reach back,
for practical use with the
the Brahmans, to fice, still
may
is
well seen in
There, though people have for ages
India.
make
the sacred
and
flint
fire for
steel,
yet
the daily sacri-
use the barbaric art of violently boring a pointed
stick into another piece of
why they
wood
they answer that
But to us
it
is
they do
it
a spark comes.
Asked
when they know
better,
till
thus waste their labour
to get pure
and holy fire. up by
plain that they are really keeping
unchanging custom a remnant of the ruder life once led by their rjmote ancestors. On the whole, these various ways of examining arts and sciences all prove that they never spring forth perfect, like Athene out of the spHt head They come on by successive steps, and where of Zeus. other information
fails,
the observer
may
often trust himself
mere look of an invention how it probably arose. Thus no one can look at a cross-bow and a common long-bow without being convinced that the long-bow was to judge from the
the earlier, and that the cross-bow was fitting
to let
to
tell
a
common bow on
go us
as of the
a stock,
the string after taking aim.
who did this and when, we known hisiorical facts that
made
afterwards by
and arranging a feel
Though
trigger
history fails
almost as sure of
the cross-l)ow led
up
it
to
MAN, ANCIENT AND MODERN.
1.]
and
the match-lock,
that again to the flint-lock mur.kct,
that again to the percussion musket,
breech-loading
17
and
and
that again to the
rifle.
Putting these various means of information together,
becomes possible
often art or
an
institution, tracing
in the civilized
world
it
whole course of an back from its highest state
to picture the it
we reach
till
of the rudest tribes of men.
its
beginnings in the
For instance,
let
life
us look at a
course of modern mathematics, as represented in the books
taken
in for university
honours.
A
would have had no
Elizabeth's time
student living in
study, hardly even algebraic geometry, for what
the higher
Queen
infinitesimal calculus to is
now called Going
matheinatics was invented since then.
back into the Middle Ages, we come to the time when algebra had been just brought
in,
a novelty due
to
the
Hindu mathematicians and their scholars, the Arabs; and next we find the numeral ciphers, o, i, 2, 3, &:c., beginning to be known as an improvement on the old calculating In the classic ages yet board and the Roman I., II., III. earlier, we reach the time when the methods of Euklid and the other Greek geometers first appeared. So we get back to what was known to the mathematicians of the earliest historical period in Babylonia and Egypt, an arithmetic clumsily doing what children in the lower standards are
taught with us to
do
far
more
neatly,
and a rough geometry
consisting of a few rules of practical mensuration.
This
is
as far as history can go toward the beginnings of mathe-
means of discovering through what The very names still used to such as cubit, hand, foot, span, nail, show mensuration had its origin in times when
matics, but there are other
lower stages the science arose.
denote lengths,
how
the art of
standard measures had not yet been invented, but their
hands and
feet alongside objjcts of
men
put
which they wished
9011
8
ANTHROPCLOGY.
1
to estimate the size.
So there
is
[chap.
abundant evidence that
came up from counting on the fingers and toes, such as may still be seen among savages. Words still used for numbers in many languages were evidently made during the period when such reckoning on the hands and feet was usual, and they have lasted on ever since. Thus a Malay expresses five by the word //>««, which (though he does not know it) once meant "hand," so that it is seen to be a survival from ages when his ancestors, wanting a word Indeed, the for five, held up one hand and said "hand." reason of our own decimal notation, why we reckon by tens instead of the more convenient twelves, appears to be that our forefathers got from their own fingers the habit of countarithmetic
ing by tens which has been since kept up, an unchanged
The
relic
of primitive man.
many
other cases of such growth of arts from the simplest
origins.
Thus, in examining
following
tools,
it
will
chapters contain
be seen how the
rudely chipped stone grasped in the hand to hack with, led
more artificially shaped stone chisel fitted as a wooden handle, how afterwards when metal came in there was substituted for the stone a bronze or iron blade, till at last was reached the most perfect modern foresters'
up
to tlie
hatchet in a
axe, with
its steel
blade socketed to take the well-balanced
Specimens such as those in Chapter VIII. show these great moves in the development of the axe, which began before chronology and history, and has been from the first one of man's chief aids in civilizing himself. It does not follow from such arguments as these that
handle.
civilization
is
always on the move, or that
always progress.
On
its
movement
the contrary, history teaches that
remains stationary for long periods, and often
To understand mind
it
back.
it must be borne in and the most elaborate arrange-
such decline of culture,
that the highest arts
falls
is
MAN, ANCIENT AND MODERN.
1.]
prevail, in fact they
do not always
nients of society
19
may be
too perfect to hold their ground, for people must have what There is an instructive lesson fits with their circumstances.
made by an Englishman
to be learnt from a remark
Singapore, wlio noticed with surprise
at
two curious trades
One was
to buy old English-built ships, them as junks the other was to buy English percussion muskets and turn them into old-fashioned At first sight this looks like mere stupidity, but flintlocks.
flourishing there.
cut
them down and
rig
;
on consideration it is seen to be reasonable enough. It was so difficult to get Eastern sailors to work ships of European rig, that it answered better to provide them with the clumsier craft they were used to and as for the guns, the ;
hunters far away in the hot,
with gunflints than stock of caps.
if
damp
forests
were better
off
they had to carry and keep dry a
In both cases, what they wanted was not
the highest product of civilization, but something suited to
the situation and easiest to be had. applies both to taking in
When
new
Now
civilization
the same rule and keeping up
by emigration into home, or mixture a new with a lower race, the culture of their forefathers may be no longer needed or possible, and so dwindles away. Such old.
the
life
of a people
country, or by war
degeneration
is
to
and
is
altered
distress at
be seen among the descendants of Por-
tuguese in the East Indies,
who have
intermarried with the
march of civilization, so that newly-arrived Europeans go to look at them lounging about natives
their
and
mean
follen out of the
hovels in the midst of luxuriant tropical fruits
and flowers, as if they had been set there to teach by example how man falls in culture where the need of effort Another frequent cause of loss of civilization is wanting. is when people once more prosperous are ruined or driven from their homes, like those Shoshonee Intlians who have
ANTHRCPOLOGY.
20
[chap.
taken refuge from their enemies, the Blackfeet, in the wilds of
the
Rocky Mountains, where they now roam,
Digger Indians from the wild roots they dig
Not only
their miserable subsistence.
of such
as
for
the degraded state
by other
outcasts, but the loss of particular arts
may
peoples,
by
often be explained
For
unfavourable conditions.
called part of
of culture under
loss
instance,
South Sea
the
though not a very rude people when visited by
Islanders,
Captain Cook, used only stone hatchets and knives, being
indeed so ignorant of metal that they planted the got from the
nails they
a new crop.
raising
metals, but
it
emigration
likely that these
whom
ancestors were an
it
and
fell
separation from their back into the stone age.
necessary for the student to be alive to the import-
ance of decline larly
iron
first
the hope of
in
metal was known, but who, through
ocean islands and
to
kinsfolk, lost the use of It is
sailors,
Possibly their ancestors never had
seems as
Asiatic people to
English
in civilization,
mentioned
contradicts
it is
here more particu-
stages.
it first,
One cannot
and wherever
no way
in
it
the theory that civilization itself
from low to high having had
but
order to point out that
in
developed
is
thing without
lose a
tribes are fallen
from the
higher civilization of their ancestors, this only leaves
be accounted
On
for
the whole
elaborate
arts,
how it
it
to
that higher civilization grew up.
appears that wherever there are found
abstruse
knowledge,
complex
institutions,
these are results of gradual development from an earlier, simpler,
comes
and ruder into
state of
existence
No
life.
spontaneously,
developed out of the stage before principle which every scholar
must
stage of civilization
but
it.
grows
This
is
lay firm hold
or
is
the great of,
if
he
intends to understand either the world he lives in or the history of the past.
Let us
now
see
how
this
bears on the
MAX, ANCIENT AND MODERN.
I.]
21
and early condition of mankind. The monuments of Egypt and Babylonia show that toward 5,000 years ago certain nations had alreatly come to an advanced state of antiquity
No
culture.
doubt the greater part of the earth was then it remained afterwards. regions of the Nile and the Euphrates there was
peopled by barbarians and savages, as
Lut
in tlie
civilization.
The
ancient Egyptians had that greatest
a civilized nation, the
art of v/riting
;
mark of
indeed the hieroglyphic
characters of their inscriptions appear to have been the
They were
origin of our alphabet.
a nation skilled
agriculture, raising from their fields fertilized
in
by the yearly
inundation those rich crops of grain that provided subsist-
How
dense population.
for the
ence
numerous and how
skilled in constructive art the ancient
seen by every traveller
who
looks on
Egyptians were,
is
the pyramids which
name famous through all history. The still ranks among the wonders of the a mountain of hewn limestone and syenite, whose
have made
their
great pyramid of Gizeh
world, size
Londoners describe by saying
that
it
stands on a square
the size of Lincoln's-Inn Fields, and rises above the height
beautiful
The perfection of its huge blocks and the masonry of the inner chambers and passages show
the
not only of the stonecutter but of the practical
of
St.
Paul's.
skill
geometer. is
The
setting of the sides to the
cardinal points
so exact as to prove that the Egyptians were excellent
observers of the elementary facts of astronomy
;
the day of
the equinox can be taken by observing the sunset across the face of the pyramid, adjust
back as anything have worked
So
and the neighbouring Arabs dates
their astronomical
their arts
in
is
known
As
shadow.
iron, as well as gold
and and measuring,
iheir reckoning
its
still
far
of them, the Egyptians appear to
bronze and habits,
by
their
sculpture and their system
and
silver.
carpentry,
of official
life
ANTHROPOLOGY.
22
with
its
[chap.
governors and scribes, their reHgion
of priesthood and results of long
its
continual ceremonies,
and gradual growth.
the highest idea of antiquity,
is
witli
its
orders
appear the
all
What, perhaps, gives
to look at very early
monu-
ments, such as the tomb of prince Teta of the 4th dynasty
Museum, and notice how Egyptian culture had even then begun to grow stiff and traditional. Art was already reaching the stage when it seemed to men that no more progress was possible, for their ancestors had
in the British
down the perfect rule of life, which it was sin to alter by way of reform. Of the early Babylonians or Chaldaeans less is known, yet their monuments and inscriptions show how ancient and how high was their civilization. Their laid
writing
was
in
cuneiform or wedge-shaped characters, of
which they seem
to
have been the inventors, and which
their successors, the Assyrians,
learnt
from them.
They
were great builders of cities, and the bricks inscribed with their kings' names remain as records of their great temples, such, for instance, as that dedicated to the god of Ur, at
the city
known
to Biblical history as
Written copies of their laws
Ur of
provisions as to the property of married
prisonment of a father or mother
the Chaldees.
advanced
exist, so
denying
for
as to
women, the
daily fine of a half-measure of corn levied
have im-
their son, the
on the master
who killed or ill-used his slaves. Their astrology, which made the names of Chaldosan and Babylonian famous ever since, led them to make those regular observations of the heavenly bodies which gave
astronomy. largely in
The the
nation
book of
which
rise
wrote
civilization,
to the its
dates
science of
name
thus
back into the
same period of high antiquity as the Egyptian. These then are the two nations wliose culture is earliest vouched for
by inscriptions done
at tlie
vory time of their ancient
I
MAN, ANCIENT AND MODERN.
J
grandeur, and therefore
it
is
anticjuity writings
drawn up
their ancient civilization,
appeal to them than
safer to
show
to other nations wliich can only
as
seems
proofs of their
Looking
ages.
in far later
it
at
have been formed by
to
men whose minds worked much like our own. human powers were required for the work, but
No just
super-
human
by roundabout ways, reaching great knowing how to profit by them when
nature groping on results,
yet not half
reached
;
ing
23
solving the great problem of writing, yet not see-
how
to simplify the
clumsy hieroglyphics into
letters
;
devoting earnest thought to religion and yet keeping up a dog and cat worship which was ancients in
the follies
striking efforts of civilization, the
of
barbaric
the
or brick
England, but huge
even to
beasts
own
may be
traces
in size
and
;
the
those of pre-
like
built of liewn stone
how
things, tell the story of
they began as a mere jjicture-
writing like that of the rude hunters of America.
it
discerned
which prevailed before
and miscellaneous
invention,
appears that brings
the
the Egyjitian hieroglyphics, with their pictures of
;
men and their
condition
pyramids are burial-mounds
Egyptian historic
a jest
astronomy and yet remaining mazed In the midst of their most astrology. of
cultivating
;
civilization, at the earliest dates
into view,
had already reached a
Thus
it
where history
level
which can
only be accounted for by growth during a long proe-historic period. This result agrees with the conclusions already
by the study of races and language. Without attempting here to draw a picture of life as it may have been among men at their first appearance on the arrived at
earth,
it
is
important to go back as
ing to
may
far as
such evidence
lead us.
In judg-
how mankind may have once lived, it is also a observe how they are actually found living.
great help
of the progress of civilization
fairly
Human
ANTHROPOLOGY.
24
may be roughly
life
classed into three great stages, Savage,
Barbaric, Civilized, which
lowest or savage state plants
[chap.
is
may be
that in
and animals, neither
creatures for his food.
where the abundant
tilling
The
defined as follows.
which
man
subsists
on wild
the soil nor domesticating
may dwell in tropical forests and game may allow small clans to
Savages
fruit
one spot and find a living all the year round, while in barer and colder regions they have to lead a wandering life in quest of the wild food which they soon exhaust in any place. In making their rude implements, the materials used by savages are what they find ready to hand, such as wood, stone, and bone, but they cannot extract metal from the ore, and therefore belong to the Stone Age. Men live in
may
be considered
when they
state
to
have risen into the next or barbaric
take to agriculture.
of food which can be stored
till
With the
certain supply
next harvest, settled village
and town life is established, with immense results in the improvement of arts, knowledge, manners, and government. Pastoral tribes are to be reckoned in the barbaric stage,for though their life of shifting camp from pasture to pasture
may
have from
Some
prevent settled habitation and agriculture, they
their herds a constant
implements,
but
Lastly, civilized art of writing,
and
supply of milk and meat.
come beyond using
stone
most have risen into the Metal
Age.
barbaric nations have not
life
may be taken
which by recording
as
beginning with the
knowledge, come, binds together
history, law,
religion for the service of ages to
the past and the future in an unbroken chain of intellectual and moral progress. This classification of three great stages of culture is practically convenient, and has the advantage
of not describing imaginary states of society, but such as are actually it
known
seems that
to exist.
civil-'zation
So
far as the
evidence goes,
has actually grown
up
in
the
MAN, ANCIENT AND MODERN.
1.]
25
world through those three stages, so that to look r.t a savage of the BraziUan forests, a barbarous New Zealander or Daho-
man, and a
civilized
luiropean,
may be
the student's best
guide to understanding the progress of civilization, only he must bo cautioned that the comparison is but a guide, not a explanation.
full
In this way
now
it is
reasonably inferred that even in countries
savage and low barbaric
civilized,
must have
tribes
altogether to the
Fortunately it is not lived. imagination to picture the lives of these rude and ancient men. for many relics of them are found which may be seen left
once
and handled in museums. It has now to be considered what sort of evidence of man's age is thus to be had from archceology and geology, and what it proves. When an antiquary examines the objects dug up m any what
place, he can generally judge in its
inhabitants have been.
Thus
if
state of civilization
there are found
weapons
of bronze or iron, bits of fine pottery, bones of domestic cattle,
charred corn and scraps of cloth, this
proof that people lived there in a
civilized,
would be
or at least a
If there are only rude implements no metal, no earthenware, no but and bone, of stone remains to show that the land was tilled or catde kept, this would be evidence that the country had been inhabited by some savage tribe. One of the chief questions to be asked about the condition of any people is, whether they have
high barbaric condition.
metal
in
be said
use for their tools and weapons. to
be
or iron, but
in
make
the metal age. dieir hatchets,
If they
If so, they
may
have no copper
knives, spear-heads,
and
other cutting and piercing instruments of stone, they are
Wherever such stone implements are picked up, as they often are in our own ploughed fields, they prove that stone-age men have once dwelt in the
said to be in the stone age.
ANTHROPOLOGY.
26 land.
It
an in.portant
is
lact that in
[chap, every region of the
inhabited world ancient stone implements are thus found in at some time the inhabitants were modern savages. In countries where
showing that
the ground,
in this respect like the
the people have long been metal workers, they have often lost
memory
all
of what these stone things are, and
account for their being met with
stories to
One
digging.
favourite notion, in
tell fancitul
ploughing or
in
England and elsewhere,
is
that the stone hatchets are "thunderbolts" fallen from the
sky with the lightning
flash.
has been imagined that in
It
some
the East, the seat of the most ancient civilizations,
might be found without any traces
district
man
of
having
lived there in a state of early rudeness, so that in this part
of the world he might have been civilized from the
But
it
lands,
is
not
In Assyria, Palestine, Egypt, as
so.
one may
iii
here also tribes
d sharp-chipped
in
flints
first.
in other
which show that
the stone age once lived, before the
use of metal brought in higher civilization.
Whether
it
may be
considered or not that Europe was a
quarter of the globe inhabited by the earliest tribes of men, it
so happens that remains found in Europe furnish at pre-
sent
the
To
best proofs of man's antiquity.
understand
must be explained that the stone age had an earlier and a later period, as may be plainly seen in looking these,
at a
it
good
collection of stone
implements.
Fig.
tended to give some idea of those in use in the age.
The
hatchet
as
is
also
the hammer-head.
spear and arrows, scraper, and flake-knife
much much
skill.
On
like those
been using
to our
is
in-
neatly shaped and edged by rubbing
is
oil a grinding-stone,
been waste of labour
i
later stone
to grind, but they are
the whole, these
it
The
would have
chipped out with
stone implements are
which the North American Indians have
own
day.
The
question
is.
how long ago
MAN, ANCIENT AND MODERN.
I-l
who made such
tribes
Europe.
As
implements were Using
stone
in
we may fairly judge from the position found in Denmark, The forests of that
to this,
which they are country are mainly of beeches, but in
in
tlie
peat-mosses
lie
innumerable trunks of oaks, which show that at an earlier period oak forests jjrevailcd, and deeper still there lie trunks of pine trees, which show that there were pine-forests older than the oak forests. successive
•
is
(neolithic) implements,
1.— Later Stone Age
iiear-head
tlin.-tlakes
as
beech,
the
the
oak,
and
the
the depth of the peat-mosses, which in places
and
pine,
Fig.
forest-periods,
still
Thus there have been three
:
c.
.'cr.npcr
taken oil
;
;
d.
.->.rr
s, fl.utaw
w-heads; 1 ;
h,
fl.iit
;
b. flint a. Ft ne celt or hatchet flake kn ves /. core tVom wii.ch .
e, flint
saw
i,
.
stone haiumcr-h-ad.
as thirty feet, shows that the period of the pine was thousands of years ago. While the forests have
much
trees
been changing, the condition of the people living among them has changed also. The modern woodman cuts down the beech trees with his iron axe, but
among
tlie
oak trunks
in the peat are found bronze swords and shield-bosses, which show that the inhabitants of the country were then in the
bronze age, and it
lay
that
lastly,
a
flint
hatchet taken out from where
lower in the peat beneath the pine trvmks, proves stone age men in Denmark lived in the pine forest still
ANTHRCPOLCGY.
qS
which
period,
carries
them back
England, the tribes who have
were
to
left
[chap. liiyh
In
antiquity.
such stone implements
the land before the invasion of that Keltic race
in
whom we
call the ancient Britons, and who no doubt came armed with weapons of metal. The stone hatchet-blades and arrow-heads of the older population lie scattered over our country, hill and dale, moor and fen, near the
surface of
the
ground, or deeper underground in peat-
mosses, or beds of
began
at a
mud and
Such bogs or mud-flats But accustomed to vaster periods of silt.
date which chronologists would call ancient.
they are what geologists,
They belong
time, consider modern. deposits, that
is,
to the
newer
alluvial
they were formed within the times
when
the lay of the land and the flow of the streams were mucli
To
as they are now.
down from a notice how its flat
look
right across,
get an idea of this, one has only to
a wide valley below, and
hillside into
flooring
of
must have been
mud and
laid
sand, stretching
down by
flood-waters
much their present course along the main stream and down the side slopes. The people of the following very
newer stone age, whose implements are seen
in
Fig.
lived within this historically ancient, but geologically
i,
mod-
ern period, and relics of them are found only in places where man or nature could then have placed them. But there had been a still earlier period of the stone age,
when when
yet ruder tribes of
the climate
different
lived in our parts of the world,
face of the country were strangely
from the present state of
river valleys
Somnic,
men
and the
in
things.
On
the slopes of
such as that of the Ouse, in England, and the France, 50 or 100 feet above the present river-
banks, and thus altogether out of the reach of any flood
now, there are beds of so-called drift gravel. Out of these beds have been dug numerous rude implements of flint,
MAN, ANCIENT AND MODERN.
I]
men who had gained no mean dexterity in the art, as any one will find who will try his hand at making one, with any tools he thinks fit. The most remarkable implements of this earlier stone age The coarseness are the picks or hatchets shown in Fig. 2. of their finish, and the absence of any signs of grinding even at the edges of hacking or cutting instruments, show that the makers had not come nearly to the skill of the later chipped into shape by the hands of
Fig.
2.
Stone age.
— Earlier Stone Age (palaeolithic) It is
flint
picks or hatchets.
usual to distinguish the two kinds of im-
plements, and the periods they belong
introduced by Sir that
is
J.
Lubbock,
to,
by the terms
and neolithic, Looking now at the
palaeolithic
"old-stone " and " new-stone."
high gravel-beds inwhich palaeolithic implements such as those
shown
in Fig. 2 occur,
it is
evident from their position that
they had nothing to do with the water-action which laying
down and
bottom of the
shifting
valleys,
sand-banks and mud-flats
is
now
at the
nor with the present rain-wash which
scours the surface of the hillsides.
They must have been
deposited in a former period when the condition of land 4
ANTHROPOLOGY.
30
[cHAP.
and water was
different
from what
state of things
was due
to the valleys not
it is
How
now.
far this
being yet cut out
to near their present depth, to the wliole country lying lower
above the
sea-level, or to the rivers
at present
from the heavier
would be
raising too intricate geological questions to dis-
Geology shows the old
cuss here.
times
was
when
of a pluvial period,
drift-gravels to
the glacial or icy period with
passing,
its
it is
flint
known what animals
it
belong to
arctic climate
or had passed away, in Europe.
bones and teeth found with the gravel-beds,
being vastly larger than
rainfall
From
implements
the
the
in
inhabited the land at
same time with the men of the old stone age. The or huge woolly elephant, and several kinds of rhinoceros, also extinct, browsed on the branches of the forest trees, and a species of hippopotamus much the
mammoth,
like
that
at
present living frequented the
musk-ox and the in this
rivers.
The
grizzly bear,
which England harboured
may
be hunted in the Rocky
remote period,
still
Alountains, but the ancient cave-bear, which was one of the dangerous wild beasts of our land, the face of the
earth.
breed than those
now
in
The
is
no longer on
was of a laiger and perhaps than
British lion
Asia and Africa,
those which Herodotus mentions as prowling in Macedonia in the fifth century B.C.,
army.
To
and
falling
on the camels of Xerxes'
judge by such signs as the presence of the rein-
and the mammoth with its hairy coat, the climate of Europe was severer than now, perhaps like that of Siberia. How long man had been in the land there is no clear eviFor all we know, he may have lasted on from an dence. earlier and more genial period, or he may have only lately migrated into Europe from some warmer region. Implements like his are not unknown in Asia, as where in deer,
Southern
India,
above Madras, there
lies at
the
foot
of
MAN, ANCIENT AND MODERN.
I]
31
the Eastern Ghats a terrace of irony clay or laterite, containing stone implements of very similar make to those of
the drift-men in Europe.
mammoth-period resorted clifls, and to caverns such as Kent's Hole near Torquay, where the implements of the men and the bones of the beasts are
These European savages of
the
to shelter at the foot of overhanging
much
found together
in
abundance.
In Central France especially,
the examination of such bone-caves has brought to light evidence of the whole way of life of a group of ancient
Fig.
3.
tribes.
— Sketch of maiii The
ve of
La Madeleine
reindeer whicli have
now
(Lartet and Christy).
retreated
to
high
northern latitudes, were then plentiful in France, as appears from their bones and antlers imbedded with remains of the
mammoth under
the
stalagmite
floors
of
the caves
of
them are found rude stone hatchets and scrapers, pounding-stones, bone spear-heads, awls, arrowstraighteners, and other objects belonging to a life like that of the modern Esquimaux who hunt the reindeer on the Like the Esquimaux also, these coasts of Hudson's Bay. Perigord.
early
\Vith
French and Swiss savages spent
their leisure time in
carving figures of animals. Among many in the French caves is a mammoth, Fig.
such figures found 3,
scratched on a
ANTHROPOLOGY.
32
piece of
own
Its
[chap.
ivory, so as to touch off neatly the shaggy
and huge curved tusks which distinguish the mammoth from other species of elephant. There has been also found a rude representation of a man, Fig. 4, grouped with two this is interesting as horses' heads and a snake or eel being the most ancient human portrait known. Thus it appears that man of the older stone age was already living when the floods went as high above our
hair
;
present valley-flats as the tops of the high trees growing there
now
reach,
and when the climate was of mammoth and the
kind suited to the woolly
Fig.
4.
— Sketch of man
that
Lapland
reindeer,
and
and horses from cave (Lartet and Chrisly).
now From
the rest of the un-English looking group of animals
perished out of this region, or extinct altogether. all
that
is
known
of the slowness with which such altera-
anywhere in the lie of the land, the and the wild animals, we cannot suppose changes so vast to have happened without a long lapse of time before the newer stone age came in, when the streams had settled down to near their present levels, and the climate and the wild creatures had become much as they were within the
tions
place
take
climate,
also plain from the actual remains
historical period.
It
found, that these
most ancient known
hunters and It is best,
men, as
fishers,
is
such as
tribes
we should now
were wild
class as savages.
however, not to apply to them the term primitive
this
might be understood to mean that they were
MAX, ANCIENT AND MODERN.
I.]
33
men who appeared on earth, or at least like them. The life the men of the mammoth-period must have the
first
led
at
Abbeville
reasons against stone-age
men
Torcjuay,
or
shows on the face of it These old life.
being man's primitive
its
are
more
have been tribes whose
likely to
ancestors while living under a milder climate gained
rude
some
the arts of procuring food and defending them-
skill in
selves, so that afterwards they
to hold their
own against
were able by a hard struggle
the harsh weather and fierce beasts
of the quaternary period.
How
long ago this period was, no certain knowledge
yet to be
had.
Some
is
geologists have suggested twenty
thousand years, while others say a hundred thousand or more, but these are guesses made where there is no scale to reckon time by.
It is safest to
be content
at present to
regard it as a geological period lying back out of the range of chronology. It is thought by several eminent geologists that stones
shaped by man, and therefore proving his prein England and France in beds deposited
sence, occur
before the last glacial period,
when much of
the continent
submerged under an icy sea, where drifting icebergs dropped on what is now dry land their huge boulders of rock transported from distant mountains. This cannot be lay
taken as proved, but
if
true
our estimate of man's age.
would immensely increase At any rate the conclusive
it
mam-
proofs of man's existence during the quaternary or
moth period do not even bring us into \iew of the remoter Thus geology time when human life first began on earth. establishes a principle which lies at the ^•ery foundation of
the science of anthropology. to
Until of
late,
while
it
used
be reckoned by chronologists that the earth and man
were
less
than 6,000 years old, the science of geology could
hardly exist, there being no
room
for its
long processes of
ANTHROPOLOGY.
34
up the
building
strata containing the
'
remains of
successions of plants and animals. These are for
[chap. its
i.
vast
now accounted
on the theory that geological time extends over millions
of years. little
It is true that
way
into this
man
reaches back comparatively
immense
lapse of time.
Yet
his first
appearance on earth goes back to an age compared with
which the ancients, as
Ave call
them, are but moderns.
The
few thousand years of recorded history only take us back to a prehistoric period of untold length, during
which took
place the primary distribution of mankind over the earth
and the development of the great races, the formation of speech and the settlement of the great families of language, and the growth of culture up to the levels of the old world nations of the East, the forerunners and founders of modern civilized
life.
Having now sketched what history, archeology, and geology teach as to man's age and course on the earth, we shall proceed in the following chapters to describe more fully
Man and
his
varieties
as
they appear
in
natural
history, next examining the nature and growth of Language,
and afterwards the development of the knowledge, institutions, which make up Civilization.
arts,
and
CHAPTER
II.
MAN AND OTHER Vertebrate Animals,
To and
—
and Descent of Species, 37 Apes Hands and Feet, 42— Hair, Mind in Lower Animals and Man, 47.
35— Succession
and Man, comparison of 44
ANIMALS.
structure, 38
— Features, 44 — Brain, 45 —
—
understand rightly the construction of the human bod\-, to compare our own Umbs and organs with those of other
animals, requires a thorough knowledge of anatomy and
physiology.
of
abstract
It will
not be attempted here to draw up an
these
sciences,
for
which such
handbooks
should be studied as Huxley's Elementary Physiology and But it will be useful to Mivart's Elementary Anatomy. give a slight outline of the evidence as to man's place in the animal world, which special
knowledge
may be done
without requiring
in the reader.
That the bodies of other animals more or less correspond structure to our own is one of the lessons we begin Boys playing at horses, one on to learn in the nursery. all-fours and the other astride on his back, have already some notion how the imagined horse matches a real one as to head, eyes, and ears, mouth and teeth, back and
in
one questions a country lad sitting on a stile watching the hunters go by, he knows well enough that the huntsman and his horse, the hounds and the hare they
legs.
If
ANTHRCPOLCGY.
36
[char
up on the same kind life is carried on by means of similar organs, bangs to breathe with, a stomach to digest the food taken in by the mouth and gullet, a are chasing, are
creatures built
all
of bony scaftblding or skeleton, that their
heart to drive the blood through the vessels, while the eyes, ears,
and
them
receive in
nostrils
all
peasant has taken
all
ever reflecting on
it,
this
it
Avould have set any intelligent
the
tie
A^ery likely the
a matter of course without
and even more educated people are
Had
apt to do the same.
as
manner the
in like
impressions of sight, hearing, and smell.
come mind
as a
new
discovery,
or connexion between creatures thus formed as
were on one
original pattern, only varied in different
for different
ends.
The
scientific
it
thinking what must be it
modes
comparison of animals,
most elementary way, does at once In some cases, bring this great problem before our minds,. more exact knowledge shows that the first rough comparison For instance, of man and beast may want correction. when a man's skeleton and a horse's are set side by side, even when made
it
becomes
answer, as
in the
plain that is
the horse's knee
and hock do not
popularly supposed, to our elbow and knee,
but to our wrist and ankle.
The examination
of the man's
limb and the horse's leads to a further and remarkable conclusion, that the horse's fore- and hind leg really cor
respond to a man's arm and leg in which all the fingers and toes should have become useless and shrunk away, except
one
finger
and one
toe,
which are
with the nail become a hoof.
The
left
to
be walked upon,
general law to be learnt
from the series of skeletons in a natural history museum, is that throughorderafter order of fishes, reptiles, birds, beasts, up to man himself, a common type or pattern may be traced; belonging to is
all
animals which are vertebrate, that
which have a backbone.
Limbs may
still
be recognised
;
MAN AND OTHER ANIMALS.
II.]
57
though their shape and service have changed, and though they may even have dwindled into remnants, as if left not Thus, althougii a for use, but to keep up the old model. perch's skeleton
and ventral
so
ditifers
fins still
mostly limbless, yet
are
much from
there are forms
them with the quadrupeds,
its
pectoral
legs.
Snakes
which
connect
as for instance, the boa-con-
skeleton shows a pair of rudimentary hind-legs.
strictor's
The Greenland whale its
a man's,
correspond to arms and
no
has
hind-limbs,
visible
fore-limbs are paddles or flippers, yet
when
and
dissected,
the skeleton shows not only remnants of what in man would be the leg-bones, but the flipper actually has within belong to the human arm and it the set of bones which
hand.
It is
man
popularly considered that
is
especially
distinguished from the lower animals by not having a yet the
tail
is
be seen
plainly to
represented by the All these are
last
now
the
evidently related to them.
was
tail
skeleton,
But geology shows
living.
earth'-^has
been inhabited by
those at present existing, and yet
species different from
distinguished
human
tapering vertebras of the spine.
animals
that in long-past ages
in the
In the tertiary period, Australia
now by
as
its
marsupial
or pouched
animals, but these were not of any present species, and
even the
kangaroo now to be
mostly
far
seen
a puny creature in comparison with the enormous
is
larger;
extinct diprotodon,
whose
tallest
skull
was three
feet long.
So
South America there lived huge edentate animals, now poorly represented by the sloths, anteaters and arma-
in
dillos,
to
be seen
in
our Zoological Gardens.
Elephants
miocene deposits, but the species in Africa and India now. These those from were all different are common examples of the great principle now received by all zoologists, that from remote geological antiquity are found fossil in the
ANTHRCPOLCGY.
38
[chap.
new
there have from time to time appeared on earth
of animals, so far similar to those which if
conditions of
life,
them
fit
new
the earlier forms then tending to die out
This relation between the older species of
and disappear.
vertebrate animals is
Many
diEpute.
species
before
the old types had been altered to
as to look as
planted them,
came
and the newer species which have sup-
a matter of actual observation, and beyond zoologists,
now perhaps
the majority, go a
step farther than this, not only acknowledging that there
is
a relation between the new species and the old, but seeking to explain
now
by the hypothesis of descent or development,
it
called,
from
Darwinian theory.
The
often
animals being an admitted tion under
its
modern expounder, the
great
formation of breeds or varieties of fact,
it
is
changed conditions of
argued that natural varia-
life
can go
enough
far
to
produce new species, which by better adaptation to climate
and circumstances may supplant the
old.
On
this theory,
the present kangaroos of Australia, sloths of South America,
and elephants of
India, are not only the successors but the
actual descendants of extinct ones, tertiary horse-like
feet
and the
animals with three-toed
fossil
bones of
and four toed
show what the remote ancestors of our horses were
like, in
ages before the unused toes dwindled to the splint-
bones which represent them
in the horse's leg
cording to the doctrine of descent,
when
Ac-
now.
several species of
animals living at the same time show close resemblance in structure,
it is
inherited by
inferred that this resemblance
all
from one ancestral species.
must have been
Now
of
all
the
mammalia, or animals which suckle their young, those whose structure brings them closest to man are the apes or
monkeys, and among these the catarhine or nearapes of the Old World, and among these the
nostrillcd
group calljd anthropoid or manlike, which inhabit tropical
II.J
MAN AND OTHER ANIMALS.
39
ANTHROPOLOGY.
40 forests
[chap.
By now
frcm Africa to the Eastern Archipelago.
comparing
their skel^^tons,
it
will
be seen that
animals must be
of nature or scheme of creation these
No
placed in somewhat close relation to man.
anatomist
who
apes considers
competent
has examined the bodily structure of these it
possible that
any of them, but according
man
whence man
can be descended from
to the doctrine of descent they
appear as the nearest existing primitive stock
any scale
in
oftshoots
from
same
the
also came.
Professor Huxley's Alan's Place in Nature, in which this
made, contains a celebrated draw5 as the readiest means of showing how the anthropoid apes correspond bone for bone with ourselves. At the same time it illustrates some main points
anatomical comparison ing which
is
is
copied in Fig.
It has been on him the dignity of man when he leaves off going on all-fours. But in fact, standing and walking upright is not a mere matter of training of the human body being it belongs to the arrangement The limbs of the dog different from that of quadrupeds. or cow are so proportioned as to bring them down on allin
which
their bodily actions are unlike ours.
said that the child
first
takes
;
f vurs,
and
this is to
a
less
degree the case with the apes,
while the head and trunk of the growing child are lifted
toward the erect attitude by the disproportionate growth of
Though man's standing
the lower limbs.
continued muscular balance t'on.
It
more
effort,
he
is
readily than other
may be
noticed
upright requires
so built as to keep his
animals
from the
the opening at the base of the skull
figure
in
posi-
this
how
(occipital
in
man
foramen)
through which the spinal cord passes up into the brain, is
farther to the front than in the apes, so that
instead of pitching forward, alias vertebra (so
is
balanced on the
his toj)
skull,
of the
called from y\tlas sujijiorting the globe).
MAN AND OTHER ANIMALS.
II.]
The
shows also the S-hke curvature of man's spine,
figure
and how the bony for his intestines as
pelvis or basin forms a
he stands upright,
in
broad support
which attitude the
bases enabling the legs to carry the trunk.
serve as
feet
Thus
41
the erect posture, only imitated with difficult effort
by the showman's performing animals, unconstrained.
Not through
to
is
man
differences
great
easy and
of struc-
ture, but by adjustments of bones and muscles, the foreand hind- limbs of quadrupeds work in accord, while m man, whose muscular adaptation is for going on his legs, there is no such reciprocal action between the legs and arms. Of- the monkey tribes, many walk fairly on allfours as quadrupeds, with legs bent, arms straightened But the forward, soles and palms touching the ground.
higher man-like apes are adapted by their structure for a
climbing
life
among
the trees, whose branches they grasp
When
with feet and hands.
the orang-utan takes to the
ground he shambles clumsily along, generally putting down the outer edge of the feet and the bent knuckles of the
The orang and gorilla have the curious habit of on their bent fists, so as to draw their bodies forward between their long arms, like a crii)ijle between his crutches. hands.
resting
The
nearest approach that apes naturally
attitude,
is
where the gibbon
touching the ground with
its
will
make
to the erect
go along on
knuckles
first
on one
then on the other, or will run some distance with
its
side its
feet,
and arms
to keep the balance, or when the and rush forward to attack. All these modes of locomotion may be understood from the
thrown back above gorilla will rise
on
its
its
head
legs
skeletons in the figure.
The apes
thus present interesting
intermediate stages between quadruped and biped. But only
man his
is
so formed that, using his feet to carry him, he has
hands
free for their special work.
ANTHROPOLOGY.
42
In comparing set
down
noticing
man
[chap.
with the lower animals,
it
wrong
is
to
pre-eminence entirely to his mind, without
his
the
superiority
practical arts.
If
of his
one looks
the Fox," where the
artist
limbs
instruments
as
at the illustrations to "
for
Reynard
does his best to represent the
lion holding a sceptre, the she-wolf flirting a fan, or the fox
writing a letter
;
what he
shows
really
how
is,
ill
adapted the
limbs of quadrupeds are to such actions. Man's being the " tool-using animal " is due to his having hands to use the well as
tool as
mind
to invent
it ;
and only the
.6 Fig.
6.
—a, hand,
i, foot,
c
of chlmpanzse (af.er Vogt)
most nearly approaching man
in
apes, as
^ ;
c,
their
hand, d,
foot, of
limbs,
can
man.
fairly
imitate the use of such instruments as a' spoon or a knife.
In Fig. 6 the hand and foot of the chimpanzee may be compared with those of man. Here the ape's foot b, looks
many naturalists have classed the higher name of four-handed animals, or quadrumana.
so like a hand, that
apes under the
In anatomical structure grasping
foot,
it is
a foot, but
it
is
a i)rehensile or
able to clip or pinch an object by setting the
human among people who go
great toe thumb-wise against the others, which the foot
cannot do.
It is true
barefoot the great toe
is
that
not quite so helpless as that of a
MAN AND OTHER ANIMALS.
II.]
With the naked
boot-wearing European.
43
foot the savage
and the Hindu tailor holds his The above drawing is i)urposely cloth as he squats sewing. taken, not from the free foot of the savage, but from the AustraUan picks up
cramped by the stiff leather boot, because utmost way the contrast between ape and In the ape, it is seen that both the hands and feet
European
foot
shows
this
his spear,
i-nan.
in the
gain their suitability for a tree-climbing
tipper
and lower extremities have become
specialised in two opposite ways, the
a stepping-machine with foot, while the
But man's
walking on the ground.
for
suitability
their
at the loss of
life
less
differentiated or
human
foot
becoming
grasping-power than the ape-
human hand comes
to excel the
ape-hand as
and handling. The figure c shows the longer and freely-acting thumb and the wider flexible palm in man, the sensitive cushions at our fingerIt is most ends also giving us greater delicacy of touch. a.
special organ for feeling, holding,
instructive
Gardens low
to
kinds.
monkey-house
the
visit
for the
at
the
Zoological
purpose of comparing hands of high and
The hand
claw-nailed digits,
is
of the
a mere
marmoset with
grasping
its
five
instrument hardly
Other low monkeys have the thumbs opposable, that is, their ends do not
capable of handling.
small and not meet those of the other
fingers,
whereas the thumbs
ot the
higher apes are (as the figure shows) opposable like ours.
How
far the value
depends on
of the hand as a mechanical instrument
this opposability,
any one may
satisfy
himself
by using his hand with the tliumb stiff. It is plain that man's hand, enabling him to sliape and wield weapons and tools to subdue nature to his own ends, is one cause of his standing first it is
in
among
animals.
true, that his intellectual
no
srtiall
It is
not so obvious, but
development must have been
degree gained by the use of his hands.
From
ANTHROPOLCGY.
44
[chap.
handling objects, putting them in different positions, and
them
setting
kinds
by
side
he was
side,
of comparing and
led to those simplest
measuring which are the
first
elements of exact knowledge, or science. Outwardly, the shaggy hair of the apes contrasts with the
comparative nakedness of the
human
skin.
In
man
as in
lower animals, the thatch of hair indeed forms an effective to the head.
shelter
mouth
in the adult
The
hairy fringe round the
human
male has in some races a strong growth,
European or the native of Australia. But in and the so-called American face-hair looks as though it had dwindled scanty Indian, the Looked at in this to the mere remnant of a fuller growth. way, the hairy patches on the Englishman's breast and Umbs, though practically of no importance, are an object of curious as in the
others, as the African negro
interest
to
the naturalists
the remote period
who
when man's
consider them relics
from
had a
fuller
ancestral stock
is now supplied by artificial and climate. It is interesting to notice that there are some few human beings to be met with, whose faces and bodies are largely covered with long shaggy hair. Such a face-covering hides the play of feature— that expressive means of intercourse between mind and mind. Had the skeletons of apes and
hairy
shelter
covering, suited
whose want
to season
man in our figure been clothed with flesh, we should have seen plainly the signs of man's higher organisation in the flexible versatile features, in whose are symbolised the pleasures
of every phase of
human
life.
and
movements and folds and hates, coarse and clumsy are
pains, the loves
How
the corresponding changes of face in the monkey-tribes,
such as the drawing back of the corners of the mouth and wrinkling of the lower eyelid which constitute an ape's smile, or the
rise
and
fall
of the baboon's eyebrows and
MAN AND OTHER ANIMALS.
II.]
The
forehead in anger.
visitor
45
from some other planet, so
coming to our earth and forming his he sees, might well discern in the what judgments by ditference between man's face and the gorilla's muzzle often imagined as
some measure of
The
brain
the discrepancy within.
being the
anatomists comparing for
instrument
organ
or
the brains of animals
well-marked distinctions between the
less
of
mind,
have looked
and the more
In the natural order of Primates, to which
intelligent.
man
belongs with the monkeys and lemurs, the series of brains
shows a
remar'.:able
rise
or
The lemur
higher forms.
development
from lower to
has a small and comparatively
smooth brain, whereas the high anthropoid apes have brains which strikingly approach man s. In fact the lemur has very little mind in comparison with the sagacious and teachable chimpanzee or orang-utan. But man's reason so vastly surpasses that of the highest apes, that naturalists
have wondered is
illustrated
at the likeness of their brain to ours,
in
the accompanying
Fig.
7,
which
representing
man b, whole on show the convolutions, and cut across on the right to expose the interior. To compare their structure the two brains are drawn of the same size, but in fact the chimpanzee brain is much smaller than the human. It is one great ditference between man and the anthropoid apes, that his brain exceeds theirs in quantity; in a rough way It is seen also he has three pounds of brain to their one. the brain of the chimpanzee a, and of the
left
to
that in the ape-brain the lobes or hemispheres have fewer
and simpler windings than the more complex convolutions of the human brain, which in genc^al outline they resemble.
Now
both
size
and complexity mean mind-power.
lobes of the brain consist within of the
with
its
innumerable 5
fibres
The
"white matter"
carrying nerve currents, while
45
ANTHROPOLOGY.
[chap.
t^'^Z'^T^
O
>!
c5^
MAX AND OTHER ANIMALS.
II.J
the outer coating
is
47
formed of the "grey matter," contain-
ing the brain-corpuscles or cells from which the fibres issue,
and which are centres through which the combinations are made which we are conscious of as thoughts. As the of grey matter follows the foldings of the brain
coating
down
into
the fissures,
complexity of actual
size
the
it
is
evident
convolutions,
of brain, furnishes
the
that
increased
combined with
man
greater
with a vastly more
extensive and intricate thinking-apparatus than the animals
him in the order of nature. Having looked at some of the important differences between the bodies of man and lower animals, we may venture to ask the still harder question, How far do their minds work like ours ? No full answer can be given, yet To there are some well ascertained points to judge by.
nearest below
begin,
and
it
is
action,
clear that
the simple processes of sense,
are carried
machinery as
in other
in
man by
the
is
well illustrated
b}'
will,
same bodily
high vertebrate animals.
their organs of sense are,
who
on
How
like
the anatomist
dissects a bullock's eye as a substitute for a man's, to
show how the
picture of the outer world
is
thrown by the
lenses on the retina or screen, into which spread the endfibres of the optic ner\-e leading into the
what the touch, of animals have
sight,
and other senses
brain.
Not but
in the various orders
their special differences, as
where the
eagle's
eyes are focussed to see small objects far beyond man's range, while the horse's eyes are so set in his head that
they do not converge like ours, and he must practically
have two pictures of the two sides of the road to deal with.
Such
resemblance in beast
and
special differences, however, all
the
more
striking.
make
the general
Next, the nervous system
and man shows the same common
plan, the brain
spinal cord forming a central nervous organ, to
which
ANTHROPOLOGY.
43
[chap.
the sensory nerves convey the messages of the senses, and from which the motor nerves carry the currents causing
muscular contraction and movement. The involuntary acts of animals are like our own, as when the sleeping dog draws his leg back if it is touched, much as his master would do,
and when awake, both man and beast wink when a finger If we go on to voluntary pretends to strike at their eyes. actions, done with conscious will and thought, the lower creatures can for some distance keep company with manAt the Zoological Gardens one may sometimes see kind. a handful of nuts divided between the monkeys inside the bars and the children outside, and
it is
how
same
nearly both go through the
instructive to notice set
of movements,
looking, approaching, elbowing, grasping, cracking, ing, swallowing,
this level, the
holding out their hands for more.
monkeys show
that their bodily likeness
know
that in the
all
munch-
Up
the mental likeness to
would lead us
to expect.
to
man
Now we
scramble, there passes in the children's
minds a great deal besides the mere sight and feel of Between the the nuts, and the will to take and eat them. sensation and action there takes place thought. To describe renew the it simply, the boy knows a nut by sight, wishes to and hands his pleasant taste of former nuts, and directs complicated are here But mouth to grasp, crack, and eat. mental processes.
Knowing
a nut by sight, or having an idea
of a nut, means that there are grouped together in the child's mind memories of a number of past sensations, which have so
become connected by experience
that a particular
form
and weight, lead to the expectation of a and colour, Of what here takes place in the boy's flavour. particular mind we can judge, though by no means clearly, from what wc know about our own thoughts and what others have told What takes place in the monkeys' minds us about theirs. feel
MAN AND OTHER ANIMALS.
II.]
49
we can only guess by watching their actions, but these are human as to be most readily explained by con-
so like the
sidering their brain-work also to be like the
human, though seems as though a beast's idea or thought of an object may be, as our own, a group of remembered sensations compacted into a whole. What makes less clear
this the
and
perfect.
more
It
likely is that
when
part of
the sensations
present themselves, the animal seems to judge that the rest
much as we ourselves are so apt to do. jump upon a scum-covered stream which it takes for dry land, or when offered a sham biscuit will come for it, turning away when smell and taste prove that the rest must be there
Thus a dog
also,
will
of the idea does not agree with what sight suggested. In
much
the same way,
all
people
who
attend to the
proceedings of animals, account for them by faculties more
Not only do
or less like their own.
creatures of
high
all
unmistakable signs of pleasure and pain, but
orders give
our dealings with the brutes go on the ground of their sharing with us such tion, anger, nay,
more complex emotions
as fear, afitec-
even curiosity, jealousy, and revenge.
Some
of these show themselves in bodily symi)toms which are quite
human,
as every
one must admit who has
felt
the
trembling limbs and throbbing heart of a frightened puppy,
looked at the picture in Darwin's Expression of iJtc Emotions of the chimpanzee who has had liis fruit taken or
from him, and displays his sulkiness by a pout which caricature of a child's.
well-marked
will,
which
like
man's
is
calling a
a
not simply wish, but
the resultant or balance of wishes, so that
two people
is
Again, the lower animals show a
dog
different ways, or
bones, to distract his will in a
way
it
is
possible for
both offering him
that reminds us of the
philosopher's imaginary ass that died of starvation between its
hay and
its
water.
As
to the
power of memory
in brutes,
AxNTHROPOLCGY.
50
[chap
had opportunities of noticing how lasting and the animals remember may be explained simply by their ideas becoming associated through habit, as when the horse betrays its former owner's ways by
we have exact
all
Some things which
it is.
stopping at every public-house
;
this
may
the familiar door suggests to the beast the
and he
is
of ideas from the storehouse of
are passing before his consciousness,
A memory
dreams.
possible,
that rest,
But to watch a dog dreaming makes us
stops.
think that whole trains
memory
only mean memory of
is
as
our
in
which such a revival cf the past
in
a source of experience whence to extract
understanding of the present, and foresight of the future.
To make trolling
memory
the
what
man, and
the great intellectual faculty in
is
simple and elementary forms
in
among lower
view
of what has been, the means of con-
shall be,
numerable animal
creatures. stories
To
tell
it
comes
into
but one of the
which show expectation
in-
and
A certain Mr. Cops, who had a young orang-utan, one day gave it half an orange, put the other half away out of its sight on a high press,
design founded on experience.
and
lay
down himself on
attracting his attention,
came
the creature
the sofa, but the ape's
movements
he only pretended to go to sleep
;
cautiously and satisfied himself of his
master being asleep, then clim.bed up the press, ate the rest of the orange, carefully hid the peel
among some
shavings
examined the pretended sleeper again, and then went to lie down on his own bed. Such behaviour is only to be explained by a train of thought involving something of what in ourselves we call reason. To measure the differences between beast and man is
in the grate,
plain
more mark
he
less
really
is
difficult
of the
One
than tracing their resemblances. higher intellectual rank of
dependent on
instinct
man
is
that
than the animals which
MAN AND OTHER ANIMALS.
II.]
51
migrate at a fixed season, or build nests of a fixed and Man has some complicated pattern peculiar to their kind. instincts
with
plainly agreeing
those of inferior animals,
such as the child's untaught movements to ward off danger,
which preserves the offspring But if man during the first defenceless period of life. wandering off set longing to resistless were possessed by a
and the parental
affection
southward before winter, or to build a shelter of boughs would be less beneficial to his
laid in a particular way, this
species than the use of intelligent
actions to climate, supply
judgment adapting
his
of food, danger from enemies,
and a multitude of circumstances differing from district to and changing from year to year. If man's remote progenitors had instincts like the beavers' implanted in the
district,
very structure of their brain, these instincts have long ago fallen away, displaced
by
freer
and higher reason.
Man's
power of accommodating himself to the world he lives
in,
due to his faculty of and even of controlling gaining new knowledge. Yet it must not be overlooked that this faculty is in a less measure possessed by other animals. it,
We may which
is
by
largely
catch them in the act of learning by experience, indeed one of the most curious sights in natural telegraph-wires are set up in a new district, second year partridges no longer kill themselves against them, or where in Canada the wily marten
history, as
and
is
when
after the
flying
baffles the trapper's ingenuity, finding out
away, even from a
The in
faculty of learning by imitation
an almost
kept the
new kind
of trap,
human
way.
lately in the Zoological
how
to get the bait
without letting
comes out
it
fall.
in the apes
The anthropoid ape Mafuka, Gardens at Dresden, saw how
door of her cage was unlocked, and not only did it but even stole the key and hid it under her arm
herself,
for
future
use
;
after
watching the carpenter she scired
ANTHROPOLOGY.
53 his
bradawl and bored holes with
she had her meals on
own cup from
;
at her
througli the
it
carefully stopped pouring before
filled
her
more remarkable, she
is
it
table
little
meals she not only
but, what
the jug,
[chap.
The death of
ran over.
ape had an almost human pathos; when her friend the director of the gardens came to her, she put her arms round his neck, kissed him three times, and then lay down this
on her bed and giving him her hand
One
fell
into her last sleep.
cannot but think that creatures so sagacious must learn
in their wild state.
Indeed
less clever
animals seem to some
extent to teach their young, birds to sing, wolves to hunt,
although
it is
most
difficult for naturalists in
judge what comes by instinct and what
is
Philosophers have tried to draw a
Human
is
hard and
The most
between the animal and human mind. of these attempts
such cases to
consciously learnt. fast
line
celebrated
Locke's, where in his Essay concerning
Understanding he lays
it
down
that beasts indeed
have ideas, but are without man's faculty of forming abNow it is true that we have learnt stract or general ideas. to reason with abstract ideas, such as solidity
and
quantity and quality, vegetable and animal,
courage and
cowardice
;
and
that there
is
fluidity,
not the least reason to suppose
that such abstractions are formed
by dogs or
But
apes.
though the faculty of thus abstracting and generalising
is
one which rises to the highest flights of philosophic thought, begins in easy mental it nmst be borne in mind that it Abstraction is acts which seem quite possible to animals. noticing what several thoughts have in common, and negthus a general idea is obtained by lecting their differences ;
not attending too closely to particulars.
of this
is
when only one
in Locke's
sense at a time
The is
example of the idea of whitenoss,
which chalk, snow, and milk, agree
in.
simplest form
attended
to,
as
as being that
Cut, to judge
by
MAN AND
11.]
OTPIER ANIMALS.
53
animals' actions, they also will attend to one sense
at
time, as where a bull
And
most interesting
is
it
object with practically
expecting
is
to
by anything
excited
to
it
behave
a
watch animals comparing a new
their recollections or ideas of
recognising in
red.
it
what
is
ones,
prcvioi'.s
already familiar, and
like other individuals of its
class.
Cats or monkeys do not require to be shown the use of a
when it is at all like the old one it is and the " dog of the regiment " will accept any man in the uniform as a master, whether he has seen him before or not. Thus, the very simplicity of animal fresh rug or cushion, l)ut in
place
of,
thought foreshadows the results of man's higher abstraction
and generalisation.
now read a few lines farther in why he concludes that animals have
Let us
Locke, and we shall see
the power of forming abstract ideas.
not
It
is,
he says,
because they have no use of words or other general
signs.
an easier point and far more worth arguing, than the hard question whether brutes have abstract ideas. But
this itself is
power of speech gives about the clearest be drawn between the action of mind beast and man. It is far more satisfactory than another
In
the
fact
distinction that can in
division attempted
by philosophers who
while other animals have consciousness, consciousness, that
is,
he not only
feels
down
that
and
thinks,
capable of this self-consciousness, which
his
it
alone has self
aware of himself as feeling and thinking. is
lay
man
but
is
Man, we know, is
cultivated by
being able to talk about himself as he does about other
persons
;
we know
but are
it
has never been proved that animals, not
anything outside,
When we really
apt to mistake
their
own
who
bodies
fot
have no consciousness of themselves.
study the rules of sign making and language,
we
ha\e some means of contrasting the animals with
ourselves.
Evidently
it
is
by means of language
that
the
ANTHROPOLOGY.
54
human mind
[cha?.
has been able to work out and
abstract ideas
we
deal with so easily
mark
the high
how
without words,
;
could we have reached results of combined and compared thought such as
momentum,
The
plurality, righteousness ?
and the animals we study is well measured by the difference between their feeble beginnings in calling one another and knowing when they are called, and man's capacity for perfect speech. It is not merely that the highest anthropoid apes have no speech they have not the brain-organisation enabling them to acquire even its rudiments. Man's power of using a word, or even a gesture, as the symbol of a thought and the means of conversing about it, is one of tlie points where we most plainly see him parting company with all lower species, and
great mental gap between us
;
starting
on
his career of
conquest through higher intellec-
tual regions.
man
In the comparison of
with
other
animals
standard should naturally be the lowest man,
But the savage
is
possessed of
while his brain-power, though to civili:!ation, enables
him
it
human
reason and speech,
has not of
to receive
itself raised
more or
education which transforms him into a
the
savage.
or
less
ci\-ilized
him
of the
man.
To
show how man may have advanced from savagery to civilization is a reasonable task, worked out to some extent in the But tliere is no such evidence later chapters of this volume. available for crossing the mental gulf that divides the lowest
savage from the highest ape. chision warranted by facts the lower animals limit.
Beyond
is
is
On
the whole, the safest con-
that the mental machinery of
roughly similar to our own, up to a
this limit the
human mind opens
out into
wide ranges of thought and feeling which the beast-mind If we consider man's shows no sign of approaching. course of
life
from birth to death, we see that
it
is,
so to
II.]
MAN AND OTHER ANIMALS.
speak, founded on functions which he has in
common
s5
with
Man, endowed with instinct and capable of learning by experience, drawn by pleasure and driven by pain, must like a beast maintain his life by food and must save himself by flight, or fight it out with Sleep, his foes, must propagate his species and care for the next generation. Upon this lower framework of animal life is raised the wondrous edifice of human language, science, art, and law. lower beings.
—
CHAPTER RACES Race, 56
Differences of
—Types
Variation, 84
In the
MANKIND.
OF
— Stature
and Proportions, 56— Skull, 60
62— Colour, 66— Hair, 71— Constitution, 73— Tempera-
Features,
ment, 74
IIL
first
of Races, 75
—Permanence,
— Races of Mankind classified,
80
— Mixture,
80
87.
chapter something has been
already
said as
to the striking distinctions between the various races of
man, seen
in
looking closely
at the
African negro, the Coolie
Even among Europeans, the between the fair Dane and the dark Genoese
of India, and the
broad contrast recognised by
Chinese.
all.
is
Some
further comparison has
now
to
be made of the special differences between race and race, though the reader must understand that, without proper anatomical examination, such comparison can only be slight Anthropology finds race-dififerences most and imperfect. clearly in stature
and proportions of limbs, conformation of
the skull and the brain within, characters of features, skin, eyes,
and
hair, peculiarities of constitution,
and mental and
moral temperament. In comparing races as to their stature, we concern ourselves not with the tallest or shortest men of each tribe, but with the ordinary or average-sired representatives
men who may
of their whole
tribe.
be taken as
The
fair
difference of
CHAP.
RACES OF MANKIND.
III.]
general stature
come
well
is
together in one
English colonist of the 5
ft.
4
in.
shown where a tall and a short people Thus in Australia the average
district. ft.
5
8
of mankind
Still
more
not
much
over
are the Patagonians,
who
first
5
Sweden
Among
ft.
who seemed
the
a race
watched them striding it was even
draped in their skin cloaks
cliffs
in
tower over the stunted Lapps,
7 in. is
of giants to the Europeans along their
looks clear over the heads of
in.
Chinese labourers.
does the Swede of 5 ft. whose average measure tallest
57
;
men hardly reached met Modern travel-
declared that the heads of Magalhaens' the waist of the lers find, 4in.,
Patagonian they
first
that they really often reach 6
on measuring them,
their
mean
height being about 5
ft.
11 in.
four inches taller than average Englishmen.
of mankind are the Africa, with
A
fair
Bushmen and
The
shortest
related tribes in South
an average height not
contrast between the
ft.
— three or
far
tallest
exceeding 4
ft.
6
in.
and shortest races of
mankind may be seen in Fig. 8, where a Patagonian is drawn side by side with a Bushman, whose head only reaches to his breast. Thus the tallest race of man is less than one-fourth higher than the shortest, a fact which seems Struck by surprising to those not used to measurements. the effect of such difference of stature one is apt to form an exaggerated notion of its amount, which is really small compared with the disproportion in si::e between various breeds of other species of animals, as the toy pug
and the
mastiff, or the
In general, the
stature
Shetland pony and the dray-horse. of the
taken as about one-sixteenth
Thus
in
5fL 4
in.
England a
of
less 5ft.
of any race
may be
than that of the men. Sin.
and a woman
,
of
look an ordinary well-matched couple.
Not only diffei
man
women
m men
the stature, but the proportions of the body
of various races.
Care must be taken not to
ANTHROPOLOGY.
58
[chap.
confuse real race-differences with the alterations individual's early training or habit of legs
of grooms, and the
still
Indians of 'British Columbia, continually sitting
B.
made by
the
such as the bow-
more crooked legs of the get them misshaped by
who
cramped up
t lo.
life,
in their canoes.
A
man's
— Patagon.an and Bushman.
measure round the chest depends a good deal on his way of life, as do also the lengths of arm and leg, which are not even the same in soldiers and sailors. But there are certain distinctions races.
which
Thus there
are
inherited,
are long-limbed
and
mark
and short-limbed
different tribes of
RACES OF MANKIXD.
III.]
The
mankind.
arm and
the
leg,
African negro
is
59
remarkable for length of
Aymara Indian of Peru
Sup-
for shortness.
posing an ordinary Englishman to be altered to the build of a negro, he would want 2 in. more in the arm and i in.
more in the leg, while to bring him to the proportions of an Aymara his arm would have to be shortened h in. and his leg
in.
1
way of
from their present lengths.
noticing these difterences
of
skeletons
apes and
and reaching
jjosition
gibbon can touch panzee thigh.
among
its
man down
knee, while
man
is
(Fig.
instructive
5).
In
an
ui)right
with the middle fmger,
foot, the
its
An
to look back to the
orang
its
the
ankle, the chim-
only reaches partly
down
his
Here, however, there seems to be a real distinction Negro soldiers standing at drill the races of man.
bring .he middle finger-tip an inch or two nearer the knee
men can do, and some have been even known to Such differences, however, are less touch the knee-pan. remarkable than the general correspondence in bodily ])rol)ortions of a model of strength and beauty, to whatever race than white
Even good judges have been led to forget the niceties of race-type and to treat the form of the atl le e Thus Benjamin West, the as everywhere one and the same. American painter, when he came to Rome and saw the Belvedere Apollo, exclaimed, ." It is a young Mohawk lie
may
belong.
warrior " 1
Much
of Zulu athletes.
the
Yet
be compared with a
said of the proportions
same has been if fairly -chosen
classic
photographs of Kafirs
model such
as the Apollo,
it
will
be noticed that the trunk of the African has a somewhat w-all-sided straightness, wanting in the inward slope which gives fineness to the waist, and in the expansion below
which gives
breadth
across
the
hips,
these
our painters recognise as an ideal
of
being
two
model which manly beauty. By this
of the most noticeable points in the classic
ANTHROPOLOGY.
6o
kind of comparison
much may be done
standard types of races. reality of
Yet,
how
in distinguishing
while acknowledging the
such varieties in the build of again to remark
we have
[chap.
slight
men
of different race,
they are compared with
the variation in the limbs of different breeds of lower animals. In comparing races, one of the first questions that occurs is
whether people who
so
differ
much
intellectually
as
savage tribes and civilized nations, show any corresponding There is, in fact, a considerable difference in their brain. difference.
The most
of brain
to
skulls
filling
a
is
mean
usual
way of ascertaining
the quantity
measure the capacity of the brain-case by Professor Flower gives as with shot or seed.
estimate of the contents of skulls in cubic inches,
Australian,
seventy-nine
;
African, eighty-five
;
European,
Eminent anatomists also think that the brain of the European is somewhat more complex in its convolutions than the brain of a Negro or Hottentot. Thus, though these observations are far from perfect, they show a connexion between a more full and intricate system of brain-cells and ninety-one.
fibres,
have
and a higher
The form
of the skull
to the brain within
been
intellectual
power, in the races which
risen in the scale of civilization.
to
itself,
so important in
its
relation
and the expressive features without, has
the anatomist one of the best
means of
distin-
by inspection of The narrow cranium of the a skull what race it belongs to. negro (Fig. c^a) would not be mistaken for the broad cranium of the Samoyed (Fig. 9^.) On taking down from guishing races.
a
museum
often possible to
It is
tell
shelf a certain narrow, wall-sided, roof-topped,
forward-jawed skull with unusually strong brow-ridges (Fig. is no difliculty in recognising it as Australian. I od), there
In comparing
skulls,
distinctions are
llie
some of the most
following.
easily
noticeable
;
RACES OF MANKIND.
in.]
When
looked
6i
from the vertical or top view, the pro-
at
portion of breadth to length
is
sjen as in Fig.
Taking
9.
the diameter from back to front as 100, the cross diameter gives the so-called index of breadth, which
70 in the Negro the
Samoyed
(a),
Such
(c).
dolichokepJialii\ or "
headed
" ;
and
80
European
in the
skulls are classed
long-headed
;
—Top
view of
inde.>c 80,
pkulls.
here about
short-headed." if
;
c,
in
middle-
A
model
of the middle
a, Negro, index 70, doUchokepha'ic
me.sokephalic
and 85
respectively as
" }nesokephaUc, or "
braiJiykcplialic, or "
skull of a flexible material like gutta-percha,
Fig. 9
is (/'),
:
h.
European,
bamv/yed, index 85, brachykephalic.
shape, like that of an ordinary Englishman, might, by pres-
made long like a negro's, or by pressure back and front be brought to the broad Tatar form. In
sure at the sides, be at
the above figure
it
may be
noticed that while some skulls,
elliptical form, others, as a, are ovoid,
b, have a somewhat having the longest cross diameter considerably behind the
as
centre.
Also in some classes of
skulls, as in a,
the zygo-
matic arches connecting the skull and face are fully seen while in others, as b and r, the bulging of the skull almost hides them.
In the front and back view of
portion of width to height 6
is
taken in
skulls, the pro-
much
the
same way
ANTHROPOLOGY,
62 as the index
[chap.
of breadth just described.
which represents
in profile the skulls of
Next> Fig. lo,
an Australian
(cz'),
and an Englishman (/), shows the strong difference in the facial angle between the two lower races and our own. The Australian and African are prognathous, or " forward-jawed," while the European is ort/iognathous, At the same time the Australian and or " upright-jawed." retreating foreheads than the European, move African have a negro
Fig.
io.
{e),
— Side view of skulls, /
d, Atutralian, prognathous; European, orthognathous.
African, pr.-gnathous
;
to the disadvantage of the frontal lobes of their brain as
compared with
ours.
Thus
the upper and lower parts of
the profile combine to give the faces of these less-civilized
peoples a somewhat ape-like slope, as distinguished from
more nearly upright European face. Not to go into nicer distinctions of cranial measurement,
the
let
us
now
To some
glance at the evident points of the living face.
extent feature directly follows the shape of the
III.]
RACES OF MANKIND.
skull beneath.
Thus
the contrast just mentioned, between
the forward-sloping negro skull in the white race,
C3
and
its
more upright form
as plainly seen in the
is
portraits of a
On
Swaheli negro and a Persian, given in Fig. ii. at the female portraits in Fig. 13, the
Africa)
may be
selected
narrowness of skull
(/'),
and North American convex
African
faces
II.
M, show
— a,
raco.
Siie
f).
they,
;
/',
Per
(South
effect
(d, e)
of
broader Tatar,
shows the
also as
looking
well
as
the
i:in.
the effect of high cheek-bones.
The
show the skew-eyelids of the
human
Miicli of the character of the
dcpjnds on the shape of the chin, &c.,
{d,
wliile
Swahel.
Tatar and Japan.^se faces
Mongolian
girl
an example of the
in contrast with the
forehead,
Vv;
Hottentot
as
Carolong
softer parts
— nose,
lips,
face
cheeks,
which are often excellent marks to distinguish race.
Contrasts in the form of nose
may even exceed
that hero
shown between the aquiline of the Persian and the snub Furopcan travellers of the Negro in Figs. 11 and 13. in
Tartary in
the middle
ages
described
its
iku-nosed
—
Female portraits, a. Negro (W. Africa) /), BaroLnsr (S. Afr'.ca); c, HotFig. 12 temot; d, Gilyak(N. Asia) e, Japanese ; / Col.rad^ Inj:an(N. America), ;
;
g, English.
RACES OF MANKIND.
III.]
inhabitants
as
having
no
noses at
all,
65
but
By pushing the can in some degree we own noses upward, manner in which various other races, notably show the opening of the nostrils in full face. through holes
close-fitting
in
lips,
their faces.
differ
in the
Fig. 13.
negro, well seen
in
tlie
extreme from
breathing ti])s
of our
imitate the
the
negro,
Our
thin,
those of the
— Afiican negro.
portrait
(Fig.
wright, Livingstone's faithful boy.
^\'c
13) of
Jacob Wain-
cannot imitate the
lip by mere pouting, but must push the edges up and down with the fingers to show more of the inner lip. The expression of the human face, on which intelligence
negro
and an
fueling write themselves in visible characters, requires artist's training to
understand and describe.
The mere
ANTHROPOLOGY.
66
[CPIAP.
contour of the features, as taken by photography in an unchanging attitude, has dehcate characters which we appreciate by long experience in studying faces,
but which
With the purpose
elude exact description or measurement.
of calling attention to some well-marked peculiarities of the human face in different races, a small group of female faces (Fig. 12)
is
considered
Fig
14.
— Secti
here given,
among
their
all
young, and such as would be
own people
as at least moderately
n of negro skin, mnch ma.cnirir,i it .1 sk.n /', c, rete muco.^uin ;
;
I
.lllcpr).
.
a, dermis, or true
r scaif-^kin.
Setting aside hair and complexion, there is handsome. still enough difference in the actual outline of the features to distinguish the Negro, Kafir, Hottentot, Tatar, Japanese,
and North American
The
faces from the pjiglish face below.
colour of the skin, that important
mark of
race,
may
be best understood by looking at the darkest variety. The dark hue of tlie negro does not lie so deep as the irmermost
;
RACES OF MANKIND.
III.]
or true skin, which
mankind.
The
14, a highly
is
substantially alike
seat of the colouring
is
C7
among well
races of
all
shown
in Fig.
magnified section of the skin of a negro. Hjrc
a shows the surface of the true skin with its papillce ; this is covered by the mucous layer, the innermost cells of which are deeply coloured by small grains of black or
(J))
down
pigment, the colour shading
toward the outer surface of the outside scarf-skin {d) spite of his this darkest
name,
is
this
mucous
{c\,
while even
The
negro, in
not black, but deep brown, and even
hue does not appear
for the new-born negro child
is
at the
beginning of Hfe,
reddish brown, soon becom-
Nor does
ing slaty grey, and then darkening. tint
layer
slighdy tinged.
is
brown
to brownish or yellowish
the darkest
ever extend over the negro's whole body, but his soles
and palms are brown. When Blumenbach, the anthropolosaw Kemble play Othello (made up in the usual way, with blackened face and black gloves, to represent a negro) he complained that the wholj illusion was spoilt for him when the actor opened his hands. The brown races, such
gist,
as the native Americans, have the colouring of the skin in
a
less
till
is
degree than the Africans, and with them also
some time
reached.
after birth that the full
The
fair
white race.
dark colouring
in
posed to the sun
not
colouring of the dark races appears to be
similar in nature to the
of the
it is
depth of complexion
temporary freckling and sun-burnir.g Also, Europeans have permanent
some portions of the ;
skin,
though not ex-
the areola of the breast, for instance
while in certain affections,
known by
the medical
name
of
melanism, patches closely resembling negro skin appear on On the whole it seems that the distinction of the body. colour, from the fairest
has no hard and tint to another.
fast It is
Englishman
to the darkest African,
but varies gradually from one instructive to notice that there occur lines,
ANTHROPOLCGY.
68
[chap.
in the various races certain individuals in
ing matter of the skin
is
contrast between their morbid whiteness
complexion
fairness of
whom
the colour-
The
wanting, the so-called albinos.
and any ordinary
most remarkable
is
negro
in the
albinos (to call them by this self-contradictory terra),
have the well-known African it
were a cast of a negro in
The is
who
dead white, as
features, but in
plaster.
natural hue of skin farthest from that of the negro
the complexion of the
which perfect
types
fair
race of Northern Europe, of
are to be
met with
North Germany, and England.
Scandinavia,
in
In such
fair
or blonde
people the almost transparent skin has its pink tinge by showing the small blood-vessels through it. In the nations of Southern Europe, such as Italians and Spaniards, the
browner complexion to some extent hides
this red,
which
among darker peoples in other quarters of the world ceases Thus the difference between light and to be discernible. dark races caused by the
is
tlie
well observed
in
blushing, which
their
is
rush of hot red blood into the vessels near
surface of the body.
shows
Albinos
this
with the
utmost intenseness, not only a general glow appearing, but the patches of colour being clearly
marked
out.
The
blush,
vivid through the blonde skin of the Dane, is more obscurely seen in the Spanish brunette ; but in the dark-
brown Peruvian, or the
yet blacker African, though a
hand by
or a thermometer put to the cheek will detect the blush its
heat, the
somewhat increased depth of colour
perceptible to the eye.
by
retreat of
The
contrary
effect,
blood from the surface,
masked by dark tints of skin. As a character of race, the colour
of
is
is
hardly
paleness, caused in
llie
like
manner
skin has from
ancient times been reckoned the most distinctive of
The Egyptian
painters, three or four
all.
thousand years ago
RACES OF MAXKIXD.
III.]
used regular
C9
may be seen in paintThese colours do not ^jretend seen by the native Egyptian gentlemen
tints for this purpose, as
Museum,
ings at the British to be exact, as
is
being painted dark brick-red. but the ladies pale yellow, so as to signify in an exaggerated way their lighter complexion. It
was
in this
conventional manner that they coloured the four
mankind known
principal races of
to them, the Egyptians
themselves red-brown, the nations of Palestine yellow-brown, the Libyans yellow-white, and the Ethiopians coal-black (see
page
4).
In the history of the world, colour has often been
the sign by which nations accounting themselves the nobler
have marked is
tion of high
The
off their inferiors.
varna, that
is,
" colour
" ;
and low caste
and
this
arose,
Sanskrit
word
shows how
for caste
their distinc-
India was inhabited by
dark indigenous peoples before the
fairer
Aryan race
in-
and the descendants of concjiierors and
vaded the land, conquered are still
some measure to be traced among the and the dark-complexioned low-caste families. Nor has the distinction of colour ceased The Englishman's in the midst of modern civili/:ation. in
light-complexioned high-caste,
white skin
is
to him, as of old, a caste-mark of separation
from the yellow, brown, or black " natives," as he contemptuously calls them, in other quarters of the globe.
The
range of complexion
among mankind, beginning
with
the tint of the fair-whites of Northern Europe and the dark-
whites of Southern Europe, passes to the brownish-yellow
of the Malays, and the full-brown of American tribes, the
deep-brown of Australians, and the black-brown of Negros. Until modern times these race-tints have generally been described with too
little
care,
and named
as the Egyptians painted them.
as conventionally
Now, however,
the traveller
by using Broca's set of pattern colours, records the colour of any tribe he is observing, with the accuracy of a mercer
ANTHROPOLOGY.
70
matching a piece of
The
silk.
[chap.
evaporation from
tlie
human
accompanied by a smell which differs in different The peculiar rancid scent by which the African races. negro may be detected even at a distance is the most marked of these. The odour of the brown American tribes skin
is
is
again different, while they have been at the white
dislike
man's smell.
known
This
express
to
peculiarit}^,
which
not only indicates difference in the secretions of the skin,
but seems connected with
a race-character of
The
part of the
liability to certain
variety of colour in different individuals,
This
eye.
is
the
fevers, &c.,
some importance. human body which shows is
is
the greatest
the
iris
of the
more noticeable because the adjacent
parts vary particularly
little
among mankind.
The
sclerotic
a healthy European is almost what it is called, the " white " of the eye, only takes a slightly yellow coat,
which
in
tinge
among
the darkest races, as the African negro. Again,
in ordinary eyes of all races, the pupil in the centre of the iris
appears absolutely black, being in fact transparent, and
showing through to the black pigment lining the choroid But the iris itself, if examined coat at the back of the eye. In in a number of types of men, has most various colour. understanding the coloration of the eye, as of the skin, the peculiarities of albinos are instructive.
eyes
(as
of white rabbits)
is
The pink of
their
caused by absence of the black
pigment above-mentioned, so that light passing out through the iris and puiiil is tinged red from the blood-vessels at
may be seen to blush with the This want of the protecting black pigment also accounts for the sensitiveness to light which makes albinos avoid a glare ; it was for this reason that the
the back
;
rest of the
thus their eyes face.
Dutch gave them the name of kakkerlakcn, or "cockroaches," these creatures also shunning the light.
Prof Broca,
in
RACES OF MANKIND.
III.]
of colours of eyes, arranges
scale
his
71
shades of orange,
But one has only to look
green, blue, and violet- grey.
closely into any eye to see the impossibility of recording
its
complex pattern of colours ; indeed what is done is to observe it from a distance so that its tints blend into one It need hardly be said that what are popuimiform hue. larly called
black eyes are far from having the
black like the pupil
eyes described as black are
;
These
of the deepest shades of brown or violet.
black eyes are by
far
iris
really
commonly so-called
the most numerous in the world,
belonging not only to brown-black, brown, and yellow races, but even prevailing among the darker varieties of the white Aristotle
remarks
that the colour of the eyes follows that of the skin.
Indeed
race,
it is
skin,
such as Greeks and Spaniards. plain that there eyes,
and
is
hair
a connection of the colours of the
among mankind.
In races with the
darker skin and black hair, the darkest eyes generally prevail,
while
a
fair
complexion
the lighter tints of
iris,
is
usually accompanied by
especially blue.
A
fair
Saxon with
black eyes, or a full-grown negro with pale blue eyes, would b J looked at with surprise. Yet we know by our own country-people
how
difficult it is
matching colours
in
black hair with dark blue or districts
of Great Britain.
Beddoe think
From
it
down exact rules as to Thus the combination of grey eyes is frequent in some Dr. Barnard Davis and Dr. to lay
complexion.
indicates Keltic blood.
ancient times, the colour and form of the hair have
been noticed as distinctive marks of race. Thus Strabo mentions the yluhiopians as black men with woolly hair, and Tacitus describes the German warriors of his day with
As to colour 01 eyes and tawny hair. most usual is black, or shades so dark as to be taken for black, which belongs not only to the dark-skinned
their fierce blue hair, the
ANTHROPOLOGY.
72
[c'iap.
Africans and Americans, but to the yellow Chinese
dark-whites such as Hindus or Jews. that blackness of hair
pigment
the
hair
may
between
fair
But
is
skin.
also
In the fair-white
contain.
of Northern Europe, on the contrary, flaxen or
chestnut hair prevails. tion
pigment being present
to black
quantity as to overpower whatever red or yellow
in such
peoples
due
is
it
hair
Thus we see that there is a connecand fair skin, and dark hair and dark
impossible to lay
down
a rule for interme-
diate tints, for the red-brown or auburn hair
skinned peoples occurs has a
hair
and the
Mr. Sorby remarks
still
among
common
in fair-
darker races, and dark-brown
Our own extremely mixed
wider range.
nation shows every variety from flaxen and golden to raven
As
black.
may be
form of the
to the
hair, its
well-known
seen in the female portraits in Fig.
Alricans on the
left
show the woolly
the hair naturally curls into
little
or
difi"erences
12,
friz;:y
where the
kind, where
corkscrew-spirals, while the
and American heads on the right have straight hair like a horse's mane. Between these extreme kinds are the flowing or wavy hair, and the curly hair which winds in Asiaiic
large spirals
the
;
the English hair in the figure
latter variety.
cross
If
sections
examined under the microscope,
is
rather of
of single hairs are
form
their differences of
are seen as in four of the sections by Pruner-Bey (Fig. 15).
The almost
circular
more
curly
European hair
tion
the woolly African
;
the frizzy
Papuan
Mongolian hair
hair
(t/)
{/>)
hair is
a lop-sided growth
hangs straight
(c)
is
more
;
the
elliptical sec-
flattened
;
while
a yet more extreme example
of the flattened ribbon-like kind. has
(a)
has an oval or
Curly and woolly hair
from the root which gives
the
Not only the colour and form of the hair, but Thus the heads of its quantity, vary in different races. the Bushmen are more scantily furnished with hair than twist.
RACES OF MANKIND.
lii.J
ours,
while
among
tho
Crow Indians
and
The
body-hair also
plentiful in others.
Thus
common
was
it
sweep on
the warrior's coarse black hair to
behind him.
73
is
for
ground
the
scanty in some races
the Ainos, the indigenes of
Yeso, are a shaggy people, while the Japanese possessors of
So strong is the Japanese have invented a legend that in ancient times the Aino mothers suckled young bears, which their island are comparatively hairless.
contrast, that the
gradually developed into men.
That certain races are constitutionally fit and others for certain climates, is a fact which the English have but too good reason to know, when on the scorch-
unfit
ing plains of India they themselves
Fig.
15.
— Sections of
ha'.r.
become languid and
hig'^lv magnified (after Pruner). n. African negro ; d, Papuan
Japanese
;
/',
German
;
c,
sickly,
while
some cooler climate
It
is
well-known
have
children
their
to
also
that
that
soon
they
may
races
are
be removed
to
not
not
pine and die. affected alike
While in Equatorial Africa or the by certain diseases. and yellow-fever are so fatal coast-fever West Indies the or
injurious
to the
even mulattos are the white nations.
new-come Europeans, the negros and almost
On
the
untouched by other hand,
this
scourge of
we English look
upon measles as a trifling complaint, and hear with astonisliment of its being carried into Fiji, and there, aggravated no doubt by improper treatment, sweeping away the natives by a new It is plain that nations moving into thousands.
ANTHROPOLOGY.
74 climate,
body
to
if
they are to
new
the
state
flourisli,
of
life
[chap.
must become adapted in thus
;
in
the rarefied
air
Andes more respiration is required than of the high and in fact tribes living there have the plains, the in Races, chest and lungs developed to extraojdinary size. though capable of gradual acclimatization, must not change With too suddenly the climate they are adapted to. this
adaptation
has
much
to
the fair-white
colour
does
particular
to
do,
fitting
for
the
the
climates
the
complexion
negro for the tropics and
zone
temperate
not always vary with
;
though, indeed,
climate,
as
wheie
in
America the
brown race extends through hot and cold
regions alike.
Fitness for a special climate, being matter
of
life
or death to a race,
must be reckoned among the
chief of race-characters.
Travellers notice striking distinctions in the temper of
There seems no difference of condition between the native Indian and the African negro in Brazil to make the brown man dull and sullen, while the black is over, So, in Europe, the unflowing with eagerness and gaiety. races.
and the dopend altogether on climate There seems to be in mankind
likeness between the melancholy Russian peasant
vivacious Italian can hardly
and food and government.
inbred temperament and inbred capacity of mind. points the great lesson that in civilization while others
and we should
some
races have
have stood
still
History
marched on
or fallen back,
partly look for an explanation of this in
and moral powers between such Americans and Africans, and the Old World nations who overmatch and subdue them. In measuring the minds of the lower races, a good test is how far
differences of intellectual tribes as the native
The who have
their children are able to take a civihzed education.
account generally given by European teachers
RACKS OF MANKIND.
III.]
had the children of lower races
in
75
their schools
is
that,
though these often learn as well as the white children up to about twelve years old, they then fall off, and are left behind This fits with what by the children of the ruling race.
anatomy teaches of the less development of brain in the It agrees Australian and African than in the European. up to that teaches, civilization history of also with what the our what like are barbarians and savages point a certain this from but are, still peasants our and were ancestors
common
level
the
superior
intellect
of
the
i)rogressive
races has raised their nations to heights of culture. white man, though now dominant over the world,
The must
remember that intellectual progress has been by no means At the dawn of history, the the monopoly of his race. leaders of culture were the brown Egyptians, and the lUbylonians, whose Akkadian is not connected with the language of white nations, while the yellow Chinese, whose Tatar affinity \z evident in their hair and features, have been for four
The
thousand years or more a
civilized
and
literary nation.
dark-whites, Assyrians, Phoenicians, Persians, Greeks,
Romans, did not start but carried on the forward movement of culture, while since then the fair-whites, as part of the population of France, Germany, and England, have taken their share not meanly though latest in the world's progress.
After thus noticing
some of
the chief points of difference
be well to examine more closely what among of men and women can only in portraits Single is. race a a general way represent the nation they belong to, for no two of its individuals are really alike, not even brothers. races,
What
is
it
looked
will
for
character belonging
in
to
such a race portrait the whole
race.
repeated observation of travellers that
is
It
the general is
an often
a European landing
ANTHROPOLOGY.
76
among some people Mexican Indians,
unlike his own,
at first thinks
makes out
careful observation he ties,
but at
first
them
his attention
[chap.
such as Chinese or After days of
all alike.
their individual peculiari-
was occupied with the broad It is just this broad
typical characters of the foreign race.
type that the anthropologist desires to sketch and describe, and he selects as his examples such portraits of men and
women
show
as
it
To
type of a people.
problem,
let
first
Obviously there are tall
DWARFS I'lq. 16.
to
measure the
give an idea of the working of this
point to be settled
some few
Patagonians;
as
even possible
us suppose ourselves to be examining Scotch-
men, and the as
It is
best.
how
tall
as short as Lapps,
these
very
short
AVERAGE M£/J S FT a IV
and
they are.
and some tall
men
QIANTS
— Race or Population arranged by Stature (Gal'.on's method).
belong to the race, and yet are not its ordinary members. If, however, the whole population were measured and made to stand in order of height, there
about
five feet
eight inches, but
would be a crowd of men
much
fewer of either five
and so on till the npmbers decreased on either side to one or two giants, and one or This is seen in Fig. 16, where each inditwo dwarfs. vidual is represented by a dot, and the dots representing men of the mean or typical stature crowd into a mass. After looking at this, the reader will more easily understand feet four
inches or
six feet,
Quetelet's diagram. Fig. 17, where the heights or ordinates
of the binomial curve show the numbers of
men
of each
RACES OF MANKIND.
III.]
stature, decreasing
inches which
Here,
in
is
77
both ways from the central
the stcture of the
mean
five feet eight
or typical man.
a total of near 2,600 men, there are 160 of five inches, but only about 150 of five feet seven
feet eight
inches or five feet nine inches, and so on,
till
not even ten
men are found so short as five feet or so tall as six feet four As the proverb says, " it takes all sorts to make a inches. world," so
it
thus appears that a race
is
a body of people
comprising a regular set of variations, which centre round
one representative type. is
estimated
as
to
In the same way a race or nation
other
characters,
as
where a
mean
7S
ANTHROPOLOGY.
Fig.
18— Caribs.
[chap.
RACES OF MANKIND.
III.]
The people whom
79
by single whose food and way of life there is little to cause difference between one man and another, and who have lived together and intermarried fcr many generations. Thus Fig. i8, taken from a photograph it
easiest to represent
is
portraits are uncivilised tribes,
of a party of Caribs,
is
remarkable
all.
peculiarly easy to
make
out.
It is
Head
of
Rameses II iigypu
it
may
be,
is
To
see
how
difficult
Ancient Eg>'pt. (/) Sheikh's son, (After Ilartinunu.) ,
Modem
one has only to look at an English crowd, with But to get a view of the problem
its
endless diversity.
of
human
cases
the race-type
by no means always thus
easy to represent a whole population.
Fig. 19.— (")
for the close likeness
such a nation
In
running through
in
first,
varieties,
looking
it
at
is
best to attend to
some
uniform
the simplest
and well-marked
ANTHROPOLOGY.
So race,
to
and
what
asliing
[chap.
the course of a^es
in
may happea
it.
The first thing to be noticed is its power of lasting. Where a people lives on in its own district, without too much change in habits, or mixture with other nations, there seems no reason to expect its type to alter. The Egyptian monuments show good instances of this permanence. In Fig. 19,
drawn from the head of a
is
(7
statue of
Rameses,
evidently a careful portrait, and dating from about 3,000
while
years ago,
yet the ancient
b
is
an
Egyptian
the ancient Egyptian rice,
whose
of
life
are with
little
villages,
who
of the
and modern are curiously
toil
who
built
present day,
Indeed,
alike.
the
I^yramids,
and
pictured on the walls of the tombs,
is
change
carry
still represented by the fellahs of the on the old labour under new tax-gatherers.
Thus, too, the ^Ethiopians on the early Egyptian bas-reliefs
may have
their counterparts
White Nile
tribes,
while
we
picked out recognise
still
in
among
the
figures
the
of
Phoenician or Israelite captives the familiar Jewish profile
of our
own
day.
Thus
there
special characters plainly
its
centuries, or a
of type far
proof that a race
may keep
recognizable for over thirty
hundred generations. And this permanence or less remain when the race migrates
may more
from
carried
is
its
into
early
home, as when African negroes are
America, or Israelites naturalize themselves
from Archangel
Where marked change has
to Singapore.
taken place in the appearance of a nation, the cause of this
change must be sought altered conditions of
The
in intermarriage with foreigners, or
life,
or both.
result of intermarriage or crossing of races
to all English people in one of
its
is
familiar
most conspicuous examples,
the cross between white and negro called mulatto (Spanish ntulato,
from inula, a nmle).
The mulatto complexion and
RACES OF MANKIND.
III.]
hair arc intermediate
new
intermediate
between those of the parents, and of complexion
grades
appear
in
the
children of white and mulatto, called quadroon or quarter-
blood (Spanish
and so on
ciiartcro/i),
;
on the other hand,
tlie
descendants of negro and mulatto, called sambo (Si>anish
zambo) return towards the
Fig.
character
more
20.
— .M.iuiv
full
negro
t}'pe.
This intermediate
.Mother and Half-caste- D.iugiiters.
the general nature of crossed races, but with
is
or less tendency to revert to one or other of the parent
To
types.
illustrate this,
Malay mother and her ;
race,
sometimes
is
20 gives the portrait of a
show their mixed European and sometimes the
here, while all the children
a Spaniard it
Fig.
half-caste daughters, the father being
the
ANTHROPOLCGY.
82
Malay is
The
cast of features that prevails.
curly
which
rises in
mixture
often be well noticed in
locks,
between the straighter
European and the woolly African kind. Brazil, a peculiar cross between the native
and the imported negro
effect of
may
also traceable in the hair, as
a mulatto's crimped,
[chap.
slaves, are
The Cafusos
of
tribes of the land
remarkable for their
hair,
a curly mass, forming a natural periwig which
obliges the wearers to stoop low in passing through their liut doors.
This
is
seen in the portrait of a Cafusa, Fig. 21,
and seems easily accounted for by the long stiff hair of the native American having acquired in some degree the negro frizziness. The bodily temperament of mixed races also partakes of the parent-characters, as
who
inherits
from
his
is
seen in the mulatto
negro ancestry the power of bearing
a tropical climate, as well as freedom from yellow fever. Not only does a mixed race arise wherever two races inhabit the it
is
tion
well lias
same
known
district,
but within the
last
few centuries
that a large fraction of the world's popula-
actually
come
into
existence
by
race-crossing.
RACES OF MANKIND.
i:i.]
This
is
nowhere so evident
as
83
on the American continent,
where since the Spanish conquest sucli districts as Mexico are largely peopled by the mestizo descendants of Spaniards and native Americans, while th.e importation of African
West Indies has given
the
slaves in
By
a mulatto population.
rise
to
taking into account such inter-
crossing of races, anthropologists have a reason to give for the endless attenipting
shades of diversity hopeless
the
uncertain group of
men
task into
among mankind,
of
classifying
a special race.
without
every
The
little
water-
frcm Cairo, in Fig. 22, may serve as an example of the difficulty of making a systematic arrangement to set
carrier
each
man down
Arabic, and
is
a
to
his
precise
Moslem, but he
is
man
This
race.
speaks
not an Arab proper,
he an Egyptian of the old kingdom, but the child of a land where the Nubian, Copt, Syrian, Bedouin, and many other peoples have mingled for ages, and in fact his
r either
is
may come
ancestry
feature
quarters
out of three
of the
globe.
the natives of India, a variety of complexion
Among
is
found which cannot be
classified exactly
by
and race.
must be remembered that several very distinct men have contributed to the population of the country, namely the dark-brown indigenes or hill-tribes, the yellow Mongolians who have crossed the frontiers from But
it
varieties of
Tibet,
who
and the
fairer
ancient Aryans or
poured in from the north-west
;
Indo-Europeans
not to mention others,
the mixture of these nations going on for ages
produced numberless fair
nations
of the
crosses.
Baltic
So
in
lias
of course
Europe, taking the
and the dark nations of the
Mediterranean as two distinct races or
varieties, their inter-
explain the infinite diversity of brown hiir and intermediate complexion to be met with. If then it may be considered that man was already divided into a few
crossing
may
ANTHROPOLOGY.
84 great
main races
through ages since slighter varieties
It is not
in
remote antiquity,
will
go
far to
enough
to look at a race of
intermarriage
for the
innumerable
them a race means is
that
men
as a
mere body
common
type or likeness. For and indeed our calling we consider them a breed whose
the reason of their likeness
nature
tlieir
account
which shade into one another.
of people happening to have a
common
[chap.
is
plain,
inherited from
common
ancestors.
Now
experience of the animal world shows that a race or breed,
RACES OF MANKIND.
III.]
while capable of carrying on generation,
its
likeness from generation to
also capable of varying.
is
cattle-breeder,
carefully choosing
by
85
In
fact,
the skilful
and pairing individuals
which vary in a particular direction, can within a (gw years form a special breed of cattle or sheep. "Without such direct interference of man, special races or breeds of animals form themselves under new conditions of climate and food, as in the familiar instances of the Shetland i)onies, or the mustangs
which have bred from the horses
of the Mexican plains
brought over by the Spaniards. that the races of
man may be
It naturally
suggests itself
thus accounted for as breeds,
It may be strongly argued do the bodily and mental varieties of mankind blend gradually into one another, but that even the most dissimilar races can intermarry in all directions, producing mixed or sub-races which, when left Advocates of the to themselves, continue their own kind.
varied from one original stock.
in this direction that not only
there are several distinct races of
polygenist theory, that
man, sprung from independent certain races, such
produce
fertile
and more
origins,
have denied that
and
native Australians,
as the English
half-breeds.
But the evidence tends more
to establish crossing as possible
between
all races,
which goes to prove that all the varieties of mankind are While this principle seems to zoologically of one species. be admitted that our knowledge must it rest on firm ground, of the manner and causes of race-variation still
The
very imperfect.
among mankind
is
great races, black, brown, yellow,
white, had already settled into their well-known characters
before
hidden
written far
record
back
alterations of such
in
began, the
so
that
pra^-historic
amount known
their
formation
period.
Nor
is
are
to have taken place in
has
been
plausibly argued that our rude primitive ancestors,
being
any people within the
range
of
history.
It
ANTHROPCLOGY.
[chap,
than their posterity to make
themselves inde-
C5 less able
pendent
and
and stores more exposed to alter in body under the of the new climates they migrated into. Even of
climate
by shelter
fire
food, were
lluence
modern
times,
it
seems possible
race-change going on imder
new
Dr. Beddoe's measurements
conditions of
prove that
manufacturing town-life has given
an inch or two
less in stature
in
to
rise
in
something of
trace
to
of in-
Thus
life.
England the a
population
than their forefathers
when
So in the Rocky ^Mountains there are clans of Snake Indians whose stunted
tliey
came
in
from their country
villages.
forms and low features, due to generations of needy outcast life,
mark them
the plains.
off
It is
from their better nourished kinsfolk
in
asserted that the pure negro in the United
undergone a charge him a shade lighter in
States has
in a
few generations which
and altered his same region has become less rosy, with .darker and more glossy hair, more prominent cheek-bones and massive lower jaw. These are perhaps the best authenticated cases of race-change. There has
left
comple?-:ion
features, while the pure white in the
IS
great difficulty in watching a race undergoing variation,
which
is
everywhere masked by the greater changes caused
by new nations coming
He who
the old.
in to mingle
and intermarry with
should argue from the Greek sculptures
changed since the age of Pcrikles, would be met with the answer that the remains of the old stock have long been inextricably blended with others. that the national type has
The
points which have
suffice
show
to
the
now been brought
uncertainty and
forward
will
of
any
difficulty
attempt to trace exactly the origin and course of the races of man. to
Yet
go upon
in
at the
same time
the fact
that
there
these
is
a ground-work
races are not found
spread indiscriminately over the earth's surface, but certain
RACES OF MANKIND.
III.]
C7
races plainly belong to certain regions, seeming each to
have taken shape under the influences of climate and soil its proper district, where it flourished, and whence it
in
spread
and wide, modifying
far
other races as
how
give an idea races
went.
it
'I'he
the si)reading
may have taken
place.
and mingling with
itself
following brief sketch
It
may
and mixture of the great embodies well-considered
views of eminent anatomists, especially Professors Huxley
Though such
and Flower. as proved
and
certain,
it is
ideas by understanding
a scheme cannot be presented desirable to clear and
fix
our
man's distribution over the
that
earth did not take place by promiscuo.is scattering of tribes,
but along great lines of often discerned, where
movement whose
it
regularity can be
cannot be precisely followed out.
That there is a real connexion between the colour of and the climate they belong to, seems most likely from the so-called black peoples. Ancient writers were satisfied races
to account for the colour of the ^-Ethiopians
the sun had burnt them black, and though pologists
yet the is
would not
map
settle the
question in this off-hand way,
of the world shows that this darkest race- type
The main
principally found in a tropical climate.
of black races stretches along the hot and the equator, from
Guinea in West Africa
of the Eastern Archipelago, which has
Guinea from
by saying that modern anthro-
its
negro-like natives.
fjrtile
line
regions of
to that great island its
name
of
New
In a former geological
period an ctiuatorial continent (to v/hich Sclater has given the
name
Africa
The
of Lemuria)
to the
attention
may even have
far East,
of
uniting these
anthropologists
attracted by a line of islands
in
stretched across from
now
separate lands.
has been
particularly
the Sea of Bengal, the
Andamans, which might have been
part
of this
former
continent, and were found inhabited by a scanty population
ANTHROPOLOGY.*
88
of rude and childlike savages. are small in stature {the
These Mincopis
men under
blackness, and hair very
[chap.
flat in
five feet),
section
and
(Fig. 23)
with skin of
frizzled,
which
from their habit of shaving their heads must be imagined by the reader.
\
^5^
But while
in these points
resembling the African
/T^'^-^'
Fic;. 23.
— Andaiiian
Islanders.
negro, they are unlike him in having skulls not narrow, but
broad and rounded, nor have they or jaws so projecting as
his.
It
lips
so
full,
a nose so wide,
has occurred to anatomists,
and the opinion has been strengthened by Flower's study of their skulls, that the Andaman tribes may be a remnant of a very early
human
stock, perhaps the best representa-
RACES OF MANKIND.
III.]
89
lives of tlie primitive
negro type which has since altered in
various points
spread oser
in
its
world.
The
narrow
skull,
projecting
flattjned
nose, full
hair,
its
African negro race, with jaws,
in
Guinea,
district
special
black-brown
and out-turned
been here described (see pages 61 perhaps shows itself most perfectly the equator, as
wide its
but
it
to in
of the
marks of
skin,
woolly
has already
lips,
Its
67).
type
the nations near
spreads
far
and wide
over the continent, shading off by crossing with lighter coloured races on its borders, such as the Berbers in the
and the Arabs on the east coast. As the race Congo and the Kafir regions, there is
north,
spreads southward into
full negro complexion and feature, looking as though migration from the central region into new climates
noticed a less
had somewhat modified the type. In this respect the smallgrown Hottentot-Bushman tribes of South Africa (see Figs. 8, 12^) are most remarkable, for while keeping much negro character in the narrow skull, frizzy hair, and cast of features, their
There
is
skm
negro type with a of
is
of a lighter tint of brownish-yellow.
nothing to suggest that this came by crossing the fairer race,
such a race to
cross
indeed there
with.
If
special modification of the Negro, then this
transformation
case of the
new
conditions.
are found in
the
To
return
of races
now
to
no evidence
is
the
Bushman is
is
a
an excellent
when placed under Southern Asia, there
Malay Peninsula and the Philippines Andamaners
scanty forest-tribes apparently allied to the
and classed under the general term Negritos {i.e. " little blacks "), seeming to belong to a race once widely spread over this part of the world, whose remnants have been driven by stronger new-come races to find
mountains. the island
of Luzon.
refuge in the
one of them, an Aheta from Lastly come the wide-spread and
Fig. 24, represents
— ANTHROPOLOGY.
go
[CIIAP.
complicated varieties of the eastern negro race in the region
known
as Melanesia, the
New Guinea to
Fiji.
"black islands," extending from
The group
of various islanders (Fig. 25)
belonging to Bishop Patteson's mission, shows plainly the
resemblance to the African negro, though with some marked IDoints
of difference, as in the brows being more strongly
Fig. 24.
ridged,
—Aheta (Negrito), Philippine Islands.
and the nose being more prominent, even aquiline
a striking contrast to the African.
New
The Melanesians about
Guinea are called Papuas from their woolly hair (Malay J)apiiwah=^inzzQd), which is often grown into enormous mops. The great variety of colour in Melanesia, from the full brown-black down to chocolate or nut-brown, shows
RACES CF MANKIND.
HI.]
that there has been
much
Such mixture is evident the dark Melanesian race
91
crossing with hghter populations.
in the coast-people is
of
Fiji,
where
indeed predominant, but crossed
with the lighter Polynesian race to which mucli of the lan-
guage and civilization of the islands belongs. Tasmanians were a distant outlying population
Lastly, the belongin;_, to
the eastern blacks.
Fig.
-Mclanesians.
In Australia, that vast i.-.land-continent, whose plants and animals are not those of Asia, but seem as it were survivors
from a long-past period of the earth's history, there appears a thin population of roaming savages, strongly distinct from the blacker races of
mania
at
the south.
New The
Guinea
at the
Australians,
north,
with skin
and Tasof dark
ANTHROPOLCGY,
tes^'c-^
[chap.
RACES OF MANKIND.
HI.]
Fig. 28.
chocolate-colour,
93
— Aii>iKii..ui ^vju^xn^iand) women.
maybe
races of man.
While
like the negro's,
it
taken as a special type of the brown
their skull
differs
from
it
is
narrow and prognatlious
in special points
which have
ANTHROPOLCGY.
9+
[chap.
been already mentioned (page 60), and has, indeed, peculiarities which distinguish it very certainly from that of other races.
may be
In the portraits of Australians, Figs. 26, 27, 28, there noticed the heavy brows and projecting jaws, the nose, the
wide but not
flat
woolly black
hair.
F
full
Looking
G. 29.
— Dravidlan
lips,
and the curly but not
at the
map
hill -man
(after Fryer).
of the world to see
where brown races next appear, good authorities define one on the continent of India. There the hill-tribes present the type of the old dwellers in south and central India before the conquest by the Aryan Hindus, and its purest form appears in tribes hardly life
race
in
tilling
the
soil,
but living a wild
the jungle, while the great mass,
with
tli^
more mixed
in
Hindus, under whose influence they have
RACES OF MANKIND.
III.l
boen
!or ages,
now form
the great Dravidian
the south, such as the Tamil and Telugu. sents one of ihe ruder Dravidians, forests.
Farcher
tvest,
Fig.
30.
it
29 reprefrom the Travancore
— Kalniuk (alter G-Iusiiudj.
may be
and
less distinctly traceable in the
distinguished in Africa, taking in
If so, to this
nations of
Fig.
has been thought that a brown
fp.ce
Tunis.
95
Nubian
tribes
Berbers of Algiers and
race the ancient Egyptiftis would
seem
ANTHROPOLCGY.
56
[chap.
who from The Chaps. IX. to XL)
main]y to belong, though mixed with Asiatics,
remote antiquity came
in over
Egyptian drawings of themselves
the Syrian (as in
require the eyes to be put in profile
border.
and the body coloured None felt more us.
reddish-brown to represent the race to
strongly than the Egyptian of ancient Thebes, that
Fig. 31.
among
— Goldi (Amur).
the chief distinctions between the races of the complexion and feature which separated
mankind were him from the
/Ethiopian on the one hand, and the Assyrian or Israelite
on the other.
Turning type of
Mongoloid marked representatives on the vast
to another district of the world, the
man
has
its
best
RACES CF MANKIND.
i:i]
Their skin
steppes of northern Asia. their hair of the
hair scanty.
brownish-yellow,
head black, coarse, and long, but
Their skull
jection of cheek-bones,
orbits,
is
face-
characterized by breadth, pro-
and forward position of the outer
t lU. 3-.
edge of the
is
97
— :3.a.UlC^C aC»I'C^iCi.
which, as well
as
the tliglitness
of
and the snub-nose, are observable in Tigs. 30 and 31, and in Fig. 12 d. The Mongoloid race is immense in rangj and brow-ridges,
the
slanting
aperture of
the
eyes,
ANTHROPOLOGY.
53
numbers.
The
connexion with
[chap.
great nations of south-east Asia it
in the familiar
show
their
complexion and features
of
34 are portraits from Siam, Cochin-ChiLa, and Corea. In his wide migrations over the world, the Mongoloid, through change of climate and life, and still farther by intermarriage with other
and Japanese.
the Chinese
races, loses
more and more of
J'lG. 33.
in the south-east, istic
Figs. 32, 33,
where
breadth of skull
is
his special points.
It is so
— Cochin-Cli.iitse.
in
China and
lessened.
Jr.pan the characLer-
In Europe, where from
remotest antiquity hordes of Tatar race have poured their descendants
have often preserved
in,
in their languages,
such as Hungarian and Finnish, clearer traces of their Asiatic
home
than can be
plexion and
made
feature.
out
in
Yet the
their present types of I'"inns,
Figs. 35
and
36,
comhave
not lost the race-differences which mark them off from the
RACES OF MANKIND.
III.]
99
Swedes among whom they dwell, and the stunted Lapps show some points of likeness to their Siberian kinsfolk,
who wander
like
them with
their reindeer
on the
limits of
the Arctic regions.
In
pursuing beyond this point
the examination of the
the world, the problem
becomes more obscure.
races of
On
the
Malay peninsula,
of Asia, appear
the
at
first
the
extreme south-east corner
members
of
the
Malay
race.
ANTHROPOLOGY.
[chap.
i:i.]
RACES OF MANKIND.
ICI
ANTHROPOLCGY.
I02
[chap.
seemingly a distant branch of the Mongoloid, which spreads over Sumatra, Java, and other islands of the Eastern Archipelago.
who
Figs.
Malays,
civilised
37 and 38 give portraits of the more Fig. 39 shows the Dayaks of Borneo,
whib
represent the race in a wilder and perhaps loss
From
state.
the
Malay Archipelago there
Pacific the island ranges
first
mixed
stretch into the
of INIicronesia and then of
we reach Easter Island to the east and New Zealand to the south. The Micronesians and Polynesians show connexion with tlie Malays in language, and more or Polynesia,
less in
till
But they are not Malays proper, and high faces, narrow noses, and
bodily make.
there are seen
among them
small mouths which remind us of the
the Micronesian, Fig. 40, varied group of peoples.
being pure Malays, as
is
It
Asiatic race closely allied to Malays
South Sea with
crossing
Islands,
populations of in appearance.
way .ess
dark
tlie
different
altering
still
may have
their
island groups
where
of sailors
their
in
further from hair, often
seems hkely that an
Melanesians,
This race
to Madagascar,
face, as
to represent this
seen by their more curly
prominent and even aquiline noses. the
European
who stands here The Maoris are
spread over
special
so
type
by
now the vary much
that
often
even
found their
descendants have more or
blended with a population from the continent of Africa. to the double continent of America, we find
Turning now in this
New World
a problem of race remarkably different
The traveller who should Nova Zemlya to the Cape of Good Van Diemen's Land would find in its various
from that of the Old World. cross the earth from
Hoi>e or climates
various
strongly-marked
yellow, brown, and black.
kinds of
men, white,
Columbus had surveyed
But America from the Arctic to the Antarctic regions, he would have found no such extreme unlikeness in the if
i:ij
RACES OF MANKIND.
!
11..
^j
-U.y.
1^3
ANTHROPOLOGY.
I04 inhabitants. liave
Apart from the Europeans and Africans who
poured
in
since
i'm 40
in
Not
in stature,
the
—
fifteenth
ls.inj;smill
century,
the
native
Islander.
general might be, as has often been said, of
Americans one
race.
[chap.
that they are all alike, but their differences
form of
skull,
feature,
and complexion, though
RACES OF MANKIND.
III.]
considerable,
not as
if
seem
loj
variations of a secondary kind.
several races
had formed each
its
It is
proper type ia
had been peopled by who had only to spread and acclimatise themselves over both tropical and temperate zones, much as the European horses have done
its
proper region, but as
if
the country
migrating tribes of a ready-made race,
since the time
men
themselves.
of Columbus, and less perfectly the white
The
race to which most anthropologists
refer the native Americans is the Mongoloid of East Asia, who are capable of accommodating themselves to the extremest climates, and who by the form of skull, the lightbrown skin, straight black hair, and black eyes, show con-
Figs. 41 American tribes. and 42 represent the wild hunting-tribes of North America in one of the finest forms now existing, the Colorado Indians, while in Fig. 43 the Cauixana Indians may stand as examples of the rude and sluggish forest-men of Brazil. While tribes of America and Asia may thus be of one
siderable agreement with the
we must look cautiously at theories as to island routes by wliich Asiatics may have and ocean the It is probable that migrated to people the New World. man had appeared there, as in the Old World, in an original stock,
earlier geological period than the present, so that the first
kinship
between the Mongols and the North American
may go back to a time when there was no ocean between them. What looks like later communication beIndians
tween the two continents, their
narrow roof-topped
is
that the stunted
skulls
Eskimo with
may be a branch
of the
Japanese stock, while there are signs of the comparatively civilized
Mexicans and
Peruvians
having in
somj
\\ay
received arts and ideas from Asiatic nations.
We come
last to the
white men, whose nations have
through history been growing more and
all
more dominant
ANTHROPOLCGY.
Fig.
41— Colorado
intellectually, morally,
commonly spoken
and
hid. an (Nor.h
politically
[chap.
Amcnca).
on the
earth.
of as one variety of mankind,
Though
it is
that they are not a single uniform race, but a varied
plain
and
RACES OF MANKIND.
in.]
Fic;.
42
mixed population. separate
them
fair-wliites
into
— Ci/I>irad It
is
J
107
Injiuii (Nijr;li Amcri.;.!).
a step toward classing them to
two great
divisions, the dark-whites
(melanochroi, xanthochroi).
and
Ancient portraits
ANTIIROPO" OCV.
ro;;
l'i(..
[CUAP.
43.— CauLxana Indians (South America).
have come down to us of the dark-white nations, as Assyrians,
Phoenicians,
I'ersians,
Greeks,
Romans
;
and wluu
RACES OF MANKIND.
III.]
beside these are placed moderns
siicli
log
as the Andahisians,
and the dark Welshmen or Bretons, and people from the Caucasus,
through
will
it
be evident that the resemblance running
these can only be in broad
all
They have a dusky
ters.
deep brown skulls vary
eyes, black hair, mostly
much
in
Rather
profile
or aquiline, the lips less for form's
wavy or
curly
;
theii
proportions, though seldom extremely
broad or narrow, while the straight
and general charac-
or brownish-white skin, black or
is
full
upright, the
nose
than in othjr races.
sake than for a real type of the dark-whites,
a group of Georgians are shown in Fig. 44. Opposite them Fig. 45, a group of Swedes, somewhat better represents the
whose transparent
fair-whites,
eyes
may be
skin, flaxen
as in Scandinavia or North Germany.
appearance of fair-whites Egyptian
and blue
hair,
seen as well, though not as often, in England
artists
may be with
represent
in
The
earliest
the
paintings where
yellowish-white
recorded skin
and
blue eyes certain natives of North Africa, a district where
remnants of blonde
tribes
Libyans, as well as the
about
fair
are
still
known.
red-haired people
These
fair
who appear type among
and are known to us as forming a may perhaps be connected in race with the fair who were already settled over the north of Europe
Syria,
the Jews,
nations
when
the classic writers begin to give accounts of its barbarous inhabitants, from the Goths northward to the dwellers in
The intermarriage of the dark and fair varieties which has gone on since these early times, has resulted in Thule.
numberless varieties of brown-haired
and dark of the
in
fair
opinion.
complexion.
But as
bjtween fair and first home
jieople,
to the origin
and dark races themselves, it is hard to form an Language does much toward tracing the early
history of the white nations, but
it
difiiculty of separating fair-whites
from darlc-whites.
9
does not clear up the
Both
ANTHROPOLOGY. sorts
have been living united by national language, as
day German Austrian.
is
spoken by the
Among
fair
[chap. at this
Hanoverian and the darker
Keltic people, the Scotch Highlanders
often remind us of the
tall
red-haired Gauls described in
classical history, but there are also
Fig. 44.
passages which prove
— Georgians.
smaller darker Kelts like the modern Welsh and As a help in clearing up this Bretons existed then as well. own ancestry, Huxley suggests our ])roblem, which so affects that
that the fair-whites
crossing witli the
were the original stock, and that these the far soutli may have
brown races of
RACES CF MANKIND.
III.]
given rise to the various kinds of dark-whites. this
may
However
such mixture of the whit6 and brown races
be,
seems indeed to have largely formed the population of countries where they meet. The Moors of North Africa,
and many
so-called Arabs
who
Fig. 45.
may be millions
thus
accounted
— Swedes. It
is
thus that
who speak Hindu languages show by
their race
is
mixed between
of the land and
stance
for.
of
this
its
very
men,
are darker than white
that of the
darker indigenes.
combination
is
India
Aryan conquerors
An to
in
their tint that
instructive
be
seen in
in-
the
ANTHRCPCLCGY.
313
Gypsies, low-caste wanderers
[chap.
who found many
their
India and spread over Europe not Fig. 46, a
way from
centuries
Gypsy woman from Wallachia,
is
since.
a favourable
type of these latest incomers from the East, whose broken-
down Hindu
dialect
shows that part of
their
ancestry
Fig. 46.— Oypsy.
comes from oar Aryan swarthiest
in
the
forefathers, while their complexion,
population of our country, marks also
descent belonging to a darker zone of the
Thus
to
map
human species. among a few
out the nations of the world
RACES CF
III.J
main of
vari.jtic3
its ditliculty
^IANKI:n"D.
113
man, and their combinations, is, and uncertainty, a profitable task.
of
in spite
But
to
account for the origin of these great primary varieties or races themselves,
and exactly
to assign to
homes, cannot be usefully attempted tiness of evidence.
geological
period
If
when
and the climates of the
man's
first
in
them
their earliest
the present scan-
appearance was in a
the distribution of land and sea earth were not as
now, then on
both sides of the globe, outside the present tropical zones,
whose warmth and luxuriant vegetation would have favoured man's life with least need of civilized arts, and whence successive waves of population may hr.ve there were regions
spread over cooler climates.
It
may perhaps be
reasonable
to imagine as latest-formed the white race of the temperate
region, least able to bear extreme heat or live without the
appliances of culture, but gifted with the powers of knowing
and
ruling which give
them sway over the world.
—
CHAPTER
IV.
LANGUAGE. Sign-making, 114 tural
— Gesture-language, 114 — Scund-gestures, 120 — Na— Utterances of Animals, 122 — Emotional and
Language, 122
Imitative Sounds in Language, 124
— Change
of Si.und and Sense,
— Other expression of Sense by Sound, 128 — Children's Word-, 128 — Articulate Language, relation to Natural Language, 129
127
its
Origin of Language, 130.
There
aro various ways in which
one another.
witli
speak words,
c\vz.\y
let
for
and
to understand
utter cries,
These
letters.
how
they do
us begin by looking at such signs as are
most simple and
When
gestures,
pidures, write characters or
are signs of various sorts, their work,
men can communicate
They can make
natural.
any reason people cannot
talk together
by word
of mouth, they take to conversing by gestures, in what called
dumb show
iieen able
or pantomime.
Every reader of
from childhood to carry on conversation
way, more or less cleverly.
Imagine a simple
opens the parlour door, his brother liini
to
be
fjuiet for his
father
is
case.
sitting there
this
is
has
in this
A
boy
beckons to
asleep; the boy
now
inti-
mates by signs that he has come for the key of the box, to which his brother answers by other signs tliat it is in the
LANGUAGE.
CH. IV]
pocket of his coat hanging in the significant gesture to
This
him.
is
be
oft"
115
hall,
concluding with a
and shut the door
quietly after
we all know how to use and exact means of communica-
the ^gesture-language as
it.
But to see what a
tion
it
full
may be worked up
to,
should be watched in use
it
who have to depend so much upon it. To give an idea how far gestures can be made to do the work of spoken words, the signs may be described in which a deaf-and-dumb man once told a child's story in
among
the deaf-and-dumb,
presence of the
moving
his
that
it
this
account.
to
tied an imaginary pair of bonnet-strings
usual sign for female), to
was a
He
litde girl.
The
make
child's
the scene in a similar way.
it
under
ny
began
palm down, about a yard from
show the hcii^'ht of a was a child he was thinking of.
cround, as we do
meant
writer of
hand,
child
the
—
this
Then he
his chin (his
understood that the child
mother was then brought on to the child and
She beckons
gives her twopence, these being indicated by pretending to
drop two coins from one hand into the other if there had been any doubt as to whether they were copper or silver coins, this would have been settled by pointing to some;
thing brown, or even by one's contemptuous
way of handling
them from silver. The shown by sketching its mother in air, forefingers the and going through the the w'ith shape Then by imitating the unmistakeact of handing it over. able kind of twist with which one turns a treacle-spoon, it cojjpers which at once distinguishes
also gives the child a jar,
is
made known
that
it is
treacle the child has to buy.
Next,
a wave of the hand shows the child being sent off on her errand, the usual sign
made by two
of walking being added, which
fingers walking
on the
table.
The
is
turning of
an imaginary door-handle now takes us into the slioj), where the counter is shown by passing the llat hands as it were
ANTHRCPCLCGY.
Ii6
over
Behind
it.
shown
Avaist
;
counter a figure
pointed out
is
he
;
down where
it
is
hand
the usual hign of putting one's
and drawing
to one's chin
would be
tliis
man by
to be a
[chap.
the beard
is
or
then the sign of tying an apron round one's
adds the information that the
man
is
the
shopman.
To
him the child gives her jar, dropping the money into his hand, and moving her forefinger as if taking up treacle, to show what she wants. Then we see the jar put into an imaginary pair of scales which go up and down the great treacle-jar is brought from the shelf and the little one filled, with the proper twist to take up the last trickling thread ;
;
the grocer puts the two coins in the
and the little girl The deaf-and-dumb story-teller went
sets off with the jar.
on
to
at the
shoAV jar,
till,
pantomime how the
in
child, looking
with her finger and put the finger in her mouth,
was tempted
how
to take more,
by the spot of
The
down
saw a drop of treacle on the rim, wiped
treacle
on her
it
off
how she
her mother found her out
pinafore,
and so
forth.
student anxious to master the principles of language
will find this gesture-talk so instructive, that
to explain
its
two kinds.
working more In the
Thus
shown.
if
or " shoe," he
speaking
closely.
The
kind things actually present are
first
the deaf-mute wants to mention
touches his
man would
say
be well
will
it
signs used are of
'•
own hand
I,"
hand " Where a '•'
or shoe. " thou," "he," the deaf-mute
simply points to himself and the other persons.
To
"red"
own
or
"blue" he
points to the sky.
touclies the inside of his
express lip
or
In the second kind of signs ideas are
Thus pretending to drink may "to drink," or "thirsty." Laying the cheek on the hnnd exj)resses "sleep" or "bedtime." A conveyed by
imitation.
mean "water,"
or
significant jerk of the
or
whip-hand suggests either "whi])"
"coachman," or "to
drive," as
tlie
case
may
be.
A
LANGUAGE.
IV.]
"lucifer"
pretending
indicated by
is
and " candle
"
by
117
candle and pretending to blow
it
forefinger like a
Also in the gesture-
out.
language the symptoms of the temper one imitated,
Thus
and so become
signs of the
the act of shivering
a match,
strike
to
up the
the act of holding
is
may be
in
same temper
in others.
becomes an expressive
sign for
"cold"; smiles show "joy," "approval," " goodness," while It might frowns show " anger," "disapproval," "badness." seem that such various meanings to one sign would be confusing, but there single
brought
in to
" a pen,"
a
of correcting this, for
-s^'ay
supplement
may
it
is
docs not make the meaning
sign
Thus
it.
if
when a
clear,
others are
one wants
to express
not be sufficient to pretend to write with
one, as that might be intended for " writing " or " letter,'
but
one then pretends
if
to
wipe and hold up a pen,
make it plain that the pen itself The signs hitherto described are
•will
self-expressive, that
meaning is evitlent on the face of them, or at any may be made out by a stranger who watches their use. their
such self-expressive or natural mostly consists
come hardly
They
use
into
make
out until
i',
rate
Of
the gesture-language live together, there
signs which a stranger can
explained to him
it is
will, for instance,
signs, as
signs,
But where deaf mutes
among them
this
meant.
is
how
they arose.
mention one another by nickname-
when a boy may be
referred to
by the sign of him
sewing, which on inquiry proves to have been given
because his father was a far-fetched Institution,
;
for
the
tailor.
instance, sign
at
Such signs may be very the
of chopping
Frenchman, and on inquiry
it
Berlin off
Deaf-and-dumb means a
a head
appears that
the
children,
by reading of the death of Louis XVL in the history-book, had fixed on this as a sign-name for the whole nation. But to any new child who learnt these struck
ANTHROPCLCGY.
Ii8
[chap,
knowing why they were chosen, they would
signs without
seem artiticia]. Next to studying the gesture-language among the deafand-dumb, the most perfect way of making out its principles is in its use by people who can talk but do not understand one another's language. Thus the celebrated sign-languages of the American prairies, in which conversation is carried on between hunting-parties of whites and natives, and even between Indians of
are only dialects (so to
different tribes,
Thus "water"
speak) of the gesture-language.
is
ex-
pressed by pretending to scoop up water in one's hand and
"stag" by putting one's thumbs to one's temples and spreading out the fingers. There is a great deal of drink
it,
variety in the signs
among
of communication
is
when
outlandish
particular tribes, but such a
so natural
people, such
all
as
the world
over,
way that
Laplanders, have been
brought to be exhibited in our great cities, they have been comforted in their loneliness by meeting with deaf-and-
dumb
children, with
with deHght
whom
they at once
fell
the universal language of signs.
to conversing
Signs to be
way must be of the natural self-expressive Yet here also there are some which a stranger might
understood sort.
in
in this
suppose to be
artificial,
he learnt that they are old once pUiin intention. Thus a "dog" is to draw one's two first till
signs which have lost their
North American sign
for
fingers along like poles being trailed
on the ground.
This
seemingly senseless sign really belongs to the days when the Indians had few horses, and used to fasten the tent-poles on the dogs to be dragged from place to place; though the dogs
no longer have
to
do
this,
custom keeps up
the sign. It
has to
be noticed that the gesture-language by no sign for word, with our spoken language.
means matches,
LANGUAGE.
IV.]
One
reason
is
that
but
so
little
powjr of expressing
The deaf-mute can show
abstract ideas.
making
has
it
119
particular ways of
things, such as building a wall or cutting out a coat,
it is
beyond him
quite
common
to
we
to all these, as
make one
sign include what
is
use the abstract term to "make."'
Even "in" and "out" must be expressed in some such clumsy way as by pretending to put the thing talked of in, and take
it
Next
out.
let
us
with the signs by which the
compare an English sentence same meaning would be ex-
among the deaf-and ilumb. It will at once be seen many words we use have no signs at all corresponding them. Thus when we should say in words, "The hat
pressed that to
on the table
zvhich I left
practically
conveyed
what we may
call the " real "
may be
But for what the,
which,
has none.
is
black," this statement can be
in gestures,
and there
will
be signs
words, such as hat,
called the
"'
for
leave, black.
grammatical
words,
"
no signs, for the gesture-language Again, grammars lay down distinctions between
is,
there will be
substantives, adjectives,
and
But these distinctions
verbs.
are not to be found in the gesture-language, where pointing
may mean "grass" or "green," and preone's hands may suggest "warm" or "to warm oneself," or even "fireplace." Nor (unless where to a grass-plot
tending to
artificial
warm
signs have
been brought
in
by teachers)
is
there
anything in the gesture-language to correspond with the inflexions of words, such as distinguish i;;oest from go, hint
from
he,
domiim from
picture in the
donnis. What is done is to call up a minds of the spectators by first setting up be thought about, and then adding to or
something to acting on it till the whole story
If the signs do not meaning as they go, the looker-on will be perplexed. Thus in conveying to a deafand-dumb child the thought of a green box, one must make is
follow in such order as to carry
told.
ANTHRCPCLCGY.
I20
a sign for " box "
fast,
and then show,
grass outside, that its colour syntax is " box green," and is
is
as
" green."
if this
[chap.
by pointing
The proper
to the
gesture-
order were reversed as
in the English language, the child might
to see
fail
it
what
do with a box. Such a sentence as English mice " does not agree with the order of the deafmute's signs, which would begin by showing the tiny mouse running, then the cat with her smooth fur and whiskers, and
grass
had
" cats
to
kill
lastly the cat's
pouncing on the mouse
—
as
were " mouse
it
cat kill."
This account of the gesture-language clear to the reader
can express will
his
thoughts in visible signs.
ho to show the working of another
the sounds of the
voice
will
have made
by what easy and reasonable means
human
The
it
man
next step
sort of signs,
namely,
Sounds of
voice in language.
may be spoken as signs to express our feelings and much the same principles as gestures are made,
thoughts on
except that they are heard instead of being seen.
One kind
of sounds used by
men
as signs, consists of
Men show
pain by uttering by distortion of face joy is expressed by shouts as well as by jumping; when we laugh aloud, the Such sounds voice and the features go perfectly together. are gestures made with the voice, sound-gestures, and the
emotional cries or
tones.
groans as well as
greater class.
;
number of what are called By means of such cries and
interjections are of this
tones, even the compli-
cated tempers of sympathy, or pity, or vexation, can be Let any one put on a shown with wonderful exactness. laughing, r.otice
sneering,
how
his
or cross face, and then talk, he
tone
features belonging to
of
the vowels.
follows
;
the
may
attitude
of
each particular temper acts direcdy
on the voice, especially 'J'l.us
voice
in affecting the
the speaker's tones
musical quality of
become
signs of
th::
LANGUAGE.
av.]
emotion he expression
feels, is
121
That this mode of shown by its being imitated
or pretends to feel.
in fact musical,
is
on the violin, \vhich by altering its quality of tone can change from pain to joy. The human voice uses other means of expression belonging to music, such as the contrast of low and loud, slow and quick, gentle and violent, and the changes of pitch, now rising in the scale and now falling. A speaker, by skilfully managing these various means, can carry his hearer's mind through moods of mild languor and sudden surprise, tlie lively movement of cheerfulness
rising
to
eager joy, the burst of impetuous fury
gradually subsiding to calm. is
more, we do
it
We
can
all
do
and what
this,
without reference to the meaning of the
words used,
for
emotion can be expressed and even delicately
shaded
in
pronouncing mere nonsense-syllables.
off
instance, the words of an Italian opera in
great part of the audience
England arc
means of musical and emotional
this
kind of utterance ought to be understood by
kind, whatever be the language they
to
make such
a
mere nonsense-syllables serving
as a
It is so, for t'le
For to
may happen
most savage and outlandish interjections
Clearly
expression.
tribes
all
man-
to speak.
know how
as ah ! oh ! express
by
their
tone such feelings as surprise, pain, entreaty, threatening, disdain,
and they understand as
jir-r-r
of anger, or the ////// of contempt.
.'
The
well as
we do
the growling
next class of sounds used as expressive signs are
As
imitative.
a deaf-and-dumb child expresses the idea of
a cat by imitating the creature's act of washing a speaking child will indicate the two children wish to clock, the
dumb one
will
it
by imitating
its
its
face,
muioic.
so If
show that they are thinking of a show with his hand the swinging of
the pendulum, while the speaking one will say ^'tick-tacky
Here again
the sounds arc gestures
made
with the voice, or
ANTHROPOLOGY.
122
[CIIAP.
In this way an endless variety of objects sound -gestures. and actions can be brought to mind by imitating their proper sounds. tions,
children delight in such vocal imita-
Not only do
when
but they have come into ordinary language, as
people speak of the
coo of the pigeon, the
donkey, the ding-dong of the
bell,
/icc-/ta:i:>
and the
of the
rat-iat of the
need hardly be said that these ways of expression are understood by mankind all the world over. Now joining gesture-actions and gesture-sounds, they will form together what may be called a Natural Language.
knocker.
It
exists, and in wild regions even when a European traveller value, as practical some has makes shift to converse in it with a party of Australians round their camp fire, or with a Mongol family in their What he has to do is to act his most expressive felt tent. mimic gestures, with a running accompaniment of exclamaHere then is found a natural tions and imitative noises. means of intercourse, much fuller than mere pantomime of
This natural language really
gestures only.
It
is
a
common language of all mankind, human mind that it must have
springing so directly from the
belonged
to our race
from the most remote ages and most
man
primitive conditions in which
Here a very student has the far
existed.
interesting question arises,
means
on which every
of experimenting for himself.
are the communications of the lower animals, by
How their
actions and sounds, like this natural language of mankind? Every one who attends to the ways of beasts and birds is sure that many of their movements and cries are not made as messages to one another, but are merely symptoms of the for instance, when lambs frisk creature's own state of mind ;
meadow, or eager horses paw in the stable, or beasts moan when suffering severe pain. Animals do thus when not aware that any other creature is present, just as when a in the
LANGUAGE
IV.]
man
room by himself
in a
groan
in pain,
will
clench his
When
or laugh aloud.
lower animals as well as
cries
fist
gestures
man do make
anger, or
in
and
come nearer
as signals to other creatures, they
The
123
cries serve
to real signs.
gestures
and
which act as communications, being perceived by
others, as
when
horses will gently bite one another to invito
rubbing, or rabbits stamp on the ground and other rabbits
and birds and beasts plainly call one another, and females at pairing-time. So distinct are the gestures and cries of animals under different circumstances, that by experience we know their meaning
answer,
especially males
Human
almost certainly.
language does
not answer
purpose more perfectly than the hen's cluck to
call
its
her
chickens, or the bellow of rage with which the bull, tossing his head,
warns
off a
dog near
his
paddock.
As
yet,
how-
no observer has been able to follow the workings of mind even in the dog that jumps up for food and barks for the door to be opened. It is hard to say how far the dog's mir.d merely associates jumping up with being fed, and ever,
barking with being of what
let in,
or
how
far
doing and why
it
foims a conception
does it. Anyhow, and birds go so far in the natural linguage as to make and perceive gestures and cries as signals. But a dog's mind seems not to go beyond this point, that a good imitation of a mew leads it to look for a cat in the room whereas a child can soon make out from like ours
it is
it
is
it
clear that the beasts
;
the nurse saying viiaou that she
means something about some cat, which need not even be near by. That is, a young child can understand what is not proved to have entered into the mind of the cleverest dog, elephant, or
may be used as the sign of a thought or Thus, while the lower animals share with man the beginnings of the natural language, they hardly get beyond ape, that a sound
idea.
— ——
:
ANTHROPOLOGY.
124 its
mind
rudiments, while the liuman
[chap.
easily
goes on to higher
stages.
In describing the natural language of gestures and excla-
we have as yet only looked at it as used alone where more perfect language is not to be had. It has now mations,
to
be noticed that fragments of
A
ordinary language.
it
are found in the midst of
may speak
people
English, or Chinese,
or Choctaw, as their mother-tongue, but nevertheless they will
keep up the use of the expressive gestures and interand imitations which belong to natural language.
jections
Mothers and nurses use these think and speak.
nursery
It is
talk, for unless
struck by
in teaching little children to
needless to print examples of this
our readers' minds have already been
they are not likely to study philology to
it,
much
In the conversation of grown people, the
purpose.
expressive or natural sounds
become more
self-
scanty, yet they
are real and unmistakable, as the following examples will serve to show.
As for gestures, many in constant use among our own and other nations must have come down from generation to generation since primitive ages of mankind, as when the orator bows his head, or holds up a threatening hand, or thrusts from him an imaginary intruder, or points to tlie or enemies on his fingers. sky, or counts his friends Next,
as
emotional
to
actually
used
may be
cited from
in
sounds,
a
among
the
variety
these
of
For instances, a
every language.
interjections
set
is
few
down
grammars English— rt//
oh ! ugh ! foh ! ha ! ha ! aho ! (surprise), aha! (reproach),
Sanskrit
Malay Galla
—
f/^
o!
Australian
.'
.'
in!.' (t-t) ?
(triumph), 7veh! (compassion), chih!
wayo ! fulh
!
(sorrow), [
urprisc),
tiit!!
(entreaty).
po:h
!
(contempt).
sh
!
(vexation). (disliiic).
in
— LANGUAGE.
v.]
As
for imitative words, all languages of
125
mankind, ancient
and modern, savage and civilized, contain more or less of them, and any English child can see how the following set of animals and instruments were named by appropriate sound :
= ed (Eg>'ptian). Crow = kaka (San-krit). Cat — mau (Chinese). Nightingale = bulbtd (Persian). Hoopoe = upupa (Latin).
Ass
Rattlesnake = P'LV
—
shi-shi-giua (Algonquin).
bumbcroo (Australian).
Drum =
dtindu (Sanskrit).
Flute = uluU (Galla). Whistle = pipit (Malay). Bell = kioa-lal-L-wa-lal (Vakama),
Blow -Tu HE = pub (Quiche). Gun — pmig (Botokudo). Such words are always springing up afresh in dialect for instance English pop, meaning ginger-beer German gaggele, an egg, from the cackle of the hen as she laid it; French "maitre Jijj," a scavenger (as it were "master or slang
;
;
In the same way many actions are expressed by appropriate sounds. Thus in the Tecuna language of Brazil the verb to sneeze is haiisc/iu, while the Welsh for In the Chinuk jargon, the expressive a sneeze is tis. sound humm means to stink, and the drover's kish-kish becomes a verb meaning to drive horses or cattle. It is even possible to find a whole sentence made with imitative
Jie-Jie ").
words, for the Galla of Abyssinia, to express " the smith
blows the bellows," says, tumtiin biifa bufti, much as an English child might say "the tumtum puffs the puffer." Such words being taken direct from nature, it is to be expected that people of quite different language should
ANTHROPOLOGY,
126
on nearly the same
[chap.
Thus the Ibo we call a cock. The English verbs to pat and to ba?ig seem to come from imitations of sound, much the same being found elsewhere as when the Japanese say pata-pata to express the sound of flapping or clapping, and the Yoruba negros
sometimes
hit
imitations.
language of West Africa has the word okoko
for the bird
;
have the verb gbang,
to beat.
Students whose attention
is
once directed to
this class of
them at a glance in each fresh language they master. It takes more careful observation to trace them when the sound has been transferred by the process of metaphor {i.e. carrying over) to some new meaning not close to the original sense, but there are plenty self-expressive words, will notice
of clear cases to choose illustrations from.
In the Chinuk
jargon of the West Coast of America, a tavern '"''
heehee-\vQ\\s,Q"
understands that
is
a term which puzzles a foreigner
among
the people
word
dialect the imitative
who speak
called a till
he
this curious
hcehee signifies not only laughter
but the amusement which causes
it,
so that the term in fact
means "amusement-house." It might seem difficult to hit upon an imitative word to denote a courtier, but the Basuto of South Africa do this perfectly they .have a word nisi-ntsi\ which means a fly, being, indeed, an imitation of its buzz, and they simply transfer this word to mean also the flattering ;
parasite who buz/es round the chief like a fly round meat. These instances from uncivilized languages are like those which appear among the most ])olished nations, as when we
English take the imitative verb to ///^ from
its
proper sense
of blowing, to express the idea of inflated, hollow praise.
Now
if
the pronunciation of such Avords
their origin
may be
ing to preserve their is
becomes changed,
only recognised by old records happenfirst
sound.
Thus when English
traced back to Anglo-Saxon wd,
it
is
7voe
found to be an
LANGUAGE.
IV.]
actual groan turned (like
German
127
weJi) into
a substantive
So an Englishman would hardly guess from the present pronunciation and meaning yet when he comof the word pipe, what its origin was pares it with the Low Latin pipa, French J>ipe, pronounced expressing
sorrow or
distress.
;
more a
like
our word peep,
reed-pipe
to
chirp,
and meaning such
how
shepherds played on, he then sees
as
cleverly the very
sound of the musical pipe has been made
into a word for all kinds of tubes, such and water-pipes. Words like this travel
as tobacco-pipes
Indians on
like
the war-path, wiping out their footmarks as they go.
For
we know, multitudes of our ordinary words may have thus been made from real sounds, but have now lost all
beyond recovery the
We
traces of their
first
expressiveness.
have not yet come to the end of the
intelligible ways which sound can be made to express sense. When people want to show alteration in the meaning of a word, it is enough to make some change in its pronunciation. It
in
see how, in the Wolof language of West where dagou means to walk, dagou signifies to walk proudly; daga7ia means to ask humbly, but dai^ana to demand. In the Mpongwe language the meaning can be is
not
difficult to
Africa,
actually reversed
by changing the pronunciation:
ionda^' I love, but
reader can
manage
the tones of his
own
"mi to
totida," I love not.
do much the same
verbs walk, ask,
love.
"mi
as
The English
tricks
by varying
This process of
expressing difference of sense by difference of sound
may
be carried much farther. An instructive instance of clear symbolism by sound is to be found in a word coined by the chemist Guyton de Morveau. In his names for chemical compounds he had already the term sulfate (made on a Latin pattern like sulphiiratiis\ but afterwards he wanted a to denote a sulphur-salt of different proportions,
and
word there-
ANTHROPOLOGY.
128
[cHAP.
upon, to express the fact that there was an alteration, he changed a vowel and made the term siclfite. He perhaps
know that he was here resorting to a device found in many rude languages. Thus in Manchu, contrast of sound
did not
serves to indicate difference of sex, cliacha
meaning " male
"
and cheche "female," ama "father" and erne ''mother." So distances are often expressed by altering the vowel, as in Malagasy ao means a little way off, eo still nearer, io In this way it is easy to make sets of close at hand. expressive personal pronouns ; as in the Tumal language Another well-known prongi " I," iigo " thou," ngu "he." cess
is
number
reduplication or doubling, which serves a
of different purposes.
It
shows repetition or strengthening
of meaning, as where the Polynesian aka " to laugh," be-
come, akaaka "
to laugh
lololoa " very long."
much," while
loa " long,"
becomes
Our words hmii-haio and bonbon are
It is also easy to form plurals by reduplication, "man," omng-orang "men;" Japanese oraiig Malay as " men." " Among the kinds of reduman," fito-bito fito plication best known to us is that which marks tenses in
like these.
and tetiipha in Greek, inomordi in Latin. These clever but intelligible devices for making the sound follow the sense, show how easily man gets beyond mere imitation. Language is one branch of the great art of sign-making or sign-choosing, and its business is to hit upon
verbs, like didoini
some sound as a suitable sign or symbol for each thought. Whenever a sound has been thus chosen there was no doubt a reason for the choice.
But
it
did not follow that each
choose the same sound.
This
well
language
should
shown by
the peculiar class of words belonging to children's
language or baby-language, of which the word baby one.
These words are made up
all
few simple syllables which children
is
itself is
over the world from the first utter,
chosen almost
LANGUAGE.
IV.]
anyhow
to express the nursery ideas of mother, father, nurse,
toy, sleep,
and
129
Thus while we have our way of using papa papa for "mother," and the
&c.
mafiia, the Chilians say
Georgians
mama
dada may mean "
for
" father," while in various languages " tata " father,'' ;
father," " cousin," " nurse
"son," "good-bye"!
Such children's words often find
way into the language of grown people, and any slight change makes them look like ordinary words. Thus in English one might hardly suspect pope and a/f^jf of having their origin in baby- words, yet this is evident when they are traced back to Latin />apa and Syriac al?l'a, both meaning their
"father."
These nursery words have already come beyond the " natural language " of self- expressive gestures and sounds.
From
its
difficult
On
simple and clear facts we thus pass to the more and obscure principles of "articulate language."
examining
English,
any other of
or
tongues spoken in the world,
thousand
the
found that most of the words used show no such connection between sound and sense as
To
is
timepiece a
used.
is
so plain in the natural or self-expressive words.
illustrate the
when we
it
call
It is
it
when a
difference,
tick-tick,
this
is
known
7vake gist
;
loatch,
But
why it is name from
had its whose name 'denotes
that the instrument
Anglo-Saxon
luocccan,
his
from wacan, to move,
but here explanation comes to a stop, for no philolo-
has succeeded in showing
denote
a pocket
a luaich, this word does not show
telling the hours like a u
duty to
child calls
plainly self-expressive.
this particular idea.
Or
why if
the syllable waccdca\t to
the
same
child call a loco-
motive engine a puff-puff, this is self-expressive. Grown people call it an engine, a term which came through French from Latin itigenium, which meant that which is "in-born," thence natural ability or genius, therce an
effort
of genius,
ANTHROPOLOGY.
I30
[chap.
invention or contrivance, and thence a machine.
By going
back and taking the Latin word to pieces, it is seen " and that the syllables i7i and gen convey the ideas of " in "birth"; but here again etymology breaks down, for why these sounds were chosen for these meanings no one knows.
farther
Thus
it is
with at least nine-tenths of the words in diction-
no apparent reason why the word go should not have signified the idea of coming, and the word come the idea of going; nor can the closest examination show cause why in Hebrew chay means live, and inelh dead, or
aries
j
there
is
Maori pai means good and kino bad. It is mainsome philologists that emotional and imitative by tained as have been described in this chapter are such sounds of all language, and that although most source very the
why
in
words now show no trace of such origin, this is because they have quite lost it in the long change of pronunciation and meaning they have gone through, so that they are now become mere symbols, which children have to learn
the
certainly
meaning of from has
their teachers.
taken place, but
it
would be
Now
all
this
unscientific to
it as a complete explanation of the origin of language. Besides the emotional and imitative ways, several other devices have here been shown in which man chooses sounds
accept
and who knows what other causes may have helped ? All we have a right to say is, that from what is known of man's ways of choosing signs, it is likely that there was always some kind of fitness or connection which to express thoughts,
led to each particular sound being taken to express a par-
This seems to be the most reasonable ticular thought. opinion to be held as to the famous problem of the Origin of Language.
of
At the same time, what little is known of man's ways making new words out of suitable sounds, is of great
LANGUAGE.
IV.]
131
importance in the study of human nature. so far as language can be traced to
source does not in a state of
lie in
mind
some
still
acting,
The
children and savages.
lost gifts or
On
it,
words by choosing
fit
once
man
the faculty of
for still
all,
and
possesses,
making new
and proper sounds.
level of
was not an
origin of language
the contrary,
when he wants
uses
powers of man, but
and not above the
event which took place long ago
ceased entirely.
proves that
It
actual source, that
its
then
and
original
But he now
seldom puts this faculty to serious use, for this good reason, that whatever language he speaks has its stock of words ready to furnish an expression for almost every fresh thought that crosses his mind.
—
CHAPTER LANGUAGE Articulate Speech, 130
—
— Growth
—
.
V.
{continued
)
of Meanings, 131
—
—Abstract
Words,
Real and Grammatical Words, 136 Parts of Speech, 138 135 Word Combination, Analytic Language, 139 Sentences, 139 Affixes, 142 Sound-change, Synthetic Language, 141 140
—
— 143 — Roots,
Gender, 149
A
144
—
— Syntax,
146
— Development of
—
— Government
—
and Concord, 147
Language, 150.
SENTENCE being made up of its connected sounds as a is made up of its joints, we call language articulate
limb or
"jointed,"
to
distinguish
it
from the
inarticulate
or
"unjointed" sounds uttered by the lower animals.
Such conversation by gestures and exclamations as was shown in the last chapter to be a natural language common to mankind, is half-way between the communications of animals and full human speech. Every people, even the smallest
and most savage tribe, has an articulate language, carried on by a whole system of sounds and meanings, which serves the speaker as a sort of catalogue of the contents of the
world he
lives in, taking in
every subject he thinks about,
and enabling him to say what he thinks about it. What a complicated and ingenious apparatus a language may be, "Vet the the Greek and Latin grammars sufficiently show.
LANGUAGE.
Cii. v.]
more more
133
carefully such difficult languages are
plainly
is
it
simpler kinds of speech.
make a
into, the
It
not our business here to
is
systematic survey of the structure of languages, such
as will be found in the treatises of
Whitney, and
many
looked
seen that they grew up out of earlier and
Peile.
What we have
Max
MiJller,
to attend to,
Sayce, is
that
of the processes by which languages have been built
up are still to be found grammar is not a set of
at
work among men, and that framed by gram-
arbitrary rules
marians, but the result of man's efforts to get easier,
and exacter expression
for
thoughts.
his
It
fuller,
may be
noticed that our examples are oftener taken from English
than from any other tongue.
The reason
of this
is
not
merely the convenience of using the most familiar words as instances, but that English
is
of
all
existing languages
perhaps the best for explaining the development of language
While
in general.
high antiquity,
changes
in
its
its
words may
structure has
coming down
state the language at
to
in great part
passed
modern
once keeps up
times, relics
be traced to
through extreme
and
in its present
of ancient forma-
and has the freest growth actually going on. Thus, one way or another, English has something to show in
tions,
in
illustration of three out of four of the processes
have helped
in
the
making of language,
at
known
to
any time and
anywhere.
As in the course of ages man's knowledge became wider and his civilisation more complex, his language had to keep up with them. Comparatively few and plain expressions had sufficed for his early rude condition, but now more and more terms had to be added for the new notions, implements, arts, offices, and relations of more highly organized Etymology shows how such new words are made society. by altering and combining old ones, carrying on old words
ANTHROPOLOGY.
'i34
from the old
[chap.
do duty in the new, shifting and finding in any new thought some resemblance to an old one that would serve to give it a name. English is full of traces of these ways of word-making and word-shifting. For instance, that spacious stone building is state of things to
their meanings,
still is,
called, as
hut)
;
in
soldiers (that
it
its
rough predecessors were, a barrack (that
a regimeiit (that
is,
a ruling or
fought on foot) are being inspected (that
company
(that
is,
under a captain is,
command) of is, lads, who
paid men) of the infantry (that
is,
those
(that
place-holders).
is,
On
is,
looked into)
who have bread
head-man) and
is
old name, meaning a
its
each
his lieutenants (that
the front of the building
machine which keeps on
;
together) being
a
clock,
bell,
a
from
the ages when its predecessor was only a bell on which a watchman struck the hours in later times were added the ;
iveights,
lumps of metal so-called from the weights of the
balance, the pendiiliini (or hanger), ically called the
and what
are metaphor-
face and hands, for showing on a scale (or
ladder) the hours {or times), divided into minutes (or smalls),
and then again
into seconds (or foUowings).
These instances
are intentionally not drawn from the depths of etymology, but are taken to
means
show the ordinary ways
to supply the
in
which language finds
new terms of advancing society.
It will
be worth while to give a few cases showing that the languages of less civilized races do their duty in much the same ways. called a boat a " water-house " {acalli), and
The Aztecs
thence the censer in which they burnt copal as incense to be called a " little copal-boat " {copalacaltontU).
came
Vancouver Islanders, when they saw how a screwnamed it at once yetseh-yetsokleh, that is, the The Hidatsas of the Missouri till lately had only hard stone for their arrows and hatchets so when they became acquainted with iron and copper they made I'he
steamer went, " kick-kicker."
;
LANGUAGE.
v.]
I35
for these me\.:ih—7{etsastpisa and to say, " stone black " and " stone red."
names
brought by the white seen
it,
called
it
had
to
?/^/^flr///V/i-/,
that
is
The horse, when men among peoples who had never
be named, and accordingly the Tahitians
"pig-carry-man," while the Sioux Indians said
it
was a "magic -dog."
As a help to understand how words 'have come to exstill more difficult thoughts, it is well to remember the contrast between the gesture-language and spoken English It was seen how the deaf-and-dumb fall short of (p. 119). Not our power of expressing general and abstract ideas. They use signs that they cannot conceive such ideas at all. as general terms when they can lay hold of some quality or Thus flapping one's action as the mark of a whole class. arms like wings means any bird, or birds in general, and the sign of legs-four, means beasts, or quadrupeds in general. The pretence of pouring something out of a jug expresses the notion of fluid, which they understand, as we do, to comprise press
and they probably have, though more dimly than we, such other abstract notions as the whiteness common to all white things, and the length, But breadth, and thickness which all solid objects have. while the deaf-mute's sign must always make us think of the very thing it imitates, the spoken word can shift its meaning
water, tea, quicksilver
;
so as to follow thought wherever to look at
words
in this
light,
it
goes.
to see
It
is
instructive
how, starting from
thoughts as plain as those shown by the signs of the Ameri-
can savage, they can the lawyer,
come on
to the
most
difficult
terms of
the mathematician, and the philosopher.
To
Lord Bacon said, counters for notions. By means of words we are enabled to deal with abstract ideas, got by comparing a number of thoughts, but us words have become, as
so as only to attend to what they liavc in
common.
The
ANTHROPOLCGY.
136
reader of this no doubt uses
such words as
[chap.
and perhaps
easily,
make,
sort, kind, thing, cause, to
correctly,
be, do, suffer.
If he will try to get clear to his mind what is actually meant by these words, that is, what sense they carry with them wherever used, he may teach himself the best lesson he ever To Englishmen learnt, either in language or philosophy. own, these words are their but language who know no
indeed, as
it
random
were, counters, chosen at
to express
by practice how and where to thoughts. apply them, they are seldom even conscious of their highly The philologist cannot trace the complete abstract nature. history of them all, but he knows enough to satisfy him that
Having
learnt
they came out of words easier to understand.
As
in the
Eornu language of Africa, tando, to " weave," has become a general verb to " make," and in Hebrew bara, to " cut " or " hew," has come to be used for the making of the heavens and earth so our word to make may have meant originally The English word sort comes from Latin to fit, or join. sors, a " lot," through such a set of meanings as allotment, kind meant of one oracle, fate, condition, chance, portion to may have meant to grow kindred or descent to be ;
;
;
suffer
meant
to
;
bear as a burden.
It
belongs to high
metaphysics to talk of the appreliension of ideas; but these
now
abstruse words originally
"sights."
One
meant
use of etymology
is
*'
catching hold
that
it
teaches
"
of
how
men
thus contrived, from words which expressed plain and easy thoughts, to make terms for more complex This is the high road along and abstruse thoughts. which the human mind has travelled from ignorance to
knowledge.
The
next contrivance of language to be noticed is the use "grammatical" words, which serve to connect the "real'' words and show what they have to do with one another. of
"
LANGUAGE.
v.]
This again
is
i37
well seen by looking at the gesture-language
deaf-and-dumb man wants to convey in gesis come, he has brought the harness of the pony and put it on a bench," he can communicate the sense of this well enough, but he does it by merely giving the real If a
119).
(p.
tures " John
"John, harness, pony, carry, bench, put." But the " and " the," the preposition " of," the conjunction "and," the substantive verb "is," and the pronouns "he," "it," are grammatical devices which have not signs in his natural system, and which he does not even learn the mean-
parts, as articles
ing of if
" a
he
till
is
taught to read.
Nevertheless, the deaf-mute,
obliged to be very exact in his account, can actually give
we speaking-people have Though he cannot intimate
us a good idea of the Avay in which
come that
to use
it is
grammatical words.
a bench, he can hold up one finger to show that
it
is one bench ; though he has no sign for the pony, he can as instead of it were point it out so as to show it is i/iat pony expressing of the pony as we do, he can go farther by pre;
Now English tending to take the harness off the pony. etymology often shows that our grammatical words were made
in very
originally the
much
way out
this
" one,"
numeral
of real words still
the same family of words with that and there
from the same source with traced
back to the more
" thereto "
in " I
;
When an Englishman not
it
when one man
mean
that he
is
an or a was the
of
is
is
derived
off; the conjunction a/id
may be
real
meaning of
the verb to hare has
have come," yet
or grasp,
;
Scotch ane;
keeps
its
;
of
" further "
become a mere old
full
or
auxiliary
sense of to hold
seizing another cries " I have
him
!
says he ''stands corrected," this does
on
his legs, but the
verb has sunk into
a grammatical auxiliary, now conveying little more than the passive sense he " is corrected." It is curious to notice
pronouns being thus formed from more
real words.
As
the
ANTHROPOLOGY.
138
[chap.
deaf-mute simply points with his finger to express " " thou," so
I
"
/z'^A'/ =
" I,"
the Greenlander's uvanga " thou," are plainly derived from uv = "here," iv - "there." Quite a different device appears in Malay, where amba =
and
"slave"
=--
used as a pronoun
is
" 1,"
and tmuan
=
"lord''
pronoun "thou." How this came to pass is plainly shown by Hebrew, in such phrases as are translated in the English Bible, ''thy servatit saith," ''my /^/-^ knoweth;"
as a
terms are on the road to become mere personal pronouns meaning " I " and " thou," as in the Malay they
these
An exact line
actually have done.
cannot be drawn between
English or any other language,
and grammatical words good reason that words pass so gradually from the real into the grammatical stage, that the same word may be used in both ways. But though the distinction is not an in
real
for the
exact one, try to tell
it
Any one who
should be noticed attentively.
an
will
English real words only,
intelligible story in
without the help of the grammatical particles which are the links and hinges of the sentence, will see how the use of
grammatical words was one of the greatest moves made by
man
in the formation of articulate speech.
Philology goes
still
plicated devices of
The
further in explaining
grammar
how
the
com-
arose from simple beginnings.
distinction of " parts of speech," familiar to
us in a
highly-developed statj from the Greek and Latin grammars, is
a useful
means of showing the
relations
do without that
they
parts of speech,
and
it
existed in the earliest
the gesture language
it
among
But
thoughts talked of in the sentence. is
it
is
the several possible to
not to be supposed
forms of language.
In
has been already noticed that there
In no such distinction even between noun and verb. Chinese, thwan means round, a ball, to make round, to sit round, and so on ; vgan means quiet, quietly, is
classical
LANGUAGE.
V.J
to
be
to
quiet,
We
&c.
quiet,
139
English can quite enter
into this, for our language has so far
dropped the ancient
break up distinctions between parts of almost Chinese fashion, using a word either as
inflexions
as
speech in
to
substantive, adjective, or verb, as the people's quiet, a quiet
people, to quiet the people, and without scruple turning a
verb into a substantive, as a workmen's
strike,
stantive into a verb, as to horse a coach.
The
or a sub-
very forma-
new parts of speech may be seen going on, as where Chinese shows how prepositions may be made out of nouns or verbs. Thus '^Vuq chung," that is "kingdom tion of
middle,"
is
used to
/ thing," that
man
is,
"
mean "in
kill
man
the kingdom,"
use
and "sha
stick," expresses
" to
jin kill
So an African language, the Manmaking prepositions out of the nouns kang, "neck," and kono, "belly," when they a
dingo,
tvith
a stick."
may be caught
in the act of
say " put table neck " for " on the table," and " house
M(y
"
for " in the house."
We
have next to look
by combining words have selves,
but
Language
its
to
as
at the
words
to
way
in
which language grows
form new ones.
To
see this,
be noticed not as they stand by themthey come together in
consists of sentences,
speaking.
actual
and a sentence
is
made up
of words, each word being a distinct spoken sound carrying
a distinct meaning.
The
simplest notion of a sentence
may
be had from such a language as Chinese, where it can be taken apart into words which are each a single syllable.
Thus kou chi shi jin s:e, that is "dog sow eat man food" means that dogs and sows eat the food of men. The class of languages which can be taken to pieces in this perfect
way
are called analytic or isolating.
In
most languages
of the world, however, which are more or less synthetic or
compounding, the tendency
is
not so strong to keep words
ANTHROPCLCGY.
I40
and they
separate,
To
are apt to attach themselves together.
bring clearly before our minds
pounding of words takes place, closely than usual one of our listening,
will
it
really breaks
is,
between them as
not
till
us notice rather
commore
English sentences.
On
the joining or
but the syllables
in writing,
the speaker pauses,
and what marks its having an
being really separated, but
its
emphasis, or stress (as
from time
how
let
appear that the spoken words have not
run on continuously a word
[chap.
Now, is called by Mr. Sweet). words may be noticed becoming
it
to time, certain
How
actually fixed together.
this joining gradually takes
place we sometimes try to show by writing them differently, as
hard
that
On
now but one
ship, steam-
listening to such joined words,
one of the two has
having
sicam
or
tvare^ ha?-d-u>are, JuD'diuare ;
ship, steamship.
it is
found
lost its stress, the
whole compound
how
in talking English
This
stress.
is
our minds give a sign by our voices that two words have
become
one.
The
next step
is
when
the sound of one of
the part-words becomes slurred or broken down, as in the
end-words of 7oatermaji,
7c>?-ofigfid.
Or both
the simple
words may have broken down, as in boatswain and coxsrvain, where writing keeps up the original meaning of the swain
in charge of the boat or cock-hoai, but in actual speak-
ing the words have shrunk to what
Now
coxun.
this
may be spelt bosun, new word by (so
process of forming a
to speak) welding together
two or more old ones,
is
one of
the chief acts by which word-makers, ancient and modern,
have furnished themselves with more manageable terms, which again as the meanings of the separate parts were less cared
for,
gone too
were cut shorter far,
in speaking.
philologists can
elements of such words, fortnight , the unus and
still
When
has not
this
get back to the original
discerning the fourteen
decern in undecim,
shrunk
ni^:^Jit
still
in
farther
LANGUAGE.
v.]
in
French onze
the jus,
,
Latin judex, which in
in
dico,
141
Enghsh comes down to judge. As examples how word-compounding goes on in unfamihar tongues, may be taken the Malay term for " arrow," which anak-panah, or '' chiId-(of-the)-bow " and the native is ;
Australian term for "unanimous," which
To show how
'heart-one-come."
is
gurdugyuyul, or
such compound words
Mandingo word for " sister," made up of mi bado dingo iiiuso, The natives of Vanmeaning "my-mother-child-female."
become
shortened, take the
vibadingrmiso, which
is
couver's Island gave to a certain long-bearded Englishman
the
name
Yakpus ;
yakhpekukselkous,
this
made up
appears to have come from of words signifying " long-face-
which in speaking had been cut down \.o yakpus. one who did not happen to be told the history of word could ever have guessed it. This is an important
hair- man,"
No this
lesson in the science of language, for
it is
likely that tens of
thousands of words in the languages of the world
come
into the state in
ing of long
may have
which we find them by the shorten-
compound words, and when
recklessly as in the last example,
reasonable hope
this has been done and the history lost, all
gone of ever getting back
is
to the original
Nor does this process of contraction affect only compound words, but it may act on a whole sentence, fusing it as it were into one word. Here the synthetic or compounding principle reaches its height. As form and meaning.
a contrast to the analytic Chinese sentence given at page 139, to
show
that distinctness
may be
to express that he
way
we may how utterly
the perfect distinctness of their words,
take a sentence of an African language to show
is
"it has raised a
for expressing this
lost.
When
a Grebo negro wishes
very angry, he says in his metaphorical
bone
in
would be
my e
breast."
ya
His
full
viu kra n'udi,
words but in
ANTHROPOLCGY.
143
[chap.
speaking he runs them together so that what he actually
Where such breaking down has gone how the language of a barbaric tribe may alter so much in a i^wf generations as Indeed, any one who will attend hardly to be recognised. to how English words run together in talking may satisfy himself that his own language would undergo rapid changes utters
is
yamukroure.
on unchecked,
easy to see
is
it
like those of barbaric tongues,
master and fixed
and
the printer,
who
were
insist
it
not for the school-
on keeping our words
separate.
The few examples
here given
compounding old ones may serve ciple that such combination, far
of
new words made by
to illustrate the great prin-
from being a mere source of
confusion, has been one of the great
means of building up
one of the great discoveries in modern philology is how grammatical formation and inflexion has It partly come about by a kind of word-compounding. language.
Especially,
must have seemed
to the old scholars a mysterious
arbitrary proceeding that Latin
set of meaningless affixes to inflect
parts of speech ago, agis,
agii,
and make
agere,
agejis,
into difterent
actum, actor,
Bat the mystery to some extent
actio, activus, active,
&c.
disappeared when
was noticed how
it
and
should have fixed upon a
in
modern languages
the running together of words produced something of the kind.
Thus
the hood of liwmajihood, priesthood, which
is
now
a mere grammatical suffix, was in old English a word of itself, had, meaning form, order, state ; and the suffix-/>' was
once the
is seen by Anglo-Saxon where modern English says In Chaucer's English it is seen how the pronoun
distinct
word
" like," as
saying cwen-//r, " queen-///Cr," queen/v.
thou had dwindled into a mere verb-ending,
"He pokyd Johaii,
and seyde,
IlerdistoK' ever slik a sang er
SlepistcTTc;
now?"
.?
LANGUAGE.
v.]
143
In English the future tense of the verb to give give," or, colloquially, "
what speaking verb
I will
give."
I'll
the verb doiiner with the auxiliary it, so that " je
is
both spoken and written on to
ai, as,
donnerai"is a phrase do/i/ierofis,
is
Here writing separates but the modern French future tense
joins,
dontierai, donneras,
"
"I have
like
no
can
donnerez,
be
plural
taken to
thus
pieces, for the remains of the auxiliary verb
meaningless grammatical
The
to give."
longer
have passed
There is Greek and Latin grammar arose in this way by distinct words combining together and then shrinking. Not that it would be safe to assert that all affixes came into existence in into
reason
men
pointed
ez.
of
affixes
out
in
the
last
wanting to utter a thought are clever enough
up in Aery Thus the prefix
to catch it.
ons,
of the
As was
way.
particular
this
chapter,
many
suppose that
to
affixes
ways a sound
far-fetched
which German uses
ge,
to
to
express
make
past
seems to have originally signified " with " " or together," which sense it still retains in such words as participles with,
gespicle, it
c^me
spielen,
in
" playfellow to
to
serve play,
" ;
but by a curious shifting of purpose
as
a means of forming participles, as played.
gespielt,
Anglo-Saxon, as clypian, to
word
in
its
trace of the old to
keep
makers
form yclept
later
of
which
gedypod,
still
keeps up among us a
called,
grammatical device.
their eyes
have
was so used also
It
call,
open
using
they were not intended
to this
sounds for.
Philologists have power which languagefor some new purpose
Thus, in English, the change
of vowels in foot^ fed, and in find^ found, now serves as a means of declining the noun and conjugating the verb.
But history happens not
originally
made
to
show
with
that
this
Anglo-Saxon declension proves
tlic
vowel change was
intention that
the
at
all.
The
vowel was not
ANTHROPOLOGY.
144
then a sign of number in the noun fdfes,fet,
YAxarviX fcf,
fofa, fotiim.
;
[chap.
.
it
Nor was
was singular it
fot,
a sign of tense
Anglo-Saxon verb, where the perfect of Jindan, to had different vowels in its singular, ic fand, I found, and its plural, we fiindon, we found. It was the later Englishmen who, knowing nothing of the real reasons which brought about the variation of the vowels, took to using them to mark singular from plural, and present from in the
find,
perfect. It is
the work of grammarians in examining any language
all its combined words to pieces as far as possible. Greek and Latin grammars now teach how to analyze words by stripping off their affixes, so as to get down to the real part or root, which is generally a simple sound expressing a simple notion. A root is best understood by considering it to have been once a separate word, as it would be in Even in languages where the such a language as English. roots seldom appear without some affix attached, they may stand by themselves as imperative, like Latin die! say! Turkish sei^ ! love But in many languages roots can only be found as imaginary forms, by comparing a group of words and getting at the common part belonging to them all. Thus in Latin it appears from gnosco, gnotus, &c., that there must be a root gno which carries the thought of knowing. Going on to Greek, there is found in gig/iosko, g?idsis, gtuvjie, &c., the same root giw with the same mean-
to take
!
'
ing.
Turning next
to Sanskrit, a similar sound, j?ia,
appears
by comparing the whole set of Aryan or Indo-European languages, it appears that there must have been in ancient times a word something like gna, meaning to know, wliich is to be traced not only in Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin, but root-form for knowing.
as
the
in
many
In
this
other languages of the family,
way,
as
Russian znat.
LANGUAGE.
v.]
A
Englisn know.
I45
few more such Aryan roots, which the
reader recognises at once in well-known languages, are
sfa,
to go, ma, to measure,
i/a,
to stand,
satf,
to
sit,
ga, to go,
/,
to give, riW, to see, ra^, to rule, to
meanings
the remote ages
Aryan peoples wandered with of Central Asia.
how
thropology
known
These simple
to die.
have already become fixed to carry
sounds seem in
7;rar,
It is
when
interesting
on the highlands
their herds
not needful to it is
their
the ancestors of the
the student of an-
tell
to arrive thus at the earliest
But
root-words of any family.
should at the
it
s.ime time be noticed that even in the earliest of these sets
we seldom come to anything like an actual Some few may indeed have been taken
of roots,
or beginning.
from the natural language, this
was so here
for instance ru, to roar,
But most
a real origin.
is
ever languages of the world they
may
impossible
fidently
Unless
how
it is
safest
lost
How
roots.
To him
say con-
meaning.
may have a long this may happen,
own language has a useful lesson to one who knows no language but English our
its
to
their
not to take such roots
as really primitive formations, for they history of the utmost change.
if
what-
belong, are like the
sound came to express
their
can be done,
this
is
and
roots, to
group given above, where
it
origin
direct
teach.
Imagine
trying to get at
the verb to ro// might seem a root-word,
a primitive element of language
;
indeed
it
actually has
been fancied a natural sound imitating the act of rolling. Yet any philologist would tell him that English ro// is a comparatively modern form, which came through a long series of earlier stages ro//er,
now
ro/e,
;
it
was borrowed from French
rou/cr, all
from Latin
this
verb and signifying a runner or goer. is
the history
ro//e,
dimir.utive
coming from a more ancient Still more advenof another English word wl.ich hr.s
of rota, a wheel, even
turous
rotii/us,
ANTHROPOLOGY.
146
now
the parts of a verb,
all
to
besides such forms as a check in string
[ckap. checking,
check,
checked,
the check-
course,
one's
stop the coachman, the check-vAvo. to stop the
to
This word check has
water in a pipe.
sound and sense which might belong
all
to
the simplicity of
an original root-
Yet strange to say, it is really the Persian word meaning "king," which came to Europe with the game of chess as the word of challenge to the king, and thence by a curious metaphor passed into a general word for stopping anybody or anything. For all that is known,
word. shah,
many
root-words
among
the Greeks or Jews, or even the
simple-looking monosyllables
of the Chinese,
may
during
pre-historic ages have travelled as far from their real origin
as these English verbs.
Thus the
roots from which lan-
guage grows may often be themselves sprung as yet earlier seeds or cuttings,
grown
at
home
it
were from
or imported
from abroad, and though in our time words mostly come from the ancient roots, the power of striking new roots is not yet dead.
Having now,
in
such a broad way as
suits
the present
purpose, looked at the formation of words, something
may
be said as to how language contrives to show the relations
among
is done by what and government. It has been seen (p. 119) that the gesture-language, though wanting in grammatical forms, has a strongly marked syntax. The deaf-mute's signs must follow one another in proper order, otherwise they may convey a wrong meaning or seem nonsense. So, in spoken languages which do not inflect their words, such as the Chinese, syntax is the main part of grammar thus li ping = sharp weapons, ping li = weapons
the words of a sentence.
grammarians
call
syntax,
This
concord,
;
(are) sharp
the
;
kingdom
chi is
kuo
=
to govern the
kingdom, but kuo chi
=
governed. This seems quite natural to us, for
LANGUAGE.
v.]
I47
modern English has come far towards the Chinese plan of making the sense of the sentence depend on the order of the words, thus marking the difference between rank offamilies Vir\d
families of rank, or between
men.
In Latin
it is
men
kill lions
and
lions kill
very different, where words can be put
about with such freedom, that the English reader maybe hardly able to make sense of one of Tacitus' sentences without fresh sorting the words into some order he can think them
in.
hardly more
Especially in Latin verses there
syntax than
if
the words were
syllables arranged only to scan.
The
is
often
nonsense-
sense has to be
made
out from the grammatical inflections, as where it is seen that in "vile potabis modicis Sabinum cantharis," the cheapness has to do with the wine and the smallness with the mugs.
It
is
because so
many
of the inflections
have disappeared from English, that the English translation has to obtain a proper understanding by stricter order of words. Where the meaning of sentences depends on order or syntax, that order must be followed, but it must be borne in
mind
that this order differs in different languages.
forest,
For a t/lan
=
savages and apes are called orang ulan, which
is
single instance, in Malay,
where orang
= man and
just opposite to the English construction "forest man."
Every one who can construe Greek and Latin sees what done by government and agreement in showing how the words of a sentence hang together, what quality is stated of what thing, or who is asserted to act on what.
real service is
But even Greek and Latin have changed so much from earlier state, that tliey often fail to
show the scholar
what they mean to do, and why.
It is useful to
their
clearly
make
ac-
quaintance with the languages of ruder nations, which show
government and agreement growth.
One
in earlier
and plainer
stages of
great object of grammatical construction
is
to
ANTHROPOLCGY.
148
make
it
quite
and which
dear which of two nouns concerned is subject whether it was a chief who
object, for instance,
who
killed a bear, or a bear
properly attached
do
will
a way which we thus
may
A
killed a chief
this,
Indians put on the syllable
;
[chap.
2in
when
as
particle
Algonquin
tlie
both to noun and verb, in
try to translate
by the pronoun
/«>;/,
—
Ogimau
ogi
chief
he-did
sa;/«
muk\v//«.
l
bear-//'m.
iii
Mukwah
ogi
nis o^iin
ogima////.
bear
he-did
kill-//m
chief-/^/w.
This gives a notion of the natural manner in which grammatical government
may have come
time,
it
mark the
shows that
may go
different
ways to work,
and object agree
together,
and the subject
different languages
the verb
into use to
At the same
parts of the sentence.
speak) governs both, which
is
for
here
(so to
quite unlike our familiar rule
of the verb agreeing with the nominative or subject.
To
the working of concord or agreement in a far clearer
see
and completer form than Latin can show it, we may look at the Hottentot language, where a sentence may run somewhat
thus,
"That
woman-iV/
tribe's-.?//^, rich-being-.?//^,
another village-in-dwelling -5'//^, praise-we-do
cattle- of-^//^, sJie-
Here the pronoun running through the whole sentence makes it clear to the does present-US two
calves-of-iV/
the
dullest hearer that
it is
in another village,
whose
two of her sentence,
calves.
The
woman who
is
rich,
cattle are praised,
who
dwells
and who gives
terminations in a Greek or Latin
which show the agreement of substantive and
adjective with their proper verb, are remains of affixes which
may have once still
do
in the
carried their signification as i)lainly as they
language of the Hottentots.
A
different plan
of concord, but even more instructive to the classical scholar,
LANGUAGE.
v.]
149
appears in the Zulu language, which divides things into
and then
classes,
carries the
marking
syllable of the class right
through the sentence, so as to connect all the words
is
it
attached to. Thus " u-Z-zz-kosi ^-etu o-l^u-kulu (5«-ya-bonakala si-<^«-tanda," means " our great kingdom appears, we love Here i>u, the mark of the class to which kingdom beit." To longs, is repeated through every word referring to it. give an idea
how
this acts in
holding the sentence together,
by repeating the dom of kingi/om in a similar way " the king-dof/i, our t/cm, which dom is the great dom, the dom appears, we love the domT This is clumsy, but it answers the great purpose of speech, that of making one's meaning certain beyond mistake. So, by using different class-syllables for smgular and plural, and carrying them on through the whole sentence, the Zulu shows the agreement in number more plainly than Greek or Latin can do. But the Zulu language does not recognise by its classsyllables what we call gender. It is in fact one of the puzzles of philology, what can have led the speaker of Aryan languages like Greek, or Semitic languages like Hebrew, to classify things and thoughts by sex so unDr. Bleek translates
it
;
For Latin examples,
reasonably as they do. following (neut.)
;
groups: avior
pes
(masc),
(masc),
virtus
German shows gender in as witness der Hund, die Ratte Anglo-Saxon,
manus (fern.),
(fem.),
delictum
take
the
brachium (neut.
).
practically absurd a state, as ;
das Thier, die Pflanze.
In
was neuter, while ic'if-rnan (i.e. "wife-man," English ivomaii) was masculine. Modern English, in discarding an old system of grammatical gender that had come to be worse than useless, has set an example which Frencli and German might do well to follow. Vet it must be borne in mind that the devices of language, though they
71'//
may decay
(English
zoife),
into absurdity,
were never origmally absurd.
ANTHROPOLCGY.
ijo
No
doubt the gender-system of the
[chap.
classic
languages
remains of an older and more consistent plan.
is
the
There are
languages outside our classical education which show that gender (that
is
genus, kind, class,)
is
by no means necessarily
according to sex. Thus in the Algonquin languages of North
America, and the Dravidian languages of South India, things are divided not as male or female, but as
alive or dead,
and put accordingly in the animate or the inanimate or minor gender. Having
rational or irrational,
major gender, or
how
in
its work by regularly we seem to understand how in the Aryan languages the signs of number and gender may have come to be used as a similar means of carrying through the
noticed
the Zulu concord does
repeating the class-sign,
sentence the information that this substantive belongs to
and that verb. Yet even in Sanskrit, Greek, and Gothic, such concord falls short of the fulness
that adjective
Latin,
and clearness
it
has
in the languages of
among the barbarians of Africa, while modern Europe, especially our own, it
has mostly disappeared, probably because with the advance
of intelligence
it
was no longer found necessary.
The facts in this chapter will have given the reader some idea how man has been and still is at work building up language. Any one who began by studying the grammars of such languages as Greek or Arabic, or even of such barbarous tongues as Zulu or Eskimo, would think them wonderfully
artificial
languages suddenly
systems.
come
Indeed, had one of these
into existence
among a
tribe of
would have been an event mysterious and unaccountable in the highest degree. But when one begins at the other end, by noticing the steps by which word-making and composition, declension and conjugation, concord and syntax, arise from the simplest and rudest beginnings, then men,
this
the formation of language
is
seen to be reasonable, purpose-
LANGUAGE.
v.]
ful,
and
man
intelligible.
still
possesses
It
was shown
in the last chapter that
the faculty of bringing into use fresh
sounds to express thoughts, and now he full
still
151
it
may be added
that
possesses the faculty of framing these sounds into
articulate
speech.
Thus every human
tribe has the
had they not inherited a language readyparents, would have enabled them to make
capabilities which,
made from their a new language of
their
own.
CHAPTER
VI.
LANGUAGE AND RACE. Adoption and p^amilies
loss
Berber, &c.
160
152— Ancetral Language, 153— 155— Aryan, 156— Semitic, 159— Egyptian,
of Language,
of Lanjuage,
— Tatar
Turanian, 161
or
— South-East Asian,
162
— Malayo-Polynesian, 163 — Dravidian, 164 — African, Bantu, Hottentot, 164 — American, 165 — Early Languages and Races
165.
The
next question
is,
What can be
learnt from languages
as to the history of the nations speaking them,
and the
races these nations belong to ?
In former chapters, races
mankind
dividing
in
according to their
skulls,
into stocks or
complexions,
and other
bodily characters, language was not taken into account as In fact, a man's language is no full and a mark of race. certain proof of his parentage.
which
it is
totally misleading, as
persons whose language
is
There are even cases in us have seen
when some of
English, but their faces Chinese
or African, and who, on inquiry, are found to have been It is brou
appears in intermarriage, as where persons called Boileau or Muller may be now absolutely English as to language, in spite of their I*>ench or
individuals but wliolc
Germ.an ancestry.
jjopulations
may
Now
liave
not only
their native
LANGUAGE AND RACE.
cii. VI.]
153
The negroes shipped
languages thus lost or absorbed.
America were taken from many
as
and had no native tongwe in common, so that they came to talk to one another in the language of their white masters, and there is slaves to
now
tribes
be seen the curious spectacle of black woolly-haired
to
broken-down
families talking
dialects of English, French,
In our own country the Keltic language of the
or Spanish.
Ancient Britons has not long since fallen out of use in But whether the Cornwall, as in time it will in Wales. is spoken or not, the Keltic blood remains mixed population of Cornwall, and to class the modern Cornishmen as of pure English race because they speak English, would be to misuse the evidence of language. Much bad anthropology has been made by thus carelessly taking language and race as though they went always and
Keltic language
in
the
exactly together.
Yet they do go together
Although what a man's language
to a great extent.
really proves
not his
is
parentage but his bringing-up, yet most children are in fact
own
brought up by their
as well as their features.
speech
live
So long
together in their
own
common
remain a race-mark gration
parents,
to
and
inherit their language
as people of
one race and
nation, their language will all.
And
although mi-
and intermarriage, conquest and slavery
interfere,
from time to time, so that the native tongue of a nation can never
tell
part of
it,
the whole story of their ancestry,
and
that a
most important
wall the English tongue
is
who were
they mixed.
in
tells
it
in
it
fails
a
Corn-
to tell of the Keltic
the land before them, and with
whom
In a word, the information which the language
of a nation gives as to
man's surname history, but
still
Thus
a real record of the settlement
of the English there, though race
part.
tells
its
race
is
as to his famil}',
one groat
line of
it
something
like
what a
by no means the whole
ANTHROPOLOGY.
154 It
has next to be seen what the languages of the world
can show as
is
of
between languages.
use to compare two languages as old-fashioned
little
philologists
Great care has
to the early history of nations.
to be taken with the proofs of connexion It
[chap.
were too apt to do when,
dozen words
at all similar,
if
they found half-a-
they took these without more
ado to be remnants of one primitive tongue, the origin of both. In the more careful philological comparisons of the present day many similarities of words have to be thrown aside as not proving connexion at
In any two lan-
all.
guages a few words are sure to be similar by mere accident, as where, in the Society Islands, tiputa tippet with us. is
means a
cloak, like
Words must only be compared when
there
a real correspondence of meaning as well as sound, or the
way would be opened for fancies like that of a writer who connects the well known Polynesian word tabu, sacred, with tabid, the
Arabic
name
rently because that
of the ark of the covenant, appa-
was a very sacred
object.
Also, words
imitated from nature prove nothing in this way, as where
Hindus and the savages of Vancouver's Island both call a crow kaka, this being not because their languages are What is most connected, but because it is the bird's cry. important of all is to make sure that tlie words compared the
really belong
found
in.
to the old
]>efore
now
stock of the language they are
a writer has proved to his
own
satis-
and Persian are all branches of one primitive language, his argument being that the Turks call a man adain, as the Arabs call the first man, and a faction that Turkisli, Arabic,
father pader,
which
is
like the Persian word.
The
fact is
but what the argument omits to notice is Turks have been for ages enriching their own
true enough,
that the barbaric language by taking words from the cultured Arabic
and Persian, and adam and pader arc such
lately
borrowed
LANGUAGE AND RACE.
VI.]
155
Borrowed words words, not philologically Turkish at all. like these are indeed valuable evidence, but what they prove
not the
is
common
origin of languages,
it is
inter-
They often from which some new produce country the clue to give the was obtained, or some new instrument, or idea, or instiThus in English it is seen by the very tution, was learnt. words how Italy furnished us with opera, sonata, chiaroscuro, while Spain gave galliiia and viulatto, how from the Hebrews we have sabbath and jubilee, from the Arabs zero and magazine, while Mexico has supplied chocolate and tomato, Haiti hammock and hurricane, Peru guano and course between the nations speaking them.
quinine,
and even the languages of the South Sea Islands
are represented by taboo and tatoo.
But
in all this there is
not one particle of evidence that any one of these languages is
sprung from the same family with any other.
When
for a few
words of similar sound.
find that the
will often
in
its
will
have changed according to different
English
ten,
tame,
different initial, zcJin,
Thus
rules.
Grimm's
German
law,
with a
zahm, while again these should be
regularity of change, the is k,
to the rule called
should appear in
represented in Latin by
nesian languages
not only
descendant languages, but that they
he knows that according
man,
it
words of the ancestral language
have changed
descent, the
by merely looking Indeed he expects to
not content to ascertain
is
the
common
two languages have such a
philologist
With the same some of the Polyhas become /; thus the word
decern,
domare.
sound which
in others
in
Sandwich Islands kanaka (whence our sailors call any South Sea Islander a kanaker), appears in New Zealand under the form of tangata. Going beyond the sound of words into their structure, the comparative philologist
in the
reckons that when two languages are
allied,
they
ANTHROPOLCGY.
156
[cHAP.
ought to show such similarity in the roots and in the putting together, that neither chance nor borrowing can account for
In the first chapter, for another purpose, examples were given of languages continuing to show their intimate connexion while diverging from their parent tongues. The reader may find it worth while to look back to these the resemblance.
illustrations (p. 8) before
going on to the following sketch of
the families of language belonging to the various races of man.
The languages the
families,
of white
Aryan and
family, called also
men
mostly belong to two great First as
Semitic.
to the
Aryan
Indo-European, which takes in the lan-
guages of part of South and West Asia, and almost the whole
The original tongue whence these are all descended may be called the Primitive Aryan. What the roots of this ancient language were like, and how they were put together into words, the student may gain an idea from Greek and Latin, but a still better from Sanskrit, where of Europe.
both roots and inflexions have been kept up in a more per-
and regular state. As a rough illustration of the way which words of our familiar European languages may be
fect in
discerned in Sanskrit, one line of the is
first
hymn
of the
Veda
here given, where the worshippers entreat Agni, the divine
Eire, that
and
will
Sa mil
he
will
be near pita-iva
be approachable to us as a father to a son, for our
happiness
sunave A2ne
:
su-upayauah
Ijhava
sachasva nah
:
svastaye.
Here may be more
or less clearly
made
out words connected
with Latin, Greek, and English nos^ pater, son, sequi, citestb,
and
others.
Though
the
lost language, philologists try to reconstruct
ing
its
Persian,
oldest
ignis, up, be,
original
and most perfect descendants,
it
Aryan is a by compar-
Sanskrit,
Greek, Latin, Old Russian, Gothic, Old
Old
Irish, &:c.
LANGUAGE AND RACE.
VI.]
157
Granting that a primitive Aryan tongue once existed, there must once have been a nation who spoke it, and whose descendants carried
draw any
it
down
to later ages.
certain bodily picture of the
hard to
It is
primitive Aryans
themselves (see page 109), for in their course of migration and conquest they so mingled with other races, that
now
united by Aryan speech range
the nations
through
the utmost varieties of white to the Hindu.
The
have been in
early
men, from the Icelander home of the Aryans is supposed
Inner
Asia, perhaps in the present Turkestan, in the region of the Oxus and Yaxartes, for
to
way of migration for nomads with open down into Persia on the one side, and India on the other. As India and Persia have preserved in tlieir sacred languages the Aryan tongue less changed than elsewhere, it may be judged that the land whence the invading Aryans came was not far off. here the
practicable
flocks
and herds
But
may have been
it
lies
further east in Central Asia, or farther
west on the Russian plains.
may have
In this home-land, wherever
it
been, the Aryans lived in barbaric but not savage
clans, tilling the soil
and grazing
workers in metal and skilled in
their
many
and
flocks
arts
of
life,
herds,
a warlike
folk who went forth to fight in chariots, a people able to govern and obey, to make laws and abide by them, a religious people earnest in the worship of the sun, and sky,
and
fire,
and waters, and with pious faith in the divine spirits Carrying with them their language, laws,
of their ancestors.
and
religion, these nation-founders
spread in radiating tracks
of migration over South-\Vest Asia and
they went they found the Tatars, and doubtless
and wide,
Where
Europe.
Where
Dravidians,
many
like the Basques,
the Pyrenees.
all
land peopled by
other stocks once spread whose language still lingers
the old languages
have
far
in
vanished,
ANTHROPOLOGY.
158
the record of the early populations of
had from
and seen
their tombs,
sent nations, which
may be
[chap.
Europe
is
only to be
in the features of the pre-
more those of the original earliest Aryan hordes westward migration may have been often
people than of the Aryan invaders. The
who
started
on
their
the ancestors of the Keltic nations, for their language has
undergone most change, and they are found in the of Europe, as though they had been pressed
who
Teuton-Scandinavian tribes kinsfolk but not friends.
The
nations migrated westward
them,
followed
far
west
on by the distant
ancestors of the Grosco-Italiaii
till
they reached the Mediter-
came the Slavonic peoples who now occupy Eastern Europe. Thus much of the beginnings of the Aryan nations may be learnt from their languages and their places ranean, and last
on the map.
It is
not in the earliest ages of history that
they appear on the world-stage where Egyptians and Babylonians had long played the great parts.
The Aryans become
prominent within a thousand years before the Christian
when
in
India there arises
among them
era,
the religion
of
Buddha, now reckoned the most numerous in the world ; when the Medes and Persians come into power, and Cyrus appears with his conquering host when the Greeks ;
bring their wondrous
to
bear on
art,
science,
and the Romans set up the military and In later ages system which gave them their empire.
and philosophy legal
intellect
;
our Teutonic nations,
who made their first appearance as come to be its promoters. The
the ravagers of culture,
Aryan nations have kept up in the modern world the career conquest and the union with other peoples which they
of
began
in proi-historic ages.
Outside the world known to
now spoken on far contimen who speak them are from Europe, who have slain or driven out
the ancients, Aryan languages are
nents and islands, white colonists
whether the
LANGUAGE AND RACE.
VI.]
the old dwellers on
tlie soil,
or whether they have
blended with the native nations as
To
proceed
now
159
become
Mexico and Peru.
in
to the languages of the next family, the
an idea of these can be most easily gained from
Semitic,
Any
Hebrew.
student seriously bent on the
Hebrew
language should learn at least enough
few chapters of Genesis,
monly taught
in
science
of
to spell out
a
other languages com-
for all the
England being of the Aryan
will serve to bring his
mind out of
that groove,
family, this
by
familiar-
him with speech of a different material. A very moderate number of roots, mostly of three consonants, by
izing
altering their internal vowels
made
and changing
their
affixes,
form the greater part of the language so regularly that Hebrew dictionaries are arranged throughout by the roots. Thus from the root vi-l-ch are derived verb
are
to
and noun forms with the sense of inakhic
reigned, iimloch
=
=
thou shalt reign,
name of Mclchizedek,
=
kings, vialchcnu
= kmgdom, and
reigning, as vialach
they reigned, yimloch viclech
=
king
our king, viakhah
so on.
The
=
Syrian,
Arabic
= he
he shall reign, (fomiliar
" king of righteousness
"),
in
the
melachim
=
queen, mamlachah
principal languages belonging
to the Semitic family are the Assyrian, nician,
=
and Ethiopic.
Hebrew and PhoeThe Assyrian of
the Nineveh inscriptions and the Arabic
spoken by the
desert Beduins between them best represent the original The ancient or language they are all descended from.
modern peoples speaking Semitic tongues belong mainly to the dark-white race, the type in
now most
which they agree being
plainly seen in the Jewish countenance, with
its
Yet by and curly black hair. features alone it would not have been possible to distinguish the Jews, Assyrians, and Arabs, among the mass of darkHere is seen the value of language, which white nations.
aquiline nose,
full
lips,
ANTHROPOLOGY.
i6o
comes
in
to
connected by
show
that
common
a
[chap.
group of nations
certain
are
ancestry from an ancient people,
who spoke
the lost tongue whence Arabic and Hebrew are and who in the ages when history begins were dwelling in South- West Asia, and sending forth their migrating tribes to found new nations, whose acts in the world form one of the great chapters of history. The conquering Assyrians took up and carried on the older Chaldoean civilisation. The Phoenicians became the great merchants offshoots,
of the old world, with trading colonies along the Mediter-
ranean and commerce in the
and
spices
that
thoughts into
new
culture,
a
and
regions,
became
hieroglyphic writing
though as
far East,
nor was
it
only
stuffs
they carried, but they spread arts and in their
hands the clumsy
the alphabet.
The
Israelites,
nation they never reached such power or
made
their
conquests in the world of religion,
and while the crowd of deities worshipped in Assyrian and Phoenician temples vanished away, the worship of Jehovah passed on into Christianity, and overspread the world.
Latest,
the
warrior-tribes
of
Arabia carried the
banner of their prophet among the nations around, and founded the faith of Islam, a civiUzing power in the middle ages,
and even
in these days of its
decay an influence across
the world from Western Africa to the islands of the far East.
The language of be
classed in
the
the ancient Egyptians, though
it
cannot
Semitic family with Hebrew, has im-
portant points of correspondence, whether due to the long intercourse between the two races in Egypt, or
to
some
and such analogies also appear These difficult in the Berber languages of North Africa. Attempts have questions can merely be mentioned here. been made, though with little result, to prove the Aryan deeper ancestral connection
;
and Semitic languages themselves
to
b2 descended from a
LANGUAGE AND RACE.
VI.]
single parent tongue.
If
it
cal
comparison
fails
then ages of change have
is so,
so wiped away the traces of
i6i
common
origin that philologi-
While speaking
to substantiate them.
of the Aryan and Semitic families of language,
many
noticed that
them
philologists connect
it
should be
as belonging
to one class, as being " inflecting " languages, or such as can
blend their roots and
affixes,
and
alter the roots
knows,
often
is
it
no easy matter
ends and the termination begins.
themselves
Greek grammar well
internally so that, as the beginner in to
see where the root
The
inflecting families
have certainly a power of compact word-formation which
much to give expressiveness and accuracy to such and philosophical languages as Greek and Arabic. But the distinction is by no means clear between the struc-
has done poetical
ture of such inflecting languages
and the agglutinating lanCould the Aryan
guages of other nations, as the Tatars.
and Semitic
families be both traced back to the same would not prove the whole white race to have had one original language, fqr the Georgian of the Caucasus, the Basque of the Pyrenees, and several more would still
family, this
lie
outside, apparently
families, or with
unconnected with either of the great
one another.
In the middle and north of Asia, on
among
the
steppes
or
swamps and forests of the bleak norih, wandering hordes of hunters or herdsmen show the squal-built brownyellow Tatar or Mongolian type, and speak languages of one family, such as Manchu and Mongol. Although principally the
belonging
to Asia, these
established
Tatar or Turanian languages have
themselves in Europe.
At a remote period,
rude Tatar tribes had spread over northern Europe, but they were followed up and encroached on by the invading Aryans,
of them,
till
Esth<;;
now only much-mixed
outlying remnants
Finns, Lapps, are found
speaking Tatar
;
ANTHROPOLOGY.
i62
languages.
In
turn,
history records
later ages,
Huns and
Tatar race,
[chap.
how
armies of
Turks, poured into Europe in their
subduing the Aryan peoples, so that
now
the
Hun-
garian and Turkish languages remain records of these last
waves of invasion from Central Asia. The Tatar hordes are first heard of in history as barbarians, as many tribes are
but their chief nations becoming Buddhists,
still,
hammedans, or
Cliristians,
have adopted the
belonging to these religions.
Mo-
civilisation
The Tatar languages
are of
words by putting first the root, whicfi carries the sense and is followed by suffixes strung on to modify it. Thus in Turkish the the kind called
agglutinative,
root sev, to love,
makes
be brought class,
sevishdirihnediler, they
one another.
were not to
In some languages of this
a remarkable law of vowel-harmony compels
suftix to to, as
to love
forming
conform
if
its
make
to
vowel to that of the root
clear to the hearer that
thus in Hungarian hdz
but szek
=
chair,
—
house, forms
forms szckem
= my
it
it is
the
attached
belongs to
it
hdzam = my house,
chair.
The dense population of South-East
Asia, comprising the
Burmese, the Siamese, and especially the Chinese, shows a type of complexion and feature plainly related to the Tatar or Mongolian, but the general character of their language
is
The Chinese language is made up of monoeach a Avord with its own real or grammatical
different. syllables,
sense, so that our infant-school
some notion of Chinese languages share this limits
them
this
to
books
sentences.
in
one syllable give
Other neighbouring
habit of using monosyllables,
and as
an inconveniently small number of words,
they have taken to the expedient of making the musical I)itch or
intonation alter the meaning, as in Siamese, where
the syllabic
means a
/la,
according to the notes
pestilence, oi the
number
five,
it
is
intoned on,
or the verb to seek.
LANGUAGE AND RACE.
VI]
Tims
163
the intoning which in England serves to express emotion
or distinguish question from answer
is
turned to account
in
the far East for making actually different words, an example
how language
catches at any available device
of expression
is
when a means Looking on the map of Asia at this south-east group of nations, it is plainly not by accident that the people of such neighbouring districts should have
come
wanted.
words of one
seems and gives the whole set of languages a family character. These monosyllable languages are often used to illustrate what the simple childlike constructions of man's primitive speech may have been like. But it is well to mention that Chinese or Siamese, simple as they are, must not be relied on as to talk in
to have
come from
primitive
syllable, but the habit
common
The
languages.
ancestral source,
childlike Chinese phrases
may come complicated grammar, much
be not primitive of older
a
at
but
all,
of the falling as our
own
may away
English
tends to cut short the long words and drop the inflexions
Chinese simplicity of grammar by
used by our ancestors.
no means goes with Chinese nation,
been raised
simplicity of thought
like the
and
life.
to a highly artificial civilisation in ages before
the Phoenicians and Greeks
came out of barbarism.
not yet clear to what race the old Babylonians belonged
spoke the Akkadian tongue, but
may connect It
The
Egyptian and the Babylonian, had
it
this
It
is
who
shows analogies which
with the Tatar or Mongolian languages.
has been already seen
nesians, Polynesians,
(p.
102)
how
the Malays, Micro-
and Malagasy, a varied and mixed
population of partly ^Mongoloid race, are united over their
immense one this
ocean-district half
round the globe by languages of
The parent language of may have belonged to Asia, for in the Malay grammar is more complex, and words arc found
family, the Malayo-Polyncsian.
family
region the
ANTHROPOLCGY.
i64
=
like tasik
sea and langit
—
[chap.
sky, while in the distant islands
New
Zealand and Hawaii these have come down to tat and lai, as though the language became shrunk and formof
less as the race
migrated further from home, and sank into
the barbaric
of ocean islanders.
life
The continent of India has not lost the languages of the tribes who were in the land before the Aryan invasion gave rise to the Hindu population. Especially in the south whole nations, though they have taken to Hindu civilisation, speak languages belonging Tamil,
to the
element of Indian population
Aryan tongues
Dravidian family, such as
The importance of this may be seen by these non-
and Canarese.
Telugu,
still
extending over most of the great triangle
of India south of the Nerbudda, besides remnants in disthe north. Yet
tricts to
many mixed
tribes
Aryan
dialects are
who may have
little
spoken
in India
of Aryan blood.
by In
the forests of Ceylon are found the only people in the world life who speak an Aryan language akin to These aretheVeddas or "hunters," shy wild men who build bough huts, and live on game and wild honey, the chil-
leading a savage ours.
dren, as outcasts
it
seems, of forest-natives mingled with Singhalese
whose language
Among
in
a broken-down state they speak.
the black races, whether or not the eastern negros
of Melanesia are connected by race with the African negros, the Melanesian languages stand apart.
Nor do
African
all
negros speak languages of one family, but some, such as the
Mandingo, seem separate from the great language-family of Central and South Africa, named the Bantu from tribes calling
themselves simply "
men
"
{ba-titii).
(just unlike the
Thus which
of
the
working
Tatar languages) by putting prefixes
in front.
the African magician is
One their
chief peculiarities of the Bantu languages
is
tvaganga, magicians.
is
called mga/iga, the plural of
The
Kafirs of a
certain
LANGUAGE AND RACE.
VI.]
name
bear the well-known
district
a
165
of the basufo, which
is
plural form, a single native being called mosiifo, while his
country
is
fall
much
clicks,"
like
coachmen
children and
words.
language
sesuto,
In South Africa
lies
and
his
character or
a very different language-
way
in
what among us nurses make
to
Hottentot-Bushman, remarkable
family, the
which "
his
lesiiio,
quality bostito.
to horses,
do duty
for the
as consonants in
turning to America, the native languages
Lastly,
Some
into a variety of families.
of these are
known
to
English readers by a word or two, as the Eskimo of the Arctic coasts by the
name of the kayak or single boat on which
our sport canoes are modelled vailed
New England
from
;
the Algonquin which pre-
to Virginia at the time
of the
and whence we have mocassin and tomahawk ; the Aztec of Mexico known by the ocelot and the cacaobean ; the Tupi-Carib of the West Indies and the Brazilian forests, the home of the toucan and Jaguar ; lastly the Quichua or Peruvian, the language of the tnca. early colonists,
In
concluding
language,
to
is
it
this
account of
the
chief
families
of
be noticed that there are many more,
some only
consisting of a few dialects or a single one.
Altogether a
list
of
fifty
or a hundred might perhaps be made,
of which no one has been
satisfactorily shown to be related may, indeed, be expected that often two or three which now seem separate may prove on closer examination to be branches of one family, but there seems no prospect of the families all coming together in this way
to
any other.
as offshoots of
It
one
original language.
The
question whether
there was one primitive speech, or many, has been in past
times most useful in encouraging the scientific comparison of languages.
Both theories claim to account
state of language in the world.
be argued
that the languages
On
the one
for the actual
hand
it
may
descended from the primitive
ANTHROPOLOGY
i66
tongue have branched off so
show
their connection
[chap. vi.
far apart as often
on the other hand,
;
no longer if
to
there were
many
primitive languages, of which those that survived have
given
rise to families, this
But
state of things.
if,
as
would come to much the same seems likely, the original forma-
tion of language did not take place
at once,
all
but was a
gradual process extending through ages, and not absolutely
stopped even now, then
it
not a hopeful task to search
is
for primitive languages at all (see
improved
state of pliilology
page 131).
from known languages to the
ancestral
lost
whence they must have come down. tliis
In the present
answers better to work back
it
It
languages
has been seen that
study leads to excellent results as to the history, not
only of the languages themselves, but of the nations speaking them, as
when
gives the clue to the peopling of the
it
South Sea Islands, or proves some remote ancestral connexion between the ancient Britons, and tlie English and Danes who came after them to our land. Yet thougli language is
so valuable a help and guide in national history,
not be trusted as or go back to
if
its
it
All negroes
beginning.
languages of one family, nor
all
men.
life
may
In exploring the early
records, but they seem hardly
origin of
mankind.
must
human
do not speak
yellow, or brown, or white
of nations, their languages
much
lead us far back, often
origins of the great
it
could give the whole origin of a race,
farther than historical
to reach
races,
still
anywhere near the less to the general
CHAPTER
VII,
WRITING.
— Sound-pictures, 169— Chinese Wriling, 170 — — Egyptian Writing, 173 — Alphabetic 175— Spelling, 178 — Printing, So. i68
Picture-writing,
Cuneiform Writing,
Taught we
I
as
we
arc to read and write in early childhood,
hardly realize the place this wondrous double art
civilized
has
Writing, 172
life,
till
we
how
see
it
strikes
fills
even a notion that such a thing can be.
not
Williams, the South Sea Island missionary,
in
who
the barbarian
John
how once
tells
being busy carpentering, and having forgotten his square,
he wrote a message
and sent
for
it
this to his wife
with a bit of charcoal on a chip,
by a native
his
mouth,
hung by a string round wondering countrymen what he saw
wards carried
who, amazed to
chief,
find that the chip could talk without a it
his it
for
long
do.
So
should
it
art
if
of him, as
it
itself
lest
it
did of whatever was going on.
of writing, mysterious as
rude men, was
which
known
under a stone while he loitered by the way,
tell tales
Yet the
South
in
Africa a black messenger carrying a letter has been to hide
after-
neck, and told
it
seemed
to
these
developed by a few steps of invention,
not easy to make, are at any rate easy to unders.tand
v.hen made.
E\en
unci\ilized races have
made
the
first
1
ANTHROPOLOGY.
68
Had
step, that of picture-writing.
[chap.
the missionary merely
a sketch of his L-sq"''i''e on the chip,
made
carried his message,
Beginning at
the whole business as a matter of course. this
primitive stage,
through
whole
its
would have
it
and the native would have understood will
it
course
be possible to follow thence history
the
writing
of
and
printing.
Fig.
47 shows a specimen of picture-writing as used by
the hunting tribes of North America. tion across
It records
Lake Superior, led by a chief who
Fig. 47.— Picture-writing, rjck n^ar Lake Superior
horseback with
his
(afte.-
is
an expedi-
shown on
S:'io .Icraft).
magical drumstick in his hand. There were
men
of them being whose name, Kishkemunazee, that Their is, Kingfisher, is shown by the drawing of this bird. reaching the other side seems to be shown by the landtoitoise, the well-known emblem of land, wliilc by the picture
in all fifty-one
led by the chiefs
in five canoes, the first
ally,
of three suns under the sky
took three days.
Now
plicity, consists in
making
to
be talked
mere
of.
imitation.
it is
this, childlike
in
its
sim-
meant go beyond this
pictures of the very objects
lUit there are
Tlius
recorded that the crossing
most of
when
devices wliich
the tortoise
is
put to represent
WRITING.
VII.]
no longer a mere
169
become an drawn to mean not a real kingfisher, of that name, we see the first step toward phonetic writing or sound writing, the principle of which is to make a picture stand for the sound of a spoken word. How men may have made the next move toward writing may be learnt from the common child's land,
is
it
imitation, but has
emblem
or symbol.
And where but a man
game of
rebus, that
writing words
is,
the bird
"by
is
things."
Like
many
other games, this one keeps up in child's sport what in earlier
ages was
man's earnest. Thus if one writes the word waterman " by a picture of a water-jug and a man, this is drawing the meaning of the word in a way hardly beyond the American Indian's picture of the kingfisher. But it is *'
very different
when
pa-
in a child's
book of puzzles one
noch
te
finds
te.
Fig. hZ.— Pater nosier in Mexican picture-writng (after Aubin).
the drawing of a water-can, a fruit,
this
man
being shot, and a date-
representing in rebus the
word "can-di-date." For now what the pictures have come to stand for is no longer their meaning, but their mere sound. This is true phonetic writing, though of a rude kind, and shows how the practical
came to be invented. This made more than once, and in The old Mexicans, before the
art of writing really
invention seems to have been
somewhat
different ways.
arrival of the
Spaniards, had got so far as to spell their names of persons and places by pictures, rebus fashion. Even when they began to be Christianized, they contrived to use their picture-writing for the Latin religion.
Thus they painted a
words of
flag (pan),
their
a stone
new
a prickly-pear {/loch) (Fig. 48), which were together pronounced {(e),
ANTHROPOLOGY.
I70
[chap.
and served to spell pater iioster, in a way was tolerably exact for Mexicans who had no r in their In the same way they ended the prayer with the language.
pa-ie-noch-te,
that
picture of water (<7),and aloe {me), to express
ai)ien.
This leads on to a more important system of writing. Looking at the ordinary Chinese characters on tea-chests or
one would hardly think they ever had to do with picBut there are fortunately preserved certain
vases,
tures of things.
early Chinese characters,
known
as the " ancient pictures,"
which show how what were at first of objects came to be dashed pencil,
the rabbit's-hair ingless-looking
cursive
distinctly off
in
formed sketches
a few
strokes
of
they passed into the mean-
till
now
forms
in
seen in
use, as
is
%
%
rig. 49-
Ancient
Modern Fig. 49.
"^ p^ — C'h'.nese ancient pictures and later cursive fjrms (after Endlicher). |-|
The Chinese
did not stop short at
pictures of objects, which goes but
The
inventors of the
wanted
to
were put
in
represent
pound
mode of Chinese writing spoken sounds, but here they
a difficulty by
this they
making such mere way toward writing.
present the
their
monosyllables, so that one word has
To meet
little
language
consisting
of
many different meanings.
devised an ingenious plan of making com-
characters, or "pictures
and sounds,"
in
which one
part gives the sound, while the other gives the sense. give an idea of this, suppose
To
were agreed that a picture of a box should stand for the sound box. As, however, this sourd has several meanings, some sign must be added to show it
WRITING.
vii]
which to
Thus a key might be drawn beside
intended.
is
show
171
a box to put things in, or a leaf
it is
hand show
the plant called Iwx^ or a the ear, or a whip would
This would be
of a coach.
for us
to
it
mean
intended for a box on
if it is
that
if it is
was
it
to signify the
box
a clumsy proceeding, but
would be a great advance beyond mere picture-writing, it would make sure at once of the sound and thj meaning. Thus in Chinese, the sound chow has various meanings, as ship, fluff, flickering, basin, loquacity. There-
it
as
fore is
the character which
placed
additional
of cho^u
in
first
Fig.
characters to
A
intended.
is
show which
fliift"
Fig. 50.— Chinese
afterwards
particular
with
meaning
recognisable pair of feathers
m
^ ship
repeated
is
which
a ship, chow,
represents 50,
'M
'it flickering
compound
b.-is
n
chaiacters, pictures
is
i* loquacity
and sounds.
placed by it to mean chow = fluff; next, the sign of fire makes it chow = flickering ; next, the sign of water makes it chow = basin ; and lastly, the character for speech is joined to it to make chow = loquacity. These examples, though far
from explaining the whole mystery of Chinese writing,
give
some idea of
the principles of
its
keys or determinative signs, and show
sound-characters and why a Chinese has to
master such an immensely complicated set of characters in order to write his own language. To have introduced such
a method of writing was an
effort
the ancient Chinese, which their their respect
same time
for
it is
by refusing
to
of inventive genius in
modern descendants show improve upon it. At tlie
not entirely through conservatism that they
have not taken to phonetic writing
like that of tlie
western
ANTHROPOLOGY.
173
would
nations, fur this
for instance
[chap.
confuse the various kinds
of chotu which their present characters enable them to keep
But the Japanese, whose language was
separate.
than
suited
Chinese
the
made themselves
actually
Chinese characters.
them down
being wTitten
ro,
another
certain of these,
for fa,
&c.
such characters (which they
seven
better
phonetically,
a phonetic system out of the
Selecting
into signs to express sounds,
another for
I'rofa),
for
they cut
one to stand
Thus a
for
/,
set of forty-
accordingly the
call
serve as the foundation of a system with which they
write Japanese by
conveys
sound more accurately than our writing
it.
is to be seen man-headed bulls of Nineveh, or on the flat baked bricks which were pages of The marks like books in the library of Sennacherib. wedges or arrow-heads arranged in groups and rows do not look much like pictures of objects. Yet there is evidence
Next, as to the cuneiform writing, such as
Museum on
at the British
that they
came
at first
the huge
from picture-writing
;
for instance, the
sun was represented by a rude figure of it made by four Of the groups of characters in an strokes arranged round. inscription,
woman,
some
river,
serve directly to represent objects, as
man,
house, while other groups are read phonetically
as standing for syllables.
The
inventors of this ancient
system appear to have belonged to the Akkadian group of In nations, the founders of early Babylonian civilization. later ages the Assyrians
languages
by cuneiform
and Persians learned characters, in
to write their
inscriptions
which
remain to this day as their oldest records. But the cuneiform writing was cumbrous in the extreme, and had to give
way when
it
came
into competition with the alphabet.
To
understand the origin of that invention, it is necessary to go back to a plan of writing which dates from antiquity probably
f
WRITING.
VII.]
173
even higher than the cuneiform of Babylonia, namely, the hieroglyphics of Egypt,
The
earhest
belong to a
known
hieroglyphic inscriptions
of Egypt
Even
ai)proaching 3,000 B.C.
i)eriod
at this
ancient time the plan of writing was so far developed that
means of spelling any word phonetically, when they chose. But though the Egyptians had thus come to writing by sound, they only trusted to it in part, combinthe scribes had the
ing
it
with
which are evidently remains of
signs
Thus
picture-writing.
pair of sandals,
may
mere pictures of an
the
stand for ox,
earlier
ox, a star, a
Even where way
star, sandals.
they spelt words by their sounds, they had a remarkable
of adding what are called determinatives, which are pictures
meaning of the spelt word. One example from Renouf's Egyptian The meaning is "I these devices.
to confirm or explain the
short sentence given as an
Grammar, shows
all
'^^ I
N K
I
I
sun god
one
I
Jv\
P R walk
one
cuk
:
ra netar
per
cm
sun god
coming
from
^
I
^^^i^^„
X
T
T-
enemy
F one
xi:t
horizon
xcfiu
er ag.i!nst
pi.
p
—
enemies
— his
forili
(am) the Sun -god coming forth from the horizon against his enemies."
Here
neath.
and things shown under-
part of the pictures of animals
are letters to be read into Egyptian words, as
But others are
still
real pictures,
The sun
intended to stand for
shown by his picture, with a one-mark below, and followed by the battle-axe which is the svmbol of divinity, while further on comes a picture of Beside these, some of the the horizon with the sun on it. what they represent.
13
is
1
ANTHROPOLOGY.
174
[chap.
figures are determinative pictures to explain the words, the
verb to walk being followed by an explanatory pair of
legs,
and the word enemy having the picture of an enemy after it, and then three strokes, the sign of plurality. It seems that the Egyptians began with mere picture-writing like that of the barbarous tribes of America, and though in after ages they came to use some figures as phonetic characters or letters, they never had the strength of mind to rely on them entirely, How they were but went on using the old pictures as well. led to
make
a picture stand for a sound
In the figure a character
This
is
may be
is
not hard to see.
noticed which
read
is
an outline of an open mouth, and indeed
used to represent a mouth
;
is
but the Egyptian word for
R.
often
mouth
being ro, the sign came to be used as a character or letter So to spell the sound RO or r wherever it was wanted.
much
of the history of the art of writing
may
thus be read
in a single hieroglyphic sentence.
These pictures,
and
carefully
drawn hieroglyphic
used as they were
state,
for the
or "sacred-sculpture"
solemn records of church
were kept up for sacred purposes into the time of
and even the Roman empire in Egypt. deciphering them had been lost the names of Ptolemy and Cleopatra were But from identified by Dr. Thomas Young.
the Greek dynasty,
Indeed
after the secret of
many ages, among the first
for
very ancient times the Egyptian scribes, finding the elaborate pictures too troublesome for business writing
on papyrus,
brought them down (much as the Chinese did
theirs) to a
These were the "hieratic" characters, a few of which are seen in the second column of Fig. 5 Yet even when they following their hieroglyphic originals.
few quick strokes.
used these, the Egyptian scribes never freed themselves from
do away and drop
the trammels of their early picture-writing, so as to
with the unnecessary multitude of phonetic signs,
WRITING.
VII.]
175
the determinative pictures as useless.
made by
Tacitus, in a jiassage of his
of
This great move was
foreigners.
letters,
says that
mind by
tlie
Annals describing the
Egyptians
origin
depicted thoughts of
first
which oldest monuments of be seen stamped on the rocks, so that they (the Egyptians) appear as the inventors of letters, which the
figures of animals,
human memory are
to
the Phoenician navigators brought thence to Greece, obtaining the glory as
if
they had discovered what tiiey really borrowed.
This account may be substantially
true,
but
it
does not give
the PhcEnicians credit for their practical good sense, which
they were able to follow, being strangers and not bound by the sacred traditions of Egypt. No doubt the Phoenicians (or nation), when they learnt the Egyptian saw that the picture-signs mixed with the
some other Semitic hieroglyphics,
words had become mere surplusage, and
spelt
tliat all
they
wanted was a small number of signs to write the sound Thus was invented the earliest soof their words with.
really
Some of its letters may have been actually copied from the Egyptian characters, as is seen by Fig. 51, which shows a selection from the compared set
called Phoenician alphabet.
drawn up by De Rouge, so arranged
as to pass from the
original Eg}'ptian hieroglyphic to
hieratic
its
form
in the
current writing, and thence to the corresponding letter of
the Phoenician alphabet, with
examples of similar
letters in
its
value in our letters
other well
known forms
and
of the
alphabet. It
the
seems to have been about the tenth century r.c that alphabet was made, forms of which were ,
original
used by the Moabites, Phoenicians,
Israelites,
and other
nations of the Semitic family to write their languages. curious proof that the alphabet
\\'Zi%
it
first
A
was among these Semitic nations that shaped, has
come down
to us in it3
ANTHROPOLOGY.
176
[chap.
name. To understand this, it has to be noticed that the letters were named, each by a word beginning witli it. The Hebrew forms of these names are famihar to EngHsh readers from
Psahn a, bet/i
cxix.,
in their order alepli or " ox " for gimel or " camel " for x", and so on.
where they stand
or " house
''
ior
l>,
indeed our Anglois a natural way of naming letters Saxon ancestors had another such set of names belonging This
;
Egyptian
Egyptian
hieroglyphic.
hieratic.
Phoenician alphabet.
w Fig.
51.
\
D
{aree1cj\>^
H
V
(Helrew\)
R
{Grvelc^^
vu
SorSHC/^t-fcrn/'tiT)
— Egyptian hieroglyphic .and hieratic characters CDmp.ired with letters cf Piioenician
and
later
to tlie rune-letters they
alphabets (after
used in
De
old
letter h, bcorc or " birch," their letter
;;/,
Rouge').
times,
calling
their
moti, their letter
///,
Now
what confirms the history that the Phoenicians had the alphabet first and the Greeks learnt the art of writing from them, is that the Greeks actually borrowed the thorn.
Phoenician names for the
letters,
which were
like the
Hebrew
WRITING.
VII]
177
ones just given, and which in Greek passed into the wellknown forms alpha, beta, gamma, &c. Thence comes the
word
alphabet,
which thus preserves the traces of the
made and named by
having been
passed from them to the Greeks and Latins, and at
down
to us.
It is
letters
the Phoenicians, having last
interesting to look through a
came
book of
may be traced the history of the and others plainly related to them,
alphabets, where not only
Greek and Latin
letters,
such as the Gothic and Slavonic, but out that others at
first
may even be made
it
sight so unlike as the
runes and the Sanskrit characters, must of the primitive alphabet.
Veda, the Moslem Christian his
New
all
Northmen's
be descendants
Thus the Brahman
writes his
Koran, the Jew his Old and the Testament, in signs which had their origin his
on temple walls in ancient Egypt. Such changes, however, have taken place in writing,
that
often requires most careful comparison to trace them.
If
in the pictures
it
one showed a Chinese an English note scribbled in modern handwriting, it would not be quite easy to prove to him that the characters were derived from old Phoenician ones such as those in Fig. 51.
Our running-hand must be
through copybook-hand, and from small capitals,
and so
further back.
Readers
traced back
letters to
Roman
will find this
worth
doing as an exercise.
They may
look
English writing, such as a Parish
at
old-fashioned
also be
recommended
Register of the i6th century, which will show
more which
how much
the writing of that period was like the crabbed it is still
thought proper to write German.
fortunately learnt a simpler writing-masters,
who
and better
taught us the "
Malvolio recognizes in Twelfth Alight.
were not only made
Thus among
style
to
hand
in
We English
from the Italian
Roman hand
"
which
Alterations in letters
for convenience, but also for decoration.
the scribes of the middle ages there arose
ANTHROPOLCGY.
178 varieties
fanciful
such as what we
Black Letter, and still use style of manuscript being
[chap.
Old English and
call
fashion
in
when
printing
introduced in Europe, English books were at
read
many German books are a page of a German book so
how
great a gain of clearness
in
it,
as
it
distinct Latin letters
One
still.
was
printed
first
has only to
printed to satisfy oneself
was to discard these
letters
and return
to the
with forms broken by unmeaning
more
This
ornamental purposes.
for
we now
lines,
use.
Beside these general changes of alphabet, the history of writing shows
made
as
to
how from particular
time to time alterations have been
The
letters.
Phoenician
original
alphabet was weak in vowels, in a way which the learner of
Hebrew can understand when
he
tries
to
read
it
without the vowel points, which are more modern marks
who do not know how each word should be
put on for the benefit of those
language well enough to
nounced.
tell
the pro-
The Phoenician alphabet did not altogether suit Greek and Latin, who altered some letters and
the writers of
made new ones fectly,
in order to write their languages
and thus other nations have made
more
per-
free in adding,
dropping, and altering letters and fheir sounds, to get the
means required causes
may be
for
To such its own tongue. known to the ])rimitive alpha-
each to express
traced letters not
O and English w, which are explained by names of Omega or " great-o," and " double-u." The digamma or F fell out of use in Greek, and the two valuare lost to modern able Anglo-Saxon //; letters, S and English. The letters H and x are examples of letters which in Greek served purposes other than those English uses them for. By arranging their alphabets to suit the sounds of their languages, nations contrive with more or fewer letters to spell with some accuracy, Italian managing this bet,
such as Greek
their
]>,
WRITING.
VII.]
fairly
with twenty-two
letters,
179
while Russian uses thirty^six.
English has an alphabet of twenty-six
them without
system,
regular
so
letters,
One
pronunciation disagree at every turn.
but works
and
our spelling
that
cause of this
to keep up side by side and French, as where ^ is used to spell both the English word get and the French •word gentle. Another cause has been the attempt to keep up state of things has
two
been the attempt
different spellings, English
ancient sounds in writing, although they have been dropped in speaking
;
thus in t/iroiion, casile,
s'cene,
the
now
silent
letters are relics of sounds which used to be really heard
in
Anglo-Saxon thuru, Latin
makes
this the
lish writing
does simply
that in
sKie/ie. What many words Eng-
what
actually spoken
casTeliuiii,
more perplexing
is,
try to spell
Greek is
;
English tail does not keep up the lost guttural of Anglo-
Saxon
t<^gel,
nor does English palsy retain
sounds that have vanished in
its
letters for the
derivation
from French
Our wrong spelling is the result not of rule but of want of rule, and among its most curious cases are those where the grammarians have managed to put both sound and etymology wrong at once, writing island, rhyme, scythe,
paralysie.
where is
their forefathers rationally wrote
Hand, rime,
sit/ie.
reckoned that on an average, a year of an English
education present
is
mode
wasted
in
It
child's
overcoming the defects of the
of spelling.
The invention of writing was the great movement by which mankind rose from barbarism to civilization. How vast its effect was, may be best measured by looking at the low condition of tribes still living without it, dependent on
memory for their traditions and rules of life, and unable to amass knowledge as we do by keeping records of events, and storing up new observations for the use of future generations.
Thus
it is
no doubt
right to
draw the
line
between
ANTHROPOLOGY.
i8o
[chap.
barbarian and civilized where the art of writing comes
in, for
permanence to history, law, and science. Such knowledge so goes with writing, that when a man is spoken of as learned, we at once take it to mean that he has read many books, which are the main source men learn from. Already in ancient times, as compositions of value came to be
this gives
written, there sprang up a class of copyists or transcribers, In Alexandria or whose business was to multiply books. Rome one could go to the bibliopole or bookseller and buy a manuscript of Demosthenes or Livy, and in later ages
the copying of religious books splendidly illuminated, be-
came a common occupation, especially in monasteries. But manuscripts were costly, only the few scholars could read them, and so no doubt
new
art
come
it
would have remained had not a
in to multiply writing.
This was a process simple enough in itself, and indeed known from remote ages. Every Egyptian or Baby-
well
lonian
who smeared some black on
his signet-ring or en-
graved cylinder, and took off a copy, had made the
first
step
But easy as the further application now no one in the Old World saw it. It appears
towards printing.
seems
to us,
to have
been the Chinese who invented the plan of engrav-
ing a whole page of characters on a wood-block off
many
century,
They may have begun
copies.
and
at
any
rate in the tenth century they
The Chinese
printing books.
diversity of characters,
movable separate writers
terra- cotta
way
from
were busy
its
enormous
not well suited to printing by is
a record that this plan was carried
types in the eleventh century.
on with
Moslem
the fourteenth century describe Chinese
early in
its
writing,
among them, having been
printing, so that
found
is
types, but there
early devised
and printing
as early as the sixth
it
to
was probably through them that the art Europe, where not long afterwards the
WRITING.
VII.]
so-called
i8i
"block-books," printed from whole page wood-
blocks after the Chinese manner,
make
their appearance,
followed by books printed with movable types. tions have
Few ques-
been more debated by antiquaries than the claims
of Gutenberg, Faust, and the others to their share of honour
Great as was the service these
as the inventors of printing.
worthies did to the world,
it is
only
fair to
remember
that
what they did was but to improve the practical application of a Chinese invention. Since their time progress has been
made
in cheapening types,
making paper by machineiy,
improving the presses, and working them by steam-power, but the idea remains the same. Such is, in few -words, the to which perhaps, more due the difference of our modern life from that of the middle ages. In examining these methods of writing, we began with the rude hunter's pictures, passing on to the Egyptian's use of a picture to represent the sound of its name, then to the breaking down of the picture into a mere sound-sign, till in this last stage the connexion between figure and sound becomes so apparently arbitrary, that the child has to be
history of the
art
of printing,
than to any other influence,
is
taught, this sign stands for A, this for B. trast with this is the
In curious con-
modern invention of the phonograph,
where the actual sound spoken into the vibrating diaphragm marks indentations in the travelling strip of tinfoil, by which the diaphragm can be afterwards caused to repeat the vibrations and re-utter the sound. When one listens the tones coming forth from the strip of foil, tlie South Sea Islander's fancy of the talking chip seems hardly to
unreasonable.
—
•
CHAPTER VIII. ARTS OF LIFE.
— Club, Hammer, 184— Stone-flake, — Sabre, Knife, 189 —Spear, Dagger, Sword, 192 — Missiles, Tools, Javelin, 190 — Carpenter's 193 — Sling, Spear-thrower, 194— Bow and Arrow, 195 — Blow-tube, Gun, 196 — Mechanical Power, 197 — Wheel carriage, 19S— Hand-mill, 200 Lathe, 202 — Screw, 203 — Water-mill, Wind-mill, 204.
Development of Instraments, 1S3
185— Hatchet,
188
Drill,
The
arts
and holds
by
wliich
man
defends and maintains himself,
rule over the world
he
on his use of instruments, that
some
it
lives in, will
depend so much
be well
to begin with
account of tools and weapons, tracing them from
their earliest
Man
is
and rudest forms.
sometimes
called, to distinguish
lower creatures, the "tool-using animal."
him from
all
This distinction
holds good in a general way, marking off
man
with his
spjar and hatchet from the bull goring with his horns, or the beaver carpentering with his teeth. to
see
how
ourselves
in
plainly
the
ape
tribes,
have also rudiments of the Untaught by man, they defend
having hands,
implement-using faculty.
themselves with missiles, as when trees
But it is instructive coming nearest to
furiously
pelt
passers-by
orangs in
with
the
the durian
thorny
fruit.
CHAP.
ARTS OF
VIII.]
The chimpanzee stone,
in the forests
is
said to crack nuts with a
taught to do by the keepers, where the use of these and
more
1C3
Gardens monkeys are often
Zoological
our
as in
LIFE.
difficult
they take readily to
implements, as soon
r.s
the thought has been put into their minds.
The
lowest order of implements are those which nature
provides ready-made, or wanting just a
finish
;
such are
pebbles for slinging or hammering, sharp stone splinters to cut or scrape with,
branches for clubs and spears, thorns
These of course are oftenest found
or teeth to pierce with.
among
in use
savages, yet they sometimes last on in the
when we catch up any stick to kill a rat when in the south of France women shell the almonds with a smooth pebble, much as the apes at Regent's Park would do. The higher implements used by mankind are often plainly improvements on some natural object, but they are adapted by art in ways civili/ed world, as
or snake with,
or
no notion of, so that it is a better definition him the " tool-maker " than the " tool-user."
that beasts have
of
man
to call
Looking
at the various sorts of
they were not invented genius,
but
implements,
we
see
that
once by sudden flashes of or one might almost say grown,
evolved,
all
at
by small successive changes.
It will
the instrument which at
did roughly several kinds of
first
be noticed also that
work, after\vards varied off in different ways to suit each particular
purpose, so as to give rise to several different
instruments. is
to
that
be the is
to
A
Zulu seen at work scraping the stick that
shaft of his
making was
like,
assegai, with
the very iron head
may give an idea what early toolbefore men clearly understood that the
be fixed on
it,
pattern of instrument suitable for a lance-head was not the best for cutting
and
scraping.
thought of the blacksmith
We
should be horrified at the
pulling out one of our teeth.
ANTHROPOLCGY.
l84
[CHAP.
with his pincers, as our forefathers would have the forceps variety
of
we expect the
the
smith's
for a special purpose.
dentist
to
but
is
tool,
Thus
it
use a
him do
let
;
indeed a
is
special
variety
in the history of instruments,
the tools of the mechanic cannot well be kept separate from the weapons of the hunter or soldier, for in several cases will
be seen that both tool and weapon had
it
their origin in
some earlier instrument that served alike to break skulls and cocoa-nuts, or to hack at the limbs of trees and of men. Among the simplest of weapons is the thick stick or cudgel, which when heavier or knobbed passes into the Rude champions have delighted in the ferocious club. roughness of such a gnarled club as Herkules in the pictures carries
on
his shoulder, while others spent their leisure
hours
and carving, like that of the South Sea From savage through Island clubs to be seen in museums. barbaric times the war-club lasted on into the middle ages of Europe, when knights still smashed helmets in with
in elegant shaping
Mostly used as a weapon,
heavy maces.
their
and then appears with which
in peaceful arts, as
the Polynesian
It is curious to see
after
its
serious
how
women
sitting
of
warlike
use
has
Parliament or the
the club has been
out bark cloth.
the rudest of primitive weapons,
symbol of power, when the mace of the royal authority, and is laid the
beat
now
only
it
ribbed clubs
in the
ceased, is
survives
as
a
emblem
carried as
on the table during Royal Society.
generally a weapon, the
While
hammer has
Its history begins with been generally an implement. the smooth heavy pebble held in the hand, such as African blacksmiths to this day forge their iron with, on another smooth stone as anvil. It was a great improve-
ment
to fasten the stone
hammer on
a handle
;
this
was
ARTS OF
VIII.]
done
in very ancient times, as
LIFE.
185
seen by the stone heads
is
being grooved or bored on purpose (see Fig. 54 /). Though the iron hammer has superseded these, a trace of the oldei use of stone remains in our very
name hammer^ which
is
the
old Scandinavian hamarr, meaning both rock and hammer.
we come to hacking and cutting. At the known of man's life on the earth, his pointed and edged instruments of sharp stone are among his chief Even in the mammoth-period he had already relics.
From
beating
earliest times
learnt not to be content with accidental chips of
Fig. 52.
but
— Gunfl.nt-maker's core and flakes (Evans),
knew how to knock flint
flint,
off
two-edged
or other suitable stones
implement making.
is
flakes.
This
art of flaking
the foundation of stone-
Perhaps the best idea of
gained from the Suffolk gunflint makers
who
it
at
may be this
day
carry on the primceval craft, though with better tools and for so different a purpose.
core of
flint,
Fig. 52
shows a gunflmt maker's
with the flakes replaced where he has knocked
them off, and the mark of the blow is seen which brought away each flake. The flakes made by Stone Age men for
1
ANTHROPOLOGY.
86
in Fig. 53 a,
c,
flint
three-sided like the Australian flake
may be
instruments ^.
But the more convenient flat-backed shape
has been used from the earliest core, Fig.
how by the new
[chap.
54/
previous flaking or trimming flake to
known
come
it
times.
from
with the flakes e taken
it,
The shows
was prepared
The
off with a suitable back.
for
finest
1 a FiG.
53.— Stone Flakes:— a,
flakes are
^
& Palseolithic
;
those not struck
b,
Modern Australia
off,
;
c,
Ancient Denmark.
but forced off by pressure
wood or horn. The neat Danish flake, was no doubt made so, and the still more beautiful
with a flaking-tool of Fig. 53^,
sharp flakes of obsidian with which the native barbers of Mexico, to the astonishment of Cortes' soldiers, used to A stone flake just as struck off may be fit for use shave. or by as a knife, or as a spear head like that in Fig. 58 « ; arrowhead, scraper, a into made be may further chipping it
or awl, like those in Fig. S4-
ARTS OF
VIII.]
The
oldest
gravels
known
of the
tribes of
quaternary
or
LIFE.
187
men have
left
in
the drift
mammoth-period not only
—
Fig. 54. Later Stone Agt (neolithic) implement';, a. stone celt or hatchet /', flint spear-head c. scraper;
;
/',
;
rough flakes
mentioned
like Fig.
53
a,
but the stone implements already
in the fust chapter, of
Fig. 55.
which the drawing
— Earlier Stone Age (palaeolithic)
flint
is
here
picks or hatchets.
repeated in Fig. 55. Chipped to an edge all round, they may have served with the pointed end as picks and the
broad end as hatchets.
It
is
not clear whether any of
ANTHROPOLCGY.
i88
[chap.
them were fixed in handles, but there are specimens found which have only one end chipped to a point, but the other end of the fiint left smooth, so that they were evidently grasped in the hand to hack with. There is nothing to show that these men of the old drift-period ever ground a stone implement to an edge. Thus their stone implements were far inferior to the
celts
of the later
neatly-shaped and sharp-edged ground
Stone Age, Fig. 54
a,
Fig. 56 a.
The
word celt used for the various chisel-like instruments of rude and ancient tribes is a convenient term, taken from Latin
a. polished stone celt
Fig. 56.— Stone Axes, &c.
(Kngland)
;
pebble grouni to
h.
handle (modein liotucudo. Brazil); c. celt fixed in •wooden club (Ir-land); d, stone axe bored for liai.dle (England); c, stone adze
edge and mounted
(modern
in twi','
l^olynesia).
a chisel, in the Vulgate translation of Job xix. 24, " celte sculpantur in silice ; " but it has been thought that
celtis,
"graven with a
chisel
{celte)
blunder for " graven surely then
celtis
and
celt
in the
rock"
{certe) in
is
only a copyist's
the rock
;
are curious fictitious words.
"
and It
if
so,
may be
worth while to mention that the name of the implements called celts has nothing to do with the name of the people called Celts or Kelts.
A
stone celt only requires a handle
ARTS CF
VIII.]
to
make
it
LIFE.
1S9
This was done very simply by
into a hatchet.
who would pick up a suitable water-worn pebble, rub one end down to an edg^, and bind Another rude way of mounting a it in a twig, Fig. 56 the forest
Indians of Brazil,
/'.
celt
was
to stick
or warrior's
bog
in
a.xe
form a woodman's
into a club, so as to
it
such as
r,
which shows one dug out of a
The most advanced
Ireland.
method was
to
a hole tlirough the stone blade to take the handle
drill
as in
When
d.
across, the tool
the stone blade
fixed with
is
becomes a carpenter's adze,
as
the r,
edge
which
is
the instrument used by the canoe-building Polynesians.
Fig. 57.— 1. Epr>'P''>in Haitle-axe d, Jiuroptan sheaih-kiiife ; e,
When
:
/;.
Egyp;ian falchion;
Roman cuher
;
/,
c.
Hindu
.^siutic
sabre;
bill-ho-k.
metal came into use, the forms of the stone imple-
ments were imitated
in copper, bronze, or iron,
and though
the patterns were of course lightened and otherwise improved
may be plainly seen that the in museums are the ancestors But also (so to speak) of the metal ones made ever since. the use of metal brought in new and useful forms which stone was not suited to. An idea of these important changes may be gained by careful looking at the series of metal
to suit the
new
material,
it
stone hatchets anrl spear-heads
14
ANTHRCPOLCGY.
iQO
We
cutting-ins'.ruments in Fig, 57.
[chap.
begin with
a,
which
is
an Egyptian bronze battle-axe, not very far changed froni But
the stone hatchet.
by Egyptian warriors,
is
b,
the bronze falchion carried also
a sort of axe-blade with the handle
not at the back, but shifted tion could not
would have broken metal
it
down
have been made in the
answers perfectly.
convenient
altera-
in the stone hatchet,
which
shank It
;
this
blow, while in
at the first
may
very well have been such
transformed hatchets that led to the making of several most important classes of weapons and tools, in which a blade with stout back and front edge
is
below
fixed to a handle
for chopping, slasliing, or cutting.
Among
these are
various forms of the sabre or scimitar, represented by
our
ordinary
all
represented here by the European
and
cleavers, represented
Nor does
e.
c,
knives,
sheath-knife d, culter
it
the
all
all
the development
Roman
by the
stop here, for the
of instruments to which our bill-hook belongs
is
group
made
with
a concave edge, as in the Indian form, /, and this again leads on to the still more curved forms of the sickle and the scythe, which are not drawn here.
reason to suppose that
all
or weapons, or such as, like
may have
which
itself is
From
all
there
is
the bill-hooks of the
English and the modern Malays, served war,
Thus
some
these instruments, whether tools early
alike for peace
and
originated from the early metal hatchet,
derived from the
still
earlier hatchet of stone.
the early stone spear-heads another set of
weapons
seem to have gradually arisen, as may be seen in Fig. 58. Looking at the spear from the Admiralty Islands, a, the head of which is a large fiake of obsidian, it is i)lain that such a spear, when the shaft is broken oft" short, becomes a In fact one often cannot tell whether the flint blades of shapes like b, which are dug up in Europe, were
dagger.
intended
for
mounting as spears or as daggers.
Now
the
—
ARTS OF LIFE.
VIII.]
of stone was
brittleness
i9t
against the use of stone blades
more than a few inches long, but when metal came in, the blades could be made long, taper, and sharp, thus developing into two-edged daggers of deadly effect.
pictures warriors are seen
weapons having blades of
two
these
may be
that the dagger
In old Egyptian
armed with spear and dagger,
described
similar
shape, so
as a large spear-head
It seems as though the with a hilt to grasp in the hand. metal dagger, by further lengthening, passed into the two-
m
edged sword, a weapon impossible
stone.
To
give an
<;8. tz. Stone spear-head (Admiralty I?.): i, stone Rpear-head or dagger-tlade (England): c, bronze spear-head (Denmark);
Fig.
idea
how
this
may have come
specimens from
where
it
the
seen
is
how
the
lengthened into the dagger like
sword
be usjd
e.
about, Fig.
bronze-period
spear-head c d,
and
may have been
that again into the leaf-
Straight two-edged swords
for cut
58 shows three
of Northern Europe,
or thrust, or both.
may
of course
But on placing sidj
by side a one-edged sabre and a two-edged broadsword
ANTHROPOLOGY.
I02
or rapier,
it
will
now be
[char
seen that though both are called
swords, and are fitted up with similar
and
hilts,
hand-guards,
two weapons of separate
sheaths, they are nevertheless
nature and origin, the sabre being a transformed hatchet, while the rapier type, of which
a transformed spjar.
is
This
one modern development
is
last spear-
the bayonet,
mosdy served for warlike purposes. Yet it known as a peaceful implement, as may be seen
has
is
not un-
in African
two-edged knives, which are evidently derived from spear heads ; and also in the instrument which our surgeons, conscious of
its
original
model,
the
call
little
spear
or lancet.
To
proceed to other kinds of of
splinters
or
bone,
flint
Thorns, pointed
tools.
flakes
worked
(Fig. 54^), served early tribes of men probably invented itself from a jagged
to
as borers.
afterwards
Thus some
the
of
flint
became the more of the Stone Age had
artificial flint
men
the principal tools,
the ages of metal.
a
point
The saw
flake,
which
saw, Fig. 54//.
in rude and early forms which were improved upon in
It is interesting to
look in Wilkinson's
Ancient Eg)'ptians at the contents of the Egyptian carpenter's tool-basket, where the bronze ad:e, saw, chisels,
&c. show traces of likeness to the old stone implements. On the other hand, this Egyptian set of tools, and still more those of the ancient Greek and
Roman
remarkably near those we are
using at this
carpenters,
difference which kept the ancient carpenters
day.
come One
below ours was
had not got beyond nails, never having seized the idea of the screws which are so essential to modern construction, nor of such tools as the screw-auger and gimlet, that they
which depend on the screw
for their action.
ancient cultured nations of Egypt
had already
come
to
a
stage
and
Assyria,
Among
th.e
handicrafts
which could only have
ARTS OF
VIII.]
been
LIFE.
193
In by thousands of years of progress. be examined the work of their joiners, goldsmiths, wonderful in skill and finish, and
reached
museums may stonecutters,
still
modern artificer. Of course were obtained by the ancient craftsman with
often putting to
these results
shame
the
what we should consider a wasteful expenditure of labour. The use of steel and other improvements have given the modern workman great advantages, and what is more, the
modern world has use
of machines,
when
ancient in the
utterly outstripped the
as
will
be more
seen
fully
presently
the examination of the simpler instruments has
been
gone through.
To is
continue the survey of weapons.
hurled by the hunter or warrior, as
The cudgel or club when the Zulu will
down an antelope at a surprising distance with a throw of his round-headed club or knob-kerry, and the Turk till modern times used to throw his mace in battle. The sporting use outlasts the warlike, and even in England the fowler's throwing-cudgel is not unknown in country
bring
where it is called a squoyle. A flat thin club made curved or crooked by following the branch it is cut out of has been liked by sportsmen of various nations for its destructive whirling flight, as where the old Egyptian fowler parts,
may be
seen
in the
pictures flinging his
flat
stick into the midst of a flight of wild duck.
curved throw-
The
Australians
not only throw wooden clubs and blades as weapons in this ordinary way, but make and throw with surprising skill
a peculiar light curved blade which has been called the "come-back" boomerang, which veers in its course and returns
to the
thrower, in ways
which
may be
seen
by
cutting boomerangs out of a visiting-card and flipping them.
Again,
it
is
evident that stones flung by hand must have simple instrument for first weapons.
been among man's
A
^
*
ANTHROPOLCGY.
194
[chap.
momentum
lengthening the arm and accumulating
which
sling,
The
is
known even among
so generally
man, that
tribes of
it is
the
is
the lowest
probably of great antiquity.
rudest spear, which
a mere pointed
is
stick, is
known
everywhere in the savage world, the point being often hard-
ened by thrusting it into the fire. Of spears, whether such clumsy sticks or more artificially pointed weapons, the heavier kinds serve for thrusting and the lighter for throwing, while intermediate sizes are
how, it
came
to
be barbed. Another device, known widely among
rude hunters and the
both purposes. It is obvious from coming out of the wound,
for
fit
to prevent the spear
shaft,
uncoils
when
it
by a cord of some length which
the points sticks in the animal
rCX'i
Fig.
drops
put the point loosely on to
fishers, is to
attaching
-
off,
so that the struck
down by
it
shaft
"'_iB8f^^:,-Tir-'^ -s^— ?^a» :
59.— Australian spear thrown with spear-thrower
shaft but drags
and the
trailing, or
(after
Broiigh Smyth).
beast cannot break
the fish
is
away the marked
held and
The distance to which the spear much increased by using a spear-
the floating wood.
can be hurled by hand
is
thrower, acting like a sling. In Captain Cook's time the
New
Caledonians slung their spears with a short cord with an eye for the finger, while the Roman soldiers had a thong (amen-
tum) made
fast to their javelins
near the middle of the shaft
But wooden spear-throwers from one for to three feet long, grasped at one end and with a peg or notch at the other to take the butt of the spear, have been Thus more favourite with savage and barbaric races. This looks a Fig. 59 shows the Australian spear-thrower. the same purpose.
ARTS GF
VIII.]
LIFE.
19S
more primitive instrument than the bow, which indeed was It seems as though with not known to these rude savages. tlie progress of weapons the spear-thrower was discarded, for
is
it
not
found among any nation higher than the among them it seems to have
old Mexicans, and even
been kept up ceremoniaUy from old times, rather than The bow and arrow (as General Pittseriously used. Rivers suggests) contrivance,
may
very likely have grown out of a simpler
the spring-trap set in the
woods by
fitting
a
dart to an elastic branch, so fastened back as to be let go
by a passing animal,
However
weapon.
whose track
in
invented, the
ages before history.
arrow
Its
is
it
discharges
bow came
the
use in
into
a miniature of the
full-
most
and the old stone arrow-heads found 54^) show the existence of the bow-and-arrow in the Stone Age, though hardly back in
sized javelin,
regions of the world (see Fig.
The
to the drift-period.
back as
The
far as history,
simplest kind of
the sport of archery, Fig.
art of feathering the
arrow goes
and we know not how much further. longbow is like that we still use in
made
of one piece of tough wood.
60 a shows a long-bow of the forest-tribes of South
America,
may be
unstrung, called the
several pieces of
Shorter
than
with
wood
the
string
its
Tatar
it
;
it
is
this class
gets
its
What
formed of
and sinews.
spring by
being
thus the concave side of the
ancient Scythian-bow b would
Bows of
bow
or horn, united with glue
long-bow,
bent outside-in to string
strung.
hanging loose.
or Scythian
become
the convex side
when
belong especially to northern
regions where there is a scarcity of tough wood suited to As a warlike weapon, making long-bows in one piece. the bow lasted on in Europe through the middle ages, and as late as 181 4 the world looked on with wonder to see the Cossack cavalry ride armed with bows-and-arrows through
ANTHROPOLOGY.
igS
A
the streets of Paris.
bow was
to
and touch a
mount
it
the history of the
further step in
on a
trigger to let
[chap.
stock, so as to take
go the
string.
aim
Thus
at leisure
it
became
the cross-bow, which seems to have been invented in the East, and was known in Roman Europe about the sixth century.
figure, c represents
In the
it
in its perfected
with a winch to draw the bow, as soldiers used
Fir,.
60.— Bows,
a.
South American long-bow (unstrung) bow c, European cross-bow
;
/',
it
in
form the
Ta'.ar or .'jcythian
;
sixteenth century.
Cross-bows are
shooting birds with a bolt or
still
made
in
Italy for
pellet.
understand the next great move in missile weapons, The blow-tube, it is necessary to look back to savage life. (Fig. 43) America South through which the forest Indian of
To
Malay blows his tiny poisoned plug-darts, or the similar invented easily been have may weapon called the sumpitar,
J
VI
ARTS OF
II.
LIFE.
Widi simple darts or
long large reeds grew.
^vherever
pellets the
often kept
197
blow-tube served for shooting birds, and
up
as a toy, as in our boys' peashooters.
it
is
^Vhen,
liowever, gunpowder was invented in China, its use was soon adapted to make the blow-tube an instrument of tremendous
when
power,
explosion
of
instead of the puff of breath in a reed, the
powder
in
an iron
drove
barrel
out
the
missile.
In the early guns of the middle ages, the powder
was
by putting a coal or match to the touchhole, as
fired
continued to be done
till
lately with
For hand-
cannon.
guns, this early match-lock was followed by the Avheel-lock.
This led up
to the flint-lock,
which
the cross-bow, for the bent
Avith
which
in the
cross-bow did
out the missile, has
and
trigger, to the
it
bow
is
curious to
compare
released by the trigger,
the actual work of shooting
now come down,
in the
form of a spring
subordinate use of striking the light to
powder which actually propels the ball. In more and spring still remain, the improvement lying in the use of fulminating silver in the cap, ignited by the blow of the hammer. The rifling of the bullet by means of grooves in the barrel is the modern ignite the
modern
guns, the trigger
representative of the ancient plan
of slightly twisting the
spear-head or feathering the arrow to cause giving increased steadiness of
it
to rotate, this
The modern
conical shot shows a partial return from the spherical bullet towards flight.
the ancient bolt or arrow, anfl at last breech-loading goes
back
to the old plan of putting the arrows in at the
end of the savage blow
As
thus plainly appears, the ingenuity of
eminent
butt-
tube.
in the art of destroying his
man
fellowmen.
has been
In survey-
ing the last group of deadly weapons, from the stone hurled
by hand or.e
to the rifled
cannon, there comes well into view
of the great advances of culture.
This
is
the progress
ANTHROPOLOGY.
193
[chap.
from the simple tool or implement, such as the club or which enables man to strike or cut more effectively
knife,
than with hands or teeth, to the machine which,
when
suppUed with force, only needs to be set and directed byman to do his work, Man often himself provides the power which the machine distributes more conveniently, as when the
potter
turns
the wheel with his
own
using his
foot,
hands to mould the whirling clay. The highest class of machines are those which are driven by the stored- up forces of nature, like the saw-mill where the running stream does the hard labour, and the sawyer has only to provide the
timber and direct the cutting.
As is
to
how
simple mechanical powers were
first
of no use to guess in what rude and early age
that stones or blocks too weighty to
prized up and
moved along
lift
with a stout
learnt,
it
men found
by hand could be stick, or rolled on.
two or three round poles, or got up a long gentle slope more Thus such discoveries as easily than up a short steep rise. those of the lever, roller, and inclined plane, are quite out of
The ancient Egyptians used wedges to huge blocks of stone, and one wonders that,
historical reach. split off their
knowing the pulley as they
did,
it
never appears in the rigging
of their ships (see Fig. 71). A draw-well with a pulley is to be seen in the Assyrian sculptures, where also a huge
winged
bull
is
being heaved along with levers, and dragged
on a sledge with
rollers laid
underneath.
is among the most important machines ever contrived by man, must have been invented To see what constructive skill the in ages before history.
The
wheel-carriage, which
leading nations had already attained to in times as of high antiquity,
it
is
we reckon
worth while to examine closely
the Egyptian war-chariots, with their neatly-fitted and firmlytired spoke-wheels turning
on
their axles secured
by
linch.-
ARTS OF
VIII.]
pins, while the body, pole,
technical
skill.
carriages
came
LIFE.
199
and double harness show equal
In looking for some hint as to
be invented,
to
it
of
is
how
wheel-
use to judge
little
from such high skilled work as was turned out by these Egyptian chariot-builders, or by the carriage-builders
from
whom
Roman
cai-pentarii or
our carpenters inherit their
But as often happens, rude contrivances
name.
may be
found which look as though they belonged to the early The plaustrum or farm -cart stages of the invention. of the ancient world in
Fig. 61.
its
rudest form
had
for
wheels two
— Ancient bullock-waggon, from the Antonine Column.
foot thick, and made from a drums or wheels did not turn on the axle but were fixed to it the axle was kept in place by wooden stops, or passed through rings at the bottom of the cart, and went round together with its pair of wheels,
solid
wooden drums near a
tree-trunk cut across, which
;
as children's toy carts are made.
It
is
curious to notice
how, under changed conditions, the builders
of railway-
carriages have returned to this early construction.
ancient cart. Fig. that
it
61,
In the
the squared end of the axle shows
must turn with the wheels.
In
such countries as
ANTHROPOLOGY.
200
[chap.
Portugal the old classic bullock-cart on this principle to be seen,
and
carts tell the story
is still
has been reasonably guessed that sucn
it
how
Avheel-carriages
came
to be invented.
Rollers were early used, on which a block of stone or other
Suppose such a
heavy weight was trundled. a smoothed
part smaller, so that
wheels
one
in
roller
made
of
tree-trunk to be improved by cutting the middle it
became an axle and pair of broad by making this axle work under-
piece, then
neath the rudest framework, the simplest imaginable wheelcarriage
thus
L-parately
with
made.
is
the
If
the
suggested,
and pinned on Then,
tires.
wheels would
for
at last
first
a
of
afterwards
to the square axle,
light
cart
were
be made
and provided
wheels and smooth ground, the
be made to turn on fixed
only conjecture, but at any rate
is
notion
might
wheels
axles.
This
puts clearly before our
it
minds what the nature of a carriage is. The rudest tribes Another ancient machine is the mill. of savages had a simple and effective means ready to hand for
powdering charcoal and ochre to paint themselves with,
work of bruising wild seeds gathered
or for the
more
for food.
The whole apparatus
useful
consists of a roundish stone
held in the hand, and a larger hollowed stone for a bed. is
curious to notice
keeps to
how
this primitive type.
and mortar
may
and mortar
closely our pestle
notice that
Now it
It still
any one using the pestle in two ways, the stuff
works
being either pounded by striking, or ground by rubbing against
the
side
of the
mortan
When
people took to
and grain became a chief part of their food, and mealing it the women's heavy work, forms of mealingstones came into use suited not for pounding but for grinding only, and doing this more perfectly. An example may be seen in Fig.. 62, a rude ancient corn-crusher dug up in agriculture,
Anglesey, the stone muUer or roller having
its
sides hollowed
1;
ARTS OF
VIII.]
for the
Avard
20
hands of the grinder, who worked
on the bed-stone.
crusher
LIFE.
may be
bed and
The
it
back and
for-
perfection of such a corn-
seen in the " metate
rolling-pin of lava, with
"
with
neatly shaped
its
women
which the Mexican
crush the maize for their corn- cakes or
tortillas.
But
is
it
by one stone revolving upon the other that grain is best The ground, and here we have the principle of the mill. quern or hand-mill of the ancient world in its simple form consisted of two circular
flat
mill stones, the
upper being
turned by a handle, while the grain was poured in through the hole in the centre, and came, out as meal edge.
all
round the
This early hand-mill has lasted on into the modern
Fig. 62.
— Corn-crusher, Anglesey (after \V. O.
world, and Fig. 63 shows " two
women
Sta:.lty
grinding at the mill,"
as they might be seen in the Hebrides in the last century
the long stick, which hangs from a branch above, has in a hole in the upper stone,
ground
to catch the meal.
Scotland and the islands. construction of a
modern
and a cloth
The quern If
is
is still
its
used
in north
the reader will notice
flour-mill,
it
will
end
spread on the the
be seen that the
neatly faced and grooved millstones are noAv of great weight, and the upper one balanced on the pivot which gives it rapid rotation from below by means of water or steam-power,
but notwithstanding these mechanical improvements, the essential principle of the primitive hand-mill
is still
there.
ANTHROPOLOGY.
202
[chap.
Another group of revolving tools and machines begins with the
drill.
The
mode
simplest
of twirling the boring-
between the hands is to be seen in fire-making (Fig. In this clumsy way rude tribes know how to bore
stick 72).
holes through hard stone by patiently twirling a r.eed or This primitive tool was stick with sharp sand and waten
improved both
Fig.
for
making
fire
and boring
C3.— Hebrides women grinding with
holes,
by winding
the quern or hand-mill (after Pennant).
round the stick a thong or cord, which by being pulled backward and forward worked the drill, as the ancient shipwrights boring their timbers are described in the Odyssey (ix.
384).
The ingenious plan of using a bow with its string one man can manage it, was already
to drive the drill, so that
known perfect
in the
old Egyptian workshops, but the
Archimedean
drill
is
modern.
The
still
more
turning-lathe
ARTS CF
VIII.]
seems to have had
origin in the
its
only seen the lathe in
not be clear, but
its
is
it
LIFE.
203
To
drill.
those
improved modern forms
who have this may
seen by lookirig at the old-fashioned
pole-lathe with which the turner used to shape his
bowls and
which were made
chair-legs,
to revolve
wooden
by a cord
pulled up and down, on somewhat the same principle as the
Homeric
drill.
The
with
its
this, to
be
footlalhe,
tinuous revolution, superseded
crank and conitself
upon by the introduction of steam-power even
encroached
for driving,
and
for applying the tool in the self-acting lathe.
In examining these groups of instruments and machines,
many
them has been traced back dim pras-historic ages, or to where ancient history can show them arising from a fresh It is seldom posidea or a new turn given to an old one. the development of
of
their origins are lost in
till
sible
at the real author of
to get
Thus no one knows
exactly
an aacijnt
when and how
invention-
that wonderfid
It was famiGreek mathematicians, and the screw linen-
mechanical contrivance, the screw, appeared. to the
liar
presses
and
oil-presses of classic times look almost
in their construction.
modern
In the period of ancient civilization
immense change which by inventions which set the
there appear the beginnings of that is
remodelling modern
life,
do man's heavy Avork
him.
This
great change seems to have been especially brought
on by
contrivances to save the heavy
fields.
forces of nature to
A simple
toil
for
of watering the
hand-labour contrivance of this kind
is
the shadoof
^e
Nile valley, where a long pole with a counterpoise one end is supported on posts, and carries a bucket hanging to the longer end to dip up water from below.
of at
One need trivance,
For
not travel to
for
it
irrigation,
is it
to
the East to watch
be seen
at
work
in
this old
our
con-
brickfields.
was mechanically an improvement on
ANTHROPOLOGY.
204 this
gang of slaves
set a
to
buckets or earthen jars at
from
full
water
the
circumference, which
its
and
below,
emptied themselves into a trough
when such then
at a
would come
over
higher level.
But
the
turn
wheel, and thus
the noria or irrigating water-
into existence
and
wheel often mentioned
in
ancient
work both
in
the East and in Europe.
seen
still
these or
at
rose
turned
they
as
a wheel was built to dip in a running stream,
current itself would
the
a great wheel with
turn
to
[chap.
some
literature,
to
be
By
similar steps of invention the water-wheel
was made a source of power grinding corn, instead of the
for
doing other work, such as
women
at the
quern or the
slaves at the treadmill, or the mill-horse in his everlasting
round.
As the Greek epigram
maids who laboured to the returning
says, "
at die mills, sleep
dawn,
for
Cease your work, ye and let the birds sing
Demeter has bidden the water
do your task obedient to her call, they throw themselves on the wheel and turn the axle and the heavy
nymphs mill."
to
The
;
classical corn-mill, with the cog-wheels
by the water-wheel, water-mills
still
may have been
a
good deal
driven like the
working on our country streams. Such to grinding corn, and after-
machinery was early applied
wards to other manufactures, so that now the word mill no longer means a grinding-mill only, but is also used where machinery is driven by power for other purposes. It was a great movement in civilization for the water-mill and its companion contrivance the wind-mill to come into use as force-providers, doing
all
sorts of labour,
from the
work of the European factory down to turning the Tibetan prayer-wheels, which go round repeating for ever heaviest
the
sacred
Buddhist
formula.
Within the
last
century
the civilized world has been drawing an immense sui)ply of power from a new source, the coal burnt in the furnace
ARTS CF
VIII.]
of
steam-engine, which
tlie
that
—
last,
tide force or sun's heat
modern
times,
man
seeks
205
already used so wastefully
is
economists are uneasily calculating
stored-up fossil force will
next
LIFE.
how long
this
and what must be turned
to
—
in
to labour for us.
more and more
to
Thus,
change the
labourer's part he played in early ages, for the higher duly
of director or controller of the world's force.
15
—
CHAPTER ARTS OF LIFE
IX.
{co7itinue^.
—
—
— — —
Quest of wild food, 206 Hunting, 207 Trapping, 211 Fishing, 212 Agriculture, 214 Implements, 216 Fields, 218 Cattle, pasturage, 219 War, 221 Weapons, 221 Armour, 222 Warfare of loMer t bes, 223 of higher nations, 225,
—
Having,
— — —
—
in
the last
—
examined the instruments
chapter,
used by man, we have next
to
look at the arts by which he
maintains and protects himself. daily food.
In tropical
—
forests,
His
first
need
is
to get his
may easily live on Andaman Islanders, who
savages
what nature provides, like the fruits and honey, hunt wild pigs in the jungle, and take Many forest tribes of Brazil, turtle and fish on the coast. though they cultivate a little, depend mostly on wild food. Of such the rude man has no lack, for there is game in plenty and the rivers swarm with fish, while the woods yield gather
and bulbs, calabashes, palm-nuts, he collects wild honey, birds' eggs, grubs out of rotten wood, nor does he despise insects, even ants. In less fertile lands savage life goes on well while game and fish abound, but when these fail it becomes an unceasing quest for food, as where the Australians roam
him a supply of beans, and
many
roots
other
fruits
;
over their djserts on the look-out for every eatable root or
CHAP.
ART OF
IX.]
insect, or the
and
berries,
LIFE.
207
low Rocky Mountain tribes gather pine-nuts and drag lizards out of their
catch snakes,
holes with a hooked stick.
The Fuegians wander
along
their bleak inhospitable shores feeding mostly on shell-fish,
so that in the course of ages their shells, with fish-bones
and other rubbish, have formed long banks above highSuch shell-heaps or " kitchen -middens " are water mark. found here and there all round the coasts of the world, marking the old resorts of such tribes ; for instance on the coast of Denmark, where archaeologists search them for relics
of rude Europeans, who, in the Stone age, led a
somewhat fishing
like
that of Tierra del
Fuego.
life
Hunting and
go on through all levels of society, beginning with who have no other means of subsistence, till at
the savages last
among
civilized nations
game and
fish
hardly do
more
than supplement the more regular supplies of grain and meat from the farm. Looking at the devices of the hunter and fisher, it will be seen how thoroughly most of them
belong to the ruder stages of culture.
The natives of game is the chief
the Brazilian
forests, to
whom
tracking
do it with a skill that fills with wonder the white men who have watched them. The Botocudo hunter, gliding stealthily through the underwood, knows every habit and sign of bird and beast the remains of berries and pods show him what creature has fed there ; he knows how high up an armadillo displaces the leaves in passing, and so can distinguish its track from the snake's or tortoise's, and follow it to its burrow by the scratches of its scaly armour on the mud. Even the sense of smell of this savage hunter is keen enough to help him Hidden behind the trunk of a tree, he can in tracking. imitate the cries of birds and beasts to bring them within range of his deadly poisoned arrow, and he will even entice business of
life,
;
ANTHROPOLOGY.
2oS
[chap.
the alligator by making her rough eggs grate together where
they
lie
under leaves on the river-bank.
If
an ape he has
some immense tree remains hanging by its tail, he will go up after it by a hanging At last, laden creeper where no white man would climb. with game and useful forest things, such as palm-fibre to make hammocks, or fruit to brew liquor, he finds his way back to his hut by the sun and the lie of the ground, and shot high in the boughs of
he bent back
the twigs that
the kangaroos
pursuit
leeward spear,
till
to drink, or will track
at last
one
his little fire at night to
at
in the
till
open
be ready for
dawn, keeping unseen and to the
he can creep near enough to hurl
When
in vain.
his
the natives hunt together,
put up brush fence in two long wings converging
towards a will
again
seldom
will
come
camping by
for days,
they
way-marks as he crept
wait behind a screen of boughs near a water-hole
lie in
the
for
In Australia, the native hunter will
through the thicket.
pit,
and so drive the kangaroos
into
it
;
or they
form a great hunting party for a battue, surrounding
half a mile of bush-land, and with shouts and clatter of weapons driving all the game to the centre where they can close round and despatch them with spears and waddies. In fowling the Australians show equal expertness. A native will swim under water breathing through a reed, or will merely cover his head with water-weed till he gets among a flock of ducks, which one by one he noiselessly pulls under and tucks into his belt. This shows in a simple form a kind
of duck-hunting which
is
found
in
such distant parts of the
world, that travellers have been puzzled to guess whether
the idea spread from one tribe to another, or was invented
many
times.
It
may be
seen on the Nile, where a harmless-
looking calabash floats in
swimming Egyptian's head
among inside.
the water-fowl,
The
with a
Australian hunter
ARTS OF
IX]
LIFE.
209
takes the wallaby (a small kangaroo) by fastening to a long
rod
a hawk's skin and feathers, making the
like a fishing-rod
sham
bird hover with
where
into a bush
proper cry
its
till
it
Of
can be speared.
it
drives the
with an imitated animal, one of the most perfect
when a
the Dogrib Indians,
game
devices of stalking is
that of
pair of hunters go after rein-
deer; the foremost carries a reindeer's head, while in the other hand he has a bunch of twigs against which he makes
the head rub
horns in a
its
lifelike
walking as the deer's fore and hind
and bring down the
way, and the two men, legs, get
In England,
finest.
among
till
the herd
of late years,
wooden horse moved along of this survives in the phrase " to
fowlers used to hide behind a
on wheels, and a
relic
make a stalking-horse of one," often now used by people who have no idea what the word meant. Hunting with dogs was very
among
uncivilized tribes
;
ancient,
and was found
thus the Australians seem to have
trained the dingo or native
dog
for the chase,
and most of
the North American Indians had their native hunting-dogs.
dogs were not so universal among rude tribes as they have been since European breeds were carried all over the Still
world
;
Newfoundland seem to and fiercest animal whose
for instance, the natives of
have had no dogs. instinct of prey
The
man
largest
has thus taken advantage of
is
the
hunting-leopard or cheetah, which in India or Persia carried in
an
deer;
when
draws
it
its is
iron cage to the field it
has
let
loose
Already
mention
them
of birds of
Tartary, where
its
leg for
in classic times there
prey trained to strike game-birds or
into the net, or to
or falconry reached
is
upon the huntsman
pounced on the game the blood and gives it a
off with the taste of
share in the partnership.
drive
and
pounce on hares.
Hawking
height as a royal sport in mediaeval
Marco Polo
describes the Great
Khan going
ANTHROPOLOGY.
2IO
borne by two elephants in his
out,
[chap.
litter
hung with cloth
of gold and covered with lion-skins, to see the sport of his ten thousand falconers flying their hawks at the pheasants
and cranes. From the East hawking spread over Europe. It was familiar to our early English ancestors, and if one had to paint a symbolic picture of the middle ages, one could hardly choose more characteristic figures than the knight and lady riding out with their hooded hawks on their
fists.
Since
then falconry has
Europe, and nowadays the traveller Asiatic district where
bouring countries.
first
it
came
all
may
but died out in
best see
ordinate to the excitement of the chase.
till
fleet
its
cavalcades and
becomes sub-
was so especially
I'^urope, but the place
shown by noblemen
became
a court
ceremony
its great officers of state in splendid
Such pageantry
uniforms.
It
animals like the deer were hunted on horseback,
at last the royal stag-hunt
Avith
in the
In such sports the quest of food (now
often contemptuously called " pot-hunting ")
where
it
up, Persia or the neigh-
it
still
is,
used
indeed, declining in
modern
to hold in English court life is
occupying in the Royal household Buckhounds and Hereditary
the places of Master of the
Grand Falconer. The modern hunter has
a vastly increased power of killing
game, from the use of fire-arms instead of the bow and spear which came down from savage times. The effect of bringing in guns is seen among the native American buffalohunters.
They were always reckless in destruction when came within reach of the herds, but now with of the wliite man and the use of his rifles there
they once the help
such slaughter that travellers have found the ground and air for miles foul with the carcases of buftalo killed merely is
for
the hides
and tongues. In the civilized world, what game, and what with the encroachment of
with killing off
ARTS OF
IX.]
agriculture
game
for
hunter's
on
tlie
LIFE.
211
wild lands, both the supply and the need of
much
man's subsistence have
But the
lessened.
has been from the earliest times man's school
lite
of endurance and courage, where success and even gives pleasure in one of
come
to
be kept up
fallen
away.
where
it
Thus
intensest forms.
its
where
artificially
In civilized countries
has
practical use has
its is
it
trial
it
seen at
best
its
keeps closest to barbaric fatigue and danger,
like
grouse-shooting in Scotland, or boar-hunting in Austria, but at
its
meanest, where
it
has
come down
to shooting grain-fed
pheasants as tame as barn-door fowls. Next, as to trapping game.
This was seen
in
a curiously
simple form in Australia, where a native would
back on a rock
in the
pretending to be
on the
sunshine with a bit of
fast asleep,
only to be
bait,
it
The
on
his
hand,
some hawk
or crow pounced pounced on by the hungry then and there. A plan of
till
itself
man, who broiled and ate it taking game which must have rude hunters was the pitfall, in hole too deep for a heavy beast fallen in.
lie
fish in his
readily suggested
itself
simplest shape a
its
to get out of
savage trapper will dig such a
with brushwood or sods, as in Africa the
when
pit,
to
mere has
it
and cover
bushmcn take
the huge hippopotamus and elephant, while in fur-countries the hunters arrange their
pitfalls
in various
ways, the most
plan being to cover them with a
wooden floor which upsets when trodden on. Thj word trap, meaning originally step (like German treppe), may have come from its usually being some contrivance for the game to tread on. It is so
artificial
not only with the trap,
which,
down on all
it,
pitfall,
but with other
when the animal
steps
or pull a noose round
which arc plans known
ait of catching birds
in the
it,
or
common
kinds of
on the catch, drop let fly
a dart at
uncivilized world.
and beasts with a noose, held
it,
The in the
ANTHROPOLOGY.
212
hand or fastened
to the
end of a
the most skilful noosing
is
[chap.
Perhaps
stick, is universal.
that done on horseback by the
herdsmen of Mexico, though it should be noticed that their lazo is not a native American invention it was brought over by the Spaniards with its name, which is simply Latin ;
h^qiieus, is
To
a rope.
use the noose for trapping purposes,
only necessary to set
them
for
to
it
where game pass, as the North American
in the track
it
run their heads
into,
But the noose may also be attached to a bough
Indians do.
bent back so as to spring up when an animal touches it, and catch him. Or a spear may be arranged as the savages of the Malay Peninsula do
when
it,
bamboo
with an elastic
released by the animal
that
The
suggestion has been already mentioned
(p.
invention
of
such a spring-trap
first
led to the
it
Actual bows and arrows are
and arrow.
will
set
such countries as Siberia, and the spring-gun
improvement on Lastly, the net
men
The
like ancient Assyrians or
we may look monuments of
height
clap-nets
taking
at the
bow
is
a modern
all
native Australians net
English poachers, and are
To
see this art at
its
pictures of fowling scenes
on
ancient Egypt, which
geese by scores;
dead are depicted rejoicing world beyond the tomb.
Among
the
as traps in
one of the things known to almost
is
not less skilled in netting wild fowl.
the
195) that
these.
so far as history can telL
game
so bent
spear him.
back
in this
show the
great
even the souls of the favourite sport in the
the various arts of the fisherman, one
common
Every day at the turn of the tide at river-mouths and on low shores, and inland near streams after a flood, fish are left behind in the
among rude
tribes
shallow pools.
enough
was
Led by
easily hit upon.
this experience, the
to assist nature, as
savage has wit
where the Eucgians put up stake
ARTS CF
IX.]
LIFE.
213
fences on the coast at low-water mark, while in South Africa
near the rivers large
flats
are walled in with loose stones
Thus our fish-weirs and fish-dams are civilization. Nor is the device of drugging
ready for the floods.
no novelties
in
or narcotizing fish a civilized invention, but to be seen in perfection
among
the tropical forest-tribes of South America,
Avho use for the purpose a score or so of different plants.
There
men
is
nothing surprising, however, in
so rude, for
branches or
fruit
its
known
being
to
must often occur by accident, from the
it
of the right kind of euphorbia or paullinia
some forest pool, an experiment which the observant native would not be slow to try again. Next, a falling
mode
into
of fishing usual
for this being barbed,
head spreading
among
savages,
is
spearing, the spear
and often made more
by the
effective
An
into several barbed prongs.
account of
a native Australian fishing describes him lying athwart his bark canoe, with his spear-point dipping into the water ready to go
down without
splashing,
the fisherman keeping his
and what
own
is
more remarkable,
eyes under water, so that not
only the ripjJe does not disturb his vijw, but his aim interfered with by the refraction of light which diflicult for
the surface. fi.sh
come
a
man The
is
makes
not it
so
out of the water to hit an object below wilder races also
know well how
to a light, so that salmon-spearing
by
after
dark
torchlight,
now that it is no longer so frequent in Scotland or Norway, may be seen in all its picturesqueness among the Indians of Vancouver's Island.
which many low
Shooting
tribes
fish
with the bo»v and arrow,
do with wonderful
counted as a variety of
fish-spearing.
dexterity,
The
may be
fish-hook
is
a
known to all savage tribes, but some have it, as the Australians who cut their hooks out of shell, and are even known to fish with a hawk's claw attached The ancient Egyptian would sit like a modern to a line. contrivance not
ANTHROPOLOGY.
214
[chap.
European angler by a canal or pond, fishing with rod and his hook was of bronze. Only fly-fishing seems not to have been known in ancient times. On the whole it is remarkable how little modern fishermen have moved from the methods of the rudest and oldest men. The savage fishline
;
spear, with
its
three or four barbed prongs,
that our sailors
still
and
use,
the head of iron, not of the harpoon used fitting
call
is
curiously like
fish-teeth.
Only we make So it is with
a fish-gig.
wood and
by American whalers, with
when
point which comes off
the fish
is
its
loosely
struck, only
remaining attached by a long cord to the floating shaft is
;
this
copied, but with a steel point, from the bone-headed
harpoon of the Aleutian Islanders.
Our fishermen
carry
on
on a large scale, with their steam-trawlers and seines which sweep a whole bay, but their net-fishing is much of the same kinds as may be found among the their business
peoples from
whom we
have here taken our early examples
of spearing and angling.
Thus man, even while he fish, is
feeds himself as the lower
and catching game and more artificial means the next stage, he begins to grow
animals do, by gathering wild
fruit
led by his higher intelligence to
of getting these. supplies
of food
looked on as a
Rising to
for himself.
difticult or
rudest savage, skilled as he
Agriculture
is
not to be
out-of-the-way invention, for the is
in the habits of the food-])lants
he gathers, must know well enough that if seeds or roots are put in a proper place in the ground they will grow.
Thus it is hardly through ignorance, but rather from roving climate, or sheer idleness, that so many tribes life, bad Tven very gather what nature gives, but plant nothing. rude people, when they live on one spot all the year round, and the climate and soil are favourable, mostly plant a little, like the Indians of Brazil, who clear a patch of forest round
ARTS OF
IX.]
their huts to
look at the food-plants of the world,
appears that some few are grown like the
215
grow a supply of maize, cassava, bananas, and
When we
cotton.
LIFE.
much
it
as in their wild state,
coco-nut and bread-fruit, but most are altered by
Sometimes it is possible to find the wild plant and show how man has improved it, as where the wild potato is found growing on the clifts of Chile. But the origin of many cultivated plants is lost to tradition and has become a subject for tale-tellers. This is the case with cultivation.
those edible grasses which have been raised by cultivation into
the cereals, such as wheat, barley, rye, and by their
and
regular
human
plentiful supply
ha\e become the mainstay of
and the great moving power of civilization. It is clear that the development of these grain-plants from their wild state was before the earliest ages of history, which throws back the beginnings of agriculture to life
times older
How
still.
ancient was the
first lilling
of the
shown by ancient Egypt and Babylonia, with their governments and armies, temples and palaces, for it could have been only through carr}ing on agriculture for a soil,
is
long series of ages
that
such
populations
grown up so closely packed together as lized nation. Plants, when once brought
to
could have
form a
civi-
into cultivation,
make their way from people to people across the globe. Thus the European conquerors of America carried back the maize or Indian corn which had been cultivated from unknown antiquity over the New World, and which now furnishes the Italian peasant with his daily meal of polenta
or porridge
;
it
is
grown even
south of Africa, where
An
it
is
English vegetable garden
botanist
who
in
is
assigns to each plant
the philologist
who
traces
Japan, and
down
to the
the "mealies" of the colonist.
its
a curious its
name.
study
for
the
proper home, and to
Sometimes
this tells
—
ANTHROPOLOGY.
2l6 its
story fairly, as
fruits
where damson and
brought from
as
potato, brought over in
[criAP,
describe these
J^each
Damascus and Persia. But the Queen Elizabeth's time, seems to
have borrowed the name
of another
plant botanically different, the batata, or
The
sweet-potato.
ananas has
pical
luscious
tro-
Malay and has
lost its native
name except among the name of
taken
botanists,
common
the
fir-
cone or pine-apple, which in shape
it
so closely resembles.
By soil,
noticing
much
is
how to
rude tribes
be learnt
the
the
implements.
invention of agricultural
Wandering savages
till
as to
like the Australians
carry a pointed stick to dig up eatable roots with, as in Fig. 64 a. Considering
how
nearly planting a root
work
as digging
one up,
a tribe beginning to use
their
till
root-digging
new purpose
;
is
the
same
likely that
it is
the soil would sticks
for
the
indeed, a pointed stake
has been found as the rude husband-
man's implement both
New on
World.
It
is
this to dig with
in the
a flat-bladcd tool
like a spear, sword, or paddle, Fio.
64.
Aus
a.
digging-slick
;
b,
ra'.i:in
Swedish
we have the
civilized spade.
wcoden hack.
important the pick or hatchet.
donians serve both as the African's hatchet
tool, tlie hoe, is
The wooden weapons and
— an
Old and
an improvement
and thus A more
derived from
picks of the for jjlanting
New
iron blade stuck in a club
has to have the blade turned across to
become
Cale-
yams, while
— only
his hoe.
It
ARTS CF LIFE.
IX.]
217
curious to find in Europe the rudest imaginable hoe, less artificial than the elk's shoulder-blade fostened to a stick, is
with wiiich the North American squaws hoed their Indian corn. This is the Swedish " hack," Fig. 64 d, a mere stout stake of spruce-fir with a bough sticking out at the lower end cut short and pointed. With this primitive implement in old times fields in forest
were
tilled in
Sweden, and
it
was
to
farmhouses within a generation or two.
tradition records the steps
be seen
Swedish
by which agriculture improved. heavier and dragged by men
The wooden hack was made
through the ground, thus ploughing a furrow in the simplest then the implement was made in two pieces, with a ;
way
Fig.
65.— Ancient Egyptian hoe and plough.
handle for the ploughman and a pole for the men to drag was shod with an iron point, and at last a pair of cows or mares were yoked on instead of the men. This by, the share
seems nearly the way the hoe
first
in
which, thousands of years earlier,
passed into the plough.
picture of agriculture in ansient Egypt. is
Fig. 65
is
from,
a
Here the labourer
seen following the plough to break up the clods with his
peculiar hoe, with the handle.
Now
its
long, curved,
wooden blade roped
looking at the plough
be such a hoe, rope and a pair of handles for the
all,
itself, it is
to
seen to
only heavier and provided with
ploughman
down, while a yoke of oxen drag
it
to guide and keep it through the ground. The
ANTHROPOLCGY.
2i8
[chap.
valley of the Nile was one of the districts where high agriculture earliest arose,
and
in the picture here
almost fancy ourselves seeing at
To arm
of the plough.
fix
copied we
may
birth the great invention
with a heavy metal ploughslmre,
sod over in a continua coulter or " knife " in front to give the
to shape this so that
ous ridge, to
it
its
it
shall turn the
and to mount the whole on wheels all these were improvements known in Rome in the classical period. In modern times we have the self-acting plough no longer needing the ploughman to follow at the plough-tail, and the
first cut,
;
steam-plough has a more powerful draught than oxen or horses. Yet those who have looked at the earlier stages can
still
discern in the most perfect
modern plough the
original hoe dragged through the ground.
There survives even now in the world a barbaric mode of bringing land under cultivation, which seems to show us man much as he was when he began to subdue the primaeval forest,
where
till
then he had only wandered, gathering wild
and nuts and berries. This primitive agriculture was noticed by Columbus, when landing in the West Indies he found the natives clearing patches of soil by cutting the
roots
brushwood and burning where the wood
is
it
on the
spot.
This simple plan,
not only got out of the way, but the
may still be seen among the hillwho till these plots of land for a couple In Sweden this of years and then move on to a new spot. brand-tillage, as it may be called, is not only remembered
ashes serve for dressing, tribes of India,
as
the
tricts it
old agriculture of the land, but in outlying dishas lasted on into modern days, giving us an idea
what the rough agriculture of the early tribes may have been like when they migrated into Europe. It is not to be supposed, on looking at an English farm of the present day, that
its
improvements were made
all at
once.
The modern
ARTS OF
i::.]
LIFE.
219
farming system has a long and changing history behind
One interesting point much of Europe was
A
communities.
in its
growth
is
it.
that in long-past ages
brought under cultivation by village-
clan of settlers would possess themselves
of a wide tract of land, and near their huts they would
common fields, which at first they perhaps in common as one family. It became
lay out great
and reaped
tilled
usual to parcel out this tillage land family
lots,
every few years into
but the whole village-field was
munistic system of husbandry
changed in
and remain several
its
still
traces have out-lasted
counties
the time
com-
early
be seen not much the
in the present days of landlord
English
in
Even
such countries as Russia.
in the villages of
England
may
cultivated
still
by the whole community, working together and way settled by the village elders. This
there
may
still
feudal system,
and
In
tenant.
be noticed the
boundaries of the great common-fields, divided lengthwise into three strips, lots,
which again were divided crosswise into
held by the villagers; the three divisions were man-
aged on. the old three-field system, one lying fallow while the other two bore two kinds of crops. Next, as to the history of domesticating animals
The taming is
for food.
monkeys such pets and
of sociable creatures like parrots and
done by low
forest tribes,
who
delight in
;
very rude tribes keep dogs for guard and hunting.
But
it
marks a more artificial way of life when men come to keep and breed animals for food. The move upwards from the life of the hunter to that of the herdsman is well seen in the far north, the
home
of the reindeer.
Among
the
Esquimaux the reindeer was only hunted. But Siberian tribes not only hunt them wild, but tame them. Thus the TungLiz live by these herds, which provide them not only with milk and meat, but with skins for clothing and tents,
ANTHROPOLOGY.
220
[chap.
sinews for cord, bone and horn for implements, while as they move from place to place the deer even serve as beasts of draught and burden. life
Here
is
of a simple rude kind, and
seen a specimen of pastoral it
is
scribing at length the well-known
who
tribes,
their
shift
tents from
needless to go on delife
of higher
place to
nomade
place
on the
steppes of Central Asia or the deserts of Arabia, seeking pasture for their oxen and sheep, their camels and horses.
There
a strong distinction between the
is
of the wanderBoth move from
life
ing hunter and the wandering herdsman.
place to place, but their circumstances are widely different.
The
hunter leads a
exposed
of few appliances or comforts, and
life
at times to starvation
below that of the
;
settled tiller
his place in civilization is
of the
nomade, the hunting which
pastoral
is
But
soil.
to
the
the subsistence of the
come to be only an extra means of life. and herds provide him for the morrow, he has
ruder wanderer, has
His
flocks
valuable cattle to exchange with the dwellers in towns for
weapons and stuffs, there are smiths in his caravan, and the wool is spun and woven by the women. What best marks the place in civilization which the higher pastoral life attains to, is that the patriarchal herdsman may belong to one of the great religions of the world; thus the Kalmuks their
of the steppes are Buddhists, the Arabs are Moslems. higher stage of prosperity and comfort agricultural
and
pastoral
life
our forefathers in the
Europe
just described.
the
hills
and
in
the
A
yet
reached where the
combine, as they already did
among
vated near the village,
is
village
communities of old
Here, while the
fields
the cattle pastured in
woodlands belonging
were
culti-
summer on to
the com-
munity, where also the hunter went for game, while nearer
home
there
were
common meadows
provide the hay for the winter weather,
for
pasture and
when
to
the cattle were
;
ARTS OF
IX.]
LIFE.
221
In countries so thickly brought under shelter in the stalls. populated as ours is now, the last traces of the ancient
nomade
life
disappear
when
the herds are
no longer driven
summer.
off to the hills in
After the quest of food, man's next great need
The
himself
is
to
defend
savage has to drive off the wild beasts which
and in turn he hunts and destroys them. But most dangerous foes are those of his own species, and thus in the lowest known levels of civilization war has alattack him, his
is carried on against man with the same General and bow used against wild beasts. Pitt-Rivers has shown how closely man follows in war the how his weapons devices he learnt from the lower animals
ready begun, and club, spear,
;
and
imitate their horns, claws, teeth,
venom
how man
;
protects himself with
from animals' hides and scales
gems
;
even to their armour imitated
stings,
and how
his warlike strata-
are copied from those of the birds and beasts, such
as setting
ambushes and
sentinels, attacking in bodies
a leader, and rushing on with war-cries to the
We
have already
in the last
under
fight.
chapter examined the principal
The daubing on of venom to make them more deadly is found among low tribes far over the Thus the Bushman mixes serpent's poison with the world.
offensive weapons.
euphorbia
juice,
and the South American native poison-
maker, prepared by a long
mysterious act, con-
fast for the
cocts the paralysing urari or curare in the secret depths
of the
forest,
process.
where no woman's eye
Poisoned arrows were known
as witness the lines which for the
tell
[of
fall
on the
fearful
to the ancient world,
Odysseus going to Ephyra
man-slaying drug to smear his bronze-tipped arrows
but Ilos would not give
Thus
may
it
seems
it,
higher nations had already 16
for
he fearod the ever-living gods.
that in early ages the
condemned
moral sense of the
the poisoned
weapons
ANTHROPOLOGY.
222
[chap.
of the savage, with something of the horror Europeans
now
examining the Itahan bravo's daggers of the middle ages, with their poison-grooves imitated from the serpent's
feel in
tooth.
Hovv the of animals
may be
armour comes from the natural armour
warrior's is
plainly to be
seen.
used, as where one sees in
The beast's own hide museums the armour of
bear-skins from Borneo, or breast-plates of crocodile's skin
The name
from Egypt. first
of the cuirass shows that
of leather, like the buff jerkin.
The Bugis
of
it
was
would make a breastplate by sewing upon bark the off scales of the ant-eater, overlapping as the
them
;
sewed together
in
with
their
slices
in,
in
hoofs
horses's
would lead
armour of the Greeks, imitated from while
of
Such
overlapping scales like a fir-cone.
when metal came
devices,
made
cast-
animal wore
and so the natural armour of animals was imitated
by the Sarmatians,
scales,
at
Sumatra
chain-mail
their
is
fish-scales
to the
scale
and serpent-
a sort of netted garment
The armour of the middle ages connow protecting the whole body
metal.
tinued the ancient kinds,
with a suit from head to foot {cap-a-pce) of iron scales, or
mail (that
is,
meshes) or of jointed plates of iron copied lobster, such as the later suits of armour
from the crab and
which decorate our manorial halls. With the introduction of gunpowder, armour began to be cast aside, and except the helmet, what remains of it in military equipment is
more
for
show than
use.
The
shield
also,
once so im-
portant a part of the soldier's panoply, has been discarded since the days of musketry. is
that of a large screen
Our modern notion of a
himself, but this does not appear to have intention. shield,
used
The
shield
behind which the warrior can shelter
been the
original
primitive shield was probably the parrying-
like the
narrow Australian parrying-stick, which
ARTS OF
IX.]
is
LIFE.
223
only four inches across in the middle where
it is
grasped,
but with which the natives ward off darts with wonderful
The
dexterity.
is
made
to
Highland
small round
varieties of shield
which remained
one of the Europe,
be thus dexterously handled as a weapon of
defence, to ward off javelins,
or sword.
target,
latest in civilized
It is
parry the thrust of spear
or
easy to see that such parrying-shields belong
to the early kind of warfare
where the battle was a skirmish,
and every warrior took care of
himself.
But when fighting
in close ranks began, then the great screen-shields
come
in,
would
serving as a wall behind which the old Egyptian
soldiers could
ensconce themselves, or the Greek or
Roman
storming-party creep up to the foot of the wall in spite of stones and darts hurled
The savage awares,
seeking to
where there
down on them.
or barbarian
is
kill
apt to
is
him
fall
on
his
enemy un-
a wild beast, especially
like
bitter personal hatred or
blood-vengeance.
But even among low tribes we find a strong distinction drawn between such manslaughter and regular war, ^vhich is waged not so much for mutual destruction as for a victory to settle a quarrel between two
tribe
come
parties.
For instance, the natives of
beyond mere murder when one sends another a bunch of emu-feathers tied to the end
Australia have
far
Tker^ the two naked bodies terrific with painted patterns, brandishing their spears and clubs, and clamouring with taunts and yells. Each warrior is paired of a spear, as a challenge to fight next day. sides
meet
in
battle array, their
with an opponent, so that the fight
where spear
after
spear
with wonderful dexterity,
is till
which generally brings the
Botocudos of
is
really a set of duels,
hurled and dodged or parried at last
fray to
man is killed, Among the rude
perhaps a
an end.
Brazil, a quarrel arising
from one
tribe
hunting
hogs on another's ground might be settled by a solemn
ANTHROPOLOGY.
224
[chap.
cndgelling-match, where pairs of warriors belaboured one with heavy stakes, while the women fought by
another
scratching faces and tearing hair,
till
one side gave
in.
But
such an encounter the beaten party take to their bows and arrows, the scene may change into a real battle. When up their it comes to regular war, the Botocudos will draw if in
men
and then rushout tooth and nail,
fronting the enemy, pouring in arrows,
ing together with war-whoops to fight killing
man, woman, and
cliild.
it
They make
expeditions to
the villages of their settled neighbours,
plunder
enemies are near
in the forest they
and when
stick splinters in the
lame them, and shoot from ambush
ground
as caltrops to
behind
fallen trunks or
batde they
wiU
shelters
will carry off to
of boughs.
cook and devour
where with wild drunken dancing
The
slain in
at the feast,
their warlike zeal is in-
Thus to excite courage is the flamed to frenzied rage. l)urpose of the frantic war-songs and war-dances, which are mankind, among savages and even far more Low tribes also keep up the fierce hatred and pride of battle by trophies of the enemy his head dried and hung as an ornament of the hut, or his skull fashioned The wars of the North American into a drinking-cup. Indians have picturesque incidents often described in our
common
to
cultured nations.
—
books, the braves smoking in solemn council of war, the declaration of war by the bundle of arrows wrapped in a rattlesnake's skin, or the blood-red war-hatchet struck into the war-post, the recruiting-feast where the dog was eaten as
of fideUty, the war-party creeping through the woods " Indian file '') the stealthy in single line (which we thence call the wild scalp-dance village, camp or enemy's attack on the
emblem
of the returning victors, the torturing of the captives at the at stake, where the very children were set to shoot arrows
the helpless foe,
who bore
his torments without
a groan,
ARTS OF
IX.]
boasting of his
own
LIFE.
225
deeds and taunting his conquerors Indian war was " to creep Uke a fox,
fierce
in his death-agony.
attack like a panther, and
fly like
Yet
a bird."
at times the
would meet in fair battle, standing watch duels between pairs of champions, or all rushing
warriors of two tribes to
together in a general melee.
In the warfare of rude races, fighting for quarrel or
Among some
for gain. slain, are
Dy
to
is
how
be noticed
tribes the captives, instead of being
brought back for
the ground.
it
vengeance begins to pass into fighting
and
slaves,
this agriculture is
especially set to
much
increased,
and
till
also
new division of society takes place, to be seen still arising among such warlike tribes as the Carib?, where the captives with their children come to form a hereditary lower class. Thus we see how in oUl times the original ec[uality of men a
broke up, a nation dividing into an aristocracy of warlike freemen, and an inferior labouring caste.
made
for the warriors to
slaves
and
is
bring
home
i)roperty of their captors.
Also forays are
wives,
who
are the
AVith this wife-capture
connected the law widely prevailing among the ruder
peoples of the world, and lasting on even civilized, that
a
man may
or tribe, but from
appears with
it
some
among
not take a wife from his
other.
i\s
the
more
own
clan
property increases, there
warfare carried on as a business, by tribes
by plunder, glorying in their murderous and despising the mean-spirited farming villagers whose labour provides them with corn and cattle. A perfect example of such a robber-tribe were the Mbayas of South America, whose simple religion it was that their deity, living
more
or less
profession,
the Great Eagle, all
had bidden them
live
by making war on
other tribes, slaying the men, taking the Avomen for wives,
and carrying
War
off the goods.
amoncr civilized nations
differs
from that of savage
ANTHROPOLOGY.
226
[chap.
on with better weapons and appliances, and by warriors being trained to fight in regular order. The superiority of a regular army to a straggling savage war-party may be well seen by looking at the pictures in Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians, of troops marching in rank and step to tribes in being carried
sound of trumpet, especially noticing the solid phalanx of heavy infantry with spear and shield. The strength of such Egyptian solid squares of 10,000 men is described in the Cyropaedia (probably with truth as to military tactics if not to actual history), how they could not be broken even
by the victorious Persians, but amid the rout of man and horse the survivors still held out, sitting under their shields, An Egyptian till Cyrus granted them honourable surrender.
army had its various corps divided into companies, and commanded by officers of regular grades. In batde the heavy immovable phalanx held the centre, the archers and light infantry in the wings acted in line or open order, there were bodies of slingers, and the noble warriors drove their chariots
into the
military efficiency
thick of the opposing host.
This
was attained by having a standing army
formed by a regular military class, trained from youth in the art of war, and maintained by eight acres of land assigned From an early time also we find the to every soldier. Egyptians
employing
peculiar costumes pictures.
Thus
military system
and
foreign
mercenary
whose
troops,
faces are conspicuous in the battle-
also the Assyrian war-scenes
was on a
show
level with that of Egypt.
that their
The
rise
of the science of war to a higher stage belongs to Greece,
and the whole history of
its
growth
is
told in
Greek
litera-
show more barbaric than in Egypt, with little disciphne and less generalsliip, and encounters of (jreek and Trojan champions with the armies looking on as savages ture,
beginning with the
war and armies
in a state
Iliad, the descriptions there
ARTS OF
IX.]
would
But when we come to
do.
history,
what the older their
own
227
a^es of Greek
later
seen that they had by that time not only learnt
is
it
LIFE.
civilization
had
gjnius to develoj)
it
to teach, hut
further.
arras, archers, charioteers, cavalry,
men, were disciplined and ranged after the ancient
had brought
Their corps of
all
and the i)halanx of spearorder of battle
in
Egyptian and Assyrian manner.
much
But where-
as in old times a battle had been a trial of mere strength between two armies drawn up facing one another, the military historian
Xenophon describes the change made Theban leader, Epaminondas, when
the art of war by the
in at
Leuktra, with forces fewer than the Spartans, he charged
men
in column fifty deep against their twelve deep and by breaking them threw the whole line into and won the battle. At Mantineia, carrying out
with his
right wing,
disorder,
plan yet more skilfully, he arranged his troops in a wedge-shaped body with the weaker divisions slanting off behind so as to come up when the enemy's front was this
already broken.
of military
In such ways was developed the science
tactics,
which made
portant as actual fighting.
skilful
manoeuvring as im-
The Romans,
and conquest, came at last the mere force of military discipline. to battle
a nation drilled
to rule
the world by
In the middle ages
gunpowder increased the killing-power whose artillery from bows and arrows became muskets and heavy cannon. The reader's attention has been already drawn to the military scenes of Egypt and the introduction of
of troops
now, fresh from watching the manoeuvres of a in sham fight, he will look at these pictures to see war as it was three or four thousand years ago, he
Assyria.
If
modern army will
observe
on the
old,
how with
substantially the
new system
developments due
namely, tactics and the use of fire-arms.
to
is
founded
two new
ideas,
ANTHROPOLOGY.
228
Somewhat
same lesson may be
the
[chap.
learnt b}'
comparing
and
siege with
the older and ruder kinds of fortification
those of
modern
times.
ix.
Kamhow to
Tribes at the level of the
chatkans and the North American Indians knew
In with embankments and palisades. Egypt and Assyria and neighbouring countries, strong and high fortress-walls and towers were defended by archers and slingers, and attacked by stormingparties with Old sieges were unscientific, as is so scaling-ladders. curiously seen in the Homeric poems, where the Greeks
fortify their villages
ancient
encamp over
against Troy, but
seem
to
have no notion
much less of attack by sap and The Greeks and Romans came on to use higher trench. art in fortification and siege, and there appear among them of regularly investing
it,
machines of war such as the ancient battering-ram, heavy
and
skilfully
engineered, while contrivances of the nature
of huge bows
like
the catapult led up to the cannon of
which superseded them. Lastly, looking at the army system as it is in our modern world, one favourable change is to be noticed. The employ-
later ages
ment
which almost through
of foreign mercenary troops,
the whole stretch of historical record has been evil alike in
war and peace,
at last
is
a national
dying out.
It
is
so with the system of standing armies which drain the
not life
and wealth of the wcrld on a scale more enormous even than in past times, and stand as the great obstacle to harmony between nations. The student of politics can but hope that in
footing
time the pressure of vast armies kept on a war-
may prove
unbearable to the European nations which
maintain them, and standing army
may
thai
the time
shrink
exigencijs of actual war
to
if it
a
shall
may come when
nucleus ready arise,
for
the the
while serving in
peace time as a branch of the national police.
—
CHAPTER ARTS OF LIFE Dwellings
X.
{cou till lied).
:— Caves, 229— Huts 230— Tents, 231— Houses, 231— Stone
and Brick Buildin?, 232— Arch, 235— Development ture,
235.
Dress
:
— Painting
skin,
of Architec-
236— Tattooing, 237— Defor-
—
&c., 240— Ornaments, 241 Clothing of Bark, 244— Mats, 246— Spinning, Weaving, 246— Sewing, 249— Garments, 249. Navigation: Floats, 252— Boats, 253— Rafts, 255— Outriggers, 255— Paddles and Oais, 256— Sails, 256—
mation Skin,
of Skull,
&c.,
—
Galleys and Ships, 257.
Wr have next to examine the dwellings of mankind. Thinking of the nests of birds, the dams of beavers, the tree-platforms of
man
at
apes, it can scarcely be supposed that any time was unable to build himself a shelter.
That he does not always do so the
move from
is
place to place he
mostly because while on content to sleep in
may be
the open, or take to the natural shelter of a tree or rock. Thus in the Andaman Islands the roving savages have been
noticed to resort to the sea-shore, where, under sonie overcliff that kept off the wind, they would scoop
hanging
themselves out each a hole shelters
under the
ancient savages, as
is
the sand to
lie in. RockEurope the resort of the proved by the bones and flint flakes
cliffs
in
were- in
and other remains that are found lying there
in the
ground.
ANTHROPOLOGY.
250
[cha?.
It has Caves are ready-made houses for beast or man. been already mentioned (p. 31) how in such countries as England and France, caverns were the abodes of the old tribes
of the reindeer and
mammoth
period,
and the Bushmen of
South Africa are a modern example of rude
tribes thus given
But caverns are so con-
to dwelling in caves in the rocks.
now and then still used in the civilized seen some cave in a cliff forming and of us have world, most the back of a fisherman's cottage, or at least a storehouse. venient, that they are
It is
not so
much
with these natural dwellings that
here concerned as with set
up by man
artificial
we
are
however rude,
for his shelter.
In the depths of Brazilian
forests, travellers
have come
which are not even only sloping screens made by setting up a row of huge
upon the dwellings of the naked huts,
structures,
Paris,
palm-leaves some eight feet long, leaning against a crosspole.
Being put up to windward,
Indian as he
lolls in his
hammock
this
shelters
the lazy
slung between two trees,
and with the dense foliage overhead life is not comfortless on fine days, though in bad weather the family and dogs have
round the wood
on the ground. met with is a real hut, thougli it may be such a rude one as the Botocudos make with these same great palm-leaves, sticking a number of them with their stalks in the ground in a circle, to crouch defenceless
Ev^n
in these tropical forests,
and bringing overhead.
their points
The
what
is
together,
fire
generally
so as to form a roof
Patachos go to work more
artificially,
bend-
ing together young growing trees and poles stuck in the ground, so that by binding their tops together they form a
framework which
Much
the
is
then thatched over with large leaves.
same lesson
in
primitive architecture
may be
from the natives of Australia, among whom a party camping out will be content to set up a line of leafy boughs
Icaint
;
ARTS OF
X.]
LIFE.
231
in the ground to form a screen or breakwind for the night but when they take the pains to interlace such boughs over-
becomes a
liead, the screen
while
make
they will
covering them
in
a
or daubing the outside with clay.-
invention of the simple round hut
stood.
It
is
tribes like the its
and where they stay for a framework of branches,
with sheets of bark, or leaves and grass,
and even laying on sods
The
hut,
regular
plain,
too,
how
is
thus easily under-
a conical hut,
when roving
American Indians carry from place
to
place
poles and skins or sheets of bark, becomes in fact a
how tents came to be invented. herdsmen of the East carry for their tent-coverings sheets of felted hair or wool, and we ourselves portable tent, and this shows
The more
cultured
use for temporary shelter tents of canvas. only to look at the that
it is
common
a transformed savage hut.
whether beehive or conical,
Indeed one has
bell-tent of the soldier to see
is
Now
the circular hut,
low to creep into and small
More room is often got by digging the deep within, but a greater improvement in construction is to raise the hut itself on posts or a wall, so that what was at first the whole house now becomes the roof. Thus is built the round hut with its side-posts filled in with wattle and mud, or its solid earthen wall carrying to lie or
crouch
earth out
some
in.
feet
the thatched roof which
Such were
may reach beyond in shady eaves. common peasants' dwellings in
in ancient times
Europe, as they
still are in other quarters of the world, and indeed we perhaps keep up a memory of them in the round thatched summer-houses in our gardens, which are curiously
like the real huts of barbarians.
Ne.xt, as African travellers remark, one great sign of higher civilization is when people begin to build their houses square-cornered instead of round.
The is
circular hut to
be easily built must be small, and room
best gained by building the house oblong, with a ridge
ANTHROPOLOGY.
232
[chap!
pole along the roof where the sloping poles from the sides
By being
meet.
became
able to build to any required length,
many
possible for
often
families,
together in village-houses as rude
it
twenty, to live
peoples often do.
In
barbaric countries spacious houses are built with the roofs •
carried
on
lofty posts
of earth or stones
;
with cross-timbers, or on solid walls
in fact they arc constructed
on much the
modern houses, though more rudely. It does not seem difficult to make out how stone and Where wood is scarce, brick architecture came into use. same
men
principles as our
readily take to building walls of stones, turf, or earth.
Thus the Australians are known to build shelters by heaping up loose stones as a wall, and roofing with sticks laid across. Rough stones, though they make good embankments and would be too unsteady for high walls, except and stratified slabs which form natural building-stones. With mere stones out of tlie ground dwellings would low
walls,
slaty
hardly be built of a higher kind than the curious beehive-
houses of the Hebrides, whose small rudely vaulted chambers are formed by the till
piled stones overlapping inwards
they almost meet above, and covered in with growing
turf,
so that they look like grassy hillocks with passages for
the dwellers to creep ancient,
in.
This primitive building
is
very
and though such houses are no longer made, the
old ones
still
serve as shealings in summer.
Scotch underground dwellings or "weems,"
chambers of rough
stones,
and remind
{i.e.
The
ancient
caves) have
anticjuaries of Tacitus'
account of the caves dug by the ancient Germans and
heaped over with
dirt,
where they stored
took refuge themselves from the cold, and
from
tlie
enemy.
in,
buildings
at
first
When
the craft of the
of a higher order begin.
be merely
trimmed
to
fit
their grain in
mason Tlie
and
time of war is
brought
stones
one another
like
may the
ARTS OF
X.]
LIFE.
233
pieces of a mosaic, as in the so-called Cyclopean stonework of old Etruscan and Roman walls. But the world soon adopts a higher way, not arranging the plan to suit
the
shaping the
but
stones,
stones
especially using rectangular blocks
regular
in
courses
of
masonry.
to
fit
the
work,
of stone to lay
In
ancient
down
Egypt, the
masons hewed and smoothed even granite and porphyry to is envied by the architects of our own day, and the pyramids of Gizeh are as wonderful for the fine masonry of their slopes, chambers, and passages, as for a finish which
their prodigious size.
ing
is
Our modern notion
that the blocks of stone are to
of a stone build-
be fixed together with
a layer of mortar to bind them, but in the old and beautiful architecture of Egypt and Greece the faced stone blocks lie on one another, having no cement to hold them, and needing none. Clamps of metal were used when required to hold
Cement
the stones together.
mortar or trough
in
which
in the ancient world.
the
common
or mortar (so called from the was mixed) was also well known
it
The Roman
builders not only used
lime-and-sand mortar, which hardens by absorb-
ing carbonic acid from the
air,
but they also
knew how by
adding volcanic ash or pozzolana to make a water-resisting cement, whence the name of " Roman cement " given to a composition used by our masons.
made
Mention has been already
of the practice of coating the sides of the savage
bough-hut with
clay.
The
ancient people
who
built their
settlements on piles out in the Swiss lakes used to do as
is
proved by
bits
this,
of the clay coating which were acci-
baked when the huts were burnt down, and fell where they may still be found, showing the impressions of the long-perished reed cabins on which the moist clay was plastered. We still have something of the dentally
into the water,
kind
in
what cottage-builders
call " wattle
and daub."
One
ANTHROPOLOGY.
234 also sees
now and
then in an English country lane a cottage
or cowhouse which architecture,
clay
its
mixed with
[chap.
is
a relic of another sort of primitive
walls being simply built of " cob straw.
",
Such hut-walls of clay or
that
mud
is,
are
very usual in dry climates such as Egypt, where they are
cheaper and better than timber. difficulty in
understanding
how
This being
so, there is
sun-dried bricks
use, these being simply convenient blocks of the
or
no
came into same mud
loam mixed with straw which was used to build the walls. These sun-dried bricks were used in the
cottage
Some
East from high antiquity. still
of the Egyptian pyramids
standing are built of them, and the pictures show
the clay was tempered
and the
large bricks
formed
in
how
wooden
moulds much as in modern brickfields. With these the architects of Nineveh built the palace walls ten or fifteen feet thick, which were panelled with the slabs of sculptured alabaster. For such sun-dried bricks, clay and water form a sufficient cement.
Building with mud-bricks, which indeed
suits the climate well,
They were used
in such districts as
Mexico
a house built of them. adobe, a
goes on in these countries as of old.
also in America,
word which
is
and
to this
will often find
The
day the
traveller
himself lodged in
sun-dried brick
is
there called
actually their ancient Egyptian
name
which when adopted into Arabic became with the article, at-iob,ix\i(S. thence was adopted into Spanish as adobe. tob,
Baked bricks seem to have been a later invention, easy enough to nations who baked earthen pots, but only wanted in more rainy climates. Thus the Romans, whom mere mud -bricks would not have suited, carried to great perfection the making of kiln-burnt bricks and tiles. For ordinary house-building, we now have recourse to the mason or bricklayer to build the walls, and tiles or slates are an improvement on the old thatch. But we so far
ARTS OF
X.]
LIFE.
235
keep to the old wooden architecture, that the floors and the timbering of the roof are still wood-work. For tombs and temples, however, built to last for ages, means were early wanted of roofing over spaces with the bricks or stones themselves without trusting
wooden beams.
to
There are two modes of doing this, the false arch and The false arch is the real arch, which are both ancient. an arrangement which would occur to any builder, in fact it what children make in building with wooden bricks, when they set them overlapping more and more till the top ones come near enough for one brick to cover the is
Passages and chambers
gap.
projecting
blocks of stone
roofed
may be
in
like
with
this
seen in the pyranaids
and Italy, in the and thus are built the
of EgA'pt, in ancient tombs of Greece ruined palaces of Central America
domes of the Jain temples that
in
;
India.
does not follow
It
the architects were ignorant of the real arch
may have walls out.
objected to It
is
not
it
from
known
its
exactly
how and when
arch was invented, but the idea might present roofing over doorways with rough tombs of ancient Egypt real arches are in
structed in mud-bricks, or later in stone, quite
understood the
was known
in
what
principle.
Yet
w^e call ancient times,
accepted by the world.
It is
they
;
tendency to thrust the
itself
the
even
In
stones.
the
be seen, con-
to
by architects who though it
the
was not
at
arch
once
remarkable that the Greek
architects of the classic period never took to
It
it.
was
left
Romans, who applied it with admirable skill, and from whose vaulted roofs, bridges, and domes, those of the mediaeval and modern world are derived. In thus looking over the architecture of the world, we to the
see that
its
origins lie too far
back
beginning and earliest progress.
for history to record its Still
there
is
reason to
ANTHROPOLOGY.
236
[chap.
believe that, in architecture as in other arts,
the simple and easy before he
came on
man began
to the
with
complex and
There are many signs of stone architecture having Thus on grown out of an earlier wooden architecture. of the entrance-hall looking at the Lykian tombs in the difficult.
Museum,
British
hewn and
it
their
stone,
joists, so
will be seen that though they are of forms are copied from wooden beams
that the
mason shows by
that he has taken the place of in the early
an
his
very patterns
earlier carpenter.
Even
stone-work of Egypt, traces of wooden forms
In India there are stone buildings whose columns and architraves are not less plainly copied from wooden posts, and horizontal beams resting on them. It is possible that when men first took to setting up stone
are to be seen.
columns and supporting stone blocks upon them, this idea may have come into their minds from the wooden posts and beams they had been used to. But when it is said, as it often has been, that the porticos of Greek temples are copies in stone of older
Indeed
work. their
own
known
it is
structures, practical archi-
is
not really like carpenter's
that the
column-architecture, but
from what they saw it
wooden
Parthenon
tects object that the
Greeks did not invent taking
the idea of
it
Egypt and other countries, carried
in
own genius. we come to examine
out according to their After dwellings,
clothing.
It
has
be noticed that some low tribes, especially in the tropical forests of South America, have been found by
first
to
travellers living quite
naked.
But even among the rudest
of our race, and in hot districts where clothing practical use,
something
is
of decency or for ornament. is
worn,
it is
islanders,
common
who
is
of least
generally worn, either from ideas
to paint
AVhere
little
the body.
or
no clothing
The Andaman
plaster themselves with a mixture of lard
and
;
ARTS CF
X.]
LIFE.
2'37
coloured earth, have a practical reason for so doing,, this
and mosquitos when they proceed to fingers, or when a dandy
coat of paint protecting their skin from heat
but they go
draw will
lines
ofif
into love of display
on the paint with
their
colour one side of his face red, and the other olive-
make an ornamental border-line where the two down his chest and stomach Among the
green, and
colours meet
ancient cave-men of Europe are hollowed which were their primitive mortars for grinding the ochre and other colours for painting themselvjs. Indeed, of the
relics
stones,
few habits mark the lower stages of
human life so well as the delight in body-patterns of bold spots and stripes in striking colours, familiar to
dancing
at a corroboree, or
us
in
pictures of
Australians
Americans working themselves
up to frenzy ni the scalp-dance. The primitive sign of mourning also makes its appearance where savage mourners blacken (or whiten) themselves over. faded
tion,
beauties
revive youthful
may
still
In the higher
make
a
civiliza-
poor attempt to
bloom with touches of red and white. But is now looked down on as a sign of
the ancient war-paint litter
barbarism
;
so
much
a nation of considerable
many
so that the ancient Britons, though
have been treated by mere savages because they kept up this
historians as
rude practice, as Caesar
civilization,
says, staining
woad, and so being of horrider aspect
which was so
selves the guise
warrior has
of
folly.
come down
It
is
to
make
themselves blue with in war.
terrific
in the
Among Red
the circus-clown a pattern
very likely that his paint-striped face
represent a fashion
our-
Indian
come down from
the ancient times
may when
paint was worn by the barbarians o'' Europe, much as in Japan actors paint their flxces with bright streaks of red, doubtless keeping up what was once an ordinary decoration.
When
the skin 17
is
tattooed, the chief purpose of this
is
no
ANTHROPOLOGY.
238
doubt
beaut}',
as
where the
New
[chap.
Zealander had himself
covered with patterns of curved Hncs such as he would adorn his club or his canoe with it was considered shame;
woman
not to have her mouth tattooed, for people Tattooing say with disgust " she has red lips."
a
ful for
would
prevails as widely
among
the lower races of the world as
and the fashionable designs range from a few blue lines on the face or arras, up to the flower-patterns with which the skins of the Formosans are covered like damask.
painting,
AVhere the skin
is
art is carried to
perfection as in Polynesia, the
punctured, and the charcoal-colour introduced, by
tapping rows of
common,
little
prickers.
as in Australia or Africa,
But a rougher mode
is
where gashes are made
and wood-ashes rubbed in so that the wound heals in a Marks on the skin often serve other knob or a ridge. purposes than ornament, as in Africa, where a long scar on a man's thigh may mean that he has done valiantly ir> battle, or the
or nation a negro belongs to
tribe
may be down
indicated by his mark, for instance, a pair of long cuts
both cheeks, or a row of raised pimples
down
his forehead
Higher up in civihzation, tattooing still lasts on, as where Arab women will slightly touch up their faces, arms, or ankles with the needle, and our sailors
to the tip of his nose.
amuse themselves with having an anchor or a ship in sail done with gunpowder on their arms, but in this case the original purpose
under the
more for
sleeve.
lost, for
the picture
is
hidden
comes more and
to cover the body, the primitive skin-decorations cease,
what
is
the use of adorning oneself out of sight?
The head
is
of mourning.
Andaman in
is
Naturally, as clothing
full
last
frequently cropped or shaved close as a sign
Some
islanders
;
tribes
thus go bald always, like the
or let the hair
grow
in tonsure-fashion
a ring round the shaved crown, like the Coroado (that
is.
ARTS CF
X.]
"crowned") Indians of
llrazil
;
LIFE.
239
or wear a sliaven head with
a long scalp-lock or pigtail like the North American Indians, or the
Manchus
Fi<;. 66.
have adopted
— Natives of Lepers'
this habit.
A
hair with strips of bark into is
seen
whom
of Tartary, from
Island
curious
the
(Xew
modern Chinese
Hebrides.)
mode
of twisting the
hundreds of long thin ringlets
in the portraits of natives
of Lepers' Island, Fig. 66.
ANTHROPOLOGY.
240
[chap.
Various tribes grind their front teeth to points, or cut in angular patterns, so that in Africa and else-
them away
known by the cut of his teeth. even among ourselves as showowner does no manual labour, and in China
where a man's
Long
tribe
is
often
finger-nails are noticed
ing that the
and neighbouring countries they are allowed to grow to a monstrous length as a symbol of nobility, ladies wearing them, or at least as a pretence that
silver cases to protect
they are there (see the portraits of Siamese actresses in
Or
royal dress, Fig. ^2).
the nails
may
be
sign that the wearer leads a religious
grow as a and does no
let to
life,
worldly work, as in the accompanying figure of the hand of a Chinese ascetic. Fig. 67.
As any
nation's idea of beauty
the type of their
own
c-,
why
understands
babies' snub noses yet further little
for
apt to be according to
Looking at a Hottentot face. Fig. 12 the mothers would squeeze the
features exaggerated.
one
is
race, they like to see their distinctive
in,
while in ancient times a
Persian prince would have a bold aquiline nose shaped
him, to
globe
is
come
Fig.
like
Li
/k
1 1
bandages and pads an approved shape.
make
to
But as
to
little
infants'
plastic skull
tribes will
heads by
grow
to
what that shape ought to be,
Li the Columbia River
tastes differ extremely.
some Flathead
the
quarters of the
all
found the custom of compressing
district,
so flatten out the forehead that
their front faces look like a pear with the large
end upper-
most, while neighbouring tribes press in the upper part of the skull so that their faces look like the pear with the
small end up.
Hippokrates, the ancient physician, mentions
the " long-heads "
of
deformed
artificially
Turkish skull
is
the
skulls
Black
Sea
of the
Makrokephali or The genuine
district.
of the broad Tatar form, while the nations
of Greece and Asia
Minor have oval
skulls,
which gives the
ARTS OF
X.]
why
reason
mould the
at
Constantinople
LIFE,
241
became
it
the fashion
the babies' skulls round, so that they
broad head of the cont][uering race.
to
grew up with
Relics of such
barbarism linger on in the midst of civilization, and not long ago a French physician surprised the world by the fact that nurses in
Normandy were
giving the children's
still
heads a sugar-loaf shape by bandages and a tight cap,
.
Fig.
while
in
67.— Hand of Chinese
Brittany they preferred to press
doubt they are doing so
The
propensity to
belongs to
ascetic.
human
it
round.
No
to this day.
beautify the
nature as low
body with ornaments as we can follow it.
down
In South America the naked people were adorned with rings
on
legs
and arms, and one
tribe
had
as their only apparel
ANTHROPOLOGY.
242 a
macaw's
feather
stuck
in
a
[chap.
hole
at
each
corner
of their mouths, and strings of shells hanging from their noses, ears,
and
under-lips.
This
case
latter
is
a good
example of the ornaments being fastened into the body, which
is
pierced or cut to receive them,
A^arious tribes
some gradually enlarging the till it will take a wooden plug
wear labrets or lip-ornaments, hole through the under-lip
two or three inches across, as
woman
Fig
name
in the portrait (Fig. 68) of a
of the Botocudos, a Brazilian tribe
to this
6S.
who owe
their
— Botocudo woman with lip-and ear-ornaments.
labret,
botoque or bung.
which the Portuguese compared to a
Ear-ornaments, as the figure shows, are
put in the same
way in the lobe of the ear, which they when the disc of wood is taken out it falls in a loop and even reaches the shoulder. Thus it is possible that there may be some truth in the favourite wonder-tale stretch so that
of the old geographers, about the tribes whose great ears
reached down to their shoulders, though the story had to
be stretched a good deal farther when
it
was declared that
ARTS OF
X] they lay
down on one
savage ornaments
243
ear and covered themselves with the
The
other for a blanket.
LIFE.
great
interest
to us in
these
tendency of higher civilization to give them up. In Persia one still finds the nose-ring through one side of a woman's nostril, but European taste would be
shocked by
this,
is
in the
though
As
carry an ear-ring.
it
allows the ear to be pierced to
ornaments which are merely put
to
on, they are mostly feathers, flowers, or trinkets worn in the hair, or strung-ornaments or rings on the neck, arms, and In what remote times
legs.
in
such decorations
bored
for stringing
which
no
girls
man had begun to take pleasure may be seen by the periwinkle-shells
found
doubt made
in
the
cave
of
Cro-Magnon,
necklaces and bracelets
of the mammoth-period.
for
the
In the modern world neck-
and bracelets remain in unchanged use, though anklets, such as the bangles of the Hindu dancing-girl, have of course disappeared from the costume of civilized wearers of shoes laces
and stockings. affectionate
It
would not
suit
our customs to keep an
memory
of dead relatives by wearing their finger and toe bones strung as beads, as the Andaman women do, but our ladies keep in flishion barbaric necklaces of such things as shells, seeds, tigers' claws, and especially polished stones.
The wearing
on, whether they have
of shining stones as ornaments lasts
come
to be precious pearls or rubies, or glass beads which are imitation stones. Where metal
becomes known it at once comes into use for ornament, and this reaches its height where amused travellers describe some Dayak girl with her arms sheathed in a coil of stout brass wire, or some African belle whose great copper rings on her limbs get so hot in the sun that an attendant carries a water-pot to sluice them down now and then. To see gold jewelry of the highest order, the student should examine that of the ancients, such as the Egyptian,
ANTHROPOLOGY.
244
Greek, and Etruscan in the
[chap.
Museum, and
British
that of
seems now to have passed its of which the best promanufacture, a and become prime, The cutting of ducts are imitations from the antique. precious stones such as diamonds into facets is, however, a
The
medicEval Europe.
modern
As
art.
to
art
finger-rings,
their use arose out of
if
and Babylon, then the few which are still engraved as seals keep up the original idea, while those which only carry pearls or diamonds have turned into the signet-rings of Egypt
mere ornaments.
To come now a garment gets covering off
The bark
it
The man who wants way when he takes the
to clothing proper. in the simplest
a tree
or
a beast, and puts
on himself.
it
of trees provides clothes for rude races in
districts, as for
the Brazilian forests have long tree " (lecythis).
the trunk, or
many
instance in the curious use which natives of
A man
made
of the so-called " shirt-
cuts a four or five feet length of
a large branch, and gets the bark off in an
which he has then only to soak and beat soft and to cut slits for armholes, to be able to slip it on as a ready-made shirt ; or a short length will make a woman's 'J'he wearing of bark has sometimes been kept up as skirt. entire tube,
Thus in India it is written in when the grey-haired Brahman retires
a sign of primitive simplicity. the laws of
Manu
that
end his days in religious meditation, he wear a skin or a garment of bark. A ruder people,
into the forest to shall
the
Kayans of Borneo, while
smart foreign
stuffs
in
of the trader,
common
life
they like the
when they go
into
mourn-
ing throw them off and return to the rude native garment of In Polynesia the manufacture of iaj^a from the bark-cloth.
bark of the paper-mulberry was carried to great perfection, the women beating it out with grooved clubs into a sort of vegetable felt, and ornamenting it with coloured patterns
ARTS OF LIFE
X.]
The people were
stamped on.
245
delighted with the white
paper of the Europeans, and dressed themselves in fine variety of tapa,
rain spoilt
till
they found that the
Leaves, also, are
it.
made Not
first
it
as a
shower of
into aprons or skirts
only are there " leafwearers " in India, but at a yearly festival in ALidras the
which clothe various rude
tribes.
whole low-caste population cast off and put on aprons of leafy twigs.
The
skin garments
their ordinary clothing,
worn by the savages of the ancient
world have rotted away these many thousand years, but
may
see
how
numbers of skin-dressing implements of sharp stone Fig. 54,
c),
found in the ground. Till
when they came on flint
(see
lately the Patagonians,
their journeys to a place
or obsidian was to be found,
where suitable
would load themselves with
a supply of lumps to chip into these scrapers.
we
generally they used to be worn, by the vast
primitive currier's
Savages, that their fur robes or deer-skin shirts
should not dry
stiff,
know how
to dress the leather skilfully
by such processes as rubbing in fat or marrow, and suppling with the hands ; they also smoke it, to keep. Thus the
how
North Americans know garments into something
But
it
prepare call
deer-skin
chamois
for
leather.
hardly seems as though the lower races had taught
themselves the process galls,
to
what we
like
of
actual
where the tannic acid forms
the skin insoluble
compounds which
tanning with in
the
resist
bark
or
substance
of
change
for ages,
preserved in
and embossed work in tanned Egypt may still be seen perfectly our museums. In such riding countries as
Mexico,
of leather are
so that the beautiful leather from
cut
ancient
suits
still
worn, while in Europe the
buff jerkin and the huntsman's buckskins are disappearing
but
it is still
everywhere acknowledged that there
like leather for
covering the
feet.
In wearing
is
;
nothing
furs,
our
ANTHROPOLOGY.
246
[chap.
height of kix.iry keeps curiously close to the sa\age fashion of the priiuilive world. Plaiting
are
known
and matting are to savages.
for dress, as
arts of
such simplicity that they
In hot countries matting
when South Sea
Islanders
convenient
is
make gowns
of plaited
and the old art still provides the civilized world with hats and bonnets of straw or chip. Next, if we pull a scrap of woven cloth to pieces, we see that it is in fact a piece of Therefore, to understand weavmatting done with thread. ing, we have to begin with the making of string or thread. All mankind can twist string, but some tribes do it in a
grass,
accustomed to. They take and twist it by rolling between It is quite their flat palms, or with one hand on the thigh. worth the reader's while to try to imitate this process, by twisting two strands of tow, and then rolling these into one with- the reverse movement. At any rate he will find liow much practice he would take to do it as cleverly as the Australians when they have the women's hair cut to far
lower way than
vegetable
we
wool or
fibre,
are
hair,
furnish a supply of fishing-lines, or the
they run out a handful of
native flax
New Zealanders when by inches
and perfect cord.
contrivance, the spindle, for thread-making, is
how
came
to
simple
a
wind
their
be invented.
At a
happened.
have ing
this
into a neat
But the higher nations use a mechanical
is
figured
or winder,
reel
hair-string
just
Fig. 69
a
and the question shows what may form-
cross-stick,
on which the Australians
Now
mentioned.
if
it
hatl
occurred to one of these savages to secure his thread by drawing it into a split at the end of the stick, he might have seen that by giving the hanging reel a twirl he could
make
it
twist a
new
strand for him
could do between his hands.
The
how
at h
to
do
this.
But looking
much
f-ister
than he
Australian never saw in
the
figure,
which
ARTS OF
X.]
represents
evident
an
lliat
LIFE.
woman
Egyptian
ancient
such a si)indle as she
been invented
247
is
spinning,
new
turning a mere reel to this
l)y
it
is
working with may have
Such spindles were known over the ancient
use.
civilized world,
and among the commonest objects dug up near old dwellare the
ings
spindle-whorls of stone or
terra-cotta,
like
^reat buttons, which with a stick through, the middle formed the whole simple implement. Spindles the hands of peasant
women
may
in Italy or
still
be seen in
The
Switzerland.
spinning-wheel of the middle ages was a
little
machine
to
/ r
Fig.
6j.— a, Australian w!nJcr
hand-twisted cord with the spindle.
for
;
b,
Eg^'p;ian
woman
spinning
and the spinning-frames in factories show worked with still more modern iml)rovements, a hundred spindles in a row being driven rapidly by steam-power, and all tended by a single operative.
drive a spindle,
the ancient instrument
The
next point
is
how people provided
yarn taught themselves to weave
been
said, clodi is
it
a sort of matting
but as these cannot be held
stiff
in
then
woof worked
cress-thread or
made
like rushes,
them ma\- be stretched tlie
with thread or
As has
into cloth.
a frame
to
with
a
just
threads,
number
of
form a warp, and
in
and out with the
ANTHROPOLOGY.
248 fingers, or
70.
on a
stick, as the
Mexican
This toilsome method
show the
The
so
shuttle
to
as
to
Fig.
in
of the warp being
lifted
by
allow the woof-thread carried by a
be sent right across the piece of cloth
The looms
throw.
doing
ancient Egyptian pictures already
alternate threads
cross-bars,
girl is
suits the difiicult patterns
still
But time-saving contrivances were
of the tapestry-weaver.
invented very early.
[chap.
at
Rome
Greece and
of classic
one were
much
the same, and little improvement was made in the machine during the middle ages. Indeed in out-of-the-
way places such
as the Hebrides, the tourist
Fig. 70.
— Girl weaving.
(From an Aztec
may
still
see
picture.)
the old cottage-loom which, exxept in being hori::ontal so that the weaver
sits to it
instead of standing, hardly differs
from the loom at which Penelope may be imagined weaving Only about a the famous shroud that she undid at night. century ago improvement began again,
when
the
"flying
shuttle" was invented, which instead of being thrown by
hand, was driven swiftly across by a pair of levers or ficial
arms.
Of
late years this
into the power-loom, the
labour
instead
of
the
arti-
improved loom has passed
steam-engine weaver's
now doing
hands
and
the hard
feet.
The
ARTS OF
X.]
LIFE.
249
ingenious device of the Jacquard loom with cards arranging the threads, has
even landscapes and
The to
cut
it
its
his
appearance
perforated
possible to
weave
portraits.
primitive tailor ox "cutter" {tailleur)
had not only
skin or bark into shape, but to join pieces by-
means of sinew
among
made
or thread.
among
savages,
the Fuegians
who
This
and
is
art
of sewing
seen in
its
makes
pierce their guanaco-skins with
make a who have only such bone
a pointed bone, push the thread through, and
Among
each hole.
tribes
its
form
rudest
tie at
awls,
work with, sewing cannot get beyond the shoemaker's fashion of first making a row of holes and then But bone needles pushing and pulling the thread through. with eyes are found in the reindeer-caves of France, so
or
stiff
thorns, to
that possibly the seamstresses of the
already have skins.
known how
When
to stitch
mammoth- period may
and embroider
their soft
the metal-period began, bronze needles
came
museums, and in modern times the fine steel needles have become an example how finish and cheapness may be gained by division of labour, into use such as are to be seen in
workpeople being entirely occupied in grinding But the the points, another in drilling the eyes, and so on.
one
set of
sewing-needle
is still
and hand-sewing,
in principle that of the ancient world,
after holding its place for
thousands of
had to compete with the work of the new sewing-machine, which runs its more rapid seams in a
years, has suddenly
mechanically different way. If we knew of no Next, as to the shape of garments. costume but what we commonly wear now, we might think But on it more a product of mere fancy than it really is.
looking carefully at the dresses of various nations, that
it is
seen
most garments are variations of a few principal kinds,
each madj
for a particular
purpose in clothing the body.
ANTHROPOLOGY.
250
[chap.
The simplest and no doubt earliest garments are wraps wound or hung on the bod\', and by noticing how these are worn it may be guessed how they led to the later use
To
of garments fitted to the wearer's shape.
begin with the
simplest mantles, a skin or blanket with a hole through the middle forms a ready-made
When
kind.
one
throws
a
garment of the poncho
rug or blanket over one's
becomes a garment which requires flxstening on one shoulder, to leave the arm free. This fastening may be done with a thorn or bone pin, the primitive brooch^ that is, "skewer" (French broche) we shoulders,
it
in front, or
\
now
mean
use the word brooch to
more
the
civilized metal
Now
pin with a safety-clasp, the Y.dXxw fibula or "fixer."
one stands thus draped to raise the
if
one has only
in a blanket or sheet,
arms to show how naturally sleeves came to be together under tlie arms. Next, putting
made by sewing
and holding
the blanket over the head is
seen
how
under the chin,
it
the part over the head will
make
it
a hood, which
can be thrown back when not wanted.
A\'hen it was found hood separate, there arose various kinds of head-covering, whose baggy shape often shows
convenient to
make
the
their origin, for instance the pointed "fool's-cap."
the mantle thrown over the shoulders cape or cope ; its
name
to
convenience,
when
long,
becomes the
it
likeness to
its
many
varieties
of the mantle
are
as
draped himself was rounded
the
which owes cloche).
Roman
instance
cloak,
toga
in
and its
came from
name
are apt to keep a
For into
But ever since
been worn
the loom, such as the Scotch plaid,
that ancient Eastern
Persian
cut
which the ancient off.
the invention of w^eaving, certain garments have just as they
When
forms the
it
a bell (French
shape,
for
short,
is
still know by Such woven garments
wrapper which we
of sliaial
mark of
{slial).
their origin
in
the fringe, which
"
ARTS OF
X.]
LIFE.
251
form is the ends of the warp-threads left on by the weaver, and when these threads are tied together Another great group in bundles they give rise to tassels. in its original
of garments are tunics, seen in a simple form in the chiton of ancient Greek female dress, which has been
compared
to a linen sack open at both ends, and was held up by
a brooch on each shoulder, leaving openings for the arms.
The
and generally provided
tunic, closed at the shoulders
with sleeves,
is
the most universal of civilized garments,
whether worn hanging loose waist
by a
Roman
as the tunic of the
like
In
girdle or belt.
the
smock-frock
shirt,
or drawn in at the
various forms
it
is
seen
legionary and the " red shirt
of the Garibaldian volunteer, noble,
a
its
of
the
coat
of the mediaeval
English
the
peasant,
the
workman, and lastly, it led to our modern coats and waistcoats, which are tunics made to open in front and close with buttons. One of the great steps in personal cleanliness and therefore in culture made blouse of the French
by our the
forefathers,
skin,
was the adoption of a linen tunic next
the "short" garment, or
s/u'rf.
Again, a piece
body and held up by a girdle of cloth wrapped and the way in which Eastern kilt, or forms the skirt together between the feet for skirts their fasten women convenience of walking, shows how trousers were invented. Many ancient nations wore trousers, as the Sarmatians, whose modern-looking costume may be seen on Trajan's round the
column, and the Gauls and Britons, so that to
call
Gaul." hracccc
it
is
a mistake
"garb of old Greeks and Romans looked on the
the present Highland costume the
The
classic
or breeches
as
belonging
to barbarism,
but
their
opinion has not been accepted by the civilized world.
These remarks may lead readers to look attentively books of costume, which indeed are full of curious
into
ANTHROPOLOGY.
252
[chap.
of tlie way in which things are not invented by mere fancy, but come by gradual alterations of what was already there. To account for our present absurd "chimney-pot " hat, we must see how it came by successive changes from the conical Puritan hat and the slouched Stuart hat, and these again from earlier forms. The sense of the hat-band must be found in its once having been a real cord to draw in the mere round piece of felt which was the primitive hat and to understand why our hat is covered with silk nap, it must be remembered that this is an
illustrations
outright
;
would stand seams and buttons on modern
imitation of the earlier beaver-fur hat, which
Even
rain.
the
now
useless
clothes (see page 15) are bits of past history.
This chapter
and
found
may be concluded
He who
ships.
first,
would bear him up
it
ginning in navigation.
and
even the be glad
boats,
may
art.
still
make
shift
had made a beno record
Yet the rudest forms of
be seen
civilized traveller
to
in the water,
Naturally, history has kept
of the origin of such an rafts,
with an account of boats
laying hold of a floating bough,
in use
coming
among
floats,
savages,
to a stream or lake
and
may
with a log or a bundle of bulrushes to
help him across, and carry his gun and clothes over dry.
Comparing these rough-and-ready means with the contrimade with skill and care for permanent use, a fair
vances
may be had of the stages tlirough which the shipwrights' grew up.
idea art
The mere
float
comes
on by
;
where a South Sea Island unhusked coco-nut to hold
lowest, as
child goes into the water with an
or a Hottentot will swim his goats across the river,
supporting his body by sprawling on one end of a drift-log of willow, which he calls his "wooden-horse." Australians
have been known to come out to our ships logs pointed at the ends,
and paddling with
sitting astride
their
hands,
ARTS OF
X.]
LIFE.
253
while native fishermen of Cahfornia will
sit
rushes tied rp in the shape of a sailor's
show
as these are, they at any rate
on a bundle of
hammock.
that the
Rude
makers have
noticed the advantage which the craft with a sharj)
bow
has
In
over the blunt-ended log in getting through the water. quarters of
all
the globe,
men improve on
the float
by
making it hollow for buoyancy; it thus becomes a boat. One way of doing this is to scoop out a log. Any one who happens to have been up country in America may have paddled himself in such a "dug-out" across a pond or river and after experience of the care required to keep a ;
know how when a keel
cylinder from rolling over in the water, he will
improvement
great an
it
was put on to steady the
was
in boat-building
craft.
To
savages with their stone
hatchets, the hollowing out of a log
w^hen the fire
wood
is
is
a laborious business
of a hard kind, and they are apt to use
to help them,
setting the
tree-trunk alight along the
proper line and hacking away the burning wood.
Columbus
was struck with the size of such vessels made by the natives of the West Indies, mentioning in his letters many canoes of solid wood, " multas scaphas solidi ligni," some so large as to hold seventy to eighty rowers.
name
their Haitian
canoa,
oul, or moiioxyle (" one-tree "),
well
known
mon
in
The
whence our to use
in other barbaric countries,
Europe
Spaniards adopted
catioe. its
Yet
this diig-
Greek name, was
and had been com-
in ages before history, as
may be
seen by
the specimens in museums, preserved by the peat or sand in
which they were found imbedded.
scaplia,
building in
Even the Latin word
used above, carries the record of ;
it is
meaning
Greek
to the
of the time
skap/ie,
early boat-
term " dug-out," as to be an evident
when boats were
really
relic
scooped out of solid
trunks; related to these words are English iS
this
which corresponds so exactly
i-Zvjf
and
.f////,
so
ANTHRCPOLCGY.
254
that the line of connexion in
[chap.
names runs through from
first
Another very simple way of making a boat is that seen among the Australians, where a man will strip a sheet
to last.
of bark off the stringy-bark
and paddle
off in this
tree, tie
it
together at the ends,
improvised bark-canoe.
If,
however,
more than once, he sews the ends together, and puts in stretchers or cross-pieces of wood to keep it in Thus appears the bark-canoe, not unknown in Asia shape. and Africa, and attaining in North America its greatest perfection, with its framework of cedar and sheathing of it is
to be used
sheets of birch-bark sewed together with fibrous cedar-roots.
Such canoes are
Bay
territory,
rapids
make
still
in full use in districts like the
it
needful to carry boat and cargo overland, or
a " portage " has to be
The
made from one river to another. is much the same, using hide
principle of skin-canoes
known
North American Indians crossing
rivers
have been
to turn the skins of their tents into vessels
by means
for bark.
of a
Hudson's
being well suited to a broken navigation where
kw
twigs to keep
them
stretched.
Scarcely above this
round skin-covered boats of boughs of Mesopoand the portable coracles of the ancient Britons ; on the Severn and the Shannon fishermen still go down to the river carrying on their backs their coracles, now made of tarred canvas on a frame, but modelled on the ancient The Esquimaux kayak has its framework of bone or type. drift-wood on which are stretched the seal-skins which convert it into a water-tight life-buoy, in which the skin-clad paddler can even turn over sideways and bring his boat up Our modern so-called canoes are right on the other side. imitations of this in wood. Next, when the barbaric shipwright comes to improving a dug-out canoe by sewing or lacing on a strip of thin board as a gunwale, or making his whole boat by sewing thin are the
tamia,
ARTS OF
X.]
boards together over
LIFE.
255
instead of skins or slieets of
tlie ribs,
bark,
he brings his vessel a stage nearer to our boats.
From
Africa across to the
ships used
Mah\y Archipelago, such sewn and often still are, the ordinary native
to be,
The South Sea
craft.
Island canoes, thus laced together
with sinnet or coco-nut fibre braid so neatly that the joints hardly show, are marvels of barbaric carpentry. gulf of
Oman, men used
to
islands with their tools, cut
wood
into planks,
make
the bark,
go across
down
to the
a few palms,
sails
of the leaves, load the
the
new-made
moment
ships
sail.
Before coming to the ships of civilized nations, for a
make
sew these together with cord made from
with the nuts, and set
back
In the coco-nut
to the ruder floats.
fastened together form a
raft,
Two
let
us look
or three logs
which though clumsy to move
has the advantage of not upsetting, and carrying a heavy
At the time of the discovery of Peru, the Spaniards
load.
were amazed to meet with a native
and with a the
sail set.
The
rafts
raft
out in the ocean,
which bring goods down
Euphrates and Tigris are buoyed with blown sheep-
at the end of the voyage the raft is broken up and the wood sold, so that only the empty skins have to go back to serve another time. With still more perfect economy, the rafts down the Nile are buoyed with earthen pots
skins
;
for sale in the bazar, so that rafts, like
nothing goes back.
Timber-
those on the Rhine, are well arranged for merely
floating down stream. But when a raft has to be driven through the water by oars or sails, its resistance is excessive,
and
has
and other islanders by cross-poles and carrying a raised platform, would go more easily. Lookit
that a raft
ing
at
occurred to the Fijians
formed by two
this
thought that
parallel logs united
simple contrivance, it
it
has
been reasonably
led up to the invention of the outrigger
ANTHROPCLCGY.
256
canoe,
known
Pacific
and
in
now
ancient Europe, and
One
as far as Ceylon.
chap. prevailing in the
of the two logs
is
now
represented by the canoe, the second remaining as the outrigger log, fastened to the ends of the
two projecting poles,
so as to stoady the whole in rough weather.
may both become
two logs retained
;
we
thus
have
Or indeed
the
canoes, and the platform be
the
Polynesian
double-canoe,
whose principle has been lately turned to account in the double-steamboat to smooth the passage between Dover and Calais. Next, as to the ways by which boats are propelled The origin of rowing is plainly shown through the water. by the Australian straddling his pointed log and paddling with his hands, or by the fisherman of the Upper Nile propelling with his feet the bundle of stalks he sits astride on. The primitive wooden paddle, imitating the form and doing the work of the flat hand or foot, is well known to savages,
or
who mostly
shovel end
;
the
use the single paddle with a blade
double-ended paddle,
canoeists have borrowed from the Esquimaux,
improved form.
The paddle used
such as is
our
a peculiar
free-handed to dig or
sweep at the water, is best suited to the narrow barkcanoe or hollowed trunk, but for larger craft it is a rude contrivance as compared with the civilized oar, which is a lever pulled against a fulcrum so as to use more of the rower's force, and in a steadier pull. The difference between barbaric and civilized knowledge of mechanical principles, is
well seen by comparing a large South Sea Island canoe
with twenty paddlers shovelling the water, to one eight-oared launches.
Of
sails,
of our
perhaps the simplest idea
in Catlin's sketch of North American Indians up each in his canoe, holding up his blanket with outstretched arms with its lower end tied to his leg^
is
to
be seen
standing
ARTS OF
X.]
LIFE.
257
and so going before the wind. Tlie rudest regular sail used anywhere is a mat or cloth held up by two sticks as stays at the upper corners and made fast below, or supported by an upright pole and cross-piece, the primitive mast and yard.
men
never to
It
so
is
sail their
common
boats, that
that their ancestors ever
have kept
it
It
seems more
knew how.
the lower tribes of to imagine
difficult
Surely they ^\ould
much
labour with
likely that the invention of the sailing vessel
belongs to a period
Up
is
up, for the art of saving so
little
this
for
pains would not easily have fallen out of mind.
so
Yet
it
when
civilization
was
far
advanced.
period was very ancient.
making out how the simpler kinds of no help. Not only does their origin mostly lie beyond record, but by the time we come fairly into history we find the ancient nations knowing how to build vessels of more advanced order, framed with keel and ribs, and sheathed with nailed boats
to this point, in
came
into existence, history gives
planks, in fact the direct predecessors
of our
own
ships.
Egypt, or somewhere else in that ancient culture,
Old World region of may have been the original centre whence
the higher shipwrights' craft spread over the world.
It
is
study the ancient Egyptian vessel (Fig. 71) depicted on the wall of a Theban tomb, and to see how
instructive to
fiir
we
it
already has in a rudimentary state the parts which
recognise as belonging to the fully-developed ship.
was common,
As
was a combination of rowing-galley and sailing-ship. The rowers sit on cross benches, pulling at the oars which pass through loops, while at the stern is it
worked the great steering-oar which is the ancestor of our rudder (this used to be merely an oar, which its name originally meant, like ruder in German). There is a mast held up by stays and carrying yards, with
ANTHROPOLOGY.
253
ropes rigged forecastle
tures it
is
to hoist
and poop
how
and
to
the
furl
are already represented
on the deck. seen
them
[CKAP
The
sail.
by raised
struc-
In the Egyptian pictures of war-ships
these
served as stations for the archers,
while the fighting-men were also protected behind a bulwark, and there
is
even the "crow's nest" on the top of
the mast serving as a place for slingers to hurl stones from at the
Com-
enemy, from which comes our "mast-head."
paring with the Egyptian vessels the ancient galleys and ships
of the Mediterranean,
Fig. 71.
Roman, come into
or
Greek,
— Ancient Nile-boat, from wall-painting, Thebes. is
it
Phoenician,
wliether
impossible
to
think
these
can have
existence by separate lines of invention
family likeness
among them
is
;
the
Even farther off, Ganges to the ancient
too strong.
used in the and the eye of Osiris painted on the Egyptian funeral bark that carried the dead across the the likeness of the craft
Nile-boats
is
still
surprising,
lake to the western burial-place,
may
]:)erhaps
have
first
suggested the painting of eyes as ornamerts on the bows of boats, from the barks in Valetta harbour in the west to the
junks of Canton
in
the ,cast.
In following the course of
ARTS OF
x]
LIFE.
255
development from the ancient to the modern ship, we notice that from time to time new appliances come in, as metals heathing to protect the planks from the boring teredo,
duked anchor instead of a great stone, the capstan More masts and spars now served to carry (S:c. more sails, and tier above tier of rowers impelled the classic bireme and trireme. The war-galley lasted on into our
the iron
for hauling,
own time its
in the Venetian navy, kept in use
bad sea-going
quality, for its
The
a calm.
sailing-vessels helpless in
in
spite of
power of dashing upon
who
galley-slaves
laboured at the huge oars were captives or criminals, and though the French galleys no longer remain for penal still means a improvement of European sailing-vessels the middle ages is in great measure due to an invention
servitude, the term galcrien or galley-slave
The
convict. in
vast
Ijarnt from the far east
— the mariner's compass.
Ships,
now
able to steer their courses on long voyages out of sight of land, were
improved
of-war with
became
several
in build
and
rigging, while the
decks armed with
floating castles.
tiers
men-
of cannon
Lastly, during the present century,
steam-power has been applied to propel the ship from within, the paddle-wheel or screw in fact taking the place
of the old banks of oars, and the changeable wind-power
being
now
only turned to account as an occasional aid and
means of saving fuel. It is needless to describe the changes wliich modern armour-plating and huge guns have made of war, but even these still enough how they were formed by successive
in the construction of ships
show
plainly
alterations
from the primitive canoe.
—
—
CHAPTER ARTS OF LIFE
XI.
[concluded).
260 — Cookery, 264— Bread, &c., 266 — Liquors, 268 — Fuel, 270 — Lighting, 272 —Ve?sels, 274— Pottery, 274— Glass, 276 — Metals, 277 — Bronze and Iron Ages, 278 — Barter, 2S1 — Money, 282
Fire,
Commerce, 2S5.
The subject next to be considered is Fire and its uses. Man understands fire and deals with it in ways quite beyond the intelligence of the lower animals.
how,
in the forests of equatorial Africa,
There
when
is
an old story
travellers
had
gone away in the morning and left their fires burning, the huge manlike apes called pongos (probably our gorillas) would come and sit round the burning logs till they went having the sagacity to lay more wood on.
out, not
story
is
human apes. Of
often repeated to contrast
the dulness of even the highest
course there had
when
been
forest-fires in
ages before man, as
been
set in flames
by lightning or by a lava stream.
of
all
creatures
man
alone has
This
intelligence with
known how
the trees
to
manage
had But fire,
it from place to place with Inirning brands, and went out to produce it afresh. No savage tribe Seems really to have been found so low as to be without
to carry
when fire.
it
In the limestone caverns,
among
the rolics of the
ARTS OF
CH. XI.]
LIFE.
261
period, morsels of charcoal and burnt bones are found imbedded, which show that even in that remote antiquity the rude cave-men made fires to cook their food
mammoth
and warm themselves by. As to the art of producing fire, the savage way was mostly by the friction of two pieces of wood, and to this day
may now and then see The hand fire-drill consists
travellers
work.
shaft cut to a blunt point,
which
the simple apparatus at
of a stick like an arrowtwirled like a chocolate-
is
muUer between the hands (shifted up when they get too with such speed and pressure as to bore a far down) hole
an
into
made by
under-piece of wood,
the boring takes
thus drilling
fire
while his
The Polynesian way
is
the charred dust
till
72 shows a
Fig.
fire.
companion attends
Bushman
to the tinder.
pushing the pointed stick
different,
own making in the under-piece of Either method will make fire in a few minutes, wood. but knack and proper choice of wood are needed, and one of us will hardly succeed. For easier working, some
along a groove of
nations have
simple savage
couple
a fro
;
drill
long had a mechanical improvement on the fire-drill,
it
of our tool-shops
its
by driving
round the
turns
working
also,
top piece
on
of
its
with a is
with a thong
it
stick,
bow
and pulled
and
common bow-
like the
not unknown.
wound to
In either case a
down
(not too hard)
civilized nations, the old fire-drill
had already in use by better
is
rcquiretl to
keep the
drill
bearing.
Among
ancient times been superseded in contrivances, especially. the
discarded from
flint
common
and
steel.
But although
kept up for As has been already mentioned, Brahmans may be still seen "churning" with practical
life,
it
has
boen
ceremonial purposes. (p.
a
16) the fire-drill
driven by a hair-cord the
pure divine
fire
for
AxNTHROPOLOGY.
262
[chap.
their sacrifices, thus rehgiously
keeping to the old-fashioned
instrument used in daily
by the
life
The
early Aryans.
Romans had
arts in
such a survival of their past state of the law that if the vestal virgms let out the sacred
fire, it
was
ancient
be made afresh by
to
board.
The
own day
as the orthodox
when
with which,
many
requires
the
Britain
is
means of kindling the
there was
our
to
"'need-fire,"
a murrain, the peasants in
and
new
may
— Bushman drilling
wild-fire
hearth. is
The
fir>;
made by last
(after
be seen
in
Chapman).
friction,
need-fire
perhaps one that was made still
This
from the religion of prse-Christian times,
inherited
they
Europe
through, to save them from the pestilence.
Fig. 72.
of
in
parts used to light bonfires to drive the horses
cattle rite,
on
wooden
a
drilling into
old art has even lasted
not the tame
on record in Perth in
in
fire
Great
1826, but
Sweden and elsewhere when there In the last century
cholera or other pestilence about.
there was a law passed forbidding the superstitious frictionfire
in
Tonkoping, the' very
district
now famous
clieap tandstickor or tinder-sticks, that
So curiously do the extremes of
is,
for
its
lucifer-matches.
civilization
come together
in the world.
The
fire-drill is
a ir.eans of convertinc: mechanical force
ARTS OF
XI.]
into heat
till
LIFE.
the burning-point of
263
wood
is
But
reached.
all
that is really wanted is a glowing hot particle or spark, and Breaking a this can be far more easily got in other ways.
nodule of iron pyrites picked up on the sea-shore, and witli flint striking sparks from it on tinder, is a way of
a bit of
wooden
fire-making quite superior to the use of the It
some modern of Tierra del Fuego
was known
natives
to
;
drill.
savages, even the miserable
men
the proehistoric
to
of
Europe, as appears from the bits of pyrites found in their caves and of course to the old civilized world, as witness ;
the Greek
name
stitute for this
Sub-
of the mineral, purites ox "fierj'."
a piece of iron, and we have the flint-and-
the ordinary apparatus of nations from their entry
steel,
into the iron age
till
modern
times.
Yet even
this
has
now
been so discarded that the old-fashioned kitchen tinder-box with
its flint
and U-shaped
steel,
and damper
for preparing
the tinder from scraps of burnt linen to light the brimstonewith, has become a curiosity worth securing when oNIention need hardly found by chance in some farmhouse. be made here of the burning -lens and the concave mirror
match
known
in ancient
syringe
(much
known
in the
Greece, nor of the wooden condensing
like that described in
Chinese region
;
our books on physics)
these are rather curious than
Quite othervvi-e with the invention
practically important.
of the lucifer-match, dating from about 1840.
Its
action
by being nibbed, the head inflammable composition, being of an lucifer ordinary of an containing chlorate or nitrate of potash, which is fired by
depends on phosphorus
particles
igniting
of phosphorus mixed in with
it
;
for the
safety-
match, these particles of phosphorus are put, not in the
match head, but on the rubber
instead.
In the low levels of civilization the hut that the fire has to be
made
outside.
is
often so small
But when
it
becomes
ANTHROPOLCGY.
264
spacious enough, the earth
way
the
in
out as
it
fire
[chap.
of logs burns on the hard-trodden
middle of the
the
hut,
can by door and cracks.
smoke finding its Those who have
spend a night lying on the ground with their such a dweUing, know both what pLace the fire has in barbaric comfort, and how that comfort was increased when builders took the trouble to make a smoke-
chanced
to
feet to the fire in
hole in the roof, and afterwards came to a real chimney.
The
history of artificial
warming from this point need a long description.
plainly before us as not to
the
fire
of a few sticks on the cottage hearth,
lies
so
From we come to
the wide fire-places in the halls of country houses, with their fire-dogs, after the fashion of the
the coal-fires
in
open
middle ages.
Then come
the closed stoves, and the
grates,
arrangements for warming the house with currents of hot air,
or circulating pipes of hot water.
From house-warming we come
to cookery.
The
heat
applied in cooking food, bursting the cells and softening the
make
tissues so as to
it
easier to chew,
similating
raw
impossible for
flesh or vegetables.
man
is
an important aid
which would be wasted on
to digestion, saving energy
It
as-
would not indeed be
on uncooked food, and perhaps is found on some coral islands
to live
the nearest approach to this
and coco-nuts form a great
of the Pacific, where raw fish part of the native diet.
wanderers insects,
them
;
of
the
deserts,
grubs, shellfish,
and
Low
tribes, especially half-starved
such as the Australians,
and small
reptiles,
Brazilian forest-men have
eat
raw as they find
been seen
to imitate
the ant-bear by poking a stick into an ant-hill, and letting
the ants run up
it
into their mouths.
These practices shock
Europeans, who thjmselves however have no scruples as to oysters
and cheese-mites,
accustomed.
I'ut these
to
which they happen to be
rude tribes know
how
to cook, as
ARTS CF
XI.]
indeed
mankind
all
way
man
as
no proved exception, ancient
Civilized nations have
or modern.
265
do, the familiar definition of
the "cooking animal" having
this
LIFE.
come
so thoroughly to
of assisting nature, that they cook almost every-
thing they eat, only keeping up primitive habits in eating nuts, berries, taste.
to eat
whom
and other
fruit
raw as more pleasing
to the
has long been looked on as a sign of low culture
It
raw meat, like the Eurytanes of the interior of Greece Thukydides mentions as " most ignorant in their
Even
speech, and said to be raw-eaters {oniop/iagoi)."
New
native tribes of
England were struck with
this
the
habit
the roving race of the far north, whom they called accordingly Eskimantsic or " raw-flesh-eaters," a name they
among still
bear
The savages, it
m
French form Esquimaux.
its
roughest ways of rooking are to be seen
who
broil their
meat on the burning
on the primitive
stuck
sloping over the
do chestnuts
or bury
fire,
or potatoes.
spit, it
pit
dug
set
set
its
latter
mode comes may
simplest form
on fire and smouldering inside, or a and heated by a wood-fire, often
the ground
in
with red-hot stones put in to tribes
hot embers as boys
this
the invention of the oven, which in
be a hollow tree
among or roast
pointed stake planted
a
in the
From
logs,
up
help the baking.
Brazilian
four posts with a grating of branches across,
laid their game and fish with a slow fire Meat prepared on such a boiuan will keep a long while the pirates of the West Indies used thus to prepare their stores of meat, whence comes the word bucanecr. 7 o the buffalo-hunting tribes of North America belongs the invention o( pern //i tea ti, meat dried and pounded
on which they underneath.
;
for
keeping,
know how this
is
wlule
in
many
of the world people
parts
to dry sheets or strips of
called jerked meat,
and
will
meat
keep.
in the hot
The
sun
;
use of hot
ANTHROPOLOGY.
266
[ci:ap.
From this the may have been derived. In among tribes who do not know
stones in baking has just been mentioned.
important
boihng food
art of
many parts of the world, how to make an earthen art
Assinaboins
means
"stone-boilers,''
hole in the ground, lining
it.
porridge in their baskets fir.
The
meat with water, and West actually managed boil salmon and acorn-
in the
Tribes of the
by means of red-hot stones spruce
The
with a piece of the slaughtered
it
and then putting
hot stones to boil
found the curious
is
a sort of wet baking.
is
America have their name, which from their old practice of digging a
of North
animal's hide,
there
pot,
of stone-boihng, which
far
to
made
of close-plaited roots of the
process of stone-boiling has lasted on even in
Europe where found convenient for heating water in wooden Linnaeus on his northern tour found the Bothtubs. land people brewing beer in this way, and to this day
boor" drinks such "stone-beer," as it the cooks anywhere are provided
the "rude Carinthian is
As soon
called.
as
with earthen pots or metal kettles, boiling over the
becomes of boiled
Yet
easy.
is
it
meats from the
fire
curious to notice the absence feasts of
much about
the
Homeric heroes, on spits to to and fro on his
the joints stuck
where there is so roast, and the vengeful Odysseus rolling bed is compared to an eager roaster turning a stuffed
paunch before the blazing otherwise, for it it was warriors
feast
flesh of the kettle,
Among
fire. is
every night
told in
boar Srehrimnir, who
and comes
to
life
in
Walhalla is
Northmen Edda how the
the old
the
on the
sodden huge
daily boiled in the
again ready for the morrow's hunt.
The simplest ways of making bread, such as seem to have come in with the earliest cultivation of grain, answer so well for some purposes that they may still be seen Thus in a north country cottage the almost unchanged.
ARTS CF
XI.]
LIFE.
267
housewife moistens the oatmeal and kneads
it
into dough,
which spread out thin is baked into oatcakes on the hot and the damper of iron girdle (it used to be a hot stone) ;
the AustraHan colonist
as simply
is
water in thick cakes, baked
in the
made
with flour and
These take us
embers.
back near the primitive stages of an art which almost more Such unleavened than any other has civilized mankind. bread being first in use, the invention of leavened bread
would follow as a matter of course, by the sour dough on the uncleaned vessel fermenting into leaven (French levain,
which
lightening),
starts
through
fermentation
the
fresh
disengagmg bubbles of carbonic acid within it which expand it into a spongy mass. In later times the yeast from brewing was found to be a better means than dough,
leaven
;
gas by
and there are modern processes of introducing the means of baking-powder (such as sal-aeratus or bicarbonate of soda), or the
aerated
salt,
aerated
by mixing the carbonic
The the
is
by
bread
boiling,
which
lets
may be
mechanically.
means of preparing farinaceous
other great
food
gas
acid
or starchy
the starch out to mix with
water by bursting the tiny granules in which
enclosed.
of mankind, and
food
are
it
is
Rice boiled whole furnishes about half the food the
among
various
other staple articles of vegetable
kinds
of pap
or
porridge
made
Lookseen what an
with wheat, barley, oats, maize, sago, cassava, &c. ing
over
endless
a modern
list
cookery book,
it
clever cooks, to please the palate and
more.
As
is
of dishes and sauces have been contrived by
to progress in
cookery
in this
make one wish
for
way, no doubt the
moderns have left the ancients behind. But, after all, the main purpose of cooking food is to bring it into a proper condition for keeping up and working the human machine, body and mind. Examining it from this point of view, it
ANTHROPOLOGY.
268 is
[chap,
curious to notice what an old-world business
Its
it is.
main processes of roasting, baking, and boiling, belong to the barbaric stage of culture, and had their origin in ages before history.
The liquors drunk by man may
Savage
next be noticed.
were water-drinkers when
tribes such as the Australians
discovered by the Europeans, and even the Hottentots and
North American Indians knew no fermented drinks. It is to suppose that an indulgence so tempting would ever be forgotten, if once known ; so that possibly the ancestors of these peoples may have from the first been But in most ignorant of the art of fermenting liquor.
difficult
where grain and fruit were cultivated, one would think that the process must sooner or later discover itself, by the accident of some suitable juice or mash being left to stand. In Mexico the milky juice of countries, especially
in Asia and Africa aloe is fermented into pulque cider from palms are tapped for palm-wine or toddy apple-juice, and mead from honey and water, are well
the
;
;
the Tatars ferment their mares' milk into kumiss. Especially liquors of the beer kind prevail widely; the first mentioned in history is the beer brewed from barley by the
known
ancient
;
whence may perhaps be traced the allied to it are the kvass or beer of Europe
Egyptians,
ancient ale
;
or rye-beer of Russia, the
pombe
or millet-beer of Africa,
the so-called rice-wine of the Chinese, the chicha with maize or cassava by the natives of America.
seems not the
less ancient,
wine-making of
history.
the
frank
and the Egyptian paintings show
the wine-presses,
vineyards, is
still
In
much what
ancient
undoubting
made Wine
times
delight
drink, as a divinely given
indeed,
the
wine-jars
was
in those early ages
it
curious
it
is
of
men
in
;
to
notice
intoxicating
means of drowning
care
and
ARTS CF
XI.]
LIFE.
They drank
stimulating dulness into wild joy. in their religious feasts
and oftered
ancient bards of the Yedic
269 .solemnly
it
The
to their gods.
it
hymns thought no
singing
in
ill
of Indra the Heaven-god, reeling drunk with the libations
of the sacred soma poured out by his worshipjjers, and in later ages the
Greeks chanted
in
bacchanal processions the
praises of the beneficent Dionysos,
who made
nations
all
happy with the care-dispelling juice of the grape. But in early times also there comes into view an opposite doctrine.
The
guardians of religion, sensible of the
of drunken-
evil
ness, begin to proclaim not only excess as hateful, but the sin. The Brahmans, although soma remains by old tradition among
very tasting of strong drink a the libation of the their sacred rites,
one of the
liquors
yet account the drinking of spirituous five
great sins
;
the old rival
wliile in
Buddha, one of the ten precepts or commandments which the novice promises to obey, is that forbidding
religion of
use
the
of
intoxicating
jMohammed
Though
liquor.
Christianity, he cast off their ancient its
use
sacred
in
was not
till
more ancient nations.
seen can
in
It
the
refuse
rites,
forbidding
of
honour
in
the East,
came
for
and wine and
into use
among
usquebaugh
now produced
of wine-making,
of
life,"
(for
in
the western is
well
Latin aqiiavitce, French
shortness 7c>hisky).
immense
brewing,
It
though
spirit,
was generally accepted as beneficial, as
name of "water is
religion
as an abomination.
it
the middle ages that distilled
de-vie, Irish
holic spirit
the
arose in great measure out of Judaism
Alco-
quantities from the
sugar-refining,
&c.
Its
employment as a habitual stimulant is among the greatest evils of the modern world, bringing about in the low levels of the population a state of degradation hardly matched ia the worst
ages
of history.
On
the other hand,
civilized life has gained in comfort 19
by taking
modern
to the use of
ANTHRCPOLCGY.
270
warm
[chap.
Tea, at
slightly stimulant drinks.
valued by the
first
Buddhist monks in Central Asia as a drug to keep the ascetic awake for his nightly religious duties, seems to have
been introduced as a beverage in China at about the Christian era, and has spread fi-om thence all over the Coffee is at home in Arabia, and the world owes world. its
Chocolate was brought by
general use to the Moslems.
the Spaniards from old Mexico, where it was a favourite With these, mention has to be made of tobacco, drink.
an importation from America, where
also
the discovery
at
the time of
was smoked by natives of both the north
it
and south continent. In here describing
fires
and
fire-places
has been taken as the primitive fallen
boughs made
minds
fairly
back
at
a picnic
to prae-historic
hut the logs are piled on the
(p.
264),
Indeed, the
fuel.
wood fire
of
in the
woods may take our
life.
When
earthen
m
floor,
the savage this
simple
hearth already becomes the gathering-place of the family and the type of home. But in treeless districts the want of fuel
is
one of the
diiTiculties
of
life,
as
plains the buffalo-hunter has to pick
where on the djsert
up
for the evening fire
the droppings which he calls " bufQilo-chips
vache."
Even
in
woodland
countries, as
collect in villages, the fire-wood near
When some American
by
is
"
or
'•'
bois dc
soon as people apt to run short.
Indians were asked what reason they
supposed had brought the white men to their country, they answered quite simply that no doubt we had burnt up all
The guess was so our wood at home, and had to move. must really have kind far good, that something of the happened had we depended on the fuel from our forests and peat bogs, for the supply in England was giving out. Thus what was in old times the forest-land of Kent and Sussex, and has still kept its name of the Weald {i.e. wood),
"
ARTS OF LIFE
XI] not
is
now
well-timbered, but this
Elizabeth's time
it
ayr
because in Queen
is
been stripped to make charcoal
liad
for
Indeed, there then seemed danger that
the iron furnaces.
and manufactures throve, England North China now, where in the cold
as jjopulation increased
might become
like
home wrapped
in furs, fuel being
too scarce except for the cooking-stove
But instead of
weather people huddle at
this
coming
an industrial change
to pass, there took place
England, which multiplied the population and brought
in
on our present prosperity. This was the use of coal, on which our modern manufacturing system depends. Even household purposes the coal-cellar has almost superseded
for
wood
the
and the blazing
stack,
in
the English
Ijible
keeps
yule-log has
The
picturesque relic of the past. its
very word
become a coal,
which
sense of burning
original
wood, has since been usurped by the mineral. It must not, however, be supposed that the use of coal was only discovered in modern times. The Chinese have mined it In the thirteenth century, the from time immemorial. famous Venetian traveller, Marco Polo, related that in Cathay there is a kind of black stones, which are dug out of veins in the mountains, and burn like faggots
;
and
I
you pat them on the fire in the evening so that they catch well, they will burn all night and even be alight in the morning. That this was told and can
tell
you (he
says) that
if
received as a wonder in Europe, shows
use of coal then was.
Though
how
unfamiliar the
lllhanthrax or " stone-coal
was not unknown to the ancients,
its
full
importance to
came gradually into view. Having first been brought in for economy to meet the scarcity of wood, it afterwards became, when applied to the steam-engine, an modern
life
almost
boundless
work.
A
only
source of
steam-engine,
for
power
every few
for
all
mechanical
shovelfuls
of coal
ANTHROPOLCGY.
272
[chap.
fed with, will do the day's work of a the yearly output of millions of tons of steamcoal in Great Britain alone, furnishes a supply of force in comparison with which what was formerly available from
its
furnace
horse.
is
Thus
windmills and watermills and the labour of men and beasts was quite small, while the workman's task becomes more
and more that of directing this brute force to grind and hammer, to spin and weave, to carry across land and sea. It is like the difference between driving the waggon and It carrying the sacks of corn to market on one's own back. the reckon to economy political in problem is an interesting
means of subsistence in our country during the agricultural and pastoral period, and to compare them with the resources we now gain from coal, in doing home-work and manufacturing goods
Perhaps the best
to
means
exchange
for
foreign
of realizing what coal
is
produce. to us, will
be to consider, that of three Englishmen now, one at least may be reckoned to live by coal, inasmuch as without it the population would have been so much less. The Australian savage would catch up a blazing brand
him into the dark forest and Thus there is as yet no difference between his primitive means of artificial heat and light. The two begin to separate when resinous pine-splints or the like are set aside to serve as natural flambeaux, and from
from the camp-fire, to scare away the demons.
this the
the
next step
commonest
is
is
to
light
make
artificial
flambeaux, of which
the twist or torch (from Latin torquere) of
oakum dipped in pitch or wax. Till this century we used much as the ancient Romans did, but they are now
torches
seldom of
life
to
be seen, and by their disuse the picturesque side
loses
many
striking effects of torchlight glare
and
shadow on banquet and procession— the delight of painters and poets. Not half the passers-by in old-fashioned streets
ARTS OF
XI.]
now know
LIFE.
273
on the iron raiUngs were to
that the extinguishers
put out the hnks or torches carried to h'ght the to
their coaches.
The candle
have been invented from the
torch.
The
might
it
made
rushlight,
of the pith of the rush dipped in melted
mon
company
looks as though
fat,
was
in
com-
wax or tallow candle with its yarn wick. The old classic lamp was a Hattish oval vessel with a nozzle {i.e., nostril) at one end for the wick to come out at. Simple as this construction use in Pliny's time, as was
also
the
is, it has had a long unchanged use. Museums have few Greek and Roman objects more plentiful than such earthenware lamps, nor more exquisite specimens of metal-work than the bronze ones and to this day the traveller off the main road in Spain or Italy is lighted to his bedroom with ;
a brass stand-lamp
much
after the
manner
of the ancients,
The lamp only came into its improved modern make about a century ago, when Argand let the air in from below, and put on the glass chimney to set up a draught. The gas-lamp is still later, only having come into practical use during the last sixty with
its
pick-wick hanging to
But
years.
it
is
by a chain.
curious to notice that natural gas-lighting
had long been known
places where decomposing bi-
in
tuminous beds underground
Thus
it
set free carburetted
hydrogen.
famous fire-temples of Baku (west of the Caspian), a hollow cane was stuck in the ground near the altar,
at
the
through which the gas rose and burnt at
its
mouth,
while the pilgrim fire-worshippers prostrated themselves and
adored the sacred flame.
In China, at
salt springs
where
such a supply of natural gas comes up, the practicalminded people are content to lay it on through bamboos into the buildings, to boil the brine-kettles
and
light
up the
works.
The examination
here
made
of
tiie
modes
of cooking
ANTHROPOLOGY.
2/4 requires
some notice of
can make
shift
[.iiap.
For water-vessels men
vessels.
without the art of the potter, using joints of
bamboo, coco nut shells, calabash rinds, buckets scooped The horseman out of wood, pails of bark, bottles of skin. in desert regions carries his water-gourd at his saddle-bow,
and even where a glass imitation has come in, the French go on calling it d. gourde, just as we keep up the name of the old It was one of leather bottle for the glass ones we use now.
make
the greatest household inventions to to stand the
invented,
is
fire
too
for boiling. flir
back to
was
wherever earthenware
dwellings,
may be picked up in the ground. to be found, as among the relics deer-period
in
the
pots
earthen
When and where pottery was On the sites of ancient say.
of
France,
caves of
potsherds
use,
in
Where they
are
may be
it
not
of the rein-
tribes
concluded that these early savages had not come so
safely far in
The same is true of the Australians, Fuegians, and many other modern savages who had no pottery, and no broken bits in their soil to show that their predecessors ever had. One asks, how did men first hit upon the idea of
civilization.
making an earthen pot? invention, but invention ture,
and there are some
even pots were not made
It may not look a great moved by slow steps in
facts
which lead
all at
once.
stretch of early cul-
to the guess that
There are accounts of
rude tribes plastering their wooden vessels with clay to stand the
fire,
while others,
more advanced, moulded
clay over
gourds, or inside baskets, which being then burnt away
left
an earthen vase, and the marks of the plaiting remained as an ornamental pattern. It may well have been through such intermediate stages that the earliest potters
came
they could shape the clay alone and burn
shaping was doubtless at or Africa the native
first
done by hand,
women may
still
it
to see that
This America
hard.
as in
be seen building up
ARTS 07
XL] large
and shapely
on the clay
bit
by
jars
LIFE.
27:
or kettles from the bottom,
So
bit.
in
Europe, as any
moulding
museum
of an-
tiquities shows, the funeral urns and other earthen vessels
and even buy eartlien cups and bowls of an old woman who makes them in ancestral fashion without a potter's wheel, and ornaments them with
of the stone and bronze ages were hand-made
now
lines
tourists
who
visit
drawn with a pointed
was known
in the
stick.
Yet the potter's wheel
world from high antiquity.
presents Egyptian potters at work, as paintings of the
;
the Hebrides
Tombs
shown
of the Kings.
It is
the
Avall-
seen that they
So the Hindu potter
turned the wheel by hand.
Fig. 73 rein
is
described
Fig 73.— Ancient Egyptian Potter's Wheel (Eenl Hassan).
as
now going down
the river side
to
brought him a deposit of fine clay, wlien
when a all
flood has
he has to do
is
knead a batch of it, stick up his pivot in the ground, balance the heavy w-ooden table on tlie top, give it a spin It wms an improvement on this round, and set to work. to
simplest wheel to work
from below by the
it
potteries a labourer drives
it
foot,
and
in
our
with a wheel and band, but the
principle remains unchanged.
As we watch with untirmg
pleasure the potter with this simple machine so easily bringing shape out of shapelessness, in the ancient world
it
we can
well understand
seemed the very type of
how
creation,
so that the Egyptians pictured one of their deities as a
ANTHROPOLOGY.
276 potter moulding
of
earliest
its
earthen vase,
on
it.
Man
on the wheel.
Fine
and painting
it
with pictures of gods and heroes, or so that
life,
of such nations as
much
A
everlasting though so fragile. is
still
of the
of our know-
Etruscans and even Greeks
derived from the paintings on their vases,
of the world
made some
art
and most successful efforts in shaping the engraving and moulding patterns or figures
scenes from myth or daily
ledge
[chap.
first
art-relics
great part of
tiie
is
almost pottery
and simplest kind, mere
baked clay (Italian terra cottd) without glaze like our flowerpots, and therefore porous. To cure this fault, some people, as the Peruvians, varnished
The
burnt in bitumen. is,
while even the Greeks often
it,
great
improvement of
glazing, that
melting on a glassy coating in the furnace, was already
known
in ancient
Egypt and Babylonia, while
glazed earthenware reached high
artistic
in later ages
excellence in the
Persian ware and the majolica (from Majorca).
more
perfect ware
In China a had been made above a thousand years
before European potters got at the secret of imitating
it.
by the curious name porcelain, which originally meant a kind of oriental nacre or mother-of-pearl. AVe
call
it
china, or
China or porcelain dishes are made of
fine white kaolin or
porcelain clay, and fired so intensely that the ware vitrified
The common
stance.
earthenware all
becomes
not only at the glazed surface but through the sub-
tliat
is
principle in
silica
all
clay) forms fusible glassy silicates,
varieties of
these
(which with alumina
which
is
in
present in te'ra cotta
bind the mass together, and in glazed earthenware and china coat
it
on the surface or through.
Glass potash,
itself is
soda,
story told
a fusible
silicate of this kind, the
and sometimes
by Pliny,
djscril)ing
lead. its
There
is
base being a fanciful
invention as having taken
place on a sandy shore of Phoenicia, where a ship happening
XI
ARTS OF
]
LIFE.
277
finding no stones to boil on shore lumps of nitre with which be laden, whereupon the fire melted
be moored, the mercliants
to
kettle on, brought
ilicir
the ship
happened
and
the silica
to
alkali into glass.
But the
fixct is
that glass-
making was an Egyptian art ages before the rise of Phoenician commerce, and to all appearance the Phoenicians and other Fig. 74 shows an Egyptian nations learnt it from thence. glass blower. Among other things he would have made be covered with reed,
flasks to
The
oil-flasks
ancient Egyptians
much made
like
our present
glass bjads,
and
variegated glass cups, whicli even the Venetian glassworks
Fio
74.
— Ancient
Egyptian Glass-bl jwing (Ben. Hassan).
But modern Europe may claim the making crown glass for window-panes by twirling the red-hot blown globe till it opens in a circular sheet, and also the polisliing of sheets of plate-glass, which can hardly match. clever
make
art
possible our great looking-glasses with their backs of
brilliant tin
Fire
of
is
amalgam.
so important a
ore
and working
of
metal
thinking
it
means
in extracting
afterwards, that
the use
may properly come in this chapter. But how men were led to the difficult processes
smelting ores to extract the metal, that
metal from the
some account of
some metals
it
of
has to be remembered
are found in the metallic state.
native copper near
in
Lake Superior was used
Thus the
in long-past
ages
ANTHROPOLOGY.
278
by the
[chap.
tribes then living in the country,
who
treated bits
hammering The same
of the metal as a kind of malleable stone,
cold into hatchets, knives, and bracelets.
cold
true of gold, natural nuggets of which can be beaten into ornaments.
It
may have begun likely guess.
only a guess that metal-working
is
simple way
this
in
Iron
also
found
is
on the earth from time there
is
some
is
to
still
;
the
in
especially in the aerolites or meteoric
these the metal
it
is
state,
which
stones
Though
time.
seems a
it
metallic
in
fall
many
of
apt to shiver to bits under the hammer,
meteoric
and
other
native
iron
to
fit
be made into implements when heated white-hot in the forge, and it can even be to some extent worked cold.
Some
of the
themselves
metal are
ores of
so metallic-
looking that the smith would attempt to work them in the fire,
and
this
may have
led to
heated
in
the forge,
Thus
proper smelting.
magnetic iron ore not only looks
like iron,
but can be
and then and there hammered into
such things as horse-shoes. It is
a question whether
men
first
In classic times, indeed, people in use before iron.
about a ninth of
would now
call
felt
This bronze
tin to
harden
it,
"gun-metal."
is
worked copper or
iron.
certain that bronze
was
an alloy of copper with
what an English mechanic
An
often-cjuoted
line
of
Hcsiod's tells how the men of old worked in bronze when and Lucretius, the Epicurean as yet black iron was not ;
poet, tauglu that after the primitive time
when men fought
and bronze were discovered, with sticks and However, the Greeks iron. before was known but bronze remember very ancient times, really did not and Romans and in some countries the use of iron was early. Egyptian and Babylonian inscriptions make mention of stones,
iron as well
as copper.
iron
A
piece of wrought iron taken
ARTS OF
xi.J
LIFE.
279
out ol the masonry of the great pyramid may be seen in the British Museum, and there are Egyptian pictures even shelving
the blue
steel which the butcher h,ad hanging sharpen his knife on. Now what is to be particularly noticed is that the Egyptians, though they thus had iron, mostly made their carpenters' tools of bronze. at
side to
liis
Among
the
even of
Homeric Greeks,
knew of iron, and one may judge so from the
the smiths
steel or steely iron, if
famous passage
in the Odyssey (ix. 391), about the hissing axe as the smith dips it in the cold water to
of the
strengthen
the iron. Yet ordmary material not only shield, but for his spear
the
all
while bron/e was
for the warrior's
and sword.
a state of arts very unlike our
Clearly
remark
we have here
own now, and
while to try to understand the difference.
the
armour and it
An
is
worth
instructive
Kaempfer's account of Japan rear two cenmay help to explain it, where he says that both copper and iron were smelted in the country, and were about the same price, so that iron tools cost as much as turies
in
ago,
copper or brass ones. The state of things far back ancient world may have been something like this. though kno.vn,
was
hard
from
smelt
to
in the
Iron,
and "much-wrought iron" shows how difficult the smiths found it to forge. But copper was jjlentiful, one well-known source being the island of Cyprus, wlunce its name of ces Cypniim {copper). '\'\xi had not to Homer's
calling
it
the
ore,
the
be fetched from the ends of the world tliere were mines in Georgia, Khorassan, and elsewhere in inner Asia, where ;
l)erhaps the discovery was into bron.;e.
When once
made this
of using
had been
it
to
hit
harden copper
upon, the ease
which bronze could be melted, and such things as hatchets cast in stone moulds, would make it more convenient than iron to the ancient artificer. This may have with
ANTHRCPOLCGY.
2So
been the
real
great part of
reason
why
[chap.
the " bronze age " set in over a
Europe and Asia, and was only followed by the
"iron age" when iron coming to be better worked, cheaper
and more
plentiful,
and
steel
especially being improved,
brought out that superiority to bronze for tools and weapons lake-dwellings of Switzerland
once inhabited by rude
tribes using stone
of the
Europe was
implements,
how
in. Such, too, has been the history of the iron and ages, traced by archaeologists in the bronze,
burial-places
of old
new metals was
Scandinavia, whether the use of the
learnt
by the native nations or brought
by conquering invaders.
known
whom the
in
Nations living in the bronze age
Mexicans and Peruvians,
to history, especially the
Spaniards at the conquest found working in bronze
with some
was
central
came
lastly iron
are
show how
bronze hatchets and spears prevailed, and
at a later period
stone,
The remains
seems a matter of course.
wliicb. to us
skill,
but knowing nothing of iron
;
their state
Massagetse of central Asia, described
like that of the
by Herodotus some two thousand years earlier. Most of Africa, on the other hand, seems to have had no bronze age, but to have passed directly from the stone age to the
Iron-smelting seems to have
iron age.
down
the north, and only spread lately
who
remember
still
in
ancestors used to cut
up
easily dig
their
down
may
there be seen,
other animals,
made
The
from
its
slit
of which the one
or valve.
primitive pair of
of whole skins of goats or
trodden on, while the empty one through a
it
holes in the ground, the
draught being generally by bellows. bellows
when their The Africans with wood in
the time
and smelt
may be mere
into Africa in
to the Hottentot?,
trees with stones.
their rich iron ore
simple furnaces which
stories
come
full is
of air
is
jjressed or
pulled up to
fill
itself
This shows iron-smelting not
rudest and probably earliest state.
Among
far.
the
ARTS OF
xi.J
LIFE.
various improvements -which liave
281
now made
more
iron
plentiful than in ancient times are the use of
coke instead
of charcoal for smelting
of
which seems old
in
the introduction
;
China, but was not
common
cast-iron, in
England
the last century; the use of machinery for rolling
till
forging. lately to
The make
and
progress of steel-making has been such as it
possible for railways to be laid
down
with
penny a pound. Other metals and their effect on
steel at a
Silver has
of briefly.
civilization may be spoken from ancient times been the companion
Lead was
of gold, as precious metals.
Romans
served the
easily extracted,
The
and water-pipes.
for roofs
and
alloy of
copper and zinc was made by the Romans not by fusing together the two metals, but by heating copper with the zinc ore called calamine
distilled
it
;
the result was brass, an inferior kind
Quicksilver was
of bronze.
known
to the ancients,
from the red cinnabar, and understood
its
who
use in
Of the many modern times some
extracting gold and silver, and for gilding.
metals which have become
have practical uses.
known
Thus platinum
in is
valuable for vessels
which have to bear extreme heat or resist the action of acids, and aluminium is useful for its remarkable lightness. But we
still
mostly depend on the metals whose origin
lost in antiquity
The mention
—
is
and gold.
iron, copper, tin, lead, silver,
of these last precious metals leads us to
notice the important part which coin has had in developing civilization,
and
this
trade or commerce. to shops
rude
again belongs to the general history of
The modern Englishman, accustomed
and counting-houses, hardly
It is instructive to see trade in its
tribes as the Australians. for
realises
beginnings our complex commercial
making
hatchets,
is
lowest form
The tough
from what
system arose.
among such
greenstone, valuable
carried hundreds of miles by natives
ANTHROPOLCGY.
232
who
[chap.
receive from other tribes in return the prized products
of their
such as red ochre to paint their bodies
districts,
they have even got so
with
;
pass
unharmed through
far as
to let peaceful traders
tribes at war, so that trains of
youths
might be met, each lad with a slab of sandstone on his
head
to
be carried to
seed-crusher.
home and shaped
his distant
When
strangers visit a tribe,
into a
they are re-
ceived at a friendly gathering or corrobboree, and presents are given
on both
sides.
be
that the gifts are to
not
satisfied there will
in this
No
fair
doubt there
a general sense
exchanges, and
is
if
either side
is
But
be grumbling and quarrelling.
roughest kind of barter w^e do not yet find that clear
notion of a unit of value which
is
the great step in trading.
among
found
This higher stage
is
Columbia, whose
strings of
the Indians of British
haiqua- shells, worn as orna-
mental borders to their dresses, serve them also as currency to
trade with, a string of ordinary quality being reckoned
one beaver's skin. In the Old World many traces have come down of the times when value was regularly
as worth
reckoned
in cattle
;
as
of the funeral games,
was valued the
where
in the Iliad, in the description
we read
of the great prize tripod that
at twelve oxen, while the
female slave
second prize was only worth four oxen.
principle of unit of value
is
who was Kere the
already recognised,
for
not
only could the owner of oxen buy tripods and slaves with
them, but also he
who had
a twelve-ox tripod to
sell
could
take in exchange three slaves reckoned at four oxen each.
To
this
day various objects of use or ornament pass as especially
currency, traveller in
cakes of
Abyssinia
salt,
where money
may have
to
Thus the is scarce. buy what he wants with
while elsewhere in Africa he has to carry iron
hoe-blades, pieces of cloth, and strings of beads as money.
Cowry- shells are
still
small change in South Asia, as they
ARTS OF
XI.]
LIFE.
These things do more
have been since time immemorial. or less clumsily what metal
The
use of
money
money does
may be seen
not yet real money. silver
sih-er,
It is
which shows that these were
thus
still
with
much
of the gold
traded with in the East, where the
The invention of coin comes made of a fixed weight and
in
when
thing to do, but the old Egyptians
upon
and the pieces of copper
form,
dumps
as rude
side only with
side showing
placed on
came verse.
to
to
in
the
shapes
of
represent
to
money gold,
shirts
real
Lydia and /Egina,
and
shirts
anvil
the other
tortoise,
or
tool
which accidental
they were
back-pattern
be improved in later coins into the ornamental
Art came on
fast in coinage,
or
in their early
metal stamped on one
such as the
mark of the
be struck,
earliest
marked cubes of
of precious
a symbol the
may be This looks a simple
and Babylonians are not
little
in
intended
Coins api)ear
knives.
marked with a
Perhaps the
it.
the Chinese
as though
worth.
pieces of metal are
standard, and
taken without weighing or testing.
hit
is
to certify them, so that they
figure or inscription
known to have may have been
ingots
little
have to be weighed and reckoned for what each
knives,
the
in
ancient Egyptians weighing in scales heaps
tlie
of rings of gold and
and
so conveniently.
arose out of gold and silver being in old
times bartered by weight for goods, as pictures of
283
so that
among
re-
the most
beautiful coins in the world are the gold staters of Philip of
Macedon, with the laurel-crowned head on one side and the other. But one reason why coins are no longer struck in such high relief is because they would be rubbed down by wear. The Roman as was not stamped but cast it seems to have been at first a pound of copper, its name meaning " one " (as ace at cards still the two-horse chariot on
;
does).
From
early ages the coinage has
been a government
ANTHROPOLOGY.
284
[chap.
monopoly, and the practice soon began of lowering the standard and lessening the weight for the profit of the royal How this debasing the coinage was carried on in treasury.
Europe by one king after another may be seen in the fact that the libra or pound of silver came down in value to the French livre or franc, worth tenpence, and to the "-pound Though changed in value, the Scots," worth twenty pence. on to the present day, traced times may be coinage of old in our
still
keeping accounts
Romans. For small trading and
the ;£
in
d. (librEe, solidi,
s.
denarii) of the
But there
well.
is
hundreds of miles
An
at
home, metal money answers
great trouble to
pay
for
and
risk in
goods bought
easily carried substitute for gold
and
sending coin
at
a distance.
.silver is
the bank-
much, issued by the treasury or some banker, and passing as money from hand to hand. The Emperor of China appears to have issued such notes in exchange for treasure about the eighth century, and in the
note, a promise to pay so
thirteenth century
Marco
Polo, the famous merchant-traveller
in Tartary, describes the Great
pieces of mulberry-bark.
Khan's money of stamped
It is plain
the notion of paper-money was
still
from
this
account that
strange to the
mind
of
an European trader, but since then bank-notes have beEven come an important part of the world's currency.
more
useful to
commerce was
the invention of bills of ex-
change. Suppose a merchant of
Genoa
He a merchant in London. in return, but gives an order on a
to
have sent
does not send for slip of
his
silks to
money
paper that his cor-
respondent in London, who owes him so much, is to pay This slip of paper is a bill of exchange, it in so many days.
bought by another Genoese merchant who happens to owe money in London, and pays it by sending over tlie Thus, bill which claims the payment of the money there.
and
is
ARTS OF
XI.]
LIFE.
285
and forwards to pay between London and Genoa, one debt is set This is describing in its simplest form off against another. the system which is so worked in the exchanges of mer-
instead of gold being sent backwards for shipments
cantile cities all over the world, that the
tions of
commerce
only so
much
necessary
actual travelling of gold
adjust
to
immense
transac-
are carried on by mutual credit, with
the
and
balances between
silver
the
as
is
different
countries.
The main princij)le cf modern commerce is still just Indians of Brazil, where the it was among the rude tribes who make the deadly arrow-poison prepare more than they want for their own use, so as to exchange the rest for spears of the hard wood that grows in other districts, or the hammocks of palm-fibre netted by tribes elsewhere. what
Wealth
is
as
by manufactures.
own
use but few of his
created by trade as well
The Canadian
trapper wants for his
plentiful furs, but all
the trader brings
he can take are wealth
him
in
to
him, because
exchange the clothes and groceries
and other things he wants. The general history of commerce in the world, which is the develoi)ment of this simple principle, need not be dwelt on here by giving details of the ancient
traffic
of Egypt with Assyria and India, the
Phoenician trading colonies on the Mediterranean, the old trade-routes across Asia and Europe, the rise of the
chant princes of Genoa and Venice, the the rise
Cape
first
to the East Indies, the discovery of
of ocean steam-navigation.
the student
of
merchant had
civilization
in early
to
mer-
voyages round
America, the
It is specially interesting to
notice
that
the
travelling
ages another business hardly less im-
portant than conveying ivory and incense and fine linen from
where they were
plentiful to
where they were scarce.
He
was the bringer of foreign knowledge and the explorer of 20
ANTKROPOLCGY.
286
[chap
xi.
nations were more shut up than
distant regions in days
when
now
borders, or went across them only as
within their
own
The merchants
enemies to ravage and destroy. to
break down
the everlasting jealousy
nations into peaceful and
over
may be
it
profitable
and
did
strife
much
between
intercourse.
More-
plainly proved that the old hostile system of
is kept up by every kind of restriction on trade, every protective duty imposed to force the production of commodities in countries ill-suited to them, to prevent their
nations
coming least
in
cheap and good from where they are raised with
labour.
There
is
no agent
beneficial than the free trader,
who
of
civilization
more
gives the inhabitants of
every region the advantages of all other regions, and whose business is to work out the law that what serves the general profit
of
individual
mankind man.
serves
also
the
private
profit
of the
— !
CHAPTER
XII.
ARTS OF PLEASURE,
— Verse
—
Alliteration and Rhyme, 289 Melody, Harmony, 290 Musical Dancin;^, 296 —Drama, 29S In^truoaents, 293 Sculpture and Painting, 300 Ancient and Modern Art, 301 Games, 305.
Poetry, 287
and Metre, 28S
Poetic Metaphor, 2S9
—
— Speech,
—
—
—
To
those
who have not thought
particularly about straight-
and poetry which is rhyme, and song which is chanted to a forward prose
talk,
examination it
it
can be
it
metre and
may seem
But on careful
found that they shade into one another,
is
made
out
Savage
three states.
in
set
tune,
that these are three clearly distinct things.
and
—
how human speech
tribes
have some
set
passed into
all
form in their
them different from common work themselves into fury before
chants, which shows they feel talk.
a
Thus
fight, will
Australians, to
chant,
"Spear
—Spear his liver — Spear
his forehead!
— Spear
his breast
"
and so on with the other parts of the enemy's body. Another Australian chart is sung at native funerals, the young women taking the first Ime, the old women the second, and all together the third and fourth. !
" Kardang garrj
Mammul
garro
his heart
!
" Young-brother Son again
ogai.i
Mela nadjo
Hereafter I-shall
Nunjja broo."
See never."
— ANTHROPOLOGY.
288
Here the words of
[chap.
baric tribes
new will
ones.
mere
the savage chant are no longer
prose, but have passed into a rude kind of verse.
All bar-
hand down such songs by memory, and make The North American hunter has chants which
bring him on the bear's track next morning, or give
victory over an
New
enemy.
Zealand song
The
following
is
him
the translation of a
:
" Thy body is at Waitemata, But thy spirit came hither And aroused me from my sleep. " Chorus Ha-ah, ha-ah, hi-ab, ha
—
This
last
!
shows a feature extremely
common
in
barbaric
songs, the refrain of generally meaningless syllables.
moderns are chorus in
We
often struck with the absurdity of the nonsense-
many
of our
own
songs, but the habit
is
one which
have been kept up from the stages of culture in which the Australian savage sings " Abang abang " over and over at the end of his verse, or a Red Indian hunting-
seems
to
!
!
party enjoy singing in chorus " to an
accompaniment of
use with It is
Nyah eh wa
rattles like thosj
!
nyah eh wa
" !
which children
us.
among
a
nations at
higher stage of culture that
there appears regular metre, where the verses are measured
accurately in syllables.
The
hymns how far
Veda
are
ancient
of the
proof
the old Aryans
in regular metre, and this Indeed the rehad advanced beyond the savage state. ancient Indian most the metre of the semblances between the remote ages that in show poetry Greek and Persian and had already verse measured their connection national of their Metre is best known to us from Greek and Latin begun. ver.ses, but there are more metres in the world than Horace is
knew
of.
For instance, when Longfellow
versified a collection
—
—
-
ARTS OF PLEASURE.
Xii.]
of American
native
in
tales
289
"Song
his
of Hiawatha,"
he found no metre among the Indians themselves, who were so he imitated not cultured enough to have such a device ',
poem chanted
the peculiar metre of the Kalewala, the epic
by the native bards of Finland. the verses are scanned by accent,
Our own
poetry, where
differs in i;s
nature from
the classic metres whose syllables are measured by quantity
Later than the invention of metre, came other means by which the poet could please his hearers with new Thus our early effects of matched and balanced sounds. English forefathers rejoiced in alhteration, where the same consonant comes in again and again, with a frequency which would weary our modern taste, though our ear is pleased or length.
with occasional touches of
it,
as
" Sober he seemde, and very sagely sad." "
He
rushed into the
Rhyme,
too,
and, foremost fighting,
lines
Vites
the Christian
—
pampinis pubescere,
hymns
Iras,"
also
ubertate incurvescere."
of the middle ages, such as the
rhyme as quite a and made it common, and by the Troubadours, the masters and
novelty, but they used
was taken up
:
nitescere, arbores fronde^cere,
h\:tificce
Kami bacaruin
jt
did not bring in it
skilfully
teachers of Europe in the poetic
The
the world's
clumsy beginnings may be judged as these of an old Latin poet (perhaps
" Coelum
famous " Dies
in
Byron.
Its
Ennius) quoted by Cicero
Thus
fell."
seems comparatively modern
history of poetry.
from such
field,
Spexser.
best poetry of our
and delicate melody, the monious language, at once
art.
own day
is
full
of quaint fancy
setting of lovely thought in har-
pictures for the imagination
and
—
;
ANTHROPOLCGY.
290
music
for the ear.
[chap.
But besides this, it has a curious interest keeping aUve in our midst the
to the student of history, as
Much
ways of thought of the most ancient world.
of poetic
art hes in imitating the expressions of earlier stages of culture,
when poetry was the natural utterance of any strong emotion, the natural means to convey any solemn address or ancestral The modern poet still uses for picturesqueness tradition. the metaphors which to the barbarian were real helps to express his sense.
of Shelley's
This
may be
seen in analyzing a
poem
:
"
How
wonderful
Death and
Death,
is
his brother. Sleep
!
One, pale as yonder waning moon,
With lips of lurid blue The other, rosy as the morn When throned on ocean's wave ;
It blushes o'er the
world."
the likeness of death and sleep
Here
metaphor of
calling
them
brothers, the
is
is
brought in
dawn of redness
and the dawn shining over
to illustrate the notion of paleness,
while to convey the idea of the
expressed by the
moon
the sea
the simile of its sitting on a throne is introduced, and its reddening is compared on the one hand to a rose, and on
the •
other
which
Now
blushing.
to
early barbaric
man, not
this
for
is
the very
way
in
poetic affectation, but
simply to find the plainest words to convey his thoughts, talk in metaphors taken from nature. Even our daily
would prose
is
full
of words,
now come down
to
ordinary use,
which show vestiges of this old nature-poetry, and the etymologist may, if he will, set up again the pictures of the old poetic thoughts which
To
made the words. we moderns do
read or recite poetry as
proper nature,
for the
is
to alter
its
purpose of poetry was to be chanted.
ARTS OF PLEASURE.
XII.]
But
this very
291
chanting or singing grew out of talking.
On
on around us, we may an unchanged monotone, but
listening carefully to the talk going
observe that that
all
and
fall
does not run in
it
sentences are intoned to an imperfect tune, a rise of pitch marking the i)hrases, distinguishing question
and answer, and touching emphatic words with a musical This half-melody of common speech may be accent. roughly written
and German talking
is
;
down
in notes;
not the same in English in
which a Scotchman's
known from an Englishman's
When
toning of his phrases. impassioned,
which
it is
and mdeed one way
it
more and more
passes
at devotional
into distinct tune.
meetings
The
is
the different in-
speech becomes solemn or into natural chanting,
may be heard
intoning in
nearly passing
churches arose from the
same
natural utterance of religious feeling, but in course of
time
it
became intervals
regular
by custom, and was forced into the So the artificial musical scale.
fixed
of the
opera
recitative of the
is
a
what has come down by
modern musical working up of tradition
of the ancient tragic
declamation, which once swayed the listening throng of the
Greek
We
theatre.
are apt to take
it
as a matter of course that
all
music
must be made up of notes in scale, and that scale the one we have been used to from childhood. But the chants of rude tribes, which perhaps best represent singing in its early stages, run in less fixed tones, so that
down
The human
their airs.
of notes, for
nations
who
its
voice
is
it
is
difficult to write
not bound to a scale
up and down. Nor among and play by musical scales are the tones
pitch can glide
sing
of these scales always the same.
The
question
how men
were led to exact scales of tones is not easy to answer fully. But one of the simplest scales was forced upon their attention by that early musical instrument the trumpet, rude
ANTHROPOLCGY.
292
forms of which are seen
in the
[chap.
wood
long tubes of
or bark
South America and Africa. A trumpet (a six feet length of iron gas pipe will do) will sound the successive notes of the " common chord," which may be
blown by
written
tunes
forest
^
^
known
^,
tribes
in
on which the trumpeter performs the simple This natural scale,
so well as trumpet-calls.
perfect so far as
most important of and third. Another
goes, contains the
it
musical intervals, the octave,
fifth,
fourth,
though of fewer than our
scale, of
more notes than
scales is
not less familiar to English
this,
five-tone scale, without semitones,
This
ears.
is
full
the old
which can be played on
the five black keys of the pianoforte, and the best-known form of which may be written c, d, e, g, a, c. Old Scotch airs are on the five-tone scale, which mdeed may still be met with across the world, as where some traveller in China
watching a funeral procession has been surprised to hear a melancholy dirge like what he last heard played by a piper
on the shore of a Highland loch. Engel, in his Music of shows that music of this pentatonic or
Ancient Nations^
five-toned kind has belonged since
early
times
other
to
Eastern nations, so that any genuine Scotch melody like
may give some idea The more advanced seven-tone
•'Auld Lang-syne"
of the music of anti-
quity.
scale
modern world
the
in
is
nearly
musicians of classic Greece, voice
taken
which prevails
from that
who accompanied
of the
the singer's
Pythagoras, who first on the eight-stringed lyre. musical tones under arithmetical rule, had the
brought
curious fancy that the
distances
still
of the seven planets are
octave, an idea which dimly survives among us in the phrase " music of the
related as the seven tones of
the
spheres."
Modern music
is
there has arisen in
thus plainly derived from ancient. it
a great
new development.
But
The music
ARTS
XII.]
of
til
3
C
F PLEASURE.
293
The
ancients scarcely went beyond melody.
voice
might be accompanied by an instrument in unison or octave
interval,
in the
an
but harmony as understood by modern
musicians was as yet unknown.
be traced
at
Its feeble
may
beginnings
middle ages, when musicians were struck
by the effects got by singing two when one formed a harmony to the
different tunes at once,
other.
It is still
a joke
among musicians to sing together in this old-fashioned way two absurdly incongruous tunes, for instance, " The Campbells are coming" and "The Vesper hymn," so arranged that one makes a sort of accompaniment to the other.
The
old rounds
and
catches,
still
popular, thus
make
harmony for the other. The Roman church part-music, and the Protestant singing by the congregation, with the organ to accompany them, had great effect in making the change by which the mere melody of the ancients grew into the harmonized melody one part of the tune serve
of the moderns.
as a
This great
step once
understood,
student can follow in the history of music stages in part-singing
modern musical
The
till
in the
last three centuries
art
in
the
hands of the great
the
full
resources of
were developed.
musical instruments of the present day
traced back to rude
the
successive
and orchestral composition,
church and the concert-room,
composers of the
its
and
early forms.
may
Tlie rattle
all
be
and the
drum are serious instruments among savages the rattle has come down to a child's toy with us, but the drum holds its own in peace and war. Above these monotonous instru;
ments comes the trumpet, which, as has just been seen, brings barbaric music a long step further on. The pipe or flageolet appears in
its
improved by
simplest form in the holes,
common
by which the player
the pipe so as to give several notes.
whistle,
and
is
alters the length of
From
very remote
;
ANTHROPOLOGY.
29-1.
times,
and
far
and wide over the
[chap.
earth, the famihar pipe is
found, played single or double, and sometimes blown with Already in the ancient the nostril instead of the mouth.
world
made
was often provided with a skin wind-bag which or, held sideways and blown across
it it
into the bagpipe
the mouth-hole,
;
became the
it
ing out a range of notes
is
Another way of bring-
flute.
seen in the Pan's pipes, the row
of reeds of different lengths, in old classic days associated
with the grace of rural poetry, but
now come down
the vulgar pipings of the street showman. orchestra, the cornet
clarionet
to
The
a trumpet provided with stops.
is
a development of the grass-stem with a vibrating
is
spring.
or tongue such as children cut in the fields in
slit
sound
In the modern
The whole class of musical instruments to which the harmonium belongs, work with these vibrating tongues, which by
name of "reeds" still keep up the memory of their The organ carries out in the widest range and grandest
their
origin.
proportions the principle of the simple pipe or whistle, so is scientific
that there
of " kist
o'
correctness in the disrespectful
whistles " given
use in church.
Not
name
by the Scotch, who disliked
it
less primitive are the rudest
its
forms in
which stringed instruments appear. It is told in the Odyssey (xxi. 410) how the avenging hero, when he has strung his mighty bow compact of wood and horn, gives the stretched string a twang that makes it sing like a swallow in a soft tone beautifully.
One might
well guess that the strung
of the warrior would naturally
but what
is
more,
it
really
is
become
so used.
bow
a musical instrument,
The Damara
in
South
Africa finds pleasure in the faint tones heard by striking the The Zulu despises the tight bowstring with a lictle stick.
bow his
as a cowardly
weapon, but he
music-bow, shown in Fig. 75
string to alter the note,
and
is
«,
still
uses
has a ring
it
for
slid
music
along the
also provided with a hollow
ARTS OF PLEASURE.
XII.]
295
gourd acting as a resonator or sounding-box
to strengthen
the feeble twang. Next, looking at b in the figure,
how
it is
seen
may have been developed from such a rude music-bow, the wooden back being now made hollow so as to be bow and resonator in one, while the ancient Egyptian harp
across
it
are strung several
All ancient
harps,
Fig. 75 —Development of the H:irp Africa); b, ancient harp (iCgyp:) ,
made on
were that
it
putting
this
plan,
was
defective,
the
strings out
Persian,
whole frame
and
yet
we
Irish,
can see at a glance
the bending of the
of tune.
firm.
lengths.
old
music-bow \\'x\ gourd resonator (South mediaeval harp with f.oiu -pillar (England).
front-pillar, as
rigid
even
a. c,
ages that the improvement was
harp with the
of different
strings
Assyrian,
made
seen in
Looking
wooden back till modern
was not
It
c,
of completing the
which makes the
at the three figures,
it
ANTHROPOLOGY.
296 is
seen
how
[chap,
the course of invention was by gradual growth
the harp with the pillar could not have been
first
;
invented,
no men could have been so stupid as to go on making harps and leave out the front-pillar when once the idea of it for
had come into their minds. The harp, though now made more perfect than of old, is losing its ancient place in music ; but the reason of this is easy to see, it has been supplanted by modern instruments which have come from it. The very form of a grand piano shows that it is a harp laid on one side in a case, and its strings not plucked with the fingers It is but struck with hammers worked from a keyboard. the latest development from the bowstring of the praehistoric
warrior.
Dancing may seem
moderns a
to us
frivolous
amusement
;
but in the infancy of civilization it was full of passionate and solemn meaning. Savages and barbarians dance their joy and sorrow, their love and rage, even their magic and The forest Indians of Brazil, whose sluggish religion.
temper few other excitements can stir, rouse themselves at their moonlight gatherings, when, rattle in hand, they stamp m one-two -three time round the great earthen pot of intoxicating kawi-liquor or men and women dance a rude courting dance, advancing in lines with a kind of primitive polka ;
step
;
or the ferocious war-dance
warriors in paint, marching
a growling chant
savage
left
a corrobboree by
at
up
is
how
have enough of the
firelight in the forest
can work themselves
But with our civilized
not so easy to understand that barbarians'
notions
it
dancing
may mean
still
more than
so real that they expect
Thus among
We
Australians leaping and yelling
into frenzy for next day's fight. is
performed by armed
ranks hither and thither with
to hear.
terrific
in us to feel
in
the
Mandan
it
to
act
Indians,
this
;
it
seems
on the world
when
tlie
to
them
outside.
liunters failed
ARTS OF PLEASURE.
xii.]
to find the buffalos
man
every
buffalo's
on which the
tribe
297
depended
for food,
brought out of his lodge the mask
head and horns, with the
which he kept
for
tail
made of a hanging down behind,
such an emergency, and they
all
set to
dance buffalo, len or fifteen masked dancers at a time formed the ring, drumming and rattling, chanting and
when one was tired out he went through the ; pantomime of being shot with bow and arrow, skinned, and cut up while another, who stood ready with his buffalo-head on, took his place in the dance. So it would go on, without stopping day or night, sometimes for two or three weeks, yelling
;
till
at last these
persevering
succeeded, and a herd
came
efforts
in
to
sight
bring the buffalo
on the
prairie.
The
and sketch of the scene will be found in Catlin's North American Indiatis. Such an example sliows how, in the lower levels of culture, men dance to express their feelings and wishes. All this explains how in ancient religion dancing came to be one of the chief acts of worship. Religious processions went with song and dance to the Egyptian temples, and Plato said that all dancing ought to In fact, it was so to a great be thus an act of religion. extent in Greece, as where the Cretan cliorus, moving in measured pace, sang hymns to Apollo, and in Rome, where the Salian priests sang and danced, beating their shields, description
along the streets at the yearly civilization,
ever,
in
among
may visit
the lamas of Tibet watch the
masks dancing the demons
out, or the
music of drums and shell-trumpets. ceremonies, before
come down from
Christian
times,
are
the
still
Modern
of Mars.
flourishes
has mostly cast off the sacred dance.
near Us old state the traveller or
festival
which sacred music
more than
To
see this
the temples of India,
mummers
in
animal
new year in, to wild Remnants of such
religion
sometimes
of
England
to
be
seen
;
ANTHROPOLOGY.
298 in the
of boys
dances
and
mummers The dances
girls
[chap.
round the Midsummer but even these
bonfire, or of the
at Yulotide
are dying out.
of choristers in
and the dress of pages of Philip IIL's
;
time,
before the high altar of Seville Cathedral, are the quaintest relics of a
dom.
Even
rite all
modern world.
hats
performed
now among
but vanished fiom Christena graceful
sportive dancing, as
falling off in the
plumed
still
The
exercise,
is
pictures from ancient
Egypt show that the professional dancers were already skilful in their art, which perhaps reached its highest artistic Something of the oldpitch in classic Greece and Rome.
may still be seen at most countries of Europe except England, but the ball-room dances of modern society have lost much ot the old art and grace. At low levels in civilization it is clear that dancing and
fashioned picturesque village-dancing festivals
in
play-acting are one.
The North American dog-dance and
bear-dance are mimic performances with ludicrously
faithful
imitations of the creatures' pawing and rolling and biting. So the scenes of hunting and war furnish barbarians with subjects for dances, as when the Gold Coast negroes have
gone out to war, and their wives at home dance a fetishdance in imitation of battle, to give their absent husbands Historians trace from the sacred strength and courage. dances of ancient Greece the dramatic art of the civilized Thus, in the festivals of the Dionysia, the wondrous world. of the Wine-god was danced and sung, and from its solemn hymns and laughable jests arose tragedy and comedy.
life
In the classic ages the player's branches.
art divided
The pantomimes kept up
into
several
the earliest form, where
dumb show such pieces as the labours Kadmos sowing the dragon's teeth, while the
the dancer acted in
of Herakles, or
chorus below accompanied the play by singing the story
ARTS CF PLEASURE.
XII.]
modern pantomime
the
ballets,
these ancient performances,
299
which keep up remains of
show how
grotesc^ue the old
and heroes must have looked in their painted masks. In Greek tragedy and comedy the business of the dancers and cliorus was separated from that of the actors, stage gods
who
or
recited
dialogue, so
tliat
chanted
each
by words of passion or gjsture as laid hoUl on tragedy, once b_-gun,
proper
his
wit, delivered
all
who
part
now move
the player could
with such tone and
listened
soon reached
the
in
audience
his
and looked. height
its
Greek
among
the
fine arts, so that the plays of ^-Eschylos
and Sophokles are read as examples of the higher poetry, and the modern acted imitations like the Phedre of Racine gi\e an idea of their power when the genius of the actors can rise to their
The modern drama belongs not
height of emotion.
much
to the sacred mystery-plays of the
the classic
or renaissance of four centuries
revival
Those who have seen the
ruins
of
so
middle ages as to
classic
ago.
theatres
at
Syracuse, or on the hill-side of Tusculum, will best under-
stand
how
a
modern playhouse shows
its
Greek origin
not only in the arrangement, but in the Greek names of
its
parts
its
— the
theatre, or spectators' place,
well-planned horse-shoe shape
background and curtain dancing-place,
in
;
front
given up to the musicians. in
the
;
while the
keeps
its
painted
orchestra
for the chorus,
The change modern
still
the scene with
which was formerly
comedy performed
which
is
in the tragedy
or
now and
theatre from those of the
world is ])artl3' due to their having dropped the stiff solemn declamation which belonged to them while they were classic
and their personages divine. In modern dramatists, of Shakspere above all, the characters came to be more human, though representing still
religious ceremonies,
the hands of
human
nature in
its
most picturesque extremes, and
life
in
ANTHROPOLOGY.
300 its
intensest
to
be
moments.
strictly natural,
Modern but can
[chap.
plays are not indeed call in
still
tlie
bound
supernatural,
as where now fairies or angels may hover over the scene where in classic days the gods used to pass in mid-air borne in their machines. In the modern comedy the persons dress and talk as near as may be like daily life
;
even here, when ihe audience gravely
yet,
fall
in with
the
pretence that some of the speeches, though spoken aloud, are "asides" not heard by the actors close by, this that the believe,
On
modern world has not on which
this
all
dramatic
art is
but what the
artist
strikes the beholder.
strives
Thus
arts,
to
shows
make-
founded.
same power of make-believe
founded the two other fine Their proper purpose is not
power
lost the
or imagination are
sculpture and painting.
produce exact imitations,
to
the idea that
to bring out
is
there
more
is
often
real art
in
a caricature done with a few strokes of the pencil, or in a
rough image hacked out of a
log,
than in a minutely painted
a figure at a waxwork show which
portrait, or
is
so like
life
beg its pardon when they walk up against it. The painter's and sculptor's art seems to have arisen in the world from the same sort of rude beginnings which
that visitors
draw and carve. on which barbarous tribes have drawn men and animals, guns and boats, remind us of the slates and barn doors on which English children make their Many of these children will grow up early trials in outline. and go through their lives without getting much beyond
are
still
to
be seen
in children's attempts to
The
sheets of bark or skins
this
childish
some
stage.
The clergyman
years ago set the cottagers to
of a country parish
amuse themselves with
wood such figures as men digging or reaping. They produced figures so curiously uncouth, and in style so carving in
like the idols of
barbarous
tribes, that
they were kept as
ARTS OF PLEASURE.
XII.]
301
examples of the infancy of sculpture, and are now to be museum of Kevv Gardens. Yet mankind, under
seen in the
favourable circumstances, especially with long leisure time their hands, began in remote antiquity to train them.selves
on to
Especially the sketches and carvings of by the old cave-men of Europe have so artistic a touch that some have supposed them modern forgeries. But they are admitted to be genuine and found in
skill
art.
animals done
over a wide
done
to
deer and
art
on
while forgeries which have been really collectors are just wanting in the pecu-
who mammoths knew how to
lived
among
the rein-
catch their forms and
Two
of these ancient carvings are drawn in and others in Lubbock's Ffehistoric Times. of colouring would naturally arise, for savages who
attitudes.
The
off
with which the savages
liar skill
Figs. 3
district,
palm
and
4,
own bodies with charcoal, pipeclay, and red and yellow ochre, would daub their carved figures and fill in paint their
their outline
drawings with the same colours.
Australia sheltering from the storm in caves,
cleverness of the rude frescos
Travellers in
wonder
at the
on the cavern-walls of kan.
garoos and emus and natives dancing, while in South Africa the Bushmen's caves show paintings of themselves with
bows and arrows, and the bullock-waggons of the white men, and the dreaded figure of the Dutch boer with his broad-brimmed hat and pipe. Among such people as the West Africans and Polynesians, the native sculptor's best skill has been used on images of demons and gods, made to receive
worship and serve as bodies in
spiritual beings are to take
up
their abode.
of barbarians, as specimens of early
have a value
in the history
stages
which
Thus
of sculpture,
of art as well as of religion.
In the ancient nations of Egypt and Babylonia already risen to higher levels. 21
the
the idols
art had Indeed Egyptian sculpture
ANTHROPOLOGY.
302
reached
its
[char
best in the earlier rather than the later ages, for
the stone statues of the older time stand and step with
more
and the calm proud Thothmes and Rameses portraits (like
free life in their limbs,
the colossal
show the grandest is
Fig. 19)
of an eastern despot, half tyrant,
In the sculpture halls of the British
half deity. it
ideal
faces of
Museum,
seen that the early school of Egyptian sculptors were
on their way to Greek perfection, but they stopped short. With trained mechanical skill they wrought statues by tens of thousands, hewing gigantic figures of the hardest granite and porphyry which amaze the modern stone-cutter, but their art, bound by tradition, grew not freer but more stiff and formal. They might divide their plans into measured squares, and set out faces and limbs by line and rule, but their conventional forms seldom come up to the Greek lines of beauty, and their monuments are now prized, not as models of
art,
In the British
but as records of old-world history.
Museum
alabaster
the
also,
bas-reliefs that
adorned the
palace-courts of Nineveh give a wonderfully clear idea of
what Assyrian or let '
state
fly his
life
was
like,
how
the king rode in his chariot,
arrows at the lion at bay, or walked with the
umbrella held over his head
;
how
the soldiers
swam
the rivers on blown skins and the storming party scaled the fortress,
while the archers shot
down among them from
battlements, and the impaled captives
view outside the not much matter not seem
feel the
rows
full
the in
But in such scenes proportion did only the meaning were conveyed. It did
if
fill
absurd to the Assyrians to make archers a whole parapet
;
nor did the Egyptians
comic impression made on our modern minds by
the gigantic
figure
of the
king striding half
across
the
and grasping a dozen pigmy barbarians at a slash their heads off with one sweep of his mighty
battle-field
grip, to
two
in
Avails.
artistically
so big that
hung
ARTS OF PLEASURE.
XII.]
303
falchion. It was in Greece that the rules of art were developed which reject the figures of the older nations as stiff
and
in form
unlifelike
it
rudest stage, with clumsy idols of efforts of their
came
hew
own
Greek
grouping.
in
sometimes written of as though
had
itself
begun
wood and
clay,
art in till
is
the
by
surpassing genius the Greek sculptors
marble the forms which are still the wonders But great as Greek genius was, it never did The Greek nations had been for ages in contact with
to
in
of the world. this.
the older civilizations of the Mediterranean
;
their starting-
point was to learn what art could do in Egypt, Phoenicia,
Babylonia, and then their genius set them free from the
hard old conventional forms, leading them to model life straight from nature, and even to fashion in marble shapes of ideal strength
and grace.
The Egyptian sculptors would not many of their statues
spoil polished granite with paint, but
were coloured, and there are traces of paint
left
Assyrian sculptures and on Greek statues, so that apt to have a wrong idea of a
Greek temple,
as
on the
we
though
are its
marble gods and goddesses used to be of the glaring whiteness of a modern sculpture -gallery. The Greek terra cotta statuettes in the British
Museum
are
models of antique
female grace in form and costume, only wanting the lost colour restored to make them the prettiest things in the world.
In colour-drawing, or painting, the Egyptian wall-paint-
show a style half-way between the lowest and the Here the scenes of old Egyptian life are caught their characteristic moments, the shoemaker is seen
ings
highest. at
drawing
his thread, the
and
fowler throwing at the ducks, the
and the flute-players and tumblers performing before them. Yet with all their clever expres-
lords
ladies feasting
siveness, the Egyptian paintings have not (juite left
behind
ANTHROPOLOGY.
304 the
savage
stage
of
In
art.
fact
[chap.
they are
still
picture-
writings rather than pictures, repeating rows of figures with
heads, legs, and arms drawn to childish
daubs of colour— hair
all
pattern,
and coloured
black, skin all
in
red-brown,
The change from these to the Greek paintings is surprising now we have no more rows The best of man-patterns, but grouped studies of real men. by moderns known to works of the Greek painters are only
clothing white,
and so
on.
;
the admiring descriptions of the ancients, but more ordinary specimens which have been preserved give an idea
what the paintings of Zeuxis and Apelles may have been. The tourist visiting for the first time the museum of Naples
comes with a shock of
surprise
in face of
Alexander of
Athens' picture of the goddesses at play, the boldly
drawn
and the groups of dancers Most of these pictures elegant in drawing and colouring. from Herculaneum and Pompeii were done by mere house decorators, but these tenth-rate Greek painters had the
frescos of scenes from the Iliad,
traditions of the great classic school,
and they show
plainly
same source we also have inherited the art of design. Modern European painting comes in two ways from On the one hand, Greek painting spread over ancient art. the Roman Empire and into the East, and for ages found whence its chief home in the Christian art of Constantinople, that from the
arose the Byzantine style, often called pre-Raffaelite, which though wanting in the older freedom of classic Athens,
was expressive and
when
in
the
rich
fifteenth
in
colour.
On
the other hand,
century the knowledge of
classic
of and thought revived in graceful and natural more to place gave saints and martyrs forms, and modern painting arose under Raffaelle and Michael Angelo, Titian and Murillo, in whom the two streams from the fountain-head of Greek art, so long
art
Europe, the
stiff
pictures
.
ARTS CF PLEASURE.
xii.]
The
separated, joined again.
ancients mostly painted on
walls like the present fresco-painting, or
panels
know
they did not
;
This
colours with.
on waxed wooden
the use of oil to mix the ground
mentioned
just
is
305
in the tenth century,
so that the story of the brothers
Van Eyck
painting in the fifteenth century
not quite true.
turned
it
practical
to
use,
is
and from
inventing
time
their
oil-
But they painters
brought the substance and play of colour to a perfection
which there
no
is
reason
by the old masters also
to
suppose the
ancients ever
In modern times water-colour painting, used
approached.
become an
for
light
sketches and
art of itself, especially in
has
studies,
One
England.
branch of painting
in
which the moderns unquestionably
surpass the ancients
is
landscape.
rably the
Of
old,
however admi-
might be drawn, the hard conventional
figures
mountains, forests, and houses behind were
still
in the picture-
writing stage, they radier stood as signs of the world outside
than depicted
as
it
But now the
it is.
artist's
eyes are turned
on nature, which he renders with a truthfulness unknown to the old masters who first gave living form to gods and heroes, apostles
and martyrs.
Something has now
to
be said of games, for play
of the arts of pleasure. not for what
is
everywhere,
tlie
they will
done.
It is
One
doing
class of
is
one
for the sake of doing,
games
is
spontaneous
sports in which children imitate the
afterwards
have
to
snow
children play at building
act
in
huts,
earnest.
and
their
life
Eskimo mothers
provide them with a tiny oil-lamp with a bit of wick to set
Among
burning inside. carry off their the
children
play
with us children bridesmaids.
the savages whose custom
wives by force from at the
jilay at
All
game
neighbouring
of wife-catching,
it is
to
tribes,
just
as
weddings with a clergyman and
through civilization, toy weapons and
ANTHROPOLOGY.
30J
implements furnish children
once play and education
at
the North American warrior
made
arrow as soon as he could draw
after-life
spear.
hurl his
to
it,
It
at a rolling ring
the practical use survive as a toy,
making
as where Swiss children to this day play at
the
plan of
old-world
another
and
;
in
how
curious to see that
is
when growing civilization has cast aside of some ancient contrivance, it may still drilling
;
boy a little bow and and the young South
his
Sea Islander learnt by throwing a r#ed in
[chap.
one piece
fire
wood
of
by
into
our country lanes the children play with
bows and arrows and
slings, the serious
weapons of
their
forefathers.
not quite easy to say whether
It is
state ever goes
beyond these
man
games of mere play. But higher up in games are known from very ancient times. if it
A
The
the blind-man
who thumped him on also the game
guess
tians played
trifling
may
last
such
game,
on
in
ancient Egyptians, as their
old paintings show, used to play our childish cockles, where
and invents
civilization,
exactly takes hold of the pla} ful mind,
the world almost for ever.
a low savai.e
in
practical sports,
who the
stoops
game of hotdown has to These
back.
sum
of guessing the
Egypof the
up by the two players, which is still popular in in Italy, where one hears it half the night with shouts of "three!" "seven!" "five!"
fingers held
China, and
through " tnora
game hand.
!
in
"
;
it
is
a pity
England, for
it
we have not
this
as a children's
trains a sharp eye
While some of our games, such
as
and a quick hoops and
whipping-tops, have gone on in the Old World for thousands
of years, others are modern importations
;
thus
it
was only
about Stuart times that English children learnt from the Chinese, or flying kites.
some other nation in the far East, the art of Or modern sports may be late improvements
ARTS OF PLEASURE.
y.n.]
on old ones
;
shank-bones fastened
the split
shoes for going on the ice delighted the for
30)
under the
London
'prentices
before they were displaced by steel skates.
centuries
How a game may sometimes go on for ages unchanged, and then suddenly turn into a higher form, is curiously seen game
in the
of ball.
like children
The
game was "common
ball,"
each tried to get the
ball
This
is still
proper
Roman
where there were two
and throw
it
lad's
is
is
and
sides,
to the opposite goal.
played in a few country-places in England
name
leather ball
ancients tossed and caught balls
now, and a famous Greek and
;
its
"huding," and football with the great
a variety of
have used a stick or bat
The
it.
ancients never seem to
But some 1,000
in their ball-play.
or 1,500 years ago the Persians began to play ball on horse-
back, which of course could only be done with a long mallet, or racket; in this
fme
si)ort
and
way
there
came
of chaugdn, which has lasted
stick,
into existence the
ever since in the
England under the name of polo. When once the club or racket had been invented for horseback, it was easy to use it on foot, and thus in the middle ages there began the whole set of games in which balls are hit with bats, such as pall-mall and croquet, tennis, hockey and golf, rounders and cricket. East,
lately established
Indoor games,
too,
itself
in
have their curious history.
Throwing
any record to remain of its beginning, and the very draught-boards and men which the old Egyptians used to play on are still to be seen. The Greeks and Romans were draught-players, but their games lots or dice is far too ancient for
were not
like
our modern
game
of draughts.
On
the other
hand our merells or morris belongs to an old classical grou'p of games, and Ovid alludes to the childish game of tit-tat-to.
These games are played in China as well, and it is not known at which end of the eirth they were first devised. The great
;
ANTHROPCLCGY.
3oS
[chap.
xil.
games may have been made a thousand years or so ago, when some Hindu, whose name is lost, set to work upon the old draught-board and^men,
invention
in
intellectual
and developed out of them a war-game, where on each side a king and his general, with elephants, chariots, and cavalry, and the foot-soldiers in front, met in battle array. This was the earliest chess, which with some little change passed into the modern European chess that still holds pre-eminence
among
sports, taxing the
mind
to
its
utmost stretch of
fore-
and combination. Our modern draughts is a sort of simplified chess, where the pieces are all pawns till they The story in get across the board and become queens. sight
the history-books that cards were invented in France to
amuse Charles VI. East centuries
a fiction, for they were
is
earlier.
But
at
with them combinations of
any
skill
rate the
known
in the
Europeans make
and chance which excel Games which
anything contrived by their Asiatic inventors. exercise either civilization
body or mind have been
as trainers of man's faculties.
chance played
for
money stand on
they have been from the
our
own
time, there
is
of high value in
Games
of pure
quite a different footing
a delusion and a curse.
first
In
perhaps no more pitiable sign of the
slowness with which scientific ideas spread, than to hear the well-dressed crowds round the gaming-table at talking about runs of luck, difference whether
and fancying
that
one backs the black or the
goes on although schoolboys doctrine of chances, and
how
to
are
now
it
Monaco makes a
red.
taught
the
This real
reckon the fixed percentage
of each week's st^akes that will be raked in by the croupier,
and not come back.
CHAPTER
XIII.
SCIENCE. Science, 309
316
ing,
— Counting and
— Geometry,
318
Arithmetic, 310
— Algebra,
322
—Measuring
— Physics,
323
and Weigh-
— Chemistry,
328 — Biology, 329 — Astronomy, 332^Gergraphy and Geology, 335 — Methods of Reasoning, 336 — Magic, 338.
Science
is
exact, regular, arranged knowledge.
mon knowledge
indeed the struggle of it.
how
life
could not be carried on without
The rude man knows much
of the properties of matter,
burns and water soaks, the heavy sinks and the
fire
light floats,
wood
Of com-
savages and barbarians have a vast deal,
what stone will serve for the hatchet and what which plants are food and which are
for its handle,
poison, what are the habits of the animals that he hunts or
may fall upon him. He much better notions how to
that
physicist in ma';ing
fire,
has notions kill.
hovv^ to
cure,
In a rude way he
and is
a
a chemist in cooking, a surgeon in
binding up wounds, a geographer in knowing his rivers and
mountains, a niathematician this
is
knowledge, and
it
in
counting on his fingers.
science proper began to be built up,
when
had come
in
We
to trace here in outline the rise
have
and
society
All
was on these foundations that the art of writing
had entered on the
civilized stage.
and progress of
ANTHROPOLOGY.
3IO
And
science.
as
and measuring the
first
has been especially through counting
it
that scientific
thing to do
[chap.
is
to
methods have come
examine how men learnt
into use, to
count
and measure. Even those who cannot talk can count, as was well shown by the deaf-and-dumb lad Massieu, who wrote down among the recollections of his childhood before the Abbe Sicard educated him, " I knew the numbers before my instruction ;
my
fingers
had taught
me
began arithmetic on our
them
how
still,
them."
fingers
so that there
no
is
We
ourselves as children
and now and then take difficulty
in
a savage whose language has no word for a
above three
manage
will
to
reckon
to
understanding
perhaps
a
number list
of
and wounded, how he will check off one finger for each man, and at last hold up his hand three times to show the result. The next question is, how numeral words fifteen killed
came
to
This
be invented.
which show
in the plainest
is
answered by many languages,
way how counting on
fingers
and
making numerals. When a Zulu wants to express the number six, he says iatisitupa, which means " taking the thumb " this signifies that the speaker has counted all the fingers of his left hand, and begun with the thumb of When he comes to seven, for instance when he the right.
toes led to
;
has to express say
ti
koi/ibilc,
tliat
that
counting he had In
this
way
his is,
master bought seven oxen, he
" he pointed "
come
the words
;
this
will
signifies that in
to the pointing-finger or forefinger.
"hand," "foot," "man," have in become numerals. An example
various parts of the world
^
how they are worked may be taken from the language of the Tamanacs of the Orinoco here the term for five means ;
"
whole hand,"
six is "
one of the other hand," and so on up
"both hands " then " one to the foot " is eleven, and so on to "whole foot" or fifteen, ''one to the other
to ten or
;
SCIENCE.
xiii.J
foot " or sixteen,
311
and thence to " one man," which signifies man" being twenty-
twenty, " one to the hands of the next one,
and the counting going on
men
"
which stands
for
forty,
same way
in the
&c.
Now
Sec.
to "
two
this state of
a truth which has sometimes been denied,
things teaches
that the lower races of
men
have, like ourselves, the faculty
of progress or self-improvement.
evident that there
It is
was a time when the ancestors of these people had in their languages no word for fifteen or sixteen, nor even for five or six, for if they had they could not have been so stupid as to change them for their present clumsy phrases about hands
and feet and men. We see back to the time when, having no means of reckoning such numbers except on their fingers and toes, they found they had only to describe in words what they were doing, and such a phrase as ''both hands" would serve them as a numeral for ten. Then they would keep up these as numerals after their original sense was lo&t, like the
Vei negros who called the number twenty
The languages
finished."
show such
plain
meaning
viobaiide,
"a
but had forgotten that this must have meant
person
of nations long civilized seldom
in their numerals,
perhaps because
they are so ancient and have undergone such change. all
through the languages of the world, savage or
with exceptions too slight to notice here, there
is
But
civilized,
ineffaceable
proof that the numerals arose out of the primitive counting
on
fingers
and
This always led
toes.
men
tens, and twenties, and so they reckon
kind of counting (by
fives) is that
we
write
;
them
so in the
counting (by tens) ordinary counting
is
is
Roman
reckon by
fives,
The quinary
of tribes like the negros
who count one, two, three, &c. we never count numbers
of Senegal, five-two,
to
still.
four, five, five-one,
thus in words, but
numerals.
The decimal
the most usual in the world, and our
done by
it,
tinis
eighty-three
is
"'
ei;^ht
ANTHROPOLOGY.
312
[chap-
The vigesimal counting (by twenties) and three." which is the regular mode in many languages, has its traces tens
the midst of the decimal counting of civilized Europe, " quatre-vingt as in English " fourscore and three," French it can hardly Thus three." and twenties trois," that is "four
left in
be doubted that the modern world has inherited direct from primitive man his earliest arithmetic worked on nature's
counting-board— the hands and feet. This also explains numeral system based (p. i8j why the civilized world uses a on the inconvenient number ten, which will not divide either
by three or
four.
Were we
starting our arithmetic
it on the duodecimal and use dozens and grosses instead of tens and
we should more
afresh,
notation,
likely base
liundreds.
To
have named the numbers was a great
step,
but words
hardly serve beyond the very simplest arithmetic, as any one may satisfy himself by trying to multiply " seven thousand '» hundred and three" by " two hundred and seventeen in them words, Avithout helping himself by turning
eight in
thought into
figures.
How
did
men come
to the use of
To this question the beginning of an numeral figures ? answer may be had from barbaric picture-writing, as where a North American warrior will make four little marks ////to show that he has taken four scalps. This is very well for the small numbers, but becomes clumsy for higher ones. So already when writing was in its infancy, the ancients had fallen upon the device of making special marks for their fives, tens, hundreds, &c., leaving the simple strokes to be used only for the few units oven This is well seen in Fig. 76 which shows how numeration was worked in ancient Egypt
and
Assyria.
Nor has
this old
method died out
for the
Roman
among
ourselves, are arranged on
numerals
I.,
V., X., L.,
much
in the world,
common
still
in
the
same
use
principle.
1
SCIENCE.
XIII.]
313
Another device, which arose out of the
aljjhabet,
was to
Thus
take the letters in their order to stand for numbers. the
numbered by
of Psahii cxix. are
sections
the
letters
Hebrew
of the
ali)habet, and the books of the Iliad by the Greek alphabet. By these various plans the
letters of the
of
arithmetic
ancient
the
Still their
progress.
nations
made
multiply by
in
grjat
com-
Let us put down
modern world.
parison with that of the
M.MDCLXIX. and
civilized
numeration was very cumbrous
CCCXLVIIL,
or
/^^W by
EGYPT.
1=1
^
(1 ^= 10
(^(^
^= '"o
nnn
1
1
ASSYRIA. T
=
/ ^
I
Fig. 76.
t'/i''>?)
arid a
T>-
10
— Ancient
=
100
< T>-
(to
X
loo)
= 1000
k\v minutes'
Egyptian and Assyrian numeration.
trial will
not
fail
to
convince us of
the superiority of our ciphers.
To
understand
vented,
it is
how
the art of ciphering
came
to
be
in-
necessary to go back to a ruder state of things.
may be seen at market reckoning when they come to five, putting them
In Africa, negro traders with pebbles, and aside in a
little heap. In the South Sea Islands it has been noticed that people reckoning, when they came to ten, would not put aside a heap of ten things, but only a single
bit of coco-nut stalk to stand for ten,
piece
when
Now
to us
and then a bigger they wanted to represent ten tens or a hundred. it
is
plain
that this
use of different kinds of
ANTHROPOLCGY.
314
markers
is
unnecessary, but
stones or beans has to do, his
that the reckoner with little
all is
[chap.
keep separate his unit-heap, This use of such &c.
to
ten-heap, his hundred-heap,
things as pebbles
for
"counters,"
which
survives in
still
England among the ignorant, was so common in the ancient world, that the Greek word for reckoning was fse/>/iizei/i, from psephos, a pebble, and the corresponding Latin word was caladare from calculus, a pebble, so that our word ca/ai-
Now
very early arithmetic.
late is a relic of
pebble-counting in
an orderly n^anner, what
to is
work such wanted is
some kind of abacus or counting-board with divisions. These have been made in various forms, as the Roman abacus with lines of holes for knobs or pegs, or the Chinese swan-pan with balls strung on wires, on which the native calculators in the merchants' counting-houses reckon with a
speed and exactness that
fairly
with his pencil and paper.
It
that the Russian traders
beats the European clerk
may have been from China
borrowed the ball-frame on which
they also do their accounts, and noticing
in
it
was struck with the idea that teach
little
children
France, and thence schools. is
it is
said that a
Frenchman
Russia at the time of Napoleon's invasion
Now
it
it
arithmetic;
found
whatever
sort
its
would serve so
way
perfect'y to
he introduced into
of abacus
is
it
in
English infants' used,
its
principle
always the same, to divide the board or tray into columns,
so that in one
column the
stones, beans, pegs, or balls,
stand for units, in the next column they are tens, in the Here the three stones next hundreds, and so on, Fig. 77.
column stand for 3, the nine in the next column for 90, the one in the fourth column for 1,000 and so on. The next improvement was to get rid of the troublesome stones or beans, and write down numbers in the columns, as is here shown with Greek and Roman
in the right-hand
SCIENCE.
XIII.]
315
But now the calculator could do without the clumsy board, and had only to rule lines on his paper, to numerals.
make columns
for units, tens,
should notice that
it is
hundreds, &c.
The
reader
not necessary to the principle of the
abacus that each column should stand for ten times the one next it. It may be twelve or twenty or any other number of times,
^ the
s.
and d.
in
the columns in our account-books for
fact
or cwts.
qrs.
are surviving representatives of
Such reckoning had still numbers could not be taken out of even when each number from one to
the defect that the
the
lbs.,
old method of the abacus.
columns, for
ANTHROPGLOGV.
3i6
We
[chap.
give the credit of the invention to the Arabs
by using
the term Arabic numerals, while the Arabs call them Indian, and there is truth in both acknowledgments of the nations But having been scholars in arithmetic one to the other. this
does not go to the root of the matter, and it is still first devised in Asia, or
unsettled whether ciphering was
may be
traced further back in Europe to the arithmeticians
As to the main point, howno doubt, that modern arithmetic comes out of ancient counting on the columns of the abacus, improved by writing a dot or a round O to show the empty column, and by this means young children now work calculations which would have been serious labour to the arithmeticians of the school of Pythagoras. ever, there
is
of the ancient world.
Next
as to the art of measuring.
Here
measured, as he
it
may be
fairly
counted, on
man first own body. When barbarians tried by finger-breadths how much one spear was longer than another, or when in building huts they saw how to put one foot before the
guessed that
first
his
other to get the distance right between
two
they
stakes,
had brought mensuration to its first stage. We sometimes use this method still for rough work, as in taking a horse's height by hands, or stepping out the size of a carpet. If care is taken to choose men of average size as measurers,
some approach may be made to fair measurement in this That it was the primitive way can hardly be doubted, way. use for civilized nations who have more exact means still the
names of the body-measures.
foot,
English the
arm
Besides the
span, nail, already mentioned in p. ell,
17,
cubit,
hand,
we have
in
which the early meaning of arm or fore^/-bow, the arm-bend), also the fathom or (of
is seen in cord stretched by the outspread arms in
sailors' fashion,
and
the pace or double step (Latin passus) of which a thousand
SCIENCE.
XIII.]
{mille)
made
the
317
But though tlieso names keep up the measurement by men's limbs, they are
inilc.
recollection of early
now only used as convenient names for standard measures which they happen to come tolerably near to, as for instance one may go a long way to find a man's foot a foot long by the rule. lengths,
Our modern measurements are made by standard which we have inherited with more or less change
from the ancients
It
was a great step
of
wood
when
in civilization
nations such as the Egyptians and Babylonians
made
pieces
or metal of exact lengths to serve as standards.
Egyptian cubit-rules with their divisions
may
still
The
be seen,
and the King's Chamber in the Great Pyramid measures very exactly 20 cubits by 10, the cubit being 20-63 of our inches. Our foot has scarcely altered for some centuries, and is not
very different from
The French
the ancient Greek
and Roman
feet.
Revolution made a bold attempt to cast off the old traditional standards and go straight to at the first
nature, so they established the metre, which
was to be a
ten-millionth of the distance from the i)ole to the equator. The calculation however ])roved inexact, so that the metre is
now
really a standard measure of the old sort, Init so great is the convenience of using the same measures, that the metre
and
coming more and more into use for work all over the world. The use of scales and weights, and of wet and dry measures, had already begun its
fractions are
scientific
among the civilized nations in Our modern standards can even
known times. some extent be traced for instance the pound
the earliest to
back to those of the old world, as and ounce, gallon and pint, come from the ancient Roman weights and measures.
From measuring feet in length, men would soon come to reckoning the contents, say of an oblong floor, in square feet. But to calculate the contents of less simple figures required 22
ANTHROPOLOGY.
3'8
more
difficult
[chap.
The Greeks acknowledged
geometrical rules.
the Egyptians as having invented geometry, thot
measuring," and there
may be
is,
" land-
truth in the old story that
the art was invented in order to parcel out the plots of
mud on British Museum
fertile
(the
the banks of the
Nile.
There
is
in
the
an ancient Egyptian manual of mensuration
Rhind pap}rus), one of the
oldest
books
in the world,
Fig. 78.— Rudimentary practical Geometry, i, scalene triangle angle ^, folded triangle 4, rectangle folded ia c.rcle.
;
2,
folded right
;
;
originally written more than i,ooo years before Eukl id's time, and which shows what the Egyptians then knew and did not know about geometry. From its figures and examples it
appears that they used
roughly
;
stjuare
measure, but reckoned
it
for instance, to get the area of the triangular field
78 (i) they multiplied half ac by ab, which would When the only be correct when bag is a right angb.
ABC
Fig.
SCIENXE.
XIII.]
319
Egyptians wanted the area of a circular
they sub-
fijld,
and squared
tracted one-ninth from the diameter
;
thus
if
the diameter were 9 perches, they estimated that the circle contained 64 square perches, which the reader will find
on
a good approximation.
trial is
All this was admirable and the record may well
for the beginnings of geometry,
Greek philosophers such as Thalt s and when they came to Egypt, gained wisdom
be believed
that
Pythagoras,
But
from the geometerqiriests of the land.
mathematicians, being a priestly order, had their rules as sacred, ar.d therefore not
tliese
Egyptian
come
to regard
to be
improved on,
bound by no such scientific go on further to more perfect
while their Greek disciples,
orthodoxy, were free to
Greek geometry thus reached
methods.
which have
results
come down to us in the great work of Euklid, who used the theorems known to his predecessors, adding new ones and proving the whole in a logical
series.
It
must be ckarly
understood that elementary geometry was not actually vented by means of d like Euklid's.
practical
This
Its
finitions,
beginnings really arose out of the daily
work of land-measurers, masons, carpenters,
may be
of ancient India, which do not
tell
and
stretch cords
the bricklayer to draw
an early practical meaning
;
up poles
between them.
to see that our term straight line
is
tailors.
seen in the geometrical rules of the altar-builders
a plan of such and such hues, but to set distances,
in-
axioms, and demonstrations
shov/s traces of such
still
the participle of the old verb to stretch.
we
came
between two points.
to
If
we
stretch a
see that the stretched
thread must be the shortest possible the straight line
and straight
line is linen thread,
thread tight between two pegs,
at certain
It is instructive
;
which suggests how
be defined as the shortest distance Also,
every carpenter knows
nature of a right angle, and he
is
accustomed
to
the
parallel
ANTHROPOLOGY.
320 lines, or
To
the
[chap.
such as keep the same distance from one another. the right angle presents itself in another way.
tailor,
Suppose him cutting a doubled piece of cloth to open out into the gore or wedge-shaped piece bac in Fig. 78 (2). He
must cut ADB a right angle, or his piece when he opens it will have a projection or a recess, as seen in the figure. When he has cut it right, so that bdc opens in a straight line, then he cannot but see that the sides ab, ac, and the angles ABC, acb must exactly match, having in fact been cut out
Thus he
on one another. geometry,
tailor's
at
name
often goes by the
by what may be called I. 5, which now
arrives,
the result of Euklid
of the " asses' bridge."
properties of figures must liave been practically
But
early.
true
also
is
it
the
that
Such easy
known
very
ancients were long
some of the problems which now belong to Thus it has just been mentioned how the Egyptian land-surveyors failed to make out an exact Yet had it occurred rule to measure a triangular field. ignorant of
elementary teaching.
to
them
to cut out the diagram of a triangle from a sheet of
papyrus, as
and double found that area
is
we may do with up
it it
as
shown
the triangle abc in Fig. 78 (3), then they would have
in the figure,
folds into the rectangle efhg, and, therefore,
the product of the height by half the base.
be seen that
this is
right angles.
do not seem
b, c, all
Though to
makeup two more ancient Egyptian geometers at
either of these
the triangle, the Greek geometers had in well aware of
who
tell
them before Euklid's
the origin
time.
of mathematical
properties of
some way become
The
old historians
discoveries
do not
always seem to have understood what they were talking
Thus
it is
all
would appear that the
folding together at d,
the
have got
it
its
would
no accident, but a property of
triangles, while at the same time
three angles at a,
It
said of Thales that he
was the
fiist
to
of.
inscribe
SCIENCE.
xiii.]
321
right-angled triangle in the circle,
llie
and thereupon
sacri-
But a mathematician of such eminence could
ficed a bull.
hardly have been ignorant of what any intelligent carpenter
how an oblong board
has reason to know,
symmetrically the semicircle
involved in
is
first
into a circle
this, as is
seen by (4) in the
Perhaps the story really meant that Thales
present figure.
was the
fits
the problem of the right-angled triangle in
;
work out a
to
The
of the problem.
another version
is
that
strict
geometrical demonstration
tale is also told
of Pythagoras, and
he sacrificed a hekatomb on discover-
ing that the square on the hypothenuse of a right-angled triangle
is
sum
equal to the
sides (Euklid
philosopher
I.
47).
'i'he
who forbad
the proposition,
it is
of the squares on the other two story
is
not a likely one of a
As
the sacrifice of any animal.
one which may present
for
itself practically
masons working with square paving stones or tiles thus, the base is 3 tiles long, and the perpendicular 4, the hypothenuse will be 5, and the tiles which form a square on it will just be as many as together form squares on the other two sides. Whether Pythagoras got a hint from such
to
;
when
practical rules, or scpiares, at
any
whether he was led by studying arithmetical
rate
he
may have been
the
first
to establish
as a general law this property of the right-angled triangle,
on which the whole systems of trigonometry and
analytical
geometry depend.
The its
early history of matliematics
seems so
far
ckar, that
founders were the Egyptians with their practical survey-
and the Babylonians whose skill in arithmetic is plain from the tables of square and cube numbers drawn up by them, which are still to be seen. Then the Greek philo-
ing,
sophers, beginning as disciples of these older schools, soori left
as
their teachers its
name
behind, and raised mathematics to be,
implies, tlie "learning" or " discii)line" of the
ANTHROPOLCGY.
322
human mind
[chap.
and exact thought.
in strict
In
its fir^t
stages,
mathematics chiefly consisted of arithmetic and geometry,
and so had But
to
ancient
in
do with known numbers and quantities. times the Egyptians and Greeks had
number without as Hindu mathematicians, same direction, introduced the method
already begun methods of dealing with a yet
knowing what
it
going further in the
now
was, and the
called algebra.
It
be noticed that the use of
to
is
as symbols in algebra
letters
was not reached
all
at
once
by a happy thought, but grew out of an earlier and clumsier device. It appears from a Sanskrit book that the venerable teachers
began by expressing unknown quantities by the
term " so-much-as," or
by the names of colours, as "black," first syllables of these words Thus if we had to express shortness.
" blue," " yellow," and then the
came
to be used fur
unknown quantity, and called it " so and then abbreviated this to so sq 2, would be very much as the Hindus did in working out the
twice the square of an
much squared this
twice,"
following problem, given '•
The square
in
root of half the
Colebrooke's
Hindu Algebra
number
swarm of bees
of a
:
is
gone to a shrub of jasmin and so are eight-ninths of the whole swarm a female is buzzing to one remaining male, that is humming within a lotus, in which he is confined, having been allured to it by its fragrance at night. Say, lovely :
:
woman,
number
the
of bees."
This Hindu
equation
is
worked out clumsily from the want of the convenient set of + which were invented later in Europe, but the signs minus numbers are marked, and the solution is in principle an ordinary quadratic. The Arab mathematicians learnt from India this admirable method, and through them it became
—
=
known given to
in
,
Europe
it is
in the
middle ages.
al-jabr u
and opposition," this meaning what
is
The Arabic name is,
" consolidation
now done by transposing
SCIENCE.
XIII.]
on the two sides of an equation
quantities
present word algebra. It was not in
Europe
lished,
323
that the higher
;
thence comes the
about the 17th century
till
mathematics were thoroughly estab-
when Descartes worked
into a system the application
of algebra to geometry, and Galileo's researches on the path of a ball or flung stone brought in the ideas which led up to Newton's
and Leibnitz's
fluxions
differential
calculus,
with the aid of which mathematics have risen to their
modern
range and power.
lost
the
words,
as
of their
traces
where which /,
;/
Mathematical symbols have not
first
beginnings as
abbreviated
stands for mimber and r for radius, while V, a running-hand r, does duty for root (radux), and
still
is
which
is
an old fashioned
stands for the
s,
sum
{sumi/ia)
in integration.
Mechanics and Physics, worked mathematically, now form the very foundation of our knowledge of the universe. in the old barbaric
them. well
life,
men had
The savage understands to aim it, and how
enough
when he mounts handle.
his
axe on
the path of a to
profit
projectile
by momentum
a long rather than a short
But he hardly comes
ideas to a principle or law.
But
only rudimentary notions of
to
bringing these practical
Even
the old civilized nations
of the East, though they could
lift
stones with the lever, set
masonry upright with the plumb-line, and weigh gold in the balance, are not known to have come co scientific study of mechanical laws. What makes this more sure is that if their
they had, the Greeks would have learnt it
is
just
among
it
of them, whereas
the Greek philosophers that the science
coming
into existence.
is
found
In Aristode's time they were
thinking about mechanical problems, though by no means always righdy; it was considered that a body is drawn
toward the centre of the world, but the greater the faster
it
will fall.
The
its
weight
chief founder of mechanical
ANTHROPOLCGY.
324
who worked
science was Archimedes,
[chap. out from the steel-
yard the law of the lever, and deduced thence cases of
body balancing on a common
particles
of a
called
centre of gravity
of
its
bodies,
floating
;
all
the
now
centre,
he even gave the general theory
which mathematicians
on
far
the
in
middle ages could hardly be brought to understand.
In-
deed, mechanical science, after the classical period, shared the general fate of knowledge during the long dead time
when
much was
so
bondage
surprises a
should
in
sometimes
modern reader that the " wisdom of the ancients" now and then be set up as an authority in
But
the
of Gerbert
middle ages, who on
scholars of the
scientific points
knew
might well look up to them.
book
was
left
It
still
science.
many
and what was
forgotten,
to the theology of the schoolmen.
than the ancient Greek?,
less
It is curious to
(Pope Sylvester
look at the
who was a leading and who bungles like
II.)
mathematician in the tenth century,
an early Egyptian over the measurement of the area of a triangle, though the exact method as stated by Euklid had been well known in classical times. Physical science might almost have disappeared if it had not been that while the ancient treasure of knowledge was lost to Christendom, the
Mohammedan added
to
praise.
philosophers
its store.
A
For
pretty story
dulum, being led to
it
this
is
were
its
guardians,
told of Galileo inventing the pen-
by watching the great hanging lamp
in the cathedral of Pisa swinging steadily to
a matter of
fact,
it
and even
they have not always had due
and
fro
;
but as
appears that six centuries earlier
Ebn
Yunis and other Moorish astronomers were already using the
pendulum the
as a time-measurer in their observations.
services
greatest
was
which Galileo did
for
science,
his teaching clearer ideas of force
Of all
perhaps the
and motion.
People had of old times been deceived by the evidence of
SCIENCE.
xiii.J
^3-25
moving body would gradually become exhausted and it would stop of uself, but this idea of force was changed by the new priniheir senses into the belief that the force of a
ciple that force
to set
in
it
as
is
much required
to stop a
the arrov/ or the wlieel, the one would
on
for ever.
moving body as
motion, and that did no opposing force retard fly
and the other
roll
In that age of mathematics applied to science
new discoveries followed to
fast. If Archimedes could have come would have seen progress going on at last,
again, he
lifj
when
the pressure of the air was weighed with Torricelli's
made out the principle of The notion of an attractive
barometer, and Stevin of Bruges parallelogram of forces.
th_*
force
how
had come
into the
minds of philosophers by observing
the magnet attracts iron at a distance, and glass and
when rubbed become attractive. Thus the Newton to calculate the effect of gravitation as such an attractive force, and by it to exl)laui the movements of the heavenly bodies, thus bringing other substances
way was open
for
sway of one universal
the visible world within the
the present
among
day,
established in physical science,
power
In
law.
the great laws which ]ia\e been is
that of the
conservation
and destroyed the processes of nature or the machines of man, but of
energy,
that
new
transformed into
not
is
created
manifestations
equivalent
to
in is
those
which were before. Philosophers' minds used often to be on thj invention of a perpetual moving power, that
set
own force. But nowadays this when some projector plans
should go on creating
its
idea
that,
so discarded
is
an absurd machine, he
shown
that
if
his
motion would be has only to apply of
force
placed
at
is
sufficiently
machine possible. in
the
his
could
answered by being work,
The modern
the
perpetual
mechanician
most desirable way the stores
disposal
by nature, and
within
ANTHROPOLOGY.
336
[chap.
well-understood boundary his business flourishes more
this
and more.
Among
the forms or manifestations of energy are sound,
The
light, heat, electricity.
classic philosophers
vague way that sound spreads
knew
a
in
and the relation between the length of a harpstringand its note was laid down in arithmetical rule by Pythagoras, who measured it with the instrument we still use, the monochord. But it was the moderns who measured the velocity of sound, explained musical pitch by the rate of vibration, and made the science of tone. About light the ancients knew more. Their polished metal mirrors, flat and curved, had taught them the first principles of reflexion. Nor were they ignorant of refraction
they already
;
putting a ring in a basin
A
visible.
knew
the
and pouring
One
who knew in
their science, ever
saw
It
is it,
Jupiter's
universe.
till it
dug up
at
becomes Nineveh,
Arab astronomers,
who
a good deal of optics, nor Roger Bacon,
a telescope. hearing of
experiment of
water
well acquainted with glass
an
the thirteenth century gave
telescope
in
surprised that neither the
is
;
familiar
rock-crystal lens has been
and the Greeks and Romans were lenses.
waves
like
seem
was not
made
account of
have combined two lenses into
to till
the seventeenth century that a
mentioned
plainly
intelligent
Holland, and Galileo,
in
the famous instrument with which he
moons, and revolutionized men's ideas of the
The microscope and
inverted forms of one another, nearly together.
By
man's vision has
these
telescope
and
may be
their inventions
called
came
two instruments the range of
been so vastly
extended beyond
his
unaided eyesight, that animalcules under a ten-thousandth of an inch long can of their
life,
now be watched through
all
the stages
while stars whose distance from the earth
hundreds of thousands of
is
billions of miles, are within the
SCIENCE.
XIII.]
maps
The rainbow
of the universe.
the decomposition of hght
doctrine
problem of
tlie
The
colour.
were bright particles emitted from the luminous body, failed to explain it
such as light extinguishing light by interference, and
effects it
led to
and the theory of
was as
that light
in straight lines
y_i
has yielded to the undulatory theory, of ethereal light-
waves of extreme smallness and speed. In our own day the lines of the spectrum have become the means of recognising
a glowing substance,
whose telescope reveals the depths of the heavens, spectroscope, as Clos^-ly
if it
may
sun or
same
fire,
laws,
nebula
in
were a gas-jet on the laboratory light, is
table.
the science of
proceed together from the
light
but the two were seen to be subject
when
the
composition with the
test its
to the
was noticed that the mirror or lens
it
which concentrated a bright spot of the
astronomer
the
that
connected with the science of
Not only do heat and
heat.
so
faint shine of a
same focus heat
that
would
set
light, also
wood on
brought to
The
fire.
great step in the study of heat was the invention of the
heat-measurer or thermometer.
Who
first
made
is
it
not
known, but it was about three centuries ago, and its earliest form may have been the air-flask with its tube in which coloured water
rises
way of showing a
and
falls,
which
is still
the most striking
class the principle of thermometers.
doctrine of heat as due to vibration explains
how
The
heat
is
transformed force, so that the steam-hammer worked by the heat used in the furnace can be set to beat cold iron till it is
white-hot
;
thus part of the force which
came from heat
has gone back into heat, and with the heat re-appears the other form of radiant energy,
light.
Lastly, the history of
comes from the time when the ancients wondered to see amber when rubbed pick up morsels of straw, and the loadstone draw bits of iron. The pointing of the
electricity
a
ANTHROPOLOGY.
328
loadstone
[chap.
and north seems to have been earhest whence in the middle ages came
south
noticed by the Chinese, its is
world-wide use in navigation.
The
machine
electrical
only an enlarged form of the old experiment of rubbing
But the discoveries associated with the
the bit of ambjr.
name
of Volta and Galvani
brought in a new method of
generating electricity by chemical action
in
the
battery.
Franklin's kite proved the lightning-flash to be but a great
Oersted's current-wire deflecting a magnetic
electric spark.
needle showed the relation between electricity and mag-
and
netism,
set
on foot the
line of invention to
much
world owes the electric telegraph and Next, as to chemistry.
beginnings
Its
which the
besides. lie
practical
in
processes such as smelting metal from the ore, fusing sand
and soda
into glass,
The
or bark.
and tanning leather with astringent pods
oldest civilized nations
knew
these
and many
which not only were learnt by the of Greece and Rome, but from time to time new
other chemical artificers
arts,
when
processes were added to the store of knowledge, as
we hear of
their distilling
mercury from cinnabar, or treatirg
copper with vinegar to make verdigris.
In early civilized
ages also there arose beside these practical recipes the
dim
outlines of scientific chemistry.
The Greek
first
philosophers
expressed their ideas of the states of matter by the four .elements,
fire, air,
water, earth
;
and they
invented the doctrine of matter being
also
made up
had
learnt or
of atoms
—
now more influential than ever in modern lecturerooms. The successors of the Greeks were the Arabic alcheprinciple
mists,
and
their disciples in mcdioeval
Their
Christendom.
belief that mattjr miglit be transmuted or transformed led
many
of them to spend their lives
among
their furnaces
and
alembics in the attempt to turn baser metals into gold.
To
modern chemists, who would not be
the
surprised to find
all
SCIENCE.
XIII.]
many
329
so-called elements proved to be forms of
one matter, seem quite unreasonable in them to the jjursuit of truth by
the alchemists' idea does not
and
itself,
practically
stone,
led
that
ammonia, sulphuric of real
trials
it
though they found no philosophers' they were repaid by discoveries such as alcohol,
experiment, so
magical
folly
fact,
acid.
Their method, being founded on
had grown up
it
pared the way
more and more from the and the alchemist pre-
cleared itself
for the
later
with,
What
chemist.
of
all
things
brought on the new chemical knowledge, was the explanation of what takes place in burning, rusting, and breathing.
How
is
it
that the air in a receiver
candle or a mouse within, so that
How
or life? coal,
seem
turn
to
is it
that while
be dissipated by
it
some
fire,
into matter heavier than
is spoilt by a burning no longer allows flame
substances, like char-
others,
before
?
Uke lead or
iron,
The answers
to
such questions led the way to clearer notions of chemical combination, but it was long before it was understood by what fixed laws of affinity
and proportion
The advanced
place.
instructive
hour
this
combination takes
student of chemistry
may spend an
in looking over old chemistry books,
the catalogue of substances
is
a confused chaos,
where not as
yet brought into form and order on the lines of Dalton's
atomic theory.
From
the chemical nature of matter
we pass
to the nature
The more evident parts of biology or the have come under man's attentive observation
of living things. science of
from the
life,
first.
So
far as
zoology and botany consist in
noticing the forms and habits of animals and plants, savages and barbarians are skilled in them. Such people, for instance, as the natives of the
names
for
South American
each bird and beast, whose voices,
migrations they
know
forests,
resorts,
have
and
with an accuracy that astonishes the
ANTHROPOLOGY.
330
European
The
naturalist
whom
they guide through the jungle.
catalogue of the Brazilian native
plants, often
make
curiously descriptive of
Thus
a small book.
[chap.
names of animals and their natures, would
the jaguara pimina or pair.ted
distinguished from the jagua7-ete or great jaguar the capybara signifies the creature " living in the grass," the
jaguar
is
;
ipe-caa-goerie,
or "little wayside-plant-emetic,"
Mankind everywhere
cuanha.
Natural History. kills
a deer, cuts
So it
it is
with anatomy.
up, cooks
is
our
possesses this sort of
the joints,
When heart,
ipeca-
popular
the savage
and
liver,
clothes and straps of the hide, cuts harpoon-heads
makes and awls out of thread,
it
the long bones, and uses the sinews for
stands to reason that he must have a good rough
The barbaric knowledge of the anatomy of an animal. anatomy an £uch butchers' beyond doctor have and warrior acquaintance with the structure of man's body, as may be seen in the description of the wounds of the heroes in the Iliad,
where the spear takes one
in the
diaphragm below the
and another has the shoulder-tendon broken which makes his arm drop helpless. Among the Greeks such rough knowledge passed into the scientific stage when Aristotle wrote his book on animals, and Hippokrates took medicine away from the priests and sorcerers to make it a method of The action of the body came treatment by diet and drugs.
heart,
to be better understood during this classical period, stance,
is
a.s,
for in-
seen in the nerves leading to and from the brain
being no longer confounded with the sinews which pull the limbs, although the same Greek word neuron {nerve) still
continued
to
be used
for both.
It is
curious
how long
it
took
the ancients to get at the notion of what muscle is, and how They never understood the circulation of the blood, it acts.
though they had ideas about it, as in Plato's celebrated passage in the Timaios which compares the heart to a foun-
SCIENCE.
XIII.]
331
blood round to nourish the body, which
tain sending the
is
hke a garden laid out with irrigating channels. Imperfect as ancient knowledge was, it may be plainly seen how modern science is based upon it. Thus the medical terms of Galen's system, such as the diag/iosis of disease, are
used
still
;
and indeed many old physician's words have
common
passed into
talk,
as
when one
is
said to be in
wnen humours or Huids of the body were thought to cause the state of mind, the humour which is sanguine, or "of the blood," being lively and impetuous. But in knowledge of the body the moderns have left the ancients quite behind, now that the microscope shows its minute vessels and tissues, and there have been made out the circulation of the blood,
a sanguine humour, which carries us back to the time the
the process of respiration, the chemistry of digestion,
the travelling of currents along the nerves. still
goes on the principles of Aristotle, when he traces
from
life
on
matter through the series of plants and animals.
lifeless
Modern
and
Natural History
naturalists like Linnaeus so
became
improved the old
classi-
possible to take a plant or animal
one had never seen before and did not know the name of, and make out by examination that it must belong to such and such a genus and species. Moreover, naturalists have long been seeking to understand why the thousands of species fication, that
it
should arrange themselves in groups or genera, the species in each genus being connected by a common likeness, and the genera themselves falling into higher groups, or orders.
The thought genus fact
is
that the likeness
among
the species forming a
a family likeness, due to these species
being in
the varied descendants of one race or stock,
foundation
which
for
of that
many
and now so
theory
of development
is
the
or evolution
ages has been in the m.inds of naturalists,
largely prevails.
This
is
not the place to discuss
ANTHROPOLOGY.
332
of descent
the doctrine
but
it is
[chap,
development (see page
or
38),
worth while to remember that the very word genus
meant
originally birth or race, so that the naturalist
down
the horse, ass, zebra, quagga, as
genus Equus,
all
sets
descended
really suggesting that they are all
is
who
belonging to one
from one kind of animal, and are in fact distant cousins,
which
is
the
first
The world we
principle of the development-theory. live in
is
the subject of astronomy, geo-
seems plain how the rudiments of these sciences began from the evidence of men's senses. Children living unschooled in some wild woodland would
graphy, geology.
take
it
floor,
It
as a matter of course that the
more or
less
earth
Thus
firmament springing from the horizon.
and primitive notion of the world dish with a cover.
thinking
in
Rude
tribes in
rain,
which
is
through holes in the sky-roof.
with
stars,
is
that
many
and
is
dome
it
a few miles
like
is
or
the natural
a round
countries are found
and working out the idea so
so,
such phenomena as
a circular
is
uneven, arched over with a
as to account for
water from above dripping
This firmament off.
There
is
is
studded
nothing to
suggest to the savage that the sun should be enormously
more
distant than the cloud
sun seems to go down
an opening
in the
it
in the
horizon,
seems to plunge
into.
The
west into the sea, or through
and
to rise in like
manner
in
the east, so that sunset and sunrise force on the minds of the
first
rude astronomers the belief in an under-world or
infernal region, through
many
which the sun travels
in the night,
seemed also the abode of departed souls, when after their bright day of life they sink The sun and moon like the sun into the night of death. move as living gods in the heaven, or at least are drawn or driven by such celestial powers, while the presence of living beings in the sky seems peculiarly manifest in eclipses, when and which
to
a nation has
SCIENCE.
XIII. J
invisible this is
monsters seize or swallow the sun and moon.
All
very natural, so natural indeed that more correct
astronomy has not yet rooted years
333
schoolmaster
ago a
astronomy
it
Not many on
out of Europe.
who ventured
lecture
to
the west of -England roused the displeasure
in
young man should tell them and went about, when they had lived on it all their lives and knew it was flat and stood still. One part of the earliest astronomy, which was so sound as to have held its own ever since, was the measurement of time by the sun, moon, and stars. The day and the month fix themselves at once. In a less exact way the seasons of of the country
folk, that this
the world was round
the year, such as the rainy season, or the icy season, or the
growing season, furnish a means of reckoning, as where a savage
tells
of his father's death having been three rains or
three winters ago. find their
way
Rude
tribes,
who observe
by, notice also that
particular Stars
or constellations
the rising
mark
the stars to
and
setting of
the seasons.
Thus
the natives of South Australia call the constellation Lyra the Loan-bird, for they notice that
when
it
sets with the sun,
the season for getting loan-birds' eggs has begun.
It
to reason that the great facts of the year's course, the
stands
change
of the sun's height at noon, and the lengthening and shorten-
ing of the days, would be noticed,
people
who have not
as yet
curacy, there exists in a loose
so that even
among
measured them with any
way
ac-
the notion of the year.
Within the year, too, the successive moons or months come to be arranged with some regularity, as where the Ojibwas
reckoned in order the wild -rice moon, the leaves-falling moon, the ice-moon, the snow-shoes moon, and so forth.
But such lunar months have to be got into the year as Indeed what distinguishes the uncivilized
they best may. calendar,
is
that 23
though days, months, and years are known,
ANTHROPOLOGY.
334
[chap.
the days are not yet fitted regularly into the months, nor settled
it
the year
is
how many months, much
less
how many
is
days,
to consist of.
When we
look from this to the astronomy of the ancient
cultured nations,
we
progress
find great
made
in observing
and calculating. Yet the astronomer-priests who for ages watched and recorded the aspect of the heavens, had not yet cut themselves free from the ideas of their barbarian In forefathers as to what the world as a whole was like. the Egyptian Book of the Dead, the departed souls descend with the sun-god through the western gate, and travel with
him among the
fields
and
the Assyrian records also
rivers
tell
Ishtar descends into the dark
the
house
Egyptians
men
of the under-world, and
of the
regions below,
abode of
Yet the
enter but cannot depart from.
who held
to this primitive
where
fluttering ghosts,
astronomy had
set the
Great Pyramid by the cardinal points with remarkable exIn reckoning the year, they not only added to the months of 30 days 5 intercalary days to make 365, but becoming aware that even this was not accurate, they recorded its variation till it should come round in a cycle of Even 1,461 years, as determined by the rising of Sirius.
actness.
12 solar
more advanced was its
the astronomy of the Chaldaeans, with
records of eclipses extending over 2,000
years.
In the
astronomy of barbarians the five planets Mercury, Venus^ Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, are not thought parison with the Sun and all
the
Moon.
much
of in com-
But among the Chaldseans
seven planets were classed together as objects of
worship and observation, starting the ideas of the sacred
number seven, which thence pervaded of the ancients.
It
the mystical philosophy
may have been among
the Babylonian
astronomers that the study of the motions of the planets led to the theory that they were carried round
on seven
XIII
SCIENCE.
]
crystal spheres
to this
;
day people
The next and
seventh heaven."
335^
talk of
being " in the
great step in astronomy
was when the long- treasured knowledge of Babylon and Egypt was taken up by the Greeks, to be carried on by the exact methods of the geometer. The Greek astronomers were familiar with the idea of the earth being a sphere ; they calculated its circumference, and usually taking it as the centre of the universe, they measured the apparent movements of the
heavenly bodies.
known as the when it came
This system, in
Ptolemaic, held
its
its
most perfect form
place into the middle ages,
into rivalry with the Copernican system of a round which revolve the earth and other planets. How this became in the hands of Kepler and Newton a mechanical theory of the universe, and how man was at central sun
last stripped
of the fond conceit that his litde planet was
centre of
tlie
Geograp^iy rudest the
lie
all is
things,
need not be re-told
here.
a practical kind of knowledge in which the
tribes
are
well skilled,
of their
own
land, the course of the streams, the passes
over the mountains,
how many
and
desert to reach
some
side
where hard stone
uncivilized a people rivers in
so
as
it
consists
in
days' marches through forest
distant hunting-ground, or the hill-
for hatchets
may
far
be, they
such terms as " red
hill "
is
to
name
be found. their
However
mountains and
or " beaver brook."
In-
deed the atlas contains hundreds of names of places that once had meanings in tongues which no man any longer speaks. Scientific geography begins when men come to drawing maps, an art which perhaps no savage takes to untaught,
known to the early civilized nations the known map is an Egyptian ]jlan of the gold-mines of Ethiopia. The earliest known mention of a geographer attempting a map of the world is by Herodotus, who but which was
;
oldest
tells
of Aristagoras's bron.:e
tablet
inscribed
with
the
ANTHRCPOLCGY,
336 circuit of the
[chap.
whole earth, the sea and all rivers. But to known world was a very limited district
the ancients the
round
their
own countries.
well before our
Jlive ntus
minds
Miiiidi,
at
its
Strabo, the lands of
from the
map
Ocean River
came
to lie as they do,
to explain.
yet
its
This
Gladstone's
is
among
problems had long
set
it
is
to geographers
such
to
far India,
How
and
land and
the business of geology
the most
rude
round the
encircling the
a vast oval, reaching
Herakles across
of
pillars
known
men form
from tropical Africa up to polar Europe. sea
in
group of nations
great
Later, in the world as
whole.
the
representing the world according to the
Homeric poems, with Mediterranean, and the as
brings the growth of geography-
It
to look
men
modern of thinking.
sciences,
Even
the
Greenlanders and the South Sea Islanders have noticed the inland and high on the mountains, and account for them by declaring that the earth was once tilted over, ojthat the sea rose in a great flood and covered the mountains, fossils
leaving at their very tops the remains of fishes.
In the
more had been formed by deposits of mud from the Nile, while the shells on the mountains proved to him that the sea had once been where But two thousand years had to pass dry land now is. before these lines of thought were followed up by the modern geologists, to whom the earth is now revealing the long history of the deposit and removal, rising and sinking of its beds, and the succession of plants and animals which from remote ages have lived upon it. infancy
of Greek
rightly as to
From
this
how
science,
Herodotus
speculated
the valley of Egypt
survey of the various branches of science,
it
is
been made in age after age by observed and more carefully reasoned
clear that their progress has facts
being more fully
on.
Reasoning or
logic
is
itself
a science, but like other
SCIENCE.
XIII.]
sciences,
it
bogan as an
art
why
stopping to ask himself
337
which man practised without
He
or how.
worked out
his
conclusions by thinking and talking, untold ages before
down
occurred to him to lay
rules
how
A
speech and reason work together.
it
Indeed,
to argue.
language \\hich dis-
and verb, is already a powerful reasoning-apparatus. Men had made no mean advance toward scientific method when their language enabled them to class wood as heavy or light, and to form tinguishes
substantive,
such propositions
The
rise
a.s,
adjective,
light
wood
floats,
heavy wood
sinks.
of reasoning into the scientific stage was chiefly
due to the Greek philosophers, and Aristotle brought argument into a regular system by the method of syllogisms.
Of
course the simpler forms of these had always belonged
to practical reasoning,
and a savage, aware
that
red-hot
coals burn flesh, to liim that in
would not thank a logician for explaining consequence of this principle a particular red-
hot coal will burn his fingers.
It
must not be supposed had the eff'ect of
that the introduction of logic as a science
once stopping bad argument, and
it was rather by setting work on exact reasoning, especially in mathematics, that the Greeks brought on a general advance in knowledge. The importance of science was recognised when the famous Museum of Alexandria flourished, the
at
practically to
type of later universities, with tories, its zoological
its
great libraries,
and botanical gardens.
came by thousands
to
follow
mathematics,
anatomy, under professors who resorted there teach others and to learn themselves. tory of science for eighteen
ing time, though
Looking
hundred years
its
labora-
Hither students chemistry, at
once to
at the his-
after this flourish-
some progress was made,
it
was not what
might have b^en expected, and on the whole things went wrong.
The
so-called scholastic period
which prevailed in
ANTHROPOLOGY.
33?
Europe was unfavourable, the
for
[chap.
partly because excessive reverence
and had come
authority of the past fettered men's minds,
partly because the learned successors of Aristotle
to believe so utterly in argumentation as to fancy that the
problems of the world could be dealt with by arguing about them, without increasing the stock of real knowledge.
The
movement
great
which the name of Bacon
men back
pounder, brought
modern philosophy with
of
is
associated as
to the
a
chief ex-
sound old method of
now
working experience and thought together,
only
experience was more carefully sought and
observed,
thought arranged
it
more
We who
systematically.
the
and
live in
an age when every week shows new riches of nature's facts, and new shapeliness in the laws that connect them, have the best of practical proof that science
is
now moving on
a right track.
The into a its
who
student
of rude and
wishes to compare the mental habits
peoples
ancient
subject which has
now
practical uselessness, but
our own,
with
fallen into
which
is
In the earlier days of knowledge
men
it
quest of truth.
still
is,
Only
its
of broken bottles
ness of the
new
led them to try
is
known
already
results
left
by the European
material to their it
for
must be put under the
the Australians picked
own
sailors,
up
the
the like-
stone flakes at once
teeth to their spears
;
experience
argument from analogy held So the the broken glass answered perfectly.
proved that good, for
more than mere associa-
relied far
the mind's natural guide in the
When
control of experience. bits
in
Magic.
is
analogy or reasoning by resemblance
to something new,
always was, as
This
analog}' or
In getting on from what
tion of ideas.
look
most instructive
showing how the unscientific mind works.
we moderns do on reasoning by
may
contempt from
in this case the
SCIENCE.
XIII.]
339
North American Indian, in default of tobacco, finds some more or less similar plant to serve instead, such as willowbark. The practical knowledge of nature possessed by savages is so great, that it cannot have been gained by mere chance observations they must have been for ages constantly noticing and trying new things, to see how far their ;
behaviour corresponded with that of things partly like them.
And where
the matter can be brought to practical
experiment, this
rude
man
how
to find
is
a thoroughly scientific method.
wants to learn and do
where there
is
far
more
trial
by
But the
difficult things
—
plenty of game, or whether his
enemies are coming, how to save himself from the lightning, or how to hurt some one he hates, but cannot safely throw a spear
at.
In such matters beyond his limited knowledge, he
contents himself with working on resemblances or analogies
become the foundation of magic. On looking into the " occult sciences,'" it is easy to make out in of thought, which thus
them one's
principles
which are
mind down
Nothing shows although this
is
to
this far
childish
belter
one can only bring they belong
state
than the rules
of
from the rudest kind of magic.
ing to the astrologers, a likely to
intelligible if
the
man
Accord-
born under the sign Taurus
have a broad brow and thick
lips,
and
to
to.
astrology,
is
be brutal
and unfeeling, but when enraged, violent and furious. If he had been born under the sign Libra, he would have had a just and well-balanced mind. All this is because two particular groups of stars happen to have been called the bull and the balance; the child whose hour of birth has some sort of astronomical relation to
to these constellations
have a character resembling that of a
pair of scales.
So with the
planets.
He
is
imagined
real bull or
over
a real
whom Mars
presides in his better asi)ect will be bold and fearless, but where the planet is " ill-dignined," then he will be a boastful
ANTHROPOLOGY.
340
[chap.
Had
shameless bully, ready to rob and murder.
he but
been born when Venus was in the ascendant, how different would he have been, with dimpled cheek and soft voice apt Practically foolish as all this
to speak of love.
There
unintelligible.
be followed quite
is in it
easily,
hardly strong enough
Yet such
argument.
barbaric world.
a
though
it
is
is
will
not
for a serious
less
the magic which
The North American
a bear to-morrow,
it is
a train of thought
much
for a joke,
is,
thought which can
train of
still
pervades the
Indian, eager to
kill
hang up a rude grass image of one
and shoot it, reckoning that this symbolic act will make the The Australians at a burial, to know in real one happen. what direction they may find the wicked sorcerer who has
omen the The Zulu who
killed their friend, will take as their
direction of
the flames of the grave-fire.
has to buy
may be
cattle
seen chewing a bit of wood, in order to
soften the hard heart of the seller he
accounts of such practices would
fill
is
dealing with.
The
a volume, and they do
not seem broken-down remains of old ideas, for there is no reason to suppose they ever had more sense in them than is
to
They may be derived from some
be plainly seen now.
such loose savage logic as
— Things which are one image of a — shooting shoot the bear —
this
like
:
another behave in the same way bear
like shooting
is
image
I
shall
But
if
therefore,
shoot a real bear.
magical proceedings, less.
a real
this
we.
if
tested
wonder
by
It
facts,
is
if 1
true
that such
prove to be worth-
that nevertheless they should so
among mankind, it may be answered that they last on even m our own country among those who are too the rustics who believe a ignorant to test them by facts
prevail
—
neighbour's
ill-wishing has killed their cow,
and who, on
true savage principles, try to punish the evil-doer by putting
a heart
spitefully stuck full of pins
up the chimney
to shrivel
SCIENCE.
xili.] in the
smoke, that
him and he may
in
341
Hke manner sharp pangs may pierce
waste away.
In another and very different way the student of science is
Loose and illogical as man's early and slow as he may be to improve them
interested in magic.
reasonings
may
be,
under the check of experience,
it
is
a law of
human
pro-
work itself clear. Thus even the fancies of magic have been sources of real knowledge. Few magical superstitions are more troublesome than the Chinese geomancy or rules of "wind and water," by which a lucky site has to be chosen for building a house. Absurd as this ancient art is, its professors appear to have been the earhest to use the magnetic compass to determine the aspects of the heavens, so that it seems the magician gave
gress that thought tends to
navigator
the
exact
science
his
guide
in
exploring the
owes to astrology
is
well
Chaldaea the places of the stars were
What
world.
known, how
in
systematically ob-
served and recorded for portents of battle and pestilence,
and
The old magical modern ages, whtn Tycho Brahe and Kepler, who believed that
registers of lucky
and unlucky days.
character hung to astronomy even into astrologers like
the destinies of
by of
men were
their observation
the
planets
foretold by the planets, helped
and calculation
themselves.
to foretell the
motions
Thus man has but
to go on observing and thinking, secure that in time his errors will fall away, while the truth he attains to will abide and grow.
CHAPTER THE Religion Life,
352
—
S
P
I
XIV.
R I T - W O RL
— —
D.
—
—
of Lower Races, 342 S>.u's, 343 Burial, 347 Future Demons, 349 Transmigration, 350 Divine Ance-tors, 351 Nature Spirit;, 357 G^ds, 358 Worship, 3'^4 Moral In-
—
— —
—
—
fluence, 368.
It does not belong to the plan of this book
a general
account of the
anthropologist,
who has
a main part of their
many
faiths
to
of mankind.
give
The
to look at the religions of nations as
life,
may
best
become acquainted with
by beginning with the simple notions of the lower races as to the spirit-world. That is, he has to examine hoW and why they believe in the soul and its existence after death, the spirits who do good and evil in the world, and the greater gods who pervade, actuate, and Any one who learns from savages and rule the universe. barbarians what their belief in spiritual beings means to them, will come into view of that stage of culture where the religion of rude tribes is at the same time their philosophy, containing such explanation of themselves and the world they live in as their uneducated minds are able to
their general principles
receive.
The and
is
idea of the soul which
is
held by uncultured races,
the foundation of their religion,
is
not
difficult to
us
THE SPIRIT-WCRLD.
CHAP. XIV.] understand,
to
343
we can fancy ourselves
if
their place,
in
ignorant of the very rudiments of science, and trying to get at the
meaning of
life
by what the senses seem
great question that forces itself
with
on
minds
their
to
The we
tell.
one
is
that
our knowledge cannot half answer, Avhat the
all
life
is
A
person
who
few minutes ago was walking and talking, with
all his
senses
which
is
in us, but not always.
a
goes off motionless and unconscious in a deep sleep,
active,
wake
to
sometimes
a while with renewed vigour.
after
ditions the
ceases
life
more
In other con-
when one
entirely,
is
stunned
swoon or trance, where the beating of the h.-art and breathing seem to stop, and the body, lying deadly pale and insensible, cannot be awakened ; this may last for minutes or hours, or even days, and yet after all the patient revives. Barbarians are apt to say that such a one died for a while, but his soul came back again. They have great or
falls
into a
difficulty in
They it,
will
distinguishing real death
and only when
of from
from such trances.
ic and even feed becomes noisome and must be got rid
talk to a corpse, try to rouse
among
it
the living, they are at last certain that the
What, then,
life
has gone never to return.
life
which thus goes and comes
To
the rude philosopher, the question seems to be answered
by the very evidence of
his
is
in sleep, trance,
When
senses.
this soul or
and death the
?
sleeper
awakens from a dream, he believes he has really somehow been away, or that other people have come to him. As it is well known by experience that men's bodies do not go on these excursions, the natural explanation living self or soul
is
is
that every
man's
phantom or image, which can go out and be sjen itself in dreams. Even
his
of his body and see waking men in broad daylight sometimes see these human phantoms, in what are called visions or hallucinations. They are further
kd
to believe that th:: soul
does not die with the
ANTHROPOLOGY.
344
body, but lives on after quitting
it,
[cHAP.
a
for although
man
may-
be dead and buried, his phantom-figure continues to appear That men have such to the survivors in dreams and visions. unsubstantial images belonging to
them
is
ways to the savage
who
has watched their
reflexions
in
philosopher,
water, or their
still
familiar in other
shadows following them
about, fading out of sight to reappear presently somewhere else,
moment he
while sometimes for a
has seen their living
breath as a faint cloud, vanishing though one can feel that is still
Here then
there.
in
few words
barbaric theory of souls, where reflexion,
dream,
vision,
come
life,
is
mind, breath, shadow,
together
The Zulu
for
one
satisfies
the
and account
another in some such vague confused way as
untaught reasoner.
it
the savage and
will say that at
death a man's
shadow departs from his body and becomes an ancestral ghost, and the widow will relate how her husband has come in her sleep and threatened to kill her for not taking care
of his children
father's ghost
of the to visit
;
the son will
or
describe
how
his
stood before him in a dream, and the souls
two, the
some
living
and the dead, went
far-otT kraal
of their people.
off together
The Malays
do not Hke to wake a sleeper, lest they should hurt him by disturbing his body while his soul is out. The Ojibwas describe how one of their chiefs died, but while they were watching the body, on the third night his shadow came back into it, and he sat up and told them how he had travelled to the River of Death, but was stopped The Nicaraguans, when there and sent back to his people. questioned by the Spaniards as to their religion, said that
when a man
or
woman
dies, there
comes out
of their
something that resembles a person and docs not
body remains here
—
it
is
above, but the breath that
die,
mouth
but the
not precisely the heart that goes
comes f/om
their
mouth and
is
THE SPIRIT-WORLD.
XIV.]
called the
The
life.
345
lower races
confusion of thoughts as
this,
sometimes avoid such by treating the breath, the
dream-ghost, and other appearances, as being separate souls.
Thus, some Greenlanders reckoned
shadow and
his
his breath
man
as having
and the Fijians
;
two
souls,
said that the
" dark spirit " or shadow goes down to the world below, but the " light spirit " or reflexion seen in water stays near where
he
dies.
The
reader
may
call to
mind examples how such
notions of the soul lasted on hardly changed in the classic
world
how
;
who
hands, but the soul like
how Hermotimos, at last his soul,
tries in
smoke
vain to grasp flits
to the
him with loving
away below the
earth
;
the seer, used to go out from his body,
coming back from a
had burnt
his wife
dead Patroklos comes
in the Iliad the
sleeping Achilles,
his corpse
had become a bodiless
spirit-journey,
on the funeral
pile,
or till
found that
and
that
he
At this stage the idea of the soul was taken up by the Greek philosophers and refined into more metaphysical forms the life and mind were separated by dividing the soul into two, the animal and the rational soul, and the conception of the soul as of thin ghost.
;
ethereal
gave place to the definition of the is mind without matter. To follow
substance
immaterial soul, which
the discussion of these transcendental problems in ancient
and modern philosophy
occupy the student of metathe earlier and grosser soulthe uncultured mind is that to this day it will
physics, but the best proof
theory satisfied
how
remains substantially the belief of the majority of the hum.an race.
Even among
plainly
shows
in
the most civilized nations language
its traces,
as
when we speak
an ecstasy or " out of himself" and
himself," or (that
is,
when
" shadows
still
of a person being " coming back to
the souls of the dead are called shades or spirits ox ghosts (that is, " breaths "),
")
terms which are relics of men's earliest theories of
life.
— ANTHROPOLOGY.
34'3
It
may have
occurred to some readers that the savage
philosopher ought, on precisely the his horse or
dog
This
body.
is
[chap
to
have a
in fact
thought and think
still,
soul,
same grounds,
to believe
a phantom-likeness of
its
what the lower races always have
and they follow the reasoning out
in
a way that surprises the modern mind, though it is quite If a human consistent from the barbarian's point of view.
dream is a real object, then the spear and and the mantle over its shoulders are real objects too, and all lifeless things must have their thin flitting Such are the souls of canoes and weapons shadow-souls. and earthen pots that the Fijians fancy they see swimming down the stream pellmell into the life to come, and the ghostly funeral gifts with which the Ojibwas imagine the souls of the dead laden on their journey to the spirit-land the men carrying their shadowy guns and pipes, the women their baskets and paddles, the litde boys their toy bows and soul seen in a
shield
it
arrows. are
carries
The
funeral sacrifices, which in one shape or other
remembered or
give
carried
us the clearest idea
on
still in
how
every part of the globe,
barbaric religion takes in
together the souls of men, animals, and things.
In Peru,
where a dead prince's wives would hang themselves in order to continue in his service, and many of his attendants would
him to take their souls with him, people had seen those who had long been dead with their sacrificed wives, and adorned widi about walking
be buried
for
declared that they
the things that were put in the grave for them.
few years since in Madagascar
it
So only a
was said that the ghost of
King Radama had been seen dressed
in a
uniform buried
with him, and mounted on one of the horses that were With such modern instances before us, killed at his tomb.
we understand
the ancient funeral rites of which the traces
remain
burial-mounds on our
in the
own
hills,
with their
THE SPIRIT-WORLD.
XIV.]
347
skeletons of attendants lying round the chief, and the bronze
weapons and golden arm-rings. Classic literature abounds which show how truly the modern barbarian
in passages
represents the ancient; such are the burning of Patroklos
with the Trojan captives and the horses and hounds, the ac-
count of the Scythian funerals by Herodotus, and his story of
coming back shivering because the clothes for her at her burial. There are disIndia where the suttee or "goodwife" is even now
Melissa's ghost liad not in
tricts
been burnt
burnt on her husband's funeral
and
the wives
slaves ceased
the warrior's horse was
still
pile.
thus
In Europe, long after to follow their master,
solemnly killed at his grave
This was done as lately as 1781 and buried with him. at Treves, when a general named Friedrich Kasimir was according to the rites of the Teutonic Order; England the pathetic ceremony of leading the horse the soldier's funeral is the last remnant of the ancient
buried
and in
in
Other quaint
sacrifice.
met
relics
of the old funeral customs
There are German
villages where the peasants put shoes on the feet of the corpse (the " hell-
are to be
shoon
" with
with.
which the old Northmen were provided
for the
dread journey to the next world), and elsewhere a needle
and thread while
all
is
put in for them to
mend
dead has a piece of money put
way
their torn clothes,
over Europe, at an Irish wake for instance, the in his
hand
to
pay
his
with. just been made of ancient burial-mounds. how barbarians reverence and fear the souls of dead, we may understand the care they take of their
Mention has Seeing the
bodies, leaving the hut as a dwelling for the dead, or drying
the corpse and setting in a
canoe or
coffin,
or for the ashes,
if
it
up on a
scaffold,
or building up a strong the people have taken
or burying
tomb over to
it it,
cremation.
ANTHROPCLCGY.
34,8
Prehistoric burial-places in our
own
[chap.
country are
won-
still
ders to us for the labour they must have cost their barbaric Most conspicuous are the great burial-mounds builders.
Some
of earth or cairns of stones.
appear to date from the stone-age.
of the largest of these
But
their use lasted
through the bronze-age into the iron-age
;
and
to this
on
day
Highlands of Scotland the memory of the old cusso strong, that the mourners, as they may not build a cairn over the grave in the churchyard, will sometimes set
in the
tom
is
up a
little
be a
one where the funeral procession stops on the
Within the old burial-mounds or barrows, there
way.
cist or
may
rude chest of stone slabs for the interment, or
a chamber of rude
stones,
sometimes with
galleries.
Many
such stone structures are to be seen above ground, especially the dolmens,
stone tables, formed of three or four great
i.e.
upright stones, with a lop-stone resting on them, such as
The remains Kit's Coty House, not far from Rochester, dug up show that the dolmens were tombs. Another kind of early stone monuments are the menhirs, i.e. long stones set
up
It
singly.
happens that the Khasias of north-east
India have gone on to modern times setting up such rude pillars as memorials of the dead, so that it may be reasonably
guessed that those in Brittany for instance had the same purpose. Another kind of rude stone structures well known iu Europe are the cromlechs, or stone circles, formed of upright stones in a ring, such as Stanton Drew, not far from Bristol.
There
is
proof that the stone circles have often to do with may surround a burial-mound, or have a
burials, for they
dolmen in the middle. But considering how tombs are apt to become temples where the ghost of the buried chief or prophet
is
worshipped,
it
is
likely that
such stone circles
should also serve as temples, as in the case of South India at the present
time, where cocks are actually sacrificed to
^
XIV.]
THE SPIRIT-WORLD.
the village ceity,
who
is
349
represented by the large stone in
Rude
the centre of a cromlech.
monuments may be
stone
traced in a remarkable line on the map, from India across to
North Africa, and up the west side of Europe
The purpose
map.)
Fergusson's
of them
all
is
[see
not fully
understood, especially the lines of great stones at Carnac and Abury, and Stonehenge with its great hewn upright But, as has been here shown, there and cross stones. are facts which go far to explain the meaning of dol-
The
mens, menhirs, and cromlechs. of the
old-fashioned
were " Druid's
mens
examination such as
fanciful speculations
such
antiquaries,
as
that
the
dol-
givmg place to sober the reader may hnd in Lubbock's are
altars,"
Prehistoric Times.
In the barbaric religion, which has our midst, what
death
?
is
supposed
The answers
the ghosts
to
left
such clear traces in
become of
the soul aftjr
are many, but they agree in
the living, especially at night time.
Some
tribes
the soul continues to haunt the hut where is
accordingly deserted for
ground, which
is
it;
or
it
sitting
round
the
youngsters at their sports region of the dead
;
on
tlie
say that
died,
which
village resort, so
kindly, like the old
watching
green
village
or
it
that
to visit
hovers near the burial-
sometimes the place of
that the souls of ancestors can look
people
this,
must be somewhere whence they can come
ghosts
flit
away
to
the
some
the deep forests or
on mountain-tops up on the plains above the sky, or down in the depths below the ground where the sun descends at night. Such people as the Zulus can show the holes where one can descend by a cavern into the in
or far-away islands over the sea, or
under-world of the dead, an idea well lake Avernus, St. Patrick's
and which has
lasted
Purgatory in Lough Dearg.
24
known
on
in the classic
to our
By
own day
in
a train of fancy
ANTHROPOLOGY.
)5o
easy to follow,
do
to
it is
often held that the
Islanders like
night.
home
where
that far-west region
with
[chap. of the dead has
sun dies at
the
the Maoris imagine the souls speed-
away from the westernmost cape of New Zealand, just as on the coast of Brittany, where Cape Raz stands out westward into the ocean, there is the " bay of souls," the ing
launching-place where the departed sea.
Many
rude tribes think the
spirits sail off across
spirit-world
to
the
be the
pleasant land they see in dreams, where the dead live in
the
and dim land of
shadows, the cavernous under-world of night.
Both ideas
their spirit-villages,
and there
the sun always shines
;
is
game and
but others fancy
are familiar to us in poetry
— one
fish in plenty,
it
in the earthly paradise of
the legends, the other in such passages as describe Odysseus' visit to the bloodless ghosts in the dreary dusk of Hades, or the shadows of the
Dante
there,
whose
dead
fleshly
in Purgatory
wondering to see
body, unlike their own phantom
and casts a shadow. we have been speaking of the bodiless
forms, stops the sunlight
Hitherto
ghosts of the dead, but
they fact
may
enter into
it
new bodies and
one of the most usual
souls or
also agrees with their nature that live again
on
earth.
beliefs of the lower races
is
In that
the souls of dead ancestors are re-born in children, an idea which explains the fact of children having a likeness to the father's or
mother's family.
For instance, the Yoruba negroes
greet a new-born child with the salute,
"Thou
art
come!"
and then set themselves to decide what ancestral soul has returned.
which
may
It
does not, however, follow that the body in up its new abode should be human it
the soul takes
:
enter into a bear or jackal, or
the Zulus think,
it
may
fly
away
in a bird, or, as
pass into one of those harmless
snakes which creep about in the huts, liking the warmth of the family hearth, as they did while they were old people,
THE SPIRIT-WCRLD.
XIV.]
and
still
kindly taking the food given by their grandchildren.
among
In such simple forms there appears the
of transmigration which
notion
becomes a great
JjLuklhism
To
351
in
the lower races
Brahmanism and
religious doctrine.
return to the souls of the dead which
tlit
to
and
fro as
These, wherever they dwell, are naturally believed
ghosts. to keep
up
their interest in the living,
and
hold
their families
North America a Mandan woman will talk by the hour to her dead husband and a Chinese is bound to announce any family or child Thus,
kindly intercourse with them.
in
;
a wedding, to the spirits of his ancestors,
event, such as
present
memorial
their
in
The
tablets.
kinsfolk are not only talked to but fed
morsels of food at their
when
feast of the dead,
ghosts of dead
the family offer
them
meals, and hold once a year a
the souls of ancestors for genera-
back are fancied present and invisibly partaking of the
tions
Such
food.
the
own
;
offerings to the
dead not only go on through
savage and barbaric world, but their
civilization,
traces
still
on
last
remaining
in
into higher
The
Europe.
Russian peasant, who fancies the souls of his forefathers creeping in and out behind the saints' pictures on the
little
crumbs of cake there for them. One has cross the Channel to see how the ancient feast of the
icon-shelf, puts
only to
dead
still
keeps
Souls, which
is
its
its
primitive character in the festival of All
modern
representative;
cemetery of Pere-Lachaise they
meats on the graves, and
do not
forget to
make up
still
even
at
the
put cakes and sweet-
in Brittany the peasants that night
the
fire
and leave the fragments of
the supper on the table, for the souls of the dead of the family
who
will
come
to visit their
home.
All this belongs
to the ancestor-worship or religion of the divine dead,
from remote antiquity has been, as faith of the larger half of
mankind.
it is
which
even now, the main
But
this
worship does
ANTHROPOLOGY.
352
not come only from family
[chap.
affection, for the ghosts of the
as divine beings, powerful both for
dead are looked upon good and harm. The North American Indian, who prays to the spirits of his forefathers to give him good weather or luck in hunting,
if
he happens to
fall
make some
he has neglected to
into the fire will believe
offering to the spirits,
and
In Guinea the they have pushed him in to punish him. negroes who regularly bring food and drink to the images of their
and
dead
them
relatives look to
for
help in the
crowds of
in times of peril or distress
trials
of
life,
men and women
seen on the hill-tops or the skirts of the forest, calling most piteous and touching tones on the spirits of their Such accounts help us to understand what real ancestors.
may be in the
which to a Chinese and how the pious rites for the dead ancestors or lares formed the very bond which Our modern minds have held a Roman family together.
meaning there or
Hindu
is
is
the
in the ancestor-worship
first
business of
life,
and people often think the to have been a mere act of insane pride, whereas in fact it was an idea understood by any barbarian, that at death the great chief should
rather lost the sense of this,
apotheosis of a dead
Roman emperor
pass into as great a deity.
That barbarians should imagine the manes or ghosts of their dead to be such active powerful beings, arises naturally from their notions of the soul but this requires a word of As during life the soul exercises power over explanation. the body, so after death when become a ghost it is beheved ;
and power. Such ghosts interfering in the affairs of the living are usually called good and evil spirits, or demons. There is no clear disdnction made between ghosts
to
keep
its
activity
and demons
;
in fact, savages generally consider the
who help or plague them evil, the'
man keeps
after
demons
be souls of dead men. Good or death the temper he had in mortal
to
THE SPIRIT-WORLD.
XIV.]
Not long
life.
353
ago, in South India, where the natives are
demon-worshippers,
was found that they had
it
lately built
a
shrine of which the deity was the ghost of a British officer, a
mighty hunter, whose votaries, mindful of
his tastes in
his altar offerings of cheroots
The same man
will
be a good
spirit
to his
own people he when the
enemies, and even to his
evil spirit to his
may be sometimes
life,
and brandy. friends and an
were laying on
kind and sometimes cruel, as
Zulus believe that the shades of dead warriors of their tribe
among them
are
and lead them
in battle
these ghostly allies are angry will
and
When
go against them.
to victory; but if
turn their backs, the fight
people like the American
Indians or the African negroes believe that the
air
around
them is swarming with invisible spirits, this is not nonsense. They mean that life is full of accidents which do not happen of themselves and when in their rude philosophy they say the spirits make them happen, this is finding the most disThis is tinct causes which their minds can understand. most plainly seen in what uncivilized men believe about ;
We
disease.
have noticed already that they account
for
by supposing the soul to leave the body for a time, and here it may be added that weakness or failure of health is in the same way thought to be caused fainting or trance
by the
soul
or part of
bring the soul
back
is
it
going out.
the ordinary
In these
where the North American medicine-man catch his
patient's truant
soul
antl
cases,
method of put
i)retend to
will it
to
cure, as
back into
his
head, or in Fiji a sick native has been seen lying on his back,
But
bawling to
seems rather that of a is
own
his
soul to
come back
in other conditions of disease the patient's
man who
not his proper soul.
when
the
sick
man
is
him.
has got a soul in him that
In any painful tossing
to
behaviour
illness,
and shaking
in
especially fever,
or
ANTHROPOLOGY.
354
[chap.
writhing in convulsions on the ground, or
or delusion he no longer thinks his with his
own
own
when
in delirium
thoughts or speaks
voice, but with distorted features
and
strange,
unearthly tones breaks into wild raving, then the explanation
which naturally suggests
itself is
entered into or possessed him.
symptoms of a will see
how
hysterical-epileptic
naturally in the
that
another
spirit
Any one who watches or a
patient,
has the
maniac,
infancy of medical science
demoniacal possession came to be the accepted theory of disease, and the exorcism or expulsion of these demons the ordinary as
when
method of treatment.
It is so
among
savages,
a sick Australian will believe that the angry ghost
has got into him and is gnawing his liver ; skin hut the wizards may be seen Patagonian or when in a
man
of a dead
shouting,
dancing,
demon from a at
home
and drumming
man down
drive
to
with fever.
in ancient history, as in the
out
the evil
Such ideas were
well-known Egyptian
memorial tablet of the time of Rameses Xll (12th century B.C.) to be seen in the Paris Library, and translated in Records of the Past, where the Egyptian god Khons
was sent
in his
ark to cure the
little
princess Bentaresh
movement in her limbs. When he came, the demon said, Great god who chasest demons, I am thy Then they slave, I will go to the place whence I came."
of the evil
*'
made
a sacrifice for that
ing the patient cured.
reaches,
we
far
find the contest
disease and the newer
and he went in peace, leavback as the history of medicine
spirit,
As
between
this old spirit-theory of
ideas of the physicians, with their diet
and though the doctors have now taken the upper hand, yet in any nation short of the most civilized the When Prof. earlier notions may still be found unchanged. his cook Burma, in travelling was anthropologist, Bastian, the
and drugs
;
had an apoplectic
fit,
and the wife was doing her best
to
"
THE SPIRIT-WORLD.
XIV.J
appease the offended putting
" Oh, ride him not
hard
I
demon who had brought
it on, by and prayers, him go Grip him not so Ah, how good that tastes
heaps of coloured
little
Thou
shalt
1
355
Ah,
have
let
rice
rice for him, 1
!
!
In countries where this theory of disease prevails, the patients'
own
delusions work in with
ways.
As
fully
and confirm
it
most
in
persuaded as the bystanders of the
their demons, they dream of or see in
will recognise
their delirium,
striking
reality of
them in the figures they and what is more, under
delusion or diseased imagination they so lose their sense of
being themselves, as to talk with what they believe to be the voice of the
demon
within them, answering in
its
name,
just
as the sick princess did in Syria three thousand years ago.
India and
Englishmen
in
opportunity
of being present at these strange old-world
scenes,
the
far
East often
have the
and hearing the demon-voice whisper, or squeak, or
mouth, that he is the spirit so-andand tell what he is come for at last, when satisfied with what he wants, or subdued by the exorcist's charms and threats, the demon consents to go, and then the patient leaves off his frantic screams and raving, his convulsive roar, out of the patient's so,
;
writhing quiets down, and he sinks into an exhausted sleep, often relieved for a time
mental treatment
is
when the malady is one where Nor is it necessary to go to
effective.
India or China for illustrations of this early theory of disease.
In Spain the
priests
still
go on exorcising devils out of
the mouths and feet of epileptic patients, though this will
probably cease in a few years, when
it
successfully that hitherto intractable disease
known how may be treated
is
with potassium bromide.
In other ways the notion of
spirits serves to
account
for
whatever happens. That certain unusually fierce wolves or tigers are " man-eaters " is explained by the belief that the
ANTHROPOLOGY.
356
men go
souls of wicked
[chap.
out at night and enter into wild-
beast bodies to prey on their fellow-men ; these are the that is, " man-wolves " which man-tigers and were-wolves
—
—
still
live in
the popular superstition of India and Russia.
we all know that many living people grow pale and bloodless and pine away ; in Slavonic countries this be caused by blood-sucking nightmares, is thought to whose dreadful visits the patient is conscious of in his sleep, and these creatures are ingeniously accounted for as demon-souls dwelling in corpses, whose blood accordthey call them vamingly keeps fluid long after death
Again,
;
pires.
men
gained
spirits their first clear
notions
has been suggested that primitive
It
from their ideas of souls and
of a cause of anything, and this that rude
tribes
them a reason
do
for
find
is
at
any
in the doings
rate so far true
of spirits
around
every stumble over a stone, every odd
sound or feeling, every time they lose their way in the woods. Thus, in the scores of good and evil chances which meet the barbarian from hour to hour, he finds work for
many luck
friendly
or
or
fortune
unfriendly takes
in
a
own who This may be,
Especially his
spirits.
shape
guardian
belongs to him and goes about widi him. as the rude
Tasmanians have thought, a dead
spirit
father's soul
looking after his son, or such a ])alron-spirit as the Norih
American warrior it
may
till
he sees
it
be, like the genius of the ancient
born with him
The
fasts for
for
in
a dream
Roman, a
a companion and guardian through
;
or
s]nrit life.
genius of Augustus was a divine being to be prayed and
sacrificed to, but
how we moderns have
thoughts of the ancients, while
still
left
behind the
using their words,
is
meaning with which we now Not less striking talk of the genius of Handel or Turner. is the change which has com^ in our thoughts about the curiously seen in the changed
THE SPIRIT-WORLD.
XIV.]
world around
us, the
the
We
forests.
sky and the sea,
and
is
it
infinite
and
who
much
cast
and decomposi-
we can get our remote days when men looked to
this belief arises plainly
soul, for these
nature
heat, of growth
multitude of spiritual beings as the causes of
Yet
nature.
and
only with an effort that
imagination back to the
an
the mountains
have learnt to watch the operation of
physical laws of gravity tion,
357
as
up the
spirits
are looked
from the theory of the
upon
human souls work human fire in
the volcano, tear
as souls working
bodies. It
up the
is
they
forest in the
hurricane, spin the canoe round in the whirlpool, inhabit the trees
and make them grow.
The lower
of such nature-spirits, but d.al with
races not only talk
them
in a
thoroughly
way which shows how they are modelled on human souls. Modern travellers have seen North Americans personal
paddling their canoes past a dangerous place on the river
and throwing in a bit of tobacco with a prayer to the riverspirit to let them pass. An African woodcutter who has made the
first
known to take the precausome palm-oil on the ground, that the angry coming out may stop to lick it up, while the
cut at a great tree has been
tion of pouring tree-spirit
man
runs for his
nature-spirits
life.
The
state of
mind
to
which these
belong must have been almost as clearly
remembered by the Greeks, when they could still fancy the nymphs of the lovely groves, and springs, and grassy meadows, coming up to the council of the Olympian gods and sitting
around on the polished
seats, or the
dryads growing
with the leafy pines and oaks, and uttering screams of pain
when
the
woodman's axe
strikes the trunk.
dictionary preserves the curious
The Anglo-Saxon
word woodmare
for an echo wood-nymph), a record of the time when Englishmen believed, as barbarians do still, that the echo is the voice of an answering spirit the word mare, for spirit or {iviidii-mcEr
=
;
;
ANTHROPOLOGY.
358
[chap.
the throttling dream-
demon, appears
also in
demon who was
as real to our forefathers as he
nightmare^
the old nature-spirits lore
;
the Loreley
is
demon who drowns
still
home
find a
to the
is
by physical
natives of Australia now. Superseded
in poetry
science,
and
folk-
only a modernized version of the riverthe
swimmer
in the whirlpool
the heal-
;
ing water-spirits of the old sacred wells have only taken saints'
names, the
little
elves
and
only dim recollections of the old
of the woods are
fairies
forest-spirits.
It
may
surprise
the readers of Huxley's Physiography to recognise in fairytales the nature-spirits in
man imagined Above
the
whose personal shape
prehistoric
the forces of nature.
commonalty of
spirits,
the religions of
gods.
Where ancestor-worship
souls,
all tribes
demons, and nature-
recognise higher
spirits,
or
prevails, the souls of great
and warrior^ or any celebrated persons may take this Thus, the Mongols worship as good deities the Khan and his princely family. The Chinese Genghis great declare that Pang, who is worshipped by carpenters and builders as their patron divinity, was a famous artificer who chiefs
divine rank.
lived long ago in the province of Shangtung, while Kwang-tae,
the War-god, was
Han
the
dynasty.
be carried
far
a distinguished soldier
The
enough
who
lived
under
idea of the divine ancestor
may even
supreme
where the
to reach
deity, as
Zulus, working back from ghostly ancestor to ancestor, talk
of Unkulunkulu, the Old-Old-one, as the creator of the world or the Brazilian tribes say that
Tamoi
the Grandfather, the
man, dwelt among them and taught them to last rising to the sky, where he will receive
first
at
after death.
Among
the
soil,
their souls
the nature-spirits also the barbarian
plainly perceives great gods
who
highest deity of the African negroes rain
till
rule the is
universe.
the Sky,
who
The
gives the
and makes the grass grow, and when they wake
in the
THE SPIRIT-WCRLD.
XIV.]
morning
359
thej-
thank him for opening the door to
Thus
tliey are at
let
the
same stage of thought as our Aryan ancestors, whose great deity Dyu, sung of in the hymns of the Veda, was at once the soUd personal Sky that rains and thunders, and the Heaven-god who animates it.
sun
in,
This deity remains even
the
name
in
in the
Greek Zeus, and
Latin Jupiter, the Heaven-father, both religions
up
its
keeping
double sense of sky and sky-god, belonging to
barbaric theology which could see massive
arching firmament, and
dwelling deity,
could explain that
modelled on the human
best understand what was
think of
him
of barbaric religion which surround
than the phrases which
by an
life
Among
if
we
the relics
all
few are more striking
recognise as a deity the living
still
me
us,
in-
We may
soul.
meant by the Heaven-god,
as the soul of the sky.
the
in the over-
life
The vengeance of Heaven and thunder are mostly taken as acts of the Heaven-god, as where Zeus hurls the thunderbolt and sends the showers. But some peoples have a special Rain god, like the Khonds of Orissa, who pray to Pidzu Pennu that he will pour down the waters through his Others have a special Thundersieve upon their fields. god, like the Yorubas, who say it is Shango who casts down with the lightning-flash and the thunder clap his thunderaxes, which are the stone celts they dig up in the ground we English keep up the memory of the god Thunder or Thor in our word Thursday, which is a translation of In barbaric theology. Earth, the mother of Dies /oris. sky, as will
''
Heaven
forgive
overtake him."
The
!
" "
rain
\
all
things,
takes
her place,
as
when
Indian digging up his medicine-plants
an offering for great-grandmother nature can be plainer than the Earth-mother
are
the
that
the is
Earth.
the
universal
Ojibwa
pious
careful
No
to
leave
fancy of
Heaven-father and parents,
nor
could
ANTHRCPOLCGY.
36o
[chap.
any ceremony acknowledge them more naturally than the Chinese marriage when bride and bridegroom prostrate
The Earth-goddess themselves before Heaven and Earth. clear in classic religion, Demeter, Terra ISIater, and perIS haps the
last trace of her
worship
among
ourselves
may be
the leaving of the last handful of corn-ears standing in the In field or the carrying it in triumph in the harvest-home.
modern times
among
it is
the negroes of the Guinea coast
be found, when the native kings, praying him not to be boisterous, would have rice and cloth and botUes of rum, and even slaves, cast So a Greek or Roman general, into the sea as sacrifices. idea of the Sea-god
that the clearest
is
to
before embarking on the dangerous waves, would sacrifice a bull to
To men who
Poseidon or Neptune.
on the
and sea and life
sky, earth,
the Sun, giver of light
the sky and
to the world, rising
the clearest divine
a Samoyed
woman
from
my
bed
" !
many
gave of her daily prayers
to the sun, she said, "
and
When
thou,
in the evening,
whence
There
personality.
quaint simplicity in the account which not
rise
and crossing
descending at night into the under-world
he arose, has
bowing
could thus look
as animated, intelligent beings,
;
God,
"When
is
a
years ago at sunrise,
risest, I
thou,
too
God,
As far back as ancient I too get me to rest." where, in the pictures as appears, Sun-god the reaches, history
goest down,
on Egyptian mummy-cases,
m
his
R.a,
the Sun,
is
seen travelling
boat through the upper and lower regions of the
Every morning those modern ancients, the Brahmans, may be seen standing on one foot with their hands held out before them and their faces turned to the east, adoring the Sun among the oldest prayers which have come down unchanged from the old Aryan wodd is that which
universe.
:
they daily repeat, " Let us meditate on the desirable light of the divine Sun may he rouse our minds " The Moon;
!
THE SPIRIT-WORLD.
xiv]
361
god or goddess marks tlic festivals of rude forest tribes who dance by the Hglit of the full moon. It is not un-
common
for the
Moon
for astronomical reasons
to rank above the Sun, as perhaps was the case in ancient Babylonia;
but more usually the Sun stands
first, as seems to us more and commonly Sun and Moon are looked on as a brother and sister, or husband and wife. It is easy to
natural pair,
;
why
understand
Moon had no
famous temple
at the
images
in
Syria,
the other gods,
like
Sun and
because they
themselves were to be seen by" all men.
No
doubt
why of all
still
have personal
the old nature-gods they alone
obeisance done to them or France one
may
still
among
us to this day
•,
this
is
Germany
in
see the peasant take off his hat to
and in England the new moon is saluted with or curtsey, as well as the curious practice of " turning
the rising sun,
a
bow
one's silver," which seems a relic of the offering of the moon's proper metal. Fire, though hardly a deity of the first order, is looked upon as a personal being, and wor-
shipped both
for the
good and harm
minister of the greater gods.
the
first
word of the Veda
god (Latin
is
it
does to man, and as
Among
the Aryan nations,
name
the
Ignis), the divine priest
of yigni, the Fire-
of sacrifice
representatives of the religion of ancient Persia,
sacred place
is
the Parsis,
whose most
the temple at the burning wells of
(P- 273), are typical fire-worshippers;
Hestia, the sacred hearth,
sweet wine, and her
among
was fed with
fat
are as well
known
to
fire
and in
Baku
the old Greeks
name and worship went on
the temple of ^'esta, with the eternal
The Wind-gods
;
libations of in
Rome
in
her sanctuary.
the North
American
Indians and the South Sea Islanders as they were to the Greeks, from whose religion they have come down to us so that every
Zephyr.
ploughman's child hears of rude Boreas and gentle To conclude the list, the Rivers have seemed
ANTHROPOLOGY.
362
beings so far greater than the
[cHAP.
little spirits
of the brooks,
Uke Skamandros and Spercheios, had temples and priests of their own ; men swore by them, for they could seiz^ and drown the perjurer in their floods, and to that they often,
the
Hindus
above all Such a
still
the most awful of oaths
is
by a divine
river,
the Ganges. list
of gods, the vast souls of the sky, earth and
sea, of the sun and moon, and the rest of the great powers
of nature, each with his
own
divine personality, his
rational purpose and work in the world, goes
polytheism, as
it is
found in
all
own
explain
far to
The
quarters of the globe.
explanation cannot, however, be complete, because both the
names and natures
of
many gods have become
deity worshipped in several temples
apt to
is
confused. split
A
up into
and men go on worshipp'ng these by different names after their first sense is forgotten. Among nations who have become blended by alliance or conquest, the religions also mix, and the vaiious gods lose their distinct personality.
several deities,
The
classical dictionary
is full
of examples of
thundering sky and the rainy sky, Jupiter Pluvius,
The
came
to
be adored
Jupiter
like
all this.
The
Tonans and
two distinct beings.
Latin Neptunus and the Greek Poseidon, put together
one because both were sea-gods, form a curious divine compound. Under the name of Mercurius, god of trade, comes in another ancient deity, the Greek Hermes, messenger of the gods, leader of the dead into the land of Hades, god of tliieves and merchants, of writing and science, who himself bears traces of having been pieced together out of yet older deities, among them the writinginto
god of ancient Egypt, the ibis-headed Thoth. give a notion of the confusion which begins as soon his
first
This in
will
religion
the worshippers cease to think of a deity by meaning and purpose, and only know of him
as
THE SPIRIT-WGRLD.
xiv] as
god so-and-so, whose image
tlic
stands
The wonder is not that gods is now hard to make
such a temple.
many ancient many show so
363
clearly as they
out, but that so
do what they were
divine ancestor, or a sun, or sky, or river.
barbaric religion also
show
such-and-
in
the origin of so
at
first,
a
The gods
of
minds
of
plainly at work, in the
the rude theologians, a thought destined to vast importance in higher stages
of
the battle-ground of
Regarding the world as
civilization.
good and
evil spirits,
some
religions see
these ranged in two contending armies with higher
good and good deity and evil deity. This system of dualism, as it is called, is worked out in the contest between the powers of light and darkness, under Ormuzd and Ahriman, the good and evil spirits, in evil
gods over them, and above
the religion of ancient Persia.
appears
there
also in
all
In barbaric stages of religion
rude forms
government, so well known
the sovereign
the
system
in the faiths
of divine
of more cultured
As among the worshippers themselves there are chiefs above them, and great rulers or kings above all, with high and low officers to do their nations.
common men, and
bidding; so among their gods they frame schemes of lower and higher ranks of deiujs, with above all the majesty of a supreme deity. It is not agreed everywhere which god is
to
have
who look
this
As has been already
said,
men
of the dead as their gods
may
hold
supremacy.
to the souls
even the highest divinity to be such a
expanded into creator and naturally, the
and
heaven-god
is
soul,
an ancestor
ruler of the world.
Often, and
looked upon as supreme creator
Among
controller of the universe.
Africa,
some say Heaven does
the lesser spirits of the
above
air,
to trouble himself
doctrine of the
his will
the nations of
West
through his servants,
but others think him too high
much
with earthly things.
Congo negroes shows
a thoughtful,
if
The not a
ANTHROPOLCGY.
364
They
[chap. the crowd of
happy, philosophy of
life.
and
of the departed,
who
and mostly the
evil
evil spirits, souls
the concerns of best of
it
but
;
life,
now and
say
it is
are
spirits
good
active in
still
have the
when they have made the Heaven rouses himself, terrifies
then,
world unbearable, the great
bad demons with his thunder, and lets fly his thundermost obstinate then he goes back to rest, and A more cheerful view of lets the spirits rule as before. nature-spirits working beneath heaven is familiar to us in the Homeric court of the gods on Olympus, where Zeus, the
the
bolts at the
;
personal sky,
enthroned above, holding sway over the
sits
lower gods of earth,
Sun may
Or
and
In other countries the
sea.
be looked upon as supreme, as he
hill-tribes
forest
air,
of India, where he
and the
there
may
among many
is
rules over the
gods of the
and the ancestral ghosts. as among the native tribes of North
plain, the tribe-gods,
be,
America, a Great
Spirit,
who
universe, which he created
is,
and
as
it
still
were, the soul of the
controls,
supreme over
even such mighty nature-gods as the sun and moon. When the reader goes on to study the religion and philosophy of the ancient civilized world, he will find men's thoughts working in these
same two ways toward pantheism or monotheism,
according as they conceive the whole universe as one \ast
body animated by one
divine soul, or raise to the
divine height the one deity rest.
It
lies
who
beyond our range
reigns to
same
supreme over the
follow this argument
further here.
Let us now look at the chief acts of barbaric worship, which are not hard to understand when it is borne in mind that the deities they are paid to are actual
human souls, or Even among savages,
transformed souls.
human
souls, or
beings modelled on prayer
is
human
already found
;
in-
deed, nothing could be more natural than that the worshipper
THE
XIV.]
SPIRIT WORLD.
365
should address with respectful words and entreaties for help who is perhaps his own grandfather. Tlie
a divine being
prayers of barbarians have often been listened to and written down. Thus among the Zulus, the sacrificer says " There :
is
your bullock, ye
body
may
that I
spirits
live
of our people.
(mentioning by name the
dead of the family). The following Khonds, when offering a human "
:
By our
we procured enrich us.
part of a prayer of the
is
sacrifice
Earth-
the
to
our flocks, our pigs, and our grain
cattle,
Do
a victim and offered a sacrifice.
you now
Let our herds be so numerous that they cannot
be housed shall
pray for a healthy
comfortably, and thou so-and-so, treat
me with mercy, and thou so-and-so"
goddess
I
much
burnt hands
abound
children so
let
;
be too
them
that the care of
for the parents, as shall
be seen by
their
our heads ever strike against brass pots innumerable hanging from our roofs let the rats form their ;
let
;
nests of shreds of scarlet cloth and silk
;
let all
the kites in
the country be seen in the trees of our village, from beasts
We
being killed there every day. is
good
it
to
These two specimens
us."
how
because they show sacrifice,
with
it,
how
just as
sacrifices
are
are mostly
the offering
is
will
spirit,
smoke
which the IS
in
of
spirit
as
it
much
is
or he
from
same
or god himself
;
thin is
the
25
the deity,
spirit,
up the
snufis altar
fire,
a
ethereal substance
thought to be
the higher religions that the sacrificial rite
grosser sense of feeding
they
;
divinity,
apt to take only the
ascends the
Barbaric
of respect
be consumed by the
of the viands
or
chosen
connected with
to a living chief.
flavour, or
essence,
is
it
Give
for us.
of prayers are
not mere formal tokens
and
good
brought and the favour asktd
would be done
food,
spiritual food
is
closely prayer
though he, boing a
steam
are ignorant of what
You know what
to ask for.
of.
It
loses
its
so that although
the
ANTHROPOLCGY.
366 drink-oftering
is
slill
[chap.
poured out and the bullock burnt on
the altar, the act has passed into the giving
up of some-
thing prized by the worshipper, and a sign of adoration
acceptable to the god.
There are several ways
in
which the worshipper can hold
personal intercourse with his deities.
These, being souls or
of course to be seen at times in dreams and
are
spirits,
visions, especially
by
their
own
priests or seers,
who
thus
get (or pretend to get) divine answers or oracles from them. soul, the god can also enter a human body, and act and speak through it, and thus hysterical and epileptic
Being a
symptoms, which we have seen
demon when
the spirit
minister
his
to
be ascribed to an
is
and
evil
considered to be a deity
more favourably come to inspire
The
convulsions, the
possessing the patient, are looked on
talk
by
his voice.
unearthly voice in which the possessed priest, answers in the
name
of the deity within, and his falling into stupor
when
and in all quarters of the world the oracle-priests and diviners by familiar spirits seem really diseased in body and mind, and deluded by their his
god departs,
all
fit
together,
own
feelings, as well as
with
sham symptoms and cunning
skilled in
tion or breathing-in of a spirit
cheating their votaries
The
answers.
into the
inspira-
body of a
priest
or seer appears to such people a mechanical action, like Also, as in the ordinary trans-
pouring water into a jug. migration of souls, a deity the
body
place in
of an animal,
is
as
considered able to enter into
when he
the form of a sacred bird, or
flies
from place to
lives
in
the divine
snake fed and worshipped among the negroes of the Slave coast.
This leads on to a belief which seems
to our minds.
human
still
stranger
The modern Englishman wonders
that a
however ignorant, should prostrate himself before a stake stuck in the ground or a stone picked up by being,
THE
XIV]
SPIRIT-W..RLD.
the wayside, and even talk to the African or
Hindu
and
it
offer
367 it
stone to be a receptacle in which a divine
time embodied
meaning
when
but
:
has for a
spirit
shows that there
a rational
is
Images of gods, from the rudely carved
in the act.
Greek
this
itself,
which the Ostyaks
figures of ancestors
to the
food
explains that he believes this stock or
set
up
their huts,
in
shaped by Phidias or Praxiteles to
statues
represent the heaven-god or the sun-god, are mostly formed in the likeness of
man
— an
human
beings.
images stand to represent gods, the worshipper
them
as
mere
signs or portraits, but
his spirit-philosophy to treat
A
the deities.
wooden
his voice.
own
and
these
such
may
commonly he
look on
is
led by
as temporary bodies for
when asked about
his
carved
explain that his god was not always in
now and
the image, but only
enter his
them
Tahitian priest,
idol, Avould
a sacred bird,
how
When
additional proof of
nature-gods are modelled on
at times
then flew to it in the body of would come out of the idol and
(the priest's) body, to give divine oracles
This takes us back to the times when,
by
fifteen
hundred years ago, Minucius Felix describes the heathen their idols and fattening on the steam of
gods entering into
the altars, or creeping as thin spirits into the bodies of men,
and drive them mad, or making their and whirl about. Lastly, rude tribes may
to distort their limbs
own
priests rave
believe in ar.d worship spirits without having
houses for them
and
set
up tables
such temples and altars appear ligion,
and remain
still
far
back
with the thoroughly
of the worship as plain as ever in them the image of Vishnu
come
for their
;
in
to build
food.
Yet
barbaric re-
human character when in India
as
washed and dressed by his attendants, and set up in the place of honour in his temple with a choice feast before him, and musicians and dancing girls to divert him.
This
is
is
the
more
instructive to us, because
we
ANTHROPOLOGY.
3G3
[chap.
know Vishnu before his original meaning was so spoilt, when he was a sun-god, an animating principle or soul of the sun in personal human shape, and thus a remnant of prehistoric natural pliilosophy.
We have hitherto only looked at barbaric religion as such an early system of natural philosophy, and have said nothing of the moral teaching which now seems so essential to any The
religion.
philosophical side of religion has been kept
apart from the moral side, not only because a clearer view
may be had by many religions
looking at them of the lower
A
do with moral conduct.
may have
a distinct
separately, but because
have
races
in fact little to
American or African souls and other spirits as
native
belief in
own life and of the events and he may worship these ghostly
the causes of his
of the surround-
ing world,
or divine beings,
or appeasing their anger by prayers But though these gods may require him to
gaining their favour
and do his duty towards them, offerings.
it
does not follow that they should
concern themselves with his doing his duty to his neighbour.
Among such
peoples,
if
a
man
robs or murders, that
the party wronged or his friends to avenge
may
treacherous, brutal, then punishment
may be
scouted by
all
good people
;
is
fall
but he
looked upon as hateful to the gods, and
;
if
is
is
is
for
stingy,
on him or he
not necessarily
in fact
often a great medicine-ntan or priest.
he
such a
man
While they hold
also that the soul will continue to exist after death, flitting as a ghost or
demon among
the living or passing to the
gloomy under-world or the shining think
its
spirit-land, they often
condition will be rather a keeping-up of earthly
character and rank, than a reward or punishment earthly
stand
life.
If
some readers
find
it
difficult
such theology separate from morals, they
reminded
how,
among more
civilized
nations,
for the
to under-
may be religions
;
THE SPIRIT-WORLD.
XIV.]
may drop
the
into
same
moral laws they profess wickedest of
lives,
state
;
by
369
losing the use
of the
when a Hindu may lead the priests for gifts make his peace
as
while the
with the gods, or as in Europe brigands are notoriously devout
church goers.
As a
rule,
the faiths of the higher nations
have more and better moral influence than the faiths of the ruder tribes. Yet even among savages the practical effect of religion
on men's
show itself. The worship of good morals ; for the ancestor
begins to
lives
the dead naturally encourages
who, when
living, took care that his family should do right by one another, does not cease this kindly rub when he becomes a divine ghost powerful to favour or punish. This
manes-worship does not bring indeed
it is felt
in
new
doctrines or reforms
;
that nothing displeases the ancestral deity like
changing the old customs he was used
to. But for keeping up old-fashioned family goodness, the worship of ancestors has an influence over the many nations among whom it still
prevails,
from the Zulu, who believes that he must not
ireat his brothers lest the father
and make
him
ill,
the Chinese,
to
presence of the family
spirits,
they should leave him to
and
who
fears
into distress
fall
ill-
should come in a dream ever
lives
in
do wrong lest and die. In the
to
great old-world religions, where a powerful priesthood are the intellectual class, the educators
we
find
moral teaching
fully
and controllers of
recognised
The gods
among
society,
the great
on themselves the Heaven-god smites the perjurer with his thunderbolt, and the Nation-god brings sickness and death on the murderer. Tha doctrine of the
duties
of
religion.
punishment of the wicked
;
take
the
is brought to bear as a moral power where the Hindu books threaten evil-doers with being reborn in other bodies in punishment for their sins done in this,
transmigration of souls as
when
the wicked shall be born again blind or deformed,
ANTHROPOLOGY.
370
[chap.
the scandal-monger shall have foul breath and the horsestealer shall
go lame, the cruel
man
of prey, the grain-stealer as a rat
men
of past actions,
sunk
their deeds, souls
shall in
;
be born as a beast
shall
and
thus, eating the fruits
work out the consequences of
darkness being degraded to brutes,
while the good rise in successive births to
Even more widely spread is
is
followed by judgment after
doomed
to misery,
on earth
will enter
become
gods.
the doctrine that man's
when
death,
and only those who have
How
into bliss.
life
evil-doers are
lived righteously
doctrine prevailed
this
Book of the Dead, and hieroglyphic formulas on the mummyshow. Thus in any museum we may still
in ancient Egypt, the papyrus strips of the
and
its
pictures
cases, remain to
see the scene of the weighing of the soul of the deceased,
and two
his trial
by
Osiris, the
judge of the dead, and the
assessors, while Thoth, the writing-god, stands
the dread record on his tablets.
down
glyphics are set clear
itself,
sins,
In the columns of hiero-
among them
we should
I
I
have not told
have not done any
have not made the labouring
I
call cere-
the following: " I have
not privily done evil against mankind.
falsehoods in the tribunal of Truth.
wicked thing.
forty-
to enter
the crimes of which the soul must
a curious mingling of what
monial and moral
by
man do more
have not calumniated the slave to I have not done fraud I have not murdered. his master. I have not changed the measures of the country. to men. I have not I have not injured the images of the gods. than his
ta.-^k
daily.
I
I have not taken scraps of the bandages of the dead. committed adultery. I have not withheld milk from the
mouths of
sucklings.
the pasturage. I
am
world
pure, I
have not hunted wild animals
I
I have not netted sacred birds.
am
pure
!
"
I
am
in
pure,
Thus, among the cultured old-
nations, already in the earliest historical ages
theology
THE SPIRIT-WORLD.
XIV.]
had joined with
ethics,
and
371
power was
religion as a moral
holding sway over society.
Animism, or the theory of
souls, has thus
been shown as
the principle out of which arose the various systems of spirits
and deities, in barbaric and ancient religions, and it has been noticed also, how already among rude races such beliefs begin to act on moral conduct. We here see under their simplest aspects the two sides of religion,
and
its
view at it
moral
side,
in further
philosophical
its
which the reader should keep steadily
study of the faiths of the world.
have
the history of a religion, he will
has served these two great purposes
that of teaching
man how
to
judge how
— on
far
hand
the one
think of himself,
to
in
In looking
the world
around him, the awful boundless power pervading
all
— on
the other hand that of practically guiding and strengthening
him
One
in the duties of life.
ask himself into decay
— how
it is
question the student will often
that faiths once mighty
and others take
their place.
extent such changes have
come by
Mohammed
and earnest
Of course
fall
no small
to
conquest, as where in
stamped out and Darius. But the sword of the conqueror is only a means by which religions have been set up and put down in the world by main force, and there are causes lying deeper in men's minds. It needs Persia the religion
of
well nigh
the old Zoroastrian faith of Cyrus
but a glance through history at the wrecks of old religions
how they failed from within. Tiie priests of Egypt, who once represented the most advanced knowledge of their
to see
came and upheld time,
to
fancy that mankind had no
their tradition against all
world passed them by and stition.
The
priests
temples and had their
who
more
them grovelling of Greece ministered in
fill
to learn,
newer wisdom,
left
in
till
splendid
of wealth and honours, but
sought the secret of a good
life
found that
this
the
super-
men
was not
ANTHROPOLCGY.
372 the business of philosophers.
of
the sanctuary,
science and of morals,
power of not save
statecraft it
and turned away
Unless a rehgion can hold
course of ages, lose
its
and
it
[chap. xiv.
may
its
the
only gradually, in the
place in the nation, but all
to
place in the front
all
the
the wealth of the temples will
from eventually yielding to a belief that takes
higher knowledge and teaches better
life.
in
—
CHAPTER
XV.
HISTORY AXD MYTHOLOGY. Tradition,
373— Poetry, 375— Fact
Writings, 381
Interpretation of Myths, 396
History
is
in Fiction,
— Ancient Chronicle and
— Diffusion of
no longer looked
377— Earliest Poems and
History, 3S3
— Myths,
3S7
Myths, 397.
to for a record of the earliest
As the first chapter of this volume shows, we moderns know what was hidden from the ancients themYet it does not selves about the still more ancient ancients.
ages of man.
at all follow that ancient history has lost its value.
contrary, there are better
sound
On
the
means than ever of confirming what
it
by such evidence as that of antiquities
and language,
wliile
masses of very early writings are now
newly opened
to the historian.
is
to
really
in
It
was never more necessary
have clear ideas of what tradition, poetry, and written
records can teach as to the times
The
when
history begins.
more or less of handed down by memory from ages before writing. Our own experience does not tell us much as to what such oral tradition may be worth, for it has so fallen out of use in the civilised world, that now one knows little of what happened beyond one's great-grandfather's time, unless But writing has not yet quite it has been written down. early history of nations
traditions
consists
ANTHRCPOLCGY.
374
overspread the globe, and there are
whole history
is
South Sea Islanders, who
quite lately
till
much
has been possible to really
test
keep a
had no
given to handing
left
whose
Thus
down
the
were
writing,
recol-
one or two cases which it among them, it seems as though
of bygone days, and
memory may
peoples
still
the tradition of their ancestors.
intelligent barbarians,
lections
[chap.
in
histoiical record long
and
correctly.
It is related by Mr. Whitmee the missionary that in the island of Rotuma there was a very old tree, under which according to tradition, the stone seat of a famous chief had
been buried
this
;
tree
was
blown down, and, sure its roots, which must
lately
enough, there was a stone seat under
have been out of sight
In the EUice group^
for centuries.
the natives declared that their ancestors in the distant island
of
Samoa
preserved an old worm-eaten
which
in their assemblies
valley
pieced to hold
staff,
it
together,
the orator held in his hand as
the sign of having the right to speak
taken to Samoa, and proved to be there, while
came from a
generations before, and they
the people of
;
made
this staff
of
wood
was
lately
that
tradition of a great party going out to sea exploring,
Among
never came back. best
known
peopling of
how,
grew
the valley in question had a
who
these Polynesian traditions the
handed down by the Maoris as to the They tell Zealand by their ancestors.
are those
New
after a civil war, their
forefathers migrated in canoes
names of and show the places where they landed they repeat, generation by generation, the names of the chiefs descended from those who came in the canoes, by which they reckon about eighteen genera-
from Hawaiki
in the far north-east
;
they give the
the builders and crews of these vessels ;
tions,
or
400
of the islands.
to
500 years, since
Notwithstanding
their
that, as
taking possession
might be expected,
the traditions of various districts disagree a good deal, they
HISTORY AND MYTHOLOGY.
XV.]
are admitted as the title-deeds
375
by which the natives hold
land in the right of their ancestors
who landed
in the
Shark {Arataa) and God's-Eye {Mata-atua), and
it
canoes
can hardly
be doubted that such genealogies, constantly repeated among people whose lands depended on them, are founded on fact. Yet these Maori traditions are about half made
up of the
wildest wonder-tales
of the canoes cuts
coming back
down a
when
the builder of one
make the hull, on morning he finds that the the night; and when the canoe is
to the forest next
up again and puts to
tree has got
finished
;
great tree to
in
sea, a certain
but on getting to
New
the shore, having
come
magician
Zealand there he
is left
behind,
before them on
across the ocean on the back of a
sea-monster, like Arion on his dolphin.
These
may give us not memory and mythic
a modern barbarous people of the mixture of real
is
traditions of
an unfair idea fancy in the
Egypt or Greece, where it has come down by tradition from the distant past when there was as yet no scribe to engrave on a stone tablet even the names early history of
of kings.
when handed down in when the poets have set England some notable event
Traditions are yet more lasting fixed words,
them
which
especially
Even now
in verse.
may be made
is
into a ballad
breadth of the land.
in
and sung through the length and
In days before printing, the import-
ance of the poet as historian was
far greater,
and many
an old European chant has touches of true chronicle. old
The
songs of Brittany are often very true to history,
where
in
one there
is
as
mention of Bertrand du Guesclin's
a lion's mane, and in another, Jeanne de Montforb (Jeanne-la-Flamme) going forth from Hennebont
hair being like
with sword and burning brand to
described as putting on her
suit
fire
the French camp,
is
of armour, which history
ANTHROPOLOGY.
376
[chap.
But though the elsewhere records that she really wore. many picturesque incidents like
poet or minstrel preserves
he has not the historian's conscience about facts. Eager to rouse and delight his audience, to flatter the national pride of his people and the family pride of the chief-
these,
whose halls he sang, the singer brought in real names and events, but he shifted them as would best suit his
tain in
dramatic scenery, or he even
The
German
great
epic,
made
the
his
own
history outright.
Nibelungen Lied, begins
Burgundy, where the three kings hold court the Rhine, their sister
band
Sifrit
spear
is
is
in
on
the lovely Kriemhilt, whose husthe well
treacherously slain at
afterwards she marries
;
Worms
at
by Hagen's
Attila the Hun-king, and
the tale of blood, ending with her vengeance and death, leaves Attila
von men.
and Theodoric of Verona (Etzel and Dietrich
Bern) weeping together
over
the slaughter
of their
enough to make a poem history, if history could be made by such means but the reader of Gibbon knows that Attila really In fact the died two years before Theodoric was born. poem is a late version of a story preserved in an earlier
Here
are places
and personages
historical
;
shape
in
Scandinavia as the
saga of the
Volsungs
;
the
Worms, and the tournament, and the rest of the historic names and local circumstances, are worked in to If poets ventured thus give poetic substance and colour. to falsify history in the middle ages, when the chronicles were there to convict them, how are we to tell fact from fiction in the poems of ages where the check of history is wanting? The Iliad and the Odyssey may contain many memories of real men and their deeds, an Agamemnon may court at
have reigned in Mykenai, there may have been a real siege of Troy, perhaps round the very mound where Schliemann has dug out the golden cups ar.d recklace. But it is too hard
HISTORY AND MYTHOLOGY.
XV.]
a task to
out historic truth in
sift
377
Homer, where
natural
events are as hopelessly mixed up with miracles as in the
Maori legends.
too hard to judge
It is
how
far chronicles
of old nations are impartially preserved by a bard whose rule
it
is
Homer)
Mr. Gladstone points out in his Primer of no considerable Greek chieftain is ever sl.iin Were nothing to be had out of by a Trojan.
(as
that
in fair fight
ancient poetry except distorted memories of historical events, the anthropologist might be wise to set
it
Yet, looked at from another point of view,
aside altogether. it
is
one of
his
most perfect and exact sources of knowledge. Although what the poet relates may be fiction, what he mentions
is
apt to be history.
countries and
cities,
the world and
its
he
is
In the names of nations and
unconsciously pourtraying for us
inhabitants as they were in his time.
catalogue of ships and
men
in the
The
second book of the Iliad
Homer knows of and their skill in medicine, and of the ship-famed Phoenicians and their purple stuffs. The name of Kadmos belongs to the Phoenician tongue, and signifies the "Eastern," while the "seven-gated" Thebes built by his people shows that they had that reverence for the mystic number seven, which has its origin in the worship
is
a chart and census of the Mediterranean.
the .4?^gyptians, their irrigated fields
of the seven planets in Babylon. thought,
when he
stances of the
would
prize
told his
The
actual world around
for itself that
poet can hardly have
wonder-tales with the circumhim,
record of real
how
future ages
life.
Odysseus
clinging under the belly of the great ram, or sailing to the
Hades to the weak shades of the dead, is mere Yet the description of Polyphemos is one of the few ancient pictures of the manners of low barbarians, and land of
myth.
the visit to
Hades
recording what
men
is
a chapter of old Greek
religion,
thought of the dull ghost-life beyond
;
ANTHROPOLOGY.
378 the tomb. So
it is
[chap.
with the descriptions of
life
and manners.
Nausikaa, the king's daughter, drives the wain with the pair
down
of mules
faring Phaiakians,
and
walls
mouth
to the river's
carry the clothes to
to
Odysseus walks through the
be washed.
bastions,
wondering
at the
streets of the sea-
haven and the mighty
he crosses the bronze threshold of the
till
palace of Alkinoos, and entering, clasps the knees of
Arete
;
Queen
then he crouches on the hearthstone in the ashes,
till
the king, mindful of Zeus the Thunderer standing near to care for the
suppliant, takes the guest
him
by him on
sit
his
own
by the hand, and makes
son's glittering seat.
ing the romantic fortunes of the
Thus follow-
many- wiled Odysseus, we
see as in the scenes of a dissolving-view
how
the heroes of old
days went spear in hand with their swift dogs at their heel,
how
at the
house-door they threw aside their garments to
go into the bath chamber, and came forth anointed with oil to the feast where with no such refinements as plates or knives they ate their
how
of roast meat and cakes of bread;
fill
they diverted themselves with throwing quoits on the or lounged on outspread hides in the sunshine
smooth
turf,
playing
merells
libations
;
how
in
solemn
rites
they poured
the
of dark wine and burned the meat in sacrifice,
with prayers for what their hearts desired, yet knowing the while that the gods would, as they that deny. finest kind.
All this
Looked
at
modern mind,
religious thought.
by the student of
all
and
is
the
culture,
even the
supernatural, so bewildering
record of an early stage of
The gods meet
in council in the halls
shall be done with the plains below. on contending armies of worshippers
of cloud-gathering Zeus, to settle their
grant
not only history, but history of the
is
wild mixture of the natural and to the
listed, this
what
In the very fray of mortal warriors divine beings take part Poseidon plucks out the bronze tipped spear from the shield
HISTORY AND MYTHOLOGY.
XV.]
of Aineias,
up the Trojan hero and bears him away uneven the goddesses
lifts
harmed over
379
the heads of the warriors
on one another
;
when Here tears away the bow and quiver of Artemis, and with scornful laughter boxes her ears with them till the virgin huntress goes off in tears, leaving her bow behind. It would be wrong to think that all this seemed mere make-believe and poetic ornament to the men who first listened to the wondrous rhapsodies. They were in the changing state of religion set
described in the
last
like
mortal shrews,
chapter (see
p.
362) when the spiritual
beings, which to their ruder forefathers had served as personal
causes of nature and events, were passing away from their clearness, yet were still regarded as divinities presiding
first
over nature and interfering with men's
lives. Contrasting such a state of thought with that of the present day will
help us to realize one of the greatest events in
all
history,
the change of men's minds from the mythological temper to the historical temper. at
once, but
There
about.
has for is
This change did not happen
many
all
ages been gradually coming
hardly a more instructive chapter in Grote's
History of Greece, than that in which he describes the philosophic age, when the Greeks were beginning to notice with
and pain that the Homeric poems, become to them a sacred book, agreed but ill with their own experience perplexity
of
life,
so that they asked themselves, can the world have
really so
changed since the days when men
with the gods
Much
sat at table
?
of what
at in this way.
is
called ancient history has to be looked
Historical criticism, that
is,
judgment,
is
practised not for the purpose of disbelieving but of believing.
Its object
is
not to find fault with the author, but to
may be
ascertain
how much
as true.
Thus a modern reader may have a sounder opinion
of what he says
reasonably taken
ANTHRCPOLCGY.
38o
about early
Roman
name
they, that the
man
Romans
history than the
We
Livy and Cicero.
in the time of
of
Rome
is
[chap.
themselves had
more
see
plainly than
less likely to
have been
name of Romulus was invented to account for the city being called Rome. To modern minds, the whole famous story of the wolf-fostermother of Romulus and Remus collapses when it is known to be only a version of the same old wonder-tale
given from a
told by
Romulus, than
Herodotus as the story of the
here again
where
called
its
may be
that the
Yet
birth of Cyrus.
seen the indirect value of history even
Though
events are most questionable.
there
may
never have been any such person as Romulus, the legend of the tracing of the city walls by his bronze plough-share is
a true record of the ceremony with which
Even
anciently founded.
later history,
cities were where the historian
had written records to go upon, must often be sifted in this way. Suppose a class reading the 35th book of Livy. Such matters as Hannibal's oath, and the preparations for war with Antiochus, are taken without question as good history. But when it comes to the story that about this time an ox belonging to one awful words " it
is
story
not
by
Roma, cave
enough as
Livy's nonsense. it
Rome men
might speak, but that
!
"
there
its
He
from the
so that at any rate
that in ancient
of the consuls uttered the is
a laugh.
Here
the form-master simply to pass the
for
historian probably took digies,
tibi
it
is
has to ajjmit that the official
good
record of pro-
historical evidence
not only believed that an ox
so doing would be a divine portent,
this kind had so become part of the national and government, that the augurs took care a regular supply of such omens should be forthcoming to guide the rulers of the state, or at least to enable them to impose upon
and notions of religion
the multitude.
Thus
the passages of history which
seem
at
HISTORY AND MYTHOLOGY.
XV.]
most
sight
first
silly
and
false,
may be
solid
381 facts
in
the
history of civilisation.
compositions which serve as records need not have been intended as history. If only the genuine words and thoughts of the ancients about anything have been handed down, it is for the moderns to extract history from them. Thus the Sanskrit It is plain that the
of old-world
hymns life
life
Veda serve as a record of the daily who chanted them. For when a
collected in the
of the early Aryans
hymn
to the
wmd gods
brings
them
in as driving in chariots
with strong felloes and well-fashioned reins and cracking whips, then
it is
plain to the
modern reader
that the
Aryan
among whom the hymn was made drove themselves in such chariots. Where the bright gods have gold chains on people
their breasts for beauty, carry spears
daggers
their
at
sides, this
on
mythical
picture of the accoutrement of the
their shoulders
fancy gives
Aryan
warrior.
and
a real
Thus,
piece by piece, this praehistoric hymn-book shows the old
Aryan
patriarchal
with the herds of cattle roaming over
life,
wide pastures or shut
in the winter cow-stall, the
ploughing
of the fields and the reaping of the corn, the family
ties
legal rights, the worship of the great nature-gods of sky earth, sun
and dawn,
belief in
the
honour
and water and winds, the intense
shining regions of the immortal dead,
and
to the almsgiver
praise to the just
books of the old Persians,
sacred
the
fire
Avesta, have
and and
come down
man.
collected
in
the
In the
the long-remembered traditions of
another branch of the Aryan race, who, dividing off from their
Brahman
kinsfolk,
followed the faith of Zarathustra.
The deep schism between Zarathustrians having
the
Brahmans
into evil
defiling the sacred fire
26
the two religions
is
seen in the
degraded the bright gods {devd) of
demons
{daei'o).
Their horror of
by burning corpses as the Brahmans
:
;
ANTHROPOLOGY.
382
[chap.
do had already led them to expose the dead to be devoured by wild beasts and carrion birds, as the Parsis still do in their
In the beginning of the Avesta,
"towers of silence."
there
is
mentioned as
and best of the good regions
first
created by the good deity, the country called Airyatia vaejo, the " Aryan seed," which afterwards the evil deity cursed
with ten months' winter
;
this
description of the
climate
looks as though the old Persians believed their early
home
Aryan
was on the bleak slopes of Central Asia toward the
sources
among
of the
Oxus
and Yaxartes.
Here
and there
the sacred verses comes a touch of the
life
of these
herdsmen and tillers of the soil, little like the proud corrupt Persian and the thrifty Parsi of modern times. Their enthusiasm for the rough work of making the earth fit for man's abode is quaintly shown where they sing of the delight the earth feels when the husbandman drains fierce
soil and waters the dry, how she brings wealth to him who tills her with the right arm and the left, with the left arm and the right
the wet
" When
When When When
the corn grows, then the demons hiss the shnots sprout, then the demons cough ; the stalks rise, then the demons weep the thxk ears come, then the demons fly." ;
So necessary were the from the fold
and the
fierce
thief
dogs which kept the wolf
from the
village, that there are
solemn ordinances about them, how the dog who does not bark and is not right in his mind is to be muzzled and tied up,
and what punishment is to be inflicted on the man who dog bad food it is as sinful (they say) as if he had
gives a
done
it
picture
;
One forms who made these
to a well-to-do householder.
of the
be repeated future ages.
sturdy farmers
to their children's
a lifelike
laws
to
children and carried on to
HISTORY AND MYTHOLOGY.
XV.]
383
While these rough Aryans were handing on memories of the past by word of mouth in their sacred verses, more cultured nations
memorials of
minds what
their
had
own
long
begun to write down way to bring to our
since
The
times.
best
contemporary history was
this earliest
look at the translations of Egyptian and Assyrian in Records
like, is to
documents
of the Past, published under the directions of the Here is to be found, for in-
Society of Biblical Archceology.
of the inscription recording
stance, Dr. Birch's translation
the e.xpeditions of Una, crown-bearer to king Teta, before
and of the account on the sanctuary Megiddo, where Thothmes III., about 1,500 B.C., overcame the armies of Syria and Mesopotamia and opened the way into the interior of Asia. It is related how the king, marching from Gaza, reached the south of Megiddo on the shore of the waters of Kaner, where he pitched his tent and made a speech before his whole army " Hasten ye, put on your helmets, for I shall rush to fight with the vile enemy in the morning !" The watchword was passed, " Firm, firm, watch, watch, watch 2,000
B.C. (see
page
3),
walls of Karnak, of the battle of
:
actively at the king's pavilion
the festival of the
new moon
golden decorated chariot
in
!
"
It
was on the morning of
that the king
went forth
in his
the midst of his army, the
god
Amun
being the protection in his active limbs, and he prevailed over his enemies they fell prostrate before him, left ;
and chariots, and fled to the fort, where the garrison shut up inside pulled off their clothes to haul them up over the walls. The Egyptians slaughtered their enemies their horses
till
they lay in rows like
fort
of Megiddo, where the chiefs of the land
tribute, silver
and
fish,
and con([uering entered the
gold, lapis lazuli
and
came bearing
alabaster, vessels of
flocks. The lists of spoil, made with curious minuteness, include living captives 240, hands (cut off the
wine and
ANTHROPOLOGY.
3S4
[chap.
dead) 83, mares 2,041, fillies 191, an ark of gold of the enemy, 892 chariots of the vile army, and so on. A later part of the
inscription
commemorates
the liberal
endow-
ments bestowed by the victorious king on the god Amen Ra, the fields and gardens to supply his temple, the pairs of geese to fill his lakes, to supply him with the two trussed geese daily at sunset, a charge to remain for ever, and so
on with the loaves of bread and pots of beer for daily As the king says in his inscription, he does rations. not boast of what he has done, saying that he has done more when he has not, and so causing men to contradict
Here we see the check of public opinion beginning It does not really compel exact truth, it allows national victories to be exaggerated and defeats kept out of sight, but even the vainglorious scribes of Egypt
him.
to act in history.
would hardly venture to record events without a foundation Turning now to the inscriptions of the Babylonianof fact. Assyrian district, we may take as an example a temple-brick of the famous city
Ur
of the Chaldees,
which bears these words
in
now
called Mugheir,
cuneiform writing
:
" To (the god) Ur, eldest son of Bel lii^ king, Urukh, the powerful man, the fierce wariior, King of (the city) Ur, king of Sumir and Akkad, Bit-tim^al the house of his delight bui.t."
Sumir and Akkad, here mentioned, were the old Chaldaean civilisation.
Hammurabi overcame
As
seats of the
early as the i6th century B.C.,
these nations, a great event in the
change that absorbed their ancient culture and religion into In an inscription of this the conquering Assyrian empire. " the favour of Bel gave into my king of Babylon, he says, government the people of Sumir and Akkad, for them I dug out afresh the canal called by my name, the joy of
men, a stream of abundant waters
for
the people,
all its
HISTORY AND MYTHOLOGY.
XV.]
385
banks I restored to newness, new supporting walls I heaped up, perennial waters I provided for the people of Sumir arid Akkad."
By the now able
aid of such contemporary writings, historians are to
check the recorded
lists
of ancient kings, and to
piece together something like a continuous line of dynasties
Egypt and Babylonia since the foundation of the great Memphis and Ur. We may notice where the records and traditions of the Israelites, written down in later ages in
cities
in
books of the Old Testament, come
the historical
contact with ancient history from the monuments. tradition records (Gen.
been is
in
Chaldean
the
had
ancestors
that their
xii.)
xi.,
district
in
Israelite
of Ur, and in Egypt, which
evidence of their intercourse with the two great nations
of the ancient world.
The mention
Exodus
in
11) of
(i.
the Israelites being set to build for Pharaoh a city called
Rameses, points to
their
under the Great Rameses about 1400
B.C.,
oppression in Egypt having been of the
II.
XIX.
Egyptian and Hebrew chronology. there
come
in the
dynasty, apparently
which makes a point of contact between
into view later persons
In the books of Kings
and
events, well
known
contemporary records of other countries, as in the
mention of Shishak, king of Egypt, who fought against
Rehoboam and plundered the temple likely, when Herodotus (ii. 141)
seems
(i
K.
xiv.
25).
describes the
It
army
of Sennacherib, king of Assyria, being put to flight from the
mice gnawing the
bows, that
soldiers'
this is
a version of
the great disaster of Sennacherib, of which the Bible gives a different account (2
K.
xix.).
With Herodotus the student comes World as it was known to a Greek grapher of the 5th century
he has been
called, wrote
b.c.
in
view of the Old
traveller
The Father
and geo-
of History, as
not as a chronicler of his
own
ANTHROPOLOGY.
586
[chap.
but with the larger view of an anthropologist
nation,
whom
mankind was
to
The
all knowledge which modern discoveries have come in to confirm his statements, justifies us in relying on ancient historians
way
of
interesting.
in
when,
like
him, they are careful to distinguish mere legend
or hearsay from what they have themselves enquired into.
Thus Herodotus
tells
who
the strange story of the impostor
passed himself off as Smerdis, and sat on the throne of Persia till he was detected by his cropped ears, and Darius slew
When,
him.
few
a
years
ago,
the
cuneiform
characters of the inscription sculptured in a high wall of
rock near Behistan in Persia were deciphered,
it
pro\ed to
up by Darius the king in the three languages of the land, and it matches the account given by Herodotus closely enough to show what a real grasp he
be the very record
set
had of the course of events in Persia a century before his Yet more remarkable is the test which can be time. put to what Herodotus says he learnt fiom the priests in Egypt about their kings who reigned 2000 years before. From their dictation he wrote down the names of the jiyramid-kings
Cheops,
Chephren,
Mykerinos.
In
later
had sometimes come to doubt whether these kings belonged to fact or fable, but when the lost meaning of the Egyptian hieroglyphics was anew interpreted by modern scholars, there stood the names recognisable The best ancient as the Greek historian heard them.
ages
critics
history
is
apt to receive such confirmation from long-lost
monuments.
Thucydides
(the younger) dedicated
relates (vi.
two
altars,
54) that Peisistratos
from one of which the
Athenians erased the inscription, but the other (the torian says)
monument up
may
still
be read, though
in faint letters
:
his-
"this
of his archonship Peisistratos son of Hippias set
in the enclosure of
Pythian Apollo."
Professor
Newton
HISTORY AND MYTHOLOGY.
XV.]
reports that this very stone with
been found
to have
How
lively a sense
his
among
in
books,
goes to
inscription
its
declared
is
a courtyard near the Ihssos.
monuments
such
of reality
may be understood
history
from
1878
in
387
give
by the student who,
the
British
to
fresh
Museum and
sees
the ancient coins the grand head of Alexander the
Great with the ram's horns, commemorating that curious
whe n he was declared to be son of Zeus who notices with surprise the gold coins that prove Cymbeline, now best known in Shakspere, to have been a real British king who coined money with episode of his
Ammon
his
;
life
or
name.
Having thus
looked
as belonging to
at the
over the well-trodden ground of to
notice
myth,
have so often the
human mind.
of events
that
folly,
It is
Myth
is
history
It
which
remains
historians
not to be
looked
but as an interesting product of
sham
nevor
history, the fictitious narrative
happened.
Historians,
especially
have copied down the traditions events so mixed up with myths, that it is one of the
in writing of early
of real
over.
fliUen
of early
we need not go
later history.
stumbling-block
tlie
on as mere error and
sources
of mankind,
the study
a,:^es,
hardest tasks of the student to judge what to believe and
what test
to reject.
He
is
fortunate
when he can apply
the
of possibility, and declare an event did not happen
because he knows enough of the course of nature to be sure it could not For instance, cultured nations have learnt from
science that what appears to be a blue dome or firmament above our heads, the sky or heaven, is not
really
the
solid
vault
the ancients
thought
it
was,
but
and watery vapour. The consequence of knowing this is that people have had to strike out of their history the old myths of gods dwelling in palaces and only thin
air
ANTHRCPOLCGY.
388
holding courts in the skies, of
[chap.
men cUmbing
or flying
up
from earth into heaven, of giants heaping mountain Ossa
on PeUon, to scale the cloudy heights and wage
by
its
what could not have taken place, there are
relating
means of judging it. It oneself that some story is not other
the causes which led to
We know how everything.
battle
Besides this way of detecting myth
with the gods above.
its
by knowing
really history,
being invented.
strong our
This desire
often possible to satisfy
is
is
own as
desire
strong
is
account for
to
among
barbarians,
and accordingly they devise such explanations as satisfy their minds. But they are apt to go a stage further, and their explanations turn into the form of stories with names of places and persons, thus becoming full-made myths. Educated men do not now consider it honest to make fictitious history in this
way, but people of untrained mind,
myth-making stage, which has lasted on from the savage period and has not quite disappeared among ourselves, have no such scruples about converting their guesses at what may have happened, into the most in
what
is
called the
Thus, when of what they say did happen. known, the hardly finding of huge anatomy was comparative fossil bones in the ground led people to think they were the remains of huge beasts, and enormous men, or giants, who life-like stories
formerly lived on the earth.
Modern
science decides that
they were right as to the beasts, which were ancient species of elephant, rhinoceros, &c., but
none of the great bones But while the like man.
wrong
as
really belonging
to the giants,
to
any creature
belief lasted that they were
bones
of giants, men's imagination worked in making stories about these giants and their terrific doings, stories which are told still
in
all
quarters
of the globe
traditions of real events.
Thus
as
though they were
the Sioux of the western
HISTORY AND MYTHOLOGY.
XV.] prairies of
by
North America say
great animals, bits of
magic, and also they
tell
their land was once inhabited whose bones they still keep for
of the giant Ha-o-kah,
and the
stride over the largest rivers
whom
389
tallest
they sing and dance at their
that fossil
who could and
pines,
festivals.
It
to
appears
bones, very likely of the mastodon, had to do
with this native belief in old monstrous beasts, nor need
we be
coming
surprised at the giants
into the story, con-
sidering that so lately as the last century Dr. Cotton Mather,
the Puritan divine, sent to our Royal Society an account of
the discovery of such bones
in
New
England, which he
argued were remains of antediluvian giants.
Another thing which
in all parts of the
imagination of myth-makers to work, live in tribes or nations,
each known by a particular name,
such as Ojibwa, Afghan, Frank.
way of accounting to
world has set the
the fact that people
is
for this is to
The
easiest
and
favourite
suppose each tribe or nation
have had an ancestor or chief of the
like
name, so that
his
descendants or followers inherited their tribe-name from him. It really
happens so sometimes, but
most cases a pre-
in
tended tradition of such an eponymic or name-ancestor arises
from the makers of genealogies
of the
name
of the tribe, and
first
inventing him out
then treating him
as
a
They may now and then be caught act of doing this. Thus among the native race of and Paraguay, some tribes are called Tupi and
historical personage.
in the
Brazil
others Giiarani, so to account for this division, a tradition is
related that two brothers
named Tupi and Guarani came
over the sea to Brazil, and with their children peopled the country, but a talking parrot
of the two separation,
brothers,
and
Tupi staying
in
made
strife between the wives grew into a quarrel and the land, and Guarani going off
this
with his family into the region of
La
Plata.
Now
there
ANTHROPOLOGY.
390
happens says
be a means of checking
to
that
the
name
[chap.
Martius
this story, for
guarani (meaning warrior) was
first
given by the Jesuits to the southern Indians
whom
collected in their missions,
of the two
ancestor-brothers must be a
so that the tale
they
myth of modern manufacture.
Such eponymic myths of national ancestors were not only
made
in
of Old
ancient times, but are mixed up in the chronicles
World nations
as though
they were real history.
The classical student knows the legends of the twin brothers Danaos and Aigyplos, ancestors of the Danaoi (Greeks) and Egyptians
and of
;
sons Aiolos,
three
ALoliajis, Dorians,
Having looked derived from
fossil
while to notice
The
Hcllen, father of the Hellenes,
Doros,
Xouthos,
whose
were fathers of the
&c. at these
two frequent kinds of myths
bones and national names,
how both come
together in our
it
own
is
worth
country.
History of the Britons, compiled in the 12th century
by Geoffrey of Monmouth,
relates that
our island was in
old time called Albion, and was only inhabited by a few giants
;
but Brutus, a banished Trojan prince, landed with
and called the land Britain, after his own companions Britons. With him came a leader called Goriiieus, and he called the part of the country which fell to him Corinea and his people Corineans, that is, Cornish. In that part the giants were most numerous, and one especially, named Cf^w^^v?/ (elsewhere called Gogmagog) was twelve cubits high, and could pull up an oak like a hazel wand. On a certain day, when there had been a battle and the Britons had overcome a party of giants and slain all except this hugest monster, he and Corineus had a wrestling-match, when Corineus caught the giant up in his arms, and running with him to the top of the clitf now called the Hoe at Plymouth, cast him over, wherefore his
followers
name, and
his
;
HISTORY AND MYTHOLCGY.
XV.]
(says the chronicler) the place
Quaint as
to this day.
this
is
391
" called " Goemagot's leap
legend
is,
it
is
not hard to find
was the fashion to trace the origin of nations from Troy Brutus and Corweus were invented to account for the names of Britain and Cormvall ; Goemagot the sense of
it.
It
;
or Gogmagogxs the Biblical G^^^and
Magog
rolled into one,
these personages being recognised in tradition as giants. But
why the story of his having been thrown over the Hoe at Plymouth ? The answer seems to be that this is a place where the bones of
fossil
animals are actually dug up, such as were
giants. Even in modern when excavations were being made on the Hoe for the
looked upon as remains of
times, fortifi-
huge jaws and teeth were found, which were at once by public opinion to be the remains of Gogmagog.
cations, settled
These are examples of the myths easiest for modern minds to enter into, for they are little more than inferences or guesses as to what may have actually happened, worked up with picturesque details which give them an air of reality. But to understand another kind of myths we must get our minds into a mood which is not that of scientific civilised
reasoning in the class-room, but of telling nursery tales in
woods on a summer Former chapters have shown how, in old times
the twilight, or reading poetry in the afternoon.
and among uncultured people, notions of the kind which still
remain among us as poetic fancy were seriously believed.
When
to the
rude philosopher the action of the world around
him was best explained by supposing in it nature-life like human life, and divine nature-souls like human souls, then the sun seemed a personal lord climbing proudly up the sky, and descending dim and weary into the under-world at night the stormy sea was a fearful god ready to swallow up the rash
sailor
;
the beasts of the forest were half-human in
thought and speech
;
even
tlie
forest-trees
were the bodily
ANTHROPOLOGY.
392
and the woodman, to whom the seemed voices, and their waving
habitations
of
rustling of
their leaves
spirits,
branches beckoning arms, hewed guilty sense of doing murder.
be " such
stuff as
[chap.
dreams are
at their trunks with a half-
The world then seemed made on " transformation
to
of
;
body and transmigration of spirit were ever going on a man or god might turn into a beast, a river, or a tree rocks might be people transformed into stones, and sticks transformed snakes. Such a state of thought is fast disappearing, but there are still tribes living in it, and they show what the When a men's minds are like who make nature-myths. story-teller lives in this dreamland, any poetic fancy becomes a hint for a wonder-tale, and though (one would think) he must be aware that he is romancing, and that the adventures he relates are not quite history, yet when he is dead, and his story has been repeated by bards and priests for a few generations, then it would be disrespectful, or even sacriThis has happened all over legious, to question its truth. the world, and the Greek myths of the great nature-gods which Xenophanes and Anaxagoras ventured to disbelieve ;
;
with such the
same
ill
consequences
fabric
as
South Sea Islanders.
those
to themselves,
of
much
like the
Let us look at a few nature-myths,
choosing such as most transparently show to
were of
modern barbarians
how
they
came
be made.
The
Tahitians
tell
tales
of their sea-god Hire, whose
followers were sailing on the ocean while he was lulled to
sleep in a cavern in the depths below
;
then the wind-god
raised a furious storm to destroy the canoe, but the sailors
cried to Hiro,
and
till,
his votaries
rising to the surface,
came
safe to port.
So
he quelled the storm, in
Homer, Poseid5n
the sea-god, dweller in caves of ocean, sets on the winds to toss the frail bark
of Odysseus
among
the thundering
HISTORY AND MYTHCLCGY.
XV.]
waves,
till
and swim
Ino comes to
and bids him
rescue
his
Both
for the Phaiakian shore.
393 strip
are word-
tales
pictures of the stormy sea told in the language of nature-
The New Zealanders have
myth, only with different turns. a story of
Maui imprisoning
whom
wind,
and
mouth
its
home sometimes, and then
it
all
but the wild west-
he cannot catch to shut into
a great stone rolled against chase
the winds,
for a while dies
away.
All this
its
cavern by
he can do
all
;
is
to
it
hides in the cavern,
is
a mythic description
of the weather, meaning that other winds are occasional,
but the west wind prevalent and strong.
New
These
Zealanders had never heard of the classic myth of .zEolus
and the cave of the winds, to the same mythic fancy,
how
yet that
it
from such blow-holes
in the hill-sides that the
winds come
of the West Indies
tale
Fire
a
tell
till
he called the
Wind
slowly, stopped
to his aid,
across everything, and the great fight
who
came
slaves
know how
by the
carried
him
the
Bon Dieu
It is
not likely
off,
looking on from behind a curtain of clouds. that these negro
The negroes
forth.
of the great quarrel between
and Water, how the Fire came on
stream,
come
nearly they had is
had ever heard of the twenty-first
same world-old contest of the elebetween the Fire-god and the Rivers, when the Winds were sent to help, and carried the fierce flames onward, and the eels and fish scuttled hither and thither as the hot breath of the blast came upon them. The beams of light darting down from the sun through openings in the clouds seem to have struck people's fancy in Europe as being like the rope over the pulley of an oldIliad, to
ments
is
the
told in the great battle
fashioned draw-well, for this appearance phrase,
" the sun drawing water."
see
the resemblance
say
are
of the rays
the ropes the sun
is
is
called in popular
The
Polynesians also
to
cords,
which they
fastened by, and
they
tell
ANTHRCPOLOGY.
394
a myth
the sun once
used
to
go
faster,
a god
till
and caught him as he bound and slowly along his
noose at the horizon
a
set
how
[chap.
so that
he now
travels
rose,
daily
appointed path. In English such an expression as that the sun " swallowed up by night " is now a mere metaphor, but the is took idea is one which in ancient and barbaric times people
more
seriously.
The Maoris have made
of the death of their divine hero Maui.
out of
the story
it
You may
see,
say, Maui's ancestress, Great- Woman-Night, flashing it
they
and
as
were opening and shutting out on the horizon where sea
and sky come together; Maui crept would have got through unharmed, but the
little
flycatcher,
the tiwakazvaka,
into her
body and
just at that
moment
broke out with
its
the Night, and she crushed Maui.
merry note and awoke That this is really a nature-myth of the setting sun dying as he plunges into the darkness, is proved by the mention of the bird, which has the peculiarity of singing at sunset. Of all the nature-myths of the world, few are so widely this theme of night and day, where with mythic truth the devoured victims were afterwards disgorged or set free. The Zulu story-tellers describe the maw of the monster as a country where there are hills and houses and
spread as those on
cattle all
and people
the creatures
living,
come
and when the monster
out from the darkness
;
is
cut open,
with a neat
touch of nature which shows that the story-teller is thinking of the dawn, the cock comes out first, crying, '' kukuliikn ! I is
see the world
the
!
"
nursery tale
Our English
version of the old myth
Red Ridinghood, but it is proper end (which German nurses
of Little
spoilt by leaving out the have kept up with better memory), that vi'hen the hunter ripped up the sleeping wolf, out came the little damsel in her red satin cloak, safe and sound. Such stories are fanciful, but the fancy of the myth-maker
HISTORY AND MYTHOLOGY.
XV.]
can take yet further
The mythic persons
flights.
395 as yet de-
scribed have been visible obj jcts hke the sun, or at least what can be perceived by the senses and made real objects of, such But when the poet is in the vein of mythas wind, or day.
making, whatever he can express by a noun and put a verb to,
becomes capable of being treated
can
summer comes,
say,
sleep
as
a person.
he
If
on men, hope
falls
ris.s,
demands, then he can set up sumuier and sleep, hope and justice, in human figures, dress them, and make them walk and talk. Thus the formation of myth is helped by what
justice
Professor
This, however,
chapter
Miiller has called a " disease of language."
Max
how
is
the notion of cause. itself to
We
not the whole matter.
saw
the notion of soul or spirit helped
When
spirit
easily to look like
to
the cause of anything presents
the ancient mind as a kind of soul or
the cause or
in the last
men on spirit,
of summer, sleep, hope, justice,
then
comes
No one can really understand knowing this. Homer could fancy on the awful Ka% whose figure was shown on the a person.
old poetry without field
of battle the
shield of Achilles with blood-stained garment flung over her
shoulders as she seized some warrior
dragged a corpse by the being
is
not merely a word turned into a
personal cause, a spirit-reason,
not another. logy, that
wounded
it
So
to the death, or
This
feet out of the fighting throng.
why one
far is the idea of
reality,
warrior
is
she slain
is
a
and
her spread in Aryan mytho-
among the Northmen, when Odin maidens who in Walhalla serve the
appears again
sends to every battle the
and fill the bowls with ale for the spirits of the heroes these maidens are the Valkyriur, who guide the event of Another victory, and choose the warriors who shall fall.
feast
;
well-known
moderns form
mythic group shows
again
how what
to
us
are but ideas expressed in words, took personal
in the
minds of the
ancients.
In the classic books of
ANTHROPOLOGY.
396
[chap.
Rome we read of the three fate-spinners, the Moirai or Parcas, and their Scandinavian counterparts appear
Greece and
Edda
in the
as the three wise
women whose
dwelling
the spring under the world-ash Ygdrasill, the Norns
The
the lives of men.
beings
(
near
explanation of these three mythic
that they are in personal shape the Past, Present,
is
and Future, Shall
is
who fix
as
is
shown by the names they
bear, JVas, Is,
Urdhr, Verd/iandt, Skuld).
Stories are always changing and losing their meanings, and from age to age new bards and tale-tellers shape the old myths into new forms to suit new hearers. Considering how stories thus grow and change, one must expect their
be as often as not
origins to
we have they came
as
seen,
it
from,
may be this
writers are too apt to
of any
Even else,
tale, as
if it
if this
sit
lost
beyond recovery.
While,
make
out what
often possible to
must be done cautiously. Clever down and settle the mythic origin
could be done by ingenious guessing.
nonsense and never was intended
is
for
anything
the myth- interpreter can find a serious origin for
the same.
it all
Thus a learned but
rash mythologist declares that in our English nursery rhyme, " the cow jumped over
the moon,"
is
a remnant of an old nature-myth, describing
cow a cloud passing over
the moon. What is really myths is something beyond simple guessing there must be reasons why one particular guess is more probable than any other. It would have been rash as a
wanted
in interpreting ;
to judge that
Prometheus the fire-bringer
is
a personification
wooden fire-drill (p. 262), were it not known that the Sanskrit name of this instrument is pramatitha ; taken together, the correspondence of name and nature amounts to a high probability that we have got back to the real origin of the
of the
Prometheus-legend.
We may
ample from the mythology of India,
choose another ex-
in the story of
Vamana,
HISTCRY AND MYTHOLOGY.
XV.]
the tiny Brahman, who, to
begs of him as
much land
but when the boon
humble the pride of King
the gigantic form of Vishnu,
little
he
stoiies
above the
into
air,
and a
seems
liorizon,
myth of the
really a
third across
the infernal regions, where
This most remarkable of
reigns.
still
Thumb
down
dwarf expands into
and, striding with one step
across the earth, another across the
the sky, drives Bali
Bah',
as he can measure in three steps,
granted, the
is
397
the
all
Tom
sun, rising tiny
then swelling into majestic power and For Vamana, the " dwarf," is one of
crossing the universe.
the incarnations of Vishnu, and Vishnu was originally the
In the hymns of the Veda the idea of his three
Sun.
to be found before it had become a story, when it was as yet only a poetic metaphor of the Sun crossing the " Vishnu traversed (the airy regions in his three strides. earth), thrice he put down his foot it was crushed under
steps
is
;
his dusty step.
Three steps hence made Vishnu, unharmed
preserver, upholding sacred things." It
remains to see how myths spread.
story
is
told,
becomes part of any new name not
planting
it
history.
There
tlie
that
will
only
in
is
and often
suit,
popular
a fragment
who
stock,
story-teller's
in the collection of Stobaeus,
Greek
Whenever a good
whether real or made-up does not matter,
legend,
by
puts to
it
it
succeeds
in
but even
in
Demaratus preserved
where there
is
related with
names, as an episode of the history of Arkadia, the
grand story which we were taught as an event of history,
the legend of the
Horatii and Curiatii.
Roman Roman
it from an earlier tale, borrowed from older folklore the tale of the archer and the apple, to adorn their national To show how legend is put together from hero. Tell.
seems, only borrowed
history,
it
much
as
modern Swiss
many
sources, historical 27
history
and mythical,
let
us take to pieces
ANTHROPOLOGY.
393
[chap.
one of the famous children's tales of Europe. Blue Beard was a historical person. He was Gilles de Retz, Sieur de Marshal of France, nicknamed Barbe Bleue from
Laval,
having a beard of blue-black shade. Italian alchemist
bathing in
blood of
the
entrapped
for
that his
he had many children
infants,
hideous purpose
this
Persuaded by an
could be restored by
strength
into
of
castle
his
Champtoce on the Loire, the ruins of which are still to be seen. At last the horrible suspicions of the country folk as to what was going on were brought to proof, and the
monster was burnt at the stake at Nantes in 1440. In all this, however, there is not a word about murdered wives.
Indeed the
historical Blue Beard, in his character of
murder-
ous monster, seems to have inherited an older tale belonging
Comor the Cursed, are set down to name and deeds whose
to the wife-murderer of Breton legend,
Count of Poher,
near a thousand years
which
tell
earlier, in
the legendary chronicles
of him as a usurper and tyrant
murdered one wife
wedded and
after another,
till
who married and when he had
at last
killed the beautiful Trifine,
vengeance overtook
him, and he was defeated and slain by the rightful prince. It
is
not easy to say whether this
story, or
whether there
Henry VIII.
is
is
a version of a yet older
a historical foundation for
legend might have gathered round his name. of the Trifine,
modern Blue Beard appear already her
sending
aid
for
to
her
the former wives.
into
the
;
if
This
modern way
last, ;
in
Other points
in
the story of
kinsmen when she
knows her danger, and her discovery of pass in the
it
of England had lived in those times, such a
the
murder of
however, does not
come to down
the legend, Trifine goes
the chapel to pray in the hour of need, and there tombs of the four murdered wives open and their
corpses stand upright, each with the knife or cord or what-
HISTCRY AND MYTHCLCGY.
XV.]
ever she was murdered with in her hand.
399
Instead of this
powerful and ghastly scene, the modern version brings in
hackneyed episode of the forbidden chamber, which had long been the property of story-tellers for use on suitable occasions, and is to be found in the Arabian Alg/its. The the
Her wicked
old Trifine legend has a characteristic ending.
and cuts Iier head off, but St. Gildas makes her body carry it back to Comor's castle, which he overthrows by flinging a handful of dust at it, then he puts Trifine's head on for her again, and she retires husband pursues her into the
forest
into a convent for the rest of her later
life.
times prefer a more cheerful
if
The
story-tellers of
more commonplace
finish.
The
miracle-legend just quoted brings us back to the
historical use of myth,
The
chapter.
which was spoken of
back to her castle with her head
wards
putting
in
her hand, and his after-
back on her shoulders,
it
records the intellectual state of the age edifying to
tell
earlier in this
story of St. Gildas bringing the fair Trifine
is
when
history.
It
it
was held
such wonders of holy men, for holy
men were
believed able to do them. Old tales which seem extravagant
minds are apt thus
to our
have historical value by point-
to
ing back to the times when,
This
made.
thought when bodies,
is
true even of
human
body of a snake, rational.
may be
one's enemy's soul in him,
stories of rational beasts
Among
In the stage of
crawling on the hearth in the
the
Buddhists,
became moral apologues, they
many
fables.
souls are thought able to live in animals'
when a wolf may have
or one's grandfather
seeming possible, they were
^sop's
themselvjs seem
where beast- tales early
are told as incidents of thi
births or transmigrations of the great founder of the
religion.
It
was Buddha himself who, as a bird, took the lion's throat, and was repaid by being told
bone out of the
ANTHROPOLOGY.
400 that he
[chap. xv.
to be so well out of it. It was Buddha body of a i>easant, listened to the ass in and said he was but an ass. That millions
was lucky
Avho, born in the
the lion's skin,
of people should have this as part of their sacred literature is
a fact of interest in the study of civilization, warning us
not to cast aside a story as worthless, because
it is
mythical.
For understanding the thoughts of old-world nations, myths tell us much we should hardly learn from history.
their their
—
CHAPTER
XVI.
SOCIETY.
—
—
—
Family. 402 Morals of Lower Kaces, 405 Public Opinion and Custom, 408 Moral Progress, 410 Vengeance and War, 418 Property, 419 Legal Ceremonies, 423 Justice, 414 Family Power and Responsibility, 426 Palrlarclial and Military Nations, 432 Social Ranks, 434 Government, 436. Chiefs, 428
Social Stages, 401
—
—
—
—
— —
—
—
—
In the reports of crimes which appear daily
in the
news-
papers of our civiUzed land, such phrases often occur as
These two words have come is most wild,
savage fury, barbarous cruelty. to
mean
in
common
talk such behaviour as
Now
rough, and cruel.
no doubt the
life
of the less civilized
is more on the whole, but the
people of the world, the savages and barbarians, wild, rough,
and
cruel than ours
difference between us this.
As
and them does not
culture through which our their
lie
altogether in
the foregoing chapters have proved, savage
barbarous tribes often more or
and
is
and
less fairly represent stages
own
of
ancestors passed long ago,
customs and laws often explain to
us, in
ways we
should otherwise have hardly guessed, the sense and reason of our own. It should be understood that it is out of the question to give here even a
systems of society
:
all
summary of
that can be
done
is
the complicated to put before the
ANTHROPOLOGY.
402 reader some of
its
[chap.
leading principles in ancient and modern
life.
Mankind can never have each
Society
for himself.
lived as a
is
always
mere struggling crowd,
made up
households bound together by kindly
ties,
and the duties of parent and
of marriage
of families or
controlled by rules child.
Yet the
forms of these rules and duties have been very various. Marriages may be shifting and temporary pairing, or unions
where the husband may have several wives, and the wife husbands.
several
family group and
It
is
ties
its
often
hard to understand the
in the
rude and ancient world.
seems to us a matter of course to reckon family descent in the male line, and this is now put in the clearest way by the son taking the father's surname. But in lower stages of civilization, on both sides of the globe, many tribes In most take the contrary idea as a matter of course.
Thus
it
Australian tribes the children belong to the mother's clan,
not the father's
;
so
in native
that
constantly meet as natural enemies.
down
in the royal
mother's
line,
wars father and son Chiefship often goes
among the Natchez, who now Louisiana. Yet this
as
their sun-temples in what is widespread law of female descent, deep as it Hes in the history of society, had been so lost sight of among the
had
when Herodotus noticed it names from their mothers
ancient civilized nations, that
among
the Lykians,
and traced
who took
pedigrees
their
their
through the female branches
only, the historian fancied this
which they were unlike
all
was a peculiar custom,
other people.
in
In the savage
and barbaric world there prevails widely the rule called by McLennan exogamy or marrying-out, which forbids a man to take a wife of his criminal,
and may
own
clan
—an
act
which
is
considered
even be punished with death.
strange contrast to the popular idea that savage
life
It is
has
a
no
SOCIETY.
XVI.]
403
rules,
when we
find Australian tribes
bound
to
marry
into the particular clan
man
where every which
is,
is
so to speak,
Among the Iroquois of North his own. America the children took the clan-name or totem of the mother so if she were of the Bear clan, her son would be a Bear, and accordingly he might not marry a Bear girl, but might take a Deer or Heron. Such laws appear also among the wife-clan to
;
higher nations in India
who reckon
a Brahman
is
descent in the male
Thus
line.
not to marry a wife whose clan-name
(her " cow-stall," as they say)
is
the
same
as his
;
nor
may a
Chinese take a wife of his own surname. Though the family
and
tribe rules of the savage
tricate to
be
and barbaric world are too insome instructive
fully discussed here, there are
points to which attention should be called. early stages of society
a
civil
wild hunting-tribes of Nicaragua, the lad for
the
a wife
a deer and lays
kills
it
with
Marriage
who
wishes a
hunt and do man's work if the a marriage, without further ceremony. ;
gift is
is
accepted,
Among
at his
it is
peoples of
higher culture more formal promises and ceremonies in,
girl
aheap of firewood
door of her parents' hut, which symbolic act
offer to
is in
Thus, among the
contract.
come
with feasts and gatherings of kinsfolk; and then, as in
other important matters of
life,
the priest
is
called in to give
and sanction to the union. Where this is done, a wedding has come to be very different from what it was in the rough times of marriage by capture, such as
divine blessing
in our own day among fierce forest tribes in where the warriors would make forays on distant villages and by main force bring home wives. Ancient
might be seen Brazil,
tradition
knows
Benjamin carry feast,
and
in
this
off the
practice well, as where the
men
daughters of Shiloh dancing
the famous
Roman
at
of the
tale of the rape of the
Sabines, a legend putting in historical form the wife-capture
ANTHROPOLCGY.
404
which
most it
Roman
in
was,
is its
manners
really
old-world
a recognised
custom
being thus kept up as a formality where milder
really prevail.
the Spartans,
was
What
custom remained as a ceremony.
shows what
clearly
[chap.
by
It
had passed
when Plutarch
into this state
among
says that though the marriage
friendly settlement
between the famihes, the
bridegroom's friends went through the pretence of carrying Within a few generations the oft" the bride by violence.
same old habit was kept up in Wales, where the bridegroom and his friends, mounted and armed as for war, carried off the bride ; and in Ireland they used even to hurl spears
at
the bride's people,
though
at
such a distance
no one was hurt, except now happened when one Lord Hoath lost an eye, which mischance seems to have put an end to this curious relic It was one of the consequences of increase of antiquity. and then by accident,
that
as
of property in
the
world,
that
the
practice
of buying
where a Zulu bargains with a girl's wives came her perhaps for five oxen or ten. have him people to let This was the custom in England among our barbaric fore" If a fathers, as appears in the West-Saxon law of Ine in,
as
—
man buy wife to
of his
of law
a wife,"
&:c.
be sold, but
Cnut somewhat later forbade the husband might give something an interesting problem in the history the
own will. It is how the money once paid
passed into a of this kind
gift
or dower
in
being
the
as
btide's
price
some provision the widow was no as she would have
her;
became necessary when
longer provided for by
been
for
taken,
a ruder state of society, as a wife by her husband's
brother.
Marriage has been here spoken of first, because upon it depends the family, on which the whole framework of society is founded. What has been said of the ruder kinds of family
SOCIETY.
XVI.]
405
union among savages and barbarians shows that there cannot be expected from them the excellence of those well-ordered households to which civilized society owes so much of its goodness and prosperity. Yet even among the rudest clans of men, unless depraved by vice or misery and falling to pieces, a standard of family morals is known and lived by. habits,
'i'heir
yet the family
judged by our notions, are hard and coarse, of sympathy and common interest is already
tie
formed, and the foundations of moral duty already
laid, in
the mother's patient tenderness, the father's desperate valour
defence of home, their daily care for the
in
and
affection of brothers
helpfulness,
and
sisters,
From
trust of all.
The
to a wider circle.
natural
way
in
from a family or group, which
is
divides into as kindred, tie
many and
cnes, the
still
the family this extends
which a in
tribe is
formed
time increases
and
recognising one another
this kinship is so
of the whole
mixture of
households,
little
and the mutual forbearance,
tribe,
tribes,
a
that,
thoroughly felt to be the even when there has been a
common
make an imaginary bond
ancestor
often invented to
is
Thus kindred ax\d kindness go together two words whose common derivation expresses in the happiest way one of the main principles of of union.
—
social
life.
Among is,
how
order.
the lessons to be learnt from the
It is
quite by what the
and we
life
of rude tribes
go on without the policeman to keep plain that even the lowest men cannot live
society can
call "
Germans
club law."
call " faustrecht," or
The
"
fist-right,"
strong savage does not rush
into his weaker neighbours hut
and take
possession, driving
the owner out into the forest with a stone-headed javelin sent flying after him.
mere
Without some control beyond the would break up in a
right of the stronger, the tribe
week, whereas
in fact
savage tribes
last
on
for ages.
Under
ANTHROPOLOGY.
4o6
favourable circumstances, where food
where Columbus
first
Schomburgk, the
not too scarce nor
may be
in its
In the West Indian islands
rude way good and happy. called the most gentle
is
low barbaric races
v/asting, the life of
war too
[chap.
landed, lived tribes
who have been
and benevolent of the human
traveller,
who knew
race.
the warlike Caribs
home life, draws a paradise-like picture of where they have not been corrupted by the vices he saw among them peace and cheerfulof the white men ness and simple family affection, unvarnished friendship, and gratitude not less true for not b^ing spoken in sounding words the civilized world, he says, has not to teach them well in their their ways,
;
;
morality, for though they
do not
talk
about
it,
they live in
•
it.
At the other side of the world in New Guinea, Kops, the Dutch explorer, gives much the same account of the Papuans of Dory,
who
like the old
in
live
lake-men
of
houses built on piles in the water, Switzerland ; he speaks of their mild
disposition, their inclination to right
moral principles, their respect
and
for the
justice, their strong
aged and love
for their
children, their living without fastenings to their houses theft
— for
considered by them a grave offence, and rarely
is
the rude non-Hindu tribes of India, Enghave often recorded with wonder the kindliness and cheerfulness of the rude men of the mountains and the Thus Sir jungle, and their utter honesty in word and deed. India, South of tribe Walter Elliot mentions a low poor
Among
occurs.
lish officials
whom
the farmers
employ
to
guard
their fields, well
knowing
that they would starve rather than steal the grain in their charge and they are so truthful that their word is taken at ;
once
in
disputes even
with their richer neighbours,
for
people say "a Kurubar always speaks the truth." Of course these accounts of Caribs and Papuans show them on them the friendly side, while those who have fouglit with
SOCIETY.
XVI.]
407
call them monsters of ferocity and treachery. But cruelty and cunning in war seem to them right and praiseworthy and what we are here lookhig at is their home peace-life. It is ;
may
clear that low barbarians
a
because
Among
among themselves under
moral
is
more
the
instructive
shows what may be called natural morality. them religion, mostly concerned with propitiating it
and
souls of ancestors
their
live
high moral standard, and this
fairly
influence
spirits
exerts
it
of nature, has not the strong
among
behaviour to their fellows
command with their
higher little
is
or fear of divine punishment. life
nations;
aflFected It
indeed
by divine
has more to do
When want
being prosperous or miserable.
or the miseries of war upset their well-being, they (like their betters)
become more
moral habits are
brutal
at all
and
selfish
times low
in their ways,
among
hordes of savages whose daily struggle harsh for the gentler feelings to thrive.
and
the comfortless
for existence
is
too
Moreover, there
is
between low and high races of men, that the dull-minded barbarian has not power of thought enough to come up to the civilized man's best moral standard. The this plain difference
wild
man
of the forest, forgetful of yesterday and careless
of to-morrow, lolling in his
has
satisfied,
which our
is
own
little
of the
hammock when his wants are memory and foresight
play of
ever unrolling before our minds the panorama of past
and
future
life,
and even
sets us in
thought in
the places of our fellows, to partake of their lives and enter
and sorrows. Much of the wrong-doing of comes from want of imagination. If the drunkard could see before him the misery of next year with something into their joys
the world
of the vividness of the present craving,
it would overbalance Ofttimes in the hottest fury of anger, the sword has been sheathed by him across whose mind has flashed the prophetic
it.
picture
of the
women weeping round
the
blood-stained
ANTHROPOLOGY.
4o8
The lower
corpse.
races
men
of
[chap. so
are
and temptation,
foresight to resist passion
wanting in
that the moral
balance of a tribe easily goes wrong, while they are rough and wantonly cruel through want of intelligent sympathy with the
sufferings
of others,
much
as children are cruel
through not being able to imagine what the What we now know of savage life will creatures feel. prevent our falling into the fancies of the philosophers of
to animals
the last century, actual
model of
But the
who
up the "noble savage" as an be imitated by civilized nations.
set
virtue to
reality is quite as instructive, that the
and happiness may be found
at
work
laws of virtue
in simple forms
among
tribes who make hatchets of sharpened stones and rub Their hfe, seen at its best, sticks together to kindle fire. great principle of moral the shows with unusual clearness belong together in fact happiness science, that morality and
—
that morality
is
the
method of happiness.
must not be supposed that in any state of civilization a man's conduct depends altogether on his own moral sense Controlling forces of society are at of right and wrong. work even among savages, only in more rudimentary ways It
than
among
ourselves.
Public opinion
power, and the way in which
it
acts
is
is
already a great
particularly to
be
Whereas the individual man is too apt to look to his own personal interest and the benefit of his near friends, these private motives fall away when many minds come
noticed.
and public opinion with a larger selfishness up the public good, encouraging the individual to set aside his private wishes and give up his property or even his life for the commonwealth. The assembled tribe can crush the mean and cowardly with their scorn, or give
together,
takes
that reward of glory for which
goods and
life.
the high-spirited will risk
Travellers have remarked that the
women,
SOCIETY.
XVI.]
409
however down-trodden, know how to make their influence felt in tliis way, and many a warrior whose heart was faiUng him in face of the enemy, has turned from flight when he thought of the the
village,
girls'
mockery when he should
but disgraced.
safe
men
opinion compels
to act according
gives the rule as to what affairs
of
is
to
slink
home
to
This pressure of public custom, which
to
be done or not done
most
in
Explorers of wild countries, not finding the
life.
machinery of police they are accustomed
to at liome,
have
sometimes rashly concluded that the savages lived unWe have here already restrained at their own free will. noticed that this
is
a mistake, for
life
in the uncivilized
by chains of custom. To a great extent it is evident that customs have come into existence for the benefit of society, or what was considered world
so.
fettered at every turn
is
For
instance,
it is
hospitality shall
that
every one knows he
whether a custom its
purpose
custom
it
joints cut
many
be freely given
may want
off, ;
it
to
all
any day
plainly usefiil or not,
comers, for
himself.
But
and even when
no longer known, once established as a
must be conformed
die
inflicting
is
is
generally held right in wild countries
to.
Savages
may have
finger-
or undergo such long and severe fasts that
but often the only reason
such suffering on themselves
they can give for is
that
it
was the
some parts of Australia custom forbade to the young hunters, and reserved for the old men, much of the wild fowl and the best joints of the No doubt this was in some measure for the large game. public benefit, as the experienced elders, who were past the fatigue of hunting, were able to stay in camp, make nets and weapons, teach the lads, and be the repositories of wisdom
custom of
their
ancestors.
In
and the honoured counsellors of the prove more plainly how far society
tribe. is,
Nothing could
even among such
ANTHROPOLOGY.
4IO wild
men
[chap.
of the desert, from being under the mere sway of
brute force.
Thus communities, however ancient and have their rules of right and wrong. But as have been held
right
rude, to
always
what acts
and wrong, the student of
history
must avoid that error which the proverb calls measuring Not judging other people's corn by one's own bushel. the customs of nations at other stages of culture by his own modern standard, he has to bring his knowledge to the help of his imagination, so as to see institutions where they Only thus can it be made clear belong and as they work. that the rules of good and bad, right and wrong, are not For an example of fixed alike for all men at all times. this principle, let us
observe
how people at different stages of Some of the lower races take
civilization deal widi the aged.
much
care of their old folks even after they are fallen into them with almost gentle considerateness
imbecility, treating
and very commonly tending them
till
death,
when
respect
to the living ancestor passes into his worship as an ancestral
But among other
spirit.
earlier, as
among
tribes
filial
down who knock on the
kindness breaks
those fierce Brazilians
head with clubs the sick and aged, and even eat them, whether they find their care too burdensome, or whether they really think, as they say, that it is kind to end a life
no longer gladdened with realize the situation
fight
among
and
feast
roving tribes.
and dance. We The horde must
game, the poor failing creature cannot march, the hunters and the heavily laden women cannot carry him ; he must be left behind. Many a traveller has beheld in the desert such heartrending scenes
move
in quest of
keep up
in the
as Catlin
saw when he
said farewell to the white-haired old
but blind and shrunk to skin and bone, crouched shivering by a few burning sticks, for his shelter a
Puncah
chief, all
SOCIETY.
XVI.]
411
buffalo-hide set up on crutches, for
water and a few half-picked bones. abandoned at his own wish when
his
food
a dish
of
This old warrior was
new
his tribe started for
hunting-grounds, even as years before, he said, he had left his own fixther to die when he was no longer good for any-
When
thing.
a nation settled in the agricultural state
something of
reached
and comfort,
wealth
there
iias
no
is
longer the excuse of necessity for killing or abandoning the
Yet history shows how long the practice was kept up even in Europe, pardy with the humane intent of putting an end to lingering misery, but more through the survival of a custom inherited from harder and ruder The Wends in what is now Germany practised times. the hideous rite of putting the aged and infirm to death, cooking and eating them, much as Herodotus describes
aged.
In Sweden there used to
the old Massagetae as doing.
be kept in the called
churches
clumsy wooden clubs,
certain
of which some are
"family- clubs,"
still
preserved,
and with
which
lessly sick
were solemnly put to death by their kinsfolk.
It
is
interesting
in
ancient
to
trace
times
the
in
the change from such hard ancient
manners, when the infirm substance
among
his
old
the
old
and hope-
aged
German
records
barbarism to gentler
house-father, dividing his
children,
is to sit henceforth well cared for in the "cat's place" by the hearth. One of
the marks of advancing civilization was the growing sense
of the sacredness of
and even
pleasure,
a
human
and under
this
burdensome and
ancestors resorted to
life,
even apart from
its
use
feeling the cutting short of
suffering
existence,
without reproach, has
which our
come
to
be
looked upon with horror. It
must be clearly understood also
rules of moral conduct were not the
tiiat
the old-world
same towards
all
men.
ANTHROPOLOGY.
412
A man
knew
his
duty to his neighbour, but
This
his neighbours.
is
men were not
all
very clearly seen in the history of
men's ideas of manslaughter and
man
[chap.
The
theft.
slaying of a
scarcely held by the law of any people to be of
is
a crime, but on the contrary it has been regarded as an allowable or praiseworthy act under certain conditions, itself
especially in self-defence,
war,
Yet no known
tribe,
revenge, punishment, and however low and ferocious, has ever held that men may kill one another indiscriminately, for even the savage society of the desert or the
sacrifice.
jungle would
collapse
under such lawlessness. Thus all law "thou shall not kill," but the
men acknowledge some question
how
it
is
how
this
law applies.
works among those
men
killing of
Sioux Indian,
is
instructive to see
tribes
who approve the Thus the young
It
fierce
simply as a proof of valour. till
he had killed
his
man, was not allowed and have the title of
to stick the feather in his head-dress
he could scarcely get a girl to marry him he had " got the feather." So the young Dayak of Borneo could not get a wife till he had taken a head, and it was thus
brave or warrior
;
till
with the skull or scalp which the
Naga
warrior of
Asam had
home, thereby qualifying himself to be tattooed and to marry a wife, who had perhaps been waiting years The trophy need not have for this ugly marriage-licence. been taken from an enemy, and might have been got by the blackest treachery, provided only that the victim were
to bring
not of the slayer's
own
Yet these Sioux among
tribe.
themselves hold manslaughter to be a crime unless in bloodThis state of revenge and the Dayaks punish murder. ;
things in the
an
is
not really contradictory
one word
" tribe."
The
;
in fact its
tribe
makes
abstract principle that manslaughter
but for
its
own
preservation.
is
explanation its
law, not
right or
lies
on
wrong,
Their existence depends oh
SOCIETY.
XVI.]
holding their
own
deadly
in
and thus they put a
strife
413 with neighbouring tribes,
premium on
social
the warrior's proof of
valour in fight against the enemy, though in these degenerate days they allow the form to be meanly fulfilled by bringing in as a warrior's trophy the
wretched waylaid stranger. one's
head of some old woman or In this simple contrast between
strangers, the student will find a clue
own people and
and wrong running through ancient and slowly passing into a larger and nobler view.
to the thought of right history,
of things is well illustrated in the Latin which, meaning originally stranger, passed quite
The
old state
word
hostis,
Not only is slaying an open war looked on as righteous, but ancient law goes on the doctrine that slaying one's own tribesman and slaying a foreigner are crimes of quite different order,
naturally into the sense of enemy.
enemy
in
while killing a slave
but a destruction of property.
is
Nor
does the colonist practically admit that killing a
even now
brown or black man
an act of quite the same nature as
is
killing a white countryman.
of human
life
is
Yet the idea of the sacredness
more widely in the world, mankind at large. notion of theft and plunder follows
ever spreading
as a principle applying to
The
history of the
partly the
same
In the lower civilization the law,
lines.
" thou shalt not steal,"
is
not unknown, but
applies to
it
tribesmen and friends, not to strangers and enemies. Among the Ahts of British Columbia, Sproat remarks that an article placed in an Indian's charge on his good faith safe,
yet
thieving
is
of other tribes or of says,
it
common white men
a
is
perfectly
vice where the property is
concerned.
But,
he
among these among ourselves,
would be unfair to regard thieving
savages as culpable in the same degree as for they have no moral or social law forbidding thieving
between
tribe 2i
and
tribe,
which has been commonly practised
ANTHROPOLOGY.
414 for generations.
how
Thus, although the Africans within their own
have
tribe-limits
[chap;
of property, travellers describe
strict rules
who have
stealthily crept upon a and massacred men, women, and children, will leave behind them the ransacked kraal flaring on the horizon and return with exulting hearts and loads of
a Zulu war-party,
distant village
The old-world law of a warlike people is well seen among the ancient Germans in Caesar's famous
plunder.
" Robberies beyond the bounds of each com-
sentence,
munity have no infamy, but are commended as a means of exercising youth and diminishing sloth." Even in the midst of
modern
society
civilization,
back to the
a declaration of war
earlier
But in peace the becoming more settled
moneyis
treaties
stages
now
still
carry
safety of property as well as life in the world.
by which criminals, deprived of
over the border, are
may
of plunder and prize-
The
extradition
their old
refuge
given up to justice in the country
where they offended, mark the modern tendency to unite nations in one community, which recognises among all its members mutual right and duty. Hitherto we have been looking at right and wrong chiefly as worked by men's own moral feelings and by public opinion. But stronger means have at all times been It is now reckoned one of the regular duties necessary. of civilization to have a criminal law to punish wrong-doers This with fine, imprisonment, blows, and even death. system, however, only gradually arose in the world, and history can show plain traces of how it grew up from the early state of things when there were as yet no professional judges or executioners, but it was every man's right and duty to take the law into his own hands, and that law was what
we now
call
vengeance.
breaks loose and a
man
When is slain,
in barbaric life fierce passion this rule of
vengeance comes
;
SOCIETY.
XVI.]
How
into action.
may
society
is
works as one of the great forces of
among
well be seen
George Grey says native
it
called on to perform
nearest relation.
women would
taunt
speak to him
if
he
left
is
it,
Sir
the holiest duty a
avenge the death of
to
this
As
the Australians.
account of
in his
If
415
duty
his
unfulfilled, the old
him if he were unmarried, no girl would he had wives, they would leave him his mother would cry and lament that she had given birth to so degenerate a son, his father would treat him with contempt, and he would be a mark for public scorn. But what is to be done
if
;
;
;
the murderer escapes, as
thinly peopled a country be easy
?
must
in
so wild
and
Native custom goes on
the ancient doctrine that the criminal's whole family are re-
sponsible slain,
;
when
so that
kinsfolk run for their lives
old so,
is
it
known
and especially when the actual
know whether they are off at
;
that a
man
has been
culprit has escaped, his
the very children of seven years
they are of kin to the manslayer, and,
Here then we come
once into hiding.
if
in
view of two principles which every student of law should have clearly in his mind in tracing its history up from its lowest stages.
In the primitive law of vengeance of blood,
he sees society using for the public benefit the instinct of revenge which man has in common with the lower animals and by holding the whole family answerable for the deed of one of
its
members, the public brings the
full
pressure
of family influence to bear on each individual as a means of keeping the peace. No one who sees the working of blood-
vengeance can deny in restraining
men
its
practical reasonableness,
judges and executioners.
Indeed among
barbarians the avenger of blood, in
his wild fury,
is
and
its
use
from violence while there are as yet no
little
all
savages and
as he thinks
it
himself
doing his part toward saving his people
from perishing by deeds of blood.
Unhappily
his usefulness
ANTHROPOLOGY.
4i6
[cHAP.
often marred through ignorance
and delusion turning his These AustraHans are among the many savages who do not see why anybody
is
vengeance against the
innocent.
should ever die unless he
we
so they account for what
is killed,
that some enemy killed wounding him with an invisible weapon, or sending a disease-demon to gnaw his vitals. Therefore, when a man dies, his kinsmen set themselves to find out by divination what malignant sorcerer did him to death, and when they have fixed on some one as the secret enemy the avenger sets out to find and slay him then of course there is retaliation from the other side, and a herediThis is one great cause of the rancorous tary feud sets in. hatred between neighbouring tribes which keeps savages in ceaseless fear and trouble.
natural death by settling
call
the sufferer by magic
it
art,
;
Passing to higher levels of civilization, of the ancient world
but
m
it is
still
among
the nations
find the law of blood-vengeance,
being gradually modified by the civilization which
time ousts
while
we
still
it
altogether.
Thus
the law of the Israelites,
authorizing the avenger of blood, provides that
there shall be cities of refuge,
and
that the morally inno-
cent manslayer shall not be as the wilful murderer.
Among
nations where wealth has been gathered together, and especially
has come to be measured by money, the old vengeance sinks into a claim for compensaIn Arabia to this day the earlier and later stages may
where
it
fierce cry for
tion.
be seen side by side
;
while the roaming Beduin tribes of the
desert carry on blood-feuds from generation to generation
with savage ferocity, the townsfolk feel that
life can hardly go on with an assassin round every street-corner, so they take the blood-money and loose the feud. This state of things is
instructive as boing like that of our
when
the Teutonic law was
still
that a
own early ancestors man took vengeance
— SOCIETY.
XVI.]
done
for hurt
to
him or
The Anglo-Saxon word
for
his,
417
unless
he compounded
such composition was
it.
7uer-g{ld,
probably meaning "man-money," 200 shillings for a free man, less for lower folk, and less for a Welshman than an EnglishAgain, where the rule of vengeance
man.
is
a
life
for a
life,
lesser hurts are also repaid in kind, which is the Roman lex " retaliation. This is plainly set talionis, or " law of the like
Jewish law,
forth in the
wound for wound,
life for life,
eye for eye, tooth for tooth,
stripe for stripe. It
is still
law in Abyssinia,
where not long since a mother prosecuted a lad who had accidentally fallen from a fruit-tree on her litde son and the judges decided that she had a right to send killed him another son up into the tree to drop on the boy who had unintentionally caused the first one's death, which remedy ;
however she did not care to avail herself of Of course retaliation came to be commuted into money, as when old English laws provide that, if any one happen to cut off the half of a fist or foot of a person, let him render to him the and so on hand, of a price the half thumb for a man's price,
down
to
5^-.
for a little finger
In the times stage,
we
live
and
in, justice
^d. for a little-finger nail.
has passed into a higher
where the State takes the duty of punishing any serious done to its citizens. Reading some murderous
wilful hurt
of a Corsican " vendetta,' we hardly stop to think of it as a relic of ancient law lingering in a wild mountain island. Yet our criminal law grew out of such private vengeance, as
tale
who attend to traces of the past, when phrases as " the vengeance of the law," they hear such meant by the legal form by which a is or think, what
is still
plain to those
private person
is
bound over to prosecute,
still be suing, as he would have done his own revenge or compensation. It
that
is
as though he
must
in long-past ages, for is
now
really the State
seeking to punish the criminal for the ends of public
ANTHROPOLCGY.
4i8 justice. safety,
[ckap.
The avenger of blood, once the guardian of public would now be himself punished as a criminal for own
taking the law into his
hands, while the moralists,
now
down
that
that the conditions of society are changed, lay
vengeance
it
is sinful.
Law, however, though
it
has so beneficially taken the
place of private vengeance, has not fully extended
its
sway
The relaseen among
over the larger quarrels between State and State. tion of private vengeance to public
rude
tribes,
war
is
well
When
such as inhabit the forests of Brazil.
a
murder is done within the tribe, then of course vengeance lies between the two families concerned ; but if the murderer is of another clan or tribe, then it becomes a public wrong. The injured community hold council, and mostly decide for war if they dare; then a war- party sets forth, in which the near kinsmen of the murdered man, their bodies painted with black daubs to show their deadly office, rush foremost
Among
into the fight.
neighbouring tribes the ordinary
way
which war begins is by some quarrel or trespass, then a man is killed on one side or the other, and the vengeance in
death spreads into blood-feud and
for his
tribal
war ever
ready to break out from generation to generation.
This
barbaric state of things lasted far on into the history of
Europe.
It
been injured of his legal
own
was old German law
people, avenge himself
commutation
war.
It
it
any freeman who had
;
that
is
to say,
if
he would not take the
he had the right of private
in English history when King a law to restraiu this " unrighteous fighting,"
was a turning-point
Edmund made but
that
in body, honour, or estate might, with the help
was not stopped
and we know how
it
Northumberland, went on into modern times between
at once, especially in
clan and clan in the wild Scotch Highlands. the
mere freeman ceased
to
go
to
war with
Long
after
his neighbours,
SOCIETY.
XVI.]
419
who stood to their old riglit. As late as Edward IV. Lord Berkeley and his followers fought a battle with Lord Lisle at Nibley Green in GloucesLord Lisle was slain, and in the end Lord Berkeley tershire. compounded by a money payment to the widow. Freeman, who in his Comparatrve Politics mentions this curious inthere were nobles
the time of
cident of fifteenth-century history, thinks
it
the last English
example either of private war or the payment of the we'rgild. The law of England which forbids the levying of private war represents one of
The
now
tlie
greatest steps in national
by the
justice of legal
tribunals, the barbaric expedients of private
vengeance and
progress.
State
and State
private war. But State in public war,
replaces,
still
fight
out their quarrels
which then becomes on a larger scale much to be between clan and clan.
what deadly feud used
The
civil
law of property may, like the criminal law, be
traced from the ideas of old times.
had of what
A
what they are
uncivilised world
in the
still.
lower races, the distinction which our lawyers real
Of
the
and personal property appears in a very intelligible way. all have the use, but no man can be its absolute
The
simplest land-law, which
found among
ing.
by
Among
make between
the land
owner. is
may be by noticing
notion
fair
early rules of property were like,
Thus
who
tribes
in Brazil
each tribe
rocks, trees, streams, or even
trespass in ])ursuit of ofiiender
might be
on the
spot.
society in any part of the world, every to hunt within the
bounds of
to the clan or tribe.
At
man
this
stage
of
has the right
own tribe, and the game when struck. Thus there is
common
There
landmarks, and
so serious that the
his
only becomes private property
a distinct legal idea of
also a game-law,
artificial
game was held
slain
is
by hunting and fishhad its boundaries marked
live chiefly
is
property in land belonging also a clear idea of family
ANTHROPOLOGY.
420 property
who
[chap.
the hut belongs to the family or group of fami-
:
it ; and when they fenced in and tilled the ground hard by, this also ceased to be common land, and became the property of the families, at least
lies
built
plot of
while
they occupied
To
it.
the hut-furniture, such as
each family belonged also
hammocks, mealing-stones, and
earthen pots. At the same time personal ownership appears,
though
still
under the power of the family, through the
father or head.
Personal or individual property was chiefly what each wore or carried the man's weapons, the ornaments and scanty clothing of both sexes, things which they
—
had some power to do as they liked with during life, and at death very commonly took away with them to the world beyond the grave (see p. 346). Here then we find barbarians already acquainted with the ideas of conimon land, family freehold, family and personal property in movables, which run through the systems of old-world law. Not that they are worked out in the same way everywhere. Thus in the village communities which had so great a part in settling Asia and Europe, and whose traces still remain in modern England, not only the hunting-grounds and meadows were held in common, but the families did not even own the ploughed fields, which were tilled by common labour or re-allotted
from time
among
to time
that the family freehold did not reach
garden-plot.
At various times
the households, so
beyond
in history, the
its
rise
house and of military
nations revolutionised the earlier ways of land-holding.
In
invaded countries, lands of the conquered were distributed
by the king or leader
to
doing military service
in return
example
is
be held by ;
his captains or soldiers
the greatest and best-known
the feudal system of Europe in the Middle Ages.
It is instructive to notice
how
Conquest, the folk-land, the
in
England, before the
common
Norman
property of the state,
SOCIETY.
421
into the haruls
of the king to grant at
XVI.]
was already passing
Or
his pleasure.
in a niihtary state the sovereign
lands on payment of an annual tribute or tax
be-
in ancient
history
we
find
letting portions of
them
the produce in return.
unknown
— a system well
Egypt and modern India. the state, or families owning
known
thing
may
the universal landlord, allowing his subjects to hold
come
Roman
In
large lands,
who paid
part of
This shows the beginning of
rent, a
as farms to tenants
to primitive law.
While these changes were
coming on as to the land, movable property was becoming more and more important. War-captives kept as slaves to till the soil became part of the wealth of the family, and the pastoral
brought in
life
plough the
cattle,
not only for food, but
The manufacture
fields.
to
of valuable goods, the
growth of commerce, the accumulation of treasure, and the If now we look use of money, added other possessions.
modern ways of dealingwith property, it is seen what we have made by taking it out of the hands of the family and allowing an individual owner to hold and
at our
great changes
dispose of
it
— an arrangement suited
to our age of shifting
Even land is bought and sold by individuals, though the law, by making a field and cottage transferable by a different process and with greater formality and cost than a diamond necklace or a hundred chests of trading enterprise.
tea,
keeps up traces of the old system under which
only have changed hands, the consent of
if
at all, with difficulty
it
could
and by
many parties. Through all changes it is how far the old family system of pro-
instructive to notice
perty holds
its
place.
This
is
well seen by considering what
becomes of a man's property when he usual arrangements
made
namely, either that the family
undivided property, or that
dies.
early times are
in
it
sliall
shall
go on
The two most tlie
living
simplest,
on the
be divided among the
ANTHROPCLOGY.
422
When
children, or sons.
the eldest son
of the family, to keep up this dignity he
double portion ancient rule,
common
In France at as
to the
;
patriarchal head
is
may have an
extra or
this is a well- known
Aryan and Semitic nations, for Manu and in Deuteronomy.
both in the Hindu laws of
it is
is
"birth-right"
for his
[jiiap.
this
a matter of
become
has his
day the ancient principle of division
enforced,
legally
the
take
family
shares
their
In England the power of
right.
so
property to
and
great,
whom
man may
that in theory a
he pleases
;
wills
leave
but practically this
is
kept within bounds by moral feeling and public opinion,
which condemn his
own
it
as an unnatural act for a
children to
the Englishman
endow
dies without
leaving
cognises the rights of his family by
them
his personal property.
man
to strip
a stranger or a hospital.
It is
a
will,
fairly
If
the law re-
dividing
among
otherwise with the land
or real estate, which in most cases will pass to the eldest son.
Why
the law should thus allow the claims of the rest
of the family to the money, but not to the land, teresting point of history.
Law
The
is
an
in-
reader of Maine's Ancient
Europe about a thousand years ago, came to pass to the eldest son, not by any means for the purpose of enriching him by disinheriting the others, but that the united kinsfolk might live upon the land and defend it under him as chief of the little clan. If in modern times the head of the family has become possessed of the family estate for his own use, this is because old laws working under new circumstances are apt to produce results which those who framed them find
how,
lands held as
fiefs
will
never foresaw.
in
Primogeniture did not prevail over
England, but older
whole of
some
have
in
ism.
The
best
parts lasted
known
of
rules of
the
family inheritance
on from times before feudalthese
is
where
at
the father's
SOCIETY.
XVI.]
423
deatli the land is divided among the sons, as Domesday Book shows was usual in Edward the Confessor's time. This but is now known as gavelkind, or the custom of Kent, it
appears elsewhere
Lon
north of
Ion
is
;
There even
so held there.
Kentish
instance,
for
supposed
to
have in
exists
its
Town
in the
name from
England a
lands
rule
of
inheritance which sejms to belong to a yet earlier state of
This
society.
for instance at
is
the custom of borough-english, by which,
Hackney
Edmonton,
or
tate the land passes to his
it seems Europe and Asia.
youngest, strange as there in
if
heritance of the settlers in a
to us, It is
new
man
a
youngest son.
die intes-
This right of the
found here and
is still
a reasonable law of
country, where there
is
in-
yet
plenty of land to be had for the taking, and the sons as
they grow up and marry go out and found
new homesteads
But the youngest stays at home and takes care of the old father and mother he is, as the Mongols say, the "fire-keeper," and at their death he naturally
of their own.
;
succeeds to the family home.
This
is
one of the hundreds
of cases of customs which seem arbitrary and unreasonable, because they have lost their sense by lasting on from the
which they properly belonged. In the old days before there were lawyers and law books, solemn acts and rights were made plain to all men by
state of life to
picturesque ceremonies
Many
minds.
of
suited
to
lay hold of
these old ceremonies are
meaning as
and show
their
when two
parties wish to
plainly as ever.
make
firm
unlettered
kept up For example, still
peace or friendship,
they will go through the ceremony of mixing their blood, so as to
now
make themselves
ally
Travellers often
an account of East Africans performing the describes the two sitting together on a hide so as to
barous tribes rite
blood-relations.
themselves in such blood-brotherhood with bar;
ANTHROPOLOGY.
424
become "of one
skin,"
[chap;
and then they made
little
cuts in
one another's breasts, tasted the mixed blood, and rubbed Thus we find still going on it into one another's wounds. in the
among
world a compact which Herodotus describes
and which is also mentioned in the Sagas of the old Northmen and the ancient It would be impossible to put more clearly Irish legends. the great principle of old-world morals, that a man owes
the ancient Lydians
and
Scythians,
mankind
friendship not to
at large but only to his
own
kin,
so tliat to entitle a stranger to kindness and good faith he must become a kinsman by blood. With much the same thought even rude tribes hold that eating and drinking together is a covenant of friendship, for the guest becomes in some sort one of the household, and has to be treated as This helps to explain the vast morally one of the family.
importance people everywhere give to the act of dining Among the millions of India at this day the very together. constitution of society turns on the caste rules
may
or
may not
eat with.
Among
whom
a
man
the marriage ceremonies of
the world, one well known in the far East is that the couple by eating together out of one dish become man and wife. How ceremony expresses meaning in still more striking metaphor is seen in the Hindu marriage, where the skirts of the bridegroom and bride's garments are tied together as a
and the bride steps on a stone to show she A custom is described among English vagrants of the last century, where a man and woman would join hands across the body of a dead beast,
sign of union, will
be as firm as stone.
thus promising that they would be joined
Among
part them.
European law where a man
is
till
death should
the dramatic ceremonies known to
the scene in an ancient
put in his claim to a slave
Roman
law-court,
by stepping forward
and touching him with a rod which represented a spear
;
or
SOCIETY.
XVI.)
when
in old
Germany
425
a piece of land
was transferred by
handing over a sod of the turf with a green twig
the owner
stuck up in
or
it;
when
in feudal times the vassal placed his
hands between the lord's, and so " putting himself in his
hands" became his man. There were ceremonies
in old-world
than such gesture-language. call
law which were more
Barbaric law early began to
on magical and divine powers
to help in the difficult
tasks of discovering the guilty, getting the truth out of wit-
and making a promise binding. This led to the Some ordeals wide-spread system of ordeals and oaths. have really served to discover truth by their effect on the nesses,
conscience of the evil-doer. rice
taken by
all
It is
thus with the mouthful of
of a suspected household in India, which
the thiefs nervous fear often prevents him from swallowing.
This used to be done
in
England with the corsnaed or
trial-
of consecrated bread or cheese ; even now peasants have not forgotten the old formula, " May this bit choke me slice
if I lie
!
"
Another of the (gw ordeals that linger in popular seen when, in some out-of-the-way farm-
memory may be house,
.
all
suspected of a theft are
Jianging to a key, which thief; this classic
is
made
to turn in
to hold a bible
the hands of the
keeps up a form of divination practised in the
world with a sieve hanging by the points of an open
Ordeals have had their day, and are
pair of shears.
discarded
from
the
laws of the most
civilised
now
nations.
Nowadays one has
to go to such countries as Arabia to by hot iron recognised by law, as it was in the days when the legend was told of Queen
find the ordeal
England
in
Emma walking
over the red-hot ploughshares
now go through Yet even of
this ancient
late years,
;
the conjurors
performance as a circus-show.
English rustics have been
duck some wretched old woman supposed
to
known
be a witch,
to
little
ANTHROPOLOGY.
426
knowing
that they were keepuig
where the sacred element
up the ancient
rejects
the right, so that the guilty floats
—a
[c.iap.
writer ordeal,
the
wrong and accepts
and
the innocent sinks
which forms part of the old Hindu lawbook of Manu, and which in English law, till the beginning of the 13th century, was a legal means of trying those accused judicial rite
Ordeals by which the taker brings
of murder or robbery.
present harm on himself
down the
same nature
to call
down
as oaths.
It is
if
he
is
guilty,
are of
usual, however,
future punishment, in this
life
much
for oaths
or after death,
as when, in Russian law-courts in Siberia, the curious spectacle
may be
Ostyak may if
he
is
seen of bringing in a bear's head that an
bite at
it,
thereby calling on a bear to bite him
The
forsworn.
legal oaths in our
in their gestures the traces
own country bear
of high antiquity.
In Scotland
the witness holds up his hand toward heaven, the gesture by which Greek and Jew took the supreme Deity to witness,
In and called down divine vengeance on the perjurer. of practice the comes from book of kissing the England the touching a halidome, or sacred object, as an ancient Roman The touched the altar, or Harold the casket of relics.
form " So help
me God,"
is
inherited from ancient Teutonic-
Scandinavian law, under which the old Nortliman, touching the blood-daubed ring on the altar, swore " So help me Frey, and Niordh, first
and
last
and the almighty god
" (that
is,
Thor).
The
of these are the two old English gods whose
names we keep up To come now
in
Friday and Thursday.
to the last subject of this volume,
history of government.
Complicated as are the
the
political
arrangements of civilised nations, their study is made easier by their simple forms being already found in savage and barbaric
The foundation
life.
already seen,
is
of society,
as has
the self-government of each family.
been Its
SOCIETY.
XVI.]
authority
apt to bj vested in the head of the household
is
thus among low barbaric tribes the father may do as he pleases
them
children, even selling
have no nations
427
the
in
with his
for slaves,
right or wish to interfere.
now
own wives and
and the neighbours Even what civilised
human
take as a matter of course, that every
being coming into the world has a right to In such a recognised by the lower races. as the Australians
and many savages
;
Brazilian forests,
lead,
scarcely
live, is life
of hardship
new-born children
way from sheer need, because many mouths as they can feed. That among such tribes this comes of hardness of life, rather than hardness of heart, is often seen when the parents will go through fire and water to save the very are often put out of
the
the parents have already as
child
it
existence
doubting
were
they
whether
should live or is
die.
about,
a fjw
weeks
Even where the
before,
struggle for
not so severe, the wretched custom of infan-
ticide remains
still
common
in the world.
Nothing more
shows that European nations came up from a barbaric stage than the law which the ancient Romans had in common with our Teutonic ancestors, that it was for the father clearly
of the family
to say
whether the new-born child should be
brought up or exposed.
Once become a member
household, the child has a firmer assurance of
life
of the ;
and
when the young barbarian grows up to be a warrior, and becomes himself the head of a new household, he is usually a free man.
But the oldest
Roman
law shows the head of
the family ruling with a strictness hardly imaginable to our
modern minds,
for
the
father
might
chastise or put
to
grown-up sons, give them in marriage or divorce them, and even sell them. With the advance of civilization, death
in
his
Rome
as
elsewhere,
rights of person
the
sons gradually
and property; and
in
gained their
comparing old-world
ANTHROPOLOGY.
428 life
with our own,
ing
not
plainly seen
is
it
to family rights
toward jDersonal freedom.
freedom
in
modern
life,
ism remain in force
how
Christianity, look-
but to individual
With
all
tended
souls,
the growth of individual
the best features of family despot-
it
;
[chap.
is
under parental authority that
children are trained for their future duties, and the law
how
careful
parent, lest
it
should weaken the very cement which binds
it
society together. perfect a
little
responsible
As, however, the family ceased to be so
kingdom within
own
for his
itself,
is
the individual
aggrieved take vengeance on the culprit's family. ideas of justice
may
teach us that this
life
it
practically the best
is
way
to
in the
it is
lower
keep order,
who live under it it seems right and natural, among the Australians, when one of a family has
done a murder the others take they are guilty too. savages,
it
Far from
the student
becomes
as a matter of course that
this idea
being confined to
familiar with
it
such as Greece and Rome.
of ancient nations,
in the
law
Here
it
be enough to quote the remarkable passage from the
Hebrew law which was,
But
to those
as where,
will
Modern
wrong, that
is
punishing the innocent for the guilty. barbaric
became
We
have seen how, in committed, the family of the
doings.
rude society, when a crime
and
is
gives the child personal rights against the
and reforms
prudence
:
— " The
once records what the old principle by bringing in the ideas of higher juris-
at
it
fathers shall not be put to death for the
children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers
:
every
(Deut. xxiv.
man
shall
be put to death for his own sin."
1 6.)
Wherever the traveller in wild regions meets a few families roaming together over the desert, or comes upon a cluster of huts by a stream in the tropical forest, he may find, if he looks closely enough, some rudiments of government; for
SOCIETY.
XVI.]
429
is business which concerns the whole Uttle community, such as a camping-ground to be chosen, or a fishery quarrel
there
to be settled with the next tribe
the Greenlanders, as in the world,
it
little
down
Even among
the river.
governed a people as almost any
was noticed that when several
families lived
one weather-wise old fisherman would have the north end of the snow-house for his place together
all
the
winter,
and be appointed about
their
to look after
the inmates, taking
keeping the snow walls
out and coming in together so as not to waste heat
when they went
out
pathfinder would to
chosen as the most or no
actual
tribes
such
a
also
is
common
headman
or chief,
It
important or shrewdest authority
;
experienced
hunting parties an
be chosen as leader.
among rude
find
little
in
care
and going
in repair,
but he has
;
over the families, and gets
way by persuasion and public opinion. Naturally such a headman's family is of consequence already, or, if not, he makes them so, and thus there is a tendency for his office to his
become
hereditary.
In tribes formed under the
female kinship, where the chief 's
own son may be
rule of
out of the
new chosen chief will probably be a younger nephew on the mother's side. Under the rule of succession on the father's side, which is so much more
succession, the
brother or a
familiar to us, the very
patriarchal government.
move
growth of the family brings on a
Suppose a
single
out into the wilds and found a
new
begins under the rule of the father, who, as
round the
built
clan
;
more
new
it
huts are
home, remains head of the growing
but as old age comes on, his eldest son more and acts in his
as succeeding
then
first
household to settlement,
is
name, and at his death will be recognised Here in the headship of the community.
him
seen the rise of the hereditary chief or patriarch of
the tribe,
first in
29
rank as representing the ancestor, and with
ANTHROPOLOGY.
430
more or practical
But here also there is a less of real autliority. power of setting the successor aside if he is too
when perhaps
timid or wilful or dull, will
be put
set aside
[chap.
by
The
this.
It
civilization.
nation, but
though the
in his place,
may
his uncle or brother
line of succession
patriarchal system extends far
is
not
on
in
not confined to one particular race or
is
at
this
day be studied alike among the
brown hill-men of India and the negroes of West AfricaTo us it is especially well known from the Old Testament, which shows
it
in
the form
it
takes in a pastoral nation,
and which still may be seen with little change among the Arabs of the desert, whose clans and tribes are governed by Not less does it their patriarchs, the sheykhs or old men. lie at the foundation of the politics of the Aryan race, where remains
its
may
still
be traced
in the village
communities of
India and Russia, the village elder presiding in the council of " white-heads " being the modern representative of the earlier patriarch with the chiefs of
clan around him.
wants
may
younger branches of the
Under such mild
rule,
people of few
prosper in time of peace, in the kindly possible where
nism which
is
The weak
point of such a society
advance, for civilization
is
at
there are
no is
rich that
it
a standstill where
lated by ancestral custom administered
commu-
and no poor» can hardly it
is
regu-
by great-grandfathers.
Everywhere in the world, in war some stronger and more intelligent rule than this is needed and found. The changes which have shaped the descendants of wild hordes into civilized nations have been in great measure the work of the war-chief.
When among peace-chief
is
such uncultured tribes war breaks out, the pushed aside and a leader chosen, or in war-
like tribes the war-chief
Of
course he
is
may be
the acting head at
a tried warrior, and his endurance
all
times.
may even
SCCIETY.
XVI.]
to a special examination, as wlien the Caribs
be put test
431
would
a candidate for war-chief by mercilessly Hogging and
hammock
scratching him, smoking him in a
over a
of
fire
green leaves, or burying him up to the middle in a nest of
We
stinging-ants.
even find
America the principle of
in
when Chilian tribes would man who could lift the biggest
competitive examination for king,
choose as tree
on
their chief the
his
shoulder and carry the change
countries
loose crowd into an
longest.
it
wonderful
is
army under a
In these rude
when war
the
turns
powers of
leader, with
and death to enforce discipline. When Martius the was travelling through a Brazilian forest with a Miranha chief, they came to a fig-tree where the skeleton of
life
naturalist
a man was bound
to the trunk with cords of creepers,
the chief grimly explained that this was one of his
and
men who
had disobeyed orders by not summoning a' neighbouring tribe to help against the invading Umauas, and he had him In barbarous tied up there and shot to death with arrows. countries the tribe-chief and the war-chief may be found side by side but when the power of the bow and spear once asserts itself, it is apt to grow further. Throughout history, war gives the bold and able leader a supremacy which may nomi;
end with the campaign, but which tends to pass into life. Military government in civil affairs is, in fact, despotism and if the military leader can thus become the tyrant of his own land, still more can he rule with a rod nally
dictatorship for
;
Dahome, rule,
The negro kingdom
a conquered country.
of iron
an astounding specimen
is
submit
to
deity;
they
throwing his slaves,
of
the result of two centuries of barbaric military
from a despot
whom
approach him
dust over their
whose
lives
of what a people
on
grovelling
heads
he takes
will
they regard as a kind of
;
all-fours,
the whole
at will
;
the
and
nation
women
are
are all
ANTHROPOLOGY.
432 his, to give or sell
the land
;
thing but at his pleasure.
been
and none owns any-
kings of Asiatic nations have
absolute
as
theoretically
is all his,
The
[chap.
as this,
but practically in
advancing civilization the king makes or sanctions laws which
bind himself and his successors, making society more fixed
and life more tolerable. Also, as soon as religion becomes a power in the state, it becomes joined or mixed with civil and military government. Thus among negroes the highpriest and war-chief may be the two heads of the government, while the Incas of Peru, as descendants and representatives
of the divine
sun, ruled
their
nation with
paternal despotism which settled for the people what they
should do and eat and wear, and
kingdom
whom
they should marry.
must be hereditary in the Indeed, monarchy, however gained, divine ruling family. tends to become hereditary, and especially the military usurper will found a dynasty on the model of a patriThus sovereignty may be elective, hereditary, archal chief. In
such
military,
a
ecclesiastical, and, difficult as
kingdoms,
be traced
The
some combination of in
by
war
;
history of
in consolidating a loosely
formed society
who have seen a barbaric tribe an enemy or defend their own borders.
travellers
prepare to invade Provisions
the
is
these causes can always
them.
effects of
are described
stock
royalty
and property are brought
into
the
common
the warriors submit their unruly wills to a leader,
private quarrels are sunk in a larger patriotism. clans of kinsfolk
come
and neighbouring
and
Distant
common enemy, no such natural union make
together against the
tribes with
an alliance, their chiefs serving under the orders of a leader
chosen by them
all.
two of the greatest
Here
are seen in their simplest forms
facts in history,
where the several forces are led by
— the
their
organised army,
own
captains under
SOCIETY.
XVI.]
433
a general, and the confederation of civihsation brings in
on
such as in higher
tribes,
political federations of states like those
Out of such
Greece and Switzerland.
alliances of tribes,
when
they last beyond the campaign, there arise nations,
where
often, as in old
tribe will
become
common
be of
Mexico, the head of the strongest Tribes which thus unite are apt to
king.
speaking kindred dialects, for
race,
themselves into
allied
common name,
this is
and when they have one people, and come to bear a
everywhere a natural bond of union
;
such as Dorians or Hellenes, they willingly
take up the old patriarchal idea, and imagine themselves
more
closely of
one
fiation or
"birth
even setting up, as we have seen national ancestor.
somewhat
(p.
"
than they really are,
389), a fictitious as a
Events take a different course, but with a
like effect,
when some
Kafir leader conquers other
tribes around, and, setting himself above them
all,
forces
the conquered chiefs to bring him tribute and warriors to fight his battles.
This
is
empire on a small scale and with
rude surroundings, but on the same principles as that of a
Thus one understands why
Caesar or a Napoleon. early history of nations
out
it is
how far any people have grown up from
tribe,
or
have been
built
in the
so inextricably difficult to
up by
What shows how this piecing gone on, is the number and
make
a single unmixed
alliance
and conquest.
together of nations must have variety of their gods.
names and worship of
While
same bond of union in all the clans, and even when they move far off they will sometimes go on pilgrimage to the shrines of their old home. But when peoples amalgamate, their different gods are kept up, as when
a tribe grows of
itself,
the
the
tribe-gods will be a
the Peruvians gave places to the gods of conquered tribes
under
their
own
Egypt shows by
great deities. its
Every
district in ancient
varied combination of gods
how many
ANTHROPOLOGY.
434 little
and
states
local religions
despotism and hierarchy.
It
went
to
[chap.
make up
was plainly through
the great
this
growth
which had been going on we know not how long
of nations,
before history began, that the higher civilization of
mankind
Scattered families of barbarians in a land where
arose.
elbow room may thrive without strong governwhen men live in populous nations and crowded
there
is still
ment
;
but
That this political be doubted. War the power over sovereign not only put into the hands of the his model on which as a whole nation, but his army served lessons the plainest of It is one to organize his nation. were discipline mankind military through of history that under comin masses and act authority submit to taught to there has to be public order.
cities,
order
came out of
military order cannot
Egypt and Babylon, with military system pervading
mand.
not only the standing army, but the orders of priests and civilians, developed industry and wealth highest in the ancient world, and were the very founders of literature and science.
They
built
up
for future ages the
framework of
government, which we freer moderns of our own ourselves to for our
own
benefit.
A
ment, whether called republic or kingdom,
ment by which the nation governs
will
submit
constitutional govern-
itself
is
an arrange-
by means of the
machinery of a military despotism.
As
society in tribes
system, If
it
we look
early for
and nations became a more complex
began to divide into classes or ranks. an example of the famous first principle
of the United States,
"that
all
men
are created equal,"
we shall in fact scarcely find such ecjuality except among savage hunters and foresters, and by no means The greatest of all divisions, that between always then. freeman and spares the
slave,
life
appears as soon as the barbaric warrior
of his
enemy when he has him down, and
SOCIETY.
XVI.]
him home
brings
low
to
drudge
in civilization this
435
him and
for
the
till
How
soil.
begins appears by a slave caste for-
bidden to bear arms forming part of several of the lower How thoroughly slavery was recognized tribes.
American
as belonging to old-world society
may be seen by
way
the
formed part of tne Hebrew patriarchal system, where the man-servant and maid-servant are reckoned as a man's
it
wealth just before his ox and his
Roman at
first
live in
law, as
is
ass.
It
meant not the children but the days when the last remains of
ing from the Jiigher nations
has outgrown
was no
less so
under
evident from the very word famt'/y, which
but though the civilized world
;
the ancient institution,
early society gained from
We
slaves (famu/us).
slavery are disappear-
still
it
the benefits which
remain.
was through
It
and industry leisure was given to and accumulated, wealth
slave labour that agriculture
increased, that priests, scribes,
Out
poets, philosophers, to raise the level of men's minds.
of slavery probably arose the later custom of hired service, the
very
name
of which, as derived from semis, a slave,
story of a great social change.
slaves to their
work
for his profit,
The master
and then
free
advantage to work for their own
grew up the great wage-earning influence
make
class
tells
the
at first let out his
men
profit,
found
it
to
so that there
whose numbers and
so marked a difference between ancient and
modern society. In all communities, except the smallest and simplest, the freemen divide themselves into ranks. The old Northmen divided men into three classes, '• earls, churls, and thralls," which roughly match what we should now call nobles, freemen, and slaves. Nobles again fall into different orders, especially those
who can claim royal blood down on the chiefstate, and church who fill
forming a princely order, and looking tains
and
officers of the
army,
the lower ranks of nobility.
ANTHROPOLOGY.
436
As nations become more populous,
[chap.
rich,
and
intelligent,
The the machinery of government has to be improved. old rough-and-ready methods no longer answer, and the division of labour has to
be applied
to politics.
Thus, one
A
Kafir chief-
of the chief's early duties was to be judge.
make
tain will
people
his business
it
each side brings him a
;
levels of civilization
justice
;
and
the king sat It
still
is
to
hear suits between his of oxen.
gift
the Eastern monarch
sits in
At higher the gate of
was so among the ancient Germans, where crowned and gave judgment in his own court. it
the king's court, but the actual administration
So has long passed into the hands of professional judges. civilitime the By government. of departments other with zation
had come
to the level of ancient
Egypt and Babylon
public affairs were administered by officials in grades like an army, who collected the taxes, attended to public works,
punished offences, and did justice between man and man. It has just been noticed how far a modern nation is worked
by an
how
system similar to that of the ancients, and
official
we, really
among
forms of an absolute is
administered
the freest of peoples, preserve the
monarchy, where sovereign power
through servants of the Crown
down
to
In the politics of savages and barbarians, the outlines of the civilized system of government already come into view. We have seen how the exciseman
and
among such rude
constable.
or king appears,
tribes the chief
holds his place in some
form through higher nations.
the consul or president of a republic elective king.
old
men
on the
Of not
squatting round the council
prairies
have
is
less antiquity
in their
way a
who Even
a kind of temporary is
fire
the senate.
The
of an Indian tribe
greater influence than a
where there are no written records and men are the very sources and treasuries of old the books civilized senate, for
XVI
SOCIETY.
]
wisdom.
In
437
nations of the world, seats at such councils
llic
and officers of high rank, and heads of great families, so that the two terms senate and house of lords both have their proper meaning, and the two claims of wisdom and rank are more or less combined. With the very beginning of pohtical life appears also the popular assembly. In small tribes the whole comare given to wise old men, priests
come
munity, or at least the freemen,
be only a chief
forest
tribe
decide some
to
together.
in Brazil called
It
together
an expedition
question of
may
by the to net
wildfowl or attack a neighbouring tribe, yet solemn form will
There
be observed.
is
silence for the orators,
it
!
so
"
people
More may be
Achaian
agora
Edward
in
of the
if
" be
assembly of
the
!
Freeman's comparison of the
in the second book of the great meeting " held outside London in
described *'
with the
Iliad,
forms
civilized
studied
and
" or
the assembly approve they will at last cry " good
the Confessor's time.
Even
in
our
own day
the
meeting of the people has not disappeared from Europe. The wonderful sight is still to be seen of the people of a Swiss canton gathered together in a wide
great
meadow
No on the great supreme authority decides. With
or market-place to vote Yes or
questions which
their
the growth of nations the
folk- moot or
assembly of the
whole people, never a good deliberative body, soon becomes
unmanageable by mere numbers which
when
its
authority
may be kept
but there
a
less
the people, no longer able to go
chosen representatives to act
for
device enough, and indeed the sent a discreet
in
fact
it
is
is
a
way by
unwieldy form
themselves, send
them. This seems a simple first
orator to negotiate
behalf had seized the idea of
But
;
in
savage tribe that ever
peace or war on
its
a political representative.
one of the most remarkable points
in
ANTHROPOLOGY
438 political history,
how
[chap.
the principle of popular representation
has been worked out in England from the time of Simon de It is Montfort's famous parliament in the 13th century. for historians to discuss how the knights and burgesses
who came up
to grant the
king's
lower house of parliament as noticed here
is
the
it
supplies passed into the is
now
what has
;
be
to
change which, while the huge pro-
miscuous assembly of the people shrank into an aristocratic
upper house, gave us a new elective popular body, the house of commons.
It is
not
much
to say that
no
so great an effect
in
too
event in English history has had
On
shaping the course of modern civilization. looking at what government enlightened nations,
will
is
coming
to
be seen that
among
it
the most
attains
its
ends,
methods of our remote barancestors, as by improving and regulating them. The
not so baric
much by
it
the whole,
casting off the
administration of the state under the system of sovereign authority, political
the control of the senate, and
power
the
source
of
made
to
in the will of the nation itself, are
work together and restrain one another so as fairly to keep the benefits and neutralize the excesses of all, while the constitution has within it the power of continual reform, so that the machine of government
may be
ever shaping
more perfect fitness to its work. Here this sketch of Anthropology may
into
itself
The
close.
ex-
amination of man's age on the earth, his bodily structure
and
varieties of race
into his intellectual life
there
may be
and language, has led us on to enquire In his many-sided social history.
and
clearly traced a development, which, not-
withstanding long periods of stoppage and frequent falling back, has on the whole adapted far
modern
higher and happier career than
civilized
man
his ruder
In this development, the preceding chapters have
for a
ancestors.
shown a
SOCIETY.
XVI.]
difference between low
439
and high nations, which
only
it
remains to put before the reader as a practical moral to the
both among savage and
It is true that
tale of civilization.
civilized peoples progress in culture takes place, but
The
under the same conditions. through
life
with the intention of gathering
more knowledge
better laws than
On
and framing his
tendency
down
impiety to
his fathers.
the perfection of wisdom, which
make
the lower races
the
alteration
Ijast
there
desirable reforms,
man,
progress
Looking
imagine.
it
may be
his
would be
can only
force
its
way
of this century can of the rude
condition
the
at
we
seen that his aversion to change was not
always unreasonable, and
from a true
it
Hence among
in.
obstinate resistance to the most
is
and
with a slowness and difficulty which hardly
the contrary,
to consider his ancestors as having handed
is
him
to
not
savage by no means goes
instinct.
indeed
With
may
often
his ignorance
have arisen
of any
but
life
own, he would be rash to break loose from the old tried
machinery of
society, to
plunge into revolutionary change,
which might destroy the present good without putting better in
its
Had
place.
larger, they
But we
culture.
the experience
would have seen civilized
their
of ancient
way
men been
to faster steps
moderns have
just
that
in
wider
knowledge which the rude ancients wanted. Acquainted with events and their consequences far and wide over the world,
we
are able to direct our
fidence toward improvement.
own
course with more con-
In a word, mankind
is
pass-
ing from the age of unconscious to that of conscious progress. in
to their is
Readers who have come thus far need not be told of what the facts must have already brought
many words not
minds
—
that the
study of
man and
civilization
only a matter of scientific interest, but at once
passes into the practical business of
lif_\
We
have
in
it
ANTHROPOLOGY.
440 the
means of understanding our own
lives
[chap. xvi.
and our place
in
the world, vaguely and imperfectly it is true, but at any rate more clearly than any former generation. The knowledge of man's course of will
not
only
life,
from the remote past
help us
to
forecast the
to the present,
future,
but
may we
guide us in our duty of leaving the world better than
found
it.
—
—
SELECTED BOOKS, Physical and Descriptive Anthropology
;
&c.
:
Waitz, Anthropobgie der Naturvolker. Topinard, AnthicpoLigy. Darwin, Descent of Man. Huxley, Man's Place in Nature ; Geographical Distribution of Mankind ^\i\ /ouj-nal of Ethnologicul Socie'y,Vo\. II. 1870). Vogt, Lectures on Man. Prichard, Natural History of Man. Wood, Natural Hihtory: Man, Peschel, Races of Man. Qualrefages, Human Species.
Hunterian Lectures on "The Comparative Man." Nature, July 1879 (Vol. XX., Nos. 505, 506, 507), and May and June 1880, (Vol. XXH., Nos.
1 rjf.
Flower's
Anatomy
of
551. 552, 553). ,
,
.
,
^.
Broca, Instructions Craniologiques, Anthropological Notes ana Queries for Travellers, &c. (British A- sociation). Journal of the Anthropological Institute (London).
Revue
d' Anthropologic (Paris).
fiir Ethnologic (Berlin). Accounts of races by travellers and missionaries, such as Catlin, Elbs, Polynesian Researches North American Indians Wallace, Travels on the Amazon, and Malay Archipelago ; Burton, Lake Regions of Central Africa; J. L. Wils.in, Western Africa Grey, Travels in Au.-tralia; etc., etc.
Zeitschrift
;
;
Ge
>L0OY AND ARCH.T.OLOGY OF MaN Lubbock, Prehistor.c Times. Lyell, Antiquity of
:
Man.
Dawkins, Cave-hunting ; Early Man in Britain. Evans, Ancient Stone Implements of Great Bntain. Fergu-son, Rude Stone Monuments. Keller and Lee, Lake Dwellings of Switzerland. Nilsson, Primitive Inhabitants of Scandinavia. Wilson, Prehistoric Man.
—— SELECTED BOCKS, ETC.
442
Philology
:
on the Science of Language. Sayce, Comparative Philology ; Introduciiju to the Science of
Max
Miiller, Lectures
Language. Whitney, Language and the Study of Lan?uage. Hovelacque and Vinson, The Science of Language. Pictet, Origines Indo-Europeenne-. Steinthal,
Charakteristik
hauptiachlichsten
der
Typea dj;
Sprachbaues,
Civilisation
:
Maine, Ancient Law. Lubbock, Origin of Civihsation. Bagehot, Physics and Polirics. Freeman, Comparative Politics Historical Essays. Draper, Intellectual Development of Europe. McLennan, Studies in Ancient History. Morgan, Ancient Society. Spencer, Principles of Sociology. ;
Klemm, AUgemeine
Culturwissenchift. Culturgesctiichte Mankind ; Primitive Culture.
Tylor, Early History of
;
INDEX. Arrow, Abacus, 314
26, 195.
no n,
4
AV.p, 399
Artillery, 227
Aryans,
10, 109, 156. 381
languages, 10, 1^6 Assyrians, 22, 160. 3^3, 3S4 language, 160
Atnxes, 1^2 Africans, 2, 57, 65. 87 language^, 164 Aged. 409 Agglutinating languages, 161 Agriculture, 214 Ainos, 73 Alb.nos, 68 Alchemv, 328 Alcoholic liquors. 2GS
Astr,
logy, 339 Ajtr nomy. 21. 332
Australians. 57, 91
Auxiliary words Avesta, 381
B Baking, 266 Ball. 307
Rantu languages,
Alphabet, 175
Barbaric .tage, tsark-clothing.
Barometer, 325
194
Americans, 6j, 102, 168 anguages, 165 Analogy, 338 Analytic languages, 139
Barter, 281
Ancestor-worship, 3r2 ,r8 Animals, cries of, ,22 domest.caied, 219 quaternary, 30 succession of,
^^
nf,-.
37
Antiquiiv ( f Afan t «Apes\nd\M'ai'^3"8; 3,^^io^^'^°'"3-^^ Arabs, 109 language, n, 159 Arch, 235 Arch.ttclure. 21, 232 Arist cracy, 225. 4^5 Ar thmetic, 17, 314 )ur, 222
Am
Army,
226. 434
149. 24. 401
244
Basuti. 165
Anatjmy, 330
Anim.sm, 371
37
22. 163, 172 .'-in^uage, 163
Algebra, 322
Alar, 367
1
Babylonians,
All.teration. 289
Amentum,
212
P-is ned, 221
Abstract ideas, 52, words, 135 Acclimatisati n. 74 Administraii.n, 4
Beast-fables, 3^3 Beer, 26S Birbtrs. 95 langu.age, 160 BibJical history, 385 Bill-ho'jk, 190 Bills of exchange. 284
Black races,
2, 5, 80, 87 Blood-brotherhood, 423 Blood-vengeance. 414 Bl .w-tube. 196 Blue Beard, 398 Bjat, 252 BoJy-nieasures, 17, :,:6 Boil.ng, 26O
Bjomerang, 193
B irer, 192 B-^tany, 329
Bjw, 16, 1C3. 212 B.-achykep!ial.c, 61
,64
INDEX.
444 Brain, 45, 60 Brand-tillage, 218
Bread, 266 Brick, 234
Dagger, 190 Danc»ng. 224, 296
Broiling, 265
Dark-whites, 2, 56, 68, 107 Dead, worship of, 352
Brunze, 21, 278 Bronze Age, 25, 279
Brown
Deaf-and-dumb
Bur.al, 347 B.irning-lens
Bushmen,
Decimal counting, 311 Decline of culture. 19
and
Defjrmation of
mirror, 263
Degeneration,
57, 89, 165
Cafusos, 82 Candle, 27.; Cannibalism, 224, 410 Canoe, 252 Cardinal points, 21, 334
Digging-stick, 216 Diseases, 73, 353 Distilling, 269, 328 Dog, 209
D jl.chokephalic,
spirit,
86
Despotism, 431
Car.bs, 78 Caste, 69 Cattle, 219
Cave-men,
skull, &c., 240
19.
Demoniacal possession, 353 Demons, 352 Demon-worship, 353 Descent, female and male, 402
C
Cause,
signs, 115
Death, 343
races, 2, 5, 91
Buddha, 399
2,
Domesticated animals, 219
Caves, 229
Drama, 298
Celt, 26, 187
Dravidians, 94 languages, 164 Drawing, 31, 300 Dreams, 343 Drift, animals of. 30
Cereals, 215
Ceremonies, 365, 403, 423 Chaldeans, 22, 3S4 Che.nistry, 328 Chess, 308 Ch.efs, 428 Ch.lcirea's language, 128
implements
Drum, 293 Dryads 357 Dualism, 363 Dutch, 9
Civilisation, 13, 18, 24, 75, 180, 406 Civilised stage, 24, 401 Clicks, 165
Dwellings, 229
236
E
Coffee, 270 C )in, 283 Coljiir, 66, 81, 85
Ear- and nose-ornaments, 242 Karth-god, 359 Echo, 357 Education, capacity for, 74 Egyptians, 3, 21. 69, 79, 95, 173, 383 language, 160
Comedy, 2q9 Commerce, 285
Common Compass,
land, 419 28, 341
Concord, 147 Consciousness, 53 C nstitution of races, 73 C nstitutionalism, 438 Cookery, 264 Copper, 277 C jrn, 215 Counting, 18, 310 Creator, 358
Electricity, 327
Elephants,
>vf,
16,
Crossed races,
fossil, 30.
Emotional sound, Empire, 433
Eponymic myths, 389 Esquimaux,
105, 265
Ethiopians, 69
Etymology, 126, 134 Europeans, 60, 109
196 80
Evolution, 36, 331 Exogamy, 402 Exorcism. 354 Eyes, 2, 6j, 70
6,
Cultivation, 215 Ciuneiform writing, 172, 31
Cujtom, 4C9
^
388
120, 124
English, 133
Cromlech, 348 Cross-b
1S7
Drill, 202
Chinese, 2, 57, 63, 162, 170 language, 162
15,
of, 28,
Drift-period, 28
Chimney, 264
Clothing, Club, 184
61
Dolmen, 348
356
30, 261
INDEX. Facial angle, 62 Fair-whites. 2, 56, 68, 107 Families of lan,;uage, 9, 155 Family, 402, 426 Fates, 395 Father, power of, 427 Features, 44, 63 Federation, 433
Gypsies, 112
H Hair, 2, 44, 71, 82 Ha r-dressmg, 238
Hammer,
1S5
Hand and
Female succession, 429
fo^t, 42 i3,
counting en,
Feudalism, 420
310
Harmony, 293
Fiction, 379 Fields, 218. 420
Figures. 312 Fijiins, 90 F.nger- and toe-coi-.nting. Finger-nails 240 Fi.ins, 98 Fire, 260 Firearms, 17, 197. 227
Harp, 204 Harpoon, 214 Hatchet, 188 i3, 311
Hawk.ng, 2-9 Heat, 327 Heaven-god, 359
Hebrew,
11,
159
Herodotus, 385
Fire-drill, 16, 261
Hieroglyph.es, 173
Fire-god, 361 First man, 358 Fish-ho^k, 213 Fishing, 212 Flakes, stone, 26, 185 Flint-and-steel, 261 Fo )d, 206, 264 Forests, succession of, 27 Fortification, 228 Ffssil bones. 388 Fowling. 208
Hindus, III, 157 Histjric period, 5, 22, 373 Hoe, 216 Hospitality, 409 Hottentots, 89, 165 language, 165 House, 231 Houses of Lords and Hung.irians, 98 language, 162
Freemen, 225, 434 Fruits, 216
Hunting, 207, 220 Hut, 230
Future
Game
life,
and
Curiatii, 397
Commons, 437
Ideas, 52, 119, 135 Id ,1s, 365 Im.tative signs, 116 sounds, 124
law, 419
Games, 305
words, 121 Implements, 183
Gas, 273 Gender, 149 Genius, 356
Index, Kephalic, 61 India, hill-tribes,
2,
94
laterite, 31
Geography, 335
races,
Geologi', 29, 32, 336
Geometry, 17, 318 Germans, no language, 9 Gesture-language, 114, Ghosts, ^44, 349
12.
Giants. 388 Glacial period, 30 Glass, 276 liods, 358 15, 428,
in, 164
Individuals, 421, 428 infanticide. 427 Inflict. ng languages, 161 Inheritance. 421 Inipiratiun, 366 Instinct, 51 Intcrjectijns, 121, 124 Intonati-jn, 162, 291 Ir^n, 21. 277
Iron Age, 25, 279 ItaLans, 158
Gogmagog, 390 -overnment, Grain, 215
H.jratii
344, 349
Garments, 249
<
445
Grimm's law, 155 Guardian spiri.s, 356
437
irammar. 119, 146. 156 ("rammatical words, 137 (iravitation, 325 Greeks, 158 I
30
Javelin, 193
Jews.
4. 109, 159,
Justice, 43O
385
INDEX.
446
K
Maui, 393
Keltic pejples, 28, 71, xio, 153 languages, 158 Kephalic index, 61 Killing, 412 eld and infirm, 410
Measures, 17, 316 Mechanics, 323 Medicine, 15, 330 Mclanesians, 89 Melanochroi, 107
K.ng, 430, 4j6
Melody, 293 IMemory, 49 Menhir, 348 Mensuration, 317
Ku.fe, 189
L Labret, 242 Lamp, 272 Lancet, 192
Mes
Land, common, 21Q, 419 Land-law, 218, 419 Language, 7, 53, 129, 152, 337 analytic and symhet.c, 139
phalic, 61
and
race, 166 children's, 128
Micri.nes.ans, 102 Mill, 200, 204
connex.on of, 154 development cf, 130
M.nd, 47 M.rr^r, 2C3, 326 Missiles, 193
famil.es of, 9, 155 natural, 122 or.g.n of, 130, 165 Lapps, gS Lathe, 203 Latin, 7, 156 Law, 405. 412, 423
Laz), 212 Leather, 245 Lens, 263 Libyans, 69 Life, future, 344, 349
L .ng-bow,
16,
Mongolians.
5,
63. 96
languages. 162
Monosyllab.c languages, 162 Monotheism, 364 Morals, 368, 405 Mourning. 237 Mulattos, 80 Music, 291 Mutilati ins, 240 INIyth, 387
105
Lojm, 248 Lucifer-niatches, 263
M Mach'nes, 198 Magic. 338 Ma.ze, 215 Malayo-Folynesians, 102 Language, 163 Malays, 99
Mainmotn, 30
Man,
38, 45 antiquity of, i, 25, 33, 40. 113, 166 first, 358 primit.ve, 33. 40, 113 unity of, 6, 85 races <_f, I, 56, 75 85, 113 Manes, 352, 35S
Manilaughttr, 412 ris,
Mixed races, 80, 85 Monarchy, 431 Money, 282
Meon-god, 361 Mo^rs, III
Light, 326 Li n, cave, 30 Liquors, 26S Logic, 336
Ma
.k
Melal Age, 25, 189 Metals, 20, 189, 277 Metaphor, 126, 290 Metre, 288 Mexicans, 105, 169
N Nation, 433 Natural language, 122 Nature-mytds, 391 Nature-sp.rits, 356, 391 Need-fire, 262
Needle, 249 Negritos, 89
Negro-European Negros,
dialects, 153
2, 57, 65,
Nightmare, 337 Nobles, 435 Nomades, 219 Norns, 395 Nose, 63 Nubians, 94 Numerals, 18, 310 Nymphs, 357
102, 374
Mariner's compass, 328, 341 Marriage, 402
Masonry, 21, 233 Mathematics, 17, 321 Mats, 246
S7
Neolithic implemen.s, 26, 1S7 Nets, 212
Oar, 256 Oath, 362, 425 Obli [Ue eyes, 2. 63 Oracle-priests, 366
INDEX. Ordeal. 425 Origin of hmgur.ge, 13^, 165 of man, 85 Ornaments, 241 ( irthognathous, 62 Outrigger, 255
447
Qu.idroons. 80
Quaternary purijd. 25 Qainary numeration, 311
R Races and languages, Paddle. 256 Pa.iit.njj.
301 body. ^37 Pa.a;olithiciiiipl;ments, 25, 1^6 Panihcism. 364 Pantoiiiime. 114. 2j8
Paper-money. 2S4 Papuas. 72, 90 Parts of speech, 138 Pasturage, 219 Paiagon.ans. 57 Paternal p jwer. 427 Patriarchal system, 429 Pendulum. 324 Persians, 63, 157, 381 Personal pr perty, 420 Personification, 395 Peruvians. 59, 105 Phoenicians, 175 language, 59 Physics, 323 i'icture-writing, i68
Pipe, 294 Pla.ting, 246 Plants, 214
153, 165
characters of, i. 56, 75, 80, 113 degeneration of, 86 mixture or crossing of, 80, 85 permanence of. 80 variation of, 80, 85 Raft, 255 Rain-goJ. 359 Rank, 434 Real words, 137
Reason. 50, 336 Red Ridmehood, 394 Renuplicaii-n, 128 Religion, 342, 368, 407, 432 Rent, 420 Representation, ixjjitical, 437 Retal.at.on, 417 Retribution, future. 368 Rhyme. 289 Kight of l.fe, 427 Kiver-god. 361 Ro nance languages, 7 Romulus and Re.nus, 380 Roots, 144 Rude stone monuments, 34S Rudimentary organs. 36
Plough, 217
P
etry, 287. 375 rois n. arrow-, 221 fish. 213 Polynesians, 102. 374 l:ingiiage, 163
Polythe.sm, 362 P. pular assembly, 437 Porcelain, 276 Possession, demoniacal, 15, 353 Potato, 215 Pottery. 274
wheel. 275 Prae-historic period, 5, 37^ Pr.iyer, 360. -^(4
Prinogenitiire, 422 Printing. 180 Private war, 419
Pr gnathous, 62 Pr me:heus. 396 Pronouns, 138 Pr perty. 419 Pr porti' ns of body, 58 P.-ose, 287 Public opinion, 408
Pi:IIev, 198
Punishment, 414 Pyramids, 21, 233, 334 Pyn^es, 263
Sacrifice, 346, 360, 365
Sa
I,
236
Samo' eds, 60 ijanskr.t, 10. 156 Savage stage, Saw. 192
24, 32,
4
Scandinavians, iii, 158 Screw. 192, 203 Sculpture. 300 Sea-god, 360 Semit.c nations, 4. 69, 80 languages, 11, 159 Senate, 436 Sentences, 139 Sew.ng, 249 Shield, 222 Ship, 257 Siamese, 97, 162 Sign-language, 114 Skin, 2, 66, 81 Skull, 2, 60 deformation, 240 Sky-god, 359 Slavery, 225, 421, 434 Sling, 194
Smell of races, Society, 401
2,
70
i
INDEX.
448 Song, 224,
287, 375
Soul, 343, 350, 369
Sound, 326 South-East Asiau languages, ife Spade, 216 Spear, 186, 194, 213 Spear-throwers, 191 Species, descent of, 36, 331 Spelling, 17S Spinn.ng, 246 Spirit, 344, 349, 356, 391 Stature, 56, 76 Steam-power, 204, 259, 271 Steel, 278
Stone Age, 25, 28, 187, 279 implements, 26, 187 monuments, 348 Stove, 264 String, 246 Succession, 429. 432 Sun-god, 360, 368
Sun-myth,
Tree-spirits, 357
Tribe-land, 419 Trumpet, 293 Turanian languages, 161
Typical men, 76
Vampire, 356 Variation of races, 84 Veda, 156, 381 Veddas. 164 Vengeance, 414 Verse, 287 Vertebrates, 35, 47 Vessels, 274 Vigesimal counting, 311 Village community, 219, 420 Vishnu, 367, 397 Vis.ons. 343
394, 397
W
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Syrians, 69,
80
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Weapons, 184, 221 Wealing. 247 Werewolf, 356 Wergild, 416
Tactic?, 226
Tanning. 245 Tasmanians, 91 Ta;ars, 98
language, 161 Tatooing, 2^7 Tea, 270Temperament of races, 74 Temple, 318, 367 Tent, 231 Teutons, 158 Theatre, 298 Theft, 413
Thunderbolt, 26, 359 Thunder-god, 359 Tools, 183, 192 Torch, 272 Totem, 403 Trade. 285 Tradition, 373 Tragedy, 299 Trance, 343 1 ransmigration of soul, 350, 369 Trapping, 2H
Wheel-carriage, 198
White
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2, 5. 57,
69, 109, 11;
Widow,
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Wind-gcd, 361 Windmill, 204
Wine, 268 Words, borrowed. 155 combination, 140 formation, 126, 140
Worship, 364 Wr.ting, 169
X Xanthochroic, 107
Yellow race,
Zoology, 329
2, 5,
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SCHOOL SYSTEM OF ONTARIO.
By
the Hon. George W. Ross, LL. D., Minister of Education for l2mo. Cloth, $1.00. the Province of Ontario.
This book shows the evolution of the school system of Ontario from its inception down to the present time. iLs main purpose, however, is to supply information with regard to the organization and management of the different departments of the system, and the means which have been provided for promoting its efficiency through uniform examinations, the training of teachers in both public and high schools, and its thorough The work will be found specially supervision by means of the Kducatinn Department. interesting to those concerned in school administration, and as an illustration of a organized to meet the conditions of a laree and progressive Anglo-Saxon school system population will be of value in the comparative study of the institutions of a self-governing community.
SONGS AND rHE MOTHER PLAY. Blow.
MUSIC OF FROEBEUS
Prepared and arranged by Susan Fully illustrated. Cloth, $1.50. i2mo.
E.
This is the second and concluding volume of Miss Blow's version of Froebel's noted work which laid the foundarion for that important branch of early education, the kindergarten. The first volume, "The Mottoes and Commentaries," may be designated as the Teacher's or Mother's book, and "The Songs and Music," the present volume, as the Children's book. In the latter, many of the pictures have been enlarged in parts to bring out the details more distinctly. New translations are made of the songs, eliminating the crudities of poetic composition that have appeared in the literal imitations of Froebel, and new music is substituted where the original has been discarded.
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THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE WITH OLOG Y. A
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In two
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student of
While they have about them the fascination of a well-told tale, they are also crowded with the facts of history that have had a tremendous bearing upon the development of the race." Brooklyn Eagle.
human
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it
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summary
work which
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...
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body
many ways
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in
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hearty commendation and
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it
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iV.
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critical,
accumulated
Lvening
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with dogmatic is
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impartial in tone
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INTELLECTUAL RISE IN ELECTRIC/-
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By Park Benjamin, Ph.D., LL.B., Member
History.
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8vo.
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" Mr. Benjamin surely hns produceii a book that will find interested readers throughout the entire woild, for wherever electricity goes as a commc-rcial commodity a desire to know of its discovery and development will be awakened, and the desire can be satisfied through no more delightful channel than through the infurmation contained in this
New York
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Tintes.
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has produced a work which has a distinct historical value"
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A
very comprehensive and thorough study of electricity
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He
in its infancy.
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pre-
one of especial value
with interest."
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" The work
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The
style
"A
is
from
free
in
is,
technical preparation
is
required to read
mathematical or other discussions which might involve the main, excellent." Science.
... A book which every
remarkable book.
for reference
No
distinctly a history. all
electrician
ought
to
it,
difficulty.
have
hand
at
— historic, not scientific reference — and which will prove instructive reading
to the thoughtful of all classes."
New
York Herald.
"The
most complete and satisfactory survey of the subject yet presented to the reading public. ... A volume which will appeal to an ever-increasing body nf people ;
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utility
Bulletin.
leading work on the subject in any language."
New
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" One of the best works devoted to the development of the great force of modem time that has been published in the last decade." New York Commercial Advertiser.
" The author has written a science, rifice
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In nine volumes. i2mo. Cloth, $2.00 of the several volumes are as follows ,
(I.)
FIRST PRINCIPLES.
(2.)
THE PRINCIPLES OF BIOLOGY.
I.
I.
The Data
Laws
II.
The Unknowable. of Biology. III.
The
VoL
of the Knowable.
I.
IL The Inductions
of Biology.
Evolution of Life.
{3.)
THE PRINCIPLES OF BIOLOGY.
(4.)
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Vol.11. V. Physiological Development. IV. Morphological Development. VI. Laws of Multiplication. I.
II.
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The Data of Psychology. The Inductions of Psychology.
IV. Special bynlhesis.
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THE PRINCIPLES OF PSYCHOLOGY.
(6.)
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THE PRINCIPLES OF SOCIOLOGY. I.
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Corollaries. I.
II.
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(7.)
Vol. II.
VIII. Congruities.
VI. Special Analysis. VII. General Analysis.
The Domestic
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Relations.
THE PRINCIPLES OF SOCIOLOGY.
Vol. II.
y. Political Institutions. IV. Ceremonial Institutions. VI. Ecclesiastical Institutions. (8.)
THE PRINCIPLES OF SOCIOLOGY. *
(9.)
The Data The
Vol.
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II.
The
HI. The Ethics of Individual
Life.
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THE PRINCIPLES OF IV.
Vol. III.
*
THE PRINCIPLES OF ETHICS. 1.
(10.)
*
*
Inductions of Ethics.
EIHICS.
Ethics of Social Life:
Vol. II. Justice.
V. The Ethics of Social Life Negative Beneficence. VI. The Ethics of Social Life: Positive Beneficence. :
r\ESCPIPTIVE SOCIOLOGY. -Ly
and Grade of
Human
Progressive.
By Herbert Spencer.
No. No.
II.
No.
HI.
I.
IV. No. V. No. VI. No. No. VII. No. VIII.
A
Cyclopcedia
of
Representing the Constitution of Every Type
Social Facts.
Society, Past
and Present, Stationary and Eight Nos., Royal Folio.
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