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AN INTRODUCTION TO TOE STUDY OF

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>

>" 'R

^-

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

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

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,

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

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,

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,

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, 164African, 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, 230Tents, 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,

287Verse 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, 410Vengeance 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

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

Time required for Development of


13 Traces of Man

^ of

I.angua'^es,

Civilii-ation,

Races,
in

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.

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

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.]

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.

[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.]

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.

[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.]

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.

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.]

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

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

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.

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

ANTHROPCLOGY.

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

MAN, ANCIENT AND MODERN.

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

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,

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

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,

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^

>!

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

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

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.

in.

shown where a tall and a short people


Thus in Australia the average

district.
ft.

of mankind

Still

more

not

much

over

are the Patagonians,

who

first

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

fair

Bushmen and

The

shortest

related tribes in South

an average height not

contrast between the

ft.

three or

far

tallest

exceeding 4

ft.

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.

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.

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

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.

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-

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 ; </, tpijuriui^,
(

.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

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

fair

complexion

the lighter tints of

iris,

is

usually accompanied by

especially blue.

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

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

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

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.

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 aCI'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

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.

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

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.

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,"

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

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

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

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,

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<atc)i-\wxr\,

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

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

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

clock,

bell,

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\.:ih7{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

"

/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.]

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

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<ill////

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/<?, our

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/<r-from."

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.

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<Tht away in infancy from their native countries.
within every one's experience how one parent language dis-

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

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

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

[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,

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

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

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

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

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

intended.

is

show which

fliift"

Fig. 50. Chinese

afterwards

particular

with

meaning

recognisable pair of feathers

^
ship

repeated

is

which

a ship, chow,

represents
50,

'M

'it
flickering

compound

b.-is

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

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

sun god

one

Jv\

P
R
walk

one

cuk

ra netar

per

cm

sun god

coming

from

^^^i^^

T-

enemy

F
one

xi:t

horizon

xcfiu

er
ag.i!nst

pi.

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

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

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.

{aree1cj\>^

(Helrew\)

{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

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

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

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; </, arrow-heads; e, flint flake-knives; y, core from which
stone hammer-head.
flint-flakes taken off ^, fl.nt-awl ; /e, flint saw ;
;

/',

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.

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-

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); </, bronze dagger; e, bronze leafshaped sword.

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.

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

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

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

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

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,

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

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

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

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 bov and arrow,

do with wonderful

counted as a variety of

fish-spearing.

dexterity,

The

may be

fish-hook

is

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,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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."

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.

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

[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

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

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

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

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,

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

<r

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

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

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

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 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

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.

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

ASSYRIA.
T

/ ^

Fig. 76.

t'/i''>?)

arid a

T>-

10

Ancient

100

< T>-

(to

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<a-l-))iukabalah^ that

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

person

who

few minutes ago was walking and talking, with

all his

senses

which

is

in us, but not always.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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,

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,

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

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,

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

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,

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

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

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

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

have not told

have not done any

have not made the labouring

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 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 have not netted sacred birds.

am

pure

"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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,

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

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,

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

[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

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,

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.

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

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

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

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,

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

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
Dancng. 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

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

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

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

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,

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

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

Supreme

deity, 364
Survivals, i j

Sword, 190
Symbolic souad.

126, 145
Syntax, irg, 139, 146
Synthetic languages, 141

Syrians, 69,

80

Wages, 435
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Temple, 318, 367
Tent, 231
Teutons, 158
Theatre, 298
Theft, 413

Thunderbolt, 26, 359


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Tools, 183, 192
Torch, 272
Totem, 403
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Tradition, 373
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Trance, 343
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Wilhelm Tell, 397

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Windmill, 204

Wine, 268
Words, borrowed. 155
combination, 140
formation, 126, 140

Worship, 364
Wr.ting, 169

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Zoology, 329

2, 5,

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THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE WITH


OLOG Y. A

By Andrew D. White, LL.

in Christendom.

D., late Presi-

dent and Professor of History at Cornell University.


volumes.

"The

THE-

History of the Warfare of Science loith Theology

In two

Cloth, $5.00.

8vo.

story of the struggle of searchers after truth with the organized forces of

ignorance, bigotry, and superstition

is

the most inspiring chapter in the whole history

That story has never been better told than by the ex-President of CorUniversity in these two volumes. ... A wonderful story it is that he tells."

mankind

of

nell

London Daily
"

Chronicle.

prime importance is the appearance of A History of the WarTheoKigy in Chrisiendo.-n.' " t hiladelpliia Press.

literary event of

fare of Science with

'

" Such an honest and thorough treatment of the subject in all its bearings that it
weight and be accepted as an authority in tracing the process by which the
Boston Herald.
scientific method has come to be supreme in modem thought and life. "

will carry

"

great

work of a great man upon great

scientific classic."

"

It is

subjects,

and

will

always be a

religio-

Chicago Evening Post.

No

graphic, lucid, even-tempered- never bitter nor vindictive.

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

progress should

" The same


giving

it

his public life

summary

work which

of the

...

constitutes in

body

many ways

" The most valuable contribution


flicts between the theologists and the

in

the pages of his book,

hearty commendation and

of industry."

it

relates

iV.

V.

Able, scholarly,

critical,

accumulated

Lvening

in its conflict

with dogmatic
is

York

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belie/.

one the impor-

Boston Beacon.

that has yet

treatise

impartial in tone

"

been made

to the history of the con-

Buffalo Cointnercial.

which has been written on this subject.


and exhaustive in treatment. " j?f.f/fl

A dvertiser.

New

Post.

the most instructive review that has ever

scientists

" Undoubtedly the most exhaustive


.

it

a contribution to the literature of liberal thought, the book

tance of which can not be easily overrated."

seen

of learning to which

A monument

been written of the evolution of human knowledge

... As

is

to secure for

fail

Philadelphia Public Ledger.

A conscientious
A

marked

liberal spirit that

during long years of research.

"

read these volumes.

a zest and interest that can not

honest praise."

"

fail to

APPLETON &

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APPLETON &

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CO.'S PUBLICATIONS.

INTELLECTUAL RISE IN ELECTRIC/-

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By Park Benjamin, Ph.D., LL.B., Member

History.

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touching

it

a wealth of vital inteiest, pouring over

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all

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it

streams of needed

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skill

light,

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AVw i'ori

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very comprehensive and thorough study of electricity

sents his matter clearly and in an interesting form.


to the electrical student,

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it

He

in its infancy.

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one of especial value

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Milwaukee

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The

style

"A

is

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free

in

is,

technical preparation

is

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mathematical or other discussions which might involve


the main, excellent."
Science.

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remarkable book.

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No

distinctly a history.
all

electrician

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difficulty.

have

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historic, not scientific reference and which will prove instructive reading

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New

York Herald.

"The

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reading public. ... A volume which will appeal to an ever-increasing body nf people
;

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of electricity."

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it

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Philadelphia

Evening

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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


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none the

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strations."

less

plain

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electrical

but rather the more valuable because, without dilution or snc-

he has excluded mere

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scientific

Philadelphia Press.

New

York: D.

APPLETON &

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demon-

D.

CO.'S PUBLICATIONS.

APPLETON &

r BERTSYNTHETIC PHILOSOPHY OF HER'HE

SPENCER.
The

per volume.

titles

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.)

THE PRINCIPLES OF PSYCHOLOGY.

Vol.11.
V. Physiological Development.
IV. Morphological Development.
VI. Laws of Multiplication.
I.

II.

Vol.

I.

HI- Gcneml Synthesis.

The Data of Psychology.


The Inductions of Psychology.

IV. Special bynlhesis.

V. Phy.sical Synthesis.
(5.)

THE PRINCIPLES OF PSYCHOLOGY.

(6.)

IX.

THE PRINCIPLES OF SOCIOLOGY.


I.

The Data

Vol.

Corollaries.
I.

II.

of Sociology.
III.

(7.)

Vol. II.

VIII. Congruities.

VI. Special Analysis.


VII. General Analysis.

The Domestic

The

Inductions of Sociology.

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.

I.

II.

The

HI. The Ethics of Individual

Life.

of Ethics.

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.

Cyclopcedia

of

Representing the Constitution of Every Type

Social Facts.

Society, Past

and Present, Stationary and


Eight Nos., Royal Folio.

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